Month: October 2022

BEAVER HOPPING BECOMES NEWS

heidi08 Beavers October 27, 2022

Yesterday was a hoot. For some reason all the widgets disappeared off the side bar on the main page. If you look to the right you will see a large column of blue. and nothing else. It’s restful I guess.

The many things still show if you click on the post but they are missing from the main page for some mysterious reason. I will try and spend more time with the fine tech men at bluehost and get it fixed. I hope I am lucky enough to get a girl tech They are way smarter.

While we’re waiting, this is fun. CNN and CBS ran the spot on the door-damming beaver WITH reference to the hopping mystery. Funnily enough the mentioned “biologist who contacted her and asked whether he was housed with a rabbit” was of course you know who. And I swear I never said I was a biologist.

The plot thickens about her motivation for damming though. Beavers are never “kept out” by dams, so that can’t be the motivation. Was she building a lodge? Was she just showing off? Could that be what put the extra spring in her step?

I’ll guess we’ll never know for sure.

OBJECTIFYING BEAVERS AND SCARECROWS

heidi08 Beavers October 25, 2022

This so rarely happens. There are two very compelling beaver articles that I want to write about this morning. Both have language that makes me want to talk about them and both are by friends whom we know and love. Both have really good qualities worth sharing and both have questionable things worth setting aside. What shall I ever do? I will do an “eenie meenie” and just do both starting with whichever.

:Let’s start with Adam’s article which I would paraphrase as “They’re not doing it for you.”

The Free Agent Beaver

Beavers are having a moment. After being hunted to near extinction, they’ve steadily made a comeback, and today both the scientific community and the public have become increasingly aware and appreciative of their profound influence on habitat.

But as environmentalists, journalists and others praise beavers and expound upon their many planet-saving virtues, a problem has emerged: Beavers are too often seen as a tool for humans, rather than animals with their own agency and agenda.

Even those of us who are closely involved with beavers through conservation organizations or habitat restoration have long defaulted to an innate personification of beavers, unfailingly objectifying them and the “ecosystem services they provide.” How many times have you read or said that beaver activities restore watershed health, provide wildfire breaks and refuges, regulate stream flows, and stabilize the water table?

Okay now part of that echoes the thoughts in my head when people act like relocated beavers can just be simply stapled into the stream to fix some problem or other and that’s that. And part of me just laughed aloud at the sentence “OBJECTIFYING THEM and the ecosystem services they provide.” I see in my mind a voluptuous beaver laying across a dam saying in a languid and accusative voice “You’re objectifying me!”

Seeing beavers as “whole persons” and not just the services you can apply is probably the very last battle I will ever wage. After all the other ones are well solved.

Beavers are not beholden to the human-caused issues of our planet, and it’s time to adjust our language to reflect that simple but profound fact.

A simple substitution of vernacular, conceptualization and attitudes toward beavers and their natural behavior is vital to creating a well-rounded understanding of the natural processes of wildlife. Endless messages — perpetuated by well-meaning journalists and others — of giving beavers a “role” or “putting beavers to work” can be explained more accurately by “attracting them to locations where they might be naturally successful.” Rather than creating a “collaboration” or “partnership” with beavers, we are simply attempting to “support beaver success” and “restore conditions needed for ecological success.”

I am truly not sure how I feel about that sentence. A partnership kind of pressures someone to accept things from their partner that they wouldn’t naturally choose. like a little more water in the pasture or a little chewed tree on the lane. I think its a good thing to hold people accountable to the concept that they can’t have water storage without accommodation and flexibility on their part. Maybe even a little sacrifice.

When we stop seeing and talking about beavers as tools and partners, and instead treat them as free agents with their own agenda completely unrelated to humans, we can collectively transition to the next phase in our conservation effort. We can reach a point where nature is not hierarchically divided in a Linnaean system but recognized as a dynamic organism in concert with itself.

Maybe. In truth every beaver conference I’ve ever attended has me irritated by the second day with people just talking about beaver “As a means to an end” instead of an end in their own right. And maybe that’s the feeling that drives this article.

But the realist in me answers back that people have to have selfish reasons to appreciate beaver because when they don’t beavers die. It’s just that simple.

Objectify if you wish. Just don’t trap.

Now onto this from the Global Policy Institute of California. Which is perfect timing.

