Nature in the City Again

Here at beaver central I’ve been getting ready now for my upcoming presentation at Safari West on Mother’s Day. It’s usually a crowded, family bustle with coughing and crying and plenty of aaawww so I’m trying to make my talk less educational and more inclusive this year. My theme is that you don’t have to go to Africa to see Nature. It’s right in your own backyard, schoolyard, or city. In fact the nature all around you might be the nature that needs your help the most!

Here’s a fun clip I’ll be starting with before I talk about how Martinez helped the beavers.

I think the blossoming interest in urban wildlife is part of a much larger trend, daylighting creeks, replanting natives, and helping green cities. It makes good sense since it’s where we’re all going to spend most of our time. Just look at this great article from Vancouver.

5 ways Vancouver is bringing more wildlife back to the city

The Vancouver Park Board biodiversity strategy is starting to take root, one year after the wide-ranging plan was approved to bring wildlife back to the city.

“There’s a social aspect to nature in the city — people want to be able to experience it as part of their daily lives,” said Nick Page, a biologist with the park board.

1. Salt marsh restoration in New Brighton Park

Vancouver has drastically altered its shoreline to make more space for industry and housing. But in New Brighton Park on Burrard Inlet, Port Metro Vancouver and the park board are working to remove fill that was placed there in the 1960s and restore a tidal salt marsh. The aim is to restore a habitat that once supported clam beds, juvenile salmon and shore birds.

4. Create wildlife corridors

To thrive, wildlife needs to be able to move around the city, Page said. So finding ways to make corridors through the city — like the still-under-design Arbutus Greenway — is also an important part of the strategy.

5. Return of the wild

One way to measure the success of biodiversity efforts is when animals come back to areas they left decades ago. Beavers are a common sight in Stanley Park — but recently they returned to Charleson Park in south False Creek. Page would like to see the return of smaller predators such as the American marten because that would signal the ecosystem is healthy enough to support the full food chain. He acknowledges humans and animals can come into conflict in the city. But “I think we can co-exist. Our alternatives are much more difficult and probably unsuccessful in terms of trying to manage or remove [animals].”

Vancouver is doing an excellent job thanks in part to this man who can definitely see the forest for the trees. Nick Park is exactly the kind of biologist we all want working in our cities, and we’re thrilled that he is a positive force for beavers in the region.

We should be working with biologists like Mr. Park to teach us to value what is right in front of us. Whether it’s baby ducks OR beavers. Say it with me now:
“Because, in the end we will conserve only what we love;
we will love only what we understand;
and we will understand only what we are taught.”
(Baba Dioum, 1968.)

North American Beaver Castor canadensis Children watching beaver in urban environment Martinez, CA *Model release available - #Martinezbeavers_3 — North American Beaver
Castor canadensis
Children watching beaver in urban environment
Martinez, CA
*Model release available – #Martinezbeavers_3

The good, the kinda good and the ugly

heidi08 Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, stupid solutions, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? April 24, 2017

There is a lot of beaver news to catch up on this morning. I got behind on earthday and let our usual beaver-ticker slide. It’s monday and I think we should start with the good news and grim our way down the ladder from there, okay? (And yes I know that ‘grim’ isn’t a verb, but it just seems right today.)

Long time readers of this website might remember that a while ago Washington passed a ‘beaver bill’ that allowed them to relocate problem beavers in the Eastern (driest) part of the state. (Our beaver friends Joe Cannon and Amanda Parish of the Lands Council worked on that.) It was a pretty big deal at the time and was a struggle to pass. Well, on Thursday the governor signed into law a change stating that beavers could be relocated in WESTERN Washington as well.

This is Chompski, a beaver relocated in Bodie Creek outside Wauconda, Washington in 2012. (Chandra Hutsel / Courtesy of state Rep. Joel Kretz)

Western Washington can have relocated beavers

Western Washington beavers who are trapped by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife can be relocated to a more opportune location west of the Cascades, a bill signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee Thursday says.

The department has had a program to relocate nuisance beavers it traps in Eastern Washington for several years, with the restriction that they can’t be shipped over the mountains to the “wet side” of the state. The program started when Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, thought some of the toothy rodents that the department was already trapping might be sent to land owners that were trying to improve their water tables by impounding creeks or streams.

