Month: July 2015

Lets all be more like beavers…

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? July 12, 2015

No new deaths, and Jr. was seen last night. How quickly the standard for good news changes when you are living in a war zone. The dam was worked on too, meaning the beavers themselves are feeling back to normal. I guess we should try and do the same.

These are nice articles to bring us gently back to the land of the living.

North woods entrepreneur: New beaver pond shows the power of the beaver’s creative destruction

To a beaver, the slightest trickle of water is the sound of opportunity. It’s said you can give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. But, I say, give a beaver the barest of brooks and he’ll create a new world.

It’s a process of creative destruction that kills a forest and replaces it with a rich wetland environment that, in its first summer, is already home to at least three broods of mallards and probably more.

It’s a perfect environment for raising young ducks. The pond, which is isolated from any open water source, obviously harbors no giant muskies waiting to inhale a downy little duckling. And the canopy of now-dead alder and aspen offers the young ducks substantial protection from hawks or falcons.

But there was much more at the new pond early one morning this week. Frogs were poking noses from the water, a garter snake was coiled on a sun-splashed rock on the shore, while legions of dragonflies darted around in search of breakfast or a sunny perch of their own.

In the long view, beaver ponds are temporary components on the landscape, even though they can last, at times, for decades. Over time, they change, of course. Our new pond is full of woody cover, but soon enough those dead trees and shrubs will disintegrate and fall below the surface of the dark waters, opening up the pond. The brush will be replaced with true wetland vegetation, like cattails, rushes, or sedges. If they haven’t already, turtles will eventually find their way to this oasis in the forest. I’m curious to watch the transition over the years to come— assuming that the beavers and their progeny continue to maintain the dam.

I love a beaver article that takes the long view on beaver impact. But Marshall Helmberger stopped short of mentioning the egrets and herons that come to the pond to eat those frogs, and the fish that feast on the dragonfly larvae. Not to mention the mink and otter that come feast on the fish. How about the nutrients that will accumulate in that damp soil and the many plants that will eventually settle in that meadow? I’ll let Dr. Wohl explain:

I never get tired of hearing that clip. That is the best lightening overview on beaver impact I have ever heard. Even better than Enos Mills, and that’s saying something. Ellen donated another book for the auction, this one looks like an excellent summer read.

A combination of travel writing, nature writing, and science writing, Transient Landscapes is a beautiful and thoughtful journey through the natural world.

Now on to my favorite beaver article this season, I have tried to track down the author but had no luck yet. This appeared yesterday in the News Tribune in Washington state. (Of course)

Eager beavers seeking summer fun can rely on these tips from the animal world

Here are five ways your kids can be more like a beaver this summer.

Tip 1: Create your own shelter

Have you ever pitched a tent outdoors, or gathered all the pillows and blankets in your house for an epic pillow fort? It’s amazingly satisfying to put a roof over your own head, even if it’s just for fun. Beavers are known for creating their own homes, called lodges.

Tip 2: Hang out with your family

If you spent the summer by yourself, you’d probably get bored. A beaver would feel the same way. They love to play and socialize with their family members every day. Beavers live in family groups called colonies.

Tip 3: Eat a healthy snack

Nothing tastes better than fresh veggies found at the local farmers market. North American beavers have diets based on the plants found in their natural range, which includes Canada, the United States and northern Mexico. They love to eat bark, twigs, aquatic plants, and the leaves and roots of deciduous trees.

Tip 4: Go for a swim

What’s the best way to cool off in summer (aside from eating Popsicles all day)? Taking a dip in the pool, of course. Swimming is a refreshing activity for lots of animals and a major part of the beaver lifestyle.

Tip 5: Help habitats

All living things are connected, and every animal needs a home. Protecting and creating homes for other animals is a great habit to practice every summer (and the rest of the year, too). You can try it yourself by planting trees, building bird houses or bat shelters, or volunteering for habitat restoration projects.

Beavers modify their surroundings quite a bit. In the process of creating lodges, dams and canals, they create rich habitats for other animals. Cutting down trees allows shrubby plants to grow, which are great food for deer and elk in winter. Beaver ponds also attract frogs that are hunted by weasels, raccoons, herons and others. Ducks and geese may build nests on top of beavers’ lodges.

A beaver colony is a good thing for a healthy forest.

