Month: June 2016

Global beaver update

heidi08 Beavers June 5, 2016

Thanks to our roving reporter Lory Bruno who boldly braved the blasting heat and the drenching puns to attend the beaver queen pageant in Durham North Carolina yesterday. You can see there is little service she won’t perform for beavers. I would tell you all about it, but I’m very cheap and they require a fee to read the article. If you’re dying to know who won, look here:

VACUOUS VARMINTS: Ellerbe Creek banks on Beaver Queen camp

Of course they started the day with this golden oldie. I can’t tell whether Lory and her granddaughter are joining in the song, can you?

Meanwhile plenty of beaver stupid remains in the world, even if they know how to throw a party for them in Durham. Let’s start with dear, impaired Minnesota with the disabled fish, shall we?

For the love of trout

An effort to revive interest in trout fishing as well as the resource itself continues in Borderland.

Staff from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources fisheries staff, with assistance from Julian Malinowski and former state Sen. Bob Lessard, stocked 700 brook trout in the Lost River, north of Orr, May 24. The fish came from a hatchery in Iron River, Wis., and are a bit smaller than the fish normally stocked.

Broznowski said the trees planted are white spruce, which will offer shelter and shade for the river and trout. The trout require cool water, which can be created by the shade. And, he noted, beaver do not favor white spruce, so the new trees won’t end up damming the river.

Broznowski said beaver control at the river will be needed forever. Without that control, beavers will again dam the river and flood the area, causing the water to warm and, as a result, the trout to die.

Ahh, I guess the words ‘hyporheic exchange’ mean nothing to you, do they? Maybe all the creek channels are concrete so it doesn’t matter anyway? It’s nice to know in this topsy turvy world were things are true one day and false the next, there are still some things you can count on. Like beaver ignorance in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

And beaver exaggeration by politicians.

Beavers cause €750K worth of damages in Austrian town

They may look cute and fluffy but a group of beavers have been driving one Austrian mayor mad after allegedly causing €750,000 worth of damage in his town.

But the beaver programme had not been without its difficulties as the protected animals can come into conflict with farmers by damaging their fields or with local authorities by obstructing water flows.

The problem became so bad the government even set up a “beaver management” programme last year to mediate between those affected and the conservation authorities.

Since it started in April 2015 the beaver “managers” have resolved 35 conflicts in 29 municipalities in the country.

The mayor of the small town of Zurndorf in Burgenland Werner Friedl says, however, that there has been no solution so far to the beaver problems in his town, which he says have caused damage to the tune of €750,000 by interfering with flood controls and water flows.

“The beavers have a paradise here. There are 200 animals for sure,” he said in an interview with the Kurier newspaper.

Friedl added that he is not hostile to beavers and does not support the idea of a cull but hopes that the conservation department “wakes up from their winter sleep”.

The small town of Zurndorf, which has the misfortune of sounding like a Marx brothers insult, is about 21 square miles and boasts a population of 2500. Near as I can tell its major area for beaver is the Leitha river at its east border. The river feeds the Danube and is the site of a famous battle in 1246 between Austria and Hungary. Now do I think this river has a population of 200 beavers? Not a chance. Do I think the mayor of this town is trying to weasel funds for roads or infrastructure by blaming beavers? Very likely.

Well, before we despair on our European cousins entirely, here’s a lovely image from our good friend Peter Smith in Kent. He was inspired by the witty Welsh vanadlism that is currently sweeping the nation by storm. Can we get a fleet of these please?

East side West side, all around the town

heidi08 Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Urban beavers, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? June 4, 2016

It’s election season, and amidst all the dramatic vote-wooing, winning and stealing, one contest stands out as a true gripping question for the American people.

Mendon residents to vote on beaver trapping, killing

MENDON – Residents at Special Town Meeting this month will vote on whether to approve trapping and killing of beavers on Lake Nipmuc to reduce high water levels.

The proposed article would allocate $1,500 from land bank money to pay a licensed professional to trap beavers which are building a dam which is causing Lake Nipmuc to rise and flood the yards of waterfront homes.

“A beaver dam seems to be the culprit,” said Land Use Committee Chairwoman Anne Mazar.Parks and Recreation Director Dan Byer said that rising water may also be eroding the town beach.

Mazar said she does not know if residents are widely aware of the problem and does not know if the Town Meeting article will have any opposition.

“That’s one reason it’s good that it’s going to Town Meeting so people can talk about it,” she said.

