Month: May 2018

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE ADORABLE

heidi08 stupid solutions May 11, 2018

Here are three things you don’t usually find together. A scientific report about beavers in the news, a Dutch account of adorable orphaned beavers, and a city in Rhode Island that has decided to use huge metal cages to discourage beavers. One of the three stories is incomprehensible gibberish – and believe you me it ain’t the Dutch.

Town bringing heavy cages into fight against beavers

CUMBERLAND – From the Monastery to Diamond Hill Park, and numerous other waterways across town, local beavers appear undeterred in their path of destruction, causing downed trees and flooding as they move from place to place.

Now town workers, upping their game after a failed experiment with smaller “beaver deceivers,” or wire devices meant to allow water through and prevent beavers from building dams, are installing larger metal cages at strategic locations.

Highway Supt. Frank Stowik said a friend gave him the cages, and they’ve been reinforced with screens that he said are impossible to break through by jumping on them. Three are being installed at the Monastery, he said, and workers are planning to install more.

Um, did the ‘friend’ who gave you the cages borrow them from the BDSM club he visits on tuesdays when the wife’s playing bridge? I thought so. How exactly are they supposed to work. I realize you and the boys had fun jumping on them but what are they supposed to do exactly?

A smaller contraption was vandalized at the Monastery last year, he said, but these larger devices will hopefully prove more effective.

There are now discussions between some Land Trust members and town officials about potential solutions through trapping, said Murray. Past efforts at taking stronger measures were met with strong resistance, he said, so they’ll exercise caution moving forward.

Say no more. I understand what this is completely. We’ve seen it a million times before. Some compassionistas Save-the-beaver types stopped you from trapping and made you try a ‘beaver deceiver’. So you put a piece of dental floss in chicken wire and called it one because who can stop you? And then it didn’t work (surprise!) and you are bring in those huge cages leftover from the set of ‘shark week’ so when they fail you can say with a straight face,

“We tried using humane methods and they just didn’t work. Now we have to kill them”.

You’re working very hard to not succeed. I understand how this works. This ain’t my first rodeo.

New coverage of the Stirling study now in Science News

Study: Beavers Could Help Curb Soil Erosion, Clean Up Polluted Rivers

Led by University of Exeter’s Professor Richard Brazier, the study surveyed sediment depth, extent and carbon/nitrogen content in a sequence of beaver pond and dam structures in South West England, where a pair of Eurasian beavers were introduced to a controlled 1.8 ha site in 2011.

“The animals built 13 dams, slowing the flow of water and creating a series of deep ponds along the course of what was once a small stream,” the scientists explained.

“We measured the amount of sediment suspended, phosphorus and nitrogen in water running into the site and then compared this to water as it ran out of the site having passed through the beavers’ ponds and dams.. We also measured the amount of sediment, phosphorus and nitrogen trapped by the dams in each of the ponds.”

The results showed the 13 beaver dams had trapped 101.53 tons of sediment, 70% of which was soil, which had eroded from ‘intensively managed grassland’ fields upstream. Further investigation revealed that this sediment contained 15.9 tons of nitrogen and 0.91 tons of phosphorus, which are nutrients known to create problems for the wildlife in rivers and streams and which also need to be removed from human water supplies to meet drinking-quality standards.

Oh yes they did. Thank you for paying attention. Now if you could just send the results to the idiots in Cumberland and get them to stop “playing cages” long enough to realize that a LAND TRUST should value you its beavers we’d be in business.

The final act of this three-part drama comes from our friends in Belgium.Jorn Van Den Bogaert posted in the beaver management forum that his team had come across a nursing female beaver who had been hit by a car, They opened the lodge and rescued the kits and were asking how to care for them. All the right people helped and those kits are getting a good second chance as we speak. This was on Dutch TV last night, and even though you probably won’t understand it, you have to watch it because it is the best thing you will ever see.
<span style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" data-mce-type="bookmark" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>

YOU DON’T SAY!

heidi08 Beavers and soil May 10, 2018

Well, knock me over with a feather and color me surprised! This comes as a complete shock.

Beavers do dam good work cleaning water, research reveals

Beavers could help clean up polluted rivers and stem the loss of valuable soils from farms, new research shows.

