Month: July 2020

WAIT, THIS ALL SOUNDS FAMILIAR?

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact July 11, 2020

Martinez is boarding itself up in preparation for the riotous hordes that will be protesting downtown on Sunday. Apparently the racist vandalizing couple was on Tucker Carlson this week and now they are full on right wing heroes. Martinez is expecting more heroism this weekend. I can’t wait.

Our neighbor thinks the entire town will be looted and burned to the ground. We’ll see. Since when do looters hit antique stores?

But still there are good things in the world. Take this article from Alabama of all places. I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised.

Leave It to Beaver

By Rick Claybrook, Wildlife Biologist

Beavers have special talents and a never-ending will to dam flowing water. This insatiable desire has tormented the human race for centuries. For the most part, beavers have only done what comes natural to them. It’s man’s desire and actions that has resulted in the ongoing struggle and conflicts between man and beaver.

Granted, beaver activities can interfere with man’s efforts to manage land. For instance, a planted forest or agriculture crop flooded by a newly constructed beaver dam; a manmade pond damaged by beavers undermining the earthen dam; a flooded road resulting from a culvert plugged by beavers, or trees girdled and cut down by beavers for food or materials to repair dam site and home. However, these actions simply result from what a beaver must do to survive.

At this point I was paying attention. Really? From the department of natural resources? Talking about beavers as if they were an actual resource?

In the beaver’s defense, its actions are generally beneficial to the environment. Actually, the beaver can be termed a keystone species. Impoundments created by beavers damming a stream evolve into valuable wetlands that provide habitats that support a complex biodiversity of plant and animal life. In addition, the dam site and created wetland trap sediments, excess nutrients, and pollutants (toxic pesticides and other toxins). These are broken down and decomposed through metabolic processes, resulting in much cleaner water flowing downstream. Beaver ponds also minimize runoff from heavy rainfall easing downstream flooding and soil erosion. Not only does the dam site complex slow the forces of water during periods of heavy rainfall, it also retains a reservoir of water that helps maintain a constant downstream flow during periods of drought.

Beaver ponds increase wildlife carrying capacity by providing a valuable water source during long periods of drought. Rich, moist soils associated with these sites produce an abundance of lush nutritious plant species, which are consumed as food or used for cover by many different wildlife species. There is certainly no dispute the wetlands created by beavers result into a valuable life sustaining ecosystem complex from which our environment greatly benefits.

Get the hell out! I can’t stop blinking in surprise. I guess you really can NOT judge a beaver book by its cover. He starts out fairly cautious describing beavers as ‘generally beneficial’ but then he goes ALL-IN and says the save animals and plants. Is he the loneliest man in the state? Ostracized by all the other biologists at CNR?

Learning to live with beavers is usually the best way to retain peace of mind and reconcile human and beaver conflicts. Removing beavers entirely from an area is very difficult and, if accomplished, it is a good bet that the unoccupied wetland will be inhabited by other beavers living up or down stream from the site. The total removal of beavers can result in the loss of very beneficial wildlife habitat.

Flooded property or roads may be easily corrected by the installation of a cost effective beaver flooding control device. If it is impossible for you to “leave it to beaver,” call your nearest Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries district office for help.

I need to sit down. I’m feeling faint. Can someone get me a glass of water? Rick is obviously a southern visionary who gets a Worth A Dam tee shirt. By way of explanation I will say two things. That Alabama is the site of the most famous lawsuit for removing a beaver dam with the notorious case of the watercress darter AND that when I researched Mr. Claybrook’s history on the google I found ANOTHER incident of his speaking up for beavers in 2009. Guess where that article was? Hmm the Worth A Dam beaver hotline of course.

Alabama Joins the Beaver Bandwagon

March 4, 2009

The latest edition of Outdoor Alabama, a magazine published by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, contained an exceptionally well-written and informative article about beavers. The author, Rick Claybrook, is a wildlife biologist with the department.

Claybrook recognizes and elaborates on the positive influences beavers have on our environment. The impoundments their dams create allow for settlement of silt and sediment that would otherwise contaminate the downstream segments of the streams. I am reasonably certain that the quality of the water downstream from a beaver pond is substantially higher than that flowing into the pond.

First of all WOW Rick, you are a beaver believer from way back! Practically a founding father! And second of all MY GOD I”VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR A LONG TIME.

