Month: July 2019

WE NEED TO GET OUT OF THEIR WAY

heidi08 Beavers July 27, 2019

How’d you enjoy Lassie? Ohh me too. I especially enjoyed hearing from all the beaver experts out there that never saw it and yet remembered growing up watching the show! Lory wisely wondered what he’ll do when new beavers move in,and Bruce said he didn’t remember Timmy’s dad being such a conservationist! We all thought it was crazy to try and rip apart a beaver dam by standing right below it!

Yikes! A new meaning to the phrase “Timmy’s down the well“!

I thought about those three bailey traps full of beavers and wondered just what in the heck fish and game was going to do with them! Lassie supposedly took place in a fictional midwest place called “Calverton”. So I’m guessing those fictional fish and game folk would know.

Unfortunately the not-so-fictional town of McKinney Texas had other plans. In general the strategy in the Lone Star State appears to be kill them outright if no ones watching, but if a community objects then just pick them up and move them one by one to some beaver dumping ground. Sometimes lots of families of beavers wind up in the same cell, so you can imagine how well that works out.

City of McKinney relocates beavers after dams cause flooding at Bonnie Wenk Park

The beaver dams first started causing problems when the city began renovating the north side of Bonnie Wenk Park in fall 2018. After a few months without issues, the beavers started causing problems again in June, McKinney Animal Control Supervisor De St. Aubin said in an email to Community Impact Newspaper.

“[The beavers] have always been out there, but our interactions didn’t start until we started working on the area that comprises Phase II,” Michael Kowski, director of the McKinney Parks and Recreation Department, said in an email.

In late February, McKinney Animal Control started trapping and relocating the beavers to private land outside of McKinney. At the same time, the parks department placed pipes around the dams to reroute water away from the dams. According to Kowski, the pipes are working.

The city has relocated six beavers as of July 25, St. Aubin said in an email, and they are starting to trap again. St. Aubin said he is certain animal control could never catch them all.

You know how it is. Beavers are like termites. It’s not like there’s a SINGLE FAMILY living together and we’re kidnapping members one by one. And since we started in February it’s not like we left the pregnant mother alone to fend for herself with the kits. I mean we wouldn’t think of it that way anyhow.

Let me know if you can read this paragraph without making a gesture. Because I sure failed.

“As we continue to weave parks into our beautiful landscape, we accept that we must respect and work with the rhythm and behaviors of our local wildlife,” Kowski said in the email. “Beaver dams will always be a part of our parks system. And our skilled maintenance team is up to dealing with any challenges associated with their presence.”

I’m not sure which part of that monologue is the most outrageous. Referring to maintenance as a SKILLED TEAM or the fact that you used the word “Rhythm” in a sentence about local wildlife.

You should have that entire phrase sewn into a hat.

I’m hoping you can explain to me why someone would relocate beavers AND install a pipe at the dam? Do you think the dam will fix itself? Or do you think possibly that NEITHER IDEA WILL WORK and so you do both in the vain hopes that something will help the situation.

Good lord. Remind me never to visit McKinney.

Here’s something wise from Ellen Wohl’s new book that speaks to the situation.

In order for them to do there job we have to get out of the way.

LASSIE LOVES BEAVERS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers July 26, 2019

When I was child growing up in Martinez there were regular school field trips to the John Muir house. I of course knew what his house looked like long, long before I ever knew anything about his impact or work. It was still moderately interesting to wander through his historic home and imagine the way things were in the ‘olden days’.

The best place to do this was the attic.

Attic, John Muir Home, John Muir National Historic Site. Martinez, California, USA

On rainy days, we were told, his daughters used to play in that big open space. The attic was usually docent-free and the many stairs it took to get there meant that it was usually teacher-free too. It had a central steep stairway that went to the bell tower where you could ring the bell and see all of Martinez from a great height. But my preferred space was the attic itself. When I was a child it was full of old trunks containing assorted old tack and bits of harness that sometimes my friend Karen and I would sort through imagining how it worked.

