Month: April 2021

HERE ENDETH THE LESSON

heidi08 BDA's, Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and Fire Prevention April 20, 2021

Anyone who occasionally reads this website knows the name and shame of Placer county. It is the county in California that issued 7 times more depredation permits for beaver om 2013 even when we had a statistician look at the numbers and control for things like water acreage and population density. Well, a few years back Damion Ciotti of US Fish and Wildlife service suggested that the Placer land trust get the rancher to stop killing beavers on Doty preserve and use some BDAs to give them a kick start instead,

And look what happened.

Pop quiz for the good students. Guess which part of this picture is the least flammable?

PROTECTING TREES CONFOUNDS STUPID OFFICIALS

heidi08 Beaver Chewing, Beavers April 19, 2021

It must be spring. I woke up with a tick crawling down my arm.

Jon of course brought her back on the dog with his daily tick collecting-walk on the Franklin ridge trail. but it does worry me to find want walking about in the morning. Was I so unappetizing all night? Do i have some rare blood disorder that ticks find repulsive? Was it that second shot of Moderna? Or am I just lucky?

There are plenty of unlucky beavers out there that’s for darn sure. Like these in Idaho where they can’t possibly be bothered to ‘wrap’ the trees.

Pullman, beavers not getting along

The city of Pullman is planning to work with trappers to prevent beavers from causing more damage to trees at a local park.

The city received calls from residents about trees being chewed up and damaged at the City Playfield next to the South Fork Palouse River in early spring, said Pullman Parks and Facilities Director Alan Davis.

The damage presents a safety issue at the park as damaged trees hang near a walking path and hover over the river.

However, Davis said the signs of beaver damage are not always obvious.

No. They are. Really they are. First the tree is upright. An then it’s knocked over. You’ll notice right away I’m pretty sure. If that little bark damage is what’s making you think you have beavers then I’d think again.

To prevent further destruction, Pullman Parks and Recreation staff and code enforcement officers from the Pullman Police Department plan to enter into a service agreement with licensed trappers to set live traps for the beavers.

In order to keep costs down, Pullman staff will monitor those traps so the trappers do not have to do so regularly.

It’s too much of a burden for them to actually FINISH their job. It’s enough that they just start it I guess. Never mind any harm to that otter or labrador who was caught by mistake. Staff will just give you a call if we see a body. If we remember.

Unlike Washington, where they have slightly more of a clue.

Longview parks, recreation officials plan to trap beavers damaging trees at Lake Sacajawea

People walking, biking, boating or fishing at Lake Sacajawea recently may have noticed more trees missing bark, sporting bite marks or fallen into the water.

It’s unlikely folks will spot the culprits — beavers — but the Longview Parks and Recreation Department has received several reports about the damage, said Parks and Urban Forestry Manager Joanna Martin.

“There’s always wildlife at the lake. It’s not abnormal to have beavers,” she said.

Well yes. It is normal to have beavers. Nice lake, Tasty trees. Quiet park setting. I think you should expect beavers. In fact I think you should PLAN on them.

Beavers begin to cause problems when they damage too many trees and when the trees could fall onto the heavily trafficked path, Martin said.

“If a tree is looking like it’s going to fall into the lake, we will leave that alone and let the beaver do that,” she said. “But if it’s going to fall into the park or onto the pathway, we will cut it down and remove it.”

Okay. That’s generally good. But the ‘remove it’ philosophy only gets you so far.

The department has managed the beavers by trapping and relocating them outside the park, Martin said. In the last few months, the department hasn’t been able to trap beavers because the staff member with the license to do so did not want to renew it, she said.

Martin said she began looking into the potential beaver problem when the department started receiving reports about damaged trees in February.

So it’s washington and you have the ability to MOVE the offending beaver. Of course its are coming soon so you probably can’t do it now anyway. Hey you know what happens when you move tenants out of a nice apartment and leave the door open? YOU GET MORE TENANTS.

Why not fix the problem by protecting those trees an let the beavers stay? Maybe get some help from the local high school planting willow along the edges of the lake that beavers can harvest?

The state department issues relocation permits when efforts to limit beaver damage are unsuccessful, when beavers pose a health and safety risk or other “irresolvable factors” exist, according to the state website.

Some how this does not strike me as UNRESOLVABLE.

Let’s watch something fun to get the stupid taste out of our mouths. This shows the wildlife crossing a beaver dam. From Voyageurs national park.

[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/SK_6RwlsQxk” 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”]

COMMUNITY BEAVERS ACROSS THE STATE

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beavers April 18, 2021

Once upon a time Martinez beavers were the only story about a community saving beavers on the urban landscape. But now we’re just a drop in the beaver bucket. Check out what’s happening in Fairfield at the moment.

beaver wlk map Final

The local photographers are documenting some surprising similarities in the wildlife that’s enjoying those 13 beaver dams. Just look at what David Pratt captured with his camera lens,

Look familiar? The same thing is happening in San Luis Obisbo, highlighted in this excellent video from Carolina Cuellar.