The article goes on to say they ruled out the use of a flow device because it requires an ‘an elevation drop to work’. Does that make some kind of sense that I’m not getting? For the life of me I can’t imagine why any beaver in the world would build a dam WITHOUT an elevation drop? I mean if its not holding back more water than there is on the other side what’s the point? Anyway, I wrote Ms. Mazar today and contacted Mike Callahan, who’s a whopping 70 miles away, and we’ll see what happens. I’m hopeful she’s interested in alternatives because the article quotes her as saying,

“Mazar said she wishes another option existed because beavers are “really important in the environment.”

Mean while PRI covered the story of the newly famous urban beavers at the Olympic village in Vancouver. It’s a nice report and you should listen it. The article has some of the best ‘urban beaver’ photos around. I give it 9.9 from the German judge.

Vancouver’s former Olympic Village is now home to urban beavers

“The saviors we kill”

heidi08 Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere June 3, 2016

Thanks to Donna Debreuil of the Ottawa Carlton Wildlife Centre for sending this my way. In case you haven’t followed the monstrous fire in Alberta, I will just direct you here and remind you that it burned some 2500 homes, evacuated tens of thousands and is the most costly disaster the country has ever faced. Parts of it are still burning a month later. I’m just going to reprint this article in its entirety because it is so much better than anything I could add. How did I ever miss it?

The Beast that Burns; the Saviors We Kill

Published 05/19/16
Beaver© U.S. Department of Agriculture

May 19, 2016. Last night, The Beast was headed toward the border, with about three miles to go.

“The Beast” is the name of the giant wildfire that erupted in northern Alberta and, growing as I type, has now consumed some 423,000 hectares (1,633 square miles) of boreal forest. It has forced the evacuation of nearly 90,000 people. We’re seeing massive destruction of infrastructure and the deaths of uncounted thousands of wild animals, toxifying the air and defying Herculean efforts to bring it under control.

And it is, tragically, only one of hundreds of fires raging in forests throughout so much of the continent, their numbers increasing as global climate change results in an ever warmer climate—drier in some places and wetter in others, but heating up the planet more rapidly than even the most pessimistic research indicated.

What is of great value, what is needed in our woods and forests, is water: reservoirs of water, high water tables, ponds, and impoundments.

But, we are not a rational species. If we were, we’d listen to scientists like Glynnis Hood and Suzanne Bayley, whose published research* (and that of other scientists and studies) shows us that there is a hedge against the drying effects of global climate change and its ability to trigger massive, deadly fires…

And, that is the beaver!

When beaver fur was widely used by the fur industry, populations of the species were supressed by trapping. With decline in fur values, beavers are repopulating. This can cause problems, as when, building dams, beavers block culverts, cause flooding, or even chew down valuable trees. Most such conflicts can be easily resolved without harming the beavers: valuable allies in protecting the environment.

So, what did the province of Saskatchewan do? It allowed a “beaver derby”: a 40-day contest in which 601 beavers were killed (out of an annual, province-wide kill of about 38,000). It is Saskatchewan’s border that The Beast was approaching last night.

The argument was made that these were beavers who would have otherwise been killed and wasted, and that many carcasses are left to rot. I don’t doubt that, but this is the 21st Century and it’s past time for us to stop demonizing wildlife and start learning to co-exist.

The work by Hood and Bayley, in 2008, showed that the beaver was the single most important factor in the amount of open water in the very place where it is most needed—the place where the hot Beast prowls, burning its way through our staggering wall of willful ignorance, illuminating our base, self-destructive ways.

There have always been beavers, fires, and forests. What’s new is our levels of technology, connected to unbearable hubris, as we impose our collective madness onto a world increasingly under siege (ironically, a world that is also increasingly losing its ability to support us and our demands upon it).

As we look into the glowing eye of The Beast, it is our reflection that stares back.

Keep wildlife in the wild,
Barry Kent Mackay

_______

Hood, G. A., & Bayley, S. E. (2008). Beaver (Castor canadensis) mitigate the effects of climate on the area of open water in boreal wetlands in western Canada. Biological Conservation, doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2007.12.003.

Fortune Favors the Beaver

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, 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, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? June 2, 2016

Yesterday was a day of gifts. Early in the day Julian Fraser posted this photo from States Coffee downtown, and asked if I had something to do with it. I replied that I was innocent of contribution, but sure wanted to ask for one to be donated to the silent auction at the Beaver Festival. He took it upon himself to ask the manager Julian Gomez who thought it was a wonderful idea but needed to check with his boss. A few hours later I got a call to pick up one of these:

Hooohooo hooo! Apparently they’re nearly sold out so you may want to bid on it in person in August. Thanks Julian and Justin! And thank you States Coffee for coalescing the community just like the beavers did before you! Later in the day the mail contained this special donation signed by the author.