The study, undertaken by scientists at the University of Exeter using a captive beaver trial run by the Devon Wildlife Trust, has demonstrated the significant impact the animals have had on reducing the flow of tonnes of soil and nutrients from nearby fields into a local river system.

The research, led by hydrologist Professor Richard Brazier, found that the work of a single family of beavers had removed high levels of sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus from the water that flowed through their 2.5 hectare enclosure.

The family of beavers, which have lived in fenced site at a secret location in West Devon since 2011, have built 13 dams, slowing the flow of water and creating a series of deep ponds along the course of what was once a small stream.

Researchers measured the amount of sediment suspended, phosphorus and nitrogen in water running into the site and then compared this to water as it ran out of the site having passed through the beavers’ ponds and dams. They also measured the amount of sediment, phosphorus and nitrogen trapped by the dams in each of the ponds.

Their results showed the dams had trapped more than 100 tonnes of sediment, 70% of which was soil, which had eroded from ‘intensively managed grassland’ fields upstream. Further investigation revealed that this sediment contained high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, which are nutrients known to create problems for the wildlife in rivers and streams and which also need to be removed from human water supplies to meet drinking-quality standards.

Well isn’t that delightful! The research ran first in a Devon paper, and I’m sure everyone in the UK is on pins and needles hoping the farmers realize finally that beavers are good for them and stop trying to cut off their noses to spite their farming faces. You know, kind of like at the end of that movie where the old crabby sheriff decides that young debuty’s not so bad after all. And they shake hands and go out for a beer together.

Not to burst anyone’s bubble but we here at Beaver Central aren’t holding our breath, because we’ve had years and years to realize that opinions about beavers aren’t changed by good news. Even if God himself comes down from the mountain and says “Beavers are the second coming” folks will still fear and kill them.

It surpasseth all understanding and science.

Professor Brazier said: “It is of serious concern that we observe such high rates of soil loss from agricultural land, which are well in excess of soil formation rates. However, we are heartened to discover that beaver dams can go a long way to mitigate this soil loss and also trap pollutants which lead to the degradation of our water bodies. Were beaver dams to be commonplace in the landscape we would no doubt see these effects delivering multiple benefits across whole ecosystems, as they do elsewhere around the world.”

The research findings about beavers’ positive impact on soil erosion losses and pollution in water courses come at a time of growing concern about these issues. In 2009 a separate study estimated that the total cost of soil loss from the UK’s agricultural land was £45million, much of which was due to the impacts of sediment and nutrient pollution downstream.

Ahh as if logic anything to do with it! Sure they would reduce a 45million dollar problem, but hey, they’re beavers. And as rancher Alan Newport put it so well in his 2017 article of the same name.

“Beavers are the Cure we don’t want to take”

TOO MANY BEAVERS IN PEWAUKEE

heidi08 Who's blaming beavers now? May 9, 2018

Pewaukee Lake is a five mile fishing spot in Wisconsin. It is best known for it’s inland sailboat races. Not remote in any way, it is a popular summer visit for Milwakee residents, who once upon a time depended on ice harvested from its shores.

Oh and it has some beavers too.

The beaver population around Pewaukee is growing and that is causing some problems

VILLAGE OF PEWAUKEE – Beavers are among the many wildlife populations growing in Lake Country, and they are beginning to cause some issues at the Pewaukee River and around Pewaukee Lake.

“I like the beavers, but you have to limit the activity or they can destroy a place,” said Tom Koepp, manager at Pewaukee Lake Sanitary District. “I’ve never seen them come in as much as they have in the last five years or so.”

Koepp has witnessed their damage in an area near the lake where they have chewed down an entire stand of poplar trees.

You mean these beavers purposely didn’t starve themselves to serve your interests? The nerve!

“When I walked down the boardwalk by the river I thought ‘Holy cow, we do have a problem here,’ ” Koepp said.

Other entities, such as the village and snowmobile club, have also noticed issues with the beaver population, and have asked Koepp to terminate a few.

Koepp said he has trapped four since the beginning of this year. Koepp said beavers are more active in winter and spring, but he plans to continue to monitor them going into summer.

You know how it is. They’re asking him to “thin out the herd”. Of course Mr. Koepp has no earthy idea how many beavers are there and doesn’t realize they don’t travel in herds.. He can only count how many trees have fallen. And does he even mention wrapping trees in his complaints? No he does not. Because the only solution he has learned about is the final solution.

