Chalk this up to the list of things I never expected. Maria Finn’s smart beavers and salmon article was just picked up by the Daily Yonder of all places. It’s based in Tennessee and Kentucky and focused on rural living.
The California drought, now in its fourth year, has put a hurtin’ on wild salmon populations in the Sacramento and Klamath rivers. Enter the beaver. Once thought to hinder the salmon’s upstream migration, the role of the tree-downing, dam-building mammal is being reconsidered.
Beavers, which were almost hunted to extinction in California during the 1800s, can help restore this watery habitat, especially in drought conditions. Fishery experts once believed the animals’ dams blocked salmon from returning to their streams, so it was common practice to rip them out.
But, consistent with previous studies, research led by Michael M. Pollock, an ecosystems analyst with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows the opposite: wild salmon are adept at crossing the beavers’ blockages.
Beavers are tireless workers (and work for free) that raise the sparse water tables.
“One of our largest expenses is electricity for pumping water. With beavers on the land, the water tables are higher, and we’ve had a 10% to 15% reduction in pumping costs.”
Along with saving money, Plank now boasts 76,000 Coho fingerling (very young fish) and 35,000 Chinook fingerling in his property’s rivers.
So rejoice, fishermen and environmentalists. And respect your new buck toothed friends.
PS – Beavers are fascinating, FYI.
The blurb links to the full article AND the PBS beaver documentary. How’s that for surprising range? I’m sure people interested in rural living are hurt by drought just as much as salmon, so lets hope they tuck this away and remember it next time beavers make a nuisance of themselves down that way.
The Water Institute at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center has a shiny new website you’ll enjoy checking out. Why not pay them a visit? You’ll especially enjoy the beaver mapping project with Eli Asarian and maybe you can even add some sightings of your own!
Nancy Freeman’s home backs up to the park, and her deck has a view of one of the beaver dams. She loves watching the wildlife, and hopes what THPRD says is true.
“So much has been displaced because of development. Our animals, the creatures that were here first, we sometimes forget and want to displace them because they inconvenience us.”
The options are to create a wildlife viewing area, construct a new trail around the flood water or build a bridge over it.
A date hasn’t been set yet, but THPRD says it will hold a public meeting in April to get feedback on the options. Officials have already been hearing from park visitors.
Hmm, the Beaverton story is shaping up to have all the ingredients of a beaver polity. You remember, like we had in Martinez a few years back. I got several emails from the reporter and the natural resource guy yesterday, and there were a ton of responses to the article. Now I don’t like to gamble, but I’m going to guess that there’s a good chance the park will accommodate the beavers. I heard from the park yesterday that trapping them out is NOT being considered.
The Greenway Park beavers are pulling in some interesting and funny comments from folks, most of whom support the beavers. The comments:
thomasg86 As a frequent user of the park, I have noticed this transition over the last few years. The “main route” is still mostly clear, except when passing under Scholls Ferry Road… a lot of the flooding seems to be on the “secondary loops” north of there. A big attraction with this park system is the eight or nine continuous miles through the heart of Tigard and Beaverton… that’s a pretty cool resource. So if we have to avoid a couple side trails to make peace with the beaver, I’m okay with that.
Jimmy Carter Just change the name to Peopleton and everything will be okay.
kpu7m Long live the beaver state….learn to coexist.
Values Voter Humans have dammed nearly every major river in North America and flooded the homes of billions of animals. Who is the bigger and far more destructive beast?
outersepdx Guess this is the only place where the Beavers (OSU) can get a win??? 😉 I’m guessing it’s duck fans who want to take the dam out.
sangre_naranja Go Beavs!!
I’m thinking we should just sit back and watch this one. It promises to be good.
Ohhh and two stories this morning you might not read anywhere else. The first that a 185 year-old gold beaver coin sold yesterday to a collector in Eugene:
Nelkin bought the $5 gold coin in August from a private collector, who had paid $257,000 for it at an auction three months earlier.
