Month: March 2018

GETTING ALONG WITH BEAVERS, SWIMMINGLY

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact March 21, 2018

Windsor Ontario is just east of the thumb on Michigan’s mitten across the detroit river before it runs down into Lake Erie. It’s a region that’s had its share of pollution mostly from years of its key role in the automobile industry. It also has a higher than average number of respiratory diseases because it is downwind of too many coal burning plants in the US.

So when they get good environmental news, there are reasons to celebrate.

Beavers making a comeback in Windsor-Essex a sign of good habitat

Beavers are making a comeback in Windsor and Essex and officials say it’s a sign their habitats are improving. It’s been decades since the semi-aquatic rodents have been in the region, but in recent years they’ve continued to build their dams on major waterways.

“It shows that they can exist here that they can thrive in fact and reproduce and they have enough food and habitat to live here,” said Kevin Money, director of conservation services at the Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA).

He said it’s a good thing that the beavers have come back.

“Windsor-Essex has long been known as an area without much habitat, so the fact that they’re here indicates that we’re on the path to recovery,” he said.

Dams have been spotted in Hillman Marsh in Leamington, on the Detroit River, and primarily along Lake St. Clair in Lakeshore.

“Beavers started showing up here 10 to 15 years ago. The population has slowly grown,” said Money.

One family has moved in at Holiday Beach in Amherstburg, where they’ve built a dam on the side of the park’s trout pond. The family has been there for more than a year, to the delight of birders and others catching a glimpse while on nature walks.

“They have removed some of the trees but not as many as you’d think,” said Money. “I see them as a benefit to this particular site. We don’t have drainage issues here.”

Beavers can be somewhat of a nuisance, as they can cut down up to 200 trees each year.

“You can actually use a material around the bottom of your trees so they can’t cut them down,” said Money, adding that there are types of trees that beavers don’t like.

“They’re just doing their thing. They’re part of wildlife just like other forms of wildlife in this park,” said Money.

Wow! Beaver acceptance and wisdom from a place I might not expect it! They’re just doing there thing! Don’t worry about the trees, you can wrap them with wire, and hey it means good things that they’re here in the first place, because our river used to be a MESS!

Not that that’s entirely true, since beavers came back to Chernobyl after the nuclear meltdown and don’t need clean water or even much water to make it. They tend to carry their own solutions in their back pocket. Much better than the famous cockroaches, they are a survivor and can handle the pollution life throws at them.

But if folks want to take beavers as a compliment, I’m certainly not going to complain.

Which reminds me, Beaver friend Rob Rich sent this along yesterday and I was pretty surprised we hadn’t seen it for a whole year. Fantastic work by Tree For all from their “Living with Beavers” page.

BEAVERS ON THE ROAD AGAIN

heidi08 Dispersal March 20, 2018

Looks like yesterday’s review helped Ben Golfarb’s book a bit on the old Amazon-meter, which is excellent for beavers. I also learned that he will be interviewed on National Geographic Books in July, now we just need him to get some June gigs so we can promote the festival a bit!

In the meantime there’s plenty to keep our attention. Starting with something I never thought I’d see: A watch-out-for-beavers-in-traffic report from Tulsa Oklahoma.

Of course beavers are notoriously low to the ground and dispersers are extremely prone to getting hit by cars, but I’ve never ever seen articles warning about this, and I certainly never expected one from Oklahoma, where they hate beavers so much they go out of their way to kill them whenever they can.

Not that this article is exactly kind towards them either…

Why a beaver crosses the road, and other car-thumping wonders of spring

While driving along local roadways this time of year, it’s not uncommon to see a brown furry animal walking near the road, possibly lying on it or off to the side, preferably not running in front of your headlights.

You might wonder about these animals normally seen in or near the water and ask, “Why did a beaver cross a road?”Answer: Because it just couldn’t stick around any longer.

Terry Ball, director of streets and stormwater for city of Tulsa, knows about beavers dispersing and building new homes. It picks up in the spring, but keeping tabs on beaver construction is actually a year-round chore, he said.

“The creeks are the biggest issue,” he said. “They can dam up a creek pretty quickly, and it can flood a neighborhood.”

Flood-control ponds are another issue.“On a retention pond they might change how it flows, and we don’t want them to do anything to change how that pond is supposed to work,” Ball said.

