Month: December 2020

THE GREATEST BEAVER HITS OF 2020

heidi08 Beavers December 31, 2020

Happy new year! Time to look back at what 2020 has meant for beavers. Sure it’s been a dog poo year for us, but a surprising amount has gone on in their lives this year. Here’s some highlights.

January

February

March

Mary Obrien and the Beaver Gospel
Beavers in Maryland Day 1
First they ignore you (CDFW gets told why beavers matter)

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Well thanks for another year of beavers, It was actually such a muddle of the same day over and over that it was helpful to go back through and remember that things actually happened. Whatever comes we’ll remember this. 2020 was a helluva year.

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BEAVER ADVOCATE MATCHMAKER

I guess I’m dating myself here, but do you remember the character Julie from the Love Boat? Every episode she would create activities that introduced the inevitable couple who would fall madly in love and go on to become an item by the end of the episode.

Just call me the “Julie” of the Beaver-World.

In the last two days I have introduced soon to be friends of beavers in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Fairfield. I thought I’d tell you a little about it.

Last year I introduced you to Doug from Hanover PA who contacted me after reading Eager and wanted to learn more about the beavers in his area. He eventually went to BeaverCon as our Worth A Dam correspondent. Well he made some buddies in Mayayunk who were working to save the river trail along the Schuykill and restoring it by planting trees along the bank. They were concerned that some of those trees were getting nibbled by you know who. So this week Doug made a trip out to meet them, talk about why beavers matter, and help them figure it out.

Well they’re all believers now.

Just this month I was contacted from Josh in Alabama who asked if I knew any beaver believers. To which I replied good bloody luck, But then he wrote back saying his work was requiring him to spend time in Maryland and maybe I knew folks there? BeaverCon was held in Maryland but I didn’t have any immediate contacts for him so I asked about it on the Beaver Management Facebook group and immediately found two people that wanted to meet him and help educate folks about beavers. Last I heard they were planning an outing.

Closer to home I was contacted by a scout troop leader who was working on a virtual treasure hunt with her son. His job was to take 15 seconds of video of a beaver dam and she wanted to come to Martinez and film the famous beavers there. Alas I had to tell her we had no dam nor beavers, but I introduced her to Virginia from Fairfield who was monitoring 15 dams at the moment and suggested they connect. This visit is just for a single scout, but down the road she would like to bring the whole troop. I told Virginia it was an excellent time to invite a buddy on city council and the local papers and make everyone look good.

She thought that was an excellent idea.

So I’m pretty proud of the beaver “Dating service” I created. Now I just have to get people to stop using photos of Nutria when they talk about them. This recent travesty is from NPR in WASHINGTON state. It’s a good interview about our favorite subject with our favorite speaker. But I’m still mortified at the mistake. Stunning that he couldn’t get them to post an actual picture of a real beaver right in his HOME TOWN!

What gnaws, creeps, and flies?

IT’S TIME THAT BEAVERS LAWYERED-UP

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, beavers and otters December 29, 2020

Maybe it’s time to stop asking.

When big things happen it’s usually because people made them happen. Erin Brockovich didn’t win by asking PGE to be please be nicer and stop putting chemicals in the soil. I say its high time beavers lawyered-up and sued the feds for failing the public trust over and over again. Beavers would help us and they’re not letting them even though scientist after scientist is proving why they matter.

This article just pushed me over the edge. What are we fucking waiting for?

Beavers are ecosystem engineers which are capable to facilitate many groups of organisms. However, their facilitation of mammals has been little studied. We applied two methods, camera trapping and snow track survey to investigate the facilitation of a mammalian community by the ecosystem engineering of the American beaver (Castor canadensis) in a boreal setting.

What an interesting study! These researchers used camera traps and tracks in the snow to see if their were more MAMMALS at beaver ponds. Gee aren’t you curious about what they found? Isn’t that a total STUMPER.

We found that both mammalian species richness (83% increase) and occurrence (12% increase) were significantly higher in beaver patches than in the controls. Of individual species, the moose (Alces alces) used beaver patches more during both the ice-free season and winter. The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra), the pine marten (Martes martes) and the least weasel (Mustela nivalis) made more use of beaver sites during the winter. Our study highlights the role of ecosystem engineers in promoting species richness and abundance, especially in areas of relatively low productivity. Wetlands and their species have been in drastic decline during the past century, and promoting facilitative ecosystem engineering by beaver is feasible in habitat conservation or restoration. Beaver engineering may be especially valuable in landscapes artificially deficient in wetlands.

MORE MOOSE. MORE OTTER. MORE WEASELS. OF course there fucking were. Of course there was more activity at a beaver than at your beaverless control station. They came for food. They came because there were holes in the ice and they were looking for fish. They came because there was more vegetation. They came to eat all the other animals that came to the area.

