Month: February 2020

BEAVERS ARE COMING TO TOWN!

Can you feel it?

There’s a palpable energy in the air as we are moving closer to the first ever beaver conference on the East Coast. This morning I have my tech walk through to make sure everything works properly. And later this weekend I’m imagining folks will be arriving.

In the meantime the conference finally got some good press, and we’re happy about that.

Can beavers provide cost-effective solution to stream restoration efforts?

Years back, thanks to a generous friend, I had access to a beaver pond to hunt wood ducks. I don’t have a clue if this trickle connected to one of the larger streams in that area, but it was a magical spot, nonetheless.

Its banks were surrounded by a gnarled maze of buttonbush and alders. Large sycamores, gums, ashes, white oaks also ringed the pond, the collective canopy creating a vast hammock for raptors, songbirds and those overlooked animals that prefer to keep out of sight.

Yup. Beavers help woodducks mightily. All those little invertebrates feeding all those little fish that all those quiet woodducks love to munch. I guess the reporter of this article thought it might have been a coincidence?

Just so you know, he’s not coming into this as a true believer.

I’d also long assumed that their instinctual dam building compromised the health of creeks and streams, especially where healthy trout stocks dwell. Removing trees not only accelerates erosion it eliminates the shaded canopy so important to keep the hot sun from cooking water temperatures so high trout and other fish and aquatic life cannot tolerate it

Good lord. Tell us more about what you ‘used to believe’. I used to be certain I could fly down stairs. It turned out. I was wrong.

To explore this idea further, ecosystem restoration and mitigation experts from throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed, as well as those from elsewhere in the United States and abroad, will convene at BeaverCON 2020, being held March 3-5 in Hunt Valley north of Baltimore.

Attendees will discuss, among other topics, how beavers can help restore tributaries naturally by trapping pollution, increasing biodiversity and even combating climate change, all in a cost-effective manner.

HURRAY HURRAY! Never mind that the court has already ruled on the issue MANY MANY TIMES and the conference really is not to ‘explore’ or ‘debate’ the issue but to communicate the facts about what readers of this website know to be true: Beavers are good news. Pay attention!

However, given the Trump administration’s continued assault on Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts — the most recent insult is a proposed 91 percent funding cut written into the federal 2021 budget, vigorously opposed, thankfully, by right-thinking pols like Gov. Larry Hogan and Maryland’s Congressional delegation as well as most hunting and fishing organizations — ramping up beaver-driven restoration, at least on a stream-by-stream basis, is definitely worth a try.

At this stage, what do we have to lose?

Ha!

Now that I did not see coming. The Trump administration is ruining everything anyway so why NOT try beavers? Silly me, I hadn’t even been thinking of them as an ally. I guess it’s an ill wind that blows nobody some good, right?

A WENWEN FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers February 23, 2020

The Xijiang region in China is the farthest westernmost region squeezed between Mongolia and Kazakhstan. The Altay Prefecture in Xinjiang is about as far away from Martinez as I could imagine, so you can guess how surprised I was to watch this film.

I know its sunday and everyone has plans but do NOT fail to watch this incredible epic tale. Truly it is the most remarkable film I never expected to see.

Princess of the Beavers: The young conservationist battling for the survival of China’s last remaining beavers

Princess of the Beavers is a documentary about the efforts of Chu Wenwen, a wildlife conservationist, to protect the endangered Sino-Mongolian beavers in the Altay Prefecture in Xinjiang, China’s westernmost region.

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Oh how I want to write her and swap stories of what we’ve seen and stood against. But I don’t speak Uyghurs or Mandarin for that matter. I want to tell her she is right. Just science can’t save beavers. It takes heart too.

You think you’re unique, special even. That you alone started out watching beavers in the dawn hours though the lens of your camera and found your life mysteriously changed by their dynamic presence. But it turns out you’re a type, There a hundred more like you. The beaver bench stretches deep in every direction

I’m so happy to be part of this team!

BEAVER ADVOCACY 101

heidi08 Beavers and Culvert Protection February 22, 2020

The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, right? And the first step might not be from a ballerina or member of cirque de soleil either. Sometimes just starting the conversation is enough. Like this letter from Renelle Braaten of the park board of Beaver Creek Park in Havre, Montana.

Time to look at changing beaver management in Beaver Creek Park

As you may have read in the paper, as a park board member, I have brought up to the Hill County Park Board that maybe we can look at other options besides trapping for beaver control in the park.

