Month: July 2017

Looks like the kits outta the bag!

heidi08 Beavers July 16, 2017

The rule is only good news on Sunday, right? There’s a painstaking amount of beaver stupid going on right now but I’ll stifle my impulse to ridicule and focus on the positive. They are being treated to beautiful kit show in Napa since last weeks coming out party. Now the little peanuts are wandering far upstream on their own and coming back whenever they dam well feel like it. Rusty has his work cut out for him, jogging up and down the creek to follow them, but he’s holding up bravely under the joyful strain.

Tiny Tail: Rusty Cohn

Ohhh so precious. What adorableness! We think there are (at least) two because if you look closely one’s eye looks a little puffy and the other is bright and shiny. And just to prove they really are better than us, Rusty snapped this at the pond for good measure, sigh.

I see Rusty is now posting the photos on facebook so I guess that means the ~~cat’s~~ – er kit’s – officially outta the bag! Maybe you should take a field trip and see for yourself?

Onward to the generous donations from Suzi Eszterhas to the silent auction. She can’t be at the festival this summer because she’s leading a tour photographing humpback whales calving in the Tonga.(!) So she wanted to donate and show her support anyway. You can see how committed she is to wildlife and making sure we take care of it. She sent three lovely books and a archival quality stunning print. Take a look for yourself.

The books are delightful accounts of hand rearing rare species that will be sure to encourage the budding naturalist in your life. But it was the print that really blew me away. A little back-story: very often during her time photographing the beavers on our creek she would tell us that she wouldn’t be there the next few nights because she had to nip down to Monterey or Morro bay to photograph some baby otters. And I would (as I’m known to do) give her a hard time for filming precious sea otter eye candy when beavers were way cooler and needed her more.

But suddenly, I almost understand why. Shhh don’t tell the beavers.

Beaver Centerfold

heidi08 Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? July 15, 2017

Yesterday the bookmarks arrived and they are every BIT as cute as you might imagine. Jon ran some over to our buddies at Parks and Recreation and the oohed and passed them around with glee. Yesterday was also very exciting because I suddenly realized I didn’t have the contract for the solar panel, and fell into a state of panic that I hadn’t ordered it this year. What if all the bands were lined up and the sound guy was there and there was NO SOUND! I called them in alarm only to find out that every single representative was at a big meeting and they would call me on monday. I must have sounded so truly forlorn that they made Ryan call me back from the meeting – which I found out was IN HAWAII by the way – YES they would help me, not a problem, but please let the man go back to his hawaii meeting so he can spend the last part of his last weekend at the beach.

Whew.

Good lord. That was close. I know I spoke to someone about something way back in March, but I also know nothing is firm without a contract and they need us to show our event insurance will cover their panel and these things take time. Three weeks should do it. So that’s good.

Meanwhile our friend Kent Woodruff at Methow was being rewarded by a lovely, slick magazine profile in the outdoor clothing store of Filson’s. Even though the head quarters is in Seattle they have a store in San Francisco so I have NO idea why they aren’t donating to the beaver festival, but good for Ken (again), it’s still lovely to share.

Region 6: Planting Beavers, Raising Waters

Beaver ponds store a lot of water. Millions of gallons. And scientists are now realizing that reintroducing the animals to struggling streams is a way to buck a drying trend. This Filson Life is part of Filson’s celebration of the Forest Service and the people of the Pacific Northwest Region of the USFS, Region 6.
As the Northwest gets less snow, Kent Woodruff says it needs more beavers.

Less snow means less rainfall. Less rainfall means less water for farms and streams – which leads to a decrease in spawning ground and shelter for salmon. Beavers dam streams and streams flood their floodplains, which produces more trees for more dams and provides millions of gallons of water for everything in the vicinity. It even provides shade for salmon.

“One of the things we know is that beavers improve streams,” says Woodruff, a beaver biologist with the Forest Service. “Beavers make things better by adding complexity to streams to enhance everything that needs to happen out there.”

For the past ten years Woodruff has been the driving force behind the Methow Beaver Project, a partnership that relocates problem beavers – those that have dammed up irrigation ditches or felled high-value fruit trees – from private land to mountain streams in the National Forest surrounding Central Washington’s Methow Valley.

“We’re in a very water-limited situation in the Methow Valley,” he says. “So we do this balancing act between the towns, the rural folks, the agriculturalists, and the fish. To find a natural solution in beavers for water storage and temperature moderation, which are critical limiting factors to endangered salmon, is really exciting to what we do.”

After trapping a problem beaver, Woodruff temporarily keeps it at an old fish hatchery that he’s set up with beaver homes. He’s found that relocating beavers is best done with male-female pairs, and he waits until he traps a beaver of the opposite sex before pairing the two at the fish hatchery. He then transplants the pair—with a bundle of sticks and willow switches they’ve been chewing at the hatchery—to a suitable, beaver-free stream in the forest.

