Month: January 2019

ARE YOU REGISTERED?

heidi08 Beavers January 21, 2019

It’s time to register for the State of the beaver conference. And if you’re dragging your feet about going GO! Not only will you hear the brightest and best folk talking about the newest research, you can be the first of your friends to see the Beaver believer movie and meet in person some of the famous faces I’ve been talking about for years!

Plus this year you can be my eyes and ears in at the table and be personally thanked for filling me in on everything that happens!

One avid believer from the south bay is looking for a lift and be cheerful company pay for your gas. Worth A Dam owes Gail for years of service and getting the Raging grannies to the festival in 2009, so if you are willing to help we’ll thank you profusely with a free beaver teeshirt! Drop me an email if you’re interested in a carpool buddy

Meanwhile I’m thinking about a doing a new poster for the festival featuring the wonderful photos taken by Rusty Cohn of Napa showing beavers building with rocks. With a clever caption like “working hard to save your water” or something. I thought I’d start this morning with a gallery, so enjoy. Click or hover on the photo to view it larger.

NO PROSPECTS FOR THE BEAVERS IN PROSPECT HEIGHTS

heidi08 Who's Killing Beavers Now? January 20, 2019

Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.

Illinois is no exception.

Fearing floods, Prospect Heights removing beavers, dam from creek

Prospect Heights is removing at least two beavers and the dam they’ve built on McDonald Creek in a local park because of concerns about flooding.

The decision is drawing criticism from some members of the city’s natural resource commission and highlights the problems that many suburbs contend with when wildlife and people try to coexist.

I know what you’re thinking. Another trapping story? Good lord can’t you write about anything else? but this ones different. It’s special. It has a natural resources commission.

“I’m really sad about it, but it’s a done deal for now,” Agnes Wojnarski, chairwoman of the natural resources commission, said during a meeting last week.

“Due to the nature of where they’re located, there’s just no way they could stay there and not negatively impact residents,” said Peter Falcone, assistant to the city administrator.

Well sure, it’s a natural resources commission without any power or oversight but hey, that’s something right?

Seth Marcus, another member of the natural resource commission, said during the meeting that the city could have studied other solutions such as installing pipes under the dam to allow water through or trapping and sterilizing the beavers before returning them to the site to prevent others from moving in.

“The point is that there are solutions that may or may not win the discussion of the day, but it would be nice to at least be consulted before,” Marcus said.

However, the city is concerned that the dam could cause flooding upstream or become dislodged during a major storm and block drainage pipes, Falcone said.

“I would love to coexist with the beavers, but it’s not feasible,” Falcone said.

Now, now. I know what you’re thinking. But this is Illinois and we’re grading on a curve. Knowing that folks wanted to at least mention flow devices before dispatching the animals is a kind of triumph.

Baby steps for babies.

For several months, city public works crews have been removing the beavers’ dam, but each time the animals rebuilt, officials said. Finally, the city hired a company to trap and remove the beavers. Once they’re gone, the city will remove the dam a final time.

I’m so old I remember the first time i wrote about the unfathomable efforts of a public works crew tearing down the dam every week and being surprised when the beavers rebuilt. I believe I mocked “Ohh that’s unfortunate. You must have one of those rare rebuilding beavers. That almost ~~never~~ always happens.”

Same as it ever was,

FRAMINGHAM EPILOG

heidi08 Who's Killing Beavers Now? January 19, 2019

Ever notice how city officials are very selective on where they can ‘comment’? If the issue happens to be in their interest or in accord with what they want the public to know they’re eager to offer their thoughts. We got so many comments from our city about why beavers were going to cause flooding. We could barely shut them up.

But when it’s something they don’t want to talk about they’re as tight-lipped as an oyster bed. Just sayin’.

Report on beaver trapping in Framingham still pending

Framingham officials would not say how many beavers were killed in the recent trapping operation aimed at flood prevention.They said they would not comment until a DPW report about the operation is complete.

In response to questions from the Daily News, officials from both the Conservation Commission and the Department of Public Works said they aren’t ready to discuss what occurred.

“We are in the process of filing a report with the Conservation Commission as part of a requirement of the emergency permit process,” a DPW spokesman wrote. Rob McArthur, the city’s conservation administrator, said his office is waiting for the report. McArthur said he does not know how many beavers were killed last month. He did not respond to questions regarding the effect of the beaver trapping on flooding.

