Month: July 2017

From the beaver sublime to the beaver ridiculous

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, stupid solutions, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? July 6, 2017

Some days are just huge demonstrations of that fact that beaver knowledge isn’t evenly distributed.Take today for instance where there is a wonderful article about doing a beaver installation in Alberta, juxtaposed with an stunningly ignorant article about beavers chasing fleeing motorcycle-riding trappers by leaping on their pogo-stick tail.

No. I’m serious.

Keep in mind that it’s summer and beaver parents are protecting their new kits by getting rid of anyone that doesn’t belong there. Meanwhile, dog walkers let their hot pooches take a swim, (and to be perfectly honest yearlings are probably in a fowl mood anyway because they are just realizing they aren’t the baby anymore). July and June are the time of year we read frantic articles about beavers attacking dogs. And no one seems to get that the assault pattern is seasonal.

Canada’s beaver problem

Not expecting to get chased by a beaver that he claims had aerial capabilities, Donnie Springer once set out to hunt a moose. He drove a three-wheel dirt bike in front of his father-in-law, around Devil’s Lake, Man., but soon realized his father-in-law was missing. Springer turned back, and found the man speeding away from a bucktooth terror. The beaver then turned on Springer.

The beaver first chased him using its typical method of running on its legs. However, Springer was riding at about 25km/hr, he recalls of an incident around the year 2000. For the beaver to catch up, Springer claims it deployed its tail as a spring. “It would sit on its tail, and it would go shooting itself about 10 feet in the air,” he says. “It would use its tail to propel itself … he was just a givin’ ‘er”

There is a perception in several parts of Canada that beavers are invading. In June, CTV reported that the city of Edmonton put up signs warning dog owners about dangerous beavers after several beaver attacks on pets, and the Winnipeg Free Press reported recently beavers “wreaking havoc in parts of Manitoba on a scale not seen in a lifetime.” Saskatchewan inaugurated a controversial beaver-hunting derby last spring, which reaped 589 kills, and some municipalities have introduced bounties. Farmers continue to bereave the flooding of fields; drivers, of roads, and cottagers, the loss of their favourite trees. The population is in fact surging, and the species even became a recent fascination of genome researchers.

What to say when an article uses the ‘springing beaver’ accusation as a story’s lead? The mind reals, the jaw drops. It’s not the first time I’ve read these allegations from a Canadian trapper either. Do you think they watched too many ‘Tigger’ cartoons as youngsters? There was a story about Yellow Knife that had a trapper accusing them of lunging forth by bouncing on their tails. Maybe it’s a collective hallucination?

What I will say is that Moses did tell me one night while filming he saw what looked like a beaver fight, and see what appeared to be a beaver lunge on it’s tail. He was so surprised he didn’t get footage, so he has no proof and isn’t always the most reliable reporter so who knows? When I was 11 I was certain if you said ‘bloody mary’ over and over at a pajama party she would appear in the bathroom mirror. And I saw it twice!

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that beaver male leap on his tail
And bounce after Sam McGee

Ahh, my apologies to Robert, but you knew it had to be done. Now that it’s on your mind, go read that poem again, it’s such a fun tale, er tail!

Thank goodness for this other story in the morning, which is every bit as wise as the former was stupid, proving that the entire country has not all lost it’s collective minds.