“We’ve found that a male-female pair is a lot more sticky than just a lone beaver,” he says. “Two of them are more likely to stay where we put them than just one.”

Half a dozen universities are making plans to use his beaver restoration work as laboratories to answer questions about the role of wetlands in the larger ecosystem. How much carbon does a large beaver complex store? How do beaver ponds contribute to the insect life of a river? How many gallons of water are stored in the spongy soil surrounding a wetland? Interns, graduate students, and Ph.D. candidates from colleges and universities around the Northwest will show up in the Methow Valley this summer to work toward answering those questions.

Woodruff and Johnson estimate that their pro-beaver message reached 2.8 million people in 2015. The benefits of beavers, Woodruff says, are becoming more widely recognized. Biologists in Canada, Mexico, and Europe are interested in the work coming out of the Methow Valley and elsewhere around the region.

“California is very interested in modernizing its approach to beavers,” Woodruff says.

“Washington state is beginning to take similar steps. We’re talking to people in Britain where beavers have been extinct for 600 years, and now in the past ten years they have them in five different places. Idaho has a fledgling relocation program, too. It feels to me like we are just getting started learning where beavers could help.”

Nice review! Wonderful to see beaver benefits emphasized. This is a rugged outdoor clothing profile so they chose the strapping young Ph.D. candidate for the photo, which is foolish because Ken’s very handsome and there are way more mature shoppers than young ones, but never mind. It’s a nice spread with a good focus on salmon and water and I’m very grateful about that. Of course I’m very impatient with ANY article that mentions problem beavers without talking about beaver solutions.

But still.

I confess I was alarmed reading that in 2015 reached their message reached 2.8 million people, because how on earth is that even possible? This meager website gets 10,000 hits a week, and over 10 years that’s maybe 1 million, but how are they so much more visible than we are? What’s WRONG with us? But then I though they maybe meant through Sarah’s great film, which was wonderful and really allowed a lot of people very quickly to learn the story of why beavers matter. And they have more supporting players (NGO’s and GO’s) than god. And plus, people are always happier thinking they’re doing good for the environment when they get rid of beavers than when someone tells them to keep them.

But I admit it. I had beaver envy.

The whole enchilada

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and water, Dispersal, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? July 14, 2017

Just as predicted the beaver battle in Beauly, Scotland is heating up. With folks attesting that the beavers have been in the area and all over the area for years – and officials saying the beaver have to be trapped and captured or the salmon will be eaten and the very life of the lochness monster is in danger. If it all sounds vaguely familiar to you that’s because we’ve been here before, way back in 2009 when the first “unofficial beavers” were reported on the river Tay. The government claimed that each unauthorized beaver would be captured and put in zoos. They brought in specialists and managed to capture one unlucky beaver (Eric – who later became Erica when it was learned that she was female). Erica died in captivity shortly after she was caught, right around the time that officials were realizing that they were way more illegal beavers than there were zoos. I sense another learning curve coming soon, but stay tuned to find out how it all works.

In the meantime. we are happy because the good people at bluehost and filezilla taught me to do a backup of the gargantuan website yesterday, our willow fascines we planted with the Riley and the watershed stewards at the annex are fairing splendidly, the bookmarks arrive today and the very talented Amelia Hunter finished this on Wednesday night. It is now at the printers waiting to become beaver brochures. As always it will take a moment to load but is fully browse-worthy so enjoy!

Brochure-for-printer

Beavers swim, who knew?

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Dispersal, stupid solutions, Who's blaming beavers now? July 13, 2017

All of the UK is scratching their heads this morning and tsking at the news that a mother and kits has been suddenly ‘discovered’ in Beauly Scotland. This is miles away from the Tay or Knapdale, nearest the town of Inverness. At the moment they are exclaiming the beavers were “illegally released” because obviously there’s a beaver bandit of sorts who is running around the countryside stashing beavers were they aren’t wanted.

I mean the dumb animals couldn’t it be doing it themselves, right?

Row over illegal beaver family found near Beauly

Trees for Life said a mother and at least two kits have been observed on a river near Beauly. It has asked that the mammals be allowed to remain where they are or be relocated.

The government has instructed that the beavers be trapped and then kept in captivity. Trees for Life believes the animals have been in the area for at least five years. The presence of beavers has been found previously in the Highlands.

In 2008, one was found dead on a beach at Eathie on the Black Isle after suffering what police described as a “cruel” death after ingesting a large quantity of sea water.

Police suspected the animal was linked to illegal releases of beavers in other parts of Scotland.

It’s horrifying to imagine that they would try and trap a mother and kits so early in the summer when they’re obviously young. And more horrifying to think they could capture part of the family and leave a kit or two behind. This story is literally an hour old as I type this and I can imagine there’s going to be a major ‘call to arms’ on both sides soon. The town of Beauly is over 100 miles away from the River Tay and it’s not like beavers could have travelled up the Tay to the Tummel to the Garry up, walked over land a few miles and swam up Beauly Firth, because beavers NEVER do that right?