For the record, wrapping a few trees would save those trees for the long haul. Killing a few beavers will work until the remaining beavers get hungry.

Which reminds me of the new activity we’re planning for the festival this year. There’s one corner of the park with three small trees and we plan to wrap them with (A) plastic fencing, (B) chicken wire and (C) welded wire and ask folks which is the correct way to protect them.

The right answers will have a chance to win this.

BEAVER: THE HAPPY WARRIOR

heidi08 Beavers and Ice May 8, 2018

The first day of any beaver conference I attended I always just hummed all over with a sense of comfort and well-being to be surrounded by smarter people than I who knew why beavers mattered and could carry the message forward. On the morning of the second day I would feel a little like I had just joined a really important ‘club’ and together we were going to make a difference.

But by the afternoon of the second day I was invariably getting frustrated by people who looked at beavers as a “Means to an End“. These biologists and hydrologists valued the service of beavers – not the animals themselves. They surely hadn’t spent 100 mornings alone with them over a decade and learned how they explored, talked, argued and played.

There are few actors in this drama that understand that aspect of how I came to care about beavers. So I was delighted to come across this photo yesterday, which I think tells the beaver drama story better than any data ever could.

*Beaver Breaking through the Ice: Edward Episcipo*

I know we all think anthropormorphism is a thing to be avoided, but you truly cannot avoid attributing the feeling of PROUD to that amiably hard-working beaver who emerged from the dark frozen world by skill of his claws and teeth. For days and months he has sat alone in the dark with his family, nothing to do but groom and nothing to eat but old gnawed twigs. And now he’s FREE!

This photo was inexplicably the second prize winner of the recent Chesapeake Bay Foundation contest for 2018. The first prize went to a paddle boarder shot which I guess is explained by the fact that they are more interested in humans using their waters than beavers.

But I love this photo as I have loved no others. I feel that it explains in a single wordless image what the hell I have been doing with my life since 2007. Beavers are mellow even when they do amazingly difficult things. Even when they face challenges like busting through the ice ceiling or living in an urban creek. They work cheerfully to get what they need and they don’t give up until it’s clearly time, and then they just move on to some other effort.

Beavers are cool.

Which brings us to this second photo today posted in the humbly-named periodical “Vancouver is Awesome”.

Disoriented beaver gets washed up onto B.C. bridge deck amidst flooding

Road superintendent Jay Shumaker sees a lot of interesting stuff on the job for VSA Highway Maintenance, and he shared a story with us from yesterday over the phone.

It happened last night around 7:30 while he and his crew were monitoring a bridge about 10 kilometres west of Merritt, where you’ve likely heard there’s been flooding.

Out of nowhere, a large beaver got “tossed up onto the bridge deck” after floating from somewhere upstream.

The creature looked disoriented and began walking around in circles, trying to figure out what had just happened to it.Eventually it found its way over a berm the crew had put into place and back to the edge of the creek, where it jumped into the water and continued to get hauled downstream.

While people are being asked to evacuate by the government as water levels rise, the beavers also seem to be getting displaced – albeit a little more aggressively – by Mother Nature.

Why did the beaver cross the bridge?

To get to the other side, of course.. Because even when it’s flooding and you get thrown onto the cement you just keep going. That’s just what beavers do.

BIBERFEST 2018

heidi08 Beavers May 7, 2018

Beaver supporters had an exciting festival planning meeting yesterday. I’m starting to feel that the year our event is going to be really dynamic. There will be more things for kids to do and more exhibitors and more excitement that we’ve ever had. FRo brought her sketch for the curtain panels kids will be painting, which will be wonderful and useful to us for years to come. (I’m thinking they’ll make an awesome backdrop for the stage). Kids will get to their own chalk alongside Amy on the ‘chalk walk’. And Amy’s unfolding art will dominate in the center all day long.

At the same time, kids can come to my booth to start building their very own beaver ponds. They will pick up a lovely empty pond version on a card and then go around to all the exhibits to fill it in by learning how beavers help those species.Then getting three stickers from each exhibit which will show three parts of that animals life. The back of the card will have an illustration to help them.

At the end, every child’s empty pond will go from this to this!

The curtains will be amazing, I can already tell. The children’s chalk on the sidewalk will be excellent. And everyone who built their own beaver pond can take it home with them!

Stay tuned, this is going to be fun.