Month: October 2021

LE CASTOR ET L’ARTISTE

heidi08 Beaver Art October 16, 2021

Yesterday I received an email from renowned artist Suzanne Husky who is currently creating a podcast out of Pt Reyes with Earth Activist Training. Seems she just finished Ben’s book and is wanting to help the beaver cause by creating something dynamic on this topic. She interviewed Ben recently.

Multimedia artist Suzanne Husky is collaborating with Earth Activist Training to create The lost language of plants — stories and events geared toward deepening humans’ intuitive relationships to plants. T

For the last 20 years, Suzanne Husky has developed a mixed-media creative practice focused on human and plant relations. She has shown work as part of the regional triennial Bay Area Now 5 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and has exhibited at the deYoung Kimball gallery, Southern Exposure, the San Francisco Airport, and other venues. Husky and Earth Activist Training have recruited an impressive group of scholars, writers, and artists to inform the project.

THE HOW AND THE WHY OF LIVING WITH BEAVERS

Do you ever get the feeling that people just wake up one day and start to notice beavers for the first time? Like they never thought of them before but now all of the sudden they’re sitting up and saying “Hey! That’s a big rodent!” Sometimes the dawning realization is heartening to read about and sometimes its not, but given that this is from Connecticut its not too shabby.

Nature Notes: Return of beavers a conservation success story

There are an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 beavers now living in Connecticut, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, or CT DEEP. The return of these amazing rodents is a conservation success story, much like the great comeback stories of ospreys and bald eagles. But it didn’t come easily.

Beavers were extirpated from Connecticut and much of their eastern range by the mid-1800s. Their velvety soft, durable pelts were shipped by the thousands to Europe, where they were turned into coats or felt top hats, becoming the rage from the late 16th to mid-19th centuries.

But thanks to trapping regulations and decades of restoration work by dedicated wildlife managers, these unique animals have made a stunning comeback. In fact, there are now more beavers in Connecticut than at any time during the past three centuries, CT DEEP officials claim.

Bill I generally like any story that frames the return of beavers as good news, A conservation success story. Now lets see what else this reporter has to say about them.

Finally, one must talk about the impacts of beavers on our lives. Some are good and some are bad.

The positives are beaver activity often creates vital wetland habitat for fish and waterfowl. Others include pollution filtration, chemical and nutrient absorption, flood control, and aquatic productivity, to name a few.

Negatives include tree cutting, flooding of private and public lands, damage to man-made structures, and water quality and public health issues, to name a few.bout t

The good news is there are methods to protect trees from beaver damage, using so-called exclusion fencing, and clever water level control devices that wildlife management professionals can install to prevent flooding of private lands.o go

In other words, where there’s a will, there’s a way. And let’s not forget something else: “The beavers are simply doing what is natural, and tolerating their activity is part of coexisting with wildlife,” Wilson sensibly writes.

Not bad, Bill Hobbs wrote this column and was willing to say a few nice things about beavers. But still if I lived in on of those east coast postage stamp states and could choose where to learn about beavers, I’d chose Vermont. Especially this upcoming talk by Skip Lisle and Patti Smith.

Green River Watershed Alliance offers beaver education programs

GUILFORD—On the weekend of Oct. 16 and 17, the Green River Watershed Alliance will host two programs on beavers.

The ponds and wetlands created by these industrious animals help mitigate drought and the impact of floods. They increase the richness and diversity of wildlife habitat. They can also cause headaches for road crews and property owners.

The first program will take place in Marlboro on Oct. 16. Participants will meet at the post office at 4 p.m. and will drive from there to visit a couple of beaver ponds at the headwaters of the Green River.

Patti Smith, naturalist at the Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center and longtime watcher of beavers, will interpret the signs of autumnal beaver activity. Fall is the best season for beaver watching; the beavers are busy preparing for winter, there are no more mosquitoes, and the colors of autumn are reflected in the waters of the pond.

Ahhh Patti! Sharing her great love with the good people of Guilford, If you haven’t yet picked up a copy of her book you really owe it to yourself to read her lovely tales in The Beavers of Popples Pond.

These sites are both on quiet back roads and provide “wonderful opportunities for wildlife watching year-round,” the GRWA notes in a news release. “They exist, in part, because of the flow devices installed to keep the beavers from plugging culverts.”

Biologist Skip Lisle has developed these systems for resolving beaver conflicts and will co-lead this outing. Lisle will talk about how the devices work and why he has dedicated his life to helping beavers to do their work.

