Month: March 2014

JMA Conservationists of the year

heidi08 Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers March 11, 2014

Guess who won for the John Muir Association Conservationists of the year? Tom Rusert and Darren Peterie that’s who! If their faces look familiar they should. They’ve come to our last three beaver festivals and started their own nature event in Sonoma. Tom has been a beaver supporter since the early days, and recommended us to be a project of ISI, our new fiscal sponsor. This year they say they have a new display for the festival called “Binocular boot camp” with practice targets set up in the park. Their CBC4 kids has gone international and remains one of the most popular wildlife events in the hemisphere. Here’s something about their achievements from JMA.

Tom and Darren’s accomplishments are many. Tom and Darren co-founded Sonoma Birding based in Sonoma Valley, California in 2004 as a volunteer “citizen science” based conservation organization that established sustainable bird and nature-related activities and programs for all ages through a variety of partnerships in the United States and Canada. Tom and Darren went on to establish the first Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) for Sonoma Valley, the Wine Country Nature Lecture Series, and the “Spring Bird Count” for Sonoma Valley. In 2007 they founded CBC for Kids, a half-day “kid-size” event based on the traditional Audubon CBC but geared to youngsters (ages 8-16) and their families and developed other science activities and bird-related programs for kids.

In 2009, they founded the Arbor Day Celebration for the City of Sonoma and mapped the self-directed tree and bird walk of the 8-acre historic Sonoma Plaza in cooperation with the Sonoma Valley Visitor’s Bureau and the City of Sonoma. In 2010 they hosted the California Western Burrowing Owl Consortium and later teamed with the Sonoma Land Trust, AmeriCorps and private ranchers to establish 16 Burrowing Owl artificial habitats. Most recently, they established the Wine County Optics and Nature Festival, hosting major optics and binocular companies along with 30 nature nonprofits and astronomical societies attracting over 1,000 people in 2012 and 2013. They also created the North Bay Science Fair, a day-long “binocular boot camp”, and the Pt. Reyes Bird Festival Birdathon for Kids, and partnered with Wine Country Adventure Guide to highlight twenty-nine “hot” birding spots. Tom and Darren have received numerous awards for their efforts as well as media recognition.

When California became un-insane in 2013, Tom and Darren got married, so this is great timing to recognize their joint accomplishment on behalf of birds. I have a very distinct memory of my first meeting with Tom. He and Darren came to the beaver dam to talk about the possibility of beavers being included in their lecture series. We hadn’t met before but he knew Cheryl because he sometimes helped with releases for International Bird Rescue. He asked a series of very good questions and listened intently. I remember being short of breath and trying to hide that I was actually nervous, which by then almost never happened talking about beavers. When I finished with Martinez story he nodded and stepped back calmly, saying,

“Oh, I know who you are now. You’re someone who gets things done.“

In 7 years of beaver management and advocacy, I’ve never received higher praise. Congratulations Darren and Tom! We’re enormously proud and happy for you both and know John Muir would be proud of you too!

Save-everythings, Save-somes and Save-ours.

Lesley Fox, executive director of The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals, shows Kent council members the dangers of a Conibear trap, during a presentation discussing alternatives to trapping in urban areas.
— image credit: Jessica Peters/ OBSERVER

I would like to comment on the article “Group aims to reduce trapping,” Observer, Feb. 13, 2014.

Leslie Fox claims that installing a pipe in a beaver dam will force the beavers to relocate. This is true, but if the beaver moves doesn’t this essentially become someone else’s problem? And should the municipality (a.k.a taxpayer) be required to pay $300-$800 for each beaver dam pipe installation when a trapper can remove the beavers at a fraction of the cost?

This is the second time I’ve read about people getting this wrong idea from FBD about what flow devices do. I’m sure Adrien or Lesley don’t actually SAY that beavers will leave, but they might leave it a little fuzzy and people fill in with their expectations. If you were going to pay money to put in this contraption, the point must be that beavers LEAVE right? Why else would you do it? They need to say SPECIFICALLY over and over that the flow device is installed so that the beavers can safely REMAIN and perform their ecosystem magic while using their naturally territorial behaviors to keep others away.

I don’t think a single person in Martinez ever had the idea that Skip’s installation would make our beavers leave. This is a misunderstanding that can clearly be avoided.

This is as good a time as any to talk about the difference between the “Save-everythings” and Worth A Dam. The work we both do is important, and I respect them, but Worth A Dam is beaver-focused and FBD is beaver-inclusive. Because their focus is NO TRAPPING they might offer several alternatives, of differing qualities, with less clarity for how they work because they want people to know they have options. I am less concerned about trapping than I am about allowing beavers on our land and water scapes. And in order to do that I want to clarify alternatives and outcomes exactly.

