Month: June 2015

Napatopia and Ohiotopia?

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? June 15, 2015

blue heron on lodge — Blue Heron on beaver lodge in Tulocay Creek: Rusty Cohn

Beavers set up home in downtown Napa

Downtown has some new residents, and they’re not the two-legged tourist variety. Beavers have moved into Napa Creek and built at least two dams visible from the Pearl Street pedestrian bridge and from the parking lot behind the former Napa Firefighters Museum.

“I think it’s great. It speaks to the health of the watershed,” said Shaun Horne, watershed and flood control resource specialist for the Napa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District.

“It’s a good sign for the creek,” Horne said. “The whole beaver population seems to be spreading. These creatures are recolonizing some of these areas that maybe didn’t have the best habitat prior to this.”

Beavers change creek hydrology for the better, Horne said. Dams pool water, which is good for fish, birds and other wildlife. Beaver dams can also help reverse channel deepening, provide nurseries for fish, increase habitat for small mammals, contribute to the establishment of new vegetation and improve downstream water quality by trapping sediment.

Napan Rusty Cohn is a regular beaver watcher. He’s seen the animals and their work at Tulocay Creek near Soscol Avenue and other river areas in the city. He gave the new dam on Napa Creek a thumbs-up.

“They did a nice job of building it,” Cohn said. He has yet to spot the downtown beavers, but he has a theory about where they came from.

More remarkable beaver wisdom from Napatopia, with Flood control saying how valuable beavers are and Rusty getting some smart quotes in. I can’t figure out thought why they didn’t run some of his great photos, or the news that there are three new kits in Tulocay creek. Reporters remain a mystery to me, but you are encouraged to solve the puzzle for yourself.

More good news from places that aren’t here. Brace yourself. This is surprising. The state of Ohio (OHIO?) Department of Transportation has apparently contracted with Mike Callahan to teach them to install flow devices to control beaver damming rather than killing them Here is proof they’re listening.

A Possible Beaver First!

Last week in Cincinnati the Ohio Dept. of Transportation hired me to train their personnel how to manage beaver problems with flow devices. Is anyone aware of another state Highway Dept. that has committed to building and installing flow devices themselves? I think Ohio may be the first! Here in Massachusetts the MassDOT is very supportive of flow devices but they contract with me to install them. Ohio wants to start doing flow devices themselves which I think is pretty cool!

All this came about due to local beaver advocate Karen Arnett being persistent and lobbying the ODOT to consider flow devices as an alternative to trapping. Her dogged efforts bore fruit and the beavers, humans and ecosystems of Ohio are bound to benefit.

The ODOT training included a PowerPoint presentation tailored to ODOT needs, and a hands-on flow device installation where many ODOT staff participated. The flow device install site is a highway retention pond where unfortunately beavers were trapped last year. Since new beavers are bound to relocate here ODOT wanted a flow device to protect the drainage structure and prevent the need to trap in the future. I was very impressed with the level of interest by ODOT staff and their willingness not only to do the work but also get in the water. See pictures. Kudos to ODOT as well as to Karen for getting ODOT interested in flow devices!

Karen contacted this website ages ago, and Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife as well. She really did a stellar job of getting new ideas through thick skulls. And Mike did a great job convincing them once she got their attention. Great work team beaver!

Hudson Bay Company (Barbary Coast Edition)

heidi08 Beavers June 14, 2015

LATE BREAKING:

This was just posted to Youtube this morning. Obviously filmed by Moses last night. AT LEAST THREE KITS!

riding back — Screen Grab from footage by Moses Silva.

That brings our grand total for kits born in Alhambra Creek to 23 since 2007! Whooohooohooo! Have a cigar! Thanks Moses for capturing these moments and Linda for sharing them.

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Rickipedia sent me in search of this, which is worthy of all our attention. It’s a map of San Francisco before gold was discovered, which is fascinating in and of itself. But the part that stunned me is the old white building right off the water at the corner of Howard and Mellus streets. Guess what that is?

That’s the old Hudson Bay Company building, through which thousands and thousands of California beaver furs passed. Also “bears, foxes, beavers, raccoons, and otters.” How many furs? The catalog is archived here, but we know it was enough to pay for a big building by the water in what was once Yerba Buena,

History always seems so far away until you realize it’s right there beside you…or beneath you.

Rock On!

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Festival June 13, 2015

The biggest beaver news at the moment comes from the Smithsonian Zoo, where they just added a new beaver to the inclusure. The yearling is still getting used to his surroundings and that explains his startled reaction to his roommate. Enjoy!
Beaver gets surprise welcome to new home

I got word yesterday that Worth A Dam is on the calendar for the Parks, Recreation, Marina, and Cultural Commission meeting tuesday night. As usual we are asking to waive fees for the festival and get an exception for attendance. The meeting starts at 7 and we’d love the support if you want to attend.

Registrations are starting to trickle in, most recently Sulpher Creek in Hayward and RCD and Flood Control in Napa. Our quarter page ad will run in the next issue of Bay Nature and looks fantastic. All in all, I’m starting to think the next event should be very well attended and exciting.

