Month: January 2016

Could this be the news beavers have been waiting for?

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now? January 16, 2016

Fish and Game upheaval reveals shift in California wildlife policy

The sudden resignation of the most adamant defender of hunting and fishing on the California Fish and Game Commission could put the finishing touches on a sweeping philosophical shift in the way the state views wildlife, sets rules for fishing and controls predators like mountain lions and wolves.

Commissioner Jim Kellogg retired in late December in frustration over what he termed a lack of consideration for the sportsmen and women he represents. The resignation — combined with the unrelated recent departures of commission President Jack Baylis and Sonke Mastrup, the commission’s executive director — sets the stage for Gov. Jerry Brown to appoint conservationists to the increasingly pivotal state board.

Such a move may, observers say, complete the transformation of the commission from an organization that advocates for fishing and hunting to one that safeguards endangered species, preserves habitat and protects California’s top predators from slaughter.

The five-member commission, whose job is to recommend policies to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, has been wading through divisive issues that could profoundly impact the future of the state, including what to do about diminishing salmon populations, sick sea lions and disappearing sea otters.

“I’m leaving pretty much out of frustration,” Kellogg said in an interview. He had been on the board for 14 years when he retired Dec. 31, the longest-serving member of the commission.

“I’m just tired of being the only one fighting the fight for the hunters and fishers,” he said. “The first 12 years I won most of the battles, and the last couple of years I lost almost every battle.”

Poor Mr. Kellogg. As he said, he used to win most arguments just by showing up. And now with all these darned conservationists at the table he actually has to TRY and use facts and stuff. No wonder he’s quitting.

Why aren’t “Sportsmen” better sports?

And before you say that I’m being unfair to a breakfast cereal, remember that we in Martinez have a very fond remembrance f0r the man. Way back in the day the beavers were first slated for killing, the mayor negotiated a special deal with Mr. Kellogg that would allow two of the six beavers to be relocated, and after a short quarantine period, re-homed on tribal hand in Plumas county. Of course the other 4 would have to be killed, but hey, the man threw us a bone!

(Well, you may remember that on November 7, 2007 Martinez emphatically decided not to be boned. They said pretty definitively they didn’t want to kill their beavers, or save a few. They wanted to keep them ALL. And the rest, as they say, is history.)

Now back to our story, apparently the renamed CDFG is going through an identity crisis. They even hired a black man [horrors!] for the first time in 145 years! Imagine the confusion changing their name caused in 2012. All I can say is that it couldn’t happen to a nicer bully.

But it was the resignation of Kellogg, who often teamed up with Sutton and Richards, that was viewed by many as the end of the line for the hunting and fishing coalition on the commission.

The changes on the commission are an illustration of a statewide phenomenon. Californians, more than ever, regard wildlife, including apex predators, as a valuable part of the ecosystem instead of as food or vermin.

Chuck Bonham, the director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, says he is committed to embracing science-based wildlife and ecosystem management while preserving the history and traditions associated with hunting and fishing.

Clearly, though, there has been a movement away from those traditions. The transformation became vivid in 2012 when then-Assemblyman Jared Huffman of San Rafael, who has since been elected to Congress, introduced a bill to change the name of the department that has managed fishing and hunting in California since 1872 from “Fish and Game” to “Fish and Wildlife.”

The bill passed in 2013 despite opposition from hunters, who saw it as a signal that game animals would soon be made off-limits. The commission itself, however, maintained the “Fish and Game” moniker despite lobbying by environmental groups to change the names of both the commission and the department it serves.

Hmm, I wonder who will replace Kellogg on that commission? I have some suggestions if you need any. In the meantime we should be cautiously optimistic that this, and the pressure to save salmon, will nudge something in the beaver’s favor. It’s a new world, baby. Where bobcat hunting is outlawed and people have to actually crack open those old ecology texts to figure out what words like “Apex predators” and “Keystone species” actually mean.

Given the week we all had, this song is perfect for the occasion.

