Month: August 2019

BEAVER LIES AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS

From Beaver Management Facebook Friend Chris Muller:

The tongue is so quick that it’s difficult to spot live except when they yawn. I’ve rarely photographed the tongue while eating but here’s a recent one. Even shooting at 7 frames per second there’s only one shot with any evidence of the tongue so it’s largely luck to see it fully extended.

Well that’s a relief anyway. 7 frames a second is something I never did, and Sarah says she was shooting at 60 frames a second. Plus I made people wonder about it and try out new things, and I never get tired of that.

Yesterday I got a great treasure in the mail via Ben Goldfarb but actually from Chris Jones, the Cornish farmer who first stepped up to allow beavers on his land. Remember that my paternal grandfather was born in St Austell, Cornwall,where his family had worked for years in the tin mines. After the gold rush, when California wanted to mine deeper gold they came along to use their expertise and find a new life.

Thanks so much Chris and Ben, I love it!

I heard from the attorney at CBD yesterday that they were very interested in the idea that non-dam building beavers contribute as well, and she planned to follow up with wildlife services. So it’s already been a week of tying up loose ends. The story made it into the SF Chronicle today – albeit with more flash than substance.

‘Nature’s engineers’: Feds to stop killing California beavers

Under the threat of legal action, Wildlife Services, a controversial program administered by the United States Department of Agriculture, has agreed to “cease its current beaver damage management activities” in almost all California counties, according to a statement from Wildlife Services state director Dennis Orthmeyer issued via email.

In other words, the government program will stop killing California beavers.

Ahh would that it were true. Beavers of course will STILL be killed by wildlife services if the damage landscaping or levees and if they have the audacity to live in a stream that’s too wide to dam. I know its good for people to make the link in their heads that beavers matter, but I don’t think it’s good to tell everyone they’re safe.

It’s too much like the grinch patting Cindy Loo Hoo’s head and sending her back to sleep while he finished the job he never had any intention of stopping.

Throughout California, the beaver will roam free, able to build as many dams as it pleases — at least for now. Wildlife Services’ press release explains that it is stopping the beaver-killings “out of an abundance of caution” as it evaluates the impacts of the beaver damage management program

MEMO TO CDFG ON WATER RESILIENCE

Good lord, it’s August 5th already.

This week is the CDFG listening session about water resilience, where they need to hear from smart folk about beavers and why they matter both for water storage, drought and fire resilience AND species habitat protection.

Let me just review my notes.

I have to start working on my presentation for Rossmoor and to top it off they’re paving our street so we can’t park at the house or around the corner for 4 days AND it’s the final week before Jon’s birthday.

There’s so much to do!

WATER RESILIENCE PORTFOLIO INITIATIVE LISTENING SESSION

The Commission is hosting this public listening session to offerstakeholders an opportunity to provide input on what constitutes a “climate resilient water portfolio” for California and, specifically, on water resiliency for fish and wildlife.

State agencies are asking Californians to help shape a roadmap for meeting future water needs and ensuring environmental and economic resilience through the 21st century. Input from the public will help the California Natural Resources Agency, California Environmental Protection Agency, and California Department of Food and Agriculture craft recommendations to fulfill Governor Newsom’sApril29executiveorder, calling for a suite of actions to build a climate-resilient water system and ensure healthy waterways.

Ooh ooh I know! Call on me!

How much do I wish I could be there on capitol hill for this very important meeting with a dozen supporters in the balcony so that when I leap to my feet during audience feedback they all unfurl a huge banner with this emblazened on the front.

For those of us who can’t be there in person, the entire meeting will be live streamed at www.fgc.ca.gov the day of the meeting and they are accepting written feedback.

Submitting Written Materials: The public is encouraged to attend the listening session and engage in the discussion about items on the agenda; the public is also welcome to comment on agenda items in writing. To see a calendar of related events and learn how to provide input directly to the California Water ResiliencePortfolio Initiative,please visitwww.WaterResilience.ca.gov

We have so much homework to do!

Water_Resilience_Agenda_2019_0808_final_072619-1

“OUT OF THE TWISTED TIMBER OF HUMANITY”

heidi08 Beavers August 5, 2019

The is little new beaver news worth sharing this morning, and the entire country is apparently a dumpster fire of pain at the moment. So I’m going to show you something that you NEED to know about. Something that has been lurking in California’s lost coast and I never ever knew about until recently. Something that will soothe your soul.

The Candelabra Trees.

These majestic and twisted redwood trees grow so near the coast that prevailing weather forced them to grown inwards, rather than up, so they have several trunks supporting those curving limbs. There are several of them, twined along a ferned hill like sentries in a mystical forest.

‘Candelabra’ redwoods part of new Lost Coast Trail in Mendocino County

The north end of the new 2.3-mile trail begins with a short climb to a viewing platform and bench among the grove of “candelabra trees,” so named because each tree’s twisted, pronged shape resembles a multi-armed candleholder.

“We wanted the platform here because it is about eye-level to this,” said Paul Ringgold, chief program officer for Save the Redwoods League, pointing to a particularly impressive tree split into mirrored halves like a pair of moose antlers.

Ringgold said the trees were about 500 years old and their crooked shapes were created by violent windstorms that repeatedly blew off the tops of the trees, then bent any new growth.

Saved from becoming lumber because of their deformities, the trees instead became a well-known secret that enticed hikers into trespassing so often they created a “social trail” that Morris said she incorporated into the new trail as much as possible.