Michichi boardwalk project approved

As a new way to engage people into real-time educational experiences, the Michichi boardwalk has now been approved. The three-phase project is set to begin in late fall with construction of the boardwalk to be closely monitored as not to disrupt too much of the surrounding environment.
   “We’re going to have a bit of frost in the ground and that’s going to help a lot with the equipment going in and making ruts and stuff like that,” said Starland County Agricultural Fieldman Dara Kudras.
   “There will be some damage but that is the price we have to pay to get this boardwalk in there.”
   They have hired a company that has smaller equipment to cause a tinier carbon footprint.
   “What we are aiming for is minimal disturbance just because it is a sensitive area,” said Kudras.
   The project has three phases to smoothly add the boardwalk into the region as well as create a healthy riparian monitoring program and pond leveller.
   The beaver dam which is built every year, is located where the spillway is. By springtime, the water level becomes too high causing the dam to break and the water to drain.
   “If the beavers weren’t there building that dam, then all the water goes out and there is no habitat area,” said Kudras.     A pond leveLler is a large plastic tube that is put through the middle of the dam where a cage is placed on one end of the tube.
   “It’s so the water can go through and the dam won’t blow out and the beavers won’t have to build so high either,” said Kudras. “It will allow water to go through without wrecking the dam.”
   Instinctively, if the dam does happen to break, beavers will find trees to repair and rebuild. Instead of allowing them to take out new trees in the area, Kudras and her team have been gathering other already fallen branches or vegetation for the beavers to use.

“That’s part of the coexistence part of it that we want to be able to grow trees there and keep beavers happy at the same time,” said Kudras.

$12,000 of the grant is going towards signage along the boardwalk to help explain the usage of the pond leveller and other interesting facts about the riparian area and what it has to offer. Different types of birds and other animals will be on the signs as well. Of the total budget, the largest cost of $80,000 will be going towards the actual construction of the boardwalk.
   A 20-foot by 16-foot viewing deck area with seating and a gazebo close to the dam will be a special addition to the boardwalk with the possibility of up to two bridges depending on the budget.
   “If local craftsman or local schools want to come and a have like a wetland field day and learn about the ecosystem in the area and stuff like that, then they can come out and use that,” said Kudras. “We’re just trying to make it really accessible for everybody.”
   Starland County is putting $32,000 forward as the lead administrator and will be partnering up with the current landowner of the area as well as Cows & Fish and the Red Deer River Watershed Alliance.
   After the project is finished, an established riparian monitoring program will be put in place, a pond leveller will be constructed and implemented, and the half kilometer long boardwalk will be complete.
A grand opening is expected to happen shortly after everything is in place. Kudras plans to increase awareness and get help from local farmers to build up drought and flood resilience.
   “This project is a cornerstone going into the future with the rest of the watershed resilience restoration program,” said Kurdas.

Have you hugged Cows and Fish this morning? I think I might name my firstborn after Mr. Kurdras. This is just such a smartly designed and coordinated project. I can’t think of anywhere better to spend an early morning than on their finished boardwalk watching beavers that have had trees planted for them to do their work. And a trail with interpretive signs explaining what everyone is seeing. This is fantastic! Maybe you want to use this?

A final note comes from Napa where Rusty says that he met up with Brock, Kate and Ben on a field trip to visit some urban beavers. Rusty invited county supervisor Brad Wagenecht to join them and they all hung out for a bit with our Napatopia beavers. Maybe the wine country beavers will even make it into the book?

Ben Busy?

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers July 5, 2017

Yesterday was was a fun and oddly familiar day spent sharing the Martinez Beaver story with very busy author Ben Goldfarb who laughed often at the story, took notes on a little pad, and recorded the interview with his phone. Ben kindly brought me a treasure of immense value: A beaver chewed stick from the sanctioned Scottish beavers in Argyll – which of course I will treasure. We reciprocated his generosity by giving him a poster, one of Sherri Tippie’s sculpy beaver families and a beaver tie for all his important beaver lectures he will be asked to give soon.

He was delighted about this tie and a good sport about putting it on for this photo.

After brunch and the interview he went through the scrapbook slowly, pausing at particularly interesting or important stories and really enjoying the whole drama of the Martinez beavers. He definitely seemed to understand the politics involved, and said he was planning to do a whole chapter on California and our stubborn beaver resistance. He was fascinated by the historical papers and had spoken to Rick Lanman already. He had also heard from Damion about the Placer county depredation rate and was interested to hear that we had been the ones to process them and get one of my psychology friends to run some stats on the numbers to find out that Placer county was issuing 7 times more depredation permits than anywhere else in the state – significant at the .02 level! On his tour with Jon they met some local color that asked about beavers it it made him remember that it was still a big part of Martinez history even today.

