Month: October 2021

“IMPACT” CAN ALSO BE A NEGATIVE THING

Well that’s a relief. Yesterday I felt like I was wayyy out on a limb dissing wolves for eating beaver snacks and thinking that the show was hardly worth the entrance fee. Now Ben Goldfarb is writing about the new research for Science magazine. I’m happy to hand him the mic.

Wolf attacks on beavers are altering the very landscape of a national park

The alpha male of the Cranberry Bay wolf pack, dubbed V083 by researchers, is a canine with a singular specialty: killing beavers. V083 roams Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota, and in the spring and summer, he and his packmates prey heavily on busy rodents, ambushing them along foraging trails and waterways. This year alone, V083 devoured 36 beavers, the equivalent of seven colonies.

Such kills have an outsize impact, according to a new study. By influencing where beavers live and build dams, the wolves shape Voyageurs’s vast wetlands—an ecological chain reaction that alters the contours of the land itself. “Looking at it over time,” says Tom Gable, a biologist at the Voyageurs Wolf Project and lead author of the study published today in Science Advances, “you start to see how interconnected wolves are to wetland creation.”

Or rather the end of wetland creation. Sometimes referred to as DESTRUCTION.

In many cases, the victims were beavers—ecosystem engineers that transform their surroundings by building dams and creating ponds. They’re especially prolific in Voyageurs, where their ponds cover 13% of the park’s total area.

Although the tracked wolves ate plenty of beavers—some packs killed 40% of the rodents in their territories each year—they didn’t have a major impact on long-term beaver numbers, the researchers found. But the wolves did influence where their prey lived. In particular, Gable and his colleagues learned that wolves frequently ate “dispersing” beavers—nomads that had left their home lodges to colonize new areas. These beavers were especially vulnerable because they had to repeatedly venture onto land to harvest sticks for their nascent dams. After wolves killed these colonists, the researchers found their partial ponds remained unoccupied for the rest of the year. So the predators prevented forests from fully transitioning to ponds and wetlands—forestalling dramatic environmental change.

Compared with Yellowstone’s complex and contested wolf dynamic, Voyageurs offers a clear example of what scientists call a trophic cascade: When wolves eat beavers, beavers can’t construct ponds. “There’s been a lot of interest in trying to understand how large carnivores are connected to riparian ecosystems and wetlands,” Gable says. “Our work has presented this simple mechanism that you could explain to a 5-year-old.”

Hey I can think of another large carnivore that impacts wetlands. Can you? Well maybe you will think of it tonight at dinner.

Still, the scale of the Voyageurs cascade isn’t clear. Every year, the region’s wolves alter about 88 beaver ponds—hardly an overwhelming transformation on such a vast landscape. “Ponds are coming and going in various places over time, but the numbers suggest it’s just a small part of what’s going on in the landscape out there,” says Robert Beschta, a hydrologist at Oregon State University, Corvallis, who has studied the effects of wolf predation in Yellowstone.

Gable notes wolf impacts add up with time. Over 10 years, he estimates, Voyageurs’s wolf packs may affect one pond for every 2.1 square kilometers of land. And the phenomenon may not be isolated to northern Minnesota. “Given the fact that wolves and beavers co-occur across a substantial portion of the Northern Hemisphere,” Gable says, “this mechanism is likely occurring everywhere wolves are preying on beavers.”

Translation: “The mechanism is likely occurring everywhere WE are killing beavers.”

Okay, I’m off to the Colorado Beaver Summit which I expect to be very very interesting after some familiar zoom challenges. I saw Jay Wilde, Emily Fairfax and Joe Wheaton yesterday at the tech check, so I know it’s going to be good. I’ll leave you with my first slide just to get you in the mood.

KILLING BEAVERS IMPACTS WETLANDS

heidi08 Beavers, beavers and wolves October 20, 2021

Killing beavers impacts wetlands. Who knew? Can someone please do their dissertation on that? It’s especially dire when there aren’t very many of them I would think. Wouldn’t you? The research out of voyageurs national park always centers on how delicious beavers are to wolves. Little appetizers with tails. Apparently some wolves like them more than others.

