The Salmonid Restoration Federation, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the City of Santa Barbara will host the 32nd Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference in Santa Barbara, CA on March 19-22. The theme of this year’s conference is “Recovery Strategies for Coastal Salmonids” and the conference agenda highlights innovative strategies and implementation techniques to restore and recover salmonids. This conference agenda also explores large-scale issues affecting fisheries recovery including climate change and drought as well as the social aspects of how we steward water, plan for resiliency, and leverage limited resources.
Workshops will examine innovative and successful restoration practices including reopening blocked fish passage, innovative stormwater and water conservation programs, steelhead and beaver interactions, and new resources for coastal monitoring.
We leave Tuesday and if you wonder if I’m nervous the answer is YES. I’m nervous about the drive, nervous about my talks, nervous about my computer, and nervous about my constitution because my health ain’t what it was before I went into the hospital. I’ve practiced with a stopwatch and looked over the maps and rehearsed everything I can think of while making lists of what we need to bring. God willing it will all work out okay.
I work Monday and we drive down Tuesday. The steelhead-beaver panel is wednesday morning, and Michael Pollock, Mike Callahan, Mary Obrien & Sherry and Ted Guzzi are coming for dinner that night. Then we have Thursday to relax but on Friday Duane Nash and Rick Lanman are coming for lunch with some folks from DFW who want to talk beavers and reintroduction! That night is our poster session and the following morning is my talk on using beavers to restore urban streams with Ann Riley’s group.
Then we drive home. Is that a beaver whirlwind? I ‘m planning on stopping at Castoro cellars on the way down and Cambria on the way back to add a little wine-tasting excitement to the trip. But I’m terrified we’ll break down on 101 and sit in traffic with an upset stomach for hours before being rescued. Wish me luck!
A lovely bit of good cheer came this morning from illustrator Patrizia Donaera, who said she’s “charmed by our story” because “beaver are her muse”. I think that’s an excellent muse to have, and I love her “Mouse and Beaver” which she did for a story book illustration a while back. Thanks Patrizia!
Okay, there’s some significant beaver challenge to talk about this morning from Maryland, but before we brace ourselves for that bitter pill, here’s some ambrosia to start our mission.
With little effort, conservationists argue, cities can provide habitat for birds, butterflies, pollinators, and other creatures great and small.
When conservationists worry about the prospect of a world without wildlife, they often focus on two related developments: the sprawling growth of crowded cities and suburbs and the push to farm more land, and farm it more intensively, to feed those cities. Together, these two forces have worn the natural world down to tattered remnants.
So it may seem contradictory to suggest that cities can also be part of the solution. But conservationists, who used to focus on protecting landscapes that were pristine and full of wildlife, now often work instead to improve the margins—to make roadsides, backyards, idle fields, and working waterfronts wildlife-friendly. They argue that with a little effort, cities can provide habitat for birds, butterflies, pollinators, and other creatures great and small. According to this line of thinking, re-wilding the cities will be better not just for wildlife but for the cities. The idea is that the metropolis is a far richer place to live—more magical even—to the extent that it is also a zoopolis.
Really! A zoopolis! Imagine how he’d feel if he walked into our festival? And wait until you see his favorite example:
(Photo: Robert McGouey/Getty Images)
My favorite case study is New York City’s Bronx River. For much of the rest of the 20th century, the Bronx River {was} a ruin of rusting bedsprings and junked cars, along with sewage and industrial pollution. But an extensive cleanup effort by the Bronx River Alliance and other groups has restored the eight-mile-long lower river, with turtles, alewives, glass eels, great blue herons, and other species back at home there. Beavers returned in 2007—after an absence of several hundred years. City programs now focus on making the river a source of green pleasure for neighboring residents, many of them, like my great-grandfather, immigrants.
The restored habitat is providing homes for wildlife—but it’s no doubt also producing new stories to entertain children, and to be passed down for generations. That makes the city a much richer and more magical place for everyone.