On Sunday, Oct. 17, the second program, a problem-solving event, will take place in Guilford at the Soszynski Farm, 1136 Guilford Center Rd., at 1 p.m. The pond there is a beaver magnet and previous owners have had a zero-tolerance policy.

Do you get that? Patti will talk about the why of beavers and Skip will talk about the HOW. What a perfect PERFECT combination.

When the Soszynskis moved in, they hoped to have a different relationship with the beavers. Can it be done?

The session will begin with a half-hour presentation in the barn. (Bring a folding chair if you’d like to sit.) Lisle will talk about the solutions he uses to prevent culvert blocking, regulate water levels, and safeguard prized trees. The group will then tour the farm’s beaver wetlands with an eye toward conflict resolution and letting beavers do their work.

How great is that? The new owners are looking for solutions so Skip will present them in the barn to all interested attendees. I couldn’t be any happier with this beaver curriculum if I’d planned it myself.

A ROACH BY ANY OTHER NAME

heidi08 Beavers October 14, 2021

Now this makes sense, and I feel much better. Apparently the California Roach is a Native FISH! Not a avocado eating surfing variety of insect.

I guess that might have been a good thing for the reporter to mention in her article about why the return of beavers in Sonoma was a good thing.. But she got it from the Sonoma Ecology Blog and they really didn’t clarify as I’m sure they assumed everybody already knew.

Naturalists are soo weird,

It’s a chunky little bottom feeding fish whose mouth points down as it cleans up the creek floor of algae and unlucky insects or small crustaceans. I guess beaver really do make habitat for them. It is very hardy and can survive well in our weird ephemeral streams and cluster in small warm pools in the dry summer when everything else does poorly, It also turns into very good eating for larger fish like the green sunfish.

I’m sure it never asked to be named after a despised insect. Who on earth decided it would be good to call it a roach anyway? I look forward to many more such discoveries about animals that beavers help. Like the California maggots, for instance which turn out to be really small shore birds that clean the creek banks of dragonflies. Or Pacific leeches, which are actually small carnivorous flies that attach themselves to rocks in beaver pools and become important food for salmon.

SHEESH!

WENWEN AT THE UN

heidi08 Beavers October 13, 2021

One of my favorite beavers stories over the last few years is the amazing tale out of China of the Chu Wenwen, the fearless young woman working hard to save beavers of Xinjiang. Knowing that real conservation work begins with persuasion Wenwen has been taking her message to the people. And its paying off. This week she spoke at the biodiversity conference of the United Nations,

Xinjiang “princess beaver” tells eco-protection efforts of young Chinese at COP15

Before Chu Wenwen, a wildlife conservationist from China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, set out for Kunming, she had practiced her speech hundreds of times in front of a beaver nest.

As the youth representative to the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), Chu introduced how millions of post-1990s in China have made a difference for endangered beavers.

Listed as a first-class state-protected animal in China, Mengxin beavers are the only beaver species living in China and are found only along Ulungur River in Xinjiang’s Altay Prefecture.

“With the concerted efforts of over a million young people in China, the number of beaver nests has increased from 162 to 190 over the past four years. It’s a 20-percent jump for the population of the animal,” she said, barely able to contain her excitement during the speech at the opening meeting on Monday.

Since Chu was 2 years old, she has been following in the footsteps of her father, who was engaged in wildlife research. She spent her whole childhood in the Altai Mountains, Xinjiang. As there were no other children in the field station, beavers, snow leopards, wild horses, lynxes, golden eagles and brown bears became her “best friends.”

Don’t tell me that isn’t a big deal for anyone. The report says she practiced her speech for weeks in the field in front of a beaver lodge. Beavers are so lucky to have you.

In 2015, she established a nature photography studio and has taken more than 75,000 video clips and photos of precious wildlife. The next year, she registered a nature conservation association, focusing her work on beavers.

Mengxin beaver is a species that can improve the ecological environment. They build dams that become small habitats for fish and birds and attract more species such as small beasts and insects. Therefore, each beaver dam provides a new habitat for wild animals and helps to improve biodiversity levels, Chu told Xinhua.

In 2017, Chu graduated from university in Beijing, and unlike most of her classmates who chose to stay, she went back to her hometown out of love for nature.