The coin was made in 1849, a decade before the Oregon Territory became a state.
It’s unknown how many of the Oregon gold coins remain in existence. But fewer than 50 out of the 6,000 $5 coins made in Oregon City in the 19th century have been certified as authentic, Nelkin said.
Ooh a beaver coin valued at over a quarter of a million. That seems about right to me. Beavers are almost as valuable on a coin as they are in your creek! Amazing!
And this last story has nothing to do with beavers (probably), but blew my mind and I know will interest you. Get ready for a fast ride.
Can weasels fly? According to an image captured by amateur photographer Martin Le-May, they can if they hitch a ride on the back of a woodpecker.
The picture shows a least weasel (Mustela nivalis) clutching on the back of a European green woodpecker (Picus viridis), likely as a result of a predatory attack gone awry. (Watch: “Hoarders: Acorn Woodpeckers.”)
Le-May told BBC News he snapped the photo Monday afternoon while visiting Hornchurch Country Park in East London. In fact, his presence may have saved the bird’s life.
“I think we may have distracted the weasel, as when the woodpecker landed it managed to escape and the weasel ran into the grass,” he told the BBC.
I know what you’re thinking. Is this a photoshop fake? National Geographic doesn’t think so.
But is the photo now known on Twitter as #WeaselPecker a fake?
Hany Farid doesn’t think so. Farid is a professor of computer science at Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, who researches digital forensics and image analysis.
Farid said that while the image’s low resolution makes performing a detailed analysis difficult, there are several other factors to consider. For starters, because the weasel is virtually hugging the woodpecker, forging such an image would be extremely challenging.
“This would have required a nearly perfect and coincidental alignment of the two animals in their original photos so that they could be composited together,” said Farid. “This type of forgery is therefore more difficult to create than, for example, two animals simply standing side-by-side.”
The fact that Le-May has posted several other photos of the scene is another indicator that the images are probably real, because it would be even more problematic to consistently alter two or more photos.
Finally, Farid said there doesn’t seem to be any obvious lighting, color, focus, or quality differences between the weasel and the bird.
“Combined, I don’t see any evidence that the photo is not real,” he said.
That is one lucky weasel. And considering he was probably pouncing for his meal, one lucky woodpecker to boot. The photo is one in a million, but honestly, I couldn’t get this song out of my head all day…
Greenway Park used to have a beaver or two living along Fanno Creek, which winds through the area, and the park-goers and animals lived in harmony.
But now a family of beavers calls it home and they’re flooding the park. The beavers have dammed Fanno Creek, and Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District gated off a section of the flooded trail at least six months ago.
Even after several days of dry weather, the trail remains underwater. A secondary loop takes walkers and bikers around the high water but, lately, it’s been flooding, too, when it rains, said James Wilson, a frequent trail user.
Wilson said he has watched the park, which has playgrounds, basketball courts, tennis courts and disc golf as well as an extensive trail system, transform into a lake over the last three years.
“Beavers are cool animals but you can’t let them destroy the thing,” he said. “This is not a lake, it’s a park.”
That’s right, beavers are ruining a perfectly good city park with their mucky nature activities. That certainly doesn’t happen in BEAVERTON anyway. I’ve already written the park and the press about flow devices and Bruce wrote me back concerned that the city attorneys have warned the that changing the stream will leave them open to lawsuits. I told him what we did and said that removing beavers also opens you to lawsuits and we’ll see what happens. There are some smart beaver champions out that way and let’s watch and learn.
THPRD was waiting to see if Fanno Creek would wash away the dams, said Bruce Barbarasch, superintendent of natural resources and trails management. But that hasn’t happened, and the park district is considering other options.
Barbarasch said THPRD could let nature run its course and make a portion of the park a wildlife area. Other options could include rerouting the flooded trail or building a boardwalk or bridge over the area.
Building a new trail or a boardwalk, however, is expensive and the park district doesn’t have funding for it at the present time, he said.
Nearly 100 percent of Greenway Park is in a flood plain, Barbarasch said.
