Month: April 2019

BEAVER RESEARCH TEAM

Yesterday I finally received the long-awaited email from Vistaprint: 50% off everything for 12 hours, Over the years I’ve gotten smarter and now keep designs stored in my portfolio for just this occasion. I bought plenty of signs for the festival at half price. We also decided to use the empty space in front of the stage by posting yard signs that describe the good thins beavers do – I checked with GLT and we can print those hear in town for a oood price and use them year after year.

Here’s the first 2. I’m aiming for a dozen.

We also received the happy news that we were given Berkley Rep tickets for the silent auction yesterday, which is wonderful because it means we now boast tickets to ACT, CAL Shakes and Berkeley Rep for the theater-bidders at our festival, not to mention plenty of zoos and Safari West. Hopefully they’ll be something to appeal to everyone.

Also I got a nice note from the Quail newletter when i asked the new editor about slipping in something about the festival.

Heidi, I heart you so much. Loved your presentation; love your mission. For you, there is always room.

Lori Patel

Aw, that is so sweet, and so unlike the welcome the beavers usually get. Thank you very much for squeezing me in, That sure turned out to be excellent timing for the Audubon presentation – late enough to miss the rain and early enough to generate support for the festival.

Now onto today’s news bites, with an interesting report from Missouri state.

Biology Bears find a new home

A dozen biology students start their PhD programs this year.

This May at graduation, we say goodbye and congratulations to many of our students. You’re all off to bright futures. We hope we have prepared you for what is next. For 12 of our biology students, the future includes PhD programs.

I was particularly interested in this student;

Stephanie Sickler is a MS student that graduated in summer 2018 from Maher’s lab. She will be at University of Alabama, in the biology department. She starts this May as a research assistant and as a McNair fellow in August. She will study changes in stream conditions and fish and macroinvertebrate communities before and after beaver dam removal under PhD adviser Dr. Jennifer Howeth.

Goodness isn’t that interesting. I certainly know what I’d expect to find, and what existing research suggests, but it’s Alabama and I can’t help but think they’ll find exactly the opposite, I can’t think it’s an accident she ended up in one of the most beaver-killing states in the country.

Still, i’m curious about Stephanie’s research. If she finds the opposite of what’s expected will she still pass her dissertation final orals? Or will she just be advised to stop collecting data before the good stuff comes in? If I had a mole in the Yellow-hammer state you can bet I would watch and see.

i can’t wait to find out I’m wrong.

GOOGLE BEAVERS

heidi08 Dispersal April 29, 2019

Well, well. well. Things are start to take shape in festival land. I’m thinking we’ll be back down to around to around 40 exhibits this year which means they’ll be room for everyone to be on an interior lane. I think that will give the event a snugger feeling. Also lots of opportunities for folks to pass thru the middle and see Amy’s art progressing, so I’m okay with the smaller numbers.

Here’s my thinking so far…

Rick included me this morning in an email about a beaver spotted in sunnyvale, our first ever. and this out by moffett gateway, (which btw was recently leased by Google, because of course there are beavers in Google!)

This photo courtesy of Romain Kain.

Yikes! Poor little disperser looking for his new home. I wonder how far he is from water? I wonder how many souls end up that way, looking for a start in life and a way to pay back student loans and find themselves trapped on a Google campus. Silicon Valley is a hard place to leave. I once called a tech about something ordered (a beaver bumper sticker) and the tech got quiet and then said carefully, “I think you might be my aunt!”.

(Which of course I was, one of my sister’s youngest daughter back then was working at Zazzle to help pay for her tuition. Small world. Now she’s working at that beaver campus.) I hope that little guy connects with water soon!

Finally, a weird article this morning reminds us why beavers have to be careful around cars.

Roadkill Cuisine: Can You Eat That?

More than 300,000 animals are hit by vehicles in the road each year, according to a study by the Federal Highway Administration, and the figure is believed to very under-reported. While an estimated 200 people die from these collisions in the U.S. every year, it’s mostly the wildlife that get the raw end of the deal.