This year, some Western Washington landowners decided they wanted to try it, too. The original bill took Kretz several tries to make it through the Legislature. This bill passed the House 98-0, and the Senate 45-1.

It was 2012 when the Eastern law finally passed – years after it had been promoted and voted down many times. In fact in 2005 a bill allowing it was vetoed by the governor of the state. What a difference 12 years makes, eh? I guess the state is finally recognizing the good things that beavers do for fish, water and wildlife. Now they just need to learn to leave the beavers where they are and change the people instead – making them use the tools that will let them to coexist.

Another dozen years maybe?

Meanwhile in Canada the “Beaver Whisperer” is teaching folks how to manage beaver conflicts using a ‘baffler’. Mostly good news, although we’re not thrilled by his protege’s statement that beavers damage water quality.

Learn how to manage beavers on your property from the ‘Beaver Whisperer’

Learn how to manage beavers and create a peaceful co-existence on May 11 at the Beaver Management Workshop, hosted by the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority (NBMCA) and Friends of Laurier Woods.

**NBMCA staff install a beaver pond leveller known as a “beaver baffle” summer 2015 at Laurier Woods Conservation Area**.

“Beavers can be a benefit and a bur

den,” explains Troy Storms, NBMCA’s Supervisor, Field Operations.

“They help maintain important wetland ecosystems. They create habitat for themselves, as well as several other species. But they can damage vegetation, farmland, municipal infrastructure and water quality,” he added.

This workshop includes a morning presentation by “beaver whisperer” Michel Leclair, followed by an afternoon field trip to Laurier Woods Conservation Area to see a “beaver baffle” in action.

Two steps forward one step back. I’m pretty sure that even if beavers are important to other species damaging water quality is kind of deal-breaker. That’s what we call very bad advertising. I’m sure he’s referring to the bogus concern that they cause ‘beaver fever’ which we all know MUST be true because it rhymes. I wish someone was on hand to talk about how much they IMPROVE water quality or how their dams act as a filter to remove toxins and nitrates from the water.

Is it too much to ask?

Finally a very ugly story from North Carolina where they believe they proudly have discovered that beaver dams can be destroyed with a machete.

Busting beaver dams solves flooding problem near Linden

LINDEN — Flooding across from a neighborhood near Lake Teresa has greatly diminished after members of the community and other helpers tore down beaver dams nearby. Bob Hathcock, who lives on Canal Street, said the swamp that had formed in a wooded area between the street and a field off Lane Road near Linden has gone down.

“I’d say it’s down two feet and still draining,” he said.

He described the work as a community effort that involved four neighborhood residents and three people who live elsewhere. “We got out there with axes, shovels and machetes, and started busting things up,” he said. “The people kind of enjoyed it.”

Hathcock said the destruction of three dams, including one that was about 200 feet wide, did not reduce the swamp near the neighborhood. When a fourth was tore down, the water started receding. It went down even more after a fifth dam was removed.

“Everything is flowing out now,” he said. “We are so relieved.” Hathcock said eight beavers have been trapped. Some weighed more than 50 pounds each, he said.

“We’ve still got traps out there,” he said. One person managed to catch a beaver the day after he put out a trap, Hathcock said. “He was like a kid at Christmas trapping that beaver,” he said.

Hathcock said several companies offered to deal with the problem, but were going to charge up to thousands of dollars. The USDA charged the residents $25, he said.

How much do I hate this article? Let me count the ways.

So Jimbob and Billybud got all their axes and pitchforks and ripped out 5 (five!) beaver dams to make the water flow again. (Just because he lives on Canal street, Bob never expected there to be WATER on it.) Remember that this is a state we gave countless FEMA dollars in drought relief a couple years ago, but never mind, because who needs to save water anyway? Now it’s free like aMurica! Never mind the dying fish, frogs or the wood duck hatchlings whose nests are now too far from the water to make the jump safely. What matters is that 8 beavers are dead, the folk had fun destroying their wetlans and someone celebrated Christmas early.