Wolves impact wetlands, have unique hunting abilities, researcher tells Nature Club

MANITOULIN – The Manitoulin Nature Club was established in 1979 to increase knowledge of nature for its members and to support the preservation of elements of natural history, many of which are unique to Manitoulin. Members meet monthly to share observations and host guest speakers on topics of interest and recently had a look into the secret lives of wolves with a presentation by Thomas Gable, project lead on the Voyageurs Wolf Project. The project addresses the question, “what do wolves do during the summer in a forested ecosystem?”

Mr. Gable recently completed his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. He’s been studying wolves in the greater Voyageurs ecosystem since 2014, when he started his masters at Northern Michigan University. He’s particularly interested in wolf-beaver interactions and his graduate work was focused on trying to understand this predator-prey dynamic. Much of his early interest in wolves stemmed from encountering wolves, wolf tracks and occasional kills while exploring the wilds of places around his family’s McGregor Bay cabin. His research includes things not currently known about wolf hunting behaviour, wolf diet and how wolves impact larger ecosystems in the northern woods of Minnesota.

Those beavers are so delicious. A wolf can’t eat just one. But it’s the funniest thing. When a wolf cleans out a beaver pond all the wildlife that depended on that pond disappears too! It’s like the opposite of a keystone species. Gee do you think that when humans trap beaver that happens too?

During the summer, wolves are focused on two main things: having and raising pups and hunting and killing prey so they can feed themselves and provision their pups. To have a really detailed understanding of wolf ecology in the summertime, there needs to be a really detailed understanding of both of these facets of wolves, he explained. The VWP uses remote trail cameras and GPS collars to track the wolves.

One thing that makes the park unique is the abundance of beavers there. “It likely has the highest beaver densities in the lower 48 states and probably rivals even the highest densities in parts of Canada,” said Mr. Gable. One survey last winter identified 1,100 beaver lodges. “Compared to a place like McGregor Bay or Manitoulin Island, those would have substantially fewer beavers than we have here by a significant margin. Voyageurs National Park has a lot of mixed forest habitats and interspersed amongst those are a lot of wetlands and beaver ponds.”

Before VWP started there were no estimates in scientific literature on how many fawns and beavers a typical wolf kills in the summertime, despite hundreds of thousands of hours of wolf research in places like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. “Because we don’t know really how many fawns and beavers a wolf is killing, we don’t understand what effect wolves are having on prey populations during these periods. It’s really hard to know how wolves might be impacting the beaver population if you don’t know how many beavers,” he said.

Sure but they’re just rodents right? No matter how many you eat they’ll always make more?

They’ve found that the typical wolf in the project area is killing between 13 and 15 deer fawns and 12 to 14 beavers in the summertime but there’s a wide range. “We’ve had one that killed only one beaver and last year we had a wolf that was sort of a beaver specialist and killed 42 beavers. To put 42 beavers into perspective, a typical beaver colony in our area has five beavers so that means that one wolf by itself killed eight-and-one-half colonies of beavers which is quite astounding.”

One of their most significant documented findings is how wolves actually alter wetland ecosystems. “Wolves impact wetland creation through a very simple, straightforward process. Wolves prey on beavers. Beavers create wetlands. By default, wolves impact wetlands by preying on beavers,” he said.

They found that wolves are impacting the creation of 88 ponds or wetlands in the Voyageurs area. “That is really just a drop in the bucket when you look at the ecosystem but when you look at this over multiple years then the impact becomes more substantial. If in year one wolves impact the creation of 88 ponds then the next year 88 ponds then the next and the next, then all of a sudden wolves are responsible for impacting the creation of over 400 ponds or wetlands,” Mr. Gable continued.

CAN WE PLEASE SAY THIS AGAIN only not about wolves? Can we say it’s what happens when HUMANS trap beavers? I mean the effect is EVEN MORE DEVASTATING when you are in a habitat that is surrounded by other beavers and other ponds. Wiping out one beaver family might wipe out the entire ecosystem for miles around.