NEW ORGANIZATIONAL CHART NEEDED FOR CDFW

It’s finally time to talk about some heady new developments in the beaver world. They start with the very unlucky beavers in Oakley that we all know about where County Flood Control made the unpopular decision to kill some adorable little dam builders in April. This lead to a big article and a big meeting between the county supervisor and some flood control and some beaver buddies including me. Which lead to a series of conversations that are still ongoing.

One of them is with Jennifer Rippert a scientist of the Habitat Conservation Unit of CDFW for the Bay Delta Region. (Who knew that there even was such a thing inside the enormity of Fish and game? I’m ashamed to admit, not me) And yes, I do still call it that sometimes when no ones looking.

Well the Habitat Conservation District is charged with making sure California’s regulated species have sufficient habitat to go on existing.

Habitat Conservation Program

California’s fish and wildlife resources, including their habitats, are held in trust for the people of the State by CDFW (Fish and Game Code § 711.7). CDFW has jurisdiction over the conservation, protection, and management of fish, wildlife, native plants, and the habitats necessary for biologically sustainable populations of those species (Fish and Game Code § 1802). CDFW’s fish and wildlife management functions are implemented through its administration and enforcement of Fish and Game Code (Fish and Game Code § 702).

Color me surprised. Of course up until now I’ve mostly dealt with “the-permission-to-terminate-lives” division of the agency. I mean I know of course that there’s more. But it’s hard to see sometimes. The entire department layout is a behemoth to behold.

So that first yellow box on the left is the division that hands out permission to depredate that we review each year. And the next yellow box is the department of habitat conservation, and even though they’re close together in the chart you might well notice there are zero lines connecting the two. Because they have very little interaction with one another. Even less now that Covid means every one stays in their safe zones.

So it turns out that long before the beavers in Oakley were killed. Jennifer got called to the scene and did a sight visit of the little beaver dam in Oakley. She pointed out that it was making great habitat for fish and wildlife and that they should endeavor to keep it by accessing resources available through various nonprofits. She referred them to Friends of Marsh Creek and she truly felt that a tragedy had been avoided. That was the day before the Covid shutdown in California.

Following that contact, however, she learned that even though the lower divisions at flood control were content to work with her recommendations the highest parts of flood control wanted extermination. In fact there were conversations between them and the city manager of Oakley and they all insisted the beavers must be exterminated. Apparently there was even concern that the interest by the local residents might lead to someone being BITTEN.

Because you know how beavers are.

So Flood Control did the same thing you did in junior high when your mom said you couldn’t go stay over at your friend Marcy’s: they asked their dad instead. Or in this case – the wildlife division of CDFW. And of course they knew nothing about the habitat concerns or what had transpired already and they quickly granted permission for shooting beavers.

And you know how the story ended.

In my wildest dreams of reform I have only ever wished that there was a site visit and a consideration of the habitat that would be lost BEFORE a depredation permit was issued. And in this case that actually happened. The thing I dreamed about for 13 years actually happened. And the beavers still died.

It never in a million years occurred to me that the people who did the visit would not have any direct communication with the people that allowed the killing.

Obviously it’s time for a new dream.

In my new dream when department A gets a request for killing beavers they pick up the freakin’ phone and CALL department B to find out if there are any ecosystem services needed in the area before they grant a the goddamn permit. And the head of B sends out a scientist from the appropriate region to check, then reports the answer to A who either grants the permit OR recommends they wrap some frickin trees instead.

In summary, allow me to add that the very best thing California can do to sustain it’s species is to allow the ECOSYSTEM ENGINEERS to do their jobs without interruption. Please let me know i there are any questions.

SHH, DON’T TELL!

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers July 9, 2020

Well Utah gets a lot of things right. They were the first one to make a beaver management plan for the entire forest service that recognized how important they were. They created scientists like Mary Obrien and Joe Wheaton for goodness sakes.

You can’t expect perfection.

Beaver In Utah’s Desert Rivers

The Price and San Rafael rivers flow through some of Utah’s driest areas. Both are tributaries of the Green River. These rivers are essential to sustain the wildlife, riparian vegetation, native and endangered fish populations, and livestock that live in Utah’s eastern desert.

Beavers, native to both rivers, have far-reaching impacts on these waterways because of their ability to build dams that hold the water on the arid landscape – they are nature’s aquatic engineers.

