Month: October 2020

BEAVERS BREAKING THROUGH

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Educational October 31, 2020

Our friend Mike Digout of Saskatchewan is getting famous. I thought he might when his ‘beaver-crashing-through-ice” video made it into the daily mail. Now he’s be on the NY Post and ABC. His own Canadian TV is starting to take notice and has a nice profile of him today.

‘I just couldn’t believe it:’ Photographer captures Saskatoon beaver bursting through ice ‘like Superman’

SASKATOON — A Saskatoon-based beaver has become a viral video star after a local photographer and nature enthusiast filmed it bursting through an ice-covered pond last week.

“She just sort of exploded through the ice like Superman and I knew right away it was a really great thing to have caught on camera,” Mike Digout said.

When the weather got colder and the pond froze over, Digout wondered what that would mean for the beavers. He then started noticing that after having a snack, the mama beaver would swim around and strategically choose areas to break the ice.

Hurray for Mike! And hurray for beavers, that are so amazingly robust.

“I just couldn’t believe it. They’re so clever, they understand their habitat so well.”

Digout said he tried for two days to get a shot of her in the act but was unsuccessful. Finally, on the third day, he got lucky.

“I had a hunch where she was going next to break the ice and I could see her body moving under the ice so I hustled. I literally ran to a spot, pressed click on my video camera.”

That’s when he captured the video that’s garnered not only local attention but has also attracted national and international audiences — something that was a huge surprise to Digout.

First, he shared it on his own social media pages last Friday then submitted it to the Weather Network. Since then, it has also been shared on ABC News, the London Daily Mail and the New York Post. The ABC News video alone has gotten over 500,000 views.

Heh heh heh, beavers will make you a star, kid. Just stick with them.

“I thought well, that’s half a million people that are getting to witness this magical spot in Saskatoon and this crazy fun mama beaver that entertains me everyday,” Digout said.

He said he began visiting the pond on the Meewasin Valley trail and taking photos and videos of the beavers at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as a hobby. Now, his Facebook page has inspired children, families and so many others to come down to the pond to see the beavers for themselves.

Good. Humanize the beaver and endear it to the viewer. That’s what we need more of. People care about what they see, and you are doing an excellent job.

He added that his photos and videos have also helped people who aren’t able to go out and explore nature themselves right now.

The Meewasin Valley Authority and the Ministry of Environment told CTV News that while the moment Digout managed to captured seems extraordinary, it’s fairly routine behaviour for beavers during this time of year as they get settled for the winter, gathering food and materials.

Yup. You should mention also how many of them are normally KILLED in the ice under your watch. Winter is a dangerous time for beavers. Not only are they racing against the elements, they are subject to trapping season and hoping they live to breed another year.

The thing I love best about Mike’s movie star is that now that she’s achiever international FAME it will be much, much harder to issue the order for her death. Fingers crossed. Visibility keeps beavers safe.

Yesterday’s beaver conference was fantastic again, and Ben did a great NM specific presentation about the importance of beavers to the area. Meaghan Conway from Game and Fish had a very good talk about why specifically beavers matter in the region. It’s kind of nice to forget about the election and just think about beavers. The next is Monday and then a final closing with Mary Obrien on Wednesday, All in all it’s been an excellent use of a very difficult set of circumstances.

Oh and here’s a video from the “Beaver Game” designed by our friend Ray Cirino in Ojai California. Isn’t it brilliant?

BEAVER FRIENDS ACROSS STATE LINES

heidi08 Beavers October 30, 2020

I woke up excited for day two of the beaver conference. You should be exited too, because if you;’re not going at least you get to hear about it. There is nothing quite like eating your lunch while really smart people talk to you about beavers. Imagine someday all of California might get the opportunity to find out!

Meanwhile there’s good news in Oregon and Wyoming. so that’s on the list of morale boosters.

Petition Calls to Protect Emblematic OR Species: Beavers

Organizations have submitted a petition to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission calling on the state to prohibit commercial and recreational beaver hunting and trapping on federally managed public lands.

