Month: September 2020

BY INDIRECTION FIND DIRECTION OUT

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact September 15, 2020

I chortled yesterday when the headline on USA today read “Trump visiting California: Air Quality may not improve until October.” Some lowly copy editor in the back wings knew exactly what they were doing when they offered that headline. They clearly deserve a promotion.

Anyway I was happily reading this article from Massachusetts which also has an excellent headline. I love that the didn’t ask the stale question “Is the beaver eco-friendly or a nuisance? Because that’s just annoying. It’s always both. But one matters more.

Eco-Friendly Beaver Much More than Nuisance

Beavers can best be described as Mother Nature’s ecosystem-beneficial engineers, by building dams that benefit both people and wildlife. They work day and night to industriously produce and sustain enriching backwaters of slow-moving ponds and streams for every creature imaginable that breeds life into an otherwise-sterile habitat. They create homes for water-loving birds, mammals, insects, and a variety of warm water fish.

Slow-moving waters also filter out nitrogen and heavy metal sediments that sink to the bottom, preventing them from spreading downstream. Studies of ecohydrology prove that beaver-dam wetlands thrive with islands of widely distributed vegetation during periods of drought and provide wildlife refuge during dry-season wildfires.

Stop! We’re blushing!

Yes it’s true, the lowly beaver can do all those things. And plenty more if you’re keeping tabs at home. Remember that Massachusetts famously passed a law outlawing body gripping traps in 1996 and has been complaining about beavers ever since. Even though they didn’t outlaw KILLING beavers – the agencies say that the population exploded and folks are constantly trying to overturn the will of the voters. So we’re especially happy when Massachusetts of all states says something nice about beavers.

It’s like the return of the prodigal son.

There have evolved many non-lethal methods of beaver control with the clash of wildlife renewal and modern living. As the cambial layer between a tree’s bark and inner wood is a mainstay of a beaver’s diet, they have four sharp incisors and 16 other teeth for grinding and chewing for digestion.

Landowners may wrap fencing or metal barriers around tree trunks or apply a compound called thiram that gives off a strong odor to irritate a beaver’s nose. If they clog culverts in ditches, mesh cages at culvert openings, or running a pipe through the dam to control water flow can be costly and difficult. Whenever possible, wildlife managers prefer to assist landowners in relocating beavers to more suitable habitats.

Understanding beavers’ place in the global system and respecting their instinct to engineer and construct dams is necessary if we are to successfully share the world and its water with these inventive creatures.

Well said, We could not agree more George B. Emmons. In fact we pretty much have been saying it over and over for 13 years.

Now speaking of the importance of beavers and the impact of trapping them, I finished my look at the records of depredation for the last 7 years. Since no one is tracking population in California we need to use indirect means to study it. Indirect measures can be really useful. For example in my other life as a psychologist I read a psychiatric study where they used hospital chart weight as an indirect means to assess diagnosis. Think about the logic of that. You tend to write more about the kind of patients that get under your skin, and they are generally more likely to share a diagnostic category. It’s not perfect and doesn’t generate one-to-one correspondence by any means, but its a pretty darn useful measure.

As Polonius said in Hamlet, “By Indirection find direction out.”

Identifying the places beavers HAVEN’T been trapped is very much like that. It’s not perfect. And the longer you did it the more useful it would be, but it’s a pretty darn interesting way to see where beavers are having a hard time resettling California.

PAYING ATTENTION TO BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers September 14, 2020

Raising beaver awareness is hard. Sometimes people have good design ideas and excellent graphic abilities but depend entirely on stealing other peoples photos and then sticking their own watermark on them. Sheesh. Nice company in Illinois though with some fantastic ready for sale interpretive sighs. Boy I would love to see what they do with our Ecosystem poster.

Beaver Lodge
And Building a strong family home

Other organizations have original and EXCELLENT ideas but are not so hot on the design side. Never mind. That will come as you get inundated with excellent beaver photos. They are off to a great start. Check out this excellent plan and program from Beaver Works in Eastern Oregon.

Think Wild’s Beaver Works Oregon Program Launches River Neighbors Initiative

Beaver Works Oregon, a program of Think Wild, invites people who live and play along the Deschutes River to get to know beavers as shapers of wildlife habitat and protectors of precious water in a dry land. To launch its River Neighbors initiative, the group will offer a trail camera loan program, a wildlife photo contest and guided river walks at the Old Mill District of Bend.

“Living on one river, we are linked to one another,” said Reese Mercer, program director of Beaver Works Oregon. “Our new River Neighbors initiative invites people to share perspectives, find common currents and learn about the ecology of the Deschutes River.”

Getting people to think about their wild neighbors is a great goal. And our friends at Beaver Works have some fantastic ideas about how to go about it. The image doesn’t do much for me. But just look at this:

River Wildlife Photo Contest: Charge up your digital cameras, smartphones or auto trail cameras to enter and share your best photo or short video recording taken from your property if you are a river neighbor resident, or along the public lands by the Deschutes. The contest runs through October 15. Prizes awarded via a raffle include a gift certificate to WinterCreek Restoration and Nursery and one of our favorite trail cameras.

