Month: August 2014
Oh and just in case you think all issuers of depredation permits are basically the same and do the same things, think again. Apparently 20% of the 18 ‘environmental scientists’ who gave permission to kill beavers account for nearly 50% of the permits issued.
You will not be surprised to learn that Sara and Shelly work with Placer county, and Helayne works with Elk Grove. Small, small world. And it’s not just how many permits they issue, but how often they are issued to take an unlimited number of beavers and how often they are issued for a full year or more.
Something tells me when I sit down to Chi square this mess it will be significant at the p.05 level.
So yesterday morning our Napa Beaver friend RE sent me the results of her public records request from Fish and Game. She was trying to figure out if any depredation permits had been taken in Napa County, but of course that’s not the way bureaucracy works. So they gave her a pile of all the depredation permits in the state of California from 1-2013 to 8-8-2014. They are actually organized unhelpfully by the last name of the person who obtained the permit.
Robin, Jon and I spent yesterday going through the records and making a spread sheet so that we could see what was issued where, by whom, for how many beavers, and because of what problem. It was a horrible, grisly, unpleasant day, so you have to forgive me if I am more sarcastic than usual. Remember that Depredation permits can be issued for 1-2 beavers or for an unlimited number, for a few weeks or for the whole year or more. But what we learned is that the VAST majority are issued for an unlimited number of beavers to be taken during the span of an entire year. I’m putting the finished list online here by county.
Counties in CA by Number of Depredation Permits Given 1-01-13 to 8-8-14
Alpine 4 Amador 1 Butte 8 Calaveras 1 Colusa 6 Contra Costa 18 El Dorado 9 Glenn 4 Lake 2 Lassen 5 Merced 13 Modoc 6 Napa 2 Nevada 7 Placer 50 Plumas 8 Sacramento 30 San Joaquin 8 Shasta 12 Sierra County 3 Solano 7 Sonoma 3 Stanislaus 3 Sutter 13 Tehama 5 Yolo 19 Yuba 7 Total 254Before you turn your head away in horror, pause for a moment at the staggering number of permits issued in Placer county: FIFTY in all, each for a year and only 9 of which had any limit at all to the number of beavers that could be taken. This, for a county which is only 1500 square miles – fewer than 100 of which are water.How could this be?
I have a theory.
Remember that the county seat of Placer county is Auburn, where our long standing nemesis recently gave her umpteenth presentation on how bad beavers are – I’m referring of course to Mary Tappel who long ago took time out of her busy beaver-killing schedule to come all this way to try and get Martinez to kill ours. I know she recently presented at the Salmon meeting because someone from Fish and Wildlife who was there wrote me and said in disbelief, wow, there was this woman there who was soooo negative about beavers! And when I looked at the schedule I knew who it was. I’m thinking Mary’s done many presentations in Placer county and her icy fingers have pushed the kill permits for thousands of beavers.
August 26, SARSAS 2013, Beaver Specialist Mary Tappel, “Beaver Management in the Age of Salmonid Restoration with Focus on Beavers in Auburn Ravine”
In case your a visual person, here’s the county count. There were no permits issued for Southern California in the records we received, but the woman who released the data did say that the department is in the process of transitioning to electronic files, so some lovingly hand-written death warrants may not be included. I’m sure Fresno killed some beavers. They always do, so maybe they aren’t using computers yet?
Wow. Since the highest number of specified beavers issued in a permit was 50, that must mean UNLIMITED is >50. So if the total number of beavers listed to be killed is added up with that change the number for just Northern CA is at least 7958.
Beavers – The Best Dam Habitat Builders
Price: $65.00 Instructor: Carol Medlicott – Ph.D.
Discover the amazing beaver! Beaver are second only to human in their ability to alter their environment. The habitats they create are vital to the livelihood of a huge number of species from Neo-tropical birds to insect to elk. We will spend the day learning and experiencing the habitat beaver create, their unique biology and methods of coexisting productively with this essential keystone species.
Meeting Place: Glacier Park Field Camp Meeting Hall. (See campus map)
Accommodations: Students and their families who wish to stay in the Field Camp cabins before or after the course can reserve a spot in advance by calling (406) 755-1211. Lodging is $32/person/night. See Field Camp description for information about the facility.
Food: For the field, please bring sack lunches, snacks to eat, and plenty of water. For students staying overnight at camp, we have a kitchen in which you can cook meals and space available for food storage.