Sristi Kamal, senior Northwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife, said that, added together, these lands make up about half of the state’s acreage. She said Oregon ecosystems depend on beavers.

“Beavers improve water quality; maintain or increase stream flows; create and increase the amount of distribution of wetlands, wet meadows, ponds; create refuge and fire breaks during wildfires, like the one, we saw recently; and store carbon and increase and diversify habitats,” she said.

Where do I sign? Of course you’re right. Public lands are for the public, which last time I checked drank water. They also need more fish and birds so it follows that they need their beavers. Whose life do you improve by allowing trapping?

Kamal said hunting and trapping season lasts from November to March, overlapping with the beavers’ breeding season, which is January through March. She said she believes the benefits from beavers outweigh the benefits for hunters and trappers, of which there are fewer than 170 registered in the state. Kamal added that Oregon doesn’t offer protections for this species.

“It would be the first measure we are taking in the state to do something about the one animal that’s actually on our state flag,” she said. “I mean, we are the Beaver State, you know? So, we should do more than just have the animal on our state flag.”

If the commission accepts the petition, it would begin a round of rule-making on regulations. Kamal said the public can participate in the hearing by registering on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife website, or submitting comments to the commission.

Those 170 can go have their important day of father-son bonding trapping something else, like muskrat or raccoon. And yes I like both of them but we have to start somewhere. In the meantime public lands seems like a good place to let beavers exist without the threat of killing. Oh, and word to the wise. When you’re writing about Defenders of Wildlife on your beaver blog it’s best not to call them “Wildlife Defenders.” Because then you get an email.

Just so you know.

Meanwhile in Wyoming the department of Fish and Game is relocating beavers into parkland to restore habitat. There’s a vote of confidence for you.

There were 1,077 press releases posted in the last 24 hours and 191,339 in the last 365 days.

Beavers relocated in Sheridan Region

In late September, in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service, Sheridan Region Aquatic Habitat Biologist Travis Cundy live-trapped several beaver from private property east of Sheridan and relocated them to a site above Buffalo on the Bighorn National Forest.

“We began live-trapping and relocating beaver in the 1990s as a way to improve riparian habitat,” said Cundy. “The goal is to use the dam-building activities of beaver to help detain water longer on the landscape. We are just trying to slow down water movement so it can help build up water tables and create more vegetation.”

Well that’s interesting. How many and how were you trapping them? I’m curious.

Five beavers were trapped over three days. Cundy targets mated pairs when identifying potential trap sites, increasing the likelihood that the animals will stay in the release area. He believes the five trapped in September are a family unit including the mated pair along with kits from this year and last.

Gosh. That’s remarkably responsible from a state agency. Did you drop them from Airplanes or shoot them from cannons then? Years of writing about this has made me somewhat cynical.

The trailer was later taken to a release site on Sourdough Creek and parked with the doors left open for the animals to disperse at their leisure. The Sourdough Creek area was chosen as a release site because it supports good resources of aspen and willow and is closed to public trapping, but no beaver activity has been documented there for more than a decade.

Now that is one I haven’t heard of. Kind of civilized. Were they on their own from there?

Some beaver dam analog work, which is a small debris dam and pool feature, had also been completed at the site, so there were some ready-made pools available to provide them some security until they can start creating their own,” said Cundy. “In the short term, from immediate transplant time to a couple years afterwards, we usually see a colony become established a little over half of the time. But, they have never established right where we release them. They usually go a half mile to two miles from the release site.”

I’m blinking at the bright sunlight. That’s pretty darn responsible, Travis. I’m thinking this may be the start of a beautiful friendship.

“Through their activity, they can help reconnect the floodplain and spread the water out. It is probably the cheapest way to improve riparian vegetation and floodplain connectivity that we have,” he said. “I think it is a phenomenal way to increase green vegetation development in streamside areas to help fish, moose, mule deer and all riparian-dependent wildlife.”

