Ohio 1, Minnesota 0

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? November 22, 2022

Sharon Brown of Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife sends this excellent story, which will be further reported in the next issue of Beaversprite.

Columbus, Ohio Metro Parks Installs a Beaver Flow Device

Using BWW’s “Coexisting…” DVD Staff at Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks, Ohio in December installed a beaver pipe system in a beaver dam to manage the water level and save some wetlands. When beavers moved into Glacier Ridge Park last year their dam restored valuable wetlands, but it also affected a drainage ditch that served private properties bordering the park. The new flexpipe system, based on plans from Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife’s (BWW) “Coexisting with Beavers” DVD, allows a compromise that benefits both the beavers and the park’s neighbors. Now the water level can be managed—allowing the beaver dam and wetlands to remain.

Beaver activity is the major natural method of creating and maintaining freshwater wetlands,recently valued at $49,000/acre/year in terms of natural services.* About 90% of Ohio’s original wetlands had been drained by the 1980s, according to the U.S. EPA. In past decades, when beaver dams caused flooding of farms or roads, the animal engineers were eliminated. As beavers return to western Ohio, using flow devices to manage their ponds can help save newly restored wetlands.

Carrie Morrow, Assistant Resource Manager for Metro Parks who coordinated the pond leveler d project said, “many of the parts were available at our park maintenance shops. She added, “Our volunteer Richard Tuttle graciously shared the DVD with us and Andrew Boose, our Forest Ecologist and talented handyman, assembled and built the structure.” Boose was assisted by park technician Mike Bosworth. The dedicated men worked in cold, chest-deep water in December to complete the installation. Later, Andrew Boose’s wife ordered a BWW cap for him, “because the project was a success.”

Richard Tuttle, who gave the “Coexisting…” DVD to the park staff, is an expert on conservation of Eastern Bluebirds. In the early 1990s, he created the “Beaver Hypothesis”— that beaver activity produces the habitat required by many wetland species. Photo by Carrie Wakeman Morrow Andrew Boose and Mike Bosworth install a flexpipe with a cage to protect the pipe inlet in a beaver dam at Glacier Ridge Park. Photo by Annette Boose. Andrew Boose, Forest Ecologist at Columbus Metro Parks, photographs a young beaver.

Costanza, R. et al. 2014. Changes in the global value of ecosystem
services. Global Environmental Change 26: 152-158.

Nice to read about Ohio doing the right thing, and I just got an update this morning from Karen of Mt. Healthy that ODOT might be bringing in Mike or Skip to follow suit. That’s a major improvement in a state that has a very tarnished beaver reputation. We’re going to have to make sure everyone knows how much that’s changing.

A quick bit of HUH? from Crosslake Minnesota where apparently they are unaware that pressure treated wood survives better in water. Hmm metal survives better yet.

Crosslake will make capital purchases, beaver-damaged bridge repairs

The Crosslake City Council chose to move forward with plans to repair the Dream Island bridge, which recently sustained damage when a beaver chewed entirely through one of the pylons.

I guess in winter it’s theoretically possible that a unprepared beaver could exhaust it’s food cache and nibble on a board instead. But honestly do you really think this is beaver blame-worthy? And not the work of some drunk fisherman’s motorboat taking a chunk out of the piling with a side swipe?

Let’s leave MN to their conundrum and get ready for the unbearable gasp of cuteness. Jeannine Schafer of The Neenerbot, an enchanting artist and illustrator in San Francisco, has most graciously agreed to donate one of these for our silent auction. Honestly, that might be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Especially the curling feet of the kit on the end. (I think we can officially retire that kitten poster. I would ‘hang in there’ much longer for beavers, wouldn’t you?) Thank you Jeannine for your generosity and remarkable creative vision. If admirers can’t wait until August for the bidding war go here to buy your own:

Are times a’changing for Beavers?

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers elsewhere, Who's saving beavers now? February 2, 2015

We’ve had nothing but niceties for a while, but this morning we’re going to have to address some amazing beaver ignorance, delivered (of course) by a trapper and carefully quoted as fact by (unsurprisingly) an unquestioning reporter named Paul Hampton of the Mississippi Sun Herald. Get you beaver BS detectors ready.

Watch your pets in South Mississippi and don’t feed the coyotes

BILOXI — It probably would be a bigger surprise if there were no coyotes in Biloxi, wildlife officials say. Police animal control officials have yet to confirm reports of coyotes that can climb an 8-foot-tall fence but the animals have been spreading across the Southeast for decades.

