Month: March 2018

A MISS IS AS GOOD AS A MILE

heidi08 stupid solutions March 26, 2018

I’m off to Auburn to talk about beavers this morning, but I thought I would leave you with some slightly silly news from Washington State, where a beaver was relocated from the water source – not because he was causing beaver fever mind you – but because officials said the dam made the water too turbid.

They only saw one beaver on camera so they’re SURE there’s only one. And the water operator became a ‘licensed beaver trapper’ and did this all himself.

Because honestly, how hard can it be?

Beaver transplanted from its home in Bremerton’s watershed

BREMERTON — A beaver was causing a stir to Bremerton’s primary source of drinking water. Earlier this month, public works officials began seeing a spike in turbidity, or decreased water clarity, in the middle of the night near the Casad Dam.

The dam, at the headwaters of the Union River west of Gorst, supplies about 60 percent of the water to Bremerton ratepayers. Just below it, before the water is treated in multiple facilities, a beaver was creating a new dam of its own.

There was no immediate panic for one animal, according to Kathleen Cahall, the city’s water resources manager. The engineer-like beaver can be a positive force on the nature around it, but in this case, the city had to remove it. Cahall noted that Bremerton must keep strict control of those waters — a pristine source of rainfall that collects behind the dam.

“Source control is paramount,” Cahall said. And that meant the beaver would have to go.

Well, at least you think beavers can be good news, but something tells me you’re still a little beaver-challenged.

It’s likely the critter’s in adolescence and was recently abandoned by his parents to fend for himself, according to Chad Huntelman, lead operator for the city’s water department. It fell to him to trap the animal.

He had no previous experience, but the city sought bids from 12 trappers. The cost to retain one for a year was $60,000. So Huntelman became a licensed beaver trapper.

He began to put out traps filled with cedar and a scent, and eventually, the beaver climbed right in. The state’s Department of Fish & Wildlife was called.

“They had a spot for it,” Huntelman said.

A state wildlife biologist took it to a creek in Mason County that was missing its beaver. The critter had been hit by a car and the owner of the property was glad to take a new one.

Ohhh little washington. You are so very close to smart about beavers, it is almost sadder to read stupid things from you. Why do you think this beaver was on his own anyway? Because you only saw one beaver on the night cam? And of course if you had two images of one beaver you could tell for sure that they were the same beaver right?

Pu-leeze. Why would a single beaver need to build a dam anyway? I mean without a family to protect why bother?

So you didn’t want to hire anyone qualified to do this, because how hard could it be to trap a dumb animal anyway? There are plenty of qualified folk like Ben Dittbrenner’s team that could have helped, but hey, you got this! The beaver was cooperative (probably a male checking out the scene for his family to make sure its safe) and boom! you caught a beaver! Since it’s Washington state you could borrow the hancock from someone, and lucky you there’s a home just waiting for that little transplanted beaver.

I suppose you took the cameras down now? Because you’re going to be shocked when see that beavers family working on your little dam. I just hope you didn’t create orphans along the way.

SAFARI WEST PHOENIX

heidi08 Environmental March 25, 2018

Peter and Nancy Lang are the creative force behind Safari West. Nancy was once avian director of the San Francisco Zoo, and Peter is the son of Otto Lang, the famed film director and ski instructor who built a cattle ranch in Beverly Hills. Peter was especially interested in exotic exotic hoovestock so he left the ranch for 400 acres in Santa Rosa where he could house his new menagerie.

For years Peter and Nancy developed a wildlife retreat and community at Safari West. They were staunch supporters of local wildlife and conservationists in their own right. They became one of only 6 privately owned accredited wildlife parks in the US. Peter and Nancy were staunch supporters of the Martinez beavers. and for years have donated to our festival and invited me to come and speak to guests in the evening. Their Junior Keeper volunteers was a familiar sight at our festival.

This fall the world was heartbroken to watch the sweeping fires in the wine country. I know it seems like a million years ago (because we all live in insane Trump-time now), but it wasn’t even 5 months since the entire area burst into flames. We watched in demoralized horror as beloved landmarks and vineyards burned seemingly without stop. Many of their employees lost their homes, including my good friend Marie Martinez.

In all that darkness, one story of hope sustained us.

The tale of the 76 year-old man staying behind to save his animals with garden hoses became a beacon of hope for a hopeless season. Just like his vision of Safari West conserved a bit of the Africa in the California Serengeti, his inspiring commitment and courage conserved our collective HOPE of survival after the fires. Peter and Nancy lost their home and personal belongings in the fire, but when funds were raised for them to recover they turned around and offered that money to their employees whose homes had also been burned.

