Month: June 2020

NOAA CONCLUSIONS ARE A MIXED BAG

heidi08 Beavers and salmon June 20, 2020

What a surprise. The feds looked at the same exact data about the salmon and steelhead population being threatened by beaver killing and came up with opposite conclusions that support their careers. It’s almost like they reviewed the research with their eyes closed!

I guess Upton Sinclair was right.

Trump Administration OKs Beaver Killing in Oregon, Despite Harm to Endangered Salmon, Steelhead

Portland, OR – Despite recognizing that restoring beaver populations is key to recovery of imperiled salmon and steelhead species, a federal agency just gave the go-ahead to keep killing beavers in Oregon.

In a long-awaited analysis, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued its findings on the impact on salmon and steelhead of continued killing of Oregon beavers by Wildlife Services, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In this opinion, we concluded the proposed actions are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the following ESA-listed species, or result in the destruction or adverse modification of their proposed or designated critical habitats:

1.Lower Columbia River (LCR) Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
2.Upper Willamette River (UWR) Chinook salmon
3.Snake River (SR) spring/summer-run Chinook salmon
4.SR fall-run Chinook salmon
5.Columbia River (CR) chum salmon (O. keta)
6.LCR coho salmon (O. kisutch)
7.Oregon Coast (OC) coho salmon
8.Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast (SONCC) coho salmon
9.LCR steelhead (O. mykiss)
10.UWR steelhead
11.Middle Columbia River (MCR) steelhead12.Snake River Basin (SRB) steelhead

We looked at the data you looked at and concluded we don’t care very much about your icky ole beavers. I sit in the big chair and I get to do what I want. No matter how many salmon die.

Still no one tells NOAA and NMNS not to pay attention to research entirely. Check out their reference section to remind yourself that they got an earful of Michael Polloclk. I read these results with a less unhappy eye than some do. Look at their conclusions.

3.3 Essential Fish Habitat Conservation Recommendations

The following three conservation measures are necessary to avoid, mitigate, or offset the impact of the proposed action on EFH. All of these conservation recommendations are a subset of the ESA terms and conditions.

1.Promote non-lethal methods. Minimize adverse effects from beaver removal by promoting non-lethal management, as stated in term and condition 1 in the accompanying opinion.

2.Monitoring and reporting. Ensure completion of monitoring and reporting to confirm the proposed action is meeting the objective of limiting adverse effects, as stated in term and condition #2 in the accompanying opinion.

3.Participate in outreach programs. Participate in efforts to improve landowner outreach and funding programs to manage beaver where they exist using non-lethal methods, as stated in conservation recommendation #1 in the accompanying opinion.

4.Participate in relocation efforts. Participate in any new beaver relocation efforts by providing live-trapped beaver, as stated in conservation recommendation #2 in the accompanying opinion.

If nonlethal measures were recommended, encouraged or even required, with the use of flow devices, and fish and game actually promoted beaver benefits, As in someone collected a saIary for saying good things about beavers, would die a very very happy woman.

I think we’re grading on a curve, and this ain’t a bad start.

2020.06.17-NOAA-Beaver-BiOp

THE FESTIVAL UNDERWATER

heidi08 Festival June 19, 2020

We are a week away from the ill-fated beaver festival that will never be, and I can’t tell you how strange it feels to not being making panicked lists and checking everything twice. The past four months have been eerily underwater, with nothing quite as you expect but everything hauntingly familiar. It’s will be a spirited away summer too. But the festival will wait for us.

One of the things I will miss most is the magical friday we spent alone with Amy in the park as she chalks out the design and begins to cast her magic spell. Jon and I usually bring her coffee and lunch and set up a tent to give her a shady picnic between labors.