“I can promise you there are coyotes in Biloxi,” said Troy Arguelles, a trapper who lives there.

Arguelles said he’d be glad to take coyotes off a worried homeowner’s hands but the only trapping he’s heard of lately is a family of beaver who were taken from a retention pond the animals invaded at a subdivision off Popp’s Ferry Road.

“That won’t alleviate the problem,” he said of the beavers’ capture. “It’ll just fix it for the time being.”

Beavers leave a scent and it won’t be long before a new family follows the scent to the pond and starts a little subdivision of their own, he said.

First of all, Troy, you are right about the scent. Beavers DO leave scent mounds to mark their territory. But surprisingly enough, they aren’t calling cards. It’s a keep out sign. So when beavers leave a scent around their homes they’re actually saying “Job filled: Need Not Apply.” Which means you’re mistaken. And the reporter should have thought to look it up and see if it was true. I can understand the confusion. Trappers use castoreum to catch beavers, so I guess it looks like they’re coming TOWARDS the scent. But they’re actually coming to fight whoever left that scent and kick them off their pond.

Not to start a commune.

But even if you were right, (I mean let’s pretend we’re in an alternate universe and a trapper from Mississippi understood things better than a beaver blogger from California), even by your own argument wouldn’t that make trapping pointless? If you are hired to kill some beavers and they left their perfume invitations all over, wouldn’t it mean that anyone who hired you would just be paying to switch beavers? Not getting rid of them?

Take your time, Troy. We can wait for your answer. I’m certainly not calling you stupid or anything. For all I know you might be the most brilliant man in Mississippi, I’m just curious.

Sheesh.

Thank you Robin of Napa for pointing out that the Beavers in Devon made this week’s Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet!

Beavers even made it to the popular British magazine “Bird Watch”. Capture Which seals their publicity arc. Now if we could only get them on the cover of “Today’s Angler” we’d be in business. I don’t see why it couldn’t happen.

Stranger things have been known to occur.

Afancod to the rescue

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Dispersal, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? February 1, 2015

All of Great Britain is falling like dominoes into the beaver fever sweeping the nation! Just look at this morning’s article in the BBC.

Beavers’ return to Welsh rivers considered

Beavers could return to Welsh waters later this year centuries after they disappeared. The River Rheidol river in Ceredigion has previously been identified as the preferred location to reintroduce them.

Natural Resources Wales has said work is continuing to assess the results of pilot projects elsewhere in the UK. Supporters say beavers can help prevent flooding, improve water quality and boost biodiversity but farmers’ leaders have voiced concern about their impact.

Tim Jones, executive director of operations for north and mid Wales at Natural Resources Wales, said: “The possibility of reintroducing beavers to Welsh rivers needs serious consideration.

“They have the potential to help us improve the quality of our natural resources including water quality, wildlife and fish populations.

“However, we must also look at the wider effects of reintroducing them, which would include their effects on agriculture, forestry, flood defences amongst other things.

“We are working with a number of partners to look at the evidence on beaver re-introduction and the outcomes of pilot projects elsewhere.

“Once we’ve done this, and are sure that this is the right thing to do, we will look at the options and the practical challenges and benefits of continuing and developing the project further.”

Put a leek in your cap and let’s get ready to welcome the Welsh Beaver! I love these cascading stories, drawing attention to the benefits of beavers. It’s just as well Wales is considering beaver because there isn’t a stop sign big enough to keep them from swimming from Devon across the Bristol Channel (which is only 30 miles across at its widest point) to reintroduce themselves. Congratulations all on this valiant effort!

I have to admit I get a little anxious when folks promise beavers will bring only good news. (Listen to the short report on the website if you are wondering what I mean.) Obviously they can bring trouble too, and I think beavers fair better when we’re honest about that. Folks need to realize that even when they cause problems we’re smarter than beavers. (Or most of us are, anyway.) We can resolve any problem that might arise down the road. And enjoy the benefits while we do.

Great news! Jon saw the kit this morning! (Not officially a yearling for 4 more months). He or She was working on the secondary dam, so that means we have two adults and their offspring hard at work. Remember it’s February and dispersal month. If our yearlings follow the same pattern as the others they will leave sometime this month, bringing our population down to three. Three magical beavers that will start the whole family over again.

And a personal note, OMG it’s February again! Let’s hope I can stay out of the hospital this year.