I love. Love. LOVE. This article! How it of course PRESUMES that children might want to be like beavers. How it finds ways to educate children about beaver adaptions by pairing them with things they already know. And of course how the last paragraphs emphasize that beavers are GREAT for other animals in the forest.

Love.

I don’t know about you but I can see the beginnings of a beaver badge tied in with the festival, in which children show us they have taken beaver action during the season and earn something to acknowledge their role in the colony! Maybe they even get the list of how to be like a beaver at earth day, check the items off and turn it into us at the festival?

Hmm we’d have to add one of course. Teaching others what you know. Beavers do that all the time.

Some good beaver news for a change

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? July 11, 2015

Finally. A night and morning with no dead beavers. Mom, Dad, 2 year olds seen last night. And the dam’s been worked on. Thank heavens for a day of relative peace. In the meantime, there has been a lot of beaver news in the world that we’ve been neglecting in our grief. Let’s try and get caught up at least with the good stories!

Beaver problem solved with simple, innovative device

A family of beavers dammed up part of the retention basin in the Mount Healthy’s Heritage Park, property owned by Ohio Department of Transportion, causing the pond not to drain properly. So residents and ODOT teamed up to find a beaver expert with an innovative way to solve the problem.

Mount Healthy resident Karen Arnett says the beavers built the dam, but that dam also changed the ecosystem around the pond. Walkers in the park began seeing egrets and other new wildlife.

When the beavers were removed, some residents wanted to find a way to allow them to coexist.

So Arnett poked around and found Mike Callahan, a Massachusetts man who builds flow devices to manage beaver problems through his business, Beaver Solutions.

Callahan said while beavers are considered to be pests by some, scientists actually have proven that beavers are a “Keystone” species in North America. This means that beavers play a crucial role in biodiversity. Innumerable species rely either partly or entirely on beaver ponds, many of them threatened or endangered. “Therefore, whenever we can coexist with beavers, we are providing the habitat necessary for supporting many other species, and protecting the web of life upon which we depend,” he said.

ODOT brought Callahan in to show staff how flow devices could help them manage beaver problems. He was impressed by the invitation and eager to show them how it could be done.

“Is anyone aware of another state highway department that has committed to building and installing flow devices themselves?” Callahan asked. “Ohio wants to start doing flow devices themselves which I think is pretty cool.”

Callahan said the training session included a PowerPoint presentation tailored to ODOT needs, and a hands-on flow device installation where many ODOT staff participated.

Hurray for Mike and Karen! And hurray for ODOT. Ohio is the FIRST state in the country to be trained in flow devices. I never thought I’d see the day, but what do I know? Karen obviously pushed and tugged and wheedled in a powerful way that got the right results. That’s never easy to do. And Mike made sure the price was right for them to have a personal lesson. Thank you BOTH.

This is another story that brightened my eye during the dark days. I saved it for you.

An unlikely pairing

Back in the fall of 2014, when beavers first showed up in a ravine next to homes in the Bolton area, the question on everyone’s mind was how to deal with the creatures: Should they be driven away to avoid potential property damage, or accepted as a new and potentially beneficial addition to the neighborhood?

The answer was obvious to residents in the immediate vicinity of the beavers, and they eventually formed the group B.E.A.V., which stands for “Beaver Environmental Advocacy Volunteers.” In the months since the group was formed, B.E.A.V. members have helped educate residents on what it means to have beavers in a neighborhood — beyond the obvious tree-chomping problems — and hosted informational sessions with experts like Susan Barnes from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

This summer, their focus turned from education to concrete action. As it became clear that invasive plant species were creating problems for the beavers, the group decided that human intervention wouldn’t do the trick.

They needed goats.

“We assessed the health of the habitat in the ravine,” B.E.A.V. founder Peggy Watters said. “There’s a lot of invasive species down there, so our chance of being able to plant things for the beaver to keep him in the ravine was going to be difficult.

“Goats were a good alternative.”

And so it was that 34 goats arrived at the ravine between Holly and Sinclair Street June 29 for a week-long feast. The goats were rented from Yoder Goats, which in the past has provided similar services for West Linn’s Parks and Recreation Department.

“(The goats) take it all down, eat it and fertilize it while they eat it,” Watters said. “What efficient little munchers they are.”

Beyond providing a crucial service to the beaver habitat, the goats also proved to be a popular attraction around the neighborhood. B.E.A.V. hosted a special ceremony June 29 to mark the goats’ arrival, and volunteers helped create a path for the goats to follow from their trailer down into the ravine. Over the course of the next week, adults and children alike stopped by to visit with the goats and watch them “work.”

