Month: October 2018

IN WHICH A BEAVER MAKES THE MOST OF WHAT HE’S GOT

heidi08 Beaver Behavior October 6, 2018

It’s high time for some video of cute beavers being hand-raised and building dams with dishtowels don’t you think?

Say it with me now. Awwwwwww

The beaver who lived with a family and built dams in their home

Thirty years ago, the Lund family of Rennie, Man., had a beaver named Bucky hanging around their house, but they didn’t see it as a problem. He’d been living with the Lunds since he was four days old, after his mother died during the blasting of a beaver dam and Bucky was left an orphan.

“We ended up with this little guy that we really didn’t know what to do with,” said Chris Lund, when speaking with CBC’s Midday in the fall of 1988 about the young Castor canadensis sharing a home with Lund, his wife and his children, near Whiteshell Provincial Park.

“We took him home and hoped on looking after him for a while and hoping that a zoo or some other place where they keep animals would take him, but so far it’s ended up we’ve been keeping him ourselves and still hoping that we’re going to find a home for him.”

This story from the 1980’s must strike the CBC as just as still irresistible today, because it was on my news feed this morning. It occurs to me watching that video that if you are raising a beaver kit and you don’t think he should eat candy and junk food you shouldn’t FEED IT TO HIM. But hey that’s just me.

‘As much trouble as a kid’

The Lunds told Midday — while Bucky sat alongside them on their chesterfield, noisily crying at times — that having a beaver at home was almost like having another child in their life.

“He gets into as much trouble as a kid would,” said Dianne Lund, who noted Bucky liked eating “fruit, vegetables, bread, cereals, cookies, anything — except meat.” (A separate report from a CBC journalist in Manitoba said that Bucky’s favourite food was, in fact, chili.)

He was living the life of a regular pet. He was taken for walks and he played with the Lunds and their children.

But Bucky didn’t give up his wild ways when he moved in with the Lunds, occasionally taking household objects and using them to make dams indoors — including in doorways and on the stairwell.

“He’s still got that instinctive thing in him where he’ll pick up carpet, shoes, anything that’s loose on the floor and make a dam out of it,” said Chris Lund.

I think the Lunds would be very very surprised just exactly how MUCH instinct Bucky still has in him and how quickly he’d forget about refrigerators and tennis shoes if he was given the chance to make friends with a nice yearling by a pond,

In June of 1989, CBC News followed up on Bucky’s story, finding that the Lunds had helped relocate him to a nearby goose sanctuary — though gradually, so he could get used to a life a little more ordinary for a beaver.

“We may have him some evenings in our house, too, so it’ll be a gradual thing where he won’t miss it altogether,” said Chris Lund.

The CBC report said Bucky was commuting between the Lunds’ home and the goose sanctuary as he got used to the new arrangement. There was footage showing the then two-year-old beaver getting into a truck and also swimming in a small pool.

Lucky Bucky got a home with the geese. I’m going to imagine that because of his dedicated scent marking at the goose refuge he attracts a mate and they settle in and live happily together with a “quack quack here and a honk honk there“. Okay?

A CRAZY BEAVER ARGUMENT

heidi08 City Reports, Environmental October 15, 2018

I had a funny dream snippet this morning that I was introducing author Ben Goldfarb to Mitch Wagner, the attorney who represented the friends of Lake Skinner case. And I realized this ancient history was actually wild-foresight-crazy-progressive, It made me wonder whether the Western Environmental Law Firm who sued Wildlife Services in Oregon for trapping beaver last year even knew about it. And it definitely seemed like time to talk about it again.

So Lake Skinner is a reservoir and recreational park in Riverside County in southern California. It has trails and a campground and a boat launch. And way back in the nineties some beavers made there way on the scene.

Now the park is part of the Riverside Country Park District, but since it is part of an important water supply, Metro Water has a hand in it too. All together they decided it wouldn’t do to have beavers taking down trees and mucking things up there. So they announced they had permits from CDFG to trap them.

There were regular users of the park who loved watching the beavers. They didn’t want them killed so they made a fuss. The park came up with a list of bogus reasons why it HAD to be done. The beavers were cutting trees and there would be no place for the Bell’s vireo to nest they argued. (Which happened to be a listed species on site), They had to kill beavers to save birds!

Well the protesters made friends and had supporters, and one of their friends just happened to be attorney Mitchell Wagner, a sole practitioner in Riverside. He wasn’t an environmental lawyer, he wasn’t a biologist. He just ‘happened’ to think this was a bad idea so he signed on to represent these Friends of Lake Skinner beavers. And just like me, since it wasn’t his field, and wasn’t something he knew anything about, he talked to a lot of folks to learn what to do next, And he read. And he listened.