For centuries they sheltered on such an unmarked obscure land that the only trail was word of mouth. The Redwood League and the Mendocino Land Trust worked to make it more accessible, naming it after the tireless advocate who fought to make the California coast open to all – and believe me, it wasn’t easy keeping these beautiful places from being walled off by the wealthy.

The terrifying and majestic highway 1 makes almost all the magic reachable.

That world is called the Lost Coast, which so far has achieved the impossible. Too rugged to be tamed by pavement, its spectacular beachfront property remains wild, accessible only to humans humble enough to enter on foot.

And now even more of that wilderness is open to hikers thanks to a partnership between the Save the Redwoods League and the Mendocino Land Trust that carved the Lost Coast Trail deeper into Mendocino.

To reach the Peter Douglas Trail, named after the longtime director of the California Coastal Commission who helped write the Coast Act of 1976, find the mostly unmarked Usal Road at mile marker 90.88 on Highway 1, then head up a few bumpy miles until you find both a sign for the trail and a place to park.

So some day when you feel your own deformities keep you from growing into the sun like other trees, and when you aren’t sure your efforts will ever matter or ever be remembered even for a moment, think of the Candelabra trees and keep trying a little longer.

NOT QUITE A VICTORY

heidi08 Beavers August 3, 2019

The not-quite-a-victory in the threat of lawsuit by the Center for Bioligical Diversity has been getting a great deal of press – I even saw it on the KQED science note. What’s getting less press of ourselves is the charming list of 101 exceptions to the agreement to spare their lives. I’m still reeling from the notion that beavers that don’t build dams are slackers that shouldn’t be spared, so of course I asked folks that are smarter than me what they might think.

I thought I’d share some of author Ben Goldfarb’s very smart reply.

The fact that non-damming beavers aren’t protected defies common ecological sense. First, there’s good evidence from California that even bank-dwelling beavers create important habitat. Check out Marisa Parish’s PhD research, which showed that several salmon species relied on bank burrows as refuges during juvenile stages;

Beaver bank lodge use, distribution and influence on salmonid rearing habitats in the Smith River, California

Parish, Marisa M.

Also, if we want beavers to disperse into the upper reaches of watersheds to build dams and do all the great stuff they do, we have to approach carrying capacity in the lower reaches. (Jakob Shockey made this point nicely in his State of the Beaver talk this year.) I don’t know this for sure, of course, but I strongly suspect that if we keep killing them in lakes and big rivers, we won’t achieve sufficient population densities to compel them up into the headwaters, where they’d be more motivated to build. They want to live where they can be lazy, whereas we want them to live where they have to work hard — but we have to reach saturation for that to happen. Reflexively killing them in the lower reaches of watersheds assures that we’ll never attain such saturation. At least, that’s my — and others’ — hypothesis.

Excellently put Ben, as usual. And of course it makes sense in every way possible that beavers would matter whether they’re in the ideal location or NOT, just like they did in the urban channel of Martinez, which was very far from idea. I hope when CBD comes to earth after their 3 day champagne celebration they will pay attention to what the experts are saying about this.

And now on to yesterdays discovery, from beaver friend Sarah Koenigsberg:

Beaver eating slo-mo from Tensegrity Productions on Vimeo.

SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN!

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy August 2, 2019

You would think, with the hours and years of my life I have spent watching beavers and analyzing their footage and staring at photos I would have seen every SINGLE thing I could possibly see about them. Every nuance. Every detail. There are posts, for example, where I talk about nothing but their eyebrows or how to tell our beaver noses from muskrat or castor fiber noses.

I thought I’d seen it all. I was wrong.I let you all down. I’m so sorry.

Last night, filmmaker Sarah Koenigsberg posted this image to announce her upcoming screening in Scotts Valley. And my head went whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa so loud you could hear it next door.

You see it to right? That pink little tongue as if a beaver was a cocker spaniel. I asked Sarah “was that beaver sick or stressed?” And she said no, she saw it on all kinds of beavers everywhere she filmed. A darting tongue that would just pop out usually just before or after they were finishing a meal.

Photoshop is a dangerous tool in the wrong hands. Was this changed or colored? No, she promised and posted footage of beavers eating so I could see it myself. I wish I could share them here but I hope to soon. Beavers chewing and that tiny tongue lapping up that last bit of flavor.

Of course I asked others, Cheryl, Rusty, Jon, Jari Osborne who made the famous beaver film. have you ever seen this? Suzi Eszterhas with her huge camera lens who photographed them for months. Is it just me not paying attention?

I scoured my own footage. Surely I had seen it somewhere hadn’t I? had anyone else picked it up?

Even if you slow that down don’t see anything, Try it yourself using the wheel on the bottom and select ‘playback speed’ .25.

Nothing. To a man my fellow beaver photographers were all shocked and had never ever seen this. Sarah thinks it is because she’s scrolling through footage frame by frame on a huge screen that she noticed. Maybe,

And then I remembered ancient ancient footage that Moses had first shot of our 2008 kit when he was first seen trying to feed atop the lodge. In the very beginning seconds he was in the water you see a little. I remember when we saw it we were commenting that it appeared like he was just in between learning to eat leaves and nursing, because he kind of chewing and spitting at the same time saying “Ew this isn’t dinner!”

It’s in the very first few seconds that you see tongue. Nothing like that still of Sarah’s. Beaver tongues must be very very short, and nothing like a dogs, But its there all the same. Oh and you should watch all the way to the end and see him fall off the lodge and plop into the water. That’s pretty adorable.

Though not nearly as adorable as this. I guess we live and learn.