Don’t tell that to any ranger now, because it makes them shake their head disapprovingly but it was wonderful to lay out the separate pieces on the grand old wooden floor and think about how to harness your imaginary team of horses, which of course Karen and I owned many of.

I mention this because it has occurred to me that on its very best days, searching the internet can remind me of the feeling I had playing in that attic – unfettered discovery of treasures no one even remembered setting aside let alone using in daily life.

Yesterday I stumbled into a glorious discovery in that very attic, It all started with this 1849 Gold map of the San Francisco Area being shared on a california history facebook page. It mentions “Martines” and very little else in Contra Costa. I was surprised to see the mention of Livermore, which apparently was the early holding of one Robert Livermore, who was born in England, lived in California and even became a Mexican citizen.

Of course I wondered whether I would come across any information about him trapping beavers. but while I was looking for that I stumbled on something way way way better.

I’m sure we’ll get back to that awesome map, but I was distracted by the mention that Al Livermore also happened to be the name of a recurring farmer character in the series Lassie. And that he was part of the episode in which LASSIE SAVES BEAVERS.

Of course I ran through the hallways excitedly looking for that particular episode and wondering if it was saved for us in one of those old trunks no one looked in. And oh what a beautiful, glorious, rewarding luxurious place that trunk turned out to be.

Get a second mug of coffee or a danish and sit back in your most comfortable chair, because you will never, ever love any black and white episode from 1962 as much as you love this.

NO EASY WALK FOR BEAVERS

Again with the good news?

With all these positive reports noone wlll believe that beavers have a rough time in the world, They will look at this website and shrug “What are you doing trying to save something that everyone loves and thinks is really useful?”

It’s like starting a nonprofit to save cars for.

Beavers Work Hard for River Ecosystems

“When we lose beaver, we also lose the wetlands they create, we lose the water storage,” Dalia Malone said. “Beaver dams store tremendous amounts of carbon. When beaver dams dry out because the beaver have left, that carbon goes up and is contributing to global warming.”

Delia is the ecologist for the Colorado Natural Heritage Program and something tells me we’re going to be great friends. Call it a hunch.

She’s wrong about one thing though.

Beavers don’t just make a huge difference in the back country uplands. When you let them move right into a dam city they set about making a huge difference too.

Just ask Martinez.

I have to share this photo and explain. On tuesday night there was a big meeting at the planning commission to discuss a controversial gun range in ~~Stars Hollow~~ oops, I mean Martinez. I wasn’t there. I didn’t organize a response or have anything to do with it. But yesterday I saw that protestors were carrying these signs at the meeting.

No, Really.

WEATHER OR NOT WE NEED BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and climate change July 24, 2019

I’m sure we’ve all gotten used to seeing beaver benefits touted in the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal. Over the years, they’ve shown up in some unlikely places like USA today and TVGuide.I’ve become prepared for that.

But the Weather Channel?

How Beavers, the Original Ecosystem Engineers, May Help the American West Adapt to Climate Change.

For the past 12 years, the Beaver Project has been working with agencies such as the Forest Service to move so-called nuisance beavers to new locations in the valley.

The work of beavers is in direct contrast to the effects of climate change, which is predicted to make water run out faster. Scientists postulate Washington State will get less rain in the summer and less snow during the winter (mountain snowpack is an important source of water during the dry months). These trends could lead to more frequent and more severe droughts in some areas.

“Storing water for the future. That was kind of the whole initial energy and funding behind the project,” says Alexa Whipple, director of the Methow Beaver Project. They’ve done about 300 re-introductions so far, she says.

Hold on. I’m just rubbing my eyes. Not only do the scientists at the weather channel get to mention climate change they get to say that beavers can help with it! Wow are all the Trump officials on vacation or something?

One study done in a different part of Washington State found that each beaver dam held over 100,000 gallons of surface water, with three to five times as much stored as groundwater.

Whipple says they can also see the water sticking around longer in the Methow.

