WE DON’T NEED BEAVERS. WE CAN DO IT OURSELVES!

I’m sure you remember the exciting news that came a few years ago about beaver ponds removing nitrogen from soil, right? Well I’m not sure how I feel after comparing this recent article comparing it to Arthur Gold’s great study in 2017. I guess farmers will be more happy to make their own wetlands if they’re almost as effective as beaver ponds at removing nitrogen?

Small wetlands can have big impacts

In a new study, researchers have shown that wetlands built next to farmlands can dramatically reduce the amount of excess nutrients reaching aquatic environments.

“Even very small wetlands can be effective,” says Maria Lemke, lead researcher of the study at The Nature Conservancy.

The study was conducted over 12 years on a 272-acre farm in McLean County in central Illinois. Many farms in this part of the United States use tile drainage systems—a network of interconnected underground pipes that drain water from the farms.

“Our findings show that constructed wetlands can be very effective at reducing excess nitrogen losses from agricultural tile systems,” says Lemke. “We also show that these wetlands can capture dissolved phosphorus efficiently.”

Lemke and colleagues showed that wetlands as small as 3% of the tiled area draining into them can be effective. These wetlands catch excess nutrients draining from surrounding farmlands. This means less nutrients end up in streams and rivers, and ultimately, the ocean.

Really small. Say like “pond sized”. Like ohh say something a beaver might make. Though not an ACTUAL beaver because they’re icky.

Constructed wetlands can be a useful conservation practice that mitigates nutrient export from farms to aquatic ecosystems. Nitrogen runoff that enters wetlands comes in the form of dissolved compounds called nitrates. Microbes in wetlands can use these dissolved nitrates as energy sources.

These microbes convert the nitrates into harmless nitrogen gas, which is released into the atmosphere. Conversion from dissolved nitrate to nitrogen gas results in less nitrogen exiting the wetlands into aquatic ecosystems. “Wetlands provide the perfect habitats for microbes to perform this process,” says Lemke.

Phosphorus removal from farm drainage is a more complex process. Soil chemistry and clay content play important roles in removing dissolved phosphorus. “It’s important to analyze soils at potential wetland sites to characterize their long-term retention capacity for phosphorus,” says Lemke.

Even the smallest wetlands reduced nitrogen loss from farm tiles by 15 to 38%. As drainage water moved through a series of connected wetlands, nitrogen loss was increased up to 57%.

Sure beaver ponds do it BETTER and when the pond is damaged the beavers fix it for free but they’re so icky and unpredictable. No one wants them around. People just want beaver benefits without beavers. That’s possible right?

Beaver Ponds: Resurgent Nitrogen Sinks for Rural Watersheds in the Northeastern United States

Using the annual range of denitrification observed in our three ponds, we estimate that denitrification in beaver ponds that average 0.26 ha can annually remove 49 to 118 kg nitrate N km⁻² of catchment area. In beaver ponds that average 1 ha, denitrification can account for 187 to 454 kg nitrate N km⁻² of catchment area. Moore et al. (2004), using the SPARROW model, predicted total N catchment yields between 200 and 1000 kg km⁻² for undeveloped land uses (i.e., rural) in southern New England. Based on the beaver pond/watershed area ratios (0.18–0.7%), and interpond variability in denitrification, we estimate that beaver ponds in southern New England can remove 5 to 45% of watershed nitrate loading from rural watersheds with high N loading (i.e., 1000 kg km⁻²). Thus, beaver ponds represent an important sink for watershed nitrate if current beaver populations persist.

Well, okay, beavers are better, but to refer to my previous point. they’re icky. And so unpredictable.It’s much easier to do it without them.

“The idea is that if we combine in-field practices with edge-of-field wetlands, we may be able to decrease further the wetland sizes needed for desired nutrient reductions,” says Lemke.

BEAVERS, FELICIA

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and water April 4, 2022

Felicia Marcus is member of the California Water Policy board, a fellow at Stanford’s “Water in the West” Program, an attorney, consultant, former colleague of our favorite water woman Ann Riley of the Sf Waterboard, AND regional director of the EPA under Clinton.

She tweeted this yesterday.

I first read about her work at Stanford over a year ago and invited all the fellows to attend the California Beaver Summit. Which she did. And I’m guessing the message landed in all the right places.

MARIN TOLD YOU ALREADY. IT REALLY WANTS BEAVERS!

heidi08 Beaver Art April 3, 2022

I told you before. Marin is used to getting what it wants. The article asking for beavers is reprinted in the sunday issue WITH a swankee cartoonist from SF Gate on the beat. Looks like the same article but watch this space.

George Russell: Negotiations for beavers at Lagunitas Creek fully engaged

SHERRI TIPPIE GETS TOAST OF BEAVER BEER

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver ecological impact, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers and climate change April 2, 2022

Well this was a surprise to come across. I have been so buried in festival details I forgot international beaver day is fast approaching!

Belching Beaver Donates $10K To Wildlife 2000 Through Give A Dam Campaign

Did you know National Beer Day and International Beaver day are on the same day? April 7 hosts both of these holidays, and Belching Beaver is celebrating by teaming up with Wildlife 2000 to drive awareness, through it’s Give A Dam campaign, of how beavers help create biodiversity and other positive ecological benefits.