Ahh…

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LEARNING VERY, VERY SLOWLY

heidi08 Beavers June 18, 2020

I heard from a couple friends north of us that their beavers have gone MIA in June. They are alternating between worrying in terror and calmly reminding themselves that the duties of childbirth probably account for their absence. I could offer little consolation because our beavers were always highly visible in June, along with their offspring. But we were probably living in an easier latitude. They should not despair in their Northern climes. Kits are coming.

Rusty in Napa saw 6 beavers last night, with two kits among them.

There’s a nice read from one such northern place, this from St Louis county in the upper east corner of Minnesota stretching from Duluth to Canada.

Learning to live with the beaver

In 1995, I received a copy of a book entitled “When Beaver Was Very Great: Stories to Live By,” a compendium of tales from Anishinaabeg storyteller Anne M. Dunn. As I prepared to write about my world surrounded by beaver, Dunn’s title story popped into my mind. She writes of an unspecified bygone age when beaver grew very large. Prehistoric skeletal fragments from the Ice Age indicate Castoroides grew to be eight feet tall and weigh three hundred pounds. Her story is about the competition between Beaver and Human over who would prevail as the world’s greatest landscape architects. I’m not convinced that this contest has ever ended!

Indeed. Beavers of course are the more selfless architects. Because they let others reside in what they painstakingly build without charging them rent. We would never do that.

They have changed over the years right along with the humans who live along their banks. These small rivulets often swell into wide tributaries of the Little Fork River, a main artery of the Rainy River Watershed. This relatively nondescript network of streams provides perfect habitat for the American Beaver, Castor Canadensis, the second largest rodent in the world. The same river system also became “perfect habitat” for early human settlers to this territory. They, too, saw the many benefits of homesteading beside flowing water. Rivers were “highways” before there were roads. Both beavers and humans know a good thing when they see it.

Yes they do. Here the author fails to mention that beavers make that good thing better, while humans too often make it worse, I guess that story is slow getting to Minnesota.

To locate the ideal place to build a lodge, beaver utilize a heightened sensitivity to subtle, ever-changing sounds of the flow and volume of moving water. And it must have abundant grass, brush, rocks, mud and mature timber, all materials needed in the construction of the lodge as well as the dams that will impede flowage, producing ponds large and deep enough to protect against intruders. As humans terrace hillsides, beavers “terrace” stream beds.

The dams are complex structures built to last. Just try tearing one apart and you’ll know what I mean! John and I have attempted to control flooding on our land many times by punching an opening in one of many nearby dams. With axes, adze and hoes, what might begin as a quick and easy fix soon becomes an extremely laborious undertaking.

I would say the author seems to have a kind of romantic idea of where and how beavers build dams. I’m sure they chose the best spot given their OPTIONS but I’ve surely seen lots of dams in unideal spots constructed with whatever materials they had on hand when the habitat is less ideal.

Hands down this is the best part of the article:

As the fur market declined, so did the number of trappers. Now, few remain in the area. For some, it’s a hobby. But others are contracted by county highway departments responsible for keeping beaver numbers down to prevent highway washouts. This spring, we were visited by three trappers asking to scout and remove beaver from our land. Before granting permission, we conducted a “cost-benefit analysis” of sorts. You see, these furry fellas don’t just make trouble, they make wonderful reservoirs that sustain life even in the driest times of summer — wildlife as well as our own.

We’re avid gardeners with a goal of growing and preserving enough produce to feed us year-round. When the bogs dry up, usually by mid-August, so does our creek. But not with beaver around! The beaver pond supplies a continuous source of water all summer long. For that reason, we thank our lucky stars that we’re still granted a say over their fate — whether to blow their dams or let them stay. We weigh the value of “many trees saved” against “many lives lost”. The pond is home to huge numbers of insects, birds, minnows, frogs, and waterfowl that bring us a lot of joy. They will most likely be sacrificed by trapping and then blasting the dam.

So that’s your final decision after your cost benefit analysis? Let them blow up the dam and see what happens?