Now it’s off to Maryland, where contributing to wildlife is the very LAST thing on their mind.
“What they’re doing is taking what has been a public park for 77 years and turning it into a wildlife preserve,” Baker said. “You don’t allow wildlife to proliferate in your backyard. Why would you allow it in a public park?”
Barbara Simon, 71, said she has lived in Greenbelt for almost her entire life. The destruction she has seen the last few months at Buddy Attick Park is unlike anything she’s witnessed in the city.
She wasn’t talk about unruly teenagers or environmentally careless residents. It’s beavers who are tearing into dozens of trees and collapsing them in their wake. Simon said she and her husband, Tom, walk around the park every day and are dismayed by damage they’ve seen.
“We’ve always had a few beavers in years’ past,” Simon said, “but I don’t remember the beavers ever being this bad.”
Yes, those wanton detructo-beavers, ruthlessly chewing down trees just so they have something to eat in the winter months. I don’t know how you can stand it. Certainly it’s not like you can wrap the trees and protect them, or paint them with sand. Or wait for them to coppice. Or plant more.
She said they volunteered with the city’s Public Works department to put bands around trees. That may have protected some trees, but dozens — maybe a hundred — have been felled.
City Administrator Michael McLaughlin said that last fall, the Department of Public Works met with Peter Bendel, a wildlife response manager for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, to evaluate the spike in beaver activity.
According to a report provided to the City Council, Bendel said a second, younger beaver colony at the park is likely the cause of the increased activity — due both to its proximity to the first colony, which is unusual, and to the beavers’ inexperience.
Those young beaver thugs! Moving in and chewing everything in sight. Funny how the older beaver tolerate them, I mean because beaver are territorial and all and generally kick out anyone that’s not a family member…Ohhhh. You mean these young beaver are yearlings? Living a little apart on their own before seeking their own fortune? Exactly like ours do? And chewing more and bigger trees than they need because they are teenager who want to show off? Ohh that almost never always happens.
In February, volunteers and members of Greenbelt Public Works put wire fences around trees in beaver-threatened areas. Alex Palmer, a volunteer coordinator with the Greenbelt-based environmental nonprofit Chesapeake Education, Arts and Research Society, said approximately 250 trees were caged.
Resident Justin Baker said the city needs to do more than place wire cages around trees. Baker declined to make any specific suggestions, but said the city needs to do something to curb the beavers’ appetites.
Force the beavers to go on a diet? How do you do that? Oh I get it. The LAST diet. The one where you never, ever eat food again, and you’re sure to loose weight every single day. Well, except for maybe the first 1 or 2 where you’re soggy from being trapped underwater.
Maryland gets a letter.
Oh and speaking of wildlife preserves, Jon saw three beavers this morning and a little skunk in the annex so it seems a great time to re-post this.
Another factor helping Dredge Creek’s coho rearing? Beavers.
In late October of last year, the Beaver Patrol became aware that someone was destroying the dams in Dredge Creek between the holding pond and Dredge Lake.
Caldwell had taken note of three different redds just above a beaver dam. A fourth was outside the main channel and needed a nearby dam to maintain its water depth. The destruction of the dam lowered the water and this winter that area froze, he said.
“He was tearing (the dams) out once or twice a week. Clearly he just hated beavers. He also wanted to dig in the stream to make a nice, deep channel. He dug through two of the redds,” Caldwell said.
This is a nice reminder from Juneau that beavers help salmon and people who rip out beaver dams hurt salmon. (Just in time for the salmonid conference, and I hope everyone attending reads it.) If I had my way every person in the hemisphere would read it, and probably a few in Scotland.
The Beaver Patrol emphasizes beavers’ positive impact on salmon rearing.
“If you look back a couple of decades, people used to think that if you got the dams out, the fish could move back easier,” Caldwell said. “That’s not the limiting factor in the coho population. The limiting factor is having a habitat the juvenile cohos can live in.”
