Month: July 2017

Paths that cross

heidi08 Beavers July 11, 2017

Well the beaver gods were kind to me yesterday. The wonderful artist Amy Gallagher Hall wrote me back and said she was a great beaver fan and had seen the new kit THAT VERY NIGHT! She thought what we were doing was wonderful and wanted to help, but alas she was leaving for an extended back packing trip and would be gone for three weeks during the festival. She definitely would like to help next year though!

I also heard from Jake Chant of the Devon Wildlife Trust who was advised by Mark Elliot to reach out to me (ME!) specifically on the overlap between the river use between beavers and people along the River Otter. Issues included recreational swimming by people, dog walking, and fly-fishing. There had been a near beaver attack a few weeks ago on a dog that got too close for comfort. Did I have thoughts about what might help?

Okay, I confess, I was chuffed that folks 5361 miles away would as me for advice, but then I got serious and told them that the primary issue of dog attacks happened in June and July because the beavers were protecting offspring. If they could get folks to keep their dogs on a leash in the morning and evening during the summer months it wouldn’t be an issue. The rare cases where beavers attacked human swimmers were all beavers with rabies, which the UK has worked very hard not to have.

And as for the fly-fishers worried about beaver attacks because the scary beavers slap their tails at them in the water?

(What enormous sissies, I thought but didn’t say.) What I did say was that there are plenty of fly-fishermen in the US who love beavers and introduced him to Dougald Scott. Dougald is on the board of directors for the NCCFF and the salmon restoration federation and wrote a great article on the importance of beavers in the 2012 newsletter. I sent him a copy and said he should go looking until he found an un-phobic beaver friend that loved to fly-fish- because education requires allies. And if you can’t find one, make one!

And then I sat down and realized I should have had this thought years ago.

Halls of Wild Wonder

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Who's saving beavers now? July 10, 2017

Wonderful news from Napatopia where I had a major case of beaver-envy yesterday that I am still smarting over. This time it was twofold, and while the second will require no explanation whatsoever for readers of this website, the first needs some introduction. Fortunately it came provided in the form of an article from the Napa Register.

Chalk artist inspires novices to create ‘wild’ paintings in Napa Valley

YOUNTVILLE — If you’re planning to visit the Napa Valley Museum this week, look down – you might just find a work of art at your feet.

Local artist Amy Gallaher Hall was joined by children and their families to create street art on the museum patio during the museum’s Free Family Fun Day on Saturday. The Yountville event was from 2 to 4 p.m., but Hall started creating her masterpiece, “Napa’s Wild Neighbors,” at about 6:30 a.m. It took the whole day for her to create the 50-square-foot photo-realistic sidewalk painting, which depicted a bobcat, quail, red-tailed hawk, beaver, and a king salmon.

596185bcb2ca1.image — Beaver and Bobcat: Amy Gallagher Hall

The art was used as inspiration for the families coming to create their own art.

The museum supplied the chalk pastels – which Hall says show up better than normal sidewalk chalk – but visitors were allowed to create whatever art they wanted.

Jaidyn Fay, 9, decided to paint the faces of a fox and a deer.

“I love art,” Jaidyn said. He said he loves drawing animals, but that he was inspired to draw a fox by his friend who draws them really well.

If you’ll notice that beaver drawing actually has the correct teeth on the bottom which I have never EVER seen an artist do. Obviously Amy has spent some time at the beaver pond too. Of course I wrote her about our plucky little story and what a huge admirer I was of her prodigious talent. I praised the family activity and invited her with the most glowing terms possible to stop by our beaver festival where her engaging work would be a true show-stopper.

But apparently I’m imminently resistible at the moment, and I’ve heard no response (yet).

Amy Gallager Hall is also a graphic and website designer with a stunning website who is obviously used to working for top dollar. Here she is doing an Italian street painting festival in San Rafael. Looking at those spendid, wild themes and colors it’s hard to imagine that she never was tempted by the once famous Martinez beaver story that is not all that far away.

Did our story never made it as far as Napa?

I have a little fantasy that someone who knows Amy will be a follower of this website and just nudge us into her view. Or that maybe if I just type her name over and over again with plenty of links to her website she will stumble upon us in a google search.

But if that all fails, and she has the superhuman power to resist my not inconsiderable beaver charms in every other way, I’m not worried. Sure Martinez isn’t wealthy like Napa or cultured like San Rafael, and sure, we have a refinery in the middle of our town and no beavers at the moment – BUT there is one secret weapon I have and it’s the cause of the second beaver-envy I mentioned earlier.

I know where she could find at least two of these, and if she says she’ll come to the beaver festival I’ll even introduce her to the man who sees them every day.