EXCELLENT! Get people to see the nature all around them by luring them into photographing it. It’s how I started caring about beavers. And how Rusty started.

Trail Camera Loan Program: Residents along the Deschutes River can reserve infrared trail cameras to enjoy riverine wildlife activity, from beavers to otters and mink. The video cameras record what animals are doing while people are away or sleeping. They provide vital insights to animal patterns and behaviors that in turn can inform ways people and wildlife can live harmoniously on the river.

Good. Sometimes people aren’t up for 4:30 alarm clocks or braving mosquitoes. Let technology show them what they’re missing. People are more likely to care about it if they see it. We learned that in spades.

Guided River Walks: Join a small group for socially distanced walks along the Deschutes River to learn of the wildlife along this riverscape and the benefits of beaver in our riparian ecosystems. The first monthly hour-long walk will be held Sunday, September 22 at 8am. Registration, which is free, at the Beaver Works website is required.

Outstanding. Get people out and seeing it in person. People care about what they’ve seen. Teach them how to watch and what they’re seeing means. Let them bring their children and their questions. This is a great way to get folks to care.

THE MISSING BEAVER PIECES

heidi08 Who's Killing Beavers Now? September 13, 2020

I heard yesterday back from one of the lawyers at the Center For Biological Diversity that has done some work on beavers in the past for California (Collette Adkinz) that the news about the mass EIR for every species likely to be impacted by APHIS was in direct response to their NEPA/CEQA litigation. I was right about it being something no one volunteers to do. They are the root canal, so to speak. She hoped Worth A Dam would be responding as well and I thought first about beaver population, which no one is studying. Because trapping beaver in a populated area means something different than trapping the only beaver in the area. The closest thing we have to an indication of population numbers is the record of their nuisance. Obviously if there aren’t enough beavers to merit even a single depredation permit, there probably aren’t very many beavers in the area.

So I spent yesterday starting to go through our UN permits – meaning all the places where a permit was never granted. It’s a long job because you have to take the record for the actual permits and discern what never happened. And my old friend that used to make these maps for me is long gone so I had to laboriously use a new tool to try it myself.

But I think this is starting to look really interesting.

First of all what this shows is that the Southern half of the state is missing plenty of beavers. And second I think this is beginning to show what a huge impact it has on all of central california when beaver are depredated. The population takes a long while to rebound. Regions at the edge like Kern or SLO take even longer to rebound. I have four more years to slog through but I think in the end the counties who have reported no beaver depredation over the time period or only 1 or two permits in 7 years should be marked as a special risk on the EIR of what is likely to happen to the population with an APHIS response.

Or hey maybe what it means is that before APHIS is allowed to trap beavers someone should you know, actually count how many there are.

THE OREGON BEAVER DEFENSE

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, In the News, Who's Killing Beavers Now? September 13, 2020

Oregon deserves all our prayers today with 10% of the population evacuated for wildfires that are burning out of control. So I’m letting them take the reigns. On Thursday the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the department of Fish and Wildlife to stop allowing beaver trapping on federal lands. Here’s the press release.

Oregon Urged to End Beaver Trapping, Hunting on Federal Lands

PORTLAND, Ore.— Conservation groups filed a petition today asking the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission to permanently close commercial and recreational beaver trapping and hunting on the state’s federally managed public lands and the waters that flow through them. Beavers are Oregon’s official state animal, but they can be legally hunted and trapped with few limits.

Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Conservation Angler, Defenders of Wildlife, Northeast Oregon Ecosystems, Umpqua Watersheds, WaterWatch of Oregon and Wetlands Conservancy filed this petition along with Dr. Suzanne Fouty, a retired hydrologist with the U.S. Forest Service, who has been studying beaver influences in the West for 25 years.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission discussed this request in June as part of its review of the state’s furbearer regulations. But it was rejected then as being outside the scope of that rulemaking notice. Today’s petition initiates a new rulemaking process for the commission’s consideration.

“Federal and state agencies, watershed councils, utility companies, conservation groups, and private landowners spend countless hours and millions of dollars every year to restore Oregon’s waterways, mimicking the natural behavior of beavers,” said Nick Cady, legal director of Cascadia Wildlands. “At the same time, Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife permits limitless commercial and recreational trapping of beavers and does not even monitor populations. The department’s beaver trapping and hunting regulations are outdated and directly undermine the extensive, ongoing restoration of our water resources and efforts to recover imperiled salmon populations.”

Beavers are a keystone species and offer widely recognized ecological, economic, and social benefits, today’s petition notes. Beaver-created and maintained habitat improves water quality, decreases the impacts of floods, and restores natural water flows. This benefits humans and a wide variety of fish and wildlife, including highly endangered coho salmon. Beavers therefore play an important role in improving Oregon’s water security and minimizing impacts of climate change on human and wild communities.

“Beavers are our natural allies in the fight against climate change,” said Quinn Read, Oregon policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We live in the Beaver State, and it’s appalling that beavers are still hunted and trapped. This cruel practice favors a few people and deprives other Oregonians and endangered salmon of the benefits of beaver-created habitat.”

