Month: April 2017

A day of rest

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers April 9, 2017

Yesterday was BUSY as a you know what. It truly felt like beaver central around here. I heard from the author of the Salt Lake Tribune story that Joe Wheaton had testified before his trip to Europe already. He wanted information about flow devices and who installed ours. I spent the afternoon writing a letter to the court for the Draper wetland and ended the day with a phone call from Kelly McAdams himself.

We talked about how crazy busy things were right now for him (ahh memories!), how the media is beating down his door, and how to use that momentum for it’s advantage. They mayor was originally in his camp but recently waffled into opposition. In fact most of the officials privately offer their support but won’t disagree publicly with Flood Control. Sierra Club won’t return his calls. The McAdams are planning a field trip to show the public the wetlands and let them see how special it is. I suggested adding some children’s groups and having them draw the wildlife they saw. (Because we all know how effective that is). Maybe a ‘library night’ to teach about beavers and the wetlands they maintain. I also suggested making friends with the local Audubon and Ducks Unlimited and making sure they understood how important beaver habitat was to their interests. Mitch the famed attorney who represented the friends of Lake Skinner case sent some ideas about arguing “Inverse Condemnation“

since the debris allegedly constituting the violation is naturally occurring and has produced a beneficial effect for the property, removal would be detrimental and reduce the value of the property.

which I made sure Kelly knew about so his probono attorney could connect with Mitch if he wanted to. There are no new stories this morning, so I’m sure the couple is having a well-deserved restful day.

And me too.

Right after I finish a short interview with San Francisco State student Sarahbeth Maney who is doing her third year photojournalism project on Martinez residents with a passionate interest (ha!) and contacted me after the times article.

I heard from author Susan Wood this week with answers about her Skydiving Beaver book, so I thought today was a perfect time to share them.

How did you hear about this story and what got you interested in it?

One day my tween daughter casually mentioned that after World War II, leftover parachutes were used to airdrop beavers into the wilderness, that she’d seen it on TV. I didn’t think that could possibly be true, that maybe she’d misunderstood what she’d seen. But she insisted that it really happened. So I Googled it—and was totally blown away (no pun intended). Skydiving beavers was really a thing! More research ensued, and when I learned about Geronimo, the beaver used to test prototypes of the self-opening parachute box—that he seemed to actually enjoy the skydives—I just knew this would make a great children’s book. Fortunately, Sleeping Bear Press, which publishes many nature-related children’s titles, thought so too. Beavers are such amazing animals, and I’m excited to help make people more aware of them!

Your book does a nice job of introducing us to Elmo Heter, did you get to meet him? Is he still living?

Unfortunately, Elmo Heter, the Idaho Fish and Game warden who dreamed up this unusual wildlife-relocation idea in 1948, died in 1967. But the book’s illustrator, Gisbert “Nick” van Frankenhuyzen, was in touch with Elmo’s son, and also with Idaho Fish and Game’s historian, to get all the details he could. Elmo was only with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game for a few years; in 1952 he moved to Alaska, where he taught arctic survival skills at Ladd Air Force Base.

I was surprised to see Martinez in the author’s notes section. How did you hear about our story?

As I was researching Elmo’s tale, I discovered he’d actually penned an article about it in a 1950 issue of The Journal of Wildlife Management. For a nonfiction writer, a primary source like that is gold! I Googled around looking for the article, and there it was, on your website. Then I read about the Martinez beavers and thought it was great information to include in the book, how people have now learned to work with beaver populations—for the benefit of the wildlife, the environment, and the community. No more airdrops, as inventive as the idea was at the time. You kindly allowed me to share on www.SkydivingBeavers.com some of your links for educators’ resources, and I’m most grateful. There are articles, activities, and recently discovered film footage of the 1948 beaver airdrop at the book’s site, as well.

I appreciated the illustrations. Had you worked with the illustrator before?

No, I wasn’t familiar with Nick’s work. But when the editor at Sleeping Bear sent me one of the other (of so many!) books he’s illustrated, The Legend of the Beaver’s Tail, it was obvious he was perfect for this project with his prior beaver-painting experience! Nick is known for his wildlife artwork. And he walks the walk—he and his wife took forty acres of Michigan farmland and turned it into a wildlife habitat. You can check it out at www.hazelridgefarm.com. Nick’s also a naturalist with an active school-visit program, teaching kids about wildlife and conservation. He traveled to most of the locations in The Skydiving Beavers—his paintings of the Idaho landscape and animals are just gorgeous.

“Beavers are the cure we don’t want to take.”

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and Birds, 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, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? April 8, 2017

You’ve heard of a red letter day? Well yesterday was a red-beaver day. Here at beaver central we are good at picking up trends and regional changes. We’re usually at the front of the line when it comes to hearing good news. But I’ll be honest, I never expected this.