“Another way to think about it is when a beaver creates a single pond in a localized area it radically transforms that area from forests or meadow into a thriving wetland that’s doing all sorts of things like nutrient cycling, carbon storage, water storage, and providing habitats. Wolves that prevent that habitat from forming are then connected to all of these wonderful ecological processes that beaver ponds are responsible for. What we’ve been able to document is that wolves are very connected to wetlands, streams and riparian habitats. It’s such a simple process; all they have to do is kill a young beaver.”

By the very same extension, Mr. Gable, human trappers whether for fur or sport or depredation do EXACTLY THE SAME THING and impact wetlands the very same way. Will someone one please do a dissertation on that?

CRANBROOK HATES NATURE IN ITS NATURE PARK

heidi08 Beaver ponds, Beaver relocation, Urban beavers October 19, 2021

Now I may have been watching too many westerns, but this story leaves me “PLUMB CONFUSED”. I thought relocation wasn’t allowed in Canada? You know I can remember when Martinez was fairly unusual for rallying around its beavers. Now we’re surrounded.

Cranbrook beavers in city park to be relocated, but some citizens want them to stay

The City of Cranbrook, B.C., will delay the relocation of a family of beavers in a city park until the spring of next year, but some citizens say staff is ignoring alternatives to ensure the family can stay where they are. Beavers had set up a dam in Idlewild Lake, within the city’s Idlewild Park, in spring of this year. Stephanie Lacey, a mother of two pre-schoolers, said her children had noticed the dam getting bigger and bigger all year.

But recently, she was alerted to live traps that the city had placed in order to relocate the beavers. She then set up a petition asking the city to consider alternatives. The petition says relocating the beaver family in the winter “does not give the beavers enough time” to find food and create a new lodge, and that the city had refused to work with citizens on the matter.

Cranbrook is in the bottom middle of Canada, right above Montana, I’m pretty sure that them minister of never moving beavers told all our beaver friends that such a thing was illegal. Do you suppose there’s been an exemption granted? Or maybe just a baldfaced lie? That sure doesn’t look like any live beaver trap I’ve ever seen.

In a statement on Monday, a spokesperson for the city said the relocation would be put off until spring next year, and that Idlewild Lake is not a traditional, natural habitat for beavers. Lacey says that is untrue.

“Beavers are very intelligent animals, and they don’t build a lodge and a dam in a place that would run out of food sources for them,” she told CBC News. “There’s tons of trees and vegetation around Idlewild. So it’s the perfect location for beavers.”

“It definitely feels to me like it’s more about the monetary loss of [trees] the city has put into the park already for, like, their own beautification of it.”

I had no idea I was such a type. The little lady that causes such a fuss in the city when they try to get rid of beavers. You know how it is. You think you’re the only one. Apparently I’m a dime a dozen.

The city says the relocation is being done due to the risk of flooding upstream, and to protect the bigger Idlewild Dam set up on the lake.

“The City understands and appreciates the very positive draw this beaver family has created around Idlewild,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “The relocation will be done but not until the spring.”

Colleen Bailey, a certified technical wildlife rescuer and rehabilitator living in Cranbrook, calls the decision to relocate the beavers foolish.

She says the latest reasons provided by the city for the relocation are among numerous “excuses” provided in the past few weeks alone, including that the beavers would allegedly pollute the lake.

“The City of Cranbrook’s own master plan for this park was to increase biodiversity, ecology, and natural interaction,” she said.

“I know they don’t like [the beavers] because nature is actually doing what nature does. So it’s ridiculous. It’s almost comical.”

Ohhh we just HATE nature showing up in nature parks. Nothing makes cities madder. A nature park is supposed to have a bird or two and maybe a squirrel. Not a huge great rodent building dams and flooding the pathways. Sheesh.

Bailey says the beaver dams can increase the risk of flooding or damage to planted trees, but that the city has refused to install pond levellers or employ other mitigation strategies used in other cities. She says a non-profit group presented the city a report about beaver mitigation strategies, but officials have not yet tried them.

“These mitigation efforts would permit the beavers to do what they do naturally,” she said. “If there wasn’t enough food sources, the family would move along on their own.”