“It’s been fun to open all of our backyards and invite people back to hang out with the goats,” Watters said. “That whole community connection experience, it’s one of those experiences I think we’ve lost over the years. (The project) has been nice in many more ways than just clearing the ravine.”

Now that the goats have done their work, Watters said it will be up to B.E.A.V. members to take the next step.

“Our work isn’t done yet,” Watters said. “At our next meeting on July 13, we’ll be assessing how the goats did, and what do we do now?

Later this month, on July 18, B.E.A.V. is set to host a potluck gathering for neighbors who are interested in learning more about the beavers and their habitat.

How much do you love this story? And B.E.A.V.? I feel a great burst of affection for them and their ability to use wildlife to engage the community. And now they are holding a potluck? Apparently they can win the hearts of the politicians, the neighbors and the press! I can tell you right now why they were successful. Just let me know when they’re planning a beaver festival?

Speaking of the beaver festival, I just found out that we received a grant from the city for this summer’s event. Which means we have 3 civic financial sponsors this year. Take a moment to consider that, will you? Only 8 years after forcing them to do the right thing, Worth A Dam gets supported! This means our fullest ever support page.

Pass me a handkerchief, will you. This is so sudden.

The MacDuff’ing

heidi08 Environmental, kits, Who's Killing Beavers Now? July 10, 2015

All my pretty ones?

Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?

Macbeth IV: iii

There’s a scene at the end of Macbeth that has always bothered me. The rising hero and supposed good guy Macduff is visited by Ross who tells him that Scotland is in pretty dire straits, but not to worry about it too much and concentrate on the battle at hand. Macduff eventually gets him to admit he’s trying to avoid giving him bad news, and Ross blurts that back home his castle has been beseighed and his wife and children slaughtered.

Macduff is visibly shaken and repeats several times, “All? Did you say all?” Which is the part that always bothered me. Like his children were interchangeable and if one survived (any one – no one in particular) it would be okay. The girls or the boy might die but as long as ONE lives everything is alright. Because for him his children are like a bouquet, pretty and ornamental but no single flower matters more than any other.

But yesterday, I kind of started to understand.

Jon found a third kit dead around noon, this one had been dead a while. No signs of injury. Just floating near the new dam. We assume it was from whatever killed the others. UCD was slightly more interested that a third had died thought they might expedite the necropsy. I spoke to the city, county, Regional Water Board, and East Bay Regional Parks, but since no other animals or fish had died they felt it probably wasn’t the water. .

Last night the somber Worth A Dam members gathered watch. They saw Jr. and two 2 year olds and maybe Mom. No kits. But also no dead kit. One very important thing they saw was a muskrat, at the old dam. Very definitely. This is important because it means that we can probably assume it wasn’t a water-caused incident. Since muskrats are small like kits and most likely would have died too. Which means we should not be speculating about water but about disease…Moses said he’d keep watch last night and let Cheryl know if he saw anything, but since there’s no word this morning I’m guessing there was no dead kit last night either.

So not “All.” Not yet anyway.

I received this yesterday from Dr. Suilin at Edinburgh University I found it so comforting I thought we all should read it. Have a hankie at the ready; word to the wise.

Dear Heidi,

I just wanted to tell you that I was distraught when I logged into the blog this afternoon. And I wanted you to know that however this turns out, Worth a Dam and the Martinez beavers have done more than anyone to put beavers and their importance right back on the ecological agenda.

My one reassurance is that they are probably the most well-cared for and supported urban beavers, and that everything you and your team will do will be in their best interests.You have supporters worldwide with their fingers crossed for your beaver colony, and wishing them all the best.

-Suilin—

Dr. J. Suilin Lavelle

Lecturer, Philosophy

School of PPLS

Dugald Stewart Building

3 Charles St.

Edinburgh, EH8 9AD

www.philosophy.ed.ac.uk

www.suilinlavelle.co.uk

Thank you so much for your kind words. They warmed me in the coldest moment and made me feel like what we have done matters even if our ‘pretty ones’ didn’t make it.

In Beaver Wake

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, kits July 9, 2015

UPDATE: 10:30 – Napatopia’s fish and Wildlife spoke with the CDFW lab investgations unit who does want a necropsy but wants the experts at UCD to do it. She told me to get water samples with the creek. And they would cover costs. So Jean’s picking up the kit now, jon got samples and we’ll leave move things to UCD capable hands. More later.

