Month: January 2014

You Otter See this Beaver

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Dispersal, Environmental January 21, 2014

The beaver was snapped chomping on this tree by Tom Buckley with a hidden infra-red trail camera

Look who’s visiting the River Otter in Devon. (No, for once that isn’t a typo, he’s not vising ‘A’ river otter. He’s visiting THE river named ‘otter’ in Devon England.)

Mystery of the beaver making himself a new home in the River Otter

You might expect to see an otter on the Devon river which bears the animal’s name, but not a beaver which has been extinct in this country for hundreds of years.

Now one has been spotted on the River Otter by an environmental scientist – and it’s thought to be the only beaver living wild in England.

But how did it get there? And is it alone, or have a family of beavers moved in to a quiet part of the river in South East Devon?

These are some of the questions which retired scientist Tom Buckley and local farmer David Lawrence have been trying to answer since they established that at least one beaver is now living in a part of the river near Ottery St Mary.

Regular readers of this website, (who apparently do not include any scientists in the United Kingdom will remember on January 9th I posted the update from the Devon Beaver Project, which is located in Cornwall about 25 miles away as the beaver swims from where this story takes place. The Otter River flows all the way to the ocean, and a beaver could make an easy transit from Exeter. Shh don’t tell them. It works better as a mystery. At least they’re interested and curious, which is more than I can say for lots of cities.

I first noticed a tree that had been damaged because I walk around that area every day – then I saw a few trees had been nibbled,” Mr Buckley went on. “For me it posed the question: could it have been a beaver, or was it some kids messing about?

“When I looked more closely it was clear the damage to the trees had been done by a beaver…”

After that Mr Buckley began mounting his special “trail-camera” – which automatically takes photographs when triggered by some substantial movement – at various locations around a small island in the river.

“What happens on David Lawrence’s land near Ottery St Mary is that the river divides to leave a bit of an island in the middle – and that’s the main area where we are seeing them. It’s where most of the trees have been laid down, not necessarily forming a dam, but it may be that this is the early stages.

Oh that is one happy beaver! An entire island to avoid humans and the only one of his kind to chew those trees in 400 years! He must be feeling a cross between Rip Van Winkle, and a kid locked up in a candy shop that is closed for the night! The story was picked up this morning by the BBC. Lucky him! For now, anyway.

Mr Buckley added: “It’s all very interesting – it’s early days yet but, as long as lots of people don’t go there and frighten the beaver away, he should be happy enough.

“What’s going to be really interesting is how it gets on with the other animals, like the otters which we see on the river.”

Take it from Martinez, the otters will be THRILLED that the beaver is there, digging holes and improving the bugs so that the fish are fatter and more plentiful. The beaver won’t mind the company. He has had 400 years all to himself.

Moses’ otter footage

And to get us all in the mood for the beaver festival which is a mere 7 months away, I’m going to start a new series highlighting something that was donated to us or the silent auction. This painting donated by the artist Lynn Bywaters of Connecticut arrived yesterday. One look should get everyone in the mood to bid early and often!

Water Managers

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental January 20, 2014

6 Scary Facts About California’s Drought

6 Scary Facts About California’s Drought. Last year was California’s driest on record for much of the state, and this year, conditions are only worsening. Sixty-three percent of the state is in extreme drought, and Sierra Nevada snow pack is now running at just 10 to 30 percent of normal. “We’re heading into what is near the lowest three year period in the instrumental record” for snow pack, says hydrologist Roger Bales of the University of California-Merced.

California’s governor has declared an official state of drought, and there is an alarming discussion about the event becoming the new normal in our state. Will this be the factor that reintroduces beavers to our conversation? I wrote the State secretary of Natural Resources this weekend. As he grew up in Vallejo, I feel there’s a thin chance he might know the something about the story of the Martinez Beavers and someone on his staff will respond. I also commented about the idea on this article at Mother Jones and someone wrote back directing me to read Eric Collier’s “Three against the wilderness” which is about the best I can hope for.

Meanwhile I woke up to discover this from our very good friend Louise Ramsay in Scotland.

Time to bring back Nature’s flood management engineer – the beaver

By Louise Ramsay

As climate change brings more rain, Britain is suffering from the extinction here of our native flood engineer – the beaver. Louise Ramsay says it’s high time to re-introduce these charismatic rodents all over Britain.

There used to be a creature in Britain which helped significantly with this effort. It was made extinct here around four centuries ago, but recent reintroductions of this rodent have shown the vital role they once had in reducing flooding – and how they could take up that mantle once more.

In spite of their reputation for causing floods, beavers also have the capacity for mitigating the impact of flooding, but on a rather bigger scale. In times of heavy rain or sudden snow melt, the water rushing down from the highlands would be slowed up and absorbed more effectively by the large ponds, wetlands and streams with flights of beaver dams, than by deep cut ditches designed to channel water as fast as possible on to the next place.

Louise Ramsay remains one of the most inspirational women on the planet. Her keynote address at the last beaver conference was one of my favorite things EVER. And I am enormously pleased that she’s hard at work on the beaver front in Scotland. In case you need a reminder about her and Paul’s amazing story, here’s my interview with Paul on the subject of the free beavers of the River Tay. It contains an interview with her from the BBC.

