MYSTERY AT THE BEAVER POND

heidi08 Beavers February 4, 2020

Yesterday I heard that BeaverCon organizer Mike Callahan was so impressed with Emily Fairfax’s Smokey the beaver presentation that he invited her to speak. He was pleased to find out she was already coming! This is going to be an amazing conference. I can’t wait to hear all about it.

So this arrived from Vista Print yesterday. Now we can get all the top secret case files ready for kids at the festival. These will start them on their investigation of the Mystery at the Beaver Pond. Aren’t they ADORABLE? Thank you to artist Catrin Welzin who inspired it all.

I was so excited I made the mistake of sharing it on Facebook. A teacher from France already asked to purchase copies so she could use it with her students.

Mystère à l'étang des castors!

MAKE WAY FOR BEAVERS: YOU CAN COUNT ON THEM

What do you know? Yesterday was ‘World Wetlands Day”. Gosh if there were ONLY an animal that made and maintained wetlands everywhere for free! But that’s a crazy thought. It’s not like the World Wildlife Fund or any of the big money conservation groups know about that at all.

You’ll not in this poster Wetlands clearly make homes for beavers. Not the other way around.

The good news is there are still a few clear=sighted heads in this topsy turvy world. Like Mike Settell for instance.

Volunteers count beaver population in Mink Creek area

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) – A group in Pocatello is trying to increase the beaver population in local wildlife areas.

“Beaver fill such an important role in the ecosystem and the watershed in general, that they are really undervalued in terms of what they do,” said Mike Settell, theexecutive director of Watershed Guardians.

Watershed Guardians is a local conservation non-profit focused on helping the American Beaver thrive in southeast Idaho.

On Saturday, volunteers gathered for the ninth annual beaver count at the East Fork Mink Creek area. Beavers are an integral part of ecosystems. They help control floods, suppress wildfires and improve water quality.

“They’re really good for supporting native fisheries, especially Yellowstone cutthroat (trout),” Settell said.

Oh Mike, Mike Mike. You are the hero of EPIC proportions. I am so glad you have done this important work for nine years.

Settell said the group hopes to decrease the amount of beaver trapping in the area.

“We think by showcasing all the amazing things that beaver can do for our community, we can try to shift that discussion and shift that paradigm,” Settell said. Beavers are mostly trapped due to being nuisances. They don’t have a high commercial value, according to Settell.

“In order to fix (a) really really small problem, they have to trap out colony after colony after colony. What that does is makes it more and more difficult for the colony to re-establish,” Settell said.

With the help of a passionate community, Watershed Guardians is helping beavers make a come-back.

Nicely done. Again. For the ninth time. Thank goodness for little sparks of light like Mike!

DID THE BEAVER SEE HIS SHADOW?

heidi08 Beavers February 2, 2020

So the beaver didn’t see his shadow this morning. Does that mean they’ll be a soon spring? You must stay tuned to see. And before you say sternly “It’s a Ground hog, not a beaver” think about HOW MANY TIMES people have gotten their pictures mixed up. There’s honestly no telling.

For many of you, you will only be caring that it’s Superb Owl day. So I wanted to wish you the very best. Here’s hoping the 49ers knock the tail feathers out of the Chiefs. In a raptor way, or course.

I will be busy recording audio for the ‘just in case the internet is down” backup of my talk at beaverCon. Imagine a huge microphone, with crossing wires and miles and miles of this:

Don’t count it as a terrible loss though. Because it means I have to scour through my copius video files to pull nice clips to string together into a presentation. Which is how I came across this adorable memory.

[wonderplugin_video videotype=”mp4″ mp4=”https://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/cutebaby.m4v” webm=”” poster=”” lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]

WATER WORKS BETTER WITH BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers and Flooding, Beavers and water February 1, 2020

Fire and water is there anything more primal? As you know beavers can help with both. This new film from Dr. Ellen Wohl and her student Julie Medeiros is a great way to talk about the later. Please enjoy and pass along.

Julie and Emily? Colorado sure is producing some amazing beaver researchers! I can’t wait to see what they both do next.

Jon and I were busy yesterday with some potential beaver hosts in Sussex, who were sent our way by the the good folks at the Beaver trust. Alistair and Diane Gould operate a ‘course fishing’ escape with a stream “Furnace Brook” in Sussex that they dream might one day host beavers. You can see how perfectly they’d fit in.

The area in the 16th century was part of the Wealden Iron industry, and its use dates back to Roman times. The Goulds now are treating it as a sustainable paradise for fishing and education with the goal of healing any scars that were made over centuries of use.

The Goulds were visiting their son and grandson in San Francisco and wanted to learn more about living with beavers. Maybe someday soon you’ll be reading about them on the news. They were also thrilled to visit the John Muir historic site nearby.

Not all that far from Furnace Brook by American standards, a famously successful beaver reintroduction just occurred at the Holnincote estate on the other side of the base of the country. This was a project of the National Trust and has been roundly promoted to see if the beavers can help with flooding. This is from the Guardian, but believe me its been EVERYWHERE these past few days.

‘Drivers of change’: beavers released on National Trust land to ease flooding risk

The aim of releasing a pair of beavers on to National Trust land at the Holnicote estate in Somerset is to ease flooding and increase biodiversity. “It’s an exciting moment,” said Ben Eardley, the project manager for the National Trust at Holnicote, as the female beaver found a bramble-covered ledge to hide away in. “The beavers will shake this place up, they’re a real driver of change.”

In time, Eardley said, the beavers will thin out the trees in their 2.7-hectare home, bringing in more light and with it more flora and fauna – birds, invertebrates, other mammals. Another big hope is that the dams they build will slow the flow of water, easing the risk of flooding downstream.