One helpful commenter on the article suggested changing the name of the town to Peopleton. Problem solved! Failing that, they all need to watch this video over and over.
Here’s an update from our friend Rusty Cohn at the Napa beaver dams:
Hooded merganser males, crest lowered – Rusty Cohn of Napa
This weekend I was working on putting together my presentation for the Salmonid Restoration Conference in Santa Rosa and thought I’d try to find some photos of the big multi-million dollar creek fix done in 1999 that everyone said the beavers threatened. Considering the fact that the work is talked about all the time, and changed our creek-scape fairly dramatically, it’s surprising that there is not a single photo of it on the internet(s). You would think Martinez would be proud of this accomplishment?
While I was looking about I came across a website discussing some OTHER work done in our creek, which is often dramatically added to the price tag of how expensive the beavers were to Martinez. The work was done in 2008 but was posted by the engineering firm in 2012. Maybe they were waiting for the dust to settle or for everyone to forget what actually happened?
In 2008, litigation was brought against the City of Martinez for damage to private properties caused by beavers living in Alhambra Creek (owned by the City). Cal Engineering & Geology reviewed the site conditions and met with the City’s attorney regarding the merits of the claim.
The litigation put the City in a politically difficult position since the beavers were not a protected species but were greatly supported by the politically active environmental community group called, “Worth a Dam-Martinez Beavers.org”.
rIn the interest of striking a balance between nature, public interest, the City’s liability, and private property, CE&G suggested use of a sheet pile wall to both support the private properties and to act as a barrier against beaver dens extending below private properties.
Based upon conversations with a beaver expert retained by the City and the City Attorney, the sheet pile wall concept was approved.
You can understand at once why this got my full attention. Right off the bat I’m curious why this article is titled the Alhambra Creek beaver dam since even by their own definition this work had nothing to do with the dam. It had to do with the [completely fallacious] argument that they were tunneling out from their lodge like coal miners and undermining the property beside the creek. It’s surprising to see our name (or at least our name as it might appear on the internet) used. But the really interesting statement is the one in red. Exactly what beaver expert did the city confer with to hatch the sheetpile idea?
You understand. there is a sequence problem here. Obviously the city attorney isn’t routinely involved with creek maintenance. I’m sure she’s busy with abutments and ordinance challenge. Neither she nor any expert were part of the decision which was made in some secret back room, I’m sure. The city attorney got involved when we tried to challenge their willfully misguided decision in court and failed. The beaver expert was hired as a result of our outcry in attempt to mollify public opinion.
Credit where credit is due – the city council hatched that horrific idea all by themselves (actually I heard from several sources that one of the few members no longer on the council came up with the idea in conjunction with the disgruntled party). This member later had an ex parte conversation with someone on the subcommittee and that member later called me saying would be no big deal to open the lid of the lodge, gently tap some sheetpile through, and then close it back up. Like a can of beans.
That terrifying phone call followed a closed door meeting on a Thursday night. The following Friday the action was proposed, we hired an attorney, and paid a geomorphologist to walk and assess the creek on Saturday. The following week Worth A Dam went to court and our request for a temporary restraining order was denied. If the whole thing wasn’t burned into my memory, it would be helpful to look at the blow by blow available on this website. Next wednesday the entire proposal was approved and retained and I was invited to participate on a citizen oversight committee that would have zero capacity for oversight of any kind. I declined and left the meeting in tears.
Including the exemption from CEQA. Bids for the work open at 11 tomorrow. Sheet pile will be driven through the beavers lodge. Council responded to comments for citizen inclusion with an offer to set up an oversight committee including Worth A Dam, but then discussed it with the attorney and city engineer who advised that any oversight body could not make decisions, slow decisions or influence them in any way. I declined to participate under those conditions.
Supporters were in tears at the meeting’s end, including myself. Gary Bogue offers his condolences and wisdom.
In other words, the city invited beaver lovers to sit on an oversight committee … that had no oversight. That kind of says what this is all about, doesn’t it?