Ben told me that he had been nipped by a beaver in Cornwall, and very surprised to hear it growl sooo loud and ferocious. He was not offended and took it as a badge of honor. After all the time we spent in close quarters with beavers in Alhambra Creek, we were surprised. But Ben is very tall, so maybe that factored in to the yearling’s (I’m guessing) reaction? He’s very polite and careful not to be imposing in anyway, but it still makes an impression. Ben indicated that he reads this website often and in addition to finding it very useful to his work he seemed fairly affected (scarred?) by my confrontation of that NPR show host whose guest suggested that a good solution for beaver problems was to eat them. (Remember that?) Ben was the expert that talk show host cited in background for the story. And then proceeded to host a show of mostly beaver-ignorants. Yes, I did rattle the cage bars a bit after that. What can I say? Sometimes things get under my skin, and when National Public Radio chooses to be stupid about beavers, even after interviewing some very smart people, I get riled.

Anyway, it was a long, interesting, day. I got to hear some great stories about the fascinating people he’s been talking to, a little about his dream of being an apprentice to Mike after it’s published and opening up his own beaver solutions one day in CT after his wife finishes nursing school. I must have been working hard while he was here because I slept like a flat stone at the bottom of the river all night, and right through the fireworks.

I was a little shocked to hear him say that he thinks of me as a key player in the beaver story – especially since I just make up everything I do! But one of the fun things about this work is its a pretty rag tag field with a lot of holes and any one with can break in.

All of Ben’s work is going to result in a GREAT book!

America the Beaver

heidi08 Friends of Martinez Beavers, History July 4, 2017

I can’t believe yet another fourth of July is here without us standing watch over kits on the footbridge where 1000 people cross on their way to the fireworks. Being without kits or beavers sure changes the entire feel of summer. But the good news is that busy beaver author Ben Goldfarb is coming to talk Martinez today, after interviewing our beaver buddy Damion Ciotti in the foothills yesterday We’re making him brunch with decidedly immigrant themes, then Jon’s walking around the beaver ghost town, and I’ll try to tell the story and not to get sidetracked. Wish us luck.

Yesterday I heard from illustrator Deborah Hocking in Portland that the charming bookmark she is designing for the festival pro bono was completed. Feast your eyes on this little wonder made out of the talent of her fingers and the goodness of her heart. We’ll give them free at the event, kids can put them in their nature journals and adults in the books they buy at our silent auction, and we’ll have extra to tuck in any thank you note for years to come.

Martinez bookmark front — Bookmark Front

Thank you SO much Deborah! I love that little cycling beaver, and having a view of our creek on the back really reminds me of how lucky we once were, sigh.

Now I’m hoping this reminder of the respect your founding fathers had for beavers gets you started on your celebratory day. Wishing us all six dollar bills soon!Not sure why the beaver is eating a palm tree, or where exactly in colonial america one was growing, but maybe he wasn’t as gifted an artist as he was a kite flyer?

Oh and just in case our current state of political affairs has you feeling particularly doomed, just remember this criticism by E.P. Whipple of our 17th president which will make you realize we’ve all been here before. He was describing Andrew Johnson in 1866. Pause at any sentence in this monumental paragraph and you will be stunned by the similarities.

“Insincere as well as stubborn, cunning as well as unreasonable, vain as well as ill-tempered, greedy of popularity as well as arbitrary in disposition, veering in his mind as well as fixed in his will, he unites in his character the seemingly opposite qualities of demagogue and autocrat, and converts the Presidential chair into a stump or a throne, according as the impulse seizes him to cajole or to command. Doubtless much of the evil developed in him is due to his misfortune in having been lifted by events to a position which he lacked the elevation and breadth of intelligence adequately to fill. He was cursed with the possession of a power and authority which no man of narrow mind, bitter prejudices, and inordinate self-estimation can exercise without depraving himself as well as injuring the nation. Egotistic to the point of mental disease, he resented the direct and manly opposition of statesmen to his opinions and moods as a personal affront, and descended to the last degree of littleness in a political leader, — that of betraying his party, in order to gratify his spite. He of course became the prey of intriguers and sycophants, — of persons who understand the art of managing minds which are at once arbitrary and weak, by allowing them to retain unity of will amid the most palpable inconsistencies of opinion, so that inconstancy to principle shall not weaken force of purpose, nor the emphasis be at all abated with which they may bless to-day what yesterday they cursed. Thus the abhorrer of traitors has now become their tool. Thus the denouncer of Copperheads has now sunk into dependence on their support. Thus the imposer of conditions of reconstruction has now become the fore- most friend of the unconditioned return of the Rebel States. Thus the furious Union Republican, whose harangues against his political opponents almost scared his political friends by their violence, has now become the shameless betrayer of the people who trusted him. And in all these changes of base he has appeared supremely conscious, in his own mind, of playing an independent, a consistent, and especially a conscientious part.”