Beavers: The Unlikely Climate Hero

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) recently allocated money to support beaver restoration throughout the state, calling the beaver an “untapped, creative climate solving hero.” California native Joe Wheaton is a professor of riverscapes at Utah State University who leads teams working on beaver restoration. We asked him to tell us more about this unlikely climate hero and its role in restoring streams and meadows.

Why beavers? How do beavers to a better job than traditional approaches to restoration?

After decades of studying rivers and the ecosystems that depend on them, we’ve learned that dynamic systems—systems that are regularly adjusting and shifting—perform better. Beavers are experts at creating and maintaining these ecosystems: They have at least 30,000–40,000 more years of engineering experience on this planet than we do.

Okay. So far so good. I am very happy with a California policy article interviewing Joe Wheaton about why beavers are good news for the state. Beavers are in good hands. What could possibly go wrong?

Funny you should ask.

Beavers and people don’t always get along. What do we do about that?

The beaver is a versatile rodent that can occupy many habitats, which is why they sometimes cause problems for humans. We find them in saltwater systems, in Superfund sites, in pristine systems—all over the place. We find them in irrigation ditches, messing with diversions and sometimes flooding infrastructure.

Our team has worked with different municipalities and cities to come up with adaptive beaver management plans. We identify where it may be desirable to encourage beavers and where they may harm infrastructure. In those places, we focus on simple mitigation measures (e.g. pond levelers,

beaver scarecrows tree harvest deterrents) first, and, if necessary, live trapping and relocation. Live trapping is a last resort, however—it’s much easier to deter beavers than to relocate them. However, if we relocate a family of beavers to a beaver dam analogue, they can become a much-needed restoration agent in their new home.

Beaver SCARECROWS??? Is this a nightmare? Dr Joe Wheaton who is possibly the smartest beaver mind in the known universe is invited to talk policy to the authors of CALIFORNIA POLICY and he recommends beaver SCARECROWS????

Ohh I know right away what he is referring too and it’s the BANE of my professional beaver life. I’m guessing it’s that stupid blowy sheet article by Elijah Portugal saying that beavers can be discouraged by a billowy sheet from working at a dam where they are not wanted. Supposedly the method was recommended by a trapper.

Allow me to say, in my most delicate cultivated voice, THIS IS BUNK.

Dear Joe. I understand you want to give people the feeling like they can stop beavers without killing them. I do also. And a blowy sheet could frighten beavers once or twice, But beavers HABITUATE to stimuli just like people do. It might scare them for a minute but it won’t work over time. Our beavers habituated to trains. Garbage trucks. Street Cleaners. Crowds.

If a beaver can adapt to the noise of a 100 car rail train rumbling over their dam I do not think that they are going to be thwarted by a blowy sheet.

Call it a hunch.

Even crows get habituated to scarecrows. The only kind of scarecrow that will work with beavers is possibly this one and it it will only work in Voyageurs Park and a few other places where they have learned what a wolf is.

Without support from agriculture and ranching, restoration efforts could backfire. In the UK, beavers are now a protected species, which—much like an endangered species listing in the US—takes decisions out of local control. That’s a huge problem. It set back relationships with private landowners by decades by pushing too quickly on protection. There’s a delicate balance to strike here—we need to be more pragmatic and careful.

Joe is telling us not to save beavers with sticks. Don’t punish ranchers for trapping beavers. Okay. But why not save them with carrots. Let’s pay ranchers for having dams on their property. Let’s reward them for all the gallons of water they are saving for state.

“THE STREAMS ARE TOO DAM HOT”

Over and over again we are reading about science scratching its head and wondering what can be done for our heating drying rivers across the west. I’ll give them a hint. One answer comes in a furry package with a flat tail.

Heat waves in U.S. rivers are on the rise. Here’s why that’s a problem

The temperature spikes can cause trouble for fish, plants and water quality

U.S. rivers are getting into hot water. The frequency of river and stream heat waves is on the rise, a new analysis shows.

Like marine heat waves, riverine heat waves occur when water temperatures creep above their typical range for five or more days (SN: 2/1/22). Using 26 years of United States Geological Survey data, researchers compiled daily temperatures for 70 sites in rivers and streams across the United States, and then calculated how many days each site experienced a heat wave per year. From 1996 to 2021, the annual average number of heat wave days per river climbed from 11 to 25, the team reports October 3 in Limnology and Oceanography Letters.