Mitch cared about animals and had handled some animal welfare cases in the past. But maybe if Mitch had been a seasoned environmental attorney who was used to how all this works and the slow inches of progress one could expect he would have taken a different approach, But he was used to thinking for himself and doing things his own way. The other side was represented by the attorney generals office at the biggest firm in the area. But he was not daunted. He did what in retrospect I now realize was the most crazy and long shot thing he could possibly do.

He argued that removing beavers violated the environmental qualities act.

In his studying and talking to people Mitch learned that beavers were good for the environment, for fish and birds and water quality. And he figured if they were GOOD for the environment removing them for no reason must be bad. It made perfect sense in a crazy way, The parks department and water companies weren’t supposed to do things that were BAD for the environment. Were they?

So off they went to court. He sued the parks department, Metro water and the California Department of Fish and Game for good measure.

Late breaking. I just got an email from Mitch who read this and offered an improved paragraph saying,

“A more accurate account would be that I, as a sole practitioner, litigated the Lake Skinner beavers case against three government agencies, including the California Department of Fish & Game, out of conviction for the plight of the beavers and equal conviction in the law and my ongoing animal welfare advocacy. Indeed, as a sole practitioner, I, like the beavers, have always been accustomed to David v Goliath battles, having litigated against government agencies and large corporations.”

!!! Much better! Thanks, Mitch

It probably surprised no one when they lost their initial suit. But Mitch was a fighter and appealed. At this trial he brought in the big guns, wetlands expert Donald Hey from Chicago, and beaver expert Sherri Tippie from Colorado. Can you even believe that? This was 18 years ago. Before Ben’s book, before the nature documentary, even before Michael Pollock was releasing any salmon research.

Mitch argued that removing beavers violated CEQA and he won.

To everyone’s surprise, the appellate court ruled that the decisions weren’t justified. That they should never have trapped the beavers in the first place and that the parks department and Metro and CDFG, that they had caused the lawsuit with their actions and would have to pay all his attorney fees and the expert witness fees.

More than fifty thousand dollars! Not to mention the time and attorney hours they had to spend trying to fight it.

To this day there are still occasional beavers in Lake Skinner. And this was such a wild unbelievable outcome, that it was never tried again as far as I know. Even thought it’s still true that removing beavers hurts the environment, No environmental attorney was crazy enough to argue that.

It took Mitch,

Because sometimes you have to be out of your element to do something that’s never been done before. Which we in Martinez know first hand.

If you haven’t read this yet, you really should.

LAKE SKINNER REMITTITUR

ONE STOP SHOPPING FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere October 4, 2018

Even on vacation we are still a one-stop supermarket for all things beavers. This morning there is a question from a rehab center in Missouri about a sick beaver and a man and wife heading on vacation in the sierras who want to see some beavers on their trip.

I introduced the rehab questioner to our beaver-saving buddy in New York listed in our “advisors page” (which is a great page, you should definitely visit it if you haven’t seen it lately.)

BEAVER REHABILITATION

CHER BUTTON-DOBEMEIRER,

Abbe-Freeland Animal Sanctuary, Inc.

And introduced the beaver-seeking couple to our friend Sherry from the Sierra Wildlife Coalition, who was happy to help.

Because that’s what we do here on aisle beaver.

Yearling eating Strawberries – Photo Cheryl Reynolds

BEAVERS GO TO SCHOOL

heidi08 Beaver Book October 3, 2018

Panama New York is in Chautauqua County at the very very bottom of the state that’s almost Pennsylvania. It has one of the highest rated public high schools in the US and the Senior English class got a special treat yesterday.

‘Eager’ Beaver

Panama Students Hear From Author In ‘Tech Den’

PANAMA — Rarely do high school students meet the author of the book their reading in class, but on Tuesday, Panama Central School seniors did just that.

Environmental journalist and author Ben Goldfarb wrote the book “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter” that 12th grade students are reading in English teacher David Becker’s class. The course is a companion course with Jamestown Community College and offers college credits for students.

“We’re fortunate all the way around,” Becker said of talking with Goldfarb. “It’s just a good experience for us that we can even do this.”

Goldfarb video-called into the newly installed “Tech Den” in Panama where those students were gathered. The meeting served as the first event of its kind in the new room.

The high school room and the elementary Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Lab were both introduced this year with a wider focus on collaborative work.

Hey I know that face! Imagine talking to the best and brightest high school students without leaving home. That must be a fairly surreal experience, but I’m sure Ben is up to the task. I hope they asked lots of questions about chapter 6 especially!