OF COURSE THERE WERE.

From the aspect of habitat conservation or restoration, it is feasible to identify beavers as facilitators and to promote their populations (Byers et al., 2006), since restoration is especially needed in wetlands due to the loss of 60–90% of these habitats in Europe (Junk et al., 2013). Beavers can be especially valuable in landscapes artificially deficient of wetlands and lacking processes naturally driving heterogeneity (Willby et al., 2018). Many organisms have benefited from beaver-created productivity coupled with an increase of suitable habitat structures (Rosell et al., 2005; Stringer and Gaywood, 2016), both of which affected mammalian diversity and activity at the patch level in our study.

I’m done asking nice. We DESERVE beavers. We deserve water and salmon and wildlife and wood duck and otter. We deserve healthy streams free of nitrates and other pollutants. And we deserve to have access to good clean water all year long.

It’s time to stop asking.

THE BEAVER 101 COURSE EVERYBODY NEEDS TO TAKE

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and climate change December 28, 2020

My beaver “inbox” is getting crowded again. It seems like at the end of every month these days there are a million beaver stories to catch up on. Weeks ago I flagged this new study to talk about, and other things just got in the way. Today I want to fix that.

This was published in WIREs WATER just after Thanksgiving, and it’s by our favorite English researchers.

Beaver: Nature’s ecosystem engineers

Richard E. Brazier; Alan Puttock, Hugh A. Graham, Roger E. Auster Kye, H. Davies Chryssa & M. L. Brown

Abstract

Beavers have the ability to modify ecosystems profoundly to meet their ecological needs, with significant associated hydrological, geomorphological, ecological, and societal impacts. To bring together understanding of the role that beavers may play in the management of water resources, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, this article reviews the state‐of‐the‐art scientific understanding of the beaver as the quintessential ecosystem engineer. This review has a European focus but examines key research considering both Castor fiber—the Eurasian beaver and Castor canadensis—its North American counterpart.

In recent decades species reintroductions across Europe, concurrent with natural expansion of refugia populations has led to the return of C. fiber to much of its European range with recent reviews estimating that the C. fiber population in Europe numbers over 1.5 million individuals. As such, there is an increasing need for understanding of the impacts of beaver in intensively populated and managed, contemporary European landscapes. This review summarizes how beaver impact: (a) ecosystem structure and geomorphology, (b) hydrology and water resources, (c) water quality, (d) freshwater ecology, and (e) humans and society. It concludes by examining future considerations that may need to be resolved as beavers further expand in the northern hemisphere with an emphasis upon the ecosystem services that they can provide and the associated management that will be necessary to maximize the benefits and minimize conflicts.

Aren’t you thrilled with that opening paragraph? I mean I’m sure any reader of this website knows absolutely everything they are going to say but isn’t it wonderful to have it all in one place?

2 BEAVER IMPACT UPON THE ENVIRONMENT—CONTEMPORARY UNDERSTANDING

We take this opportunity to revisit Gurnell’s (1998) review on the hydrogeomorphological effects of beaver, which provides an excellent foundation for our understanding. Beavers, as ecosystem engineers, have a marked influence upon the terrestrial and riverine environments that they occupy (Westbrook, Cooper, & Baker, 2011). Beavers are primary agents of zoogeomorphic processes; here we acknowledge their influence upon river form and process (Johnson et al., 2020) and discuss recent literature on the impacts of beaver on hydrogeomorphology.

You will want to read this yourself. To my mind we don’t get enough discussion of the beaver impacts on hydrogemorphology. Their lodges, canals and dams change and have changed the structure of streams for centuries. Beaver moved soil grows our crops, fills our valleys and shapes our mountains. Beavers did it all.

Erosion often occurs at the base of dams, due to a localized increase in gradient and stream power (Gurnell, 1998; Lamsodis & Ulevičius, 2012). Woo and Waddington (1990) observed that flow across the dam crest may be concentrated in gaps, enhancing erosion of the stream bed and banks downstream of the dam, forming plunge pools, and widening the channel, respectively. Lamsodis and Ulevičius (2012) observed the geomorphic impacts of 242 dams in lowland agricultural streams in Lithuania; of which, 13 (5.4%) experienced scour around the periphery of the dam.

Beaver dams are also key sites for channel avulsion (Giriat, Gorczyca, & Sobucki, 2016; John & Klein, 2004), as shown in Figure 1. John and Klein’s (2004) study investigated the geomorphic impacts of beaver dams on the upland valley floor of the third‐order River Jossa (Spessart/Germany). Due to the creation of valley‐wide dams, which extended beyond the confines of the bank, multi‐thread channel networks developed across the floodplain. Newly created channels would deviate from the main stream channel, re‐entering the river some way downstream. At the point where the newly created channel enters the stream, a difference in elevation results in the development of a knickpoint. This knickpoint then propagates upstream through head‐cut erosion, eventually relocating the main stem of the channel.