One beaver dam can improve the living conditions for a host of fish, insects, plants, birds, and mammals who live in and around the river.

Emma Doden, a graduate student in the Department of Wildland Resources in the Quinney College of Natural Resources at USU, is working to understand the dynamics of beavers who are translocated to desert rivers for restoration purposes and how they compare to the naturally-occurring resident beavers who are already established.

Doden explains, “I help relocate nuisance beavers to desert river systems to give them a second chance, and help restore the river for the imperiled and endangered fish species…in this arid climate.”

Currently, Doden’s work is “passive desert river restoration” because there is no machinery manipulating the landscape or man-made structures impacting the research results. She is relying solely on beavers and their resources which have been part of the rivers’ ecosystems for millions of years. The beavers’ engineering teeth, tails, and paws build dams and lodges from riparian vegetation, gravel, and mud.

Of course the problem is that Emma isn’t using any of the accumulated knowledge about relocating beavers from Methow or Arizona or Oregon. She is just moving them one at a time, stapling radar to their tails, and then recording for her dissertation as they vainly swim away looking for family members.

I mean why take the trouble trapping the entire family or introducing pairs over time like the Methow project and releasing with their own bedding. That’s just extra work.

Doden explains, “the PIT-tag is similar to the microchip (a) dog or cat gets at the vet for identification if it ever gets lost. We use radio-transmitters and PIT-tags to track the movements of our beavers so they do not become lost after release.”

To this point, 90% of the translocated beavers have moved outside Doden’s research area as they explored their new habitat. They were probably searching for a companion and a suitable place to build a home.

This traveling increases the beaver’s vulnerability to predators since they have no underground burrow or lodge for protection. During the 2019 field season, of the eight beavers released, three of the translocated beavers were taken by predators.

Many of the tributaries of the Green and Colorado rivers are wood-deprived because of changes in the river flow due to human extraction. To increase a translocated beaver’s chances of surviving and its likelihood of remaining where it’s placed, the research team has proposed building simple dam-like structures out of wood fence posts, which would encourage the beavers to stay where they’re released. Once they receive NEPA approval the structures will be built.

Doden adds, “Our project goals are already being met, as we are learning so much about the fate of translocated beavers in desert ecosystems. Restoration goals will also be met if even a few beavers stay in the study area and build dams, supplementing the resident beaver population and creating more complex habitat for imperiled desert fish to live.”

Her dissertation’s done! That was her primary goal. It’s hard to imagine what the review of the literature section looked like because I can’t imagine she reviewed much. Emma successfully orphaned 100 percent of the beavers. Only 10% stayed point. That seems like success.

Emma included a series of slides with the article for NPR. She obviously has worked very hard on this project. Her accummulated knowledge must be considerable. You can see this baby doens’t get stapled. This is my favorite one with its original captain:

A baby otter.
Emma Doden

ITS THE BEAVER ECONOMICS, STUPID

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver economics July 8, 2020

Last night’s talk was well received and delivered to just the right people. I can’t tell you how good it was for my heart to see young members of the RCD asking how they could better promote beavers. All in all a fine success and I left that meeting feeling like I had done good things for beavers.

The decision in Oregon to keep right on killing beavers has been bringing a series of letters and responses. Here’s a fine one sent to me by Suzanne Fouty yesterday.

Guest View: Beavers and the twisting of sustainability

If somebody says they’re using Oregon’s natural resources in a sustainable manner, that’s good, right? Not always. Some folks use the word as a deceptive cover for activities that actually aren’t sustainable. When they do, you and I can take a huge economic hit.

On the surface, sustainability is a question of numbers: Does Mother Nature have the capacity to allow us to continue doing something that consumes water, land and other natural resources? In reality, though, sustainability also is about economics. Will the benefits cover the costs? If not, then the consumption of natural resources will lower our economic well-being. This is especially true if just a small group enjoys the benefits and passes the costs onto the rest of us.

Consider two examples: beavers and timber.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission recently gave permission for trappers and hunters to kill about 1,500 beavers per year. These are not beavers that cause problems by building a pond that floods a farmer’s field. No, these beavers are killed primarily for fun. (“Recreational permit” holders kill just for fun, “commercial permit” holders can sell pelts, but prices are low, indicating that they kill mostly for fun.)

Oh my goodness. Just for the record I’m not happy about the beavers that get killed for flooding fields either, but let me get my popcorn and settle in or this letter. I can just tell it’s going to be good.