Goldfarb’s book details the impact of European settlers on the North American beaver population and how it affects the natural world today. Becker said drought, diversity of species and types of trees are all impacted by the decreased population of beavers. Goldfarb’s book also discusses the impact of reintroducing beavers into an area where they were hunted to endangered numbers. Becker said beavers can positively impact droughts in the west by raising the water table.

“People that do stuff outdoors, their activities are helped by beavers,” Becker said.

Becker said, as an English teacher, he prefers to incorporate “good fiction” into the curriculum, so when he stumbled upon Goldfarb’s book over the summer, he knew it would be well suited for the course.

“I am an English teacher, but I think nonfiction is important,” he said.

Well sure it is. And making non fiction imminently readable so that it gets described as a “Page-turner” is hard, hard work. Your students should be inspired to great heights.

During class on Tuesday, Goldfarb, who was digitally transported to Panama on the electronic flat-board in the technology room, detailed how he came to write the book they are reading for class. Becker guided the meeting by asking Goldfarb student-submitted questions that pertained to data gathering, duration of writing and the future of the beaver population.

That’s so cool. I wish I was in that class.

Cook emphasized the importance of the students being able to see the author and realize that the authors they read are normal people, too. She said the students benefit from learning how Goldfarb became an author as well.

Well, I’m not sure I would go that far… 🙂

That’s it folks. Be excellent to each other! If my voice sounds very relaxed tomorrow, it’s because I’ll be at the ocean, drinking in the end of Summer on the Albion Coast. Ta ta!

MARTINEZ BEAVERS GO GLOBAL

heidi08 Beavers and climate change October 2, 2018

A couple of weeks ago I received a very unexpected email from one Marcus Nield.

Dear Martinez Beavers,

I’m writing from the United Nations initiative called the Global Adaptation Network (GAN). Our primary objective is to share effective solutions, technologies and practices for adapting to climate change.

In our bi-monthly newsletter, we would like to feature the National Geographic article that references your work. The GAN newsletter publicizes the greatest work being undertaken in the world of adaptation. It includes stories, events, insightful opinion-pieces and cutting-edge technologies.

Would you be happy for me to subscribe you to our GAN newsletter so you can see your work featured in the next edition?

The newsletter is distributed to many professionals within the international adaptation community, so it’s a great platform to get your stories out.

Marcus Nield
Climate Change Adaptation Unit (CCAU)
UN Environment
PO Box 30552 – 00100 | Nairobi | Kenya
Email: marcus.nield@un.org

Mind you I initially regarded this email with exactly as much respect as I would one from a Nigerian Prince looking to find an heir, but when I looked it up it turned out to be the real thing.

GAN stands for the “Global Adaption Network” and it’s part of the United Nations climate response team, “Founded in 2010, the Global Adaptation Network (GAN) provides a worldwide platform to distribute and exchange climate change adaptation knowledge in a variety of ways. It emphasizes the value of direct personal exchange and partnerships, often within particular regions of vulnerability.”

Marcus heads the adaption portion of GAN and told me he was formerly a supporter of returning the beavers to the UK so of course he was thrilled to see the National Geographic article and wanted to pass it on.

As of this morning it’s official. Because of Ben Goldfarb’s excellent book, the Martinez Beavers have gone global, baby.

Beavers – once nearly extinct – could help fight climate change – A feature-length piece in the National Geographic details how beavers can mitigate the effects of climate change. The endless list of ecological benefits that beavers provide is astounding. A new book by Ben Goldfarb, Eager, celebrates the return of beavers to many ecosystems across Europe, describing it as “one of our most triumphant wildlife success stories.”

Which of course links to the August National geographic article where we are, as you know, a colorful feature. Here let me refresh your memory.

You meet a colorful cast of characters along the way. Tell us about Heidi Perryman and her organization Worth A Dam.

Heidi is a fascinating person, a child psychologist who didn’t know much about beavers until 2007, when beavers showed up in downtown Martinez, California, where she lives. It’s in the Bay Area, the former home of John Muir, and when beavers showed up there the response of the city was to kill them because landowners downtown were worried they were going to cause flood damages. There’s no evidence supporting this, but the reflexive reaction was to get rid of them.

Heidi spent a lot of time going to the streams of Alhambra Creek, where the beavers lived. She filmed them and organized a campaign to save them. In so doing, she became one of the most knowledgeable beaver advocates in the country. She now organizes an annual beaver festival in downtown Martinez. As a result of her campaigning, the city has let beavers live with many generations of offspring and now Martinez is regarded as a leader in beaver coexistence.

As a humble beaver advocate who has now been featured in National Geographic and the frickin’ United Nations newsletter, I have just one simple question about the future of beaver promotion.

Isn’t there anything intergalactic to tell our story?