Wow I had to look up a new word in a beaver paper. Avulsion. That doesn’t happen every day.

In sedimentary geology and fluvial geomorphology, avulsion is the rapid abandonment of a river channel and the formation of a new river channel. Avulsions occur as a result of channel slopes that are much less steep than the slope that the river could travel if it took a new course.

Well that is excellent. Thank you for that. Tucking it away right now for future use.

2.2.2 Summary of hydrological impacts

Beavers can reduce longitudinal (downstream) connectivity, while simultaneously increasing lateral connectivity, pushing water sideways.
Beavers can increase surface water storage within ponds and canals, while also elevating the water table and contributing to groundwater recharge.
Beaver dam sequences and wetlands can attenuate flow during both high and low flow periods.

2.3.2 Summary of water quality impacts

Beaver wetlands and dam sequences can change parts of freshwater ecosystems from lotic to lentic systems impacting upon sediment regimes and biogeochemical cycling.
By slowing the flow of water, suspended sediment and associated nutrients are deposited, with ponds shown to be large sediment and nutrient stores.
Increased water availability, raised water tables, and increased interaction with aquatic and riparian vegetation have all been shown to impact positively upon biogeochemical cycling and nutrient fluxes.

That’s a lot of service for the mild inconvenience beavers cause in our lives. You would think everyone would be jumping at the chance to have them.

3 BEAVER IMPACTS UPON LIFE—CONTEMPORARY UNDERSTANDING

3.1 Impacts of beaver upon aquatic ecology

Enhancement of natural processes, floodplain inundation, lateral connectivity, and structural heterogeneity in beaver‐impacted environments creates a diverse mosaic of habitats. Such habitats are underpinned by greater provision of food, refuge, and colonizable niches, which form the cornerstone of species‐rich and more biodiverse freshwater wetland ecosystems (Brazier et al., 2020; Campbell‐Palmer et al., 2016; Gaywood et al., 2015; Gurnell, 1998; Rosell et al., 2005; Stringer & Gaywood, 2016). Readers are directed to three reviews on this topic: Stringer and Gaywood (2016), which provides a comprehensive overview of the impacts of beaver on multiple species, Dalbeck et al. (2020) which considers the impacts of beavers on amphibians in temperate European environments and Kemp, Worthington, Langford, Tree, and Gaywood (2012) which provides a valuable meta‐analysis of the impacts of beaver on fish. This section builds on these reviews to summarize the findings of research into the impacts of beaver activity on aquatic plants, invertebrates, and fish. We focus on these groups as they are widely considered to be strong indicator species of freshwater health and function (Herman & Nejadhashemi, 2015; Law et al., 2019; Turley et al., 2016).

Gosh. This is a bucket of information. If you’re teaching a webinar any time soon I want to be in the front row.

3.1.4 Aquatic ecology summary

Beaver activity extending wetland areas aids aquatic plant recruitment, abundance, and species diversity.
Nutrient‐rich beaver meadows result in mature beaver managed landscapes, contributing diverse plant life, and increasing patchiness in otherwise homogeneous (especially intensively farmed) landscapes.
Heterogeneity of beaver habitat leads to greater diversity of invertebrates, benefitting both lotic, and lentic species.
Slow release of water from beaver ponds elevates baseflow downstream supporting greater aquatic life, improving resilience especially in times of drought.
A multitude of benefits accrue for fish due to beaver activity such as increased habitat heterogeneity and food availability.
It is established that salmonid species can navigate beaver dams, though there is evidence that the presence of dams does alter the way they move within river networks. The impact of dams on salmonid movement is highly dependent on location and upstream movement may be reduced in low gradient, low energy systems.

It occurs to me as we’re pulling info together to convert California into beaver understanding this is not a bad model. Starting from the basics and assuming everyone forgot what the culture knew 400 years ago isn’t a bad idea. California never learned these lessons. So its time we start teaching them slowly.

4 CONCLUSION: FUTURE SCENARIOS AND CONSIDERATIONS

The beaver is clearly the very definition of a keystone species. The myriad ways in which it alters ecosystems to suit its own needs, which in turn supports other species around it, demonstrate its value in re‐naturalizing the heavily degraded environments that we inhabit and have created. The impacts of beaver reintroduction reviewed herein; to deliver changes to ecosystem structure and geomorphology, hydrology and water resources, water quality, freshwater ecology and humans, and society are profound. Beaver impacts are not always positive, at least from a human perspective, thus it remains critical that the knowledge gaps identified above are addressed as beaver populations grow, to ensure that improved understanding coupled with clear communication of beaver management can prevail.