Draper Fight Centers On Beaver Dams, Wetlands, Flood Control

Two, small beaver dams lie at the heart of a quarrel in Draper. County flood officials are ordering residents to take them down. But the homeowners say the dams protect the wildlife and value of their homes.

Kelly McAdams says the notice of violation letter came on Christmas Eve.

“Inspection by Salt Lake County Flood Control,” he says, reading from the letter, “has indicated that fallen tree limbs and debris have been deposited in the form of a beaver dam into Big Willow Creek, a county-wide drainage facility, without authorization.”

Next month, McAdams goes before an administrative law judge and expects to lose, considering beavers and wetlands have no standing in county law. But he and his wife are set on preserving this patch of habitat for the beavers and all the other creatures that rely on this wetland wonderland.

Make sure you listen to the story which made NPR this morning and sign the petition, then check out SLTribune.

Leave it to beaver? No way, says Salt Lake County

Draper • Big Willow Creek bends and meanders behind Kelly McAdams’ Draper home and her backyard steps down into an urban wildlife preserve.

Thanks to a string of beaver dams, the creek pools into wetlands teaming with life. Ducks and geese nest on the banks lined with cattails; herons and pelicans visit to dine on the 18-inch carp and catfish. Neighborhood kids also fish the ponds.

But where McAdams, his wife, Kris Burns, and neighbors on Dunning Court see an ecological sanctuary, Salt Lake County sees “unauthorized modifications to a countywide drainage facility.”

The county Division of Flood Control has ordered them to remove the dams or face a $25-a-day fine, even though federal wildlife officials say these dams enhance the water quality, hydraulics and riparian habitat

The waterways and channels need to be clear and run and serve their purposes. There is a balancing act,” Graham said. “The county has demonstrated many times it balances wildlife habitat on creeks and waterways as they run through the city.”

Graham has overruled McAdams’ appeal, which is slated to go before an administrative law judge on April 26.

Because my life is just like that I had already heard about this case from the real estate agent representing them who contacted me on April 1 looking for supportive letters to the court on the issue of beavers, water storage, and biodiversity. I put out the usual appeal for help to our beaver friends in Utah but with this new flurry of news I heard this morning from Mary Obrien who is on it. Joe Wheaton is in Europe but I’m hoping he can contribute or at least assign a student to do so. I also heard from our retired attorney friend who won the famous Lake Skinner Beaver case at the appellate level that he would be happy to talk to them and has some ideas to pursue.

“You have all these ecosystem services that keep the entire stream corridor functioning as it should,” said Jones, with the Wild Utah Project. “Many other municipalities across the county are starting to allow beavers back to perform this critical engineering service.”

Meanwhile I know Worth A Dam will write something and mention how a Contra Costa County Flood Control Specialist was on our beaver subcommittee and approved the flow device that controlled flooding and washouts for nearly a decade. I have personally contacted everyone I can think of that might help ‘circle the wagons’ in this case, but more is always needed. If you want to help, email me and I’ll give you contact info. The entire Tribune article is excellent and even talks about flow devices but y requires a little persistent to get past their subscriber wall.

Meanwhile, completely independently but not unrelated, I heard from Michael Pollock yesterday about this prayer-answering article from the unlookedfor source of BeefProducer newsletter. No seriously. It is beautifully written by Editor Alan Newport and he starts out with one of the VERY best lines I’ve ever read. Send this article to every old curmudgeon you know who won’t listen to reason.

In defense of beavers

To reverse streambed erosion the hated beaver is the most likely candidate.

Beavers are the cure we don’t want to take.

No matter how much we improve our grazing, no matter how many water-control structures we build, our streams and other watercourses will cut deeper and deeper into the landscape, robbing us of soil and drying out our pastures and fields.

It took me many years of study and observation to come to this point in my thinking, but today there is no longer any question in my mind. Read on and you’ll learn why I say so.

I’m almost 60 years old and throughout those years I’ve watched the streams cut deeper and deeper into the soil near my home. On my uncle and aunt’s farm, the little rocky crossing we walked across and drove tractors across and rode horses across without a thought disappeared years ago into a gulch. The entire creek today is much deeper than it was, and so is every other creek, stream and wash I know of.

So the question, I reasoned, was what process had previously stopped this from being a natural course of events that outpaced the normal upturn of new soil through movement of the earth’s crust?

In North America, the only answer I‘ve ever found was … beavers! They once lived by the millions in every state in the union, and new evidence says their homeland stretched across much of Mexico and into the arctic tundra of Canada. I have more recently learned beavers also were common across Europe and Asia.