OWWWWWWWW — Napa kit in the morning: Rusty Cohn

The heavy hand of beaver fate

heidi08 Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Who's blaming beavers now? July 9, 2017

It’s OGNS! (Only good news Sunday) And we have a whopping dose for you this morning. Starting with on of my favorite beaver stories in history. Ever. Sure, it’s not exactly well written, and it describes a dam washout in the usual hyperbolic way, but it’s where the dam washed out that matters. I mean sometimes you just feel the hand of fate is playing tether ball with you.

Seriously.

Large beaver dam on county-owned land in Perryman draws local ire

Beavers are unmatched in the animal kingdom at being able to alter and control their environment – unless, that is, they run into an environment already controlled by humans.

That’s what happened recently on a piece of Harford County-owned land in Perryman, where a resident reported the most intense beaver dam he has seen in three decades.

The local beavers’ hard work at a small lake on Forest Green Road, off of Perryman Road, has created a headache for residents and the county has begun dismantling their efforts.

Not only is the ruptured beaver dam in Perryman, Maryland (which I never knew existed btw) but it’s on frickin’ Perryman ROAD! For extra measure the article even goes on to talk about the good that beavers do for other wildlife. I have always said that I don’t really have ‘good luck’ or ‘bad luck’ – I have GREEK DRAMA luck! Coincidences that couldn’t possibly be explained in real life just happen in mine both good and ill. I have no idea why. But this is a fine culmination of a career saving beavers. Don’t you agree?

More predictable good news comes from Bay Nature Magazine where our beaver festival ad is nicely placed this year. Combined With our Community focus, and Water bill ads my fingers are crossed we have a great turnout.

The third piece of good news is the VERY BEST of course. I’ve been told to give him or her time to get bigger before I blast it all over the press and facebook, but you folks are true beaver believers and I know it’s safe to tell you because no one but crazy beaver people would EVER read this site.

Check out their 2017 model. It’s a fairly dark photo because in the beginning the parents are very cautious and don’t let kits outside until the coast is clear. But look at that adorable face, straight tail and bright eye. I believe Napa gets a cigar.

2017 model in Napa — *2017 kit: Rusty Cohn*

SNF: Every Beaver Everywhere

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 July 8, 2017

I try to stay beaver-centric on this website, but once in a great while an article about general ecology grabs and holds my attention so much that I can’t entirely escape. Besides, this entire article might as be about beavers anyway. Every Single Beaver Everywhere.

The big ecological roles of small natural features

Ecologists and conservationists have long recognized that keystone species have major ecological importance disproportionate to their abundance or size. Think beavers, sea stars and prairie dogs—species that >Similarly across landscapes, the keystone concept of disproportionate importance extends to other ecological elements, such as salt marshes in estuaries. Now an international group of researchers is exploring the disproportionate ecological importance of small natural features—unique environmental elements that provide significant ecological and economic impacts.

Desert springs. Caves harboring bat colonies. Rocky outcrops. Strips of natural vegetation edging agricultural fields. Riparian zones. Small coral heads. Tiny islands. Large old trees.

These small natural features are often overlooked, relatively vulnerable yet environmentally mighty in their ecosystem. They also are at the opposite end of the spatial scale from the Earth’s large conservation superstars—the Serengeti, Yellowstone and the Great Barrier Reef.

Or hey, maybe an unexpected beaver pond in an city stream? Sustaining unique habitat even in the middle of town?

Small natural features have big ecological roles, according to the 37 researchers from 11 countries writing in a Special Issue of “Biological Conservation.” Sometimes they can provide resources that limit key populations or processes that influence a much larger area. Sometimes they support unusual diversity, abundance or productivity.

They also are small enough to efficiently maintain or restore, while traditional land-use activities continue in close proximity, such as forestry, fishing and grazing.

“Small natural features are an example of what can be termed ‘The Frodo Effect,'” writes Malcolm Hunter, University of Maine professor of wildlife resources and Libra Professor of Conservation Biology, in the journal introduction.

“In the ‘Lord of the Rings,’ the small and unassuming hobbit Frodo has more strength than any of his larger peers and saves Middle Earth with his brave actions,” says Hunter. “Gandalf and the rest of the fellowship of the ring go to great ends to protect him, because they know this.”

And you thought that only techs could be geeks. Apparently what Star Wars is to silicon valley, Tolkein is to biologists. They love thems some Frodo. We’ll let them have their fun, but that’s silly, because it’s not even the passage I would have chosen for this significant contribution played by very small things.

“For you little gardener and lover of trees,’ she said to Sam, ‘I have only a small gift.’ She put into his hand a little box of plain grey wood, unadorned save for a single silver rune upon the lid… ‘In this box there is earth from my orchard, and such blessing as Galadriel has still to bestow is upon it. It will not keep you on your road, nor defend you against any peril; but if you keep it and see your home again at last, then perhaps it may reward you. Though you should find all barren and laid waste, there will be few gardens in Middle-earth that will bloom like your garden, if you sprinkle this earth there. Then you may remember Galadriel, and catch a glimpse far off of Lórien….”