Paul Ramsay (Save the Free Beavers of the River Tay)

Louise ended her wonderful presentation at the conference with a passage from the 19th century poet Gerald Manly Hopkins from his work ‘Inversnaid‘. I remarked at the time it could not have been better chosen or better delivered.

What would the world be, once bereft

Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,

O let them be left, wildness and wet;

Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Art imitates Life

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental, Massachusetts Trapping Law January 19, 2014

David Buckley Borden is an artist in Boston whose day job is a landscape architect. So guess what animal fascinates him a lot? I learned about him in this great article from Boston Magazine. This work began with a 16th century woodcutting by Konrad Gessner, and basically has a Massachusetts shaped hole through it because – well look at the title:Given how insane Massachusetts generally has been about beavers since the ’96 trapping law, I’m delighted to think they have a prominent artist who respects their contribution and boldly displays it in their galleries. (I guess every state gets the artists it deserves.) In case you don’t remember the original, here it is. I love how perfectly it represents the apparently epic bias that exists between beaver and otter. Otters are ‘cute’ and greeted with welcome banners. Even in 16th century woodcuttings, they bat their eye lashes and roll playfully in the water. They get gleeful articles in the SF Chronicle and Contra Costa Times celebrating their very existence.

Beavers are almost always seen as fierce trouble:

Speaking of which, a little otter was seen below the primary dam on Friday. He was busily eating something crunchy and looked very grateful for the habitat. Full disclosure: I may as well confess, I have a pillowcase with the Gessner beaver image. It gives me very courageous beaver dreams.

Speaking of memorable beaver photos…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere January 18, 2014

I doubt you’ll forget THIS one!

It’s the cover for what happens to be a very good story about beavers from the Scotts Valley, but in case you’re wondering, that is a groundhog.

The beavers of Scott Valley: a quick look

By David Smith

Depending on who you ask, beavers might be incorrigible critters or a helping hand, but their presence in the Scott Valley presents unique challenges for those who would preserve the creature while helping farmers and ranchers mitigate the mischief.

The biggest trouble with beavers, according to Danielle Yokel of the Scott River Watershed Council, is that they like to build dams; however, that activity can also be a benefit. On the downside, she pointed out that beavers have a tendency to build their dams right at a water diversion, reducing much-needed irrigation water to a trickle.

On the upside, Yokel explained that if the dams are built on a stretch of river and not at a diversion, the pooled water behind the structure can provide salmon with beneficial habitat. In addition, she explained that current studies have suggested that the slowed, pooling water behind beaver dams can recharge groundwater supply better than faster-moving water in the channel.

I have said before that if California ever gets an infusion of beaver intelligence, it will come from our many beaver friends in Scotts Valley and the Klamath. They are as protective of their watershed as hungry dobermans in a shipyard, but they have learned the hard way that seeming too ‘environmental’ is red flag for the farmers so they are as cautious as they can possibly be in their defense. It’s a very puzzling (but effective) combination. Here’s an example:

In the meantime, Yokel pondered Wednesday whether there might be another benefit from the beaver dams along the Scott this year; given the dire predictions for water levels, she hoped that the beaver dams might preserve water a bit longer and mitigate some of the dry year issues.

Just an airy ‘by the way – we’re having a drought year and maybe beavers can help save some of our threatened water. ‘It’s just a crazy idea I had.’ I have to think that ‘Yokel’ knows very well that beaver dams raise the water table and save water, but she is working by isometrics to not appear too much like a beaver advocate. Honestly, it is almost a religion.

(Once, when I commented on an article that ‘beavers were the trickle-down economy that works’ I got four anxious emails from beaver friends in the area warning that that sentence would offend republicans/libertarians and they needed to keep their beaver communications unpartisan.)

Remember too that Columbo always solved the crime while pretending not to understand it. It’s a technique therapists often use to approach an answer from the back and let a client claim it for their own. It’s a hard way to work, but if there are enough of you in prominent places, you can afford to be subtle.

Just to be clear, in Martinez we needed a mack truck to stop the killing machine. We could not afford to be subtle, and it worked.

I’m perfectly content to be the ‘bad beaver cop’ in this dance. Be as oblique as you need to be, but your papers should at LEAST be able to tell the difference between a beaver and a groundhog.

Vertical Beaver!

heidi08 Beavers January 17, 2014

Michael Pollock of NOAA fisheries wrote me yesterday that they are looking for a beaver photo to run with his new fish & beavers article in the new Bioscience journal. Might I have a high res one they could use?

I politely invited him to look through my entire computer and try and find anything ELSE. I have photos of beavers chewing, beavers damming, beavers mudding, beavers nuzzling, beavers wrestling. He wondered if we have any that are more zoomed out and less close. Ha Ha Ha. I said this is MARTINEZ remember? We can’t get very far away from our beavers! This morning the editors wrote that they love the photos but need one taking on the vertical for the cover.

Vertical? I can assure you that after looking through roughly 5000 photos we have about 5 vertical shots. Who takes vertical beaver photos? (The same folks who take horizontal giraffe photos, that’s who.) I found lots that might be croppable and we found these: