Month: January 2019

“THUNDER BEAVER WOMAN”

heidi08 Beavers and water January 16, 2019

All the good names are taken. Is my fault that I was born to the wrong family at the wrong time and missed my chance at this glory? Jaylene obviously didn’t.

‘Essential to our way of living’: N.W.T. woman launches Water is Life photo project

Tyra Moses is creating a photo series, “Water Is Life,” which will profile supporters of Wet’suwet’en First Nation members who oppose the pipeline.

The wind on Great Slave Lake is brisk, adding a chill as the temperature falls past -20 C. Jaylene Delorme-Buggins lies down on the ice in a traditional skirt. Moses holds the shutter and

fires off a few bursts of images, totally focused on her shot.

“I don’t want to be smiling,” Delorme-Buggins said as they reviewed the photos. “What they’re doing to our people and taking our land — it’s not a happy time.”

Good point. I’m glad they’re doing this project. I wish them all success.Gee, what would be the perfect native name for a woman protecting water in the northwest territories. Hmm can you guess?

At her traditional naming ceremony last year, an elder told her she was destined to be a water protector. So when she heard about what Moses wanted to do, she jumped on board — bringing the dramatic makeup, traditional clothing and eagle feather.

Delorme-Buggins’s traditional name is Thunder Beaver Woman. Her two protectors are the beaver and the snake, which are water animals.

There it is again. That double pang of deep respect and vibrant envy. I wanna be a thunder-beaver-woman-woman. So very jealous. Well, except for this one small detail.

Jaylene Delorme-Buggins added, laughing.

“I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat if it was minus 50.”

EN LAS MADRIGUERAS DE LOS CASTORES

heidi08 Beavers and food caches January 15, 2019

So recently I was contacted by a beaver watcher in Navarra Spain who asked some questions about lodges and food caches. I told her my thought that beavers were unlikely to use food caches in that climate. It just so happened that around this time a European beaver buddy shared a notice for this presentation on beavers. So of course I sent it her way.

To my surprise, she very excitedly attended and really enjoyed it, sending me the handouts afterwards. One of them was a list of articles on castor fiber which started with Duncan Haley’s population paper. I thought he might like to know this so I sent it his way. He was very pleased and sent along some of his observations about the issues I thought you’d be interested in. (Pause a moment to check out the temperature recorded by the nightcam.)

It’s my experience that Eurasian beavers prefer to dig burrows when they can (it seems N. American beavers are more prone to building lodges; and it seems only them that build ‘island’ lodges out in the water – all Eurasian lodges I have ever seen are bankside.

So if a deep enough bankside of soft enough material for digging is available, with deep enough water beside it (about a metre or more), that is where they will burrow. Over the years I have gotten so I can (and have) predicted where the burrow would be in a site occupied by beavers, by looking at an overview of the terrain available.

The roof of the chamber at the end of the burrow is shallow, and air can get through by diffusion. It is so shallow that it often collapses by itself (and will almost always do so if e.g. a tractor drives over the top). If that happens then it is roofed over with sticks and mud. Sometimes this is called a ‘burrow lodge’ – the lodge part (of sticks and mud) being connected to the water by the burrow.

Where it’s not practical to dig a burrow – where the soil is shallow or stony, or the terrain so flat that there is no rise high enough to burrow in and build a chamber above water, then Eurasian beavers will readily build a lodge. They also usually move their main burrow/lodge site quite frequently, moving it around within the territory and exploiting heavily the resources nearest the lodge, before moving and refocusing (while the boundaries of the territory seem to be stable). So there are usually several burrow or lodges, or frequently a mix of types, inside a territory.

It is said in the literature that the whole family lives in one lodge most of the year, but that only the breeding female and the young use it after she gives birth. At that time the others use old or secondary burrows/lodges.

Beaver food caches look like a big pile of sticks in the water (see attached photos), and are always found immediately outside the main lodge/burrow entrance. In cold climates like Norway, it is one good way of finding active burrows. Research needs to be done on what triggers beavers to build food caches. Anecdotes say that northern beavers reintroduced in the south prepare for a northern winter the first year, but then adapt. Where currents keep water open, beavers are active in winter even when it is very cold, down to at least -27C in my experience. In climates like Navarre, most beavers will not need to make winter food caches. It seems that most in such places do not build them. I would be interested to know if any of them do, and if it is related to altitude. In the 2008 photo, the lodge is on the right (the large sticks, often stripped of bark). The cache is the mass of twigs in the water on left. Most of the mass is underwater, like an iceberg (and so available even after the surface freezes).

The ‘North Lodge’ photos show a large beaver lodge just in shot to bottom left, and a very large food cache when it is at its biggest in early December; a beaver clearing a path in the snow to allow it to add material to the lodge; and a beaver pulling a branch up onto the lodge in the foreground while another feeds at the food cache.