[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/yGacVYOH4f8″ 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”]

BEAVER MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beavers, Dispersal April 17, 2021

If ever there were a video I wanted to embed on this site! I wish I could post this one because the story is so scary you were going to worry when I tell you and I want to let you know all’s well that ends well. Be like my friends daughter watching the scary disney movie and just whispering over and over to herself, “Dalmatians get home safe. Dalmatians get home safe!”. It really does help. Try it the next time you’re feeling worried.

Volunteers rescue beaver in downtown Putney

PUTNEY — It takes a village to rescue a beaver.

A group of Putney volunteers mobilized this week to rescue the errant beaver, which had slipped down into a pool below the Sackett’s Brook Dam, in back of the Putney General Store, and was unable to get out.

But Thursday morning, thanks to the practical know-how and experience of Westminster stone mason Paul Bemis, the beaver was back doing what beavers do in a matter of minutes: paddling upstream to its home in the Wilson Wetland Preserve, which is located between downtown Putney and Sand Hill Road.

Now beavers can get themselves out of a lot of difficult water conditions, but they do fall off water falls. Thank goodness these scrappy volunteers were on hand to figure out how to help.

“It was ‘Save The Beaver Day,’” Bemis said Thursday afternoon, chuckling.Bemis said he learned of the beaver’s plight from social media Wednesday night, and dialogued with Cynthia Major, who along with others had tried unsuccessfully to rescue the beaver in the past few days.

Bemis said he had rescued a group of ducklings from the same predicament — in the same location — about six years ago, so he knew what he wanted to do.

He put two long planks together and nailed some kindling to it crosswise, to give the beaver something to grab onto besides the smooth plank.

Smart beaver! He wisely said I’m not walking into your clammy cage BUT I will use the ramp, thank you. Go watch the video and see him amble down that little balance beam. Thank goodness he doesn’t have the same head for heights that I do!

Thanks Vermont!

[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/x7BeGDZewHs” 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”]

BEAVER CHANGE IS A LONG TIME COMING

heidi08 Beavers April 16, 2021

[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/nUcHNfZOlQ4″ 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”]

If you know about beavers or happen to be Canadian you probably know about Grey Owl. But do you know about the woman that changed his mind, educated him and started an entire movement?

Nanaimo playwright tells the story of Indigenous woman who ‘saved the beaver’

Nanaimo playwright Anne Nesbitt is revisiting a play she wrote 16 years ago about the trailblazing Indigenous conservationist who saved the beaver.

Nesbitt said Anahareo is credited for convincing Belaney to give up beaver trapping in favour of promoting beaver conservation through his writing. Nesbitt calls Anahareo “a strong Indigenous hero” who deserves to be more widely known.

Nesbitt grew up in Manitoba and as a child she spent her summers in the province’s Riding Mountain National Park. There she learned the story of Mohawk woman Gertrude Bernard, also known as Anahareo, and her husband Archibald Belaney, a British immigrant who lived among the Anishnabe, invented a fabricated Indigenous identity and found fame as ‘Grey Owl.’ In 1931 the couple lived together in Riding Mountain National Park, where Belaney served as its first naturalist.

The staged reading is this weekend and you can register for a donation here. I think the entire thing sounds fascinating.

“She was a woman ahead of her time and it was her determination and dedication that actually saved the beaver,” Nesbitt said. “Grey Owl was kind of the front man, as happens, but she was a woman of vision and bravery and tenacity, for sure, and determination and she stood up to the white male-dominated culture at the time to pursue her dream.”

Speaking of gutsy women who save the beaver with their compelling tenacity, I spoke yesterday with Jerry Mallett of Colorado Headwaters who along with Jackie Corday is trying to organize the first Colorado beaver summit next fall. He told me that “Sherri Tippie says ‘hi'” And let me know about those early days many moons ago when he arranged for her to meet the man who would loan her the very first live beaver trap that she needed to borrow in Aurora. “She was a good looking woman, she had a good heart, I wrote her first articles of incorporation 31 years ago for the nonprofit she was going to start”.

Well that makes this a very small world, but you knew that already, right? I didn’t know he knew Sherri but it makes sense I guess. I thought of the name and did some math in my head.

“31 years ago? What did it used to be called”?

“Wildlife 2000, same as today’ he answered.

“But who call it 2000 if it was still the nineties?” I asked confused.

“Sherri picked that name because it seemed way out in the future back then. She thought it would ALL BE SOLVED by 2000.”

Can something be shocking and still make absolute sense? I can completely see Sherri believing that ‘the beaver problem would be solved with a decade of work. There is nothing at all grim or slogging about her personality. This SHOULD have been solved years ago. Decades ago. We know how. We know Why. But we just keeping doing the same stupid thing over and over and wondering why our wells go dry.

Beaver change is a long time coming.

[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/wEBlaMOmKV4″ 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”]