Beavers live in colonies, but as it comes time for a new batch of young ones, the older 2- and 3-year-olds in the group take the hint and hit the road, and sometimes they get hit on the road instead.

Huh, that’s actually true, although if I ever get a beaver publicist alone in a room I’m going to demand to know why on EARTH anyone first said that beaver live in “Colonies”. That makes it sound like hundreds grouped together. Like penquins on the shores of Antartica. When of course we all know that the word colony when applied to beavers just means FAMILY, which is a helluva lot less scary sounding.

Anyway, its Oklahoma so trust them to make beavers sound pretty bad.

Older, larger beavers sometimes get displaced by construction or flood events and may be on the move as well as the younger ones. If you come across a big adult, you best hit the brakes. “We had someone that reported harvesting a 69-pound beaver caught this year,” Davis said. “That’s a big, dominant critter.”

New cars aren’t built for hitting those critters, he said.

“Any of the new cars sit so low to the ground — anything you hit, it’s rolling up under there and tearing that plastic up. … That’s just the way cars are constructed these days.”

“Especially the smaller new vehicles, they’ll damage the car or cause a bigger accident,” Murray said. “They’re stout — nothing but muscle. It’d be like hitting a fuzzy concrete block.”

Huh?

He’s right about one thing. Beavers are LOW to the ground. I’ve often thought of that beavers need those tall flags that we used to put on the back of kids bicycles when I was younger, just to make them really obvious in traffic,

And I’m sure beavers are quite flattered to hear that he thinks they’re nothing but muscle. They take so much teasing at the gym for that classic waddle and stored fat to live off in snowy winters.

“But, hey,” they’ll say now, “it’s all solid muscle!”

WE ARE ‘EAGER’ FOR THIS BOOK

heidi08 Eager: book review March 19, 2018

Last week I received my review copy of Ben Goldfarb’s book. Apparently a few minor changes and corrections will get made in the finished version, and the artwork will be added, but it’s basically the almost-entirely-final product. The publisher thought a review from this beaver website might be useful so we all get a sneak preview now. Hopefully this will encourage you all to pre-order this excellent book. If you do, you help the book rise on Amazon and your copy should arrive soon enough to bring it to the festival and have him sign it! I thought some some of our beaver photos would help deliver the message,

Here goes:

Every now and then a well-written and cheerfully-researched book comes along that changes the conversation forever. Suddenly no one is asking whether DDT is harmful or we didn’t do enough to prevent 911, they are just discussing what to do about it now and where to start first.

This might just be one of those books. With Eager: The surprising secret lives of beavers and why they matter, accomplished author Ben Goldfarb lays out a Michener-esque sweeping look at an America that was burrowed, shaped and watered by beavers. He uses a convincing cast of characters to tell this compelling story – characters as varied as they are persuasive. From the “high-spirited and freckled” fluvial geomorphologist Rebekah Levine in Montana, to the “geyser of colorful catch phrases” Joe Wheaton in Utah, or the fish biologist with the “gentle manner of painting instructor”, Carol Evans of Nevada, each tell their part of a highly relevant ecological drama that we never even realized we were waiting for.

I have a lot of favorite parts to this book, but an enduring winner is the unparalleled illumination Ben shines on a pre-settlement America when beavers and their dams were everywhere and complex interlacing streams looked more like ‘a bowl of spaghetti’ than individual channels due to their ubiquitous work – my most stark and unfavorite part is similarly unforgettable – the devastating near apocalyptic impact that the fur trade had in drying our national landscape.

Besides introducing the reader to beaver believers from every walk of life all over the country and beyond, and stacking the courtroom with deftly-delivered scientific arguments from every field, Goldfarb is a careful archeologist who unearths historical passages that introduce a new understanding of past figures and their thoughts about a beaver-made country. Like a special lens attached to a telescope, his writing becomes a prism through which beavers shape our past, our present and our future.

Of course, this book didn’t change my conversation. Because I talk about beavers every day of my life and have now since the Bush administration. But it did introduce me elegantly to a chorus of advocates and arguments for beavers even I never knew existed. From flow devices to St. Francis Satyr’s to the limitations of beavers in Yellowstone, reading through these pages I was reminded viscerally of the early days I spent watching the then-unknown family in Alhambra Creek, calling to mind the engrossing, awakening, immersive feeling of discovery.

