Month: February 2021

POACHERS WITH PERMISSION

Poachers!

Beaver website poachers! They’re all around us. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t see some item from this website used without permission OR get some more slightly more responsible human asking me to use an image. A photograph. A poster. Our entire library. It’s all for the good of the beavers, and you want to help beavers right?

Two weeks ago I was approached by the Beaver Trust in England asking about our beaver as ecosystem poster. They wanted to set up a zoom chat to ask me about out work and its origins. Silly me, I thought they wanted to know about our community efforts. But they really only wanted the poster. It was such a smart design. Could they use it? Could their artists recreate the shape and animals for their country? Would they need to pay me royalties?

hahaha.

Just take it I said not entirely unresentfully. I’ll be happy to see it drawn with British wildlife. And this morning Mike Callahan wrote that they are trying to make the “Beaver Institute Website the premiere online library in the world” so can they please have ours? Oh sure, Take what you like I said feeling like a food bank on Christmas eve. Why should I horde beaver information anyway? We all want it shared freely with everyone. Share share, That’s fair, right?

And the thing that bugs me most is that both those names, the beaver trust and the beaver institute have bigger profiles and more respect that this rinky little operation will ever get, It’s like robbing the local pastor to pay the Vatican. But go ahead. I’m sure I’ll one day be lost in the annals of beaver history but I will have contributed. It says so right in Ben Goldfarb’s book.

And that’s something.

Meanwhile there’s good news from Carolina so I should stop complaining.

Living with Beavers

Beavers build dams to raise the water level until deep enough for swimming. They build lodges out of sticks and mud for their homes, unless they are residing in deep rivers or lakes where they dig and live in burrows in a high bank with an underwater exit for safe getaways.

“Beavers are truly nature’s engineers and, like people, will manipulate their habitat according to their needs.”

“Beavers are truly nature’s engineers and, like people, will manipulate their habitat according to their needs,” says Colleen Olfenbuttel, state black bear and furbearer biologist with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission. “The habitats they create can be both beneficial and cause conflicts.”

Beaver dams can produce flooding in unwanted places and result in millions of dollars in property and agricultural damage in North Carolina without management, Colleen explains. But their ponds can be an asset for both people and wildlife. They create new habitat for many other species, and the flooding creates wetlands and can recharge groundwater. The pond becomes home to fish, waterfowl, raptors, reptiles, mammals, native plants, and insects. The wetlands created by beavers help clean the water of sediments and control erosion. People can find abundant recreational opportunities around beaver ponds, such as hunting, canoeing and fishing.

Gosh, Well WE know its true obviously. But I didn’t know NC Wildlife Resource Commission knew it was true. That’s nice to hear from your side of the country. Tell me more.

Ask folks who have had beavers for neighbors, and you’ll get mixed reactions. Some enjoy watching them and appreciate the ecosystems created by their dams and ponds.

“We have a little off-channel pond someone built on our property before we bought it. Their little dam made the pond a bit deeper, and it was fun watching them,” says Kim Beall of Franklin County, who enjoyed watching her beaver neighbors.

John Hilpert, also in Franklin County, says beavers built several dams across Tooles Creek at one point. “If quiet, we’d enjoy watching them play. So, they cut some minor trees like sweet gum — the increase in wildlife and flood control was an excellent tradeoff.”

Others, however, are not so happy with their beaver neighbors. The Foushees in Person County had their beavers removed by licensed trappers because of the flooding they caused. Judy Spruill of Washington County also had a colony of beavers removed from her farm because of flooding.

Well sure, You can tell how good people are at solving problems by how they get on with beavers. If they’re thick and slow like a bag of hammers everything looks like a nail. And the beavers will be killed right away. If they are resilient, resourceful and creative like Martinez however, something else happens entirely.

The second solution is learning to live with beavers and taking advantage of the benefits of a beaver-created wetland or pond. The NC Wildlife Resources Commission has a number of science-based options for resolving beaver damage while still maintaining beavers on your property. Some options include fencing off the area with trees you want preserved or putting wire mesh around individual trees — though not too tightly, or the beaver can still chew on the bark. Control flooding with water level control devices, typically made from drainage pipes. Designs for these water control devices can be found on the NC Wildlife website.

“Thankfully, we can have the benefits of beavers on the landscape, while also having methods to resolve conflicts when they occur,” Colleen says, “which is a good balance for North Carolina.”

Ahh we have the solutions alright, Just not enough people who would rather solve a problem than kill it.

ANOTHER TRAPPER HONORED

heidi08 Who's Killing Beavers Now? February 8, 2021

Once a month, Martha. I’ve gotten used to it.
We get Misunderstood Martha, the good-hearted girl beneath the barnacles.
The little miss that a touch of kindness will bring to bloom again.
I believed it more times than I’d admit. I’m that much of a sucker.