The city now plans to charge ahead on their “emergency bank stabilization,” causing a MAJOR impact on the beavers’ environment and their home … and of course on the beavers themselves.
I guess we’re going to find out how tough those little guys are, whether we (or they) like it or not.
That was easily the darkest hour in beavertown, maybe of my life because I felt so personally responsible for failing to avert the decision that I believed would kill them. But Gary was right, we did find out how tough our beavers were. Pretty dam tough is the answer. Every beaver survived and adapted pretty well to the intrusion.
The whole thing introduced an element of freedom to how politely constrained I needed to be in dealing with the city. Up until then, I felt my hands were tied by always feeling obligated to assume they meant well. Now I understand better whose interests they really serve. After the shock and heartbreak wore off, the clarity was truly liberating. With the benefit of hindsight I can look at my remarks and Gary’s remarks and think they probably had something to do with this creative narrative:
Additionally, the beaver expert, who monitored construction at all times and had the authority to stop work, was satisfied with the project.
I’m so glad that our website was able to put together enough information so that Cal Engineering would know intimately how to lie about in their post. We tried not to leave anything out. I’m rankled that they are offering this whole dangerous charade as an example of their environmental engineering. Although to be fair, I’m not mad at CE, they were just getting paid. I’m mad at the liars and schemers who used the excuse of the beavers as a way to turn a legal award from an old oil spill into a personal flood protection barrier for one property owner.
But that’s all blood under the bridge, now.
Funny thing, it turned out the only thing really being undermined in this whole process was my faith in the city. But no amount of sheetpile will repair that.
In the end, they won the battle. But beavers won the war.
With California’s wild Coho salmon populations down to 1% of their former numbers, there’s growing evidence that beavers – long reviled as a pest of the waterways – are essential to restore the species, writes Maria Finn. In the process, they raise water tables, recharge aquifers and improve water quality. What’s not to love?
Beavers are the single most important factor in determining whether Coho salmon persist in California. They work night and day, don’t need to be paid, and are incredible engineers.
Beavers, which were almost hunted to extinction in California during the 1800s, can help restore this watery habitat, especially in drought conditions. Fishery experts once believed the animals’ dams blocked salmon from returning to their streams, so it was common practice to rip them out.
But, consistent with previous studies, research led by Michael M. Pollock, an ecosystems analyst with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows the opposite: wild salmon are adept at crossing the beavers’ blockages.
In addition, the dams often reduce the downstream transport of egg-suffocating silt to the gravel where salmon spawn, and create deeper, cooler water for juvenile fish and adult salmon and steelhead. The resulting wetlands also attract more insects for salmon to eat.
In ongoing research that covered six years, Pollock and his colleagues showed that river restoration projects that featured beaver dams more than doubled their production of salmon.
Can the animals help bring back the Coho salmon? “Absolutely”, Pollock says. “They may be the only thing that can.”
Ahhh admit it, don’t you sometimes want to MARRY Michael Pollock? He’s the best friend beavers ever had. And I should know. Thanks Michael! And thanks Maria for your excellent article. I hope a few more spots pick it up before long.
Rusty from Napa mentioned the other day that he hoped I said more about the beaver conference. Well he’s in luck, because here’s my interview on the topic from Michael Howie from Fur-bearer Defenders Radio. I wasn’t as brilliant as I had every intention of being, but the conference was a lot of dazzling information and I was/am still percolating and putting things together.
CLICK TO LISTEN
And saving the best for last, guess what we saw with our own dam eyes last night? I’ll give you a hint, they had flat tails and little ears. 3 tails and six ears to be precise. Dad, Mom, and baby all side by side and happy as you please living in the same bank hole and coming out around 7 in the evening. Since we have been down several times during the winter and seen nothing but our dashed hopes, we were understandably elated. I came right home and started watching this, from our friend Willy De Koning the Netherlands.
You need your sound UP for this because it captures our mood perfectly!