I want to prevail. Don’t you? How much do you love this article? Go send it to everyone you know that is sitting on the fence about beavers. I knew it would be good but I never guessed it would be THIS GOOD. It even finishes with a discussion of how beavers and humans interact, the conflict it can cause and the GOOD THINGS it can bring.

BEAVERS OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE

heidi08 Beavers, What's killing beavers now? December 27, 2020

Well not everyone is full of Christmas cheer for beavers. Some people have their hearts set on killing them. Never mind that they do useful things for people only if they’re alive. The killing is so darn much fun.

This from Oregon’s Statesman Journal.

Beavers doing just fine

As a lifelong outdoors person, I’m amazed at the misinformation and distortions contained in Quinn Read’s opinion column (“Beavers can’t get a break in Oregon” C9, Dec. 13).

Anyone who has spent time along Oregon’s waters has encountered the ubiquitous beaver or evidence of their presence. They inhabit almost every corner of the state with suitable habitat.

I have seen them swimming past boat launches in downtown Portland as well as in wilderness areas and coastal streams and marshes. If you have property adjacent to a stream you have likely had to protect streamside trees from their continual gnawing or unplug culverts to prevent washouts or flooding.

While they can be destructive pests, they are not classified as “predators,” as Quinn stated, but protected by extensive state trapping regulations as fur-bearing mammals and not “hunted” as game animals.

Gov. Kate Brown needs to consider all the legislative mandates contained in the wildlife policy when she appoints new commissioners and include a few hunter and anglers whose constituency contributes over 90% of the ODFW budget and knows the difference between “science-based discussion” and anthropomorphic “BS.”

Thank goodness at least three ODFW commissioners had the common sense to listen to their own staffs’ findings that beavers are doing just fine in Oregon needing no further regulation on any portion of Oregon lands, federally owned or otherwise.

James Dundon

Of course James is a longstanding member of OHA and featured in the 2018 summer issue of this magazine, and the Rocky Mt. Elk Foundation because why not cast true to type?

People who like to like to kill things like to kill beavers. None of that boring tracking and waiting. Beavers give you their full address. You just need to show up for the invitation.

Of course when a person traps beavers they are basically taking their ecosystem services away from US. Like robbing a community food pantry. No one else can have any because you got there first.

Quinn’s point wasn’t that we were ‘running out of beavers’ James. It was that we’re running out of salmon, and water, and time to protect ourselves from climate change. You like survivalist movies right? Don’t ask me how I know, I just know. Think of beavers as a furry swiss army knife that can do many of the things we need in the drying time we have left.

You are fighting for your right to steal resources from everyone else.

Here’s another example from Beaver Creek Park in Montana, where the board finally decided to allow trapping, despite some protest from local residents.

Striking a balance in Beaver Creek Park

It was encouraging to hear that the Hill County Park Board is initiating a process to document a policy for trapping in our Beaver Creek Park.

Hopefully this policy will address more than just lethal trapping of beavers and incorporate a whole park management perspective.

It will be important to document a policy that is consistent with our vision for Beaver Creek Park while being workable and built on valid science, prudent natural resource management, specific infrastructure issues and sound business practices. Striking a balance between recreational, economic, ecological/biological and hydrologic/water quality considerations for the long run will be challenging.

It is time to stop forcing personal beliefs and agendas on our park. It is time for us to get our heads together, listen to each other, respect differences and work in the interest of all the natural resource values, issues and opportunities we have, and could have, for all the owners and users of our Beaver Creek Park.

Lou Hagener

Lou Hagener of Havre is a certified professional in rangeland management by the Society for Range Management, a longtime resident of Havre, user of and advocate for Beaver Creek Park.. Ahh so Lou was part of the group investigating the pesky beaver dams in the park to see if there was any value in their presence after trapping was objected too by folks and flow devices were recommended by Trap-free Montana. See that’s where the line “Personal beliefs and agendas comes in”. Just because YOU in your liberal tree-hugging heart believe that trapping is wrong doesn’t mean that my basement should be flooded.

Oh and when he says “let the science decide”? He means HIS science, you know those papers written in the 1970’s that say flow devices never work and beavers are pests.

It’s a big park. I’m sure he recommended dedicating on stream section to be the test case where beavers were allowed to remain so that their effect on fish and wildlife could be assessed for the rest of the park. Right?

Wrong.

See BALANCE means what I believe is true, and what you believe is a personal agenda trying to take over our lives. That seems fair, doesn’t it?

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