You deserve discovery too. The book is currently available for pre-order on Amazon, and listed as number one in ecology. Early orders boost its status and mean more people will be convinced to buy it which mean more people will be able to learn about beavers.

I am personally overjoyed that this book has been written, and thrilled to see it come together in such a powerful way. I am also happy that Ben will be at the festival and that Martinez plays a memorable part in its story. Reading about myself was disconcerting for all the reasons you might expect, but I will say I that I was heartened by this in the acknowledgments at the end:

“ Heidi Perryman has supplied me an endless stream of stories, sources, studies and quips since our first email exchange. This book would be far drier without her involvement.”

Aw, thanks Ben, I’m a book-moistener! Who knew?

To be honest I felt proud but a little wistful when I finished this book. I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe like you feel at graduation when you know that it’s time to leave something important behind and move on to the next level of wonders. All the scrappy fighting we did to save our beavers reported in this book will mean so much to the next ten cities who try to save theirs. All the fish biologists and cattle ranchers who were never quite listened to by their co-workers. All the assistant professors who get laughed down when they say they want to teach beaver ecology will finally get eyed with new respect. I think Ben’s book will change things for beavers, which probably means it will change things for me and you too.

I especially like the ‘appearance section’ from the publisher.

See you there!

OF COURSE WE’D PICK BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers March 18, 2018

We’ve done a couple events with NWF refuge folk there as a neighboring booth. They have nice uniforms and look official. They are generally politely amused by our beaver booth. But despite the government issued equipment they always seem to struggle to find a way to relate to the young people. Maybe they are so busy filling out forms that they don’t get a lot of practice. or they just aren’t sure what makes an impression. Generally we find they have that ONE idea that they cling to and can’t easily adapt to other settings. You know the old tool of dressing kids up in a fur coat and goggle to let the ‘be’ a beaver. Or for example, the few times they came to the beaver festival and insisted on bringing a massive red speed boat to display.

Why bring this up now, you ask?

Mammal Madness: Who Gets Your Vote?

Poor basketball fans. How do you cope with having just a month to go wild over contests between, say, wildcats and wolverines, or cougars and tigers?

In the National Wildlife Refuge System, celebrating its 115th birthday on March 14, Mammal Madness isn’t just a spring event. Refuge mammals draw attention all year. We can root for our favorites whenever we like, just by visiting a national wildlife refuge — online or in person.

Which of the animals in these pairs gets your vote?

Get it? Instead of March Madness it’s Mammal Madness! Isn’t that c-l-e-v-e-r? Probably someone with respected government title like educational outreach coordinator thought that up specifically to relate to all those young people. Now that our curiosity is peaked, let’s see what is among their match-ups.

River Otter vs. Beaver

You like your wildlife sleek and slippery, equally at home on land or in water? Got it. So which team do you favor in a matchup between river otters and beavers?

If there’s one thing river otters seem to like better than rolling on logs and sliding on their bellies, it’s doing it in groups. Play is a social activity for these semi-aquatic animals. Dense fur containing nearly 160,000 hairs per square inch insulates otters in cold waters.

Busy as a beaver is more than a saying. The thick-haired rodent incessantly gnaws trees and builds dams for dens and lodges. One of the largest beaver dams — seen on a satellite image in 2007 in Alberta, Canada — reaches more than half a mile deep. Dams help protect beavers from predators and keep their lodge entrances ice-free.

Because their fur pelts were so prized for hats, beavers were almost wiped out in North America. If silk hats hadn’t come into fashion around 1900, beavers might not have survived. Beavers can improve water quality; boost water retention; and create habitat for many other species.

Gosh that’s a toughie. I mean who would we pick between something that rolls on logs and something that actually creates habitat for the things that roll on logs? (What value is there in rolling on logs anyway?)

I say no contest.

Of course they picked an adorable photo for the otter with a family members being all playful, and a lumbering dull photo for the beaver that doesn’t even show his tail. I’m thinking this is a push poll and not a fair fight. We would have made a better choice. Just in the interest of fairness of course.

The other thing I would do if I were the FWS refuge biologist that came up with this brilliant “Mammal Madness” idea, trying to get people to vote in a contest, is actually make a web page where people could, you know, actually VOTE. So they would share it with their friends to get them to vote and see the progress of their favorite species over time. A simple Doodle poll or Go Daddy Poll with real time results to entertain the kids. And maybe the winning species had a runoff for mammal of the year or something.