This seems like a good time to remind our readers that Dietland Mueler-Swarze observed in his book on behavior of the animals that beavers can disperse long distance over land and water. In fact he specifically reported on Castor Fiber:

That pesky beaver bandit has so much to answer for.

Meanwhile, here in sunny California the county recorders office contacted me yesterday because they wanted to make a children’s activity book to make sure their services are more visible and of COURSE wanted to pick the best possible mascot for their story. I’m sure you can guess already what animal they picked.

Remember, that the original beaver habitat was right next to then new county recorders building, and its previous head (Steve Weir) was a huge beaver protector. Workers would visit the beavers every morning before they came to the office, or tell us if there were new things in the creek, and they were the one to photograph that turtle laying eggs on the bank. Its second story windows was famously crowded with eager secretaries watching the shirtless Skip Lisle installing the flow device back in 2008.Long, long ago, when Gavin Newsome originally made gay marriage legal for a split second in California, Steve and his partner were famously married IN beaver park. I wrote about the huge historic event in one of my favorite posts back in 2008.

Let’s just say beavers and the county recorders office go WAY back.

So it seemed wholly appropriate for them to want to ‘launch’ their activity book at the beaver festival, and we found them just the right spot. I was given a preview of the book yesterday and because I’m very bad at keeping secrets I’m going to share my two favorite pages with you. Shhh

In addition to being darn adorable, I’m pretty sure this is exhibit ‘A’ about the beavers’ civic importance when we have to go to court to protect the NEXT beavers that settle in Alhambra Creek. 🙂

Artfully done.

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Chewing, Who's saving beavers now? July 12, 2017

Ohh my goodness, things are getting exciting around here. Last night the silent auction received a breathtaking donation from photographer Suzi Eszterhas, (which I’ll say more about on Sunday!), we found out we received a 1000 dollar grant from the city (hurray!!!) and our own amazingly talented Amelia Hunter sent me the first official draft of the brochure. The event looks sooo irresistible and fun! But I’m especially fond of our new back page:

This has been such a major commitment of focus and resources, it makes me awed at the beaver-worthy campaign that has been the better part of a year in the showing, and longer still in the formation. Our little festival looks feather lightweight by comparison to the momentous achievement that spanned at least four cities and several public showings of this uniquely valuable exhibit. It must have required the coordination of volunteers and experts from one end of Oregon to the other, and it was an undertaking that had (understandably) never been attempted before. I’m talking of course, about the art exhibit “Beaver Tales” which is in its final legs in the month of August with several dynamic tours and lectures.

The Wetlands Conservancy, LNWC council and NCRD present Beaver Tales Traveling Art Exhibit

The exhibit opens on July 31^st at the North County Recreation District (NCRD) in Nehalem, 36155 9^th Street. On August 4^th, local naturalist and photographer Neal Maine will give a special presentation on Beaver Ecology at 6:30 pm, followed by a reception and viewing of the works in the NCRD Art Gallery. The exhibit will be on display through August 30^th.

The exhibit will feature juried art for purchase, a portion of the sales will benefit The Wetlands Conservancy and Lower Nehalem Watershed Council. The traveling exhibit includes artwork of all kinds, from paintings to fiber, wood, stone, glass and ceramics. With regional and local artists displaying their work, this stop in Nehalem will bring together a multitude of styles and creativity.

Along with the month long display, there will be tours and other activities around Nehalem and Manzanita. Following the opening, join The Wetlands Conservancy for an Open House on August 5^th from 1- 3 pm at the Doris Davis Wetland Preserve in Manzanita, located off Nehalem Rd at Beach St. The beautiful preserve is right in the heart of Manzanita. TWC’s land steward will be on site to lead a tour of this great North coast wetland.

The goal of the Beaver Tales Art Exhibition and events is to recognize the aesthetic and ecological significance our state animal plays in the creation and maintenance of wetland habitats. Beavers, though woefully misunderstood, actually create and sustain wetlands that aid in resuscitating wetland and riparian stream habitats. They play a central role in shaping our future as we prepare for transformations that a warming and changing climate may bring. The sponsoring organizations are working together to learn more about how we can work with beaver to conserve and restore natural systems.

What an amazing thing you’ve done touching so many lives and getting so many eyes to view beavers in a new way. I am completely in awe of you; Sara Vickerman Gage and Ester Lev. The idea of adding even a second half a day to the beaver festival fills me with soul-collapsing horror, I cannot imagine even for a moment how you had the energy and commitment to pull this off. It’s true that you work for large successful nonprofits that do big things and have huge talented staffs that actually get paid salaries, and admittedly you live in a state that has 50 more beaver IQ points than California, and 100 more than Martinez, but I am fully humbled by this undertaking, ladies. Hats off to you. You are truly my heroes.

In the meantime this plucky little beaver festival is chugging right along like the little engine that could. We’ll do what we can with what we have.