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Nae man can tether time nor tide

Robert Burns

The critical tide that ravaged the beaver habitat last night in Alhambra Creek came with awful word that another kit was sick. This one was picked up in beaver park a little after five, where he climbed up staggering. An unknown kindly soul took the beaver to Lindsay which was standing by since we had gotten a tip earlier. The kit was so weak he was easily picked up and handled as you can see in the photos here from an onlooker’s cell phone.

This morning Lindsay will find out if Fish and Game wants a necropsy, which they would handle themselves, or if we need to bring it to UC Davis and pay for it. Jean has nobly offered to drive the sad miles and take care of it if she can. Last night we had an unexpected beaver wake at the water’s edge, Cheryl, Lory, Jon and myself watching to see what others survived. Moses came down for a while. We saw healthy two year olds and Junior, and maybe dad, but no sign of kits or mom. Meanwhile the tide covered the old dam, the bank, the walls, making our familiar pond seem suddely strange and menacing.

We were a somber group.

Later that night I thought of how happy we were to have four kits such a short time ago, and what a freakish blessing it had seemed. I thought of the distance we had traveled from giddy delight to grim realism to panic. And I thought of our lovely beavers and how much hope and joy they had given us over the years.

I have written everyone I can think of asking for help. Maybe you can think of some others.

Beavers, like tides, come and go

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, kits, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now? July 8, 2015

This is a much better headline than it is an article. A more accurate title would be “Doing nothing and complaining about it anyway”. Or maybe “Learning nothing and blaming others for your ignorance”.

5596a2e758003.image — **Stick-built Home**
(Photo by Clara MacCarald): A beaver lodge stands near where beaver activity has flooded the trail around Teeter Pond in the Finger Lakes National Forest.

Engineering A Balance Between Beavers And People

Sixteen years ago, when Cherie Ackerson and her wife moved out to their country home in Pompey, they were thrilled by the creek flowing through their new property. They found evidence of beaver activity, which struck them as interesting and wonderful. They built a wooden boardwalk along their creek to enjoy it better.

Then the beavers multiplied. Females can have one to nine pups and young stay with their parents for up to two years. The large rodents, which weigh 45 to 60 pounds, or even more, took out more saplings, enlarged nearby ponds, and changed the course of the creek. Eventually the boardwalk was affected by the changing water levels. “We had a plan and they had a plan,” said Ackerson.

Could your plan possibly be to look up information on the internet and learn that a flow device could control your water issues once and for all?

Wherever water enters an area, beavers can start damming it up, explained Matt Sacco, director of programs at Cayuga Nature Center. Valleys, small drainage creeks, wooded ponds – all these places, he said, have the potential for a colony. Sacco hears about flooding a lot. One farmer who called him had lost five acres of corn. Tree loss is another problem, either because the trees are desirable or because the trees cause damage or block roads when they come down.

In general, “The beaver population is pretty steady,” said Tiffany Toukatly, a fish and wildlife technician with the DEC. She didn’t know for sure because the population size in the region is not being tracked and the numbers of permits vary every year. The beaver has to be present and causing damage for a permit to be issued. Toukatly said sometimes people with recurring problems will try to call to get a permit before a new family moves in, or people will call when they see a beaver on their land even though there is no evidence of damage.

Last summer three adult beavers were trapped out of the pond, but young beavers were left behind. Even if managers wanted to, “we can’t trap them all out,” said Widowski. Where there is beaver habitat, there will be more beavers. Like other rodents, beaver populations can grow quickly, Sacco pointed out, and two-year old beavers who have left home are always on the lookout for vacant territory.

We like beavers so much we only kill the parents. How thoughtful. In case you couldn’t tell already, this article bugs me.

_______________________________________________________

And finally, a memorial for the kit that Cheryl found last night, dead on the shore. We retrieved it and were ready to bring it for necropsy but found it had been long dead, and would offer little information. Since we saw four on July 1st, and not since, its reasonable to assume it was the fourth. Although it could just has easily been a fifth that no one knew about. We will have to watch and see. And hope our other kits fair better. It has been so long since we had four, I had completely forgotten what its like to have one die. I remembered soon enough.

For comfort I offer this beautiful healthy kit footage from Robin Ellison of Tulocay kit in Napa.