Thinking of all this, mindful of the social impact of his brave choices, grateful for the support given over the years, (and guessing that the decision to stay behind in the fires was NOT the best-received decision he had ever made in his marriage), I nominated Safari West for the John Muir Association Business Conservation award this winter. I couldn’t think of anyone who deserved it more and honestly could not believe it had never been done.

I am pleased to announce that they won with unanimous support. Safari West will be the winner of the JMA Business Conservation award of 2o17. This award will be presented at Earth Day next month and isn’t yet listed on their website. I have heard through Marie that Peter and Nancy were touched by this gesture, which is, ridiculously, in fact the first such recognition they’ve received!

It has been a terrible, precious, dangerous year for Safari West, They received a huge outpouring of support from all over the world and saw first hand just how much they mean to the community they’ve created. They began jeep tours soon after the repairs and just reopened their doors for overnights this month. Marie and the other employees who lost their homes are resettling and I will be returning to speak in the summer.

Which leaves me humbled to say that they also donated this for our silent auction once again. Thank you so much, Peter and Nancy!

BABY STEPS FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers March 24, 2018

When I was an psychology intern I once asked a supervisor why he liked working with alcoholics, (which since I was determined to be a child therapist never appealed to me). His answer stuck in my head and stayed with me all these years. He answered frankly, “I was in therapy for seven years. In all that time I changed this much” (he demonstrated an tiny gap between his thumb and forefinger).

“When I work with an alcoholic they can turn their entire life around

Which springs to mind when I consider writing about this very minute victory that dogged persistence achieved. It didn’t take seven years, but gosh it feels like it.

I think it was in ancient days of yore when I was asked to co-author the chapter on urban beavers for the beaver restoration guidebook. I remember being so excited and proud I couldn’t sleep before our first conference call, and working literally hours on every single paragraph. As excited as I was to work on a chapter about coexisting with beavers in an urban setting. that’s how disappointed I was to see the final edited version with a horrific sentence that had been ‘edited in’ by unknown fingers.

Salisbury and White (2015) conclude that there will always be a need to manage wildlife populations in urban settings to reduce human -wildlife conflicts and to provide the missing natural forms of population regulation, such as predation. Careful consideration is warranted for balancing the benefits of accommodating wildlife with the need for minimizing the consequences for both people and animals. When the benefits provided by urban beaver outweigh the costs to a community, then beaver based stream management options should be explored. An example from Martinez, California (see page 22) illustrates the myriad of community benefits derived from just a single beaver colony. However, relocating beaver to wilder places (see Chapter 5: Relocating Beaver ) might be the preferred alternative for both beaver and people, as demonstrated by Wildlife 2000 in Colorado.

Basically that sentence erased everything I had worked towards and suggested those beavers might have been happier if I had just allowed them to be relocated instead. I don’t want to be too dramatic but to me it was kind of like the opposite of a “It’s a wonderful life” it where Clarence the angel scratched his head and said, gosh “everything really would have been better if you had never been born“.

Rogue sentences are hard to trace and harder to erase. There were a host of editors and readers of the document, and no one said they knew how the mysterious sentence got in there. I was warned before hand that every comment had to be backed up with science and not to site “Gray literature”. Even so, there did not appear to be a reference for explaining why beavers would have been happier without Martinez.

(I can’t even imagine how you would research something like that? How do tell when a beaver is happy anyway?)

Anyway I kept poking, prodding and nudging to get this changed, I wheedled and implored and I’m sure it was Kent Woodruff who took mercy on me and finally got it edited. (Thank you, Kent!) Yesterday Greg Lewallen sent these changes to ask if I was happy with them.

In communities where concerns over coexistence have not been properly addressed and management steps have not been taken to ensure the success of urban beaver colonization, then allowing beaver colonization within these communities may not be the appropriate response. In those instances, relocating beaver to wilder places (see Chapter 5: Relocating Beaver) might be the preferred alternative for both beaver and people, as demonstrated by Wildlife 2000 in Colorado.

Ahhh. So there were magic things we did in Martinez that let those crazy urban beavers succeed where they might otherwise have failed? I guess. We installed a flow device and made people stop trying to kill them, that was really helpful. We wrapped trees and held a beaver festival. It was never rocket science. Any city could do it.

But assuming it survives some more ghost edits, it feels a little better anyway.

BEAVERS WITH BENEFITS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers March 23, 2018

Bad news for beavers spreads like wildfire, but good news trickles slowly like a fine spring rain. Still, we’re learned enough to be grateful when we see it, whether it’s in New York or British Columbia. Beavers need all the friends they can get.