I am curious though, if folks ripped out the dams and trapped the beavers themselves, what exactly the USDA was charging 25 dollars for?

A glorious day

heidi08 Beavers, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Earth Day, Educational, Environmental April 23, 2017

Yesterday was an extravaganza of beaver support from a huge Earth Day event at the John Muir House. The activity of creating a ‘Martinez Loves beavers’ locket was so popular that we ran out of our 150 supplies by 11 and had to restock by sending Jon home to get backups which we nearly ran out of all over again. The beaver anniversary card was hugely popular and literally signed by hundreds and hundreds of people. Including two city council members.

Our volunteers were hardworking, cheerful and thank goodness had the stamina to keep up with demand. Champion Leslie Mills maintained her inviting cheerfulness long after the rest of us were worn out and ready to pack up the day. As always, Cheryl’s great photos recorded glory perfectly.

Our beaver as Ecosystem posted was a big hit, John Muir and the park superintendent wore their locket all day, April an Alana did beaver puppet shows in addition to drawing some amazing beaver art, and someone told me that they had learned all about beavers from reading friend Rob Rich’s article in the Earth Island magazine!

I talked to a woman who had attended my talk in Portland, children who knew more about beavers than I did when they moved into Martinez, a teacher who worked was the colleague of the mother of the artist doing our art project this summer, and someone who reported seeing a beaver in San Ramon creek! I thought you would appreciate seeing some photos of the wonderful, jubilant, exhausting day.

I was planning to share the cool beaver pendants we were donated for the silent auction, but good lord I’m still tired an that’s enough good news for one day. Mean while Brock Dolman and Kate Lundquist of the OAEC were marching for science!

John Muir and Beavers Need You!

heidi08 Beavers April 22, 2017

No neck is complete without one. You’d better come by today and make your own.
An what’s better on earth day than one spring beaver swimming for past our photographer in Napa? Two spring beavers, of course.

two spring beavers — Rusty Cohn: Napa beavers 2017

You know if it weren’t for beavers, we’d all be at the science march, right? But duty calls!

Beaver Prophet

heidi08 Beavers April 21, 2017

spring beaver 17 — First beaver photo of spring Rusty Cohn, Napa CA

Just in time for earth day spring has SPRUNG. Rusty saw beavers at the pond last night, the rose bushes are exploding, baby birds are cropping up at the feeder, and it’s going to be warm enough for a back porch barbecue tonight. Here’s an NPR story about the cacophony of life at a beaver pond which you should listen to.

Sounds of spring in a beaver pond wetland

(It always makes me smile to think of the parallel recording you’d hear at OUR beaver pond: train whistle, car horn, Robert swearing about the latest threats from the government, maybe a crack deal or two. Ahh nature!)

Lord knows, I have seen ENOUGH of this story showing up in my mailbox sent by well-meaning friends who saw it on their Tee-Vee news, but this report was special and it made me truly LOL this morning. They didn’t have the graphic obviously but I couldn’t resist.

On April 14, Saskatchewan experienced a Passover miracle.

Heading out to check on their herd of cattle, ranchers Adrienne and Aaron Ivey saw something nearly as odd as locusts falling from the sky, and much more welcome: A beaver leading 150 of their heifers in a docile march across their property.

Why was this beaver different from all other beavers? Perhaps it was remarkable for being the first beaver the cattle had seen. Perhaps the heifers were in fact merely patriotic, expressing their fervor by loyally pursuing their country’s national symbol.

Or, perhaps, there was a touch of the divine to the humble, large-toothed, paddle-tailed water mammal. Like Moses leading the Israelites from Egypt, maybe it was leading the cattle to — well, wherever, really — shuffling boldly forward even when it appeared it couldn’t possibly succeed in its task.

And may Moses-Beaver, hero of our hearts, shuffle on.

Tomorrow is the Earthday celebration at John Muir’s Birthday party. Everything is ready and packed for the festivities and we have the very best spot by the creek again. We will be celebrating the beaver’s 10th anniversary in the city by making lockets with the children and having everyone sign their big anniversary card. It should be fun. Why not stop by and say ‘hi!’ And if you lend a hand we’ll give you homemade falafel and a hummus wrap sandwich!