“By and large, it’s a safe bet that beaver dams do provide excellent coho rearing habitat,” said Schneider. “They can cause major problems for adult cohos to access fish habitat, and that’s probably what gets most folks in the public tempted to tear out dams. It has to be a fine balance, like anything else … In a normal setting, you would have these major flood events on occasion. It would rearrange them and keep them in check. You’re not going to get that in Dredge. On top of that, there are not normal predator levels that you would find in a normal wild setting.”
I want a beaver patrol! How do we get a beaver patrol? My guess is that this is the off shoot of the group of folks started by Bob Armstrong who dismantled dams in Mendenhall Glacier State Park so that the rangers wouldn’t have to exterminate to control flooding. He made sure that Mike Callahan came out and did a field assessment for them. The Tongass forest isn’t that far away, so I’m guessing these groups are related.
Beaver dam at Mendenhall Glacier by Bob Armstrong
Something they do agree on: even when dams are at a level at which they may impact adult salmon, that’s no reason to rip one out. That’s where people like Beaver Patrol member and Cub Scout leader Scott Miller come in.
Miller is leader of Mendenhall River Community School Cub Scout Den 1, Pack 7. He and the cub scouts, also Beaver Patrol members, have been helping to open fish passage in the upper dams above Dredge Lake for the last five years.
Some of the redds in that area may have fared better, as the dams weren’t destroyed, Caldwell said.
Miller said he’s seen coho clear a six-foot dam when the water is high. “They definitely can jump if they can get a deep enough pool below,” he said.
If we learn anything about beavers and salmon it will happen in Alaska first, where there are four species of salmon in massive supply and the entire economy hinges on their life cycle. That’s where Michael Pollock started his research and where people really started to see that beavers make the difference to population numbers. People in Alaska are really really smart about beavers. Maybe I should move there.
Beaver management does require a balance, Miller said.
It’s one of those interesting situations,” he said. “It’s true that habitat is being created, but at the same time, beavers are very destructive.”
Join the Minneopa Area Naturalist Scott Kudelka for an interpretive program on Beaver Ecology at 1 p.m. March 15 the Elk’s Nature Center in Mankato’s Rasmussen Park. This aquatic mammal spends a great amount of time in the water and has the ability to change its environment by building a dam on a river or stream. Humans are the only animal capable of doing this.
As the largest rodent in North America, the beaver has had a major effect on the continent’s history. In this program we will learn what makes this animal special and show off some of its unique characteristics by dressing one lucky person up as a beaver.
In addition, we will also cover the ecology of beavers and some of its physical adaptations.
Where’s the part about beavers restoring streams? And beavers helping fish? And beaver chewed trees coppicing to help birds? And macroinvertebrate biodiversity? I’m assuming Minnesota knows the definition of the word ECOLOGY, right? As in the way different species affect and interact and affect each other? As in beavers are a KEYSTONE species that improve conditions for fish, birds, wildlife, and every species that needs fresh water. Websters tells me a second definition of ecology involves the political movement that seeks to protect the environment. But apparently in Minnesota, the state which pays to introduce trout by hand while ripping out beaver dams who “ruin the water by raising its temperature” Beaver ecology might mean a story like “Trapping opened the west and beavers have flat tails.”
Here’s what I said about Minnesota and beavers in May of last year:
There are beaver myths that I can argue again and again without losing my temper. There are misunderstandings where I can genuinely see that the right information will make things clearer. There are chuckle-worthy half-hearted attempts to confuse the masses that will unhappily crumble in the face of data. But the determined, malicious, and federally funded scatology arguing that beaver dams kill fish by raising pond temperatures I have NO patience for. Among other things, it is a transparent attempt to exonerate our damn pollutions by blaming the dam beaver instead!