“‘There’s a higher water residence time,’ is how we like to say it in the research world,” says Whipple. “Basically you’re holding water longer and releasing it later into the season when things are drier.”

This could be the climate adaptation they were hoping for.

“The more we can store that water on the landscape, the more the ecological and ecosystem function can be sustained,” says Whipple.

More water sticking around on the landscape could mean more water for agriculture or wildlife. Ponds can also recharge groundwater reserves, store carbon and create wetland habitats for plants and animals.

Well, well, well. I guess it’s really time to climb aboard the train. Even the Weather Channel thinks so.

Now just in case you’re appearing before congress today and feeling stressed this morning, here’s your moment of zen by our good friend Art Wolinsky of New Hampshire,

Relax. Everything will be fine.

HE WHO DAMS LAST DAMS BEST

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact July 23, 2019

Die two months ago and not forgotten yet? Then there’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year.

Hamlet

We all want to leave a legacy.

We hope our children grow into successful adults that carry on the family name and tradition. We hope our business survives or grows into something even better after we’re gone. We hope the money we leave to our grandchildren gets them through college or give them a great start in life. We hope the organs we donate go to future nobel prize winners and first responders and not to budding serial killers.

That is, we want our impact to last as long as that of beavers.

Study shows beaver engineering has lasting environmental impacts

A recent study conducted in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) by two researchers from Colorado State University found that the engineering effects of beavers on an ecosystem can persist for decades after they no longer inhabit the area.

The study, which was published in the Wiley Online Library, was completed by researchers Dr. Ellen Wohl and graduate student DeAnna Laurel. Wohl said she got the idea to pursue this research while she was investigating other aspects of stream systems in RMNP.

“I began to notice more and more abandoned, inactive beavers dams,” Wohl said. “It became clear that beavers historically had high population densities and large numbers of dams along every stream on both the eastern and western slope of the park, so I became interested in where the beavers were historically, where they are now, and the effects of beaver modifications of channels and floodplains.”

Think about that for a moment. Beavers are so dam important that Dr. Wohl needed a graduate student to study where they USED TO BE. Who’s going to study where you used to be?

According to the study, beavers engage in three activities that influence the environment: building dams, altering the vegetation landscape with their diet and digging narrow canals to facilitate their movements.

The study looked at seven beaver meadows on the eastern side of RMNP, all of which had differing levels of beaver activity. Wohl and Laurel then divided these sites into four categories: active, partially active, recently abandoned (less than 20 years) and long-abandoned (greater than 30 years).

During the summers of 2015 and 2016, the two researches conducted their field work at these locations, which consisted of GPS surveying, measuring sediment depth using rebar and testing organic carbon concentration levels in the soil samples that they collected. This data was used to quantify past and present beaver activity in the area.

Got that? They were testing the soil for carbon concentration where they once dammed. Because if you’re going to make a difference at all, it may as well last.

But Wohl and Laurel overcame, and they ultimately found that soil moisture only differs significantly between active and long-abandoned meadows, which they say suggests a non-linear decrease after beavers abandon a meadow. They also found that organic carbon stocks can be maintained by large-scale geologic controls long after beavers abandon a meadow, a finding that resulted from the team learning that soil depth and carbon stock do not differ consistently in relation to category of beaver meadow.

Time to get ready for the shocking conclusion. Are you sitting down?

Based on these findings, the two researchers concluded that “the effects of beaver ecosystem engineering can persist for nearly three decades after the animals largely abandon a river corridor.”

Of course that makes sense. It makes you realize just how big and long-lasting an impact the fur trade must have had on our nation. Like an evil present that is constantly unwrapping itself 30 years later.

I would like to leave the kind of legacy where people are still finding my snarky comments and graphics online in thirty years. Maybe children downloading them for a book report or a mention on the Martinez Beavers wikipedia that survives the next generation of edits. I want to be remembered for sharing photos like this:

We all ride on the tails of greatness.