That’s it Mr. Cundy. I’m sending you an email. And maybe a cigar. Very well said Have you ever thought about hosting a Wyoming beaver summit?

Our friend Mike Digout in Saskatchewan posted this yesterday and I thought it was oddly compelling.

TOO DAM RARE

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Who's Killing Beavers Now? October 29, 2020

Now this is the perfect headline to flood my mailbox over and over. A girl could get used to this.

Restoring habitats could save a fifth of species from climate risks, says report

Nature group Rewilding Britain estimates the country’s “climate zones” – made up of the climatic conditions of an area – are shifting by up to 5km (3 miles) a year due to temperatures rises driven by human activity. That is far faster than many species of plants and animals which are adapted to live within those zones can shift their ranges, putting them at risk of population declines and even extinctions, it warns.

But restoring habitats across 30% of Britain’s land and sea by 2030 could help save a fifth of species from habitat loss, declines or extinctions, according to a report by the organisation that draws on existing research. It is calling for the creation of core “rewilding” areas covering 5% of Britain, which would mean large-scale restoration of natural processes and systems where nature can take care of itself.

Hmm. A fifth of species is a lot of species. Any particular recommendations for candidates that might help with that?

This could include allowing woodland to regenerate naturally, returning areas to a more natural state through removing dams on rivers or rewetting drained peatbogs and reintroducing key species such as beavers or birds of prey.

Well, yes. and duh. Get on it.

A first step is to improve the state of existing wildlife sites to ensure they have thriving wildlife populations that can withstand and adapt to changing conditions. But this is not enough on its own, the study said.

Oh and maybe stop frigging killing the beaver you have in Scotland.

The network of nature reserves and protected areas across Britain is too small and fragmented to support species on the move. And in the future they may no longer be in the right climate zone for some of the species they safeguard.

Are you sure it’s just a fifth they could help? That seems a little low to me.

But folks just keep right on killing them. There’s even a new TV program coming up about how to kill them better.

Local man to be featured on Pursuit Channel

Greenville native Doug Boswell will be featured in a television program for his talents as a trapper. The 2000 graduate of Greenville High School will appear in January on the Pursuit Channel’s “Trapping Across America” series.

Boswell said he will appear in episode three.

“I worked for the Butler County Road department when I got out of high school,” he said. “I was on the beaver control unit and busted up beaver houses. They build these dams in front of the pipes. It causes a lot of wear and tear on the pipes. I was introduced to the other aspect through that.”

Now, he specializing in trapping beavers and getting them out of the area to prevent them from building dams.

“It’s a more efficient way of allocating tax dollars,” he said.

To which the only obvious response is, “There is something called the PURSUIT channel?” I guess it’s probably not about dreams of community college, huh? Sure he specializes in beavers. But he never bothered to learn even the simplest fact that beaver dams aren’t HOUSES, because he’s an idiot. And in Alabama where we will never know any better.

Let’s wash that unpleasant taste out of our mouths with this fine article from our friends in Napa.

Busy Beavers! Unlikely Watershed Heroes on the Napa River

Have you heard about the beavers in Napa? Look closely and you might spot a beaver dam or lodge in our local waterway The hard work of beavers can be seen all along the Napa River and its tributaries. Scientists and biologists working in our local waterways estimate there to be at least 20 different colonies (families of beavers) spotted as far up the valley as St. Helena. In Napa, the Tulocay Creek colony has grown popular among locals; mama beaver and her kits (babies) are regularly featured in the Napa Valley Register.

It might seem novel to find these industrious builders in our downtown and neighborhood waterways, but beavers can be traced back to the Napa River for centuries. For many years, scientists were misinformed about the habitats and behaviors of beavers in Northern California and did not consider beavers native to the waterways that feed into the San Francisco Bay. Recently, historians and scientists with the California Department of Fish and Game presented evidence that challenged long held beliefs about where beavers belong, and ecologists are establishing important links between the presence of beavers and the health of our watersheds.