Do you hear that rattling sound? That’s the sound of the proverbial can being kicked down the road a ways. Framingham got A LOT of attention and press about killing these particular beavers. They are hoping to wait until no one cares anymore before they tell them how many.

I was in the hospital while all these shenanagins went on. So depending on how you look at it, they either missed an opportunity or lucked out completely.

Well, not completely.

But the decision to eliminate the beavers upset some residents and drew criticism from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which urged the city to consider alternatives. The group contacted Mayor Yvonne Spicer and city councilors in December, urging them to consider alternatives to trapping, such as culvert protectors and devices that restore the flow of water.

Sometimes called “beaver deceivers,” the devices use pipes to allow water to pass through areas with beaver dams without triggering the animals’ natural instinct to impede running water. More than 1,000 such devices are now in use throughout Massachusetts, providing a more humane and inexpensive way to regulate beaver-related flooding, according to animal rights advocates.

Ahh it’s nice to see this made it all the way into the human socity’s attention and the papers. Good for everyone involved. I hope at least our website helped some bystander looking for information. You know, Martinez, the city on the hill and all that.

However, beaver trapping remains controversial. Opponents say water flow devices provide a better, cheaper alternative, since beavers will quickly repopulate an area and build dams after the population there is thinned.

Dave Wattles, a furbearer biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, said the circumstances in each body of water are different, and trapping is sometimes the best solution.

“Every situation cannot be solved with those flow devices,” he said, “so in reality, in order to prevent conflict with modern society, doing what they did and removing the beaver is … probably the best case scenario.”

Remind me to have a conversation with Mr. Wattles. and to introduce him to Mr. Callahan. Never you mind that this city is an hour drive from Beaver Solutions and they still couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag.

I hope you continue to have lots of media questions about this and that your egos are still bruised when the NEXT family of beavers settle in, because it will not be long.

BEAVERS AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

heidi08 Urban beavers January 18, 2019

Every now and then it’s fun when the right worlds collide. Like when your friends from the Astronomy department have fun hanging out with your friends from Mod Lit at your Christmas Party. The two seemed worlds apart and you never expected them to get along. But suddenly Marcus and Jasmine are laughing together and sipping eggnog from the same coffee cup.

Well, welcome to the christmas party.

DESIGN, BUILD—AND LET BUILD

BY LISA OWENS VIANI

As public support for trapping has waned, beavers are making a comeback in urban waterways around the country. In Seattle, they are now said to be found in every suitable stream and water body, and some project designers now see them as partners in wetland restoration rather than nuisances. They say the benefits beavers bring to an ecosystem outweigh the challenges, and point out that working with them is far less expensive—and more humane—than trapping.

“Beavers construct wetlands that hold back and store water, allowing for groundwater recharge and pollution sequestration, and increasing biodiversity,” says Ben Dittbrenner, the aquatic ecologist and executive director of Beavers Northwest. “We do the same thing for hundreds of thousands of dollars, but they do it for free.” This past October, Dittbrenner, the biologist David Bailey, and Ken Yocom, ASLA, an associate professor and chair of the department of landscape architecture at the University of Washington, published a study that examines the influence of beavers on three wetland projects in Seattle and makes recommendations for managing them adaptively.

Call this the paragraphs I never thought I’d see. All about the benefits of urban beavers from landscape architecture magazine. These are the things that happen when the right worlds collide and Heidi sends Ben’s article excitedly around to all her friends.

Dittbrenner says that as urban beaver populations increase, designers should assume that beavers will colonize their project, especially if the animals are already in the vicinity. “It makes sense to stop and think about how these animals might affect these urban designs before we spend all this money to build them.”

A beaver carries new dam material. Image courtesy Cheryl Reynolds, Worth a Dam.

Now obviously we know the photographer behind that lovely beaver photo, but how on earth did a landscape magazine get it? And who is this Lisa Owens Viani person who wrote this article?

That would be the woman in the right front corner of this photo of our ravioli feast in 2017. Lisa is the founder of RATS (Raptors are the solution) who I met a decade ago when she worked for the SF Estuary Project and who at the time was wise enough to realize that the Martinez beaver story was a story of restoration, not just a quirky news item. Directly to my left is the woman behind this photo.

Small world.

They also installed in-stream wood structures, knowing that beavers would put them to use. “What beavers do to create landscapes is phenomenal,” Yocom says. “Your design is just the beginning. We have to let go and be willing to work with ecological processes instead of being invested in a strict aesthetic.”