Edward Albee “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Every so often, I’ve come to expect it, there drops like mana from the sky a story about how beaver trappers are really just “good folk in touch with the land” who, for the good of society, scratch out their meager existence by pursuing the ancient art of their fathers. They usually pass it onto their children. (Of course they have children. Usually lots of them. Because good christian white men always do.)

You would think I’d get tired of reviewing these articles, and the fawning reporters who write them. But I never ever do. Since my very first slice and dice visiting these hallowed halls brings me a grim pleasure that few other things in life can rival. Of course it will never be that good again. You always remember your first.

Trapper explains why studying critters plays crucial role in helping out farmers

Luverne’s Matt Buntjer traps various animals, and is passing the sport on to his children. Matt Buntjer first became interested in trapping in high school — through a friend of his dad’s — and has gotten more serious about the sport over the last eight to 10 years.

“I always loved being outside,” he said. A lifelong hunter and fisherman, Buntjer was drawn to trapping because of the mental challenge.

Oh now there just making this too easy for me. Matt has always loved being outdoors. A real nature guy. Of course he took up the practice of killing said nature. It’s just what happens when you love something that much. Ask his wife in a few years.

To be successful at trapping, he has to know the animals really well, by reading extensively about them and studying their patterns. After awhile, it becomes almost second nature to observe and trace critters’ paths.

“One of the things I love about trapping is that you’re there every single day, so you see so much more wildlife,” Buntjer said. “You see a lot of things most people don’t get to see.”

For example, he knows that at certain times of day, he’ll see a group of deer in a given spot while he follows his trapping route. It’s not uncommon for him to pause on his way and say a prayer of thanks that he gets to see God’s glory and creation up close.

I can hear his prayer now. “Dear god, please please don’t let them get away. And thanks for letting me see them before I shoot them. Because they really don’t look as nice afterwards.”

As a busy husband, father of four and employee with the city of Luverne, about 30 miles east of Sioux Falls, S.D., Buntjer relishes the quiet time that trapping gives him. However, he also loves that trapping has become a family activity. On the weekends, Kaitlin and the kids like to join him in checking traps, bringing back whatever they’ve caught and making adjustments to the route.

While the youngest Buntjer, Jonny, is too little to appreciate trapping yet, the older three have embraced the sport, especially the boys, Brody (10) and Danny (5). In fact, this season, Brody and Danny ran their own raccoon trap line.

Have you ever noticed, in your many treks across the unpaved trail, when a horrible tick finally has the good fortune to land on your body it walks around for a while surveying its options. It’s almost like its aware it has it so good it’s not sure where to start. “Mine Mine Mine! This is all mine! ” “I’m rich! I’m a king! I could bite anywhere I choose” For a while it seems giddy with success.

Which is how I feel reading this. Where the hell should I start?

Is it with the little Buntjers playing at trapping raccoons while their father kills the bigger things? Is it the meek goodnatured wife that thinks its sweet her husband just “really likes puzzles”. You know like the serial killer Dexter always finds out who did it and tracks him down?

Cross words. Cross bows. It’s really all the same.

In addition to sharing his skills with his own children, Buntjer enjoys working with area youths who are interested in trapping.

“The education side of it has been a lot of fun for me,” he said.

At the end of each school year, Luverne Elementary students usually go on a field trip to Blue Mounds State Park, and Buntjer gives a presentation on animals that live nearby and lets them touch the animals’ furs.

Sure. You can’t keep that kind of understanding bottled up. You have to share it with the children. Because NATURE. Gosh I wish my children went to school in his area so they could touch the dead bodies too.

Part of Buntjer’s goal in trapping education is to correct the misconception that trapping is evil or malicious. In his view, trapping actually helps take care of the environment. When a certain species becomes too concentrated, he said, it becomes easier for disease to spread among that species and severely decimate the population. For example, when coyotes are overpopulated, they will commonly contract mange, which makes their fur fall out. Mangy coyotes cannot keep themselves warm, and freeze to death. Buntjer believes it’s more humane to “help maintain more of a balance” through trapping.

Oh the humanity! You are so right Matt. It is much kinder to kill things before they have a chance to get sick on their own. In fact we could wipe out all of Covid if Biden just followed your example with a little more passion. You are right of course that trappers are the victim of cruel misconceptions.

I’m having one right now.

BEAVERS ARE LIKE RAIN

heidi08 Beavers and Fire Prevention, Beavers and Forests February 7, 2021

One of the things I hope makes an impression at the beaver summit is the powerful relationship between beavers and fire resilience. It seems like people learn to appreciate this animal only when the issue they care about is at stake. So since we all care about fire we could all care about beavers. I really enjoyed this article by Lenya Quinn-Davidson.