“In the beginning, I often saw beavers die from fighting for habitats in the Ulungur River. They are very strict about their habitats, and they will only nest in areas with abundant food,” she said. “Willow shrub is their most important food source, but it was dwindling in the area at the time.”

In 2018, she initiated the beaver canteen program, which attracted over 1 million internet users to donate their snack money.

A super-canteen of about 400,000 willow shrubs was built with the snack money from those post-1990s and even post-2000s netizens. She was called “princess beaver” by her followers on social platforms.

One willow shrub could be purchased for the same price as a can of cola, six for the price of a cup of coffee and up to ten shrubs could be purchased for the price of a fried chicken meal, Chu explained.

How impressive is that? First she photographed wildlife and that hooked her on beavers. Then she went to university to study them. Then she started the beaver Canteen program and got a. million followers to donate their snack money. Plus a whole lot of believers to help her plant the snacks.

Also in the year, her nature conservation association gained the official recognition of the local government and was upgraded to the nature conservation association of Altay.

The association initiated the “beaver guardian” project, which trained and hired local herders from 190 households as conservation patrollers. In order to save the lives of injured wild animals, they launched the “beaver ark” project with the support of the local government. This upcoming winter, a professional wildlife rescue center in the Altai Mountains will begin operation.

“I am lucky to live in such a great era when young people can fulfill their aspirations while the country strongly supports nature e conservation,” she said.

Training locals to be beaver guardians is really really smart. Hats of to Wenwen again. I wish all of California did this, and all of the northern hemisphere. I hope every listened to that talk and took notes.

HUNGRY HERDS OF BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers October 12, 2021

We remember John Holyoke. He likes to complain about beavers. Not kill them mind you. Or learn about them. Just complain about them.

Homeowner loses half-hearted battle with determined herd of beavers

Before we start, I want to assure you that despite what the headline says, I really have no idea whether one or a dozen beavers conspired to take its (their) toll on my home landscaping. And before we start, I want to assure you that I know that a group of beavers is actually called a “colony.” Fact is, I think “colony” is a pretty weak label for such a destructive (or determined) group (if there was an actual group) of animals.

And since I’m a writer, and this is my column, I get to call this particular wild pack of marauding buck-toothed pests whatever I want. Today, since I’m not allowed to use nouns that many readers consider “naughty words,” I’m calling them a herd. Period. Sue me.

A herd? A herd of beavers? You know I listen to a lot of complaints about beavers. I mean a LOT, And I gotta admit that’s an actual first. It conjures images of stampeding buffalo or elephants laying waste to everything in their path. Nice imagery.

I’d like to say I was angry. Instead, I suppose I’d come to the realization that the tree — already half-gnawed, if you recall — was short for this world. And this time, I reasoned, I’d surely have photographic proof to share with all of you. This could not be the work of one beaver, I thought. No way. There was likely a sizable herd at work here. Some were gnawers. Some were lookouts (like the squirrel). Others were supervisors, who leaned on neighboring trees, telling the others how fast to gnaw, and which way to look out.

Hats off sir. Slow clap and much respect. I’ve read Pliny saying there were ‘slave beavers’ and ‘master beavers’ and I even heard trappers say they were only going to kill the ‘soldier’ beavers. But supervisor beavers leaning on trees is perfect. Nicely done. In no way accurate, But nicely done,

Many suggested that I try to trap the beaver, and many others thought that was a great suggestion. After all, they probably reasoned: I’m an outdoorsman. I used to be the outdoors editor of this here newspaper. Surely I must be adept at pursuing and trapping animals. Right?

No, no traps were deployed. Partly because I’m not a trapper, and am not licensed to trap and kill beavers. Partly because I didn’t want to have to figure out what to do with any dumb beaver that would have wandered into a live trap that I set. And mostly because I figured that despite my frustration with the sharp-toothed vermin, I really had nothing against the beaver. Or herd. Or whatever.

I think we all know someone like John. That woman at the bar that loves to complain about how rotten her husband is and how she’s going to do better any day now and for the first two or three times we believe her. He’s a dog. And he doesn’t deserve her. We expect her to move out tomorrow and maybe even help her look for an apartment. But eventually we begin to understand. She’s never leaving. Not because she loves him. But because she loves the way people listen too her when she complains about him.

I’d write John helpful advice about how to protect trees and extoll the wildlife beavers will bring his way inspiring new columns. I’d even introduce him to someone that can teach him how to properly set up the wildlife camera so he could finally see the herd in action.

But we’re onto him now.