Month: May 2019

BEAVERS ON YOUR SIDE

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? May 11, 2019

Every now and then there is a friendly beaver story in the news accompanied by an amazing photo or two, and if its not from Martinez or Napa, or Vancouver or Port Moody, it’s from Spring Farm Cares in New York.

Spring Farm Nature Sanctuary home of preserved and restored native wildlife

Spring Farm CARES has a reputation for rescuing and caring for injured and sick farm animals and household pets, and serves as a place for them to stay for the remainder of their lives. But a “hidden gem” is the conservation work and care given to the natural wetlands and wild animals that make the 260-acre property off Route 12 their home at the Spring Farm CARES Nature Sanctuary.

The sanctuary is staffed by Naturalist Matthew Perry, who is Spring Farm CARES’ Conservation director and nature sanctuary manager. He is recognized throughout the region as an authority on wild birds, their habitat and behavior. Among his specialties are neo-tropical songbirds and Peregrine Falcons.

Perry said there is care taken in the decision of what trees and shrubs are planted on the property to help create a self-sustaining and thriving ecosystem. Certain trees, flowers, seeds and nuts provide food and sustenance for the wildlife habituating the area, such as the beavers, mink, muskrats, frogs, geese and bird varieties. Tamarack and Pussy Willow, for example, are loved by beavers, in addition to the sweet potatoes Perry feeds them. Those furry “friends” of his actually do the natural work in providing the rich, watery habitat for other mammals, fish, turtles, frogs, birds and ducks.

“They work for us, so we need to work for them,” Perry said about building and restoring the wetlands. “And if you’re going to do a wetland project on the cheap, beavers are good to have on your side.”

Yes, they are. Mighty good indeed. It’s nice when folks appreciate their neighbors. Here in Martinez for instance, we counted ourselves pretty lucky that we were able to live with beavers for a decade. And of course the creek felt lucky because it got more fish, birds and otter when the beavers made things comfortable for them.

Speaking of making things nice and comfortable, we’re off today for our friends at Wildbirds Unlimited in Pleasant Hill for their always entertaining Mother’s Day Event and wildlife day. If you’re in the market for some birdseed or a special gift, come by and say hi because they always have plenty of exhibits and the best sales today.

IT’S GOOD TO BE ENGINEER

heidi08 Beavers and climate change May 10, 2019

This morning there’s an excellent article about the power of beavers to change their environment and how it can save us from extinction. Well. no it doesn’t specifically say that but it comes pretty dam close if you know what I mean.

Giant beaver’s diet likely led to its demise, Western study finds

The giant beaver’s diet may have been the reason it died out in the last ice age, a first-of-its-kind study by Western University researchers says.

Researchers studied chemical tracers — stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon — in the beavers’ fossilized bones and teeth to learn more about their diets. The study authors found the 100-kilogram rodents dined on underwater plants and therefore required wetland environments to survive.

“We did not find any evidence that the giant beaver cut down trees or ate trees for food,” lead study author and former Western graduate student Tessa Plint said in a statement. “Giant beavers were not ‘ecosystem-engineers’ the way that the North American beaver is.”

“When you look at the fossil record from the last million years, you repeatedly see regional giant beaver populations disappear with the onset of more arid climatic conditions,” study co-author and Western earth sciences researcher Fred Longstaffe said in a statement.

Well, well, well. Not so much of a NUISANCE beaver now, am I? Adapt and change, that’s our motto.If you don’t like the way the pond looks today, get up and change it tomorrow. That’s the beaver way. And if you don’t take our advice you’ll go extinct and end up with some grad student studying the isotopes in your useless teeth.

The smaller beavers’ diet and behaviour, especially chewing through trees to build dams, might be the reason their descendants are still around today, researchers say.

“The ability to build dams and lodges may have actually given beavers a competitive advantage over giant beavers because it could alter the landscape to create suitable wetland habitat where required. Giant beavers couldn’t do this,” Longstaffe said in a statement.

