Month: January 2020

THE KEYSTONE STATE REJECTS ITS KEYSTONE SPECIES

heidi08 Who's Killing Beavers Now? January 21, 2020

Wanna see another episode of “Pennsylvania: not solving problems”? Here it is in all its not-quite-glory.

Beaver dam could pose problematic for Mather road

At least once a month, Dan Foster of Clarksville travels through Mather and along Stony Point Road (Township Road 855) to attend Wing Night at the Stony Point Restaurant.

For the past two months, as he drove to join others of the Jefferson Baptist Church men’s group, Foster noticed a rise in the water level at the Brown’s Run Reservoir. Turns out the reason behind the rising water is a beaver lodge built on top the overflow of the reservoir dam. Foster pegs the structure at around two feet in height.

Ooh this is a good episode. They can’t even tell the difference between a LODGE and a DAM. Get the popcorn and let’s watch.

On Friday, January 17, Bence made a site inspection and determined the dam wasn’t an immediate problem. However, he said he would monitor the water level periodically to make sure it doesn’t rise to a level that will impact traffic or threaten the road.

Because this time of year is smack in the middle of beaver trapping season, which extends from December 26 to March 31, when the fur is thickest, Bence said some trappers may come along and remove the beavers from the reservoir.

If the beavers remain after the close of the trapping season and pose problems, he said he’d catch them in line traps that don’t kill them and move them to an area where they won’t be an issue for humans.

“There’s no telling how many there might be,” Bence said. “Usually beavers don’t live in large numbers. It’s mostly a male and female with this year’s pups. After a year, the pups disperse to look around for a mate.”

Got that? Trappers “REMOVE” the beavers when the fur is valuable and just move them around when its not. Pretty darn thoughtful of them isn’t it?

According to Bence, beavers are nocturnal and crepuscular, meaning they’re more active at dusk.

“This time of year, I walk along the waterways looking for traps to see if they’re set legally,” Bence said. “For one, you can’t trap on private property or 15-feet from a beaver lodge because you can’t trap them near where they live. Trappers must also check their traps every 30 hours to make sure a trapped beaver doesn’t starve or suffer.”

Oh okay. I admit you have three full ounces more compassion than most trappers I read about. I’ll spare you my full onslaught.There are a few beaver friends in Pennsylvania. Not many, but a few. One is following the website and attending BeaverCon2020 as our correspondent. Let’s hope he talks to his neighbors.

What are your plans in March, Bence?

Got a note saying Vista Print 50% off sale today. I try to keep things in my portfolio ready to go and just waiting for the big ones. Got 100 of these 4 x 6 suspect cards for 16 bucks. Not bad.

So each child gets one of these at the festival in a manila envelope marked top secret to begin their hunt for clues. Seems kinda fun. They have to identify each footprint to rule out suspects and solve the mystery.

What do you think happened to the missing salmon? My money’s on the otter.

THE BENEFITS OF A BEAVER BASELINE

One of the things I said in my chat with James Wallace of the beaver Trust that beavers can show off best in England is ecological impact with a baseline. As in our stream looked like this for years and years, then we added some beavers, and now it looks like THIS. But with statistics, so that scientists pay attention and people take it seriously. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so. This nice writing is from Joshua Harris of the Ecologist.

Bringing back beavers

We tend to overlook the effects that living organisms have on their physical world because most of the ecosystems around us have been “downgraded” as we have removed the important species – thus, in these cases it is mainly physical processes that determine how organisms survive.

But there is now an increasing weight of evidence that the interaction works both ways: the earth shapes life, and life shapes the earth.

Beavers’ engineering work benefits many kinds of wildlife: ponds are perfect for frogs and fish larvae, riffles and gravel banks for dippers, swampy areas for water rails and moorhens, dead trees for woodpeckers and owls, and lush coppiced vegetation for songbirds.

The fact that beaver habitat is ideal for so many species should not come as a surprise: beavers were present in our ecosystems for millions of years, so many wetland species may have actually evolved to live in beaver habitats.

Oh yes the beavers make the difference. And a stream without a beaver is like a car without a steering wheel. It will probably still go places. But probably not really the places you want.

Through studying the effects that beavers have on streams, it has become clear that deeply incised river channels disconnected from their floodplain, which we perceive as the norm, are in fact a consequence of the removal of beavers, and other human impacts.