With all this in our knowledge base now, it seems if beavers were the agent of change and good in streams for hundreds of thousands of years before we arrived, then they could be and should be again. They work day and night, like the cow, without us lifting a finger.

I understand that beavers are a pain in the neck, but so is erosion and droughty land.

I have no particular love for beavers, but I do love the land and God’s creation. It’s my understanding we are to be stewards in His image. So here I stand, saying kind things about one of the most hated creatures in the world of agriculture.

Go read the whole article. And then read it again. It’s really well written and contains an impressive amount of research. It’s even more impressive when you realize that Alan is the editor of BeefProducer and lives in Oklahoma. Meanwhile I’m going to be busy thinking up a graphic for that AWESOME first line and writing my amicus brief to the court in Utah.

Then I may just lie back and smoke a cigarette. This has been an incredible morning.

International Beaver Day!

heidi08 Beavers April 7, 2017

It’s April 7th! Dorothy Richards birthday, now ‘International Beaver Day’, so you know what that means. This website will be entirely dedicated to beavers, unlike the other 354 days of the year!

It also means that the second venue of Beaver Tales opens tonight in Lake Oswego, south of Portland. Thanks to Sara Vickerman, Esther Lev and others a whole new batch of people are getting to see beavers in a new way.

Beaver Tales exhibit opens tomorrow with reception

SUBMITTED PHOTO: - Adler Nosh by Mary Burgess is one of the many pieces of art included in the Beaver Tales Art Exhibit and Sale. The exhibit is at 510 Museum and ARTspace April 7-28 and then moves to Seaside. The Arts Council of Lake Oswego will celebrate International Beaver Day with the opening of its Beaver Tale exhibit and reception from 5 to 7 p.m. April 7 at 510 Museum and ARTspace, 510 1st St. in Lake Oswego. The reception celebrates the second stop on the Beaver Tale’s tour around Oregon.

Hosted by The Wetlands Conservancy and partners, the traveling beaver art exhibit features the work of nearly 100 artists and is on display at six venues around the state. The purpose of the project is to highlight the beauty and ecological significance of beavers in shaping Oregon’s landscape, creating and maintaining wetland habitat for people and a wide range of other species. The Wetlands Conservancy considers the beaver to be a natural ally of humans in conserving Oregon’s wetlands and restoring natural systems. Beavers are woefully misunderstood, and actually create and sustain wetlands that aid in resuscitating riparian stream habitats.

They play a central role in shaping Oregon’s future as it prepares for the transformations that a warming and changing climate may bring. The Wetlands Conservancy is launching a statewide beaver conservation system to learn more about how humans can work with beavers to conserve and restore natural systems.

Yesterday’s webinar with Adrian Nelson of Furbearer Defenders and Norine Ambrose of Cows and Fish was fantastic! I’m so glad that this work is being done around the hemisphere by newer and younger hands. Supposedly their ppt slides will be sent shortly and I’ll definitely share. Some of the slides were from their wonderful beaver book and I liked this especially.

Selfish, Sad and Silly

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now? April 6, 2017

There’s a veritable glut of beaver complaints this morning. You’d think people had never seen spring before. Starting with this sodden complaint from Amherst Massachusetts.

Flooding headaches in Amherst: Homeowners on one street struggle to reach their front doors

AMHERST — Back from the supermarket with four bags of groceries, Joyce Silverstone was confronted by a pond in the middle of her street, and a dilemma: should she drive through the deep water to get home, or would it be wise to park the vehicle on pavement and make multiple trips, on foot, to her 35 Pomeroy Court residence?

The water issues are a continuing frustration for the nine residents whose homes are on Pomeroy Court, a dead-end street off Pomeroy Lane that has long been susceptible to flooding and extended periods of standing water.

Almost annually, either the town has trapped beavers and removed beaver dams, or the power company Eversource has monitored the nearby land for beaver activity, said Department of Public Works Superintendent Guilford Mooring.

“The issue is to try to make sure the beavers are managed,” Mooring said. Town officials are well aware of the problems on Pomeroy Court. “During wet weather it floods,” said Town Manager Paul Bockelman. “It’s a super inconvenience for people who live there, and clearly it’s a problem.”

That’s right. We tried this solution OVER and OVER again and the problem keeps coming back. So obviously we just need to try it more. Trap more beavers! More often! Never mind trying something new that would actually solve the problem, like hiring Mike Callahan to install a flow device and control pond height. We want to do the same thing again, again. Because it’s quantity not quality that matters. Sheesh.

On to the smartest folk ever in Memphis Tennessee where a ‘single beaver’ that causes concern is going to be relocated.

Midtown beaver to be relocated

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The city of Memphis says it has no choice but to remove the beaver currently taking up residence in Midtown. The animal was recently spotted at Central and Barksdale, and officials are worried he might cause street flooding and damage to property.