WONDERFUL! Now Ben wasn’t at the Ravioli feed but goodness knows if he was in a 25 mile radius he would have been! Of course I sent this right away to the mayor and the city engineer. It’s great to see this paper get top billing and have the tools discussed in a public forum.

And it’s thrilling to imagine that someday when beavers show up in a city park some well-read person might – even just for a moment – not think its a catastrophe.

BEAVER FISHERMEN TELL TALES

heidi08 Beaver ponds January 17, 2019

Hrmph. Yesterday I proudly finished my post and marched off only to notice an hour later that our entire sidebar on the website was gone. These are the kind of mysterious goings-on that make you crazy but I tweaked and scoured code and eventually found out if I took out part of what I wrote the sidebar was restored.

i still have no idea why.

Let that be a lesson to me! Don’t talk so much. Marching straight on to this fascinating column from Wade Robinson in Pennsylvania who thinks that beavers are ruining his fish time. (Yes, you read that correctly.)

Robertson: Beavers can impact one’s fishing — and the local

Since individual animals have personalities of their own, some bolder beavers have the ability to really irritate you at times. I’ve known several obnoxious ones who used their tails to repeatedly slap the waters where I’m fishing and, of course, this spooks the fish. The irate beaver isn’t interested in saving fish, it’s simply trying to force you to leave. In between powerful tail slaps, they can brazenly swim in tight circles, glaring at you, then another dive and explosion of water.
I’ve glared right back and had some choice words for beavers, but it never seemed to impress them.

Those obnoxious beavers! Slapping their tails and acting like they MADE the pond! Who do they think they are? Clearly Wade has a delicate understanding of the ecosystem services they provide. He even has a friend who was bitten by one. Seriously.

A close friend of my brother, a young woman weighing about 120 pounds soaking wet, was a very dedicated runner. She ran every day with her two large dogs and was quite health conscious. This particular day in early winter she and her dogs dropped down into a small valley and, lo and behold, there in the middle of the road was a beaver industriously dragging a 10 foot, thickly limbed, aspen branch across to the dam on the other side of the highway.

When the two dogs saw the beaver only 20 yards ahead of them they bolted forward to the attack, their jaws snapping. The slight woman was jerked off her feet and, unfortunately, had the short leashes wrapped around her hand and wrist. The straining dogs dragged her forward rapidly, constricting the leash tightly around her hand; she was unable to let go.

Before she knew what was happening she was the center of a swirling, tangled melee of leaping, growling dogs, snagging branches, twisted leashes and one very angry beaver.

Now, you may not think it, but a beaver’s tail can be a powerful weapon and those teeth, large and razor sharp, can bite through things other than wood.

In this tangled battle, two dogs, jogger and beaver all literally touching one another, the beaver chomped down on the poor woman’s knee, severing cartilage, tendons and scouring bone. It bit the dogs as well while simultaneously knocking the tar out of them all with its tail. It was over in seconds, the victorious beaver diving over the bank and into the water, the girl and dogs left to take stock of their wounds.

The single bite to her knee was very serious and painful; she couldn’t stand and was bleeding heavily. Luckily, within minutes, a car appeared at this incredible scene, untangled her from the dogs, put a tourniquet on the leg, lifted her into the car and rushed to the hospital. The surgeries needed to repair the knee were extensive and it was two years before she started running again.

So a woman who couldn’t control her dogs was dragged into a beaver attack? And in the tangle was bitten by the beaver? Goodness that’s a tangled mess of a story. It must have been terrifying. Apparently Wade was shocked to learn that an exposed threatened animal will defend itself. We, however, are not.

Once the beavers had exhausted the available food supply they abandoned the dam and moved on to another location. The abandoned dam soon broke and its bottom, now bare and covered with the highly fertilized silt quickly blossomed into a lush meadow. Their new dam repeated the cycle.

Beavers are a unique animal and fun to watch if you’re not fishing. Hopefully, you know a little more about them now.

However, I don’t suggest “tangling” with one, pun intended!

No mention of the valuable wetlands beavers create or the way they make habitat for birds AND fish. Obviously Wade has a cursory understanding of the role they play in creating the very scaled animal he is trying to catch. Apparently, they’ll let just anyone write a sports column in Pennsylvania whether they use paragraphs or not.

Speaking of the quality of writing, i was moved by this poem yesterday by author Debbie Slack with a nice beaver mention. It refreshingly has no knee-bitin at all.