Gee that sounds bad. The water is getting hot hot hot. That’s rotten for the fish who need it cooler like salmon and trout. I wish there was something we could do to help. Anything at all…

The study is the first assessment of heat waves in rivers across the country, says Spencer Tassone, an ecosystem ecologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He and his colleagues tallied nearly 4,000 heat wave events — jumping from 82 in 1996 to 198 in 2021 — and amounting to over 35,000 heat wave days. The researchers found that the frequency of extreme heat increased at sites above reservoirs and in free-flowing conditions but not below reservoirs — possibly because dams release cooler water downstream.

Huh. Dams make the water cooler. Who knew. Gosh I wish there was some kind of dam-making creature that could just build them in all our waterways all across those hot streams…I mean like a dam-o-matic but one that could replenish itself and keep working even when things were hard. It would have to be a vegetarian too, because we don’t want it to eat those fish we’re trying to save, right?

There are chemical consequences to the heat as well, says hydrologist Sujay Kaushal of the University of Maryland in College Park who was not involved with the study. Higher temperatures can speed up chemical reactions that contaminate water, in some cases contributing to toxic algal blooms (SN: 2/7/18).

The research can be used as a springboard to help mitigate heat waves in the future, Kaushal says, such as by increasing shade cover from trees or managing stormwater. In some rivers, beaver dams show promise for reducing water temperatures (SN: 8/9/22). “You can actually do something about this.”

MARYLAND’S BEAVER MARKER

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beavers October 23, 2022

Well after hosting two conference of really brilliant people explaining to the world why beavers matter I guess a little bit of that brilliance has seeped in through its gills., Check out the new historical markers from Maryland’s Parks.

Nature’s Engineer

The American Beaver, Castor condenses

North American beaver build dams and wetlands that are among the most biologically productive ecosystems in the world. Beavers are considered a “keystone species,” one that has a greater impact on its ecosystems in relation to its abundance. Before Europeans arrived in North America, the beaver population was estimated to be as high as 400 million. They were nearly trapped to extinction by 1900. They have made a slow comeback and now are estimated to number as many as 15 million.

People sometimes feel that beaver ponds are a nuisance that cause flooding but in fact their dams slow down streams during storms holding water, and slowly releasing it later. Their ability to regulate their environment is what provides stable living conditions for so many other species. Beaver ponds have slow-flowing water, creating an incredibly diverse habitat and nursery for animals including waterfowl, amphibians, fish, and mammals. Beaver ponds are also very effective at increasing groundwater recharge and retention and reducing the amount of sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus that flow into the Chesapeake Bay.

How cool is THAT? I am so impressed and jealous. First Napa and now Maryland! I wonder if evert historical marker you see represents such a long drawn out battle and victory, First the good idea and then all the powerful forces saying why it can never happen and then years of struggle and more fantastic research and then just. when everyone had given up hope of it ever happening —SUCCESS!

This is the really surprising part:

Coexisting with a Busy Engineer

Looking out in the marsh you will see the Flexible Pond Leveler™ that was installed to help prevent the park’s resident beavers from flooding the hiking trail. Regulating the water level allows both park visitors and beavers to enjoy Black Marsh Wildlands.

Erected by Maryland Park Service, Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Wow Wow Wow! They say when you teach you learn twice,. And I say when you save wetlands and wildlife by allowing beavers to remain and installing a flow device so you can keep them doing their jobs AND install a historical marker to teach a million other people why you did it you learn a MILLION TIMES!’

Great work everyoneand special thanks to Scott McGill and Mike Callahan who made this all happen,.

TEAM BEAVER GETS CROWDED

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver ecological impact, Beavers, Beavers and climate change October 22, 2022

This has been a banner fall for beavers. States like California and Colorado and Oregon have been flooding the zone with good news, I’ve grown to expect it from them. But Ohio and North Dakota? We might just not be in Kansas anymore,

Beavers: Eco Engineers and Services

There is an old saying that whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over. And particularly in the western states in a seemingly warmer and drier climate, some scientists are beginning to see beaver activity as important to our ability to adapt to a changing climate. Beaver ponds can store a lot of water on the land, at no cost. And those ponds can mitigate the effects of heavy rains and flooding, and recharge ground water, as well as serve as an important source of water (and forage) for livestock and wildlife.

Beaver activity may also result in important benefits related to changes in hydrology. The pond helps sediments settle out of the water, which increases water quality. As the pond fills in with nutrient rich sediments, it may form a “beaver meadow” which spreads the slowly moving water through a much larