Month: March 2013

From Barcelona to Benicia

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Recent Sightings March 6, 2013

This morning I made a trip down to see how the beavers fared in the night. The water had topped the primary dam and the ducks were enjoying easy passage over the gap. Even the filter fence was invisible, and I assumed the little lodge they had built was flooded or washed away. Experience has taught me that beaver sightings on the morning after rain are rare, but I was surprised to see another couple there looking with binoculars at the sight. They had cameras and head lamps. They approached with curiosity.

“Are you looking for the beavers too” The man asked, with a latin-sounding accent.

I was watching some ripples in the annex at the moment and hoping they weren’t just ducks, which they turned out to be. I explained that I was but that the beavers could be hard to see after a rainy night and asked where they had come from and how they knew about them?

“We saw them on the internet” he answered. “We’re from Barcelona.”

No, I am not kidding. It turned out they had stayed in Marin last night and driven here in the morning because they wanted to see them. She was researching marmots in the Pyrenees, and they were both very interested in seeing beavers in the states. They had brought plaster to make a cast of their footprints.

When my head was done spinning to think that someone in Spain was reading our website and had come to see our beavers as a result, I explained that I maintained the site and had been following the beavers for 6 years. They were very surprised, and acted kind of like they were meeting a character from a novel. (Which I suppose they kind of were.) They knew all about the flow device, the controversy, and mom’s death.

He said there was controversy in Spain because some beavers had been introduced on the Aragorn river in Spain, but folks weren’t sure what to think about them because they were eating trees. (!) I talked to them about coppicing, and research showing that migratory and songbird populations increased because of beaver chewing. And all the new wildlife they would get as a result.

They said some biologists worried that this was the “wrong” subspecies that had been reintroduced, which I explained wasn’t a concern. I pointed them to the recent article on genetic testing of castor fiber subspecies which had identified only two real differences and nothing to worry about. I said thatour subspecies were pretty indistinguishable in physiology and behavior, and that they needed to focus on learning to solve problems.Tey said they’d send me photos of their visit and keep in touch.

After I came home I found that there is some confusion about that beaver introduction in Spain and whether it was deliberate, sanctioned or illegal. Nature Iberia website, for example, says

A small but growing numbers of beavers currently live along the River Aragon. They were introduced illegally, probably by a group of European beaver activists. The beavers began to flourish in what is prime habitat. A timid plan was begun in 2009 to try to control their expansion by live trapping. The EU gave its backing to the cull to avoid setting a precedent, which might open the door to illegal reintroductions of wildlife across Europe, not because these beavers have caused a lot of damage…the introduction of the animals was clearly illegal and irresponsible…

That sounded grim, but I was very cheered to read that thanks to a google translation escapade, the fur trade in Spain had involved “Shipping beaver PELLETS around the world”. Hahaha. And then I thought about Scotland, and the drama about the free beavers of the river Tay. Call me cynical, but sometimes people get confused about whether or not things belong. There are even folks who doubt now that they were ever native to Scotland. I looked around a little more and found this from our old friend Duncan Halley.

Population and distribution of European beavers (Castor fiber)

In 2003, beavers were reintroduced to the Ebro in Spain, with plans for further reintroductions to The Guadalquivir, Guadiana, and Tajo (Tagus) river systems (H. Lea, personal communication).

Doesn’t sound much like a secret criminal act to me. The Aragorn river is a direct tributary to the Ebre, see here. I suppose some crazy ecologists could have sneaked across the border and forced beaver upon the region, but I don’t suppose they’d talk about it to researchers do you? Besides we know beavers can make it a long way in salt water to find new territory and climb over pretty remarkable terrain, so I’m not even sure reintroduction would have been necessary.

Well, the point is that you have them NOW, and that’s a good thing. I told the earnest young couple to spend time educating themselves about the good that they do for birds and fish and water and climate change and learn how to deal with problematic behaviors when they arise. I told them to talk to their friends and colleages and teach folks what they need to know. Then sit back and let the beavers do what they do best.

Sometimes in life you wonder whether what you do makes a difference. It can be hard to keep going, and hard to sustain momentum. You wonder whether all the effort and energy you put into a project is really worth it, and whether in the grand scheme of things it matters at all. Maybe you should just leave this work to someone who’s actually trained for it. Does anyone even notice or care?

And sometimes, every now and then, you meet folks from Barcelona who came to Martinez to see the beavers.

: Mom beaver 2008: Photo Cheryl Reynolds

Just what the Dr. ordered…

heidi08 Beavers March 5, 2013

Yesterday I heard from 30 of you that you were sending comments to Fish and Wildlife. Thank you SO MUCH. Now there’s just 401 to go. Maybe this will remind you why its important.

I apparently only have permission to link to this and not to embed it, (which is kind of like having permission to chew but not to swallow) BUT click on the image and go watch the most thrilling, affirming, and beautiful 74 seconds you’ve ever seen on beavers.

The program airs in Canada on March 28th on CBC’s the nature of things. It will appear on PBS in November, which seems grounds for international war to me, or at least, international travel. Tell your friends!

The beaver Whisperers on The Nature of Things.

A Call to Action:

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental March 4, 2013

After the State of the Beaver Conference, I mentioned the mandate for Fish and Wildlife services to focus its efforts on a few key ‘SURROGATE SPECIES‘. State supervisor Paul Henson had recommended we think about beaver in this role, and asked for public comment. Since there are about 25 days left for your comments to be submitted, I thought I would offer some reminders and encouragement.

In case you slept through that biology class lecture, a SURROGATE SPECIES is defined thusly:

A species selected as a priority for conservation with the assumption that its conservation will serve to protect many other species with overlapping habitat requirements.

This is a tool for monitoring ecological systems, although obviously not a perfect tool. Just as following the regional price of cardboard will tell you something about the amount of shipping that occurs in the US, but it won’t tell you everything you need to know about the economy, for example. It has been successfully argued that watching ONE token species often misses important impacts to others.

Case in point, if we were to watch beavers as a surrogate species, we would have a good chance at learning about conditions for salmon and birds and dragonflies – but if there were a specific toxin introduced to the water that killed fish and everything that ate them, we might not find out about it at all from watching beavers. Fair enough. As a tool it has its limits. However, if we routinely destroy beaver dams we can assume that all the species that depend on them will be dramatically impacted, even if the food chain is preserved. So surrogacy has an undeniable value.

There are several types of surrogate species, including

Umbrella Species:

Where the conservation goal is to protect a habitat or community of species, an umbrella species may be employed as a surrogate to delineate the size of area or type of habitat over which protection should occur.

Flagship Species:

Flagship species are used to attract the attention of the public Flagship species can garner sympathy for nature at a global level, as in the case of the giant panda, the emblem for the World Wide Fund for Nature, or at a national level.

Indicator Species:

Defined “an indicator species [as]an organism whose characteristics (e.g., presence or absence, population density, dispersion, reproductive success) are used as an index of attributes too difficult, inconvenient, or expensive to measure for other species or environmental conditions of interest.” This can include Health Indicator Species, Population Indicator species, and Biodiversity Indicator Species.

I would argue that beaver dams and the wetlands they create, (as well as beaver chewing and subsequent coppicing), make them an excellent candidate for Biodiversity Indicator Species, as well as an Umbrella species, and as it happens, (In Martinez and the entire Bay Area for nearly two years) a powerful Flagship species to boot. The effect of our beavers on our tiny urban stream is still being measured, and there is reason to think that if every city took care of its beavers, every city would have this and more:

In addition to creating habitat for these and countless other species, I would add that beavers make an excellent SURROGATE SPECIES because they leave clues that are convenient for burdened agencies to track down. You don’t have to install night cams or get up at 3 in the morning to keep track of beaver. You just need to count dams and chews whenever you can get around to it and keep your eyes open. Even though they can be hard to see, beavers are actually fairly easy to monitor.

Need a few more reasons? In addition to being a Keystone species, beavers are also considered a Charismatic Species which means that children and adults LOVE to learn about them. They can help teachers convey difficult concepts like habitat and ecosystems, which is why they were included in the EPA curriculum for every first grader in California. Beavers also teach problem solving skills, since their challenges are so easily solvable that it might inspire folks to solve other wildlife problems in humane ways.

Last reason? CLIMATE CHANGE.

With more than half of the contiguous States in the U.S. identified under extreme drought conditions last year, we should be more protective than ever of our natural water-savers. Drought conditions are recognized by FEMA as a natural disaster, making counties eligible for federal funds to recover crops, cattle and neighborhoods destroyed by dry conditions. Beavers and their remarkable capacity for water-tending, are one of the only renewable resources we can deploy to successfully combat this ongoing crisis.

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I know you’re busy, and life is full of demands. But 431 people read this website on Friday and you each have the power to make a huge difference in the lives of beavers. Fill out the form, or submit your comments here. And if you do let us know, and we would be thrilled to post all or part of your comments on the website to show what a beaver community is capable of.

More Dead Beavers?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beaver-themed merchandise, Who's Killing Beavers Now? March 3, 2013

You know what they say, Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. And three times is a trend.