“The state of California has antiquated laws,” said Eric Robinson of Wildlife 2000. “They don’t allow anyone to move beaver anywhere in the state without a permit, and the permits are not given to anyone, they have lots of reasons not to move beaver.” “You can kill them, about 2,000 per year, mostly in Northern California.” “There are plenty of permits given to lethally remove them, but not for humanely putting them back in the land where they can do some good.”

Belching Beaver’s donation to Wildlife 2000 will fund efforts to try and get these laws updated and changed.

Wildlife 2000 is the advocacy group run by Sherri Tippie. So of course when I saw this I called her right away. She sounded very cheerful and excited about the whole thing. And she says hi to everyone, of course.

“To be honest, I’ve never seen a beaver, and I’ve lived in California my whole life, but now I know why, they are being killed,” said Haley Smith Marketing Manager at Belching Beaver Brewery. “I’ve always been a lover of animals, and I understand that some can see beavers as a nuisance, but I don’t think they should just be killed.” “This is their home, and they are just doing what they know to do, build dams, and raise their kits.”

The brewery is working with their distributor partners to create displays in retail locations to try and drive awareness about these animals. The displays will consist of marketing pieces that give facts about beavers and host a QR code that can be scanned to learn more about Wildlife 2000 and their partnership.

A special release beer was also created, Operation Beaver Drop Lemon Wheat Ale, to shine light on a successful beaver relocation project that took place in Idaho. Beavers were put into aerated boxes and parachuted down to a new environment, instead of the alternative of being trapped lethally.

Wow, Eric Robinson is the point person that made this happen, and he is a FORCE of nature for beavers. He has been hard on the beaver relocation rule change for years now. and doesn’t seem to be getting weary.

Operation Beaver Drop is a light and refreshing wheat ale brewed with lemon peel, lemongrass and grains of paradise. It will be available throughout the brewery’s distribution footprint in 4-pack 16 oz cans starting April 1.

Belching Beaver is also hosting a special Pint Night at their Oceanside location on April 7. Wildlife 2000 will be there to talk more about their mission and how, and why we should protect beavers. There will be a video as well as special giveaways.

Well well well, They use our name but they aren’t giving us any money. Hmm. I suppose raising awareness of the importance of beavers is good new, even if they don’t contribute to the beaver festival. And I’m always happy to have a reason to call Sherri and here her happy and taking on the world. So that’s a plus plus plus!

Oh I saw our ad in the new issue of Bay Nature yesterday. It’s on the second page right hand corner top, right where you open to.

BEAVERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND SO CAN YOU

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beavers and climate change April 1, 2022

It’s been a weird week. I’m been racing at a great rate trying to remember all the details about how to possibly throw a beaver festival and terrified there is never enough time or energy to get it done. Then I wake up to the same predictable article we have read from the north for the past few months. And was shocked to one particular difference.

See if you can spot the addition.

Experts sound alarm as thousands of beavers migrate north

Concerned researchers held their first meeting this month to discuss a catastrophic group arriving in the North: beavers.

The Arctic Beaver Observation Network, an Alaskan group, seeks to coordinate research and observation of the emerging threat to permafrost and ecosystems in Alaska, Canada, Europe and Russia.

At a two-day virtual conference, scientists, Indigenous leaders, land managers and local observers heard speakers discuss the proliferation of big and small beaver dams from Nunavik to Inuvik.

Ya ya ya, You read this novel already right? Beavers are moving in, causing global warming and killing all the salmon. Tell me something I don’t already know.

Ayles said at-risk species like the Dolly Varden char will be especially affected.

“The Dolly Varden char really depend on certain individual streams. They feed in the summer in the Beaufort Sea but in the winter, it’s too cold for them and they need to return to the Babbage River,” he said.

“If even one beaver dam blocked them from returning over the winter, it could in a very short time completely destroy this unique fish population.”

Yeah those dam beavers, ruining things for fish. You know how they are. Of course the article mentions more incentives for trapping!!!

And then they surprising mention this:

Heidi Perryman, founder of beaver advocacy group Worth a Dam and organizer of an annual beaver festival in California, published an open letter in response to an interview given by Helen Wheeler on US public radio network NPR.

Wheeler, a wildlife ecologist based in the UK, gave a presentation at the Arctic Beaver Observation Network’s March conference and is planning to conduct her next study in the NWT.

For the past 20 years, Perryman wrote, NOAA Fisheries – the US agency responsible for fisheries – has been “researching and reporting that beaver dams are in fact crucial to salmonids and provide deep, unfrozen pools where juveniles can grow and fatten.”

Her letter continued: “Obviously, as the planet warms, many species are extending their range looking for suitable forage or habitat. The newly beaver-created ponds will help sustain an ecosystem that we have forced to become nomadic with our failure to stop burning fossil fuels.

“What remains stunning to me is how eager NPR and others are to blame beavers for extending the effects of a warming climate. I’m assuming that there will be similar reports blaming glaciers when the oceans rise?”

You know how it is. You trod along doing the same thing every day since time was invented and arguing the same points to the same people over and over and you think “Does it really matter? Does any of this really matter? Am I making even the faintest appearance of a dent in the teflon surface of beaver ignorance that manages most of this planet?

And then something happens. And it’s all a little big different. I’m not saying the war has been won but we’ve definitely changed the battlefield. I know readers of this website will remember that Placer County in California kills the most beavers of anywhere in the state. I’ve talked to them, railed at them, met with their CDFW and presented to their fish and game commission.

This morning this site went active on FB. Go like it fast before the universe catches up to us.