What brought this on is that we had lost our trapper — we have been using trappers for approximately 70 years — so we needed to do something. Of course, the first thought of the board was to “find another trapper.” I suggested that maybe this would be a good time to look at other alternatives, which it appears there are quite a few. There are things like flow devices, beaver deceivers, tree wraps, just to name a few, that could help solve some of our “problems.” These devices/options have been used all around the country with great success. They are not only more humane, but many times they solve the problems better and for longer. And even more good news is that the individual I have been working with on this has some very viable options/possibilities for grant money to accomplish this. If you want to see what a beaver deceiver is for example, this is just one pretty informative YouTube video you can watch:

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Okay, this isn’t what I expected. It’s actually a video I’ve never seen showing Skip Hilliker install a flow device. That Skip worked for the Humane Society in Maine and did many installations there for years. But I’ve heard over the years from Callahan and the other Skip that some of these were problematic.

Installing a flow device may not be rocket science but it’s not baby science either.

When I watch this I notice a few problems right away, first with the cage to protect the open end, which is far more important than the video emphasizes. In addition to getting triggered into action by the sound of running water, beaver react to the feel of suction and flow and know where a submerged leak is coming from. They can feel it with their stiff guard hairs and vibrasae. Heck. maybe they even feel it in their bones. It’s what they do.

I’m predicting an unprotected cage will be mudded solid in a few nights. Especially if there’s an opening. I think I’ll refer this nice counselor to a someone a little more reliable.

Just killing beaver will often make them breed more, and you just end up with more beavers. It can be a vicious cycle. I strongly feel this is the time to explore our options. I feel working “with” the beavers would be a better way to go than working against them. I do not agree with making trapping our first and only choice. Please feel free to share your thoughts with the park board members if you are so inclined or come join our meeting, the first Monday of each month at the Hill County Courthouse in the Timmons Room at 5:30 p.m.

What I have also learned is that other resource management effects, such as watershed protection, water quality, weed control, ecosystem balance, etc., should be looked at as well. They are all connected. There are lots of ways to make our park as healthy as possible and preserve it for many years to come.

See this argument is so close it’s like when your daughter walks down the hall in your high heels playing office. It’s so plucky and adorable you can’t help but smile. But the stern advocate in me isn’t mollified. I don’t just want to offer solutions, I want to offer solutions that work!f you’re going to march into Montana and tell them to try a flow device then you MUST NOT FAIL. You have to get everything right.

Otherwise, when it doesn’t work the entire community will say forever that flow devices don’t work and trapping is the only thing that does. It’s like a woman running for office. You have to be a million times as good as the male candidate because if you fail they will say its because women can’t do this job and never give another one a chance.

Get it right the first time.

I also think it is important to open our minds to change and try something new. I know that is hard sometimes, but I feel very necessary if we want to grow. I think working with nature is much better than working against her. As Harrison Ford said, “Mother Nature doesn’t need humans, humans need Mother Nature.”

Um…hurray?

BEEF: IT’S WHAT’S FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 BDA's, Beavers and water February 21, 2020

Why live with beavers? I can think of plenty of good reasons, and so, apparently, can BEEF magazine in Idaho. Yes you read that right.

Beaver power provides year-long water to Idaho ranch

Beavers? You read that right. Here’s how four-legged engineers helped restore an Idaho ranch.

Jay Wilde summarizes ranching simply: “Cows need two things—something to eat and something to drink.”

He speaks from experience. In 1995, when Wilde started ranching his family’s high-elevation property in Idaho’s Rocky Mountains, both food and water were hard to come by for livestock. Today this ranch is wealthy in forage and flowing streams, thanks to Wilde’s determination, many helpful partners … and beavers.

Oh yeah you know when an article starts off like this it’s gonna be good. Get your coffee and settle in. Remember it was the former director of Beef producer in Oklahoma that gave us one of our finest articles by Alex Newport: “Beavers: The cure we don’t want to take”

Today this ranch is wealthy in forage and flowing streams, thanks to Wilde’s determination, many helpful partners … and beavers.

Wilde was raised on the property with his siblings, where his parents grew grains. Jay had always dreamed of running a cattle operation and began putting in place conservation projects that would provide his livestock with reliable sources of forage and water.

Wilde remembers fishing and swimming in Birch Creek all summer long as a kid, and tried all sorts of tactics to restore year-round flow. Nothing worked. Then one morning over his pre-dawn coffee, it struck him: “Beavers! That’s what’s missing!”

Big grin. Just about nothing is better than a beaver AHA moment. We here at Worth A Dam collect them.

Beavers are some of nature’s best engineers. They gnaw down trees to create intricate dams and lodges as their shelter. In turn, their dams act to slow the flow of a stream, creating ponds that recharge the floodplain and raise the groundwater level. This allows water to trickle downstream long after snowmelt and rain taper off.