When I wrote to thank him, he warmly responded this;

i love what you are doing and am happy to help!

John Muir Laws

As if this all these rewards weren’t heady enough, at the end of the day I received notice of this article about Louise Ramsay.

Beavers are helping to restore the biodiversity to the Perthshire countryside

It is an immensely beneficial animal, restoring biodiversity to the countryside, and where it builds dams in riparian forest, slowing the flow of water in a way that may contribute to the moderation or prevention of flooding downstream, as well as holding water in times of drought – that in the highly managed farmland of the low-ground the beaver can be challenging.

Beavers are also not good garden animals.

For example, if your garden is next to a stream or pond inhabited by beavers you may prefer to wrap any trees you want to protect with wire mesh before a beaver comes and chews them.

But, on the plus side, the branches in the water create a microhabitat which is a playground for small fish, giving them somewhere to hide from predators. The lying trunk of the dead tree will become home to many fungi and invertebrates and a crossing point for red squirrels.

On low-ground farms beavers may present problems if they build dams in ditches (and water backs up into valuable arable fields), or burrow into flood banks and weaken them.

Luckily there are solutions to these problems. Various devices such as pond levellers and beaver deceivers have been developed in North America and used with considerable success. Electric fencing can be used in suitable situations.

The good news is that one or two local people in this area are now learning how to apply the best of American beaver mitigation to our farmland – and all they need now is some farmers to try it out.

The wider environment wins because it gets more wildlife habitat, and if there is any agricultural run-off coming from the fields then much of it will be stripped out by the dams and wetlands, purifying the water that goes into the river and ultimately the sea, preserving more aquatic wildlife.

Ahh Louise! If only there were a primary election coming up for you as beaver president! This is a fantastic article that carefully lays out my two favorite beaver talking points: how and why! I have found that both are ESSENTIAL in changing minds. Thank you for making our case so clear and talking frankly about problems and solutions. Scotland beavers are lucky to have you, as are we all!

Learning Curve

heidi08 Beavers June 1, 2016

Side benefit of commissioning beaver murals: Beaver GOSSIP! I learned two things yesterday from Mario that made me very happy indeed. The first was a story about when the mayor visited to see how it was coming along. Apparently after praising the artwork he asked him to emphasize the pipe and filter more because (and I’m paraphrasing)

“We want people to know that if they ever cause a problem again we have the tools to fix it!”

No, really. Be still my heart.

This overjoys me because I’ve always been secretly worried that we never obtained a formal promise to try and coexist with ALL beavers in Alhambra Creek. The unpublished permission slip could have been interpreted as just for those famous beavers once upon a time, and when new beavers returned the mayor would say we need to trap them – unless we mobilized a massive public response again, which would not be possible for beavers that are hard to see probably. But, silly silly me, I worried for nothing apparently, because the mayor is already planning what we can do if we need to control dam height.

I never thought I’d say this, but:

Yesterday Mario signed his mural and sealed the surface for posterity. We noticed a new brighter filter afterwards, which I wish wasn’t a square (because that’s a different design that usually fails), but okay let’s call it a hypothetical flow device, and leave it at that! At least we can point to it if anyone needs a reminder of what to do.

He also included his infamous little beaver tail on his signature. Which leads me to the other HILARIOUS piece of gossip I got yesterday. Apparently Dave Scola asked Mario what I had PAID HIM for that illicit beaver that had appeared in the other mural. You know, the one they made Mario paint over eventually. Apparently Dave could NOT believe it when Mario said he didn’t even know me then. And had added it all himself.

As if I had nothing better to do with my time and money than sit around bribing muralists and officials! As if beavers were important to no one else in Martinez but me! What a mischievous woman I am in Dave’s mind. That’s very useful to know. You know, not to be accused of shop talk, but it occurs to me there’s a psychological term for blaming someone for doing what you yourself regularly have done but never admit.

PROJECTION! (Or in layman’s terms, “He who smelt it, dealt it!”)

Our new little dam ain’t looking so ‘little’ anymore. Jon and I were down before 5 this morning to see our sneaky beavers. We saw lots of ripples as they paddled back and forth between their bank lodge and their breakfast, but they decided not to show us their furry faces. How Rude!

At least we were treated to some very amusing bird calls with the approaching dawn. Check out the vocal range of this very productive Mockingbird. Turn your sound up to enjoy. I hear sparrow, bush tit, scrub jay and car alarm. But that’s just for starters…