Bailey thinks the beavers are an opportunity for Cranbrook to prove to the rest of the province that they can coexist with wildlife. She said she has a “team of people” willing to volunteer to help the beavers survive.

She and Lacey have promised to continue to ask the city questions about the relocation, including making use of freedom-of-information requests.

Your move Cranbrook. Do you want to shine even more of a spotlight on the illegal act your claiming you’re going to commit when the media awakens all of its cousins and objects to this? Or will you sit down with your citizens and make a plan to coexist?

We’ll wait while you think it over. You might want to have a chat with our mayor and city manager before you decide.

THE COLORADO BEAVER SUMMIT APPROACHES

heidi08 Beaver Conference October 18, 2021

The Colorado Beaver Summit is just three days away. Have you registered? The line up is looking fantastic. especially the presentations by Jay Wilde and Mark Beardsley. I thought I’d share a little of the schedule and give a last effort to persuade you to participate. The whole thing is the brain child of Jerry Mallet and Jackie Cordray who moved heaven earth to make this happen.

Starting the day off at the sunrise hour of 8:40 mountain time is a review of western state beaver policy. I’m representing California but check out the list Jackie has put together.

Washington beaver Policy	Elyssa Kerr, Beavers NW
Oregon beaver Policy	Katie Ryan, Wetlands Conservancy
California Beaver Policy	Heidi Perryman, Worth A Dam
Montana beaver Policy	Sarah Bates, NWF
Wyoming beaver Policy	Jerry Altermatt, WGF Aquatic Habitat
Idaho beaver Policy	Jamie Utz, IFG SW Diversity Biologist
New Mexico beaver Policy	Chris Smith, Wild Earth Guardians
Utah Beaver Policy	Joe Wheaton, USU

That’s pretty special overview of what’s happening in the west isn’t it? Something to inspire and something to fear so that Coloradans are left feeling, we’ll at least we’re not as bad as California. Or whatever.

Then we leap right into an Emily presentation which you know will be amazing.

10:30 a.m. How Beaver Complexes Improve Resilience to Wildfire and Drought – Dr. Emily Fairfax

Beaver dams, ponds, and canals store and spread water throughout the riparian zone, where it is accessible to vegetation even during droughts. These green, well-watered plants are difficult to burn, so beaver complexes can act as refugia during wildfire. This session will cover my most recent research on beavers, droughts, fires, and megafires.

That sounds awesome doesn’t it? Who’s up next?

11:15 – Statewide and Local Perspectives on Beaver Restoration – Tom Cardamone, Executive Director of Watershed Biodiversity Initiative, and Sarah Marshall, Colorado Natural Heritage Program

Sarah will begin with providing a statewide perspective of the benefits of restoring beaver to our watersheds. Where are we today with beaver populations? What is the potential for recovery of beaver in watersheds to restore headwater health? Tom will wade into the challenges and opportunities of beaver restoration in the context of an ongoing biodiversity and wetland study of the 928,000-acre Roaring Fork Watershed.

1:30 p.m. – Partnering with Beaver to Restore Colorado Headwater Riverscapes, Mark Beardsley, EcoMetrics

As nature’s wetland ecosystem engineers, beavers played a keystone role in the formation of Colorado’s headwaters riverscapes. Working with beavers as partners in riverscape restoration – enabling them to resume the work they’ve been doing for thousands of years to maintain streams and wetlands – is a natural, logical, and sustainable path to restoring ecological health and watershed resilience.

2:15 p.m. – The Nexus Between Science and Implementation Of Beaver Restoration in the Arid West – Delia Malone – Ecologist with the Colorado Natural Heritage Program and volunteer Wildlife Chair for Colorado Sierra Club

Wetlands provide functions essential to human society including groundwater recharge, nutrient cycling, primary production, carbon sequestration and export, sediment transport, and channel stabilization. One of the most important functions that wetlands provide is clean water. Wetland vegetation filters pollutants from water and sediment and buffers floods.

Then it’s time for my favorite, I truly can’t wait for this.

