So yesterday some one asked for an introduction to the Wenatchee Beaver group and I scratched my head in total ignorance. I can see they got a couple mentions on this website and there somewhere in Washington but I hadn’t more info than that.
Here’s a great introduction that slipped by me on July 1st.
Kodi Jo Jaspers, Beaver & BDA Program Manager with Trout Unlimited in Wenatchee chats with KOHO Morning Show host Chris Hansen about the Wenatchee Beaver Project, a program designed to assist in the relocation of nuisance beavers and protect their natural habitat.
Sounds like the install low devices, wrap trees AND if all else fails relocate beavers. That makes them very popular with me. Also they have a Trout Unlimited crossover. Good Work. So Washington has the the Methow beaver project. And the Lands Council beaver project. And Yakima beaver project. And now the Wenatchee beaver project.
Well, well, well, Norway is SHOCKED I tell you. Just shocked! That beavers have moved into the city park. Apparently that’s never happened before. Boy are they in for a learning curve.
After nearly becoming extinct in the late 1800s, Norway’s beaver population is now estimated to number more than 70,000. After making their mark in local forests around Oslo, some have even started moving into town, startling visitors to the Frogner Park and even residents of the city’s trendy Grünerløkka neighbourhood.
“Few animals, with the exception of us humans, can reform a landscape to the degree the beaver can,” notes Bjørn Vassnes, who writes an ecology column for newspaper Klassekampen. “They not only can cut down trees over a wide area, they also can change the hydrologic balance of an ecosystem.”
Vassnes wrote last week that such activity can do nature a favour, by limiting how water runs “from clouds to the sea,” thus dispersing water and restricting flood damage while also adding to biological diversity. That’s made them popular with ecologists and environmentalists even though the visual results of beaver activity isn’t very pretty.
Heh heh heh. I think your little nordic lives are about to get very very interesting.
City officials in Oslo are both surprised and a bit anxious after beavers have been sighted this spring from the Frogner Park in the west to the banks of the Aker River that runs from Nordmarka right through the heart of town. Newspaper Aftenposten reported how tourists in the Frogner Park were startled to see a normally nocturnal beaver swimming around in the park’s creek that’s fed by underground tunnels at both ends.
Then came beaver sightings along the Aker River (Akerselva) right near the former Ringnes Brewery that’s now a housing and commercial complex complete with one of Oslo’s largest cinemas.
Gosh beavers in the middle of town! That’s soooo surprising! It almost never always happens! Let me see, do your towns have low gradient streams? Check√. And do your streams run through neglected wildlife corridors? Check √ And do you plant trees along them? Check√.
Hmm.
“This is rather fun and gives us an opportunity to see wildlife close at hand, in the middle of the city,” Terje Laskemoen of the city parks, recreation and environmental division (Bymiljøetaten) told Aftenposten.
“Seeing a beaver so far down the Aker River is suprising,” he added. “That another beaver made it all the way (from the forest bording the city) to the Frogner Park is very surprising.” Laskemoen stressed that it’s important for people to stay at a distance and show respect for Oslo’s latest arrivals.
Beavers are known to exist in populated areas, but problems can arise if trees start falling or if the beavers’ dams end up causing flooding instead of redirecting it. Laskemoen and his colleagues will be following beaver developments, and they may need to be captured and moved if they gnaw on too many trees in the park or along the river where people stroll as well. He said it “would be unfortunate” if the beavers start toppling trees.
“Beavers are usually afraid of people, though,” Laskemoen told Aftenposten. “I think they’ll end up leaving the park area pretty soon.”
Um, yeah. I’m sure that will happen of its own accord.
Children watching beaver in urban environment Martinez, CAet us know how that works out for you okay?
Hey guess who gets new beaver patients in nearby Sonoma? These little siblings where transferred from Gold County Wildlife Rescue in Red Bluff to Sonoma Wildlife Rescue in near by Sonoma. If there is one thing in all the world Red Bluff is good at. it’s making orphans. I’m thinking Cheryl is paying them a visit very soon. And gosh, someone donated Worth A Dam a beaver coat a while back, maybe they want to cuddle with it?
Your donations to care for these ADORABEAVERSgoes here.
There is truly no end to the number of destructive substances beaver dams can block. Take Uranium for instance. Did I ever mention that beaver block uranium?
Wetlands have several important roles in the hydrological cycle, including maintaining water quality by removing surface and groundwater contaminants. Over time, the wetlands themselves can become contaminated, posing a secondary environmental threat.
About 80% of the U in the wetland was concentrated in a former beaver pond, a 73 000 m2 area (26% of the contaminated area). This contaminated wetland area was almost 2 km from the source, indicating that it comprised unique hydro-biogeochemical properties for immobilizing the released U.
So wait, your telling me that even a FORMER BEAVER POND has hydro-biochemical properties powerful enough to neutralize URANIUM? You mean like nuclear waste/weapon uranium? Like Boris and Natosha Karloff uranium?
Short answer, “Yes.” Because beavers are awesome and their effects are awesome.
This contaminated wetland area was almost 2 km from the source, indicating that it comprised unique hydro-biogeochemical properties for immobilizing the released U. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first data-rich study to quantify the long-term effectiveness of a wetland to immobilize inorganic contaminants. Significant environmental changes to the system, such as those associated with hydrology, forest fires, or anthropogenic land use, may alter the complex hydro-biogeochemical interactions necessary for the long-term immobilization of the U.
