Science Paying Farmers to Welcome Birds

The program, called BirdReturns, starts with data from eBird, the pioneering citizen science project that asks birders to record sightings on a smartphone app and send the information to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in upstate New York.

The BirdReturns program, financed by the Nature Conservancy, then pays rice farmers in the birds’ flight path to keep their fields flooded with irrigation water from the Sacramento River as migrating flocks arrive. The prices are determined by reverse auction, in which farmers bid for leases and the lowest bidder wins.

I’m sure you’ve seen it yourself when you drive along. Rows and rows of birds species using wetlands or furiously pecking for corn. I made this movie in 2009 after stumbling on a very strange assortment on highway 12.

Hab

But when I saw this article in the New York Times, all I could think of was beavers. What if the nature conservancy or the salmon fisheries were paying farmers to leave beavers on their land? What if there were incentives to letting beavers create wetlands, raise the water table, filter toxins, increase salmonids, augment the bird population, and enrich the riparian border?

Sound crazy? I’m hoping for another easter miracle.

Shhhhh

heidi08 Beavers April 19, 2014

Stop whatever you’re doing and close the door very quietly behind you. Are we alone? Good, because this kind of news isn’t for just any ears. Cheryl went to watch beavers last night, and reports that mom came out rather late and stood up by the primary dam and – wait, are you sitting down? Swallow that coffee.

She showed healthy teats!

Healthy visible kit-sustaining teats! That almost certainly means we have kits! We have kits! Martinez has kits! For the seventh year running (no kits in 2011 after mom died) we have kits! Isn’t that wonderful? No photos because it was too dark, but here’s one from 2008 taken by Linda Meza to give you the idea of what she saw.

You can bet we’ll be keeping an eye on how things develop. Maybe you should stop by at earth day to hear the latest. Thanks Cheryl!

I just watched this movie for the first time in years because someone asked about it. It was made for a library presentation in 2008. Gosh, these were magical days of just discovering our beavers! That’s still how I feel when we see a new kit for the first time.

Sign up for beaver school!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Environmental April 18, 2014

Next wednesday from, 1-2 Pacific Time Earth Guardians will be sponsoring a webinar on beaver effects on streams. You can bet I’ll be sitting in the first virtual row. Thanks Mary Obrien for send this my way!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

2:00pm (Mountain Time)

Register for the webinar here:

Abstract – Beaver are known for their engineering abilities and their impact on water resources. Water is a valuable resource in the arid southwest, and the focus of this study was to evaluate the impact of beaver re-establishment on the water resources of the Jemez Watershed in New Mexico for future state-wide management planning. The Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT) was used to evaluate the current capacity of the watershed based on vegetation, baseflow, and flood stream power. The model demonstrated that the watershed is capable of supporting a re-established beaver population and identified the suitable stream reaches for dam building activities. Using HEC-HMS, we captured the hydrologic response of the Jemez River to precipitation by calibrating it to historic hydrographs. Once calibrated, 42 reservoir elements representing beaver dams were added to the Rio de las Vacas region to simulate an initial re-established population of beavers. The results indicate an attenuation of 5-30% of peak flows and an increase in baseflow of 5-15%. Additionally, we calculated the increase of aquatic and riparian habitat from dam construction and pond formation. It was determined that 15 special-status species in the watershed could potentially benefit from beaver activity and habitat creation. The Rio Grande cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii viginalis; state-sensitive) could utilize ponds as habitat and take advantage of dams as barriers to non-native trout movements and the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius luteus; state-endangered, federally proposed) could utilize the increase in riparian habitat bordering ponds. It is possible that the re-establishment of beaver to the Jemez Watershed would allow theses species to expand into previously extirpated portions of their range, highlighting the positive impacts of beaver on water resources in this area of the arid southwest.

Who: Bryan Bird, Wild Places Program Director, WildEarth Guardians

Alexandre Caillat, Bren School Masters Candidate

Bret Callaway, Bren School Masters Candidate

Drake Hebert, Bren School Masters Candidate

Andrew Nguyen, Bren School Masters Candidate

Shelby Petro, Bren School Masters Candidate*

Oh and guess what? Beaver Festival VII is officially a reality. We’re approved!

Bill Gates Gives Money for Beavers?

heidi08 Beavers, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental April 17, 2014

Well, probably not for the beavers themselves, but for the students who are studying them. Program manager Erin Sams has just asked that I clarify and say:

“We did not receive money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Family Foundation is a Denver-based foundation that solely supports Colorado programs. I don’t want people to get the wrong idea.”

Close enough, I’m still impressed. And you will be too when you read about this awesome project.

Beaver Habitat and River Ecology Monitoring

We are teaming up with Chatfield State Park, the Audubon Society of Greater Denver, Colorado Gulf and Turf, University of Colorado Professor Dr. John Basey, View Into The Blue, and Ocean Classrooms to monitor beaver activity along the South Platte River in Chatfield State Park. The project would not be possible without generous funding provided by The Gates Frontier Fund and Ocean Classrooms.

Beginning in December 2012, scientists and students surveyed the area to determine where the webcams would be installed and to begin preliminary observation of the beaver activity. Now, we are ready to begin work on the project! In late March 2013, we will begin installing an aboveground camera that will monitor several dams along a portion of the river to help us learn more about activity within this beaver community. We will also be installing a science node to collect data on water quality parameters, wireless radio and a solar powering system. We’re looking for lots of help from the Denver T4O community to make this project finally become a reality!

The installation is going to be accompanied by a workshop to teach students and the public about the American beaver’s influence on riparian ecosystems, macroinvertebrate biodiversity, impacts on water quality, and important resource management practices that can benefit both the environment as well as people’s livelihoods.

Colorado has so much to teach about beavers! I’m thinking these teens need to sponsor a beaver festival to really show off their work! And I know just who to invite to come lead the parade. Sherri Tippie is just down the road. I expect this to be a very exciting product that changes how we see beavers for years to come!

* I’m not going to mention that certain regular people can observe beavers without expensive grants or fancy camera installations and said people have been doing so for seven years running – because that would just be….unnecessary.