3:15 p.m. – Case Study One: How I Welcomed Beaver to Remain on my Ranch – The Unsung Heroes And Heroines Of Short Grass Prairie Ecosystems,

Dallas May, Rancher near Lamar, CO who together with his family has managed a 20,000-acre cattle ranch east of Lamar for over 40 years, will tell us about his observations of all the wonderful benefits of having numerous beaver complexes along the 7 miles of Sand Creek that run through his ranch. All too often beavers who inhabit the arid eastern plains are unappreciated and not given credit for the unbelievable role they play in creating an oasis of diversity in prairie stream systems. Without their miraculous engineering against extreme conditions many species on the plains could not exist. Thanks to beaver, not only do numerous species (insects, plants, all forms of wildlife) exist, but actually thrive, all the while providing the enormous benefit of cleansing our rivers.

Case Study Two: How I Welcomed Beaver Back to my Ranch – Jay Wilde, Rancher in southeast Idaho

Jay ranches on the ranch that he grew up on. He left the ranch when he graduated from high school to go to college, raise a family, and pursue a career for 30 years. He returned to the ranch after his folks had passed away. Upon his return, he found things quite different from what they were during his childhood. Birch Creek, the once perennial stream that flowed through the ranch, was now flowing intermittently and was dry by mid-summer. He realized that maybe the absence of beavers in the watershed was contributing to the demise of the stream. He started researching the role that beavers play in a watershed, and the more he learned, the more it made sense that for a watershed to function properly there needs to be beavers. His story tells of all his efforts to bring beaver back to Birch Creek and the effects that they’ve had.

Then sweeping it all together with a roundtable discussion.

4:15-5:00 – Colorado Beaver Working Group

The 3 Co-Chairs of the CBWG, Aaron Hall, Sr Aquatic Biologist for Defenders of Wildlife, Steve Monroe, a stream restoration practitioner formerly a hydrologist for the National Park Service, and Jackie Corday, formerly head of CPW’s statewide Water Resources Section, will explain the purpose and goals of this new statewide group.

And that’s just the FIRST day, wait until you see what happens on friday. You still have time to register here

BEAVERS ON ALL THING CONSIDERED

heidi08 Beavers and Fire Prevention October 17, 2021

This report ran on Colorado NPR just after my birthday but last night it was played again to a national audience on All things Considered. I’m especially happy because the reporter swapped out the negative Joe Wheaton soundbyte for a more informative one, leaving a better overall message. Good work, Emily.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Last year Colorado saw the two largest wildfires in it’s history, destroying hundreds of homes and 600 square miles of forest. Largely unbothered, though, are beavers, whose wet habitats offer refuge. It can take decades for landscapes burned by wildfires to recover. Colorado had its two largest fires ever last year. Those fires left more than 600 square miles of ashy soil and charred trees. But there are spots that were largely spared thanks to one animal. Alex Hager from member station KUNC has this report on what researchers are learning about fire resistance from beavers.

Nice. So here’s the mundane reason why this matters. If you’re a plucky new affiliate reporter that gets your story to run on NATIONAL All things considered you think, HEY, that was cool. Maybe beavers are hot news. Maybe I should report on them again so my mom hears my name on the radio.

Lets hope it catches on.

Another beaver made a famed appearance in Detroit last night, I thought you’d find it amusing.

Beaver goes for a stroll along Detroit’s RiverWalk

The Detroit RiverWalk’s swoon-worthy views are open to all — beavers included.

A popular destination for families, friends and couples wanting to go on a relaxing walk, the RiverWalk was graced with a special guest Friday. The beaver, spotted in the Cullen Plaza area, is part of a family that lives in a nearby state park, according to Marc Pasco, director of communications for the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy.

“(It) has been spotted before in and around the state park,” Pasco said in a message. “That’s where he/she lives. There was no reason to involve the DNR or animal control. He/she was just going about her business and heading home.”

Come to think of it I’ve never seen a beaver carousel. I’ve seen horses and tigers and even an colorful ostrich but none of the decorative mounts are ever made to look like a beaver. Fix that okay?