So wait a minute. Wait just a doggone minute. Hold everything.

Are you telling me that the very thing that annoys and frustrates folk most about beavers, their damming streams and chewing of trees, the very reason we HATE and trap them and complain about them, is the EXACT same reason they survived the last big climate change crisis?

No reason, just asking for a friend.

IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL BORROW

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? May 9, 2019

You know how it is, you rack your brain thinking up some bright idea and if you’re lucky by the time the clock hits 3 in the morning you get an inspiration. And you think, hey that might work. It might work really well. You get up your courage and tentatively launch it to the world and immediately everybody wants to borrow it.

Yesterday we got our beaver ‘yard signs’ back from GLT for the festival and were loving how they looked. I shared one photo and the incoming director of The Methow project already asked if she can use them.

My goal this year was to expand beaver education to the adult audience. I think this does it. Those are going to look so cool in the grass around the stage!

Then Fur-bearers launched their latest awesome podcast whose title you just know was a brain child of our own very original name.

Defender Radio host Michael Howie spent four days in Belleville, Ontario, where a nearly year-long process to protect beavers after one was found in a trapped reached its conclusion. The interviews included in this episode were recorded in the field with local residents, political leaders, and the inventor of the Beaver Deceiver himself, Skip Lisle. Read more and see photos by clicking here.

It’s a great interview with Doug, Skip and some other locals. My favorite part remains the shocked horror with which Doug and his neighbors greet the discovery that in this modern day and age that beavers are still brutally trapped.

I just love hearing the shock in his voice.

Oh and I’m not worried that ideas are borrowed or appropriated. The more people talking about the neat things beavers do the better, They can use, alter or window dress my ideas however they like.

Something tells me I’ll make more.

I GUESS SARNIA AIN’T NARNIA

heidi08 Urban beavers May 8, 2019

I’m guessing this is bad news for Mr. and Mrs. Beaver.

Eager beaver latest to check out benefits of urban living

Officials are keeping a close eye on Lake Chipican’s newest resident.

A beaver arrived a few weeks ago, and though the city has no immediate plans to relocate the giant rodent, staff is watching for tree damage in Sarnia’s most popular park, said Parks and Recreation director Rob Harwood.

The newcomer adds to a growing incursion by beavers, which have joined coyotes, eagles, opossums, turkeys and other once exotic wildlife now earning a decent living inside city limits.

Nature educator Kim Gledhill said beavers are a “keystone” species whose presence indicates a healthy ecosystem.

Sarnia is almost over the city limits from Detroit, but in the Ontario side of Michigan. It’s none too excited about it’s new neighbors either. Oh and Kim, good try on the positive spin, but beavers aren’t sign of a healthy ecosystem. Beavers moved into Cherynoble. Beavers MAKE a healthy ecosystem.

Hopefully, the city won’t need to take action because beavers often struggle when relocated to unfamiliar environments, she said.

“Unless I start seeing trees coming down I’m not worried about it,” said the former St. Clair Region Conservation Authority worker.

And how often does that happen, really?

Beavers set up shop in Logan Pond on the Howard Watson Nature trail several years ago and did cause considerable damage, said Brenda Lorenz, a member of Sarnia’s environmental advisory committee.

“There was some really nice oak trees that had been planted and they were maybe two or three inches in diameter and they chopped them down,” she said.

Beavers also gnawed through most of the poplars on Sarnia’s waterfront The Point Lands a few years ago before moving on.

In 2016, beavers were discovered in Twin Lakes during a routine staff inspection by city staff. The pair was captured in humane traps by a provincially licensed trapper and relocated to the county before they could block up the ponds’ discharge outlet and cause flooding, a city official said.

And last summer a beaver dam near a Suncor tank farm at Aamjiwnaang caused localized flooding.

A species-at-risk technician with the band suggested building dam bypasses, and corrugated pipe made of heavy plastic was installed beneath the dams, allowing some water to flow through the area without disturbing the beavers.