Which brings us to the issue at hand. If you accidentally kill something on the road, can you eat it?

Beaver

If you’ve struck and killed a beaver, you should feel guilty. Once among the most widely distributed mammals in North America, beavers were eliminated from much of their range in the late 1800s because of unregulated trapping and loss of habitat, according to the California Fish and Wildlife. These brilliant engineers of the animal kingdom build dams and create wetlands that are among the most biologically productive ecosystems in the world, according to the Beaver Institute. Their ponds promote biodiversity, repair eroded stream channels, and promote salmon and trout recovery. Beaver is considered a game animal in some places, and there is no shortage of YouTube videos on how to cook it.

How is it that an article about roadkill says more nice things about beaver than most of the beaver articles we report on? Recognizing the difference they make for salmon and trout. Surely if The Street has enough time to dig up the info from the beaver institute, Jim or Becky in timber falls Wisconsin can do it when they write some article explaining why the city needs to trap them.

Right?

BEAVERS: STORIED PAST BRIGHT FUTURE

heidi08 Beavers April 28, 2019

We worked yesterday on the map fragments for the children’s treasure at the beaver festival, cutting the segments and separating each part into a little bundle that children will get from each participating exhibit. The little bundles contain a map fragment and a ‘clue card’ held together with a tiny wooden clothespin. After collecting all 8 pieces the child can go to the map-making station, put them all together and find the secret message on the back that will tell them where to find the lost key to the waters.

Here’s an example of a clue card. Collect all 8!

This means that there are 8 piece bundles times 100 kids which makes a lot of bundles. So far we’re half way done. Fingers crossed we can finish the other half today.

Just because we’re working hard doesn’t mean you should miss out on beaver stories. Today there’s a nice follow up to the article a while back about Woodland lawn Preserve in New York. I gave them a little bit of grief for saying that it was necessary to trap beavers to save trees, and for arguing that people went to the park to find peace, not see beavers. Remember? I wrote the chair about flow devices and biodiversity and she wrote back that she felt the article had misquoted her and she was interested in other solutions. I’m still not sure she makes that clear,

Beaver problem in Preserve is complex

The beavers in the Woodlawn Preserve have generated concern over the past few weeks. We’ve heard from beaver supporters from as far away as California and local folks as well.

Gee, I wonder who that can be?

The pond in the Preserve is a municipal retention pond designed in the 1970s to control flooding in the Woodlawn neighborhood. The last few years were very problematic, with the city expending quite a bit of time, effort and money to keep the culvert that drains the pond clear due to increased beaver activity.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation was consulted, and its suggestions included breaching the dams on the Rotterdam side of the culvert, trapping to reduce the population, and replacing the current drainage grate with a different type of baffle.

The decision to reduce the population was made by the city (not the Friends of the Woodlawn Preserve) following recommendations and permits from the DEC. But a new flow-control device isn’t the only solution to the problems the beavers are causing.

Trees are a beaver’s food source, and besides chewing down a tree, they also strip it of its bark, resulting in tree death. Solutions include wrapping trees with wire or fencing off areas of trees to prevent them from being targeted by the beavers.

Knowing that the beaver population will again increase, the city is continuing to explore more options under the guidance of the DEC, and we will continue to advocate for a different type of flow device to better control the water level.

If you really care about the beavers and the Preserve, please join us in our efforts.

Janet Chen
The writer is the chair of the Friends of the Woodlawn Preserve.

Hmm. I wouldn’t say that’s the most open invitation to cooperating with beavers. (It’s a few rungs up from saying in second grade “if you love beavers so much why don’t you go marry them“.) But I guess if I lived nearby I would take her up on the invitation. It’s funny to me that people always think their situation is exceptional – sure you might have saved beavers in Martinez but our pond protects homes from flooding! Sure you might have wrapped trees in the past but beavers strip their bark and the trees die!

The problem we have is special and especially tricky to solve. We had no choice!