Some folks in Midtown told WREG they think the beaver needs to be left alone, but city leaders promised to be careful relocating it. They said it may even move on its own once they remove its dam.

“Normally we just try and capture the beaver. We have to determine with the state what the regulations are with relocating beavers, or what the options are. It’s something we have to look into,” said Robert Knecht with Memphis Public Works.

On the first hand it’s kinda sweet that their first instinct isn’t to bring in the trapper. Aw. On the second hand I’m not really thrilled about ‘bubba’ stuffing a beaver into a potato sack and dumping him over county lines. I mean if you really did this ‘all the time’ why on earth would you have to look up the regulations for the state? Wouldn’t they be the same as the last time you did it? Never mind that relocating a single beaver is tantamount to a death sentence, or that it’s not going to end well for our hero. Or that there likely isn’t just one beaver, and your breaking apart a family which you will end up killing later.

Honestly, there were three more similar stories this morning that I don’t have the patience to write about. Moral of the story is “People freak out about beavers in April”. And February. They just get worried about all that water. Here’s something delightfully juvenile to take your mind off it. An article entirely of beaver jokes. Some of them aren’t even dirty.

Heh, Beavers

Q: What does a beaver do when it wants to surf the Internet?
A: It LOGS on!

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Beaver.
Beaver who?

Bea-Ver-y quiet, I’m playing hide and seek.

Unintended Consequences

heidi08 Beavers April 5, 2017

Madison had a well attended beaver meeting yesterday. Sure, not 200 people like Martinez, but a couple dozen turning out in 40 degree drizzle is nothing to sneeze at. And they didn’t sneeze. they just brought in Kathlean Wolf from the Wild Warner Park volunteer group to remind them why beavers must die.

Beavers bring together concerned residents, city officials at Madison’s Warner Park

MADISON (WKOW) — Madison’s beaver debate was center stage at Warner Park Tuesday night. That’s where a couple dozen people, mostly residents of the neighborhood, met to talk about why the city was trapping and killing some of the beavers that live at the lagoon.
The traps were recently removed from the water after two were taken by people upset with the practice. Officials explained that they’ve been working for several years to control the number of beavers with the amount of damage they cause, including a dozen recently-destroyed trees, and more.

“People are very upset, rightly so, about the beavers being killed. Beavers are really intelligent, really dynamic, they’re ecologically very important. So it is really hard to think that we would want to go ahead and trap them. There’s not really any other alternative that works financially, logistically. We can’t send them elsewhere because right now there’s no where to send them. Which is a good thing, means the population of beaver here and in surrounding states is healthy enough that no one is sending out a call for beavers. But, it unfortunately means that we can’t have an ever-increasing population of beavers in this pond or the area,” said Wolf.

I think I’m getting more impatient in my old age. There is so much that’s right going on here, but now I’m annoyed. So Kathlean of “Wild Warner Park” thinks beavers might be cute and good for the environment but thinks the population will get too big and ruin everything. (She would prefer a “Mild Warner Park“?) And she thinks an-ever-increasing beaver population is leading to all those trees getting eaten.

If I were at that meeting I’d invite everyone to look at a map. Because Mendota lake is connected by water ways all the way out to lake Michigan, which means it is a ‘dispersal highway’. It probably always has been and probably always will be. Which means juvenile beavers on their way from their childhood home to whatever new home they settle in eventually will swim through and get hungry. And think, heyy those trees look tasty. The Madison park district didn’t bother to wrap them, so ‘fast food’.

And if there are resident beavers in the area those beavers will leave a ‘get out’ sign in the form of a glare and a scent mark, and the teenager will move along. But if you folk all practiced your craft and and killed them already, then they’ll stay, and eat more trees. Until you kill those beavers and the whole thing starts all over again.

You are making yourself an ‘endless stream’ of beavers.

Hey, I have an idea WWP and MP. You have this whole volunteer organization why not use them to wrap trees and plant willow cuttings. And get some students groups involved to monitor the wildlife and set up some trail cams to actually see which of those lodges are being lived in. Worth A Dam would be happy to help with advice and guidance, and hey if you actually need to install a culvert fence or something we might even be able to help with funding.

Or you could just make excuses, worry, lie and complain some more. Your call.

Searlas Mc Gearold is a beaver buddy from southern New Jersey who has been posting on the Beaver Management Forum some amazing footage of the beaver colonies he’s been following there. I thought this especially worthy of sharing since it starts with a little pair nose touch and has such a nice close visit. I’m thinking this is the male checking out the family plot, and Searlas will be getting some lovely kit footage this summer. Enjoy, and thanks Searlas!