Commission members took this action after hearing from staff that the beavers killed will be replaced by offspring from those not killed. So, the number of beavers killed must be sustainable, because it can continue year after year.

The staff ignored the economics. Dead beavers can’t provide valuable services. For example, they can’t create ponds that otherwise would provide habitat for fish and birds, trap water in a stream in the winter to reduce the risk of downstream flooding and release the water in late summer to increase supplies for communities and irrigators. The value of these losses far exceeds the value of the fun the trappers and hunters enjoy from killing the animals.

Dead beavers are particularly important economically because they can’t create the habitat Oregon’s salmon need to stop their slide toward extinction. Economists at Oregon State University have shown that increasing the population of Oregon coast coho salmon would provide economic benefits totaling more than $500 million per year. Biologists from the National Fisheries Management Service have concluded that, to see this increase, we need more beavers in coastal streams. So killing beavers for fun in this region increases the risk that the coho population will not increase and that Oregonians will not see millions of dollars of economic benefits, year after year.

Oh yes, he said that. Good for him.

Economics tells a vastly different story. This process generates huge costs for all Oregonians. It degrades water in streams, killing fish and threatening our drinking water supplies. Clear-cut logging tends to make wildland fires burn more intensely, because it exposes the land to the sun, creating hotter and drier microclimates, and it leaves behind limbs and other residues that provide tinder for wildfires.

Most important, though, are the climate-related costs the timber industry imposes on our future. The timber industry emits more carbon dioxide than any other activity in Oregon, including the burning of fossil fuels in cars and trucks. Future generations will pay the costs for heatwaves, droughts and other changes in climate made worse by the industry’s emissions. Current research shows these costs will total at least $9 billion per year, and probably a lot more.

These examples show that massive economic harm can lurk in the shadows whenever state officials and industries use numbers alone to persuade us that a resource-consumption activity is sustainable.

I guess everyone has their own definition of “sustainable”. Most people mean “It’s okay if I keeo doing it.”

If Gov. Kate Brown and our legislators truly care about our economic future, they will put an end to these shenanigans and promote only those activities that will be good for Mother Nature and the economic well-being of all Oregonians.

Ernie Niemi is president of Natural Resource Economics in Eugene.

Well you know how it is. Sometimes the ECONOMICS PROFESSORS write letters standing up for beavers. Sometimes it’s the child psychologists, I hear.

Ernie we’re sending you a tee shirt! Welcome to the beaver team!

KEEPING THE OFFICIALS ON THEIR TOES FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers and salmon, Friends of Martinez Beavers July 7, 2020

Commissioner Bob Main will not get my vote

I listened to the recent Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting regarding the beaver trapping ban in the national forests. The intent of the ban was to protect our declining fisheries. Beavers are a “keystone species,” an organism whose pond-creating powers support entire biological communities. In Oregon, a host of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead runs depend on them.

A growing body of evidence suggests that by creating ponds, storing water, and converting straight streams into multi-threaded ones, beavers expand shelter for young fish and keep creeks well-hydrated. One 1992 study found that two-thirds of Oregon’s coastal coho overwintered in beaver ponds and slack waters. In its coho recovery plan, the National Marine Fisheries Service recommends “encouraging the formation of beaver dams.”

I was surprised to learn our Commissioner Bob Main testified at the ODFW Commission meeting that he wanted to support beaver trapping and was against any rule changes. Under the current rules trappers only have to check their traps every seven days. Seven days in a trap is nothing short of cruel. The same goes for the cyanide poisoning across Oregon.

Commissioner Bob Main will not get my vote this year. He has shown complete disregard to our fish and wildlife.

Charles Erickson, Coos Bay

Excellent letter Charles! Imagine paying such attention to the election of a fish and wildlife officer that you write a letter like this when they vote wrong! Near as I can tell he’s the director of the clam digging association up there. I think he is my new best friend. And of course he’s right. If a commissioner can’t see the salmon for the trees he had better find another line of work.

Perfect timing, really because this evening I’m presenting to the Alhambra Watershed Forum on the Martinez Beavers. It’s nice to be asked back after all these years and I am looking forward to updating the beaver benefits I start illustrating lo these many years ago. They’ve posted the link to the talk on facebook so I believe I can share it.

if you want to zoom in and join us click on this photo at 6:30 tonight!