A few days ago, we spotted wood ducks who’d relocated upstream. A bittern, unseen for years, was sighted not far from our culvert. The geese and cranes have stuck around despite the disappearance of our beloved beaver lake. So, let me close with this. Read Anne Dunn’s book. It can help us understand this ever-changing world in which we live while in no way diminishing its wonder!

Imagine what it would have been like i you let the engineers stick around. Making an expanding network of dams and canals that stretched like jewels across the marshy habitat. Imagine how many woodduck and frogs and trout would have enjoyed the real estate and improved its value more than a few measly trappers.

I have another book you should read. You’ll like it.

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SELF-INTEREST SAVES MORE BEAVERS THAN EMPATHY

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers June 17, 2020

Don’t give yourself extra work, that’s what I say. We don’t need to teach farmers who slaughter beavers to have ’empathy’ for the animals they kill. We just need them to stop doing it. And the best way to do that if you ask me is to slap them with a big old waterstorage-fine or biodiversity fine for killing the beavers in the first place.

They have empathy for their wallets, already, right?

We can use all that money to install flow devices on farmers who have legitimate concerns. Why make more work when there doesn’t need to be? I don’t need you to feel different. I need you to act different.

Holyrood study to look at empathy training in animal harm crimes

THE Scottish Government will look into the effectiveness of empathy training for those who commit crimes against animals as proposed new welfare legislation faces its final vote.

The Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Bill will be voted on at stage three today and will look to strengthen penalties for offences against animals.

Ahead of the debate on the bill, Rural Affairs Minister Mairi Gougeon announced plans to commission a research project into empathy training which could be used as a community sentence for some offences.

The project will soon be put out to tender, with the research due to last for six months.

Scottish Greens MSP Mark Ruskell tabled amendments to end the docking of dogs’ tails along with curtailing the licensed killing of beavers while his colleague Alison Johnstone will push for more protections for mountain hares – for which a petition garnered 10,000 signatures.

Hey I got an idea. If you want to curtail the licsensed killing of beaver. Stop issuing the licenses, Ya think?

I’m an old fashioned girl. I think if you want to STOP things you have to first say DON’T do that and then when it happens slap it with a big ole consequence. Something the hurts them where they live. Something their neighbors can see too. Maybe print the fines in the paper.

Empathy training doesn’t even work for child abuse. It’s not likely to work for beavers.

Here’s some empathy training filmed by Moses Silva in 2014.

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CYMRU: AFANC

heidi08 Beavers June 16, 2020

There is almost nothing I enjoy better than a new word about beavers. Unless its spending the morning looking up the new word about beavers. Now if I lived in a the home of my dreams I would do it in a massive archane library with vaulted ceilings and ancient texts. But the internet will do handily. Thank you, Wales.

Ecosystem engineers: should beavers be introduced back into Welsh rivers?

“When you start looking into some of the history books, you actually find that there is lots of evidence of beavers going back hundreds and hundreds of years and there are references in written literature, and in folklore in Wales,” said Alicia Leow-Dyke.

One of the Welsh words for beaver is ‘afanc’, which in Welsh mythology is a type of river monster resembling a crocodile or giant beaver. The word ‘afanc’ can also be spotted in some place names, such as Llyn-yr-Afanc, which means ‘Beaver’s Pool’.

Since 2005, however, the Welsh Beaver Project has been investigating the feasibility of reintroducing beavers in specific and suitable areas of Wales in the future. With this in mind, the Welsh Beaver Project is working with Natural Resources Wales to obtain a licence for a first release of beavers into the Welsh wild.

“We’re trying to put the right information out there to demonstrate that beavers in the right place can be very suitable and beneficial to wildlife and people,” said Alicia Leow-Dyk

Oh my goodness! a BEAVER-DILE! or Croc-beaver! I’m so excited. There must be so many amazing welsh artists who have taken a stab at this. When you think of it it almost makes a kind of sense. They can both hold their breath a very long time. They both have amazingly strong jaws and remarkable teeth. And they are actually both considered keystone species… Well alligators so I assume crocs because of the space they create for other species when they use their tails to make a mud hole and lay their eggs.