I’m sure with the right help and sufficient motivation woodlawn preserve could become friendly towards a family of beavers. Stranger things have happened.

The next story is a radio interview with Kate Lunduist and Taisha McKee on KMUD about beavers. Seems the host just finished Ben Goldfarb’s book and wanted to bring in some voices to help him understand more. The interview is very nice to hear, but the audio isn’t great. They were in the middle if a pledge drive so the interview starts around minutes in. I had to upload it to this site because there was a gateway error, but its a nice listen.

KMUD Interview with Kate Lundquist on the Benefits of Beavers

Love the hat, but can we please add this to the list of beaver props i’m really not comfortable with?

BEAVER CIVICS LESSON

heidi08 Beavers, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? April 27, 2019

The sad story of Nevers park in Connecticut continues to be told. This article yesterday shows hown the town is struggling to blame miscommunication on social media for the confusion.

3 beavers gone as town, residents prepare for more

SOUTH WINDSOR — With the three Nevers Park beavers now gone, and town officials unsure if or when others will return, many residents are pushing for ways to coexist and avoid trapping or harming them.

Beavers were responsible for felling nearly 200 trees in the park last year, and Parks officials said trapping was an uncommon last resort to prevent further damage and public safety issues there.

Parks officials plan to hold a forum in the coming weeks with representatives from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and a beaver specialist from Massachusetts suggested by residents upset over the way the town has handled the matter. The forum will discuss the damage caused by the creatures and how best to prevent future problems.

That’s Mike Callahan who will be explaining how to prevent flooding by using a pond leveler. Just for historical perspective out own beaver subcommittee meeting early on, maybe the second one, featured Skip Lisle talking about flow devices and how they work. He was on his way to New Mexico to do a training there, and said he could return when it was done. It was all so new to me that I can barely remember it all, but i know he stood at the back of the room, and was not invited to the podium.

Over 1,850 people have signed an online petition created weeks ago by Abbe Road resident Stephen Straight that calls for town officials to meet with the beaver specialist and implement his suggested solutions.

Straight said he is working to keep “the next beavers from being needlessly killed.”

Not all residents are on board, however.

One, who preferred not to be named as the issue has gone viral on social media, defended town officials and said the town had to make a tough decision to put residents’ quality of life first.

People spewing hate at town officials on Facebook seem to be misguided, he said, and they haven’t paid attention to the other methods of preventing tree damage and flooding that the town tried

“There were too many factors that affect public health, safety, and property in place to allow for the beavers to coexist” with Nevers Park activity, town officials said in a statement this month.

Ahhh the anonymous opposition. I remember that. At every beaver meeting there was a single dominating voice of a certain wealthy property owner who never even showed up to express his thoughts. He didn’t have to. He had made sure that ever single council member already knew them – and knew that they were intimately tied to his future campaign contributions. Money talks. Welcome to the family, looks like you got yourselves a horse race.

In an effort to dissolve misinformation about the trapping spread on social media, town officials clarified that the town did not spend any money to trap beavers, and the traps used are humane and meant to catch the animals alive without causing any injury.

Removing the beavers from this particular park was not an easy decision to make, officials said in the prepared statement, and they understand “the passion that residents have for animals.”

We would have done the right thing it was easier. Honest. As it was we trapped the beaver with pillows and cotton candy so it wouldn’t hurt them one whit. Scouts honor.

Why do reporters let them say these kinds of things? Resident Steve Straight had this to say;

I believe the reporter did her best, but the article contains inaccuracies:

First, there is no way the beavers were captured alive. We have eyewitnesses, have photos of the actual traps used. (See below.) People spoke with the trapper at the time he was trapping. The wording makes it seem as if the beavers were caught unharmed and perhaps relocated somewhere. Relocating is illegal in Connecticut.

The wording of the first sentence is unclear: “Town officials unsure if or when they will return” is very misleading. Those beavers are dead. The only questions is, What will the town do when new beavers come to the pond? Have them killed, too? And what about the beavers after them? And after them?