Isn’t that much better? Now let’s get back to the subject of this article. Small natural features (SNF) like a big oak tree, or a small rock outcropping, or even a drowned stump in the river, are often the nexus around which a collection of wildlife is gathered. And if it wasn’t there, the collection wouldn’t be either. More than this, the researchers argue that actually saving that frog pond or small stand of trees beside the field might have as important an impact as a large scale restoration project that costs hundreds of thousands more dollars.

Will someone PLEASE argue this case in court to save a beaver pond in the next 6 months?

Every time an individual city or landowner makes the decision NOT to rip out a beaver dam, they are allowing one of these important SNF’s to exist. And every time they trap a beaver they are destroying one. Don’t believe me? Here’s some of the biodiversity our friend Rusty Cohn photographed at the tulocay beaver pond between a hotel and a car dealership in downtown Napa last week.

Gem state beaver gems

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? July 7, 2017

Idaho is a mixed bag ecologically speaking. It is filled to the gills with hunters and trappers and folks who visit the state just because they want to hunt and trap, but it has more than its fair share of really study beaver advocates like Mike Settel brave enough to host an overnight beaver festival with camping and beer in the Beaver dam jam!

Then there are unexpected treasures like this, that seem to pop out of the rich Idaho soil like yellow flowers in the sidewalk.

Beaver ecology to be featured at Southwestern Idaho Birders Association meeting

NAMPA — Dirk Anderson will be featured at the Southwestern Idaho Birders Association’s July meeting to talk about the role of the North American beaver in western ecology.The presentation will look at beaver ecology through the lens of Anderson’s childhood. Growing up in Idaho City, he saw first-hand how beavers influenced the ecology of his back yard.

Anderson will also discuss the history of beavers in North America and how they were the driving force behind western exploration. The presentation will wrap up talking about restoration, conservation and beaver-related issues.

Anderson is the AmeriCorps environmental education instructor at the Boise Urban Garden School. He is a graduate of McCall Outdoor Science School where he received a Master’s of Science in Natural Resources with honors. He also has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Montana Tech of the University of Montana where he played basketball. Anderson is a modern day mountain man, raised in Idaho City, with a passion for the outdoors, art and music.

Mike Settell was stunned to learn about this, because it’s a big, long state and all the beaver players don’t always know what each other is doing. Hopefully he’ll find a way to get a friend to attend Anderson’s lecture, because I would love to know what he has to say. There are pockets of beaver advocacy all the way from Coeure d’Alene to Pocatello and lots of places in between. I just found out about another surprise in the state involving Trumpeter Swans. Seems some lovers of swans have decided that where they nest is so important there should be MORE of it, not less.

Guess where they nest. Go ahead. Guess.

Cygnus buccinator is our largest bird in North Americaso heavy it needs a wide open stretch of water to take off. It is ungainly on land and has short legs like its landlord. These swans nest on beaver (or muskrat lodges) and feed primarily on the rich aquatic plants that surround them. Since it’s the biggest bird we have, it wants the very best place to raise a family and is equipped to defend it handily. (I imagine every type of waterfowl would love to nest on the island of a beaver lodge. No predators to sneak up behind you, no neighbors during the day. But it can fight off anyone else who might want to share.) It’s prime reale state assures that year after year it’s children grow up safe.

Due to it’s size and fortune, it was avidly hunted in the last 200 years, and for a period of time believed to be extinct. Now it’s population has recovered but has suffered because of the damage to wetlands and all those important beavers that maintain them. Especially in Idaho. Swan people are beaver people, and want some wet places that beavers can be safe so that swans will be safe. There has even been a plan to reintroduce beaver so that the swan population could recover, which in a state like Idaho is fairly remarkable.

Trumpeter Swans continue to face a number of threats. In Teton Valley and across the globe, many wetlands have been drained or filled, negatively impacting countless wildlife species, including Trumpeters. In addition, declining beaver populations throughout the Greater Yellowstone region have furthered wetland resource losses. Currently, the Greater Yellowstone Trumpeter Swan nesting population is struggling due to lack of habitat. Biologists are seeing fewer nesting trumpeter swan pairs in our region and even fewer successful nests.

Teton Regional Land Trust has worked with families and other conservation groups over the past 25 years to conserve over 33,000 acres in East Idaho, including 11,000 acres in Teton Valley. The successes of our wetland protection and restoration program, combined with Teton Basin’s strategic location, have created a unique opportunity to reestablish Trumpeter Swan nesting in Teton Valley, and enhance Trumpeter nesting throughout the Greater Yellowstone region.

It’s wonderful to read about good works being done in other places, and fun to find beaver fans where you never even thought to look. You would think, that between the swan people, the frog people, and the salmon people beavers would stand a chance in this crazy concrete-driven world. But the deck is pretty much stacked against them. Turns out we really, really like culverts.

And we really hate the things that plug them. Go figure.