Beasts of the Field – The Builders

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, History, Who's saving beavers now? January 15, 2016

Ooh Santa came an extra time this year, and lovingly scanned “The Builders” chapter for my reading pleasure. Turns out he needn’t have gone through the trouble because the entire book, including its charming illustrations in the margins, is online and searchable here.

The author was a minister in Connecticut in the last 1800’s who would journey every winter to the “Wilds of Maine” and report on his findings. His chapter on beavers is appropriately called “The Builders”.

Of course I’m interested in the subject, but I’m even more intrigued by any man who stops what he’s doing and actually watches beavers work over time. I love his descriptions of family members, dams selected, and especially work gone astray. Read this.

The notion that beavers make mistakes and LEARN from those mistakes is entirely supported by our observations in Martinez. We’ve seen badly executed dams become intelligent dams over time and over night. And it’s certainly true what they say, no one is born an expert.

I’m trying to give you enough of a feel for his observations that you’ll be tempted to go read them yourself, because its truly worth doing. I especially enjoyed his discussion of the opinions of lodge-building beaver vs bank-dwelling beaver. At the time, the native belief was that the bank dwelling beaver was lazy and driven out by his family for never doing any work. The white theory more charitably ascribed his oddities to the fact that he hadn’t yet found a mate, and was living like a bachelor. Mr. Long himself had a third theory, that bank burrowing beavers “lacked the normal instincts” of their kind and were examples of the exception proving the rule.

Of course we know they are all wrong. Because the Martinez Beavers DID twice build a lodge. And did three times raise a family without a lodge. And seemed to possess every other instinct a beaver might rightly claim. Dr. Duncan Haley of Norway believes beavers prefer to live in large rivers where dams and lodges can’t exist, and that only an increase in population drives them towards the smaller streams where they have to work for a living.

But I disagree. I think beavers make individual choices and as a rule do only as much work as they need to get by. If they can get by without a lodge, they will. And if they need to build one to keep their family safe, they can. What do you think? I think at the time he wrote this the fur trade had already altered the habits of the few remaining beavers. And he should have visited Martinez.

So with Robin’s valiant labor we have compiled complete records of beaver depredation between for 2013 and 2014. Seeing them in print doesn’t make me any happier. Let’s home 2015 records show some improvements.

Give us our dam rights already!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and Birds, Educational, Environmental January 14, 2016

Seems like some folks who lost their beavers want to keep their dam, and the city is raising a fuss about it. We read about this case back in 2012 when they were enjoying beavers and birds. Apparently back when the beavers were in residence they installed a flow device – as this is MA I’m assuming Mike Callahan did it. Now that the beavers are gone they removed the pipe and ripped out the fence, just like in Martinez.

Battle over beaver-built bog

The beavers are gone but their handiwork remains, remnants of a dam and the pond that formed behind it.

A lingering dispute remains, as well — opposition over the pond and changed state of the wetlands.

Jane Axelrod and Roy Dobbelaar, 8 Moreland, want the ponded wetlands to remain.

Over the past decade they have watched from their home and yard as nature has flourished with rising water levels, attracting waterfowl, wildlife and songbirds.

Others in the area of Great Heron Place, Orchard Street and Moreland Avenue, as well as the Conservation Commission want nature to run its course, without human hands hastening or slowing that course.

In December, the Conservation Commission director sent a letter to abutters in the neighborhood stating the pond had been dammed up recently, and not by beaver, and the Commission considers it an act of vandalism.

“A local beaver expert confirmed that the structure was not built by beavers, and is comprised of heavy boulders and gravel, not mud and sticks typical of beavers,” the letter states.

Yes, as we well know beavers NEVER build with rocks. And getting things ‘back to nature’ means hiring humans to rip out the dam, didn’t you realize? I’m not sure what will happen in this madness, but if they can drag this out a bit some new disperser might see the pond and settle in on his own. I’m sure starting with a dam is easier on the beaver!

Douglas said that typically, beaver will leave an area after their food source is depleted and, after they leave, the dam will disintegrate, water levels recede and the area reverts to its pre-beaver state until a new set of beaver move in and the cycle begins anew, he said.