Equipment: Please see basic gear list. Most important are comfortable hiking shoes, backpack, rain gear, hat, sunscreen and binoculars.
Physical Requirements: We will be hiking less than two miles on relatively flat trails. However, some of the locations are open and can be very warm, so be prepared for heat.
Recommended Reading:
– Beaver Tales: Audrey Tournay and the Aspen Valley Beavers Audrey Tournay, Boston Mills Press, 2003. -The Beaver: Natural History of a Wetlands Engineer Dietland Müller-Schwarze and Lixing Sun, Cornell University Press, 2003. -Stokes Nature Guides: A Guide to Animal Tracking and Behavior Donald and Lillian Stokes, Little, Brown and Company, 1986.Tentative Itinerary: Itinerary is subject to change due to weather, trail closures, beaver activity etc.
We will meet at Field Camp at 9 AM for an introduction and classroom session on beaver biology, their interesting adaptations, and the natural history of the area. After eating lunch we will depart field camp for field exploration in Lower MacDonald Creek. We will respectfully examine active beavers’ lodges from a distance and keep our eyes peeled for a beaver at work. In the field, we will be offered a first hand view of how these magnificent creatures alter their environment and influence countless species around them. After our time in the field we will return to field camp and we will conclude the course by about 4pm.
Evening is the perfect time to watch beaver in action and late summer is when they are most active, so if the group is interested, we can regroup after dinner for an optional stroll along Lower McDonald Creek for some tail slapping activity.
Academic Credit: This course may be taken for 8 Office of Public Instruction (OPI) renewal units (for teacher’s license renewal). If you wish to take an Institute course for OPI credit, you will be asked to fill out paperwork and pay a $20 credit fee at the start of your course, payable to Flathead Valley Community College.
We are ALWAYS happy when Montana decides to celebrate beavers. Of course tracking down beaver sign seems an awesome way to learn. I checked for Dr. Medlicott but can only find a professor of geology in Kentucky. Could that be this instructor? But considering that kids need to bring their own food, pay to sleep, and pay extra for college credit, isn’t 65.00 a little expensive? I mean you could just come to Martinez and stand on the ADA accessible bridge. For free.
Your choice.
Keefer Madness: Otter Attacks vs. Beaver Attacks
BOSTON (CBS) — Rich Keefe is out to make sure we’re all safe when we step into nature.
He’s warned us about not one, but two different beaver attacks over the summer, and he has another animal to add to the ferocious predator list.
This time, it’s a North American river otter who is taking aim at the human race. An Otter in Washington state put a little boy and his grandmother in the hospital, and that same otter is believed to be responsible for attacking another man.
The cute little otter wasn’t very cute,” Radek Bazant told Q13Fox in Washington.
The otter in question popped the man’s raft and then attacked him underwater as he swam away.
The North American river otter can grow to be 21-31 lbs, much smaller than it’s beaver counterpart, notes Keefe.
Gosh, which would you be more afraid of? Both are so maliciously terrifying. I can’t believe I’ve been so lucky all these years, standing with a camera on the bank. While those monsters lurked just inches away.
Click on the image to go to the site where you can listen to his fairly amusing riff on the subject. Even though he’s wrong about how long beavers live, I have to agree with Keefe on this. If you’re going to be afraid of any vegetarian I’d have to pick the beaver.
Peg legs notwithstanding.
Since we have all read the attack stories of summer for many years, they hardly surprise me anymore. I have to admit this was a bit of a shock, though. Check out the photo on the story from Austria.
Maybe not as cute as he looks? Photo: Cheryl Reynolds/Worth a Dam
Family attacked by beaver whilst paddling
A swimming trip in Schwechat, Lower Austria took a nasty turn for a family when they were attacked by a vicious beaver.
Presumably because it was defending its territory or its young, the beaver attacked a woman and her two daughters, along with their pet dog, whilst they were paddling in the Schwechat river.
Even when they ran out of the river and onto dry land it pursued them and bit their dog, taking a chunk of fur.
Since that beaver took a chunk of fur and not the dog’s femur (which he easily could have) I’m going to assume he wasn’t exactly in a rage. It was more of a “AND STAY OUT” beaver hrmph. Which certainly happens. I was shocked to see Cheryl’s lovely photo in Austria, but at least she got credit.
All in all, beavers look pretty dangerous. I’m not surprised. They certainly took a bite out of the unchecked powers in this town!
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