I’m getting to be an old woman who has written about beavers for nearly 20 years of her long life. It is rare that I get surprised by something new under the sun. And rarer still that I miss good beaver news when it breaks. So you can imagine how surprised I was to find this video, released in 2020 from the Kansas center for grazing lands.
I know I say this all the time. But this time I mean it, YOU MUST watch this video all the way through.
Your welcome.
You will LITERALLY never guess what article dropped in my inbox yesterday. All thru the day friends sent it my way and this morning Science Daily and a host of companion sites are featuring it. It is based on a newly published article by a host of authors including the former head of Fish and Wildlife. Now can you guess?
More wolves, beavers needed as part of improving western United States habitats, scientists say
In a paper published today in BioScience, “Rewilding the American West,” co-lead author William Ripple and 19 other authors suggest using portions of federal lands in 11 states to establish a network based on potential habitat for the gray wolf—an apex predator able to trigger powerful, widespread ecological effects.
In those states the authors identified areas, each at least 5,000 square kilometers, of contiguous, federally managed lands containing prime wolf habitat. The states in the proposed Western Rewilding Network, which would cover nearly 500,000 square kilometers, are Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
“It’s an ambitious idea, but the American West is going through an unprecedented period of converging crises including extended drought and water scarcity, extreme heat waves, massive fires and loss of biodiversity,” said Ripple, distinguished professor of ecology in the OSU College of Forestry.
Beaver populations, once robust across the West, declined roughly 90% after settler colonialism and are now nonexistent in many streams, meaning ecosystem services are going unprovided, the authors say.
By felling trees and shrubs and constructing dams, beavers enrich fish habitat, increase water and sediment retention, maintain water flows during drought, improve water quality, increase carbon
sequestration and generally improve habitat for riparian plant and animal species.
“Beaver restoration is a cost-effective way to repair degraded riparian areas,” said co-author Robert Beschta, professor emeritus in the OSU College of Forestry. “Riparian areas occupy less than 2% of the land in the West but provide habitat for up to 70% of wildlife species.”
No really. And sure there’s a lot of stuff about wolves in the article too but BEAVERS. America needs beavers to get back it’s biodiversity. BEAVER VERSITY!
Similarly, wolf restoration offers significant ecological benefits by helping to naturally control native ungulates such as elk, according to the authors. They say wolves facilitate regrowth of vegetation species such as aspen, which supports diverse plant and animal communities and is declining in the West.
Shh just between us but we know that the BIG thing wolves do is eat out all the things that eat aspen and willow so that MORE BEAVERS can come. They are basically beaver handmaidens. Let’s be honest.
The paper includes a catalogue of 92 threatened and endangered plant and animal species that have at least 10% of their ranges within the proposed Western Rewilding Network; for each species, threats from human activity were analyzed.
The authors determined the most common threat was livestock grazing, which they say can cause stream and wetland degradation, affect fire regimes and make it harder for woody species, especially willow, to regenerate.
Nationally, about 2% of meat production results from federal grazing permits, the paper notes.
“We suggest the removal of grazing on federal allotments from approximately 285,000 square kilometers within the rewilding network, representing 29% of the total 985,000 square kilometers of federal lands in the 11 western states that are annually grazed,” Beschta said. “That means we need an economically and socially just federal compensation program for those who give up their grazing permits. Rewilding will be most effective when participation concerns for all stakeholders are considered, including Indigenous people and their governments.”
Just imagine what it would be like to drive though these federal lands and instead of seeing cows everywhere you saw beaver dams or canals or chewed trees or wolves and actual beavers.
The paper also included authors from the University of Washington, the University of Colorado, the Ohio State University, Virginia Tech, Michigan Technological University, the University of Victoria, the Turner Endangered Species Fund, the National Parks and Conservation Association, RESOLVE, the Florida Institute for Conservation Science, Public Lands Media and Wild Heritage.
Read the paper yourself here: Rewilding the American West
And then send this article to Everyone you know. We might just be walking OUT of the forest, people.
So yesterday I had a very fun conversation with an ambitious senior who’s admired beavers her whole life and wants to focus on them for her Girl Scout Gold Award. In case you don’t know, the gold award is like Eagle Scout for girls. Only 5 percent of all girls even try to achieve it. And I’m guessing less than .001 percent ever try to earn for focusing on beavers.
Her idea is to do an ebook focusing on beavers and restoration, two versions actually, one for children and one for farmers and ranchers. Because she is no slacker. She’s loved beavers ever since first grade and came to the beaver festival in 2019. She’s been very surprised to learn that people think of beavers as pests and told me in hushed tones of the keychain she saw in Canada where the beavers eyes were X’s.
!
So of course we had lots to talk about, The fire in Yosemite and whether beavers could help. Why I got involved and my ideas about how to make a useful ebook that reaches the people it needs to convince, about her her primary interest is mechanical engineering and that beaver were like her ‘hobby’ and that so many people started out with different training and ended up with beavers, and then she asked if I would be her adviser and I thought, hey that is something I would very like to do.
Years ago Worth A Dam helped a teen earn his eagle award by planting trees and installing wood duck boxes along the creek. I’m thinking this will be even better.
Stay tuned.
Another reason to appreciate beavers. Like we needed anymore. Reasons, that is, We need a TON more beavers.
Adeline Murthy was out in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains identifying frogs when she spotted a single glowing firefly floating by.
“My first reaction was like, ‘Oh look a firefly, how pretty,’ ” Murthy, Santa Fe County’s Open Space and Trails senior planner, said in a phone interview.
It wasn’t until her colleague Peggy Darr, who was out with her that night, told her that fireflies are a rare sight in New Mexico that Murthy realized she had stumbled upon something special.
These small glowing creatures have taken up residence at the Los Potreros Open Space — which serves as the backdrop for El Santuario de Chimayó.
They are a part of a newly discovered species that has not been scientifically named but is unofficially called the “Rio Grande flasher.” These luminescent insects have only been documented in a few places in New Mexico, primarily around the titular river.
There is no photo of this rare dragonfly in the article. That’s because they’re so rare there’s no photo PERIOD. And hey guess why this rare dragonfly suddenly have the freedom to appear?
Firefly experts say they made their appearance thanks to the county’s conservation efforts, which involved removing cattle from the area and the protection of its beaver population.
These unsuspecting rodents dramatically improved the area’s ecosystem and created a natural habitat for the fireflies, which need a permanent source of standing water to raise their larvae.
Well of course it does. Who could have doubted it? Now we just need a video of this flasher. I’m very very curious.
So last night was Beaver night at Safari West! Our friend Virginia Holsworth represented Worth A Dam and gave a talk in the Elephant Room using a ppt I put together for her focusing on our urban beavers. She and her family got to stay in a tent cabin and have dinner and breakfast at the lodge. And today she takes a vehicle excursion to see the wonders it has to offer.
Virginia Holsworth is a member of Worth A Dam, the nonprofit that worked to save the beavers in Martinez California. The group works now with other cities to teach them how and why to coexist with this important Keystone Species. Valued for water storage, biodiversity and even fire prevention, beavers really are “Worth A Dam”.
More people become beaver believers And Worth A Dam gets a great donation that we can use to make MORE people even care about beavers! What a deal!