Hahahahahaha. You know how many historians there are in the department of fish and game? Oh right NONE. That exhaustive groundbreaking research was the unpaid work of a physician, a psychologist, a retired archeologist and some stream keepers. But sure. Just thank CDFW. I’m nothing if not practical. And it can’t hurt.

Beavers are a keystone species in the wetland ecosystem. They play a critical role in providing beneficial habitat and food for a wide range of species, who otherwise wouldn’t be able to thrive in the Napa River. Dams form reservoirs that provide food and shelter for creatures of all sizes, keep water temperatures cooler throughout the warm summer months, and filter fine sediment in water to improve water quality. This provides ideal conditions for the young of threatened species such as chinook salmon and steelhead trout to thrive. Visit a local beaver dam downtown or on Tulocay creek, and you can see a wide range of animals, including turtles, otters, mink, and birds. Beavers transform our waterways from channels prone to erosion to oases of ecological diversity.

Wow. That’s certainly nice to see. Credit where credit is due.

In Napa County, we recognize the valuable contribution of the beavers to our watershed; government organizations including the Flood Control and Water Conservation District as well as the Resource Conservation District work to help beavers and people coexist. Engineers, scientists, and biologists work to make sure development in the valley doesn’t drive the beavers away from their homes, and work with local residents and businesses to prevent and mitigate damages done by beavers as they chew down trees and raise water levels in creeks.

Gosh. That’s rare. An entire county that recognizes the valuable work beavers do. Rusty’s awesome photos and Robin’s tireless advovacy are responsible for a huge part of that. OAEC education onsight helped a lot, and I like to think we in Martinez played our little part in getting it started. And beavers themselves did the rest. Unfortunately seeing beavers as an ally is rare.

Too dam rare.

“BEAVERS FUCKING BELONG HERE”

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beaver economics October 29, 2020

Don’t be shocked by the title. I’m just quoting what I heard. I’ll explain later, but for now I’ll just say I’ve been scooped by the Daily Mail.

It’s to to admit my total failure as a beaver journalist and humbly turn in my press pass. A couple of days ago our Saskatchewan friend posted amazing footage of the beaver Matriarch under the Canada ice and breaking through in dramatic resolve and I set the video aside intending to share it with you. I was going to call it the best thing you would ever see. But I got busy with the survey and the conference and it fell to the back of the list.

And now I’ve been scooped by the Daily Mail.

Icebreaker! Moment a beaver smashes through the frozen surface of a lake to grab a branch and then dives back underneath

Mr Digout said he had noticed the ‘adult female had a daily routine of swimming around the pond and breaking the ice at certain spots’.

The beaver, which is Canada’s official symbol, circles for a few moments before diving back below the surface. The large semi-aquatic mammals are herbivores and consume mostly tree bark, often chewing down trees for building material.

Mr Digout said he had noticed the ‘adult female had a daily routine of swimming around the pond and breaking the ice at certain spots’. The beaver, which is Canada’s official symbol, circles for a few moments before diving back below the surface. The large semi-aquatic mammals are herbivores and consume mostly tree bark, often chewing down trees for building material.

Isn’t that wonderful? And aren’t beavers wonderful? No matter how hard your day is I bet you didn’t have to start it by breaking through some ice with your head to get breakfast. Mike’s hard work and shivering effort has paid off with international fame. The Daily Mail has an odd soft spot for beavers. They are a rough tabloid magazine that doesn’t exactly appeal to educated naturalists, but the love their beavers. They published a story about our father beaver raising the kits alone many years ago.

As long as you don’t read the comments you’ll be fine.

Still congratulations to Mike! And lets hope the high profile of Saskatchewan gets people thinking of the animal in a new way. Here’s the other video I set aside to share. Notice she’s using her teeth to nibble the ice out of the way.