Although beavers are wayyyyyyyyyyyyy cooler.

At the moment the Welsh Beaver Project is looking at the Dyfi catchment in west Wales as a potential location.

“At the same time we’re developing plans for a beaver enclosure on a Wildlife Trust reserve and we’re just waiting for some feedback from Natural Resources Wales,” said Alicia Leow-Dyke.

Not everyone is happy, however. Another example of a successful conservation project in Wales has been otters. The Cardiff Otter Project is a leading research centre on otter conservation and research, and it partners with several other institutions.

Dr Elizabeth Chadwick, Head of the Cardiff Otter Project, said that reintroduction of beavers were likely to face similar opposition, which is concern about the impact on fish in rivers.

“Some negative attitudes toward otter population recoveries include issues with otter predation on fish,” said Dr Elizabeth Chadwick, Head of the Cardiff Otter Project.

“Some people have used this as an argument against beavers, based on a misconception that beavers also eat fish – which is not the case. In fact, there is a lot of evidence that beaver introductions help boost fish populations.”

As if an otter non profit could help a beaver nonprofit! HRMPH! Well I suppose the is several generations of poor fools who read Naria as children and believed beavers ate fish. How many times must you be told? Lions aren’t religious and beavers are vegetarians!

The Welsh Beaver Project, however, are keen to point to a number of positive aspects of reintroducing beavers to Wales, particularly in relation to flooding.

Beavers are excellent ecosystem engineers: their dams slow the flow of rivers, so that when there is heavy rain it takes much longer to flow down and reach towns or villages.

In 2015 two family groups of Eurasian beavers were reintroduced in the River Otter catchment in south-east Devon as part of the River Otter Beaver Trial. Findings showed that peak flows of water in villages exposed to risks of flooding have significantly reduced thanks to the upstream beaver dams.

“There are many landowners who would like to see beavers back because of ecological and environmental benefits,” said Alicia Leow-Dyke. “They want the beavers to help to prevent the risk of flooding in the land if the dams are in the right places.”

There are other advantages to river biodiversity too.

“Their activities can improve the health of rivers and lochs, reduce flooding and the impacts of droughts, and contribute to carbon sequestration,” said Richard Bunting, a spokesperson from Rewilding Britain, a charity that looks at the restoration of nature and at reconnecting people with the natural world.

“They coppice and fell trees, letting light into woodlands, enabling plants to flourish and stimulating new tree growth.”

Beavers activities also boost the presence of other wild species: birds, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians have been seen increasing where beavers are present.

“This can encourage reptiles to move in, and water poles. Otters can all benefit from beavers increase in habitat,” said Alicia Leow-Dyke, Welsh Beaver Project Officer. In the future, beavers in Welsh rivers might also be able to bring more tourism to the area, they say.

Well of course. Beavers can do all those things for you and much, much, more. By the way, in case you didn’t recognize it, that picture above is of Little Beaver and the Echo in Wales. I think the artist is actually Welsh.

“Management costs are a tiny fraction of the value of the benefits of beaver reintroduction,” said Richard Brazier, Professor of Earth Surface Processes at the University of Exeter and Chair of River Otter Beaver Trial Science and Evidence Forum.

Beavers were reintroduced to Scotland in 2009 and now enjoy protected status there. Several beavers reintroduction trials have also proved successful in Europe, for example in Bavaria, Germany.

Perhaps Wales will be next, and the ‘afanc’ will no longer be relegated to Welsh myth but become a visible, and helpful, part of our lives once more.

Well said. It takes a little resourcefulness to solve beaver problems, but beaver rewards are countless! I especially want to see Lizzie Harper (who lives in wales) painting beavers with her glorious attention to detail. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t look like crocodiles.

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