Do you think this site has a place where you can vote? Don’t be silly. Of course not.

Even with our shoestring budget and lack of uniforms and boats, Worth A Dam is generally a little better at engaging the youngsters. We’re already planning for the Earth Day event with a strategy that will boost the festival as well. In addition to the awesome new festival banners that were madefor the park we bought 3 blank ones as well, and yesterday Jon and I taped of 5×5 sections for kids to draw in with bright sharpies. This means that at the John Muir Earth day celebration, in addition to promoting the festival to the 3000+ kids and parents who visit, the center of the beaver festival park will have banners made by those children themselves.

I added just a few virtual kids drawing so you get the idea.

In case you’re not sure how kids drawings can come together and fill up a space in a way that’s both artistic and educational, here’s a great example we did at the girl scouts 100th anniversary event starting with a plain old beaver dam.

Time to talk about a favorite donation for the silent auction, this one from a talented carver in Massachusetts who gathers beaver chewed sticks to turn into picture frames, wooden bowls and other treasures. Karl Bunker turned his passion into an Etsy shop and was happy to donate to our saving beavers campaign.

I’ve been working in various crafts and art fields for most of my life. Lately I’ve found my greatest joy is in creating objects in wood that emphasize the beauty of wood in its natural forms. And to my eye, some of the most beautiful and charming forms of wood to be found in nature are those that have been “worked on” by beavers. The stumps of trees felled by beavers, logs and branches with beaver chew-marks or with their bark gnawed off by beavers, and sticks with the characteristic cut ends left by beavers.

In addition to this truly unique and tooth-defying base, Karl was so generous that when he heard I have a collection of beaver chews from around the globe, he generously included a couple of Bay state specimens along with package!

Massachusetts has a complicated beaver history, with so much controversy over the animals that it gave Mike Callahan a new career and all of us a great beaver hero. It’s wonderful to meet another man who appreciates their special kind of art work.

Go check out the fun items in Karl’s shop and thank him for making a donation to our Martinez Beavers. Think how wonderful your grandaughter’s photo would look in a beaver frame!

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

heidi08 Environmental March 17, 2018

America is currently being educated by its students. Wednesday’s walkouts in Kansas and Florida and D.C. taught the grownups that problems are never too big to face and that if you have courage and right on your side, even towering bullies can seem smaller. I never counted on this generation to be the one that saves us all from the NRA, but what do I know?

I never expected Nebraska University students to lead the way on the ecology of beavers either.

ASUN passes Green Fund bill on beaver monitoring

The Association of Students of the University of Nebraska discussed a Green Fund project during its weekly senate meeting on Wednesday, March 14.

Green Fund chair Jackson Cutsor yielded his time to applied science graduate student Brooke Talbott to present Government Bill 44, titled “Green Fund: Urban Green Space.”

Talbott said beavers are the focus of the project, which is split into two phases. Phase 1 of the project would extract $3,304.98 from the 2017-18 Green Fund budget to purchase a timelapse camera and other equipment to observe the beavers and the wetland environment on UNL’s east campus.

Sen. Emma Schock asked about the lifetime and durability of the camera. Talbott said there could be issues with flooding in the proposed area on east campus, but the camera can be moved.

“Basically the reasons these cameras break is they get flooded out, so as long as we’re talking to the right people [and] placing it high enough, they don’t [break],” she said.

So college students in Nebraska are using their funds to watch beavers in urban areas with night cameras as part of their Green urban initiative? Because beaver wetlands are worth spending money on. You read that right.

Yes, they are.

Here in Martinez we realize that even urban beaver ponds are actually crossroads and way stations where anything might happen. An otter could meet a raccoon, and a stickleback could meet his end in the beak of a green heron. The ancients understood that crossroads represent the meeting of two realms of being, a duality of spirit and an opening for magic.

Since beaver ponds aren’t just a crossroads but three dimensional intersections where encounters take place above and below the water line and everywhere in between, the possibilities are endless.

And on this fine St Patrick’s Day this blessing seems the very truest about beavers.

May those who love us, love us.
Those who don’t, may God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn’t turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles,
so we’ll know them by their limping.