This year has the mysterious fortune of beginning on a grisly note where beaver carcasses are being featured on the front page from Alberta to Idaho. If 2012 was the year of the rabid beaver, 2013 seems to be the year of the mangled beaver. Hopefully this is a fad that has had its 15 minutes, but we may see more of this before the year is through.

The day I nailed a frozen beaver carcass to a tree

It started last month with the Calgary Herald’s article about nailing frozen beaver to a tree in the hopes of attracting the elusive wolverine. I remarked at the time that what if Wolverines were attracted to puppies? Would they still run a photo of a skinned one nailed to a tree on the front page?

Mirjam hammered two large nails into the [beaver] carcass, tied a string around it to haul it up the tree and climbed up the tree to start pounding it in place. Then she jumped down, handed the hammer to me and asked me to finish the task.

So that’s how I came to nail a frozen, skinned beaver to a tree. Ah, the glamorous life of a journalist.

A few weeks later a story ran about a traumatized cycler in British Columbia who had ridden upon a dead beaver whose tail had been cut off. Mind you, there are plenty of places in the world where they pay a bounty for beaver tails, so maybe it was an act of free enterprise. Because all news must be reported a photo of that beaver also ran on the front page.

BEAVER BUTCHERED

Bonita Carey and Megan Keene were riding their bikes on Errington Road Friday afternoon when they saw a sight that changed the tone of their whole day.

In the ditch at the side of the road lay a dead, mature beaver — with its tail hacked off.

The pair were horrified by what they saw.

“This is absolutely sickening, Carey said. “The fact that they butchered its tail off just makes me cringe. It’s atrocious. What if a family rode by?”

Or what if someone opened their newspaper? Maybe you can explain to me why if something is too horrible for people to see they would put it in the paper so that more people could be horrified by it?

And now a third story is reported from Idaho where a skinned beaver is being used again as Lynx bait.

Volunteers help in study of NW reclusive critters

Lynx have been documented as residents of the Purcells. Researchers can confirm individuals returning to an area through the year by fur markings captured in the photos and DNA snagged by brass gun-cleaning brushes fixed to the trees below the beaver bait.

An Oregon trapper provides the neatly skinned and cut beaver carcasses as a byproduct of his legal trapping operation, Lucid said. “We get a few at a time and stockpile

One has to feel that this wave of species insensitivity is tricking down from the northern climes like snowmelt and will reach California any minute. I recognize that reporting on this trend will leave folks asking why I would show such upsetting things on a beloved beaver website, but I realize that in all the world, in all the animal rights groups, and in all the assembled earth defenders, this is the only place that will notice that there have been three beaver carcass stories in the past 30 days. If we don’t notice, who will?

The last story is slightly less awful, and the photo less grisly, but why on earth don’t these articles run photos like this instead?

“You have the right to remain ignorant, anything you learn may be used against you”

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Who's Killing Beavers Now? March 2, 2013

Two weeks ago I wrote about the west Sacramento beavers that were being trapped because they chewed trees. I had in my mind the decision tree of my own – either blasting their ignorance, or coaxing some wisdom into life by talking sense to power. I chose the latter, and wrote the forest manager and the editor with friendly suggestions and I didn’t use a single unkind word. I was rewarded by an invitation to write an op-ed for the paper, which I’m told ran this week. (The paper isn’t online. I found out about the article because Leonard Houston’s sister in law scanned it and sent it to me) I was thanked by the forest manager who said she was sending my letter on to all her colleagues.

Alright then. That worked well. Maybe you DO catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

But after all those successes I got word of a recent UPI article, two weeks later, describing the same thing, in the same alarming tones. Obviously a second press release was issued, maybe after my op ed ran? It’s the classic complain louder technique that we enjoyed when we were toddlers. If it works for three year olds why not try it for forest managers?

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 28 (UPI) — A beaver invasion in West Sacramento, Calif., has put homeowners on alert as police estimate as many as 30 rodents have infiltrated a neighborhood. “I started getting lots of calls from concerned residents,” West Sacramento’s Urban Forest Manager Dena Kirtley told KOVR-TV, Sacramento, in a report published Wednesday.

He said about six beavers have been trapped so far but many more are roaming the neighborhood, tearing down trees. “They can weigh upwards of 70 pounds and by the damage on the trees, were a good 4-feet tall,” Kirtley said.

Well, just dead actually.We don’t live trap beaver in California. Four feet tall, Dena? I guess maybe if they stretch on their webbed tippy toes, but there weren’t 6 beavers that were four feet tall, you killed some children too. Apparently once Sacramento minds are made up you can teach them very little.

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Quick burst of good news to wash that bad beaver-killin’ taste our of your mouth. Leonard Houston just got back from Eugene Oregon where he was part of a panel discussing beavers and salmon at the Environmental Law Conference.