That’s right. Uranium boys and girls. You name it beavers can do it. Provided we let them live long enough to accomplish their goals.
You may remember that back in May the Scottish government reported that some 87 wild beavers were killed by permit in that country, thought to be 2o percent of the total number of free beavers in the land. The Scottish wild beaver group is doing an online memorial for them and there are entries from artists and poets around the world.
Scottish Natural Heritage recently confirmed that 87 beavers, roughly one fifth of Scotland’s entire population, were killed under licence in 2019 despite being a protected species. At least ten of the animals were less than a year old.
Submit Your Beaver Artwork
Help us commemorate the 87 beavers killed under licence & persuade the Scottish Government to use killing only as a last resort. Get “beavering away” and send a photo of your artwork (in any medium) to 87beavers@protonmail.com by & we’ll get in touch with info about what to do next.
The 87 beaver artworks will be displayed online and in spaces around Scotland.
I thought I’d share some of their awesome collection so far. But if you feel so inclined you should submit your work too. I’m sure they’d like submissions from the Americas.
Imogene Aitchison
As an illustrator specialising in British wildlife, I believe all creatures, including the beaver, play an important role in shaping our world. We should be working with these animals, not against them!
Shona Fraser
I am an artist working in the North East of England. Inspired by the natural world and the green spaces near where I live, my art is about celebrating and connecting with the landscape, its mythologies and its wildlife. As a member of several environmental campaign groups, I feel that a vital way of helping to preserve that natural world is to encourage people to engage with it.
And of course, my absolute favorite by Isla Ritchie aged 9.
Isla Richie
Word to the wise, take it from someone who’s been there, the adult submissions are lovely but, if you don’t want to be doing this again next May get about 500 more drawings from Isla’s friends around the country. Make sure that every county has children submitting beaver artwork. Down to the three year olds that look like chickens or fleas with tail blobs. Get the project Nature watch or the news to make sure everyone sees it. And, heck while you’re at it make the submissions available for sale as tea towels to raise money for the education campaign. Chris Jones poem and my video are number 41. But go check out the others for a very nice start to the weekend.
What a great headline! This article by Leila Hawken does an excellent job of stating its case. Beavers have been having a whole bunch of lucky days in a row. Good for them. They might not have gotten their festival this year but they got a whole bunch of positive attention anyway. As it should be.
SHARON — Beavers are unquestionably cute and great for ecosystems, but they are also pesky. Their dams interfere with the town’s drainage culverts and flood roads in some instances. They contribute to erosion and washouts in other places, particularly on gravel roads.
The problem seems to have been solved in June through ingenious trickery, thanks to the Beaver Institute of Massachusetts and grants from the Wiederhold Foundation of Connecticut to fund work by Beaver Solutions, LLC of Southampton, Mass. Grant funds to support the work totaled $750 for two locations (one was $500, the other $250), said Sharon First Selectman Brent Colley, who was reached for comment on Thursday, July 2.
The Wiederhold Foundation is active in support of the Connecticut Beaver Initiative, which assists landowners with beaver problems and raises awareness of the beavers’ ecological contributions as a “keystone” species, creating natural wetlands.
Hurray for the trickle down philanthropy of the Beaver Institute! And beaver themselves for that matter! We all win when beaver win and the beavers got lucky this time!
The two problem locations were West Cornwall Road near Roy Swamp and West Woods Road #2, where erosion and flooding were a constant threat to the roadbed and motorists. Fences paired with pipes were the answer.
Because the highway is paved going past the Roy Swamp site, the problem was not pavement erosion, but rather that the beavers installed their blockage in mid-pipe, causing water to back up and cause erosion around the drainage pipe.
The “Beaver Deceivers” as they are called were invented in Maine by Skip Lisle, in partnership with the Penobscot Indian Nation. Beavers are attracted to the siren song and the feel of running water, such as is found in a culvert for example.
Hurray for the other beaver philanthropist Skip Lisle! And all the good work he’s made possible over his many years! Of course only the culvert fence is a beaver deceiver if you want to get all namey and technical and IT doens’t so much deceive beavers as prevent them, But hey. Ports in storms. Am I right?
Installing a flow device to silence the sound does the trick. Fencing to further protect the culvert makes it a cost-effective, long-term humane solution.
“It would cost more to trap them than to do this,” Colley added.
From a beaver’s perspective, the presence of the fencing is a deterrent to any construction project because it would just be too much work. Besides, there is no sound of water flowing. So, the beavers pass the culvert by and the roadway remains safe.
Maintenance is minimal, Colley said, requiring only intermittent cleaning of leafy debris from the fencing. “I hope more towns get into this,” Colley said. “It works — so far, so good.” He said the town will budget to continue the effort at other local beaver problem sites.
“This is rather fun and gives us an opportunity to see wildlife close at hand, in the middle of the city,” Terje Laskemoen of the city parks, recreation and environmental division (Bymiljøetaten) told Aftenposten.
Short answer, “Yes.” Because beavers are awesome and their effects are awesome.
Chris Jones poem and my video are number 41. 
The two problem locations were West Cornwall Road near Roy Swamp and West Woods Road #2, where erosion and flooding were a constant threat to the roadbed and motorists. Fences paired with pipes were the answer.