But both of us are a separate category than the “Save-somes” who want beaver services for salmon, or drought, or frogs, without particularly caring about the animals themselves. Beavers are a means to an end for many, many of our friends, and if a particular beaver or family dies in relocation, there is always another to fill the gap. Over the years I have been alternately heart-broken and frustrated with the “save-somes”, but I have come to peace with them for the most part. In the vast scheme of things we need the “save-everythings” and the “save-somes” to help turn the tide against beavers intolerance. There is no way to move forward without them.

Hellogoodbye 1 — Kits coming and going over primary dam – Cheryl Reynolds

Worth A Dam started out as a “Save-ours” organization. It took everything we had to protect a single family of beavers in Martinez. And against may odds we did a great job. When danger was averted we transitioned to a “Save-more” organization. And at this point there isn’t a single beaver story that I’m content to end in trapping although I know many, many do. Somewhere along the way the focus shifted to education, which is a longer-term goal and less inherently disappointing. If your mission is to stop any beaver from being killed you will always face failure – but if your goal is to teach people why to do it differently, there is always a modicum of hope.

All this is to say that there is an inherent prejudice in how these three groups are treated by the powers that be. The “save-somes” get the most respect, ostensibly because they have a justifiable interest in the cause and they pragmatically don’t mind a few casualties along the way. The “save-ours” are indulgently tolerated for the most part, as an amusing child with a pet cricket that she wants to take to bed. But the “save-everythings” face the worst – reviled by the trap-friendly community, politicans who want easy answers and dismissed by the scientists out of fear of getting accused of being a supporter. Their path is very stony.

I first became aware of this divide from beaver contact Jake Jacobsen who was the watershed steward for Snomish County in Washington. He was one of the early installers of flow devices. We were in contact for many years before he retired. One day he idly sent me a short video taken of blowing up a beaver dam. I was more tender-hearted in those days and was pretty icked and said so. He wrote back “that I should be able to laugh at these things. I shouldn’t act upset or people would accuse me of being a hugger“.

This really surprised me at the time. Would I have worked as hard to save our beavers as I did if I wasn’t a hugger? But overtime I’ve come to realize what it says about the tightrope he felt he was walking his whole career – and the tightrope “save-somes” have to walk to be taken seriously in what they consider to be the ‘real’ world. If the truth were told, I am more like a hugger who has learned to camouflage myself as a ‘save-some”.

Maybe this is an odd way to talk and think about the different groups, but that’s probably what you get when you turn a psychologist into a beaver advocate. I’m a snail and my shell comes with me. Maybe someday the lines between the three groups will be more blurred and you won’t be able to tell them apart – but for now they are pretty distinct.

Which of the three groups are you?

Could Fish Victory become Beaver Victory?

heidi08 Beavers and salmon, Friends of Martinez Beavers, History June 12, 2014

Salmon win court ruling that ‘sets aside’ Marin countywide plan

In a sharply critical decision that leaves Marin’s planning document in legal limbo, an appellate court ordered more analysis of how development affects San Geronimo Valley’s endangered coho salmon.

The ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco reversed a Marin Superior Court decision, “sets aside” the 2007 countywide plan and its environmental report pending study of the impact of creekside building on salmon, and declared that a building ban was improperly imposed in San Geronimo.

Did you read about the Marin appellate decision protecting salmon? Our friends at SPAWN took the powers that be to court with the backing of some 22 conservation organizations and won a decision that is making no friends among the developers.

Fishery activists at the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network of Forest Knolls, which contested county compliance with state environmental law and sued to get tougher creekside building rules, hailed the ruling as a triumph. “We hope that after this decision, county supervisors are ready to work together so we can save these species from extinction,” said Todd Steiner, head of the salmon network.

“The judges agreed with Spawn that the county acted unlawfully because the environmental impact report provides no help to decision-makers or the public to understand the likely consequences of allowable build out,” said Deborah Sivas of Stanford Law School’s Environmental Clinic, which represented the salmon network along with attorney Michael Graf.

If that name sounds vaguely familiar, it should. Michael Graf was the attorney who represented Worth A Dam in the failed effort to stop the sheet pile from going through the beaver lodge. Remember? He generously charged us very little and got his friend the geomorphologist to walk our creek and do the same. The city didn’t mind breaking the law anyway, but that’s blood under the bridge now. Seems like eons ago that I was worried the sheet pile would kill the beavers or drive them away. Congratulations Michael and SPAWN for a fight well won!

All this lays the foundation for the NEXT lawsuit to appear in Marin. One where trapping ‘nuisance’ beavers is considered a threat to the salmon population. What’s that you say, beavers weren’t native to Marin? (Or Alameda? Or San Jose?) Guess what was published and went online yesterday?

Here’s the abstract, but you really need to go read the whole thing. Eli’s graphs are stunning.