If Fire Were an Animal, it Would Be a Beaver

What if I told you there was a force so big it affected millions of acres for thousands of years across North America? Something that altered the landscape on a grand scale, creating a cascade of habitat and biodiversity values. Something that sometimes killed trees, but from that death, gave life to a multitude of plants, creatures and habitats. Something that for millennia shaped North American landscapes, only to be removed in recent centuries by newcomers—people who didn’t understand the very agents by which their beloved “nature” was shaped and maintained. People who didn’t understand that their future in this place was inextricably tied to the natural processes and cultures through which the places were created. People who couldn’t accept the discomfort of not being in control—of not knowing what might happen next. People who clearly couldn’t coexist with beavers.

Gee if you told me all that and more I’d nod enthusiastically and say “Yup”. That’s pretty much the what. Of course I deal in beavers, she hadn’t really considered their impact until a friend gave her Ben Goldfarb’s book to read.

I have to say the scale of the beaver’s influence had never really occurred to me, although I think about the scale of fire all the time. California’s first recorded “gigafire”—the August Complex—was uncomfortably close to my hometown this summer.

Like fire, beavers provide a cascade of benefits to other plants and animals. As an example: my friend Damon Goodman, about whom I wrote a blog earlier this year, is one of the lead lamprey biologists in the west coast. His work on lamprey has in recent years found him with beavers, who moved into a set of human-made sediment storage ponds in the upper Trinity River watershed east of where we live. The beavers built dams on the outlets of the ponds, causing a political ruckus but also creating incredible habitat for the lamprey, who thrive in the fine, silty sediment trapped by the dams. Based on samples they took in the beaver ponds, Damon and his colleague Steward Reid found an average of 17 juvenile lamprey (and a maximum of 81) in every square meter of pond, and they estimate that there are more than 60 thousand lamprey in the 3,500 square meter pond complex. Likewise, the ponds support three different species of lamprey and 10 native species of fish, including life history strategies that are very rare in the Trinity River. Mammals like mountain lions, deer and raccoons are using the dams as crossings, and a wide range of hawks, birds and amphibians are also making use of the ponds. Like fire, beavers leverage disturbance to unleash life.

Hmm I’ve been thinking about the inconvenience of beavers in the context of how much we need them. But I’m not sure fire is the right metaphor. It is a little too hated and destructive and god knows people don’t need any more reason to dislike them.

No. I was thinking of the metaphor of RAIN. Beavers are like RAIN. They can sometimes inconvenient and they can ruin your plans or even cause flooding but we NEED them so MUCH in California.

In Goldfarb’s book, he says some people use “beaver” as a verb; he cites Brock Dolman, a California “beaver believer,” who says that the word beaver can be used to “see the organism as an actor, as a manipulator, as an entity affecting processes over an unfolding continuum of space and time” (p. 59). While I find this usage grammatically awkward, I love the concept, and it makes me wonder: do we need to reframe the way we see fire?

And let’s face it: if fire were an animal, it would be a beaver.

Well I’m interested in the regenerative powers of fire, and I’ve seen it in real life after their devastation of point reyes. But I am still not sure we should make people any more afraid of beavers than they already are.

THE BEST KIND OF WINING ABOUT BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers and water February 6, 2021

If drinking wine improves biodiversity AND saves beavers sign me up! I’ll do my part nobly and I’m sure many friends will help. So often saving beavers is a chore but this, well, put me down for two shifts!

What Role Can Vineyards Play in Conserving California’s Biodiversity?

At Gamble Family Vineyards in Napa, California, the beavers are becoming a problem. “I’m speaking about it calmly right now,” Tom Gamble laughs. “On my worst days, I’m more like Bill Murray in ‘Caddyshack.’”

For years, Gamble Vineyards has worked to create a more biodiverse habitat on vineyard land, including establishing animal sanctuaries throughout the property and donating acreage to the Napa River Restoration project. Now the river’s growing beaver population is chewing the trees that Gamble has planted over the last 20 years.

“It’s interesting to see that we solved an issue, but it’s creating another issue,” says Gamble, the vineyard’s founder. Giving back habitat to native species is a matter of fine-tuning, of getting the ecosystem in balance—and this sometimes takes some effort. “But the biodiversity is worth it,” Gamble says.

Whooo hoo! I think he gets an invitation to the beaver summit.Come to think of it maybe all the wine growers do. We’ve talked to more than a few that have noticed first hand.

As on a vegetable farm, growing wine grapes in a way that increases biodiversity leads to a host of benefits. Bringing in good bugs keeps pests in check. Building healthy soil creates a teeming—and productive—microbiome that helps sequester carbon. Planting hedgerows around the vines preserves native species, gives birds a place to roost, and keeps vine diseases from spreading. And of course, there’s the intangible benefit of having a farm, and a life, that’s in balance. “I grow grapes to make wine to sustain a life that can be enjoyed outside and with nature—and the more nature I’ve got, the happier my life is,” Gamble says.

A growing number of California vineyard owners agree with Gamble that farming with a focus on biodiversity is worth the

time, effort, and financial investment. Winemakers around the state, including Gamble, Benzinger Family Winery, and Bonterra Organic Vineyards, have worked for decades to protect native species and regenerate the land. Others, like Pisoni Estate, are broadening their focus to include holistic habitat restoration.

Holistic habitat restoration! I’ll drink to that too! You can hardly hear anything in my house with all the toasting! I know its been a grueling time for the wine industry in California with all the fires, Anything at all we can do to help we will try!

Grapevines cover 635,000 acres in California—nearly double the size of the crop in the state in 1990. Given this scale, a commitment to growing grapes to boost biodiversity can produce a number of environmental benefits, as threats to the land—including urbanization, clearing, and climate change—intensify.

“In the event all of California’s wine grape acreage were to be farmed regeneratively, such a widespread shift would contribute toward the mitigation of climate change,” says Joseph Brinkley of Bonterra Organic Vineyards in the Northern California town of Ukiah, in Mendocino county. In addition, vineyards would face less virus pressure, thus reducing the need for pesticides and synthetic inputs. The need for water would decrease and the health of watersheds and ecosystems would improve.

The article does a great job in talking about how wineries aren’t always heroes with their water useage and redundant crops but how things could be changing as more and more vineyard plant sustainably and eco concious drinkers shop for better wine.

Wine drinkers are also increasingly willing to seek out and pay for eco-friendly wines. One study revealed that consumers show more willingness to pay for wine that is produced respecting biodiversity practices in the vineyard. Dr. Adina Merenlender, a conservation biologist who studies the role of vineyards in habitat restoration, cites wine lover “traditional respect for terroir” as a selling point for such products.

You know what else wine drinkers are famous for? Caring about beavers! Just wait and you’ll hear from us and our wallets! Something tells me you’re about to get an invitation to a very important California Beaver Summit. Just you wait and see.

BEAVER + EDUCATION MAKES A FINE PAIRING

heidi08 Beaver Conference, Beavers February 5, 2021

Things are looking up for the California Beaver Summit. Just yesterday we landed an excellent speaker from CDFW who I believe felt it was no longer worth avoiding. We had a great planning meeting with the steering committee and last night I was notified we are included in this months bulletin of the California Resource Conservation Districts!

CARCD UPDATES:

California Beaver Summit
California is having its first Beaver Summit on April 7 & 9. Click here for more information.

I guess we’re really in it now.

Good, Let’s hope this encourages folks across the state to do beavers differently and across the country to have beaver summits of their very own! I can see there already priming the pump in Connecticut.

Lyme Land Trust Offers ‘An Exploration Of Beaver Pond Ecology’ Zoom Presentation On February 10

On Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 7:00 p.m., the Lyme Land Trust (LLT) will offer “An Exploration of Beaver Pond Ecology,” a Zoom presentation by naturalist Mike Zarfos and Sue Cope, the LLT environmental director. The presentation will explore the rich diversity of plants and animals that share the habitat that develops with beaver activity. To register for the program, send an email to sue.cope@lymelandtrust.org.

Wonderful! The Lyme Land Trust describes it thusly:

Live Video Screening – An Exploration of Beaver Pond Ecology in Hartman Park

Join us on for a Zoom Q & A and live viewing of our fascinating new educational video, An Exploration of Beaver Pond Ecology–Hartman Park, Lyme CT with Mike Zarfos, naturalist. In the 30 minute video, Mike Zarfos, takes you on a remote “walk” to learn about the rich diversity of plants and animals which share the habitat which occurs with beaver activity at a Lyme Preserve. In his enjoyable way, he relates interesting features about each species he finds along the way.

On Wednesday evening, Mike, the writer, and Sue Cope, the editor for the video, will be live on Zoom for a brief introduction and then a Q&A after the viewing. Mike is a naturalist and PhD Candidate in Conservation Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Sue Cope is the Environmental Director of the Lyme Land Trust and has experience in documentary film-making. Also involved in the video production were Lyme land Trust board members Joe Standart, photographer, and Wendolyn Hill, Open Space Coordinator of the Town of Lyme.

To register for the program, email sue.cope@lymelandtrust.org. You will be sent a link a few days before the Zoom event.

The Lyme Land Trust has been working to bring you videos of preserve experiences in this present-day remote learning environment. This video is our second full-length educational video. Check out our other virtual explorations: “Preserve Highlights”, short videos, and “Trail Cam” videos. Visit the Lyme Land Trust website to view the videos: https://www.lymelandtrust.org/explore/

Oh man. That looks GREAT! Zoombeavers are catching on everywhere! I hope people still have any questions left they want answered in April!