TINY ADVANCES IN BEAVER MANAGEMENT

Variety is the spice of life,

I mean when you review beaver news every day you hear the same thing over and over. Residents saying “Don’t kill the beavers because they save water” or “save fish” or “save wildlife”. But you don’t hear this very often.

“We are worried about the abundance of wildflowers and pollinators we had in the area”

Tiny will work with residents on better ‘beaver-friendly’ solutions

Leave it to beaver to create a link between the township and residents of a neighbourhood.

The connection is between residents of Wymbolwood Beach and municipal staff that removed a beaver dam in the area of Skylark Road and Tiny Beaches Road South.

Tiny resident Julia Aronov took up the matter with council at a November meeting. Staff brought back an answer at a January meeting, after putting together the pieces of the puzzle.

“The Township of Tiny is an environmentally focused municipality,” said Tim Leitch, director public works and interim chief administrative officer. “Unfortunately, we do have areas in the municipality that have beaver activity. It is part of our environment and we definitely do not want to do anything to disturb that.”

However, he said, there are some confined areas within the township’s drainage network that experience accumulation of debris due to beaver activity.

‘Tiny’ is in fact a regular sized town in Ontario near Toronto. It’s about 2500 miles from our friends at Fur-bearers but they apparently have gotten the memo anyway. Just listen to this.

“We want them to involve us in this,” she said. “We had so many people saying they could help build a pond leveller.”

According to Nature Conservancy Canada, “pond levellers are glorified pipes that extend through a beaver dam and prevent upstream flooding. Setting the pipe at the desired water level allows any excess water to flow through the pipe to the downstream side of the dam. This allows the beavers to remain in their dam, while alleviating upstream flooding nuisances.”

Aside from this, when Aronov had approached council last year, she had included myriad documents to the effect in her presentation.

“I’d like to see if the township is willing to try a more friendly method,” she said.

Hmm I’m not sure I’d call them “gloried pipe”. But okay. They know what they are and they’re willing to help install one. What does the city say about that?

“The research we’ve done…the devices still require maintenance and a lot of them just make it easier for us to take away the sticks from in front of the culvert than inside the culvert,“ he said. “One commitment that I did make was that where we see a situation where we’re able to anticipate problems occurring, we will reach out for different approaches and hopefully be able to develop some plans to minimize any impact on the beaver activity.

Boy that was some research. You must have done hours and hours of research to come up with that bit of gossip. I can just imagine city staff now, sitting bleary eyed in front of a stack of books at county library in the wee hours trying to keep awake by drinking iced coffee and charcoal biscuits.

Or hey, maybe when he says “research” he means “Bob’s brother in law in YK told him that those things never work!”

The idea isn’t that the build outside the culvert. The idea is that they don’t build at all. Here watch this helpful video and get your grandaughter to slap you several times.

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Maybe leave the research to the librarians next time? And you can get back to filling potholes.

However, he said, there are some confined areas within the township’s drainage network that experience accumulation of debris due to beaver activity.

“With this blockage,” added Leitch, “damage can occur to the infrastructure, private and public property, within hours. It’s our responsibility to ensure these blockages are removed.”

I’m sure if everyone your team works very very hard they can make Tiny advances in how beavers are managed.

YESTERDAY WAS NATIONAL ‘RODENTS KNOW THINGS’ DAY.

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers February 3, 2021

Well, did the beaver see his shadow?

At Oregon Zoo, ‘Stumptown Fil’ says winter’s not over yet

Sure, Punxsutawney Phil may be calling for six more weeks of winter, but more importantly for local residents, so is Stumptown Fil — aka Oregon Zoo resident Filbert the beaver.

“Groundhogs like Punxsutawney Phil are fine for their part of the country,” said Christina Parr, a keeper in the zoo’s North America section. “Here in the Northwest, though, we are beaver believers.”

Filbert made his forecasting debut last year, Parr said, and he did not have an impressive first showing.

“Last year, Filbert predicted an early spring, and in March we had to close the zoo because of snow and ice,” Parr said. “Then again, Punxsutawney Phil’s record isn’t so great either — you might be better off flipping a coin.”

Gosh I’ve read plenty of old timer articles about how pioneers could tell how long the winter was going to be by how high and thick the beavers were building their dams and lodges. Fil might just know something you don’t. I remember we used to say you could tell by the fur of a woolly catepillar how cold the winter was going to be. Beavers have got to be smarter than that, right?