Goodness, this “I’m fine with beavers as long as they don’t behave like beavers” attitude has got to stop! If you’re going to get rid of the little guy attempt it right now, while everyone’s looking and curious about this fellow. Don’t wait until the next distracting thing to happen.

There’s a much better chance for our side.

Beavers eat trees, Look it up. It’s a thing, Smart city workers that live on big bodies of water wrap the trees they want to save with wire. And then beavers eat something else. Stop me if you’ve heard this before.

Strange video recorded at Outer Banks shows beaver wading in surf, blowing bubbles

Meanwhile this beaver in North Carolina isn’t looking too well.

A video posted by the National Park Service of a beaver blowing bubbles as it wades off the Outer Banks has presented wildlife officials with an intriguing mystery.

Beavers don’t enjoy saltwater, so why was it calmly lingering in the surf off a North Carolina barrier island, asks the National Park Service.

And what’s with the bubbles?

Well, actually you’re wrong. Beavers can manage in water as salty as 10 parts per thousand. And often use bodies of water saltier than that to get from A to B. But this beaver in the video doesn’t look fine. He looks very sick. Obviously. So stop posting videos and talking to the media get off your Park service Duff and go rescue him.

LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU

heidi08 Beavers and salmon May 7, 2019

My goodness. Pennsylvania is getting its share of better beaver minds at the moment. I even heard tale about beaver information making its way to the new democratic governor. And stories like this can’t hurt.

Spill into Saanich’s Colquitz River could kill future salmon runs

A local environmental advocate fears a recent spill of warm, sediment-rich water into the Colquitz River system could lead to the failure of future salmon runs.

Ian Bruce, executive director of the Peninsula Streams Society, expressed this fear after he and others witnessed the river turn “chocolate brown” on Thursday, May 2. Students from Royal Oak middle school were releasing Coho fry into the river at the Wilkinson Road and Lindsay Avenue when the level of the river suddenly rose four inches in height, said Bruce, whose organization hosted the students.

“The clear, slow moving water became chocolate brown with sediment, and began rushing by,” he said. Its temperature rose from 10.8 degree Celsius to 18.5 degree Celsius, while the level of dissolved oxygen dropped by more than half, he added.

After calling authorities, Bruce and others then followed the river to discover that the water had entered the Colquitz River through Viaduct Creek, an upstream tributary, that runs near the Horticultural Centre of the Pacific (HCP).

That can’t be good. So the water is running chocolate brown. Anything else you can tell us?

“At the site where the man-made lake behind [HCP] enters Viaduct Creek, we found evidence of beaver dam removal from the weir and overflow spillways with lots of sediment and the water from the lake rushing into the creek, then into the Colquitz River via Quick Bottom wetland.”

Ah HA!
That might be the source of your muddy water right there, and if its not the only culprit it certainly made things worse. Now the article doesn’t go on to explicitly state how much better beavers make things for salmon fry, but I would argue it’s definitely implied.

Bruce expects the incident will have immediate and long-term impacts. Immediate impacts of the spill include the potential death or definite impairment of Coho fry and [smolt] Cutthroat eggs and juveniles, and aquatic insects on which salmon juveniles rely for their food, said Bruce. “Longer term impacts could include failure of future runs,” he added.

Bruce said Salmons already face so many threats that are not easily controlled, including climate change, not to have preventable incidents like this to happen.

Salmons?

Well, okay its Pennsylvania and we’re grading on a curve. The takeaway here is that ripping out beaver dams is bad for salmon. At least that’s what I’m taking away from this. I hope that’s what the students take away too.

This photo ran on the ghost bear facebook page yesterday and I just had to share.

And hey, our ad appeared in Community Focus yesterday and the placement could NOT be better. I sure hope the mayor doesn’t mind his new neighbors but he wasn’t so happy about them last time around as I recall.