Beavers welcomed in Maryland park

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Who's saving beavers now? July 3, 2017

It’s nice to see beavers greeted in Maryland with anything other than alarm, but here’s proof that it sometimes occurs.

Off the Beaten Path: Busy beavers create ponds near Ritchie Highway in Severna Park

Along Cattail Creek large trees are being cut down near the water’s edge and used for development nearby. The trees have been felled by the teeth of beavers, and the development is two beaver dams, built inside Cattail Creek near Ritchie Highway in Severna Park.

Over the past two years, the beavers’ work has transformed the area from an emergent wetland to that of a flooded wetland, said Magothy River Association President Paul Spadaro. The beavers have created nothing short of ponds and a shoreline in the area.

Interested residents can check out the beavers’ craftsmanship for themselves — the site is accessible by public property, the county-owned Cattail Creek Natural Area.

The first dam built by the beavers is close to Ritchie Highway where it passes over Cattail Creek. The dam is at least three feet tall.

Farther upstream is a second dam, which Spadaro said has been built recently. He noticed a lot of activity this winter. The beavers did not apply for construction permits, so a precise construction date wasn’t available.

They’re active from dusk to dawn, so the best shot at seeing a beaver is likely in the early morning. That’s exactly what Magothy River Association intern Campbell Jones and volunteer Charles Germain did Tuesday.

The pair caught the critters in action Tuesday around 5 a.m. and made a video available on YouTube and posted on the Magothy River Association’s Facebook page.

Sharing the Best Beaver News

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? July 2, 2017

What was the very best part of Jari Osborne’s PBS beaver documentary? Lots of people will say the Timber story, and that story was certainly very touching and a wonderful way to learn about family groups. But there was another, better part that made all the ranchers and property owners pay attention in a way they never had before. And it was this:

Well I heard from Carol Evans this weekend because busy beaver author Ben Goldfarb had just made his way to Nevada. And she took him out to nearby Maggie creek to show him what it looks like now. Are you sitting down? Because this is the ONLY story we should need to tell about beavers. Ever.

I keep looking at this over and over. At the contrast with the dry desert background. It looks like the garden of Eden. Or better yet like someplace Moses lead the Jews out of the wilderness. It’s beautiful, and it was all done by beavers.

Speaking of water, a wonderful donation arrived from our fluvial professor friend Dr. Ellen Wohl at Colorado State. She has been persistently interested in the effects of beaver on creeks and rivers, and I’m a great admirer of her ability to speak about their influence without sounding like a beaver-hugger but as a brilliant woman who understands water systems better than anyone else. Ellen’s book Discontinued Rivers was published by Yale University Press and is described as

This important and accessible book surveys the history and present condition of river systems across the United States, showing how human activities have impoverished our rivers and impaired the connections between river worlds and other ecosystems. Ellen Wohl begins by introducing the basic physical, chemical, and biological processes operating in rivers. She then addresses changes in rivers resulting from settlement and expansion, describes the growth of federal involvement in managing rivers, and examines the recent efforts to rehabilitate and conserve river ecosystems. In each chapter she focuses on a specific regional case study and describes what happens to a particular river organism—a bird, North America’s largest salamander, the paddlefish, and the American alligator—when people interfere with natural processes.