I’m not sure this has ever happened before. There are THREE very important beaver stories this morning meaning very good things about beavers and I cannot pick between the three. I’m going to have to profile each thing and you have to promise to come back and read the whole thing. I’m sorry to assign homework, but it’s necessary. They’re that good.
The first and most startling news is a profile piece about Emily Fairfax in the UC agriculture and natural resources blog.
From being an engineer to researching nature’s engineers
“When I came face to face with beaver dams for the first time, I had what can only be described as a transformative experience,” says Emily Fairfax, an assistant professor of environmental science and resource management a
t California State University, Channel Islands. While leading a canoe trip through the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota, she encountered what she describes as “just these enormous, impressive features” – created by beavers. “You truly realize how sturdy beaver dams are while dragging your canoe over them,” she adds, laughing. “They are incredible from an engineering perspective.”
Despite being taken by the handiwork of beavers in that initial encounter, Fairfax says “I just put that experience in my back pocket for a long time.” After majoring in chemistry and physics in college, she went on to work as an engineer. “But, I kept going fishing, visiting wetlands and creeks, and realized I wanted to be out in these places in my day to day life.”
“Then, I watched the documentary Leave it to Beavers. It was about how beavers fundamentally alter landscapes. I was reminded of the beavers I’d seen in Minnesota and was like, I want to study this. On a bit of a whim, I applied to graduate school, and haven’t looked back. Now it’s all beavers, all day, and they make me so happy. It turns out rather than being an engineer, I was called to study nature’s engineers.”
I had NO idea that Emily was inspired by Jari’s documentary! WOW! The world might have been stuck with another engineer if it weren’t for that! I’m so touched and my mind is a little bit blown. I had just assumed she got involved because her thesis chair was interested or something. The article goes on to talk about her viral video and ends in her interest in California.
Working in California, Fairfax’s biggest task now is locating beavers. She notes that before beaver trapping there were likely upwards of 400 million beavers in North America, meaning they were everywhere. “Trapping took them down to 100,000, and now estimates put them back up to 10 or 20 million. They are prevalent in certain areas like the Colorado Rockies and the Sierra Nevada, but we still don’t see them often in many downstream areas that provide great habitat.”
For now, she says, “I’ve got students hiking streams just looking for signs of them, and when I give public talks, people will sometimes tell me about how they used to see them on a creek in the 70’s. That might not seem relevant, but that kind of information is so valuable. So now I’m basically saying to people, if you see a beaver dam anywhere in California, please tell me about it!”
I’ll make sure we all tell you when we see them! Ohh you are the hope of a new beaver generation Dr. Emily Fairfax. Make sure you read the Work to protect Sonoma beaver lodge begins
To prevent flooding and manage water levels in a Sonoma creek, a pond leveler will be installed where a family of beavers is living, Sonoma County Water Agency officials said.
The pond leveler will help water transfer through the beaver dam so that the pond doesn’t cause flooding. It will also assist with maintaining the habitat for the beavers, said David Cook, senior environmental specialist at Sonoma County Water Agency.
There was even an insert about my timing concerns, because the reporter was included in the email thread where I learned of it.
Heidi Perryman, of urban-beaver protection group Martinez Beavers, asked the agency to wait until kit — or, baby beaver — season is over, which is mid-to-late May. But Brock Dolman, program director of Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, which is partnering with the water agency and Swift Water Designs in the project, said they also would prefer to do the work outside of kit season and were prepared to do the install in March, but then COVID-19 got in the way.
Isn’t that just like Heidi, always poking her nose in and mucking around. Well I also heard from a neighbor that the beavers were busy that night trying to plug the outflow of the pipe so you may not have heard the last of this story. It’s good that a flow device was used. Hopefully the beavers can make it work. Fingers crossed.
The last piece of really OUTSTANDING news comes from Port Moody, B.C. See a lot of the challenges to the beavers have come from the fish hatchery folk which are saying that beaver dams stop chum. Jim and Judy have been doing their home work AND the city’s homework and heard from famous Fisheries Biologist Dr. Marvin Rosenau. that their stream supported coho salmon. The real kind not the hatchery frankensteins. And there’s all this data saying beavers are good for coho and no data at all saying they’re good for chum. Which stinks.
But they got a go pro camera and have been using it to shoot underwater and GUESS WHAT THEY FILMED and Dr. Marvin Rosenau. identified right away in the beaver pond???
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It’s hard to see but unmistakable. Around the 55 second mark you can see it best on the upper left hand corner. Look for the while glint of its eye and then the wiggle of its tail as it moves forward. That would be coho fry. As in the real deal. As in proof of a beaver pond doing what it should. As in pass the coho birthday cake and lets have a party!