The system Mike Callahan would install, for $1,575, would prevent ANY flooding. The pond is naturally four feet deep, and beavers only need three. (That money could easily be raised privately.) Trees could easily be wrapped or painted.

From the reporter’s point of view, I understand how difficult it is to be accurate, especially given what town officials are saying.

I urge the town to coexist with the next beavers instead of killing them. And the next ones. And the next ones.

Steve is kinder than I could be. But I will say this much. The town needs to learn to coexist – but not just with its beavers. With its residents. With all those 1850 voters who didn’t want the beavers killed. Coexist with them. City officials can’t make them disappear by blaming social media. And they can’t jeep telling them bedtime stories by saying the beavers ‘went to live on the farm“.

Here’s a friendly reminder courtesy of our own beaver meeting and Middlechild Productions ‘Beavers las vegas‘.

Untitled from Heidi Perryman on Vimeo.

BEAVER SAMPLER

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact April 26, 2019

Back on my very own computer and my very own wifi, I may never stop talking at all this morning. Certainly there’s very good news on the beaver front. This week I found out that we received three of the four grant applications i made. The fourth we are still waiting on. The CCC board of supervisors met this week and decided to award our fish and wildlife grant for the treasure hunt at the festival, and the Martinez community foundation is once again funding our art project. Fingers crossed we will hear good news from the city soon which, adding the grant from Kiwanis, will bring us to a full three thousand for the festival and with proceeds from the silent auction should allow us to break even for the event.

There’s some scattered good news from other states as well, including this report from Colorado.

Boulder County, city of Boulder analyzing best streams for beaver restoration as ecological health boost

Researchers over the past two years have been looking for the best spots to potentially reintroduce beavers into streams on Boulder County and city of Boulder public open spaces.

The county and municipal open space programs spent $10,000 apiece to fund a study led by Colorado State University researchers Ellen Wohl and Julianne Scamardo to help identify stretches of streams most able to successfully host beaver, if one or a family were to be placed in the given area.

“We awarded (the funding) to them because of our interest in beaver restoration and ecological restoration using beaver,” Boulder County Parks and Open Space Biologist Mac Kobza said, noting habitat for other animals and whole riparian ecosystems can be enhanced by the ponds resulting from beaver damming.

“Where beaver go in they tend to increase the biodiversity. Native species benefit from that, from trout, to native insects that live in the water to other native species,” he said.

Not only is Boulder investing money in reintroducing beavers to study, they’re even considering city open space locations! Be still my heart! Dr. Wohl is a powerful beaver force that often gets overlooked in the summation of how we know beavers matter. Her research has made much of the conversation were having today.

Yet, water storage across this thirsty state could actually be improved by the beaver’s tree-felling and damming habits, authors of a Colorado Sierra Club report argue, citing studies suggesting as much.

“Potentially the easiest, cheapest way to accomplish this end is to allow nature to regenerate where practicable to its previous state with the mighty ecosystem engineer, the American beaver, breaking the trail,” the Sierra Club writers stated.

What an awesome start to a study. I can’t wait to read all about it. Apparently Julianne Scarmado has the oral defense of her dissertation on monday, I for one can’t wait to read all about it. Good luck!

Speaking of Colorado and great minds, guess who finished her Ph.D. from CSU Boulder landed an excellent job as Assistant Professor in Environmental Resource Management at California State Channel Islands! I guess her explanatory stop motion video was a big success because this is that state where she wanted to end up.

So of course Dr. Emily Fairfax celebrated in the usual way.

California is lucky to have you in our state, yet another brilliant beaver researcher added to our ranks, I eagerly await great things.

One final bit of wonder I’ve been saving to share with you comes from Helen McCaulley, the seasonal ecologist from Scotland who patiently filmed this classic moment watching the Tay beavers. Make sure you watch until the end so you can see the pond maker reminding the otter just whose neighborhood he’s in.