At one time, there were enough beaver ponds in the U.S. to submerge California, Oregon and Washington. But decades of trapping and hunting beavers decimated their populations. Thousands of streams deepened and straightened, and many wet meadows, small creeks, and floodplains disappeared across the country.

Many ranchers still think of beavers as ditch-clogging nuisances. But others—like Wilde—now realize that getting rid of beavers also reduces the amount of water available for livestock operations.

“Do we want to eliminate beavers and eliminate the water coming out of the canyons, or do we want to live with the beavers?” asks Wilde. “Keeping beavers around makes good common sense when you get down to the science of it.”

And a rousing chorus of HUZZAH broke out around the land! YES! Let’s listen to a rancher because no one like to listen to the scientists. I mean if the message is the same that works for me.

In 2014, Wilde came across an article about people using Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs) to create habitat for the rodents before re-introducing them to a watershed. BDAs are simple, low-tech structures that mimic real beaver dams to provide the initial building blocks that help beavers recolonize a stream. BDAs are easily built by hand using mud, cobble, and root wads, or by weaving small branches through posts pounded into the stream bed.

Wilde promptly called up the two professionals mentioned in the article, who worked at Utah State University and Anabranch Solutions. They helped Wilde build 19 BDAs in 2015. Wilde then partnered with the USFS and Idaho Fish & Game to relocate five beavers into Birch Creek—who happily set up shop using the BDAs as home base.

The next year, Wilde hosted a training workshop on beaver-assisted restoration for over 40 natural resource professionals from across the West. Sponsored by the NRCS-led Sage Grouse Initiative, his ranch was a model for why it’s worth investing in low-cost, low-tech methods for restoring streams on private agricultural lands. Workshop participants helped build

First the BDA’s then the beavers then the water then fish. You see how it work.

“When you see the results, it’s almost like magic. It makes the effort worthwhile,” says Wilde.

Re-beavering this Idaho ranch created more water for livestock. And it also resulted in more water for fish—Birch Creek’s Bonneville cutthroat trout populations are 10 to 50 times higher in the ponded sections of the creek than before beavers returned.

By restoring these natural engineers, Wilde’s ranch and its surrounding public lands now boast luscious wet meadows with nutritious forage, healthy riparian habitat for wildlife, and floodplains that are more resilient to fire, drought, and erosion.

Now, Wilde is spreading the word about the benefits to livestock producers of using beavers to fix streams. He’s presented at dozens of workshops and talked to hundreds of other ranchers about what’s possible when you “get onboard with beavers.”

Perfect Jay. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. What a great way to spread the word. I wish you could come to the beaver festival and talk to folks about what you’ve done. Come to think of it I wish there could be huge displays at the festival about all the good things folks are understanding beavers can do.

BEAVERS AND BEARS AND FABLES

heidi08 Beaver ponds, Beavers and Bears February 20, 2020

Call me crazy, but if it were up to me to write a book about bear cubs in a beaver pond I’d promote it with some really great footage:

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Or some supporting research:

Or hey even an awesome illustration like this one by Ashely Wolff:

But what do I know, really. Because you could just as easily go on PRI and give an interview and maybe that would be all it took.

Earl J. Roberts’ new book “Bears in the Beaver’s Pond” is an inspiring fable of a beaver’s life with two bear cubs

Earl J. Roberts, a dedicated writer, artist, and retired teacher from Grass Lake, Michigan, has completed his new book “Bears in the Beaver’s Pond”: an evoking and insightful tale of an old beaver and his fostering of two bear cubs and innocently impacting the world he lives in.

Author Roberts shows how two dissimilar creatures can coexist in grace and cordiality: “When Old Beaver found it convenient to render aid to two hungry cubs, he never dreamed that he was creating a system in Asu Valley which spelled destruction to a unique society. This tale of some remarkable animals speaks clearly to our time.”

Published by Page Publishing, Earl J. Roberts’ enthralling masterpiece is made for children and adults, for it teaches all on how to be open to change and accept responsibility for things that are within their capabilities.

Inspiring fable? Like Jonathan living beaver? Well okay. Beavers are plenty inspiring, I’ll grant you that. And bears cubs are adorable. It’s true. But an allegory where they destroy society? Okay, Whatever. I guess it wouldn’t be a fable if you told the truth about how we’re the only ones destroying everything.

Although hey, I kind of like the idea of a fable where beavers are worried because some humans moved into their land and built a home and started a farm, so they talk it over with the wise old beaver because they are worried it will ruin the pond and afterwards they decide to dynamite it!