The elk nature center was built in 1989 with a generous donation from the Elk Club in Mankato Minnesota. I’m guessing it has lots of programs about managing the land by trapping and fishing and not so many about trophic cascades. (Which is ostensibly okay because a barely graduated student squeaked out a column for the New York Times this week that said that bunk about wolves helping rivers is untrue. Obviously he has a promising career ahead of him at Exxon or Monsanto).
Okay, maybe I’m being unfair. After all, any program about beaver ecology in Minnesota is better than NO program about beaver ecology in Minnesota, right? And the instructor has a history of being a strong advocate for river health, which I can’t imagine ignores the benefits of beavers entirely. I wish I could be there in the front row to ask plenty of questions and helpfully point out the occasional nutria in his slide show.
(But don’t feel bad, Scott. I did that for Michael Pollock of NOAA and Dr. Chris Iverson of USFS too. And I have a feeling I may do it again, soon.)
Hi. I’m a pair of beavers that came up a river to a side creek to start a family. First, we built a dam, then a small house. All kinds of animals and birds came to join us and start a family: trout, coon, ducks, mink, muskrats, frogs, mosquitos, etc. The bear and deer brought their little ones down from the mountain to get a drink and look for frogs.
When a letter starts like that, you know you’re in for a treat. In seven years of reviewing beaver news I can honestly say this particular point of view is a first. I wish I could find the author and give him a hug and a t-shirt. He is obviously a beaver friend of the first order.
We could handle trappers fairly well if they were careful where they set their traps and only trapped a few of us. Then our homes could stay for many years and we supported all this other wildlife. We strengthened our dams, added to our family and expanded wildlife for many years.
Now this is getting good, he’s not just a beaver advocate, he’s a management advocate. Look what follows.
Then, in my opinion, the state Department of Environmental Conservation had too many deer killed, especially in the 1960s. The deer herd has never recovered to what it used to be. Coyotes and fisher, etc., that live on winter-kill deer – deer that die from natural causes, such as old age – are forced to find other ways to eat. They have come into towns to eat cats and deer that people are feeding in town.
Well, well, well, I guess he’s not a coyote advocate then but nothing is perfect. I guess he likes beavers more than songdogs. Apparently he thinks beaver kits got eaten. I wonder if he saw it? Or if he’s just assuming? Enos Mills saw a beaver fight off a bobcat on two occasions and WIN!
A starving coyote came to our pond and laid in the bush all day waiting for our little ones to come ashore for food, but big beavers can fight them off and make it back to the water.
To make a long story short: Our pond and wildlife was destroyed mostly from too many coyotes and lack of monitoring deer. I wish the DEC and state rangers would conduct a better wildlife count in West Canada and check on places that have fewer beaver and deer.
Maybe fish and game clubs could pass this around and see what they think.
LEWIS N. PAGE Sr.
I’ll say it again. Being a beaver defender is a HARD job. It takes all my patience and persuasive powers and is filled with inherent disappointment. But as challenging and frustrating as it is, it is still slightly easier than standing up for coyotes. (Or demanding to restore hetch hetchy for that matter). Those are worthy missions I do not envy in the slightest! I’m just glad whatever spirit tapped me to defend beavers didn’t demand I take on those jobs!
We have a few more donations to share. The first is an unexpected gift certificate for 75 dollars from ModCloth, an online retailer specializing in vintage, vintage-inspired and indie clothing, accessories and decor. The company is headquartered in San Francisco’s South of Market District. Its founder, Susan Gregg Koger, is one of those dorm room to 100 million dollar entrepreneurs you sometimes hear about. I saw a very cute beaver-designed purse they offered and realized that since they were local it was worth asking. I got back a very generous response with recognition that we were doing something really good for the environment. If you’ve never checked out ModCloth you really should. They offer amazing fashions and unique items for the home that you just won’t find anywhere else.
Isn’t that lovely? Richard Conniff is the author of 
Sigh. Never mind.