Wetland enhancements help species at risk

Students from the Fernie Academy wrap trees to prevent beaver felling in the West Fernie Wetland. ERA photo

Wetlands are natural areas that are wet for all or part of the year, often located along the valley bottom beside the Elk River. Wetlands over the last 100 years in the Elk Valley have been fragmented by transportation corridors, filled in for development and drained for agriculture. People have done this without considering that wetlands provide numerous free and critical services to wildlife and us.

Wetlands soak up, slow down and store floodwater. Still water settles silt, and wetland plants, such as cattails, can filter pollutants and improving water quality. Conversely, wetlands help to reduce the severity of summer droughts as they slowly release stored water. Wetlands are places for fun and education, offering unparalleled wildlife viewing and recreational opportunities.

Many Species at Risk (SAR) in Canada depend on wetlands for survival. SAR can be plants and animals that are at risk of becoming extinct due to outside pressures on their populations, such as habitat loss or pollution. In Canada there are 521 species listed, and up to a third of these are dependent on wetlands at some point in their lifecycle. In the Elk Valley SAR that utilize wetlands include great blue heron, westslope cutthroat trout, and western painted turtles.

Hmm even this article doesn’t actually mention the animal who will make wetlands for free, BUT the elk river alliance is teaching children to wrap trees so that means they aren’t killing beavers. I think we should put this in the ‘plus column” The elk river alliance is a large organization and if they are teaching folks that wetlands matter so wrap trees instead of trapping that’s very good news!

This article from Becky Nystrom in New York is even better.

Beavers: Extraordinary Architects

Last October, I was both delighted and dismayed to discover the handiwork of beavers in a nearby wooded wetland, where the furry little engineers had constructed a barrier of aspen and birch branches and mud across a narrow culvert, damming the small stream and creating a lovely wetland in its place. It was beautiful and serene, as titmice and cedar waxwings flitted and twittered all around, and the autumn reflections of overhanging red maple, yellow birch, black cherry and hemlock danced in gentle ripples upon the surface of the newly-formed pond. On the one hand, I celebrated the creation of this new wetland as a gift of nature — wetlands provide critical habitat for fish, ducks, geese, turtles, amphibians, mink and countless other creatures, while regulating and recharging ground water supplies, reducing erosion, filtering out sediments, detoxifying pollutants and minimizing flooding downstream.

the creativity, ingenuity and adaptability of the beavers themselves, whose architectural and construction skills are nothing short of phenomenal. But on the other hand, I also grieved, knowing that these particular beavers were likely doomed — for their wetland was in the midst of property where their activity would not be tolerated by the landowners and where human concerns over flooding upstream would take precedence. No other mammal has a greater ability to alter its environment than the beaver, except for humans. And rarely will humans tolerate the competition.

It’s not often we get to see the benefits and battles laid out so clearly, thanks Becky. I especially like the next paragraph:

If human tolerance and innovative solutions are embraced, humane remedies can be found. One promising, non-lethal approach is the “beaver deceiver,” or beaver pond flexible leveler, which is a flow device which controls the height of water behind a beaver dam to prevent flooding upstream.

Ho ho! Becky is a professor at the local community college and on the board of a watershed nonprofit, so she is a good friend to have for beavers! We here in Martinez have learned to gather our ‘thousand points of light’ very carefully indeed

Yesterday, the stickers arrived for the art project at the beaver festival so we had to try them out and see if, in fact, this was a cool fun project for kids to do that showed why beavers matter.

You tell me. The top card is the blank one children will receive and the bottom shows it filled up with the stickers they will collect for learning how beavers help other species.

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

heidi08 Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? March 22, 2018

Biohabitats is a American conservation planning and ecological business with about 75 employees operating out of Maryland. They have regional teams all across the US and release a quarterly newsletter called “Leaf litter“. Yesterday the newest issue was send to me by Michael Pollock which is entirely focused on beavers. I’m reprinting their first page here in full so you can see how much information this covers.

Read through the stories and click on the links to follow through to their feature. It’s a meaty issue and there is lots to keep you busy and informed. There is a brief link to this website in the resource section, but I still personally can’t decide whether it’s wonderful not to be mentioned at all or slightly annoying. I’m going to pick wonderful because it means the beaver message has so saturated the nation that they don’t require our voices anymore.

(Although they sure could have used our photos, rather then these tired old tropes which we’ve seen a million times!)

In This Issue

In building dams, beaver naturally achieve many of the goals we strive to accomplish in our conservation and ecological restoration work. Could this animal be one of our most powerful partners? [Read more]