Yesterday’s conference was fascinating and really fun to be a part of. Lea Knutson of the Hermit Peak Alliance gave an awesome presentation about incorporating land owner support and how to deal with their very real beaver apprehensions. They showed a new film that hasn’t been released yet about beavers as neighbors. Aaron Hall of Defenders of Wildlife gave a excellent, practical, no nonsense talk about how to solve beaver conflicts the right way. But my favorite part was the informal presentation by organic farmer Ralph Vigil of the NM acequia commission, who said after talking about all the ways they could cause issues for farmer, in a rugged burst of enthusiasm;

“Beavers fucking belong here“

Whoa. I could not have said it better myself, Ralph.

The next one is friday and is all about why beaver. If you want to register I think you still can.

Why Beavers? – Friday, October 30th, 1:00 – 3:30 pm MDT

Zoom Meeting Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvc-msqDMoHtCnKyKWXYLHllcaMyVjTegB

Ben Goldfarb – author– Regional History of Beavers
Kai-T Blue Sky – independent biologist, Cochiti Pueblo – Tribal cultural perspective on beavers
Meaghan Conway – NMDGF – ecological role of beavers for other wildlife
Bill Zeedyk – ecological role of beavers for water conservation

See you there?

HALF A CONSERVATION ATTEMPT IN P.E.I.

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Tree-Wrap Rap October 27, 2020

Do you remember playing “telephone” when you were a kid?

A first child whispers something through their cupped hand hotly into the ear of the child next to them. No repeats or clarifications allowed, that child needs to repeat the best they can to the next child beside them, in progression so that, eventually, (with all the giggling and spitting) the words get get slightly more garbled with each telling. By the time the message got to the end of the line it usually made zero sense so that when you repeated it aloud the room burst into laughing.

It was a fun classroom activity for rainy days. And I think describes as well as anything what happens with animal advocacy in Prince Edward Island.

Beaver evades capture, Summerside residents concerned for its welfare

SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. —

Users of a Summerside park have been sharing the space with a beaver for the past few weeks. Trees chewed down make for a telltale sign. What didn’t have a sign were the traps set nearby to remove it.

The traps are gone for now, thanks to some Summerside residents who spoke up.

Jane Pitre and Jamie Donovan-Gallant found the two conibear-style traps just off the edge of the trail in Heather Moyse Park.

“No beaver should die like that, in a conibear trap,” said Pitre. “There’s other ways to get the beaver out of there.”

Scaring him away? Closing all the liquor stores? It’s a long way across the length of Canada to P.E.I. Messages are bound to get slightly muddled along the way. The “Conibear bad” message made it through. That’s a start.

“A licensed trapper was hired, and I was advised a live trap would be used, however we’ve learned that the live trap method was not successful and the trapper under direction/approval of the department of environment was using a snare method,” Desrosiers wrote in an email. “Once we learned that a snare method was implemented, we asked the trapper stop this practice.

“What we are doing now is reconnecting with the department of environment on what options exist, what considerations should be given, what level of risk and damage could occur if not dealt with and we will go from there,” said Desrosiers. “This is very much outside of our area of expertise.”

He added, “We do need to ensure that tree destruction in this park is limited and public safety issues aren’t created.”

Of course you know that if the primary issue is protecting your trees the answer is not to put the beavers in a wire cage but to put the TREES in a wire cage. Surely that made it through the telephone game?

While not a wildlife expert, she has also read about other options like wrapping the trees with heavy wire mesh or modifying the dam to let a channel of water pass through.

“I understand they want to save the trees and the trees cost a lot, I get that, but I kind of just think the wildlife have a right to be here and we need to live with them better.”

Well that is as good as you can expect, but hey maybe you could lead with that next time. Not “conibears are horrible” but “Here’s an easy way to protect trees“.

It’s just a thought.

Some what less unclear is Kate Lundquist’s beaver presentation to the Escondido Creek Conservancy talking about the importance of beavers in our state. It’s a good overview on the issue and deserves a listen.

[wonderplugin_video iframe=”While not a wildlife expert, she has also read about other options like wrapping the trees with heavy wire mesh or modifying the dam to let a channel of water pass through. “I understand they want to save the trees and the trees cost a lot, I get that, but I kind of just think the wildlife have a right to be here and we need to live with them better.”” lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]