Along the twisted trail I’ve traveled to save some beavers, I have picked up vocabulary to aid me in my quest. Words that I never knew or needed to employ as a fairly competent child psychologist. Words like ‘riparian’ or ‘invertebrate’ or ‘aquifer’ have gradually replaced the use of word like “bipolar’, ‘dissociative’ and ‘atypical’. I’m in a new world now, and I have even started dreaming in that once foreign tongue.
So of course I thought of beavers when Bob Kobres of Georgia sent me this article this morning.
New report on climate change in the Sierra Nevada shows need for human adaptation
The Sierra Nevada mountain range looms over California, stretching 400 miles from Oregon to Tehachapi Pass in Kern County. The range contains the highest point in the continental United States, Mount Whitney, and is home to both the oldest and largest trees in the world—as well as diverse wildlife, from mountain lions to mosquitos.
The range also looms large in the lives of California’s 40 million residents. The food we grow and water we drink depends on the mountains and their effects on climate. That’s why researchers in UCLA’s Center for Climate Science spent the past three years projecting how climate change will affect the Sierra Nevada. On April 2, the final report was released.
The state’s climate is expected to change dramatically by the end of the century, presenting challenges to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to new climate realities.
- More precipitation will fall as rain instead of snow, and snow will melt more rapidly.
- On average, snowpack across the entire Sierra on April 1 would be 64 percent less than it was when measured in the years 1981–2000.
- The midpoint of peak snowmelt and runoff would occur 50 days earlier, on average, than it did from 1981–2000.
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Because less water will be stored naturally as snow and will melt faster, it will be difficult to store using our current system of dams and reservoirs.
Snowpack is another one of those many words I’ve picked up. I mean I heard it on the news before, but never gave a thought about its importance to the water that came out of my Bay Area faucet. It crept into my vocabulary when I heard Suzanne Fouty on the beaver documentary in Elko Nevada discuss whether beaver dams can help eek out the water lost because of the changing snow pack. Remember that awesome scene?
This is my favorite part of Jari Osborne’s documentary, and shows beautifully what a dramatic difference beaver can make on a dry landscape. The longer segment shows Suzanne talking about how that stored water can help recover the water lost because of the depleted snow pack.
In a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed, Hall and climate center associate director Katharine Reich urged the state to prepare now. California currently relies on snowpack for 60 percent of its water supply. They said the state should perform a comprehensive assessment of current infrastructure to account for their projections. Hall and Reich suggest that increasing groundwater could provide one promising solution.
And do you think the results of the fancy study or this important article mention the heroic work of one particular rodent that can recharge the water table and store water to make up for that lost snow pack? Of course it doesn’t. Because if you want to read information that sensible and bleedin’ obvious you have to come here instead.
The final Sierra report also predicts greater snow losses during both drought years and very wet years. The findings suggest that longer, hotter dry seasons would follow the wet seasons, drying out plants that grew in those water-rich months and making record wildfires such as the state saw in 2017 more common. Extreme weather could also lead to additional challenges in flood control.
Well, more marsh than pond, courtesy of an industrious beaver that recently moved into her north Camano Island neighborhood.
If I ask you to conjure up an image of typical Hill Country wildlife, it might include white-tailed deer, armadillo, or a mockingbird. I doubt many would include beaver in this category, but maybe you should. The North American beaver is the largest rodent in the United States and requires water in the form of a pond, stream, lake, or river for survival. They can be found almost anywhere there’s water, and, in fact, are found throughout most of Texas including here in our own backyard. UGRA receives several calls each year about tree damage or sightings of beavers along waterfront property.
Many are surprised to learn that beavers can be found in the headwaters of the Guadalupe River because they don’t see the typical beaver dams or lodges associated with the furry engineers. In colder regions, beavers live in lodges made of sticks and mud and enter and leave them through underwater tunnels. They build dams to surround the lodge with water as a means of protection from predators and to keep the lodge entrance ice-free. The area of impounded water also expands their access to trees while allowing these strong swimmers to remain close to the water. In contrast, southern beavers in Texa
some parts are too big to dam, but I’m sure it has feeding streams that get dams and canals made by beavers. Tara we love this paragraph but being as it’s Texas and all which is not known for it’s steady regular rainfall you might mention they SAVE WATER and reduce flooding. Storing water not just above ground either where you can see it, beaver pond recharge the water table where you can’t see it, which helps prevent wells from going dry. I mean, yes you’re right about the nutrients and sediments but given your drought record you might want to plug that important note in your next column.
Watford is a posh suburb of London, acclaimed for it’s recently finished “parade” which is a cross between an outdoor mall, a civic space and a city park. It contains several water features which is how it encouraged such a fun-spirited article.
d did.
he little beaver dam in Martinez has survived the rains nicely. We were amused yesterday to see that a pilates ball had flowed down stream from someone’s back yard and stopped against the dam, joining up with the soccer ball and kickball it already had. I guess the beavers are getting their workout, although I was curious if the beavers ever move the ball with their noses to be able to work on the dam.
Karen Groethe is a seamstress creative force behind a shop called 
Of course I didn’t know all this when I saw the above adorable camping pillowcase and asked her if she might donate. But Karen loved our story and boldly took it upon herself to hunt down more beaver fabric specifically for us! She donated three lovely hand stitched standard pillow cases with contrasting trim that any child would be thrilled to show off.
Karen is a generous, cheerful woman with a good sense of humor. When I thanked her for the pillow cases she wrote back that they all made her smile, which was useful because she just came back from a trip to Arizona where she was stung by a bark scorpion!!! She is thankful that her fingers are not numb and she appears to be healing nicely.
