NEW BEAVERS: NEW WEBINAR

heidi08 BDA's, Beaver population December 2, 2017

Yesterday three new beavers were brought to Argyll Scotland to keep the beaver genes running strong there. I heard from Sharon Brown years ago that one of the things beavers appreciate even in captivity is the ability to chose a mate, rather than having one trust upon them. Since they mate for life I believe it! Who doesn’t like to choose these things for themselves?

Scottish Wildlife Trust with Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS).

Thanks to your support we’ve been able to reinforce the population of wild beavers in Knapdale Forest. Three more animals were released into the forest this autumn and are settling in well. Further releases will take place in the spring. We’re hoping that these new residents will find mates among the existing population.

Good luck little flagship beavers! I used to help my father in the garden all the time and insisted as a very young child on planting new things with the silly and self-generated blessing, “Now grow nice and good in your new little home”. Seems appropriate here, doncha’ think?

Sorry about the late notice, but this was just forwarded to me last night. It’s lovely to see USFWS getting excited about beaver dams. If you have timeyou should check this out.

Partnering with Beaver to Restore Fish & Wildlife Habitat

Tuesday, December 5, 2017 10:00:00 AM PST – 11:30:00 AM PST

Beaver dam analogs (BDAs) have been shown to be a useful restoration tool to serve some of the functions that natural beaver dams perform, encourage and assist beaver dam building, and improve and create habitat for fish and wildlife (Pollock et al. 2012, Pollock et al. 2014, Bouwes et al. 2016). The use of beaver dam analogs to aid in stream restoration has gained huge popularity in the past 5 years, in part, because of the per structure cost, their accessibility to restoration practitioners, and evidence of their benefits (Bouwes et al. 2016). How BDAs are constructed and what defines a BDA varies among different restoration practitioners as does the types of impairments that can be addressed by this approach. Thus, the need to provide further information on the effectiveness of these structures across the diversity of project types to inform future efforts. Use of adaptive management to maximize learning while achieving restoration benefits can help progress the science of this approach.

ATTENUATE MEANS “SLOW DOWN”

heidi08 Beavers and Flooding November 30, 2017

There is much to revisit on the flooding front. I’ve been checking out the recent paper on this front from Puttock et al from Exeter University. Here’s the money quote on flooding.

beavers were likely to have had a significant flow attenuation impact, as determined from peak discharges (mean 30 ± 19% reduction), total discharges (mean 34 ± 9% reduction) and peak rainfall to peak discharge lag times (mean 29 ± 21% increase)
during storm events.

And those effects were only from the 13 dams of a single pair of beavers! Imagine the effect of a healthy stream full of beaver! Apparently I’m not the only one to be really excited by those numbers. I’ll post the article at the end.

Beaver dams helping with floods

Beavers have been acting as engineers of their own craft in wetland areas for over a hundred years with their dams. However, rural people have had their concerns of the future prospects of flooding in their areas and will have the opportunity to learn how beavers can make an impact on water storage during periods of flooding and drought at an upcoming symposium hosted by the Miisstakis Institute and the Alberta Riparian Habitat Management Society (Cows and Fish) on how humans and animals co-exist.

“Beaver can absorb quite a significant amount of medium-sized floods and at the same time they provide benefits for ranchers and the environment,” said Rob Gardner, a Medicine Hat- based conservationist and consultant.

Gardner had noticed on his hikes out in the prairies that there were streams with beavers in them that were looking healthy with lush growth along the banks, while others nearby did not have the same treatment.

“Occassionally they’ll put a dam where it starts to flood something that people have gotten attached to whether it’s a hay field or wintering areas that’s close to a creek. If a beaver dam is flooding your property, then chances are a flood will be flooding it pretty soon. Beavers are giving fair warning that you build your structures close to the creek.”

You have to love Cows and Fish and the Miisstakis Institute for spreading the word so well and bringing it so down to earth for the ranchers. Beavers are giving you a message about your land and what you can expect. Pay attention! You can tell what a difference beavers make by using your eyes by just looking, (like we did in Martinez), or you can science the shit outta this thing, as they are doing in Wales. Turns up you end up with pretty much the same result.