Duncan Haley, Ph.D. Norwegian Institute for Nature Research | NINA

Don’t you feel better now? My Spanish pen pal was very grateful for the information and now is fully committed to learning more about beavers. So I feel my work here went very well.

By the way, this was the other handout at her conference. It’s the introduction to the epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “Hiawatha“. Reading the Spanish version makes me think he might just have preferred it.

BETTER THAN GOATS

heidi08 Beavers and Fire Prevention January 14, 2019

There are lots of reasons California should be caring more about beavers. Salmon for one. Groundwater and drought area another. But the most recent issue to fuel interest in our flat-tailed friends lit up the sky a few months ago and is fresh on all our minds. I was reminded of it vividly by this clever campaign.

To Prevent Fires, One California Town Says ‘Goat Fund Me’

Nestled in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains is the quaint Gold Rush town of Nevada City. Surrounded by unkempt brush, the old, highly flammable city is in danger: With California’s wildfires raging with unprecedented ferocity in recent years, one spark could doom Nevada City to the same fate that neighboring Paradise met in November.

But not if the goats get there first. Realizing its predicament, Nevada City has launched a crowdfunding campaign to pay goats (or, more accurately, their herders) to clear brush at the edges of town. It’s called, yes, Goat Fund Me. And it’s part of an ungulate awakening: All across the state, business is booming for herders as panicked homeowners and towns reckon with the wildfire menace.

Heh heh heh. “Goat fund me“, Now that’s clever. some one gets points for that. And it’s a smart way to get some media behind a solid idea. Thinking about the brush everyone has stopped seeing and some realistic solutions for getting rid of it.

On their own, goats only do part of the job; they’re more of an advance party. They get in there and strip out the brush enough for human crews to come in with chainsaws to cart away the bigger branches and such. Of particular convenience is the fact that goats will happily eat poison oak. “They’re cute little things, but it’s only one little piece,” says Senum. “Who doesn’t love a goat?

Still, the firefighting ruminant business is booming in California, beyond Nevada City. “It seems like everybody kind of woke up with these big fires,” says Fowler. “And I tell you what, there’s a huge opportunity. If somebody wants to get into the business, now would be a good time.”

You know what would be an even better idea? Of course you do. To bring in beavers. They would get rid of the fuel and increase the water content in the soil all around them to boot. Now we just need a catchy name.

Any suggestions?

Lisa Hodge is a reader of this website and a Wildlife Rehabilitator at Valley Wildlife Care, Inc. of Virginia She recently launched this campaign to raise money for the group. I thought the beaver was so sweet and the message so fitting that our readers might want to help out a bit.

Lisa’s message on facebook read:

I hope you all will be as supportive as you have been in the past. This shirt is extra special because my good friend Michele Sommers of Sommers End Originals did the design. She made the idea I had inside my head come to life for us and I am so very grateful.

Click here to purchase your own and support the good work done by these wildlife friends. I ‘met’ Lisa after she rehabbed a beaver and fell deeply in love with the kit in her care. She has been devoted to the animals in her care and of course that kind of behavior deserves your support.

BEAVERS AND LEMONY SNICKET

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact January 13, 2019

I just got to the part of the new season of Lemony Snicket where the orphans are discovering that in addition to being disappointing, life is complicated.

“People aren’t either wicked or noble. They’re like chef’s salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.”

Lemony Snicket

Which I thought I’d mention because it’s also true for beaver news too. Sometimes it’s rotten. Sometimes it’s adorable. And sometimes it’s both at the same time.

Enjoy your salad!

Amid skinning demos and pelt-handling contests, trappers focus on future

New Brunswick trappers have come out of the woods and off their trap lines to gather for the annual convention of fur harvesters in Fredericton. Dozens of trappers are meeting throughout the day Friday and Saturday to celebrate the industry, discuss techniques and swap stories.

Skinning demos, round-tables, trapping seminars and pelt-handling competitions run throughout the two-day event, centred on trading techniques, updating the industry for the modern age and guiding the next generation of trapper.

But the main focus is teaching.

Oh PUL-EEZZE.

Do we have to honor the noble trapper every winter? I understand that it’s a living and may even be occasionally necessary but there is no way on earth that you are going to convince me that getting all these men together to play at mansplaining’ trapper in public has education as its focus. Men do not show off out of the generational goodness of their hearts.

Hrmph we need something very cute to get that out of our teeth.

Edmonton wildlife rescue seeks bigger pool for growing beaver

An Edmonton-based wildlife rescue is looking to the community for help finding a new pool for its resident beaver, Sawyer. WILDNorth animal hospital has been caring for the seven or eight-month-old beaver since it was found on the side of the road near Wetaskawin in September. But now, the rodent has outgrown its current pool.

Awww so cute. That is probably my favorite age of beaver. They are such fun to watch.

