Napa Creek Beaver Pond downtown Napa, California

Rusty Cohn Beavers December 10, 2021

The Napa Creek Beaver Pond is located in downtown across the street from Kohl’s Department store surrounded by parking lots on three sides. It is fed year round due to Cal Trans pumping water from a Hiway #29 underpass into Napa Creek. The first couple of years we only saw one Beaver. As time went on the Beaver population grew and the diversity of wildlife in the pond expanded.

Mink are not common but certainly a treat when they do appear.River Otters make their way thru the creek on a somewhat regular basis

As the Beaver dams come so do the food sources. Hawk with Crayfish

Green Heron

BEAVER ORPHANS ARE MOVIE STARS BUT BEAVER FAMILIES CHANGE THE WORLD

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation December 9, 2021

The internets are buzzing with sweet footage of orphan beaver JB who sleeps with his blankie every night. Unfortunately about the time this video went viral JB died from a bacterial infection. But before he left us he sure cast a big impression on a lot of people.

I’ve never been entirely comfortable with these adorable orphan movies since as a society we seem dedicated to making so MANY of them – orphans I mean, not movies.It is my wish that places like “Second Chances Wildlife” would take every dollar they generate from beaver orphans and spend it on coexistence education to teach people who they should keep their families around in person.

Now this movie trailer released yesterday by the Beaver Trust is closer to what I have in mind.

[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/eU5V3fN-FmQ” 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”]

HURON WELCOMES BEAVERS

The Huron Nature Center is in Michigan on lake Huron across the water from Ontario and they have some exciting new neighbors! Hey what a great place for a beaver festival this summer! I would start planning activities now.

Beavers setting up shop near Nature Center

The Huron County Nature Center has some new critters that have set up a new residence on property. Some beavers have been spotted building a dam and lodge near Loosemore Road, east of the center of the nature center property.

Kathy Kent, a spokesperson for the nature center, said the dam was first noticeable in late October, and began with just a small collection of sticks to start off with.

“It soon became clear that the beavers were at work, harvesting wood from the sides of the marsh and creating an organized structure,” Kent said. (more…)

CAN WE PLEASE GO BACK TO JUST BLAMING BEAVERS?

heidi08 Beavers and Roadways, Beavers and salmon December 8, 2021

It’s much harder to actually solve the problem than to just blame beavers and hope for the best. I mean you have to first study it’s origin, which takes precious resources and brain cells. Then you have to think about the solution and that might require actually changing your behavior which is never fun. You can see why blaming beavers is easier.

But Washington isn’t doing it.

In the Duwamish Watershed, Communities Respond as Coho Salmon Face a New Threat

Every year, salmon journey from the open waters of the North Pacific, pass through estuaries along the coast, and swim upriver to spawn in the freshwater streams and creeks in which they were born. Yet across the western coast of North America, coho salmon are dying in large numbers as they return to urban watersheds. In West Seattle, a team of citizen scientists are surveying salmon to understand how many are affected. (more…)

THE ORIGINAL WILDLIFE CROSSING

heidi08 Beavers December 7, 2021

You head a lot of talk today about wildlife overpasses and how important they are to road ecology and letting species like P-22 in Griffith Park get across the freeways to find a mate. But you won’t be surprised to learn that beavers created the original overpasses.

I thought I’d share a traffic report today because it’s monday. Don’t worry. This is the very best kind of traffic report ever. Even better than Robin Williams beating his chest to make helicopter sound effects in “Good morning Vietnam”. Just watch. A special thank you to beavers best friend, Jean O’Neil who sent this the other day. (more…)