The Sierra club is happy. It has a large corporation to blame, a native hero to champion, and a water story to unfold. Even if it does mention those tiresome beavers.

PG&E, the Mountain Maidu, and a Very Powerful River

A group of Mountain Maidu has reclaimed its former lands, but not the

In the spring of 2021, a crew of nine workers arrived at Tásmam Koyóm, at the headwaters of Northern California’s Feather River. They began to cut down saplings, dragging them over a fast-moving creek that ran through a meadow, then bending them into a tangled weave of trunks and branches that held strong in the current.

The landscape around them was an artifact of decades of cattle grazing—the utility that once owned this land, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), had leased it to ranchers. The cattle had compacted the soil and dried out the meadow’s outer reaches, transforming what had been a wetland into a field of dry grass. As the work progressed, and the sapling dams blocked the current, areas of the parched meadow began to fill with slow-moving channels of water.

The crew—made up of Mountain Maidu youths and employees of a local habitat­restoration outfit called Swift Water Design—called themselves “beavers.” Actual beavers haven’t been seen in this region for years, and it is forbidden by state law to introduce them. Some researchers claim that beavers have never been here at all, although there are dozens of words for the species and its handiwork in languages native to this region. The beaver dam analogs would, hopefully, create an inviting habitat for any beavers who happened to make it this far upstream, encouraging them to keep the dams up and running in perpetuity. (more…)

One of the facts that often surprises folks about beavers is their size. After years of seeing juvenile beaver skulls or  photos because that’s the easiest kind to catch they are sure grown beavers are about 20 lbs. Martinez could help them learn otherwise. Thank goodness Cornell was able to help.

Kindred Kingdoms releases beaver rescued in Baldwinsville

BALDWINSVILLE — Back in February, Kindred Kingdoms Wildlife Rehabilitation Center directors Jean and Len Soprano rescued a small beaver off Gaskin Road in Whispering Woods. After more than a month of rehab, the Sopranos released the beaver into the Seneca River on March 19. They carried him in a medium animal carrier, put him in a small cart with wheels and pulled him down a muddy wet path about 1/4 mile to the river.

When they rescued him, Jean Soprano said he was 14 pounds and they thought he was about 2 years old. They wanted to make sure the beaver was not sick so they took him to the Cornell Wildlife vet program for an exam. Based on the body scans they did, they determined the skeleton of the beaver was that of a 1-year-old instead of what they originally thought. Since the mother will care for her babies for two years, this beaver will find his way back to his mother at the beaver den. (more…)