Beavers make the difference, pass it on…

Brazier

STILL NOTHING NEW IN NEWPORT

heidi08 What's killing beavers now? November 29, 2017

My problem is that I am not smart enough to figure out why Newport would write about the beaver problems after hiring a trapper, put photos of the dead beavers in the news, or run the entire story all over again two days later on the evening news.
Do you have any idea?
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Beavers becoming pests in Newport, Minnesota

Andy Shoemaker has been trapping for decades, and a couple weeks ago, he got a call from the city of Newport. The city found it while clearing a house off flood plain property they’d purchased, the trees all along the public trail on top of the river dike. So, it’s a legal liability.

“I got one out of here that I’m sure was at least 70 pounds and probably two others that were 60,” Shoemaker said. He said Newport is one of ten stops just today to check traps and that the problems seem to be growing

That being said, the population is very healthy… Less than a quarter mile up, there’s a whole separate colony of beavers, there’s a whole other one.

Obviously if a solution isn’t working what you need to do is do it MORE. Like the large families of Catholic parents practicing the rhythm method, Newport just needs to try doing their non-solution HARDER.

That should work, right?

I can’t understand why they are running this story again in a town of 3000. There can’t be much push back or they wouldn’t show photos of the dead beavers. There is obviously a problem, and no one on gods green earth can think of a single other thing to do with those trees to protect them. Certainly not spend the half hour public works uses to complain on camera to actually wrap them with wire. That’s just silly.

There are plenty of other species that would consider that a better idea. Here’s just one example from today’s news.

Wood Turtles In The Adirondack

Unlike the painted and snapping turtles, the wood turtle does not prefer to reside in the quiet waters of ponds, marshes, and the weedy shores of lakes. Rather, this reptile is more attracted to large, sluggish brooks, alder-choked streams and meandering rivers, especially those that flow through wooded areas. Because the wood turtle is not as well adapted for absorbing oxygen from water as other turtles, it must seek out those aquatic settings in which there is a high concentration of this dissolved gas. Sections of water in which a series of small, swirling cataracts and periodic waterfalls allow the air to mix with water forming a solution rich in oxygen are ideal. Even the waterfalls on the spillway on a beaver dam can create favorable conditions downstream for the wood turtle.

Here’s some more:

TOMORROW’S BEAVER SCHOLARS

heidi08 Beavers and water, Urban beavers November 28, 2017

It’s almost time for the 13th annual Berkeley River Restoration Symposium.

The Keynote will be by Robin Grossinger who we know has very, very interesting things to say about ecology in California.

Urban streaming: cities, storms, and ecosystems flow into the future
Robin Grossinger, Senior Scientist, San Francisco Estuary Institute

Of course you know this means lots and lots of conversations about urban beavers and how good they are for city creeks right? Well, no, But there are some interesting subjects being discussed by the graduate students. Especially this:

Examining the Effects of Beaver (Castor canadensis) Activity on a High Sierra Meadow Restoration Project

Kieran Locke,
Dasha Pechurina,
Andrew Salmon

I wonder if our friend Ann Riley will be there, and if any of the attendees read the chapter of her most recent book that talked about the work Martinez did to restore its creek by letting beavers live there for a decade.

This chapter in particular looks fascinating.

Here she is on WTTW Chicago for their “Urban Nature” series talking about her work daylighting strawberry creek in Berkeley. I can’t embed the excellent segment, but click on the photo to watch it on their website.

CLOSE TO HOME

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and water November 27, 2017

Rusty Cohn sent word yesterday that his beloved years of filming and photographing the beavers and wildlife at Tulocay creek are being showcased on the website for a Kayak Tour of the area. Just looking at it is enough to make me want to go!

*An Incredible Tour and Only $49

How can anyone resist? Mind you, the odds of seeing an actual beaver on a day paddle in November are not good, but you certainly might see otters, herons or woodduck. Just think what a special treat it would be to paddle around Napa for a few hours and then go reward yourself with one of their five star restaurants.

They would sure appreciate the business now too, as things recover from the fire and life goes forward. So many homes burned in the areas of Napa, Sonoma and Santa Rosa that every available space is being rented while folks rebuild. I just learned that the glorious solar-powered home of the beloved Loren Cole, founder of Inquiring Systems Inc who died last winter, is now being rented to one such family.

This weekend I submitted a nomination to the John Muir Association for a Conservation award in the Business category for the heroic Safari West, who humanized the horrible tragedy with the story of owner Peter Lang staying behind to save the animals and put out spot fires. They reopened their doors on Tuesday last week.