Note that both stories are offered as if they were completely unrelated to each other. As if trapping has nothing to do with orphans. And the awww factor was enough to justify the lives of the few they missed.

Quest for dams, lodges reminds us of beavers’ impact

On some of our country rides when we find ourselves with free time, my husband Fred and I see beaver dams and sometimes lodges near the road. On a recent excursion we decided to stop, walk through the woods along Bloomery Swamp and look for a beaver dam that we knew was there. Fred was familiar with the area, since he frequently fished there during his youth.

Taking in the surroundings of the woods, listing to birdsong and trying to avoid briars and maneuver rocky inclines, we talked about what we know about beavers. We know that beavers are sometimes called a “keystone species,” one that has a large influence on the environment.

So far so good. Where’s the salad?

We also know that beavers can be destructive and cause great damage to farmland and personal property. Flooding of farmland is a problem that farmers have to deal with sooner or later. We know of farmers who have found it necessary to destroy beaver dams in order to restore their land to a condition suitable for their purposes. A problem with destroying dams is that beavers get busy — true to the beaver reputation — and build a new dam within a matter of days.

Well that’s certainly glass half-fullish. But on the other hand…

On the other hand, the dam-building habits of beavers contribute greatly to the restoration of our precious wetlands, which provide a habitat for numerous plant and animal species, such as birds, fish, frogs and any number of endangered species.

Well there you have it. A true chef-salad of beaver attributes and reports.

There never as many as you want, but there are good things written about beavers most days if you look for them. Daniel Handler was right. We are all a mixed bag. But if we’re lucky our own nutritional value will be at least half as high as the beavers.

BEAVERS AND CAMELOT

heidi08 What's killing beavers now? January 12, 2019

Call it a hunch, but something tells me this Nebraska town won’t be jumping on the beaver bandwagon any time soon. I wish I could embed the video because it’s truly must see teevee when it comes to beaver complaints but you’ll just have to go watch it for yourself.

Johnson Lake residents work to find solution to beaver issue

JOHNSON LAKE, Neb. — Beavers at Johnson Lake are causing some residents to worry about their property. They’re coming out at night, munching away on trees and the concern is how to protect the area.

Terri Rank has been a resident of Johnson Lake for many years. She said she has never seen damage like what she is seeing now and she has never seen as many beavers as she has seen since the new year.

” And it concerns me because if the beaver population is growing, it could affect our quality of life. It could affect our children, grandchildren, our pets swimming in the lake, it could damage boats. It’s obviously damaging our trees,” said Rank.

That’s right. The beaver population could affect their children and grandchildren and pets. I love nature as much as the next really unreasonable woman but come on? What else can I do?

Rank and her neighbors have seen trees bitten down to pencil–like stubs and while she said she just wants to live in harmony with them, that might be the last option.

“If you want to live trap a beaver, you can only move it 100–200 yards from where you trapped it. All that does for us is push it down a few lots and make it more of a neighbor’s problem but they’re going to swim right back to wherever their den is if it’s in our area,” said Rank.

Ahhh of course we all know where this is going, right? It’s the classic “what else can I do but protect my land by killing them” argument. We’ve heard it a million times before.

There is a part I didn’t expect though.

I spoke with Pat Molini with the Nebraska Game and Parks who said trapping a beaver is actually the second-best plan when dealing with tree damage.

“Well the best thing to do if they’re damaging trees, is to protect the trees, that’s the absolute best thing to do. Either put a protective wrap around them or use fencing to protect them,

That’s right. An ACTUAL park and game officer telling her on recorded television that the BEST way to protect trees is to fricken protect the trees. I didn’t think I’d live long enough to see that in person.

I’m tearing up – hold on.

and then yes, the next best thing to do would be, if it’s possible, if you can legally do it, is to get a local trapper that has a fur harvester permit,” said Molini.

Well that’s more like it. We know the drill. First try an actual solution and then hire a trapper and get a temporary fix. This ain’t our first rodeo. We’ve heard it all before.

However, tree damage is not all these beavers could do.

“They can sometimes cause flooding and they can also cause crop damage, you know, agricultural crop damage. They’ll sometimes go in and take corn down and you know, either feed on it or use it you know for building dams or huts,” said Molini.

Yes. Yes. Yes. But remember. Just remember. For one brief shining moment a wildlife officer literally said on national teevee that the VERY BEST THING you could do to protect trees was PROTECT TREES by wrapping them.

Let’s just hold onto that silver thread. It was a glorious, unspoiled moment that we never expected from Nebraska. A brief shining moment – I like to think of it like the ending of camelot.

Each evening from December to December
Before you find a man who kills them dead
Think back on all the tales that you remember
and WRAP INSTEAD!

Ask every person if she’s heard the story
And tell it loud and clear as oft you please
That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory
Called wrapping trees!