Before we deforested and farmed the land and hunted beavers to extinction for their fur and scent glands, wetlands would have filled the bottoms of valleys, with snaking channels, ponds, wet meadows, and willow scrub.

By bringing back the beaver, and allowing our rivers to freestyle through the landscape, we could revive these incredible ecosystems. Beaver engineered wetlands could fan out into every valley in an interconnected network, like arteries pumping life back into the landscape.

So many other species could flourish in the habitats that beavers create: otters, water voles, marsh tits, spotted flycatchers, lesser spotted woodpeckers, water rails, egrets, lapwings, redshanks. Incredible species which we’ve almost forgotten could return – white tailed eagles, cranes, and even white storks, which last bred in the UK in 1416 but are just starting to make a comeback.

Be still my heart. The author of this fine blog entry is a young ecolologist at Cambridge. He volunteers with the beaver Trust and we are expecting great future contributions.

A revival of beaver ecosystems would have wider environmental and economic benefits beyond increasing biodiversity and bringing wildness back into our lives. Their leaky dams hold back water in floods, and release it gradually in drought.

By retaining water in the headwaters of catchments where the land is less valuable for farming, they could protect more productive arable land further downstream. As we experience more extreme weather events due to climate change, reintroducing beavers to our river systems could make a valuable contribution to reducing the damage to villages and towns.

The lush swamps that beavers create have been shown to filter out fertiliser and pesticide runoff, and reduce the washing away of soil to the oceans – something which is currently visible from space whenever heavy rain falls.

As vegetation builds up in the ponds it forms peat, and the carbon that was sequestered by the growing plants is locked away.

We’ve spent thousands of years trashing the complex connections in our living world, and we’ve created ecosystems which are a mere shadow of their former selves.

If there is one animal which we need in Britain right now, it has to be the beaver. The bang for your buck in terms of biodiversity and wider environmental gains is huge.

Gosh I like reading about people who are finding out how awesome beavers are by watching the difference they make for the first time. I believe it was Voltaire who wrote famously “If God didn’t exist man would invent him”. Very true, but I’m going to say if, by some chance, the UK hadn’t existed for 500 years without beavers we would have had to invent them, because they are SO DARN USEFUL at proving our point about why beavers matter.

Thanks Joshua.

BEAVERS AND CANOES

heidi08 History January 19, 2020

This painting, by Dwayne James, is among my favorite. It is an obvious riff on the beaver tale paddle that used for canoes, but it is so much better. The rippling light on the water reminds me so much of our hours spent in the canoe that it has a special place in my heart already. but beavers are just made for canoes. Everybody knows that.

The whole news reel is wonderful but go to 5:32 to see what I mean.

THEY WALK AMONG US

heidi08 Beavers January 18, 2020

Rumor has it that a beaver suspect was observed last night at 8;30 near Starbucks. Browsing on purloined substances. An actual beaver seen by someone who knows the difference between a beaver and a raccoon! I’m so excited. The only thing better than a beaver in Martinez is two beavers in Martinez!

Jon’s going to be busy tonight!

For those of you following along at home that would be the last one on the right.

The next bright spot on our good news for the day comes from the beaver working group in Montana, whose newsletter is put together by Sarah Bates of the National Wildlife Foundation. Guest what she included this month amidst a discussion of the BRAT tool and BeaverCon 2020?

The links really work too! I just wish she’d mentioned “WORTH A DAM” but I guess if someone follows the links they’ll get the idea. Right? Affirming to see the urban beavers print get noticed.

For those of us that can’t sneak down to the beaver pond to see what’s happening, I pass along this glorious webcam of the PGE peregrines in San Francisco. True story. I started watching George and Gracie way back in 2006 because my Dad used to work in that building lo these many years ago. I was stunned to watch a community grow around following a single family of wildlife online. We all felt so connected to them, to each other, and to their story.

There was the heartbreaking time the fledgling falcon fell off the ledge and onto the busy SF street: A brave Fed-ex worker stopped his delivery truck and brought him back up to the 39th floor in a box. Since he alone of all his siblings got to ride in the elevator everyone called him ‘Otis’. It informed all the later efforts watching beavers and helped me understand what they meant to people.

And now they’re back, and the camera is way way better. It follows them around the scrape and you can actually ZOOM! ENJOY!

