Beaver Champions

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors February 18, 2014

It’s nice to know that there are folks who will leap to the beaver-rescue in other ways. Check out and sign this fine petition against re-opening the trapping of beavers to fur-dealers. It only takes a second to sign, and it was down at 200 signatures last night. Let’s push it to 1000.

And onward to advocacy from our Scottish friends, I loved Bob Smith’s letter.

Don’t make a beaver problem worse

SIR, – Through discussion with others, it has become apparent that some farmers within Tayside might be creating problems for themselves with regards to the beaver population here, which is currently being monitored by SNH via the Tayside Beaver Study Group.

There have been instances of individuals clearing away food caches. Unfortunately this will only encourage the animals to fell more trees.

Removal of bushes and trees as a food source results in sacrificing the integrity of the river banks and can/will lead to long term issues such as erosion and scouring of the banks.

Digging out dams and clearing out burrows will force them to create more burrows elsewhere, perhaps in a worse location. Lethal removal of the animals will often just encourage other beavers to take up the same location.

If you want some more discreet help without going through the study group, there are a number of people around who can quietly advise.

It is important to learn from this so that when the Scottish Government is deciding whether to formally introduce beavers or not, that it has some evidence to fall back on. If it is not aware off the range of situations that might be occurring, it will assume that no such issues exist.

Other farmers will thank you for coming forwards with your experiences now, as lessons learned may well help them in the future.

Bob Smith

Treetops, Victoria St,

Rattray, Blairgowrie,

Nice work Bob! People need to know some alternatives for meddling with beavers. Here in Martinez they would have happily take away their dams, their trees and their burrows if we let them.

This morning’s donation comes from the San Francisco Zoo, who generously offered four free tickets (two adults two children) for sale at the silent auction. When’s the last time you went to the zoo? Maybe stopped off along ocean beach to walk on the sand and hear a seagull or two. I have always had wonderful adventures at the SF zoo. One time a baby barking deer escaped and followed me around. One time a baby ant eater was getting a ride on his mother’s back. I always love to watch the lion feeding at lunch time just because of the roars that rattle through your bones. I’m thinking we all really need to go to the zoo. Thanks SF ZOO!

Quietly making a difference everywhere…

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental February 17, 2014

Oregon Minnow Is The First Fish Recovered From Endangered Species List

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday its petition to remove Oregon chub from the Endangered Species List and touting the success story of a minnow that’s no more than three inches long.

Other fish have made it off the endangered species list -– but not because their numbers rebounded. In many cases, it was because they went extinct.

Oregon chub are a different story. Their numbers have grown from less than a thousand when they were listed as endangered in 1993 to 160,000 today. In the last 20 years, the known chub populations dotting the Willamette Valley has grown from eight to 80.

And guess where they found this endangered fish? Hmmm… Go ahead, I’ll wait.

But Auer says the idea was improve habitat for salmon, steelhead and waterfowl. He didn’t even know Oregon chub existed until Bangs found the fish in a pool above a beaver dam on his land.

The chub is dependent on natural disturbances in the Willamette Valley,” he says. “That means flooding, and things that occur when you have beaver activity and wetland formation. A lot of these processes have been disrupted through human activities – agriculture, damming rivers, flood prevention. We had to figure out a way to mimic those processes and create habitats that provided those kinds of conditions for the chub.”

So every farmer and rancher who has a beaver dam on their property is helping this chub, and every farmer who doesn’t is hurting them. That seems pretty straight forward to me. How about a tax credit or a reduction in the fishing license fees for everyone who allows beavers on their land? Seems only right…

Today’s donation comes from Jess at AnimalOutlines. Beaver with a purple toothbrush on a mint green background. Hand painted with acrylic paint on a 6″x6″ by 1.5″ deep canvas. These small works of art are signed and ready to hang. Hand made with humor and love. Thanks Jess! I know several dentists in Martinez that should snap these up!