Even if meteorology doesn’t end up being Filbert’s strong suit, he does a great job connecting people with one of Oregon’s most iconic and misunderstood animals, according to Parr.

Born at the zoo in 2011, Filbert has acquired thousands of fans on the zoo’s social media channels, where his industrious wood-gathering activities have earned him the title “branch manager.” Last March, he welcomed a new coworker when Maple moved in. The toothy twosome now share a lodge and go on dam-building adventures together.

Filbert also is an experienced research assistant. In 2015, he lent his services to Oregon State University for its Beaver Genome Project.

Very impressive resume there Fil. You’ve clearly been busy.

BEAVER APPRECIATION IN MASSACHUSETTS

heidi08 Beaver News, Beaver ponds February 2, 2021

Well the California Beaver Summit website is up and active. If you haven’t checked it out yet you should go find out what you’ll be missing on April 7th and 9th and sign up in person. All the best and brightest beaver people will be there and we’ll do our best to turn a very low tide in our flammable state.

In the meantime there’s another excellent column from George B. Emmons writing for the Warehelm Week. You might remember we first heard from George in 2020 with this fine column. Now he’s at it again.

The industrious beaver dam

As a Wareham Week reader and coastal resident, you may not see many beavers in your travels unless you go back inland to where their dams are welcomed to be beneficial to both people and wildlife. Out in the country, dams are considered desirable for the environment by slowing down and widening out lucrative waterways.

Slow moving flooded habitats make homes for aquatic species such as waterfowl, mammals, turtles, insects, herons and kingfishers — like the one perched on a beaver lodge in my animated drawing. One benefit of slower moving waters is that they filter out unwanted nitrogen and heavy metal impurities to stop them from spreading downstream.

Important recent research has also discovered that wetlands created by beaver dams stimulate growth of vegetation and aquatic habitat — even in periods of drought — that provides a natural refuge for wildlife during dry season wildfires. Especially on the west coast, dams also catch and conserve a declining amount of glacial melt and act as a wellspring reserve for a future fountainhead of long-term soaking to prevent riparian habitat from drying up entirely.

George is very very close to being a beaver believer. In fact if he’s not already friends with Mike Callahan who lives just 2 hours away from him he should start a correspondence. There are somethings about Mike’s work he need to better understand.

The jury is still out on whether beavers’ presence is an advantage in urban developments. Beaver dams can become a threat and nuisance during rainy periods, as they can flood low-lying drainage and also basements. Additionally, if beavers clog culverts in ditches, adding mesh cages at openings or running a pipe through the dam to limit water flow can be very costly.

Please not that installing a beaver deceiver which will work for a decade or longer to keep beavers from plugging a culvert for the price of 500 dollars is cheaper than renting a backhoe to clear the culvert and hiring a trapper to get rid of new

beaver over and over. If you like I can do the math for you and show my work.

Another complaint is that beavers cut down small trees to enjoy their favorite food: the cambial layer between tree bark and the inner layer of wood. Beavers have

four razor-sharp front teeth to begin the cut and sixteen back molars to grind wood into a digestible substance. They prefer the flavor of aspen and birch trees, but also choose limbs of birch, male willow, oak and hornbeam to fortify the foundations of the dam. Landowners may wrap fencing or metal barriers around tree trunks. Whenever possible, wildlife managers prefer to assist landowners with moving beavers to

more suitable habitats.

A beaver’s determination and persistence in constructing a dam sets an example of industrial dedication for the human race in their own projects.

Yes its true that chopping down trees bothers people. You’d be surprised how often that is their only infraction before trapping is seized upon. Of course wrapping trees with wise is very very difficult because it requires the skill level of a first grader and a little bit of patience. There must be some reason no one ever wants to do it.

Well George you are nibbling at the margins of true being a true beaver believer. We’ll do what we can to push you firmly over the edge. In the meantime keep writing articles like this and remember to check our website for hints.

We can really help out with the artwork at least.

LOCKED AND LOGO’ED

heidi08 Beaver Conference February 1, 2021

Click here to visit the new California Beaver Summit website! The good news is that Amelia finished this last night which should start the conversation nicely,

I think that should catch some eyeballs right?

The other good news is that Sheri Harstein shared a video she’s been working on yesterday of her patient work in the Sierras. I think you’ll enjoy it. Turn your sound up.

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