Few people in Oregon trap or hunt beavers. But today’s petition points out that the annual culling of the species has significant negative effects on beaver populations and their corresponding social, economic and ecological benefits. The petition’s requested changes wouldn’t affect hunting and trapping opportunities elsewhere but they would allow beavers to thrive on federally managed public lands.

“Many people don’t know just how critical beavers are to functioning watersheds that, in turn, benefit hundreds of other plants and animals, including threatened and endangered species,” said Sristi Kamal, senior northwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife. “Beaver conservation on federal lands could be key to the conservation success of such species and their ability to survive and adapt to climate change impacts.”

Beaver populations have been significantly reduced from historic levels through hunting and trapping. These ongoing practices suppress population growth and expansion into large swaths of unoccupied suitable beaver habitat.

The full Petition from the Center for Biologic Diversity is available for review and does an excellent job of pulling together the research in a compelling beaver treatise. I’m hoping it is used to inform california as well. I’ve embedded the link so just click on the title to go see for yourself. I hope you go read through it because it will really help inform your next argument persuading folk to cooperate with beavers.

*Joe Wheaton: Emerald sanctuary in Idaho firescape*

WHAT DAMAGE TO WILDLIFE DOES OUR RESPONSE TO WILDLIFE DAMAGE CAUSE?

heidi08 What's killing beavers now? September 11, 2020

You know how it is, you wake up and blearily check your inbox to see what beaver issue you’ll be writing about this morning, like a fisherman checking his line. Sometimes you get tiny little guppies and have to string together a couple to make a meal.

But sometimes you get a whale.

Report to cover wildlife damage management activities in CA

USDA, CDFA to conduct joint environmental review of agencies’ roles in wildlife damage management

WASHINGTON — The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is advising the public of the intent to prepare a Joint Environmental Impact Report and Environmental Statement (EIS) for wildlife damage management activities in California.

APHIS has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to develop a joint environmental review of both agencies’ roles in wildlife damage management in California. The scope of the analysis will include APHIS’s cooperative activities with Federal and State agencies, California counties, Tribes, and local municipalities managing human-wildlife conflicts caused by birds and mammals. Cooperative activities may include:

Reducing damage to agricultural resources;
Reducing damage to infrastructure and property;
Reducing wildlife strike hazards at airports;
Managing damage by invasive species;
Reducing threats to human health and safety associated with wildlife; and
Protecting threatened and endangered species

Did you hear that? Gosh did someone say beaver and salmon and wildfire? I’m sure I heard someone call my name. I know someone is calling yours.

.The Federal Register Docket will be available for viewing on September 9, 2020 here: http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2020-0081. Comments will be accepted September 10-November 10. Two virtual public meetings will be held during the scoping period on October 13 and October 27, 2020. Details for participation in these meetings can be found at www.CaliforniaWDM.org

–USDA APHIS

Hmmm. Hmmm. Of course I rushed to the website to see what I could find. It is very interesting to me that USDA & CDFA would enter a MOU to prepare and EIS about potential effects on wildlife. Why? Usually EIRs are things you submit after kicking and dragging your heels for a very long time. They are what people the courts make you submit when you’ve exhausted all other options or have lost the argument.

An EIR is like a root canal. Very useful when needed. but nothing you’d volunteer for.

For context, the huge lawsuit won at the appellate level in Riverside against CDFG and LA waterand LA water was ONLY requesting that they do an EIR before trapping beaver. It turned out to be a nuclear weapon that to my knowledge has never been used again.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and Wildlife Services (WS-California), a state office within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS), intend to prepare a joint Environmental Impact Report and Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) to provide a robust and comprehensive environmental analysis of current and proposed future wildlife damage management activities undertaken across California. The EIR/EIS will evaluate impacts associated with wildlife damage management activities performed by CDFA and California Counties under CDFA’s proposed Wildlife Damage Management Program (WDMP) as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and by WS-California as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). These activities would be undertaken in a collaborative effort between WS-California, CDFA, and California Counties to prevent damage to agricultural resources and infrastructure, protect natural resources and promote human health and safety. Additional information about the proposed WDMP and WS-California’s current wildlife damage management activities is provided be low.

Doesn’t it strike as odd that they are creating a impact report in advance of any action they are going to take for the year? I mean let’s say that there is an extreme unexpected drought that suddenly threatens all the wildlife in southern california. Wouldn’t the impact of any previously approved action vary according to current environmental conditions?

Maybe it’s something akin to the police damage waivers unions require cities sign. We’ve weighed the possible consequences and whatever outcome happens we pre-approved the risk. We are no longer liable for the results.

It’s the last one on the list that I think touches us most closely. Watercourses. protected species. and natural habitats means beaver if anything in the world does. It is practically their middle name.

They will accept 60 days of public comment on their proposal and there will be a public virtual meeting in October. I’m assuming that thy are planning to create an EIS for the impact of every species in every region of the state. That’s a bizarrely broad undertaking, but we can certainly give them an earful.

Anyway, we’ve all got a lot of reading to do. All the info can be found on the WDM page. It’s just a hunch, but I’m pretty sure that when they say “wildlife damage” they mean the damage wildlife does to YOU not the damage they do every day to wildlife.