One of the most unique items for our silent auction comes from artist Ernestina Gallina in Italy who agreed to donate her handpainted beaver rock. Her incredible artwork has been shown in museums and sells for hundreds of dollars. It and must be seen to be believed. Stop what you’re doing right now and go look. Here’s the description from her website.

“In Italy it’s called “sassi dipinti”. It’s Rock Painting, the art of painting rocks. The difference with prehistoric cave painting is that, being a rock a three-dimensional thing, the finished piece of art is not only a painting but also a sculpture. Painting all-around is an unique artistic experience: no perspective is involved, there is no foreground or background: imagination can run wild. Everything starts with the search for the natural canvas: the rock. A walk to the seaside or along the shores of a river can become a fun safari, almost an hunt for animals that are already there, waiting to be picked up by you.”

Warm-hearted Earnestina agreed to donate right away, but it was a little tricky figuring out how to do it. It is, after all, a ROCK and expensive to ship. And even if I had a friend traveling all that way for summer vacation who has room in their suitcase to bring back a rock? In the end we agreed to split the shipping costs and UPS tells me the rock will be delivered on Monday. Check out its global flight path from Milano to Nevada.

More good auction news came from Frisky Beaver wines this week. Since they’re not international they can’t sell in America yet, but they want to help with t-shirts or coasters, and added our link on their website that is very cute. So of course I added a link to theirs!

Napa Beaver Pond’s last few weeks have been exciting and scary

Rusty Cohn Beavers June 12, 2015

In 2014 we saw our first kit on May 20th and didn’t even realize it was a baby until Heidi
saw the photo and told us. This year we were better prepared and around mid May began
watching for kits. On April 29th while watching a Beaver groom we were able to identify the mother Beaver by it’s teats. This is the only time when it is possible to identify female vs male Beavers visually.

We had previously seen one of the Beavers eating Fennel on April 30th which helps with lactating.We noticed a little more food being taken back to the lodge, as well as grass for bedding

On May 26th we saw our first kit of the year.

The pond went wildMay 29th River Otter on log. We have seen the Otter within 20 feet of the kits but no issues so far.

May 30th first time observed kit and parent together

June 2nd Beaver pulling branch to lodge to take inside

June 3rd first time saw two kits at once (up to then were only sure was one kit)

June 5th two adults at the top of the pond. We have been surprised how little supervision the kits get from the adults so far.

Beaver lodge with people lodge in the background

June 6th two kits next to lodge. So far the kits stick within aprox 30 feet of the lodge

Kit eating creeping water primrose (Ludwigiapeploides peploides)

June 10th, notice how the kit is very bouyant aprox a third of it’s body is above water

June 11th two kits eating together

The end

Guide to creeks and kits

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Chewing, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? June 11, 2015

Looks like the students in Imlay Michigan are studying the creek and getting an indirect lesson in what happens when beaver dams are removed.

Go with the flow

They dip a plastic spoon into the tub and come up with yet another discovery.

“We’ve found a water mite, a leech, black fly larvae, and a crayfish with only one pincher,” Angelika says, while another classmate—Daniel Felix—picks up the squirming crayfish to take a closer look.

The young scientists are in the fifth year of a collaborative project with Seven Ponds Nature Center naturalists and Imlay City Middle School. They’ll spend two days studying the Belle River as it runs through Imlay City’s backyard, and their findings will become part of a statewide study of the watershed.

“This year some changes were made at the headwaters,” Kent says. “A beaver dam was removed sometime between this year and last year”. Young scientist Ivan Sanchez makes his decision early on. Ivan participates in soccer practices at Lions Park, so he’s noticed a big difference in what the river looks like since the beaver dam has been removed.

“It was so beautiful last season and now it looks a lot different, there’s a lot of sediment that wasn’t there before,” Ivan says.

That’s right children. Because beaver dams make creeks beautiful, alive and ecologically diverse. And removing them makes things ugly and dead and sterile. That should be the most important lesson you take from this experiment.

I had fun last night taking a ‘will you stop watering your lawn’ telephone poll, because after I waded through all the somewhats, mostlys and not verys I got to give a comment about what California should do to save water, and GUESS what I said??? I’ll give you a hint. It’s the kind of hint you should take with you to the store.

Yesterdays anomaly rain actually filled the dam to bursting but it was still holding when Jon checked last night. Rusty and Robin are having great fun documenting their beavers even if we aren’t lucky yet in Martinez. Tomorrow I will leave you in Rusty’s capable hands because I’ll be away. But stay tuned, because I know he will have your attention with photos like these:

kit with tripod — Kit in Tulocay Creek praying – Rusty Cohn

For her part, Robin made sure that the unverified kit who hightails it to the dam each night instead of posing with his siblings, was documented as an actual kit.

Isn’t this lovely? For those new to the kit vs adult ID game clues are

How he floats (entirely above the waterline while with adults usually swim with just their head is visible)
The relative head size to body (about a third, when adults is a fifth or more)
And of course the fact that it’s adorable. Which should be a dead giveaway.

His relative speed indicates he is a little frightened of this wide world, even though he’s heading off to play with the big beavers. Who knows, maybe he’s braver than the others? Or maybe he’s a big scaredy-pants who always wants to be with a grown-up? Perspective is everything.