The North American beaver (Castor canadensis ) has not been considered native to the watersheds of coastal California or the San Francisco Bay Area. These assertions form the basis of current wildlife management policies regarding that aquatic mammal, and they date to the first half of the 20th century. This review challenges those long-held assumptions based on verifiable (physical) and documented (reliable observational) records. Novel findings are facilitated by recently digitized information largely inaccessible prior to the 21st century. Understanding that beaver are native to California’s coastal watersheds is important, as their role in groundwater recharge, repair of stream channel incision, and restoration of wetlands may be critically important to the conservation of threatened salmonids, as well as endangered amphibians and riparian-dependent birds,

The timing on this could NOT be better, as we head off to the Salmonid Restoration Conference this week. It ends with a piercing reminder of how important beavers are to salmon, which I’m hoping the timing of the Marin decision bumps into the news cycle. There are a lot of parts I love about this paper, and Rick’s son did a stunning job of pulling the whole thing together, but you’ll pardon me if this is my very favorite part:

Today California’s coastal beaver are widely regarded as the non-native survivors of twentieth century translocations, and when they cause flooding problems or fell trees, depredation permits are often provided. Understanding beaver as native to coastal ecosystems may impact this decision-making.

Of course, I would have phrased less subtly, like STOP PRETENDING YOU’RE KILLING BEAVERS BECAUSE THEY AREN’T NATIVE, IDIOTS, but this paper and the sierra ones should permanently bury the myths about beaver absence from most of California.

49 other states never believed it anyway. I’m glad we finally tackled the 50th.

“Never intended to Hold Water”

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, New Species March 8, 2014

Busy beavers causing headache for HamCo school district

Jasper — The Hamilton County School District finds themselves in the middle of a beaver dam, so to speak.

What was first falsely diagnosed by an outside firm as a sinkhole on school district property at Hamilton County High School, is actually damage incurred by some busy little beavers, according to Chuck Lambert from General Services.

The beavers have been clogging drainage pipes and tearing up the ground, as well as causing a large hole in the pavement to open up. Because of the hole in the street that the school buses utilize for drop-offs and pickups of students, bus routes around the high school have been temporarily re-routed.

Click on the photo to go to a short film on the story. You might be asking yourself ‘how can beavers dig through asphalt’. Good question. Don’t worry, we answer questions around here. And I saw EXACTLY that hole first hand in my favorite beaver habitat on the border of Nevada. The beavers don’t touch the asphalt. But they dig out the dirt underneath it and when some lovely car (or school bus) drives over it the road crumbles. Where’s Hamilton county you ask? Brace yourselves. It’s in FLORIDA. As in lots and lots of these.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Great Blue Heron and Tail – Loop Road Everglades hp

I’m sure you can understand why the beavers would feel it necessary to build their own pond rather than use one that is already – (ahem) – occupied. (Look closely at the lower right corner.) ( I’m sure alligators eat birds and beavers from time to time, but mostly they can’t be bothered. (Maybe it’s like us driving on the freeway. Sure we know that some people get killed on every freeway every day, but we assume it won’t be us.)

The thing that gets me in that film is the emphasis on the article “Never being intended to hold water”. Obviously, if there’s a culvert, the presence of water was planned for in the original design. The beavers just made it less temporary. Apparently the ditch holds a little more water than your story?

I will write the school about how to install a culvert fence and use the whole beaver pond as a science project to monitor the changes it makes to their ditch, but honestly I’m not expecting many converts.

I miss seeing alligators occasionally. I like their knees. Very Kermit.

Another Blessed Event in Bakersfield

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, City Reports, Dispersal March 7, 2014

Beavers spotted in Bakersfield, no new tree damage

The beavers were spotted Wednesday morning in a parking lot near Mohawk Street and California Avenue. One Eyewitness News viewer captured a photo of the furry visitors. In November, beavers were spotted in the northwest near the Riverwalk. The beavers then had done damage to area trees.

Bakersfield parks director Dianne Hoover said Wednesday’s beaver sighting was the first since November. “All told in the last three to four years, they’ve damaged about 40 trees,” said Hoover. She said each tree costs between $100 and $500 to replace.

No beaver story from Bakersfield will every be cheerful, but you should watch the news report just for the anchor. He’s adorable! Oh and seeing Diane Hoover in person helps me understand why she hasn’t been able to learn anything from my emails over the years – her heart is two sizes too small.

No word yet on whether any city official or media representative will ever learn a single thing about beaver DISPERSAL. Or when they’ll stop being confused by the same exact thing occurring at the same exact time over and over again all along the west coast. It’s kinda sweet that these two yearlings start out their journey in tandem. Do you think they’ll split up eventually? Like when a friend comes with you in hide and seek and you shoo them away to find their own spot? Check out their advanced nylon netting system to protect those 500 dollar trees. Bakersfield trees must be made of gold – or possibly crack?