Conservation Commission members were surprised that the beaver dam didn’t disintegrate naturally over number of years after the beaver departed since it typically takes six months to a year for a beaver dam to disintegrate.

It was the Commission’s opinion that the dam was artificially maintained by humans, the director said.

Meanwhile, Dobbelaar said he does not know about anyone damming up the waterway with boulders. He said the beavers built their dam along an existing stonewall on the land.

Reading this makes me realize Martinez should be grateful that no one is rebuilding the dam here. Where is my thankyou note from the mayor? I spent yesterday going over beaver footage for Middlechild Productions upcoming beaver documentary in the UK. Watching our beavers made me so jealous or my earlier self who got to see such things whenever I liked. I’m getting tired of not having any beavers lately, and dreamed the other night that there was an email in my mailbox with the header “Martinez beavers spotted in parking lot”. In the dream I doubted very much they were back OR in a parking lot, but I rushed downtown anyway to see for myself.

Sigh.

It’s not just for polar bears anymore.

heidi08 Beaver Chewing, Beavers and climate change, Beavers elsewhere, What's killing beavers now? January 13, 2016

Hmm. Phys.org might just have offered us an important clue about our beaver deaths. Not surprisingly the research comes from the University of Utah. Thanks BK for the lead!

Poison warmed over: Climate change may hurt animals’ ability to live on toxic plants

University of Utah lab experiments found that when temperatures get warmer, woodrats suffer a reduced ability to live on their normal diet of toxic creosote – suggesting that global warming may hurt plant-eating animals.

“This study adds to our understanding of how climate change may affect mammals, in that their ability to consume dietary toxins is impaired by warmer temperatures,” says biologist Denise Dearing, senior author of the research published online Jan. 13 in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

“This phenomenon will result in animals changing their diets and reducing the amount of plant material they eat, relocating to cooler habitats or going extinct in local areas,” says Dearing, a distinguished professor and chair of biology at the university.

The new study’s first author, biology doctoral student Patrice Kurnath, says: “We found that desert woodrats have a harder time eating their natural diet at slightly warmer temperatures. In terms of climate changes, this study suggests that plant-eating animals all over the world may have problems dealing with their preferred food sources.”

While not all animal diets are as toxic as those of woodrats and other rodents that eat plants like creosote bushes or juniper, most mammals eat some toxins in their diet. In an ongoing evolutionary battle, plants evolve chemical defenses against being eaten and animals evolve liver enzymes or other ways to overcome or avoid plant toxins.

Dearing notes that “over 40 percent of all existing mammals eat only plants” and many more eat some plants. “Most plants produce toxins, so the majority of plant-eating mammals eat toxic compounds, and this may become more difficult to deal with as the climate warms,” she adds. Birds also might be affected, she says.

Now just sit back in your chair and think about that for a moment. Most plants contain toxins that animals have adapted to be able to digest.In normal conditions their complex systems can take out the nutrients they need and get rid of the bad stuff. And it looks like higher temperatures make that harder for them to do.

Think about the bad stuff that might be in willow (that produces the compound for aspirin) or in cottonwood (that has been studied to release chemicals to discourage insect browsing) or in Coyote Bush, which has such an acrid small that sap on pets and horses that it has been known to cause skin rashes. Think about what beavers take on every day – and not just in Martinez. And the leaves they eat are so poor in nutrients that they have to eat A LOT of them.

You know this summer in the Bay Area was record breaking hot. I’m trying to find the stats for how hot – but the reports out of the National Climate Data center say that the closes reporting station said that in June, July and August we endured 63 days over 90 degrees and in Martinez, which is usually cooled by breezes off the strait we had 34 days at or over 90. When it comes down to it, beavers are probably more affected by water temperature than air temperature, but obviously they’re related.

We aren’t the only ones who had mysterious die-offs. Think about that sick kit at Mountain View Sanitation, or the unexplained deaths of beaver in Oregon and Washington this summer. What if climate change is partly responsible for their deaths? I truly hope that’s not the case, because it’s not going to get better any time soon.