CHECKING IN ON ALL OUR BEAVER FRIENDS

heidi08 Beavers and Ranchers, Beavers and trout, Friends of Martinez Beavers, pictures January 17, 2020

Lots of beaver news today. Lets focus on or friends, first! Mike Settell in Pocatello Idaho is doing another beaver count! How can it be that his volunteers look frozen but he looks young and cheerful after all these years!

Watershed Guardians to hold their 9th annual BeaverCount

On Feb. 1 and Feb. 8 Watershed Guardians will hold its 9th annual BeaverCount, a free snowshoe event to raise awareness of the important role beaver play keeping the Portneuf River watershed healthy.

On Feb. 1, volunteers will meet at the Mink Creek Nordic Center at 10 a.m. where a training will be held for anyone interested in counting beaver activity. The training will include winter outdoor preparedness and censusing techniques for beaver. Participants will also learn about their watershed. This training is for newcomers and BeaverCount veterans, known as “Flattailers.” Flattailers are encouraged to attend the training to update their skills.

Man that’s smart! I wanna be a flat-tailer! Don’t you?

Snowshoes and food will be provided by Watershed Guardians for both weekends. Participants must pre-register, which they can do on the Watershed Guardians Facebook page or at the website, www.watershedguardians.org. Should conditions warrant on Feb. 7, the count will be rescheduled for Feb. 15. Please check Facebook and/or the website for updates on weather conditions during the week prior to Feb. 8.

Watershed Guardians is a 501c (3) non-profit whose mission is to, ” Protect, maintain and restore the Portneuf River Watershed, one beaver at a time.” Data collected from BeaverCount is used to influence management decisions with regard to trapping regulations.

Brave beaver-loving Mike has been at this work nearly as long as us. On a tougher landscape where fur-trapping abounds. Thank goodness he’s willing to snowshoe every year and share what he knows!

Let’s stop by our local Sonoma beavers next and see what they’re up to, shall we?

Bill Lynch: Frankly, my beaver, we don’t give a dam

The Sonoma Index-Tribune recently published a couple of articles about beavers and otters in Sonoma Creek (“Otters Join Beavers in Sonoma Creek,” Dec. 27).

It’s a good sign, not just because it’s nice to know that Sonoma Valley’s main waterway is actually clean enough to support wildlife, but also because beavers can actually improve life for other critters, including my favorite, rainbow trout.

Our Sonoma Valley creeks used to be home to a healthy population of steelhead/rainbow trout and spawning areas for king and Coho salmon. In my boyhood here we could fish for trout in most of our streams through the spring and early summer.

Since those days, our creeks have lost more than half of their water and many completely dry up by June and stay that way until the fall rains return.

This kills any chance for salmon fry and steelhead trout fry to survive.

I don’t understand the headline. Shouldn’t it be “We should all give a dam?” But the column is excellent! That’s what we need. A few more beaver friends argue that saving salmon and trout depends on them. Thanks Bill! Have we met?

About a year and a half ago, I visited the Scott River valley were local residents formed the Scott River Watershed Council (SRWC) and are working with Dr. Michael Pollock, eco-system analyst for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In this little community people are doing something about bringing back their creeks.

The river, no bigger than our own Sonoma Creek, was once a prolific salmon and steelhead spawning resource, before it was ruined by past gold mining. Then climate change and other factors caused it and its tributaries to dry up during most summers.

But in 2014 SRWC began constructing “beaver dam analogues,” which are human made structures that mimic natural beaver dams, store water and create habitat for all kinds of local species, including steelhead trout and Coho salmon. Over time, these naturally appearing dams create pools where fish can survive.

Dottie and I met with Betsy Stapleton, chairman of the SRWC, who showed us some of the work her group has done on the creek. The results are impressive. They were able to preserve large areas of fresh, clean water in which Coho and trout fry are surviving. Every season, the fish count goes up.

Real beavers are helpful, but when there are not enough of them, small grassroots projects like those in the Scott River Valley can really help. Perhaps something like that would work here.

Oh yeah. Now that’s what I like to see. A beaver friend we don’t know yet talking about a beaver friend we already know! The stage is filling up. Soon you won’t be able to swing a dead salmon without hitting someone who knows why beavers matter!

Even in Silicon Valley there are friends looking out for beavers. Take this excellent photo taken by Erica Fleniken of the Southbay Creeks Coalition yesterday morning on the Guadelupe. She says she was watching two beavers swim and snapped this beautiful photo.

Two beavers in January mean kits in June. Big smile.