Oh and last night I got a call for a phone interview on KGO about beavers and drought. One day outta the hospital I tried to remember as much as I could about beavers and water and salmonids and why we should care. If you hear something today let me know.

Does Mark Ross think Beavers eat Fish?

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, In the News, Who's Killing Beavers Now? February 16, 2014

I have always considered Ross the most knowledgeable about beavers on the gang of five. And he and Lara are definitely tied in my mind for beaver good will. Maybe this quote is a miscommunication, a giddy on camera misspeak where you just say something you didn’t mean because it sounds good. I’m going to assume that he knows that beavers are herbivores and don’t make fishing trips.

Then again, our council got lots about the beavers wrong. They thought they were going to cause a flood, cause mosquitoes, block the steelhead, destroy the creek and collapse the bridges, breed like rabbits, etc. So maybe this is just par for the course.

I particularly like this video because it was filmed about 24 hours before I got sick – which is like remembering that there is a healthy woman somewhere inside me slowly making her way out. Or getting a letter from a dead friend that was mailed before they passed. It’s a glimpse into a world I once traveled in and theoretically will again.

In the mean time, the world has not gotten any wiser about beavers, and needs me to pay attention again.

Fur dealers could trap beavers under proposal

Beavers can be trapped now, but the measure would allow fur dealers to trap, something that has been outlawed at least as far back as the early 1900s.

“It is a law that we don’t need anymore,” said Scott Harbaugh, director for the trapper association’s northern Lower Peninsula region. “It was to keep the fur buyer from adding more beaver to his lot by using the bag limit of another seller, but now we have no bag limit on beaver trapping.”

Before it was removed in 1983, the limit was 25 beavers per person, said Adam Bump, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources bear and furbearer specialist.

DNR officials requested trappers push for a law change.

There are no exact statistics for changes in beaver population, Bump said. They are difficult to track, but the population is now healthy and has grown considerably since the prohibition against fur dealers trapping was made.

Trapping keeps the population of each animal down so they don’t overpopulate and end up with diseases that can spread to humans, Harbaugh said.

A small beaver pelt can be worth around $20 and a large one about $50, said Dale Hendershot, president of the trappers association.

“Most people just do beaver trapping as a hobby because it is kind of hard to make a living off of it,” he said. “However, those that do make a living off of it trap multiple species and make supplies as well.”

Trapping beavers with no limit to keep down a population that no one has ever counted. Kill as many beavers as you want just ’cause. Mind you this is the state where the great lakes themselves have a ‘microbead’ problem with little bits of silicon killing loons and fish. Beaver dams could probably help catch some of the runoff of the feedings streams and improve the invertebrate community, but never mind. Don’t worry about that. Just change the law so its easier to kill more beavers.

“We don’t need a bag limit to appropriately manage the population so it would be an easy way to allow a few more people to get out and trap beavers if they wanted to,” Bump said.

Sigh.

There were several packages of donations when I got home. This one made me smile widely even in the hospital. The brooch is from owner Jordan Kentris of HexagonInc in Toronto, Canada. “Our eco-friendly brooches are made from sustainably harvested wood and packaged in 100% post consumer recycled materials.” Go check out their many cheerful designs from birds to crowns to beavers here, and think how nicely this would match your blue and gold Worth A Dam shirt! Thanks Jordan!

The Rumor was Correct…

heidi08 Beavers February 15, 2014

The beaver lady has returned and kindly recommends that no other reader ever, ever goes to the hospital. It is a steep climb getting out. The highlight came this morning when my night nurse was cleaning indescribable fluids and said, “Hey, didn’t I see you on the news tonight?” Which is apparently the closest you can come to feeling like an actual human being in such a facility. I wanted to share this cute card my sister made, because like you, I know the beavers must have wondered. (I’m sure you can spot the woodchuck…)

Have you heard

Lory Beavers February 15, 2014

Photo by Moses Silva

“Hey, have you heard the rumor going around that the beaver lady is coming home today. Can’t wait until she starts posting again. Sure miss all those great stories about us and all our beaver friends from around the world.”