But beavers are pretty adaptable. If they can deal with nuclear fallout at Chernobyl, they can probably find a way to manage more toxins in their diet. Hmm I’m going to be thinking about this for quite a while I can see.

The quality of Merced is not strained

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, What's killing beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? January 12, 2016

Both the city and county of Merced has a fairly lethal history with beavers. In our last review of depredation permits they were among the highest tally – even though they are listed as having 0 square miles of water. Apparently old habits die hard.

Merced’s beavers – nuisance or benefit?

Many travelers of the bike paths that run along Merced’s creeks may not be aware of the vibrant ecosystem at their feet, but experts say it’s there.

Aaron Pulver, 54, of Merced said he mostly never thought about the critters that call Black Rascal Creek home until the day he noticed what was clearly a tree that had been gnawed at by beavers. Now, to hear him explain it, he’s got “beaver fever.”

Pulver said he’s never actually seen any beavers in the creek – the mostly nocturnal rodents steer clear of humans during the day. But, now that he’s aware of their presence, he can’t help but see the teeth marks on trees and the dams that stop water from rushing through the creek.

“I’m worried about the flooding,” he said.

Cynthia Pulver, his sister, said she’s worried about loss of trees on the bank. One larger tree, which may have been growing for a couple of decades, fell sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning. The tree had clearly been chewed up by one or more beavers.

“I’m more concerned with the aesthetics of the creek and the health of the trees,” the 55-year-old said.

The dams are also habitats for other wildlife. In fact, a couple of scientists at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in Sonoma County started a campaign called Bring Back the Beaver.

The campaign argues that beavers are a “keystone species” that not only helps other animals, but are beneficial to a thirsty California. Their dams help water to seep into underground aquifers, according to beaver advocates.

Hooray for Brock and Kate! And hooray for even discussing the benefits of beaver in an area that’s ground level is actually receeding because of the shrinking aquifer.
But I’m not holding my breath on the outcome. There’s a lot of resistance to beavers in the area, not the least of which is discussed in this article. Check out the outraged letter to the editor a few days later.

Joe Brucia: District’s beaver control effort: A fantasy!

Re “Beavers are nuisance and benefit” (Page 1A, Jan. 7): It is time for the city, county and Merced Irrigation District to develop a written policy on preventing beaver damage along Black Rascal Creek. It is a safety issue for those who enjoy the area. Regardless of our local agency’s assurances, here are the facts:

▪ Black Rascal Creek flowing through the city (and portions of the county) is actually a canal. The real creek is diverted into Bear Creek, just east of Kibby Road at Fairfield Canal.

▪ Water flows into the city portion of the creek through irrigation pipes during the summer and from street drainage in winter.

▪ Entrances to culverts along the creek are often dammed by beavers.

▪ Large beaver dams create ponds of stagnant water each spring and, if there was no significant irrigation season, into the summer.

▪ High water from beaver ponds causes erosion damage to creek banks.

▪ Trees partially chewed are a hazard to walkers and especially to kids playing in the area.

▪ For flood control, the city removes a dam or clears a culvert. However, the beaver remains to rebuild.

▪ Within city limits, beavers are not beneficial to Black Rascal Creek.

▪ In the city, responsibility for beaver control is not clearly communicated.

▪ The city, county, MID and MCAG have not provided the public with any written information on their procedures or policies related to dam or beaver damage.

Let’s hope that our local governments can work together to devise a plan, communicated to the public, to solve the problem. It would be appropriate to request public input.

Joe Brucia, Merced

Nicely defended Joe. Obviously no time was wasted before sitting down at the computer to defend your freedom from beavers. I tried to look him up and found that ten of his letters have been published fairly recently, including one that says lawns shouldn’t be allowed between the sidewalk and the street – because of the drought. And if we’re wondering how reasonable Joe is we have to ask ourselves, “who would take the time to write a letter about meridian strips?” (And before you answer YOU, remember I have a fairly narrow focus these days.)

So Joe’s that guy why rambles at every council meeting whether he cares about the issue or not and once in a great while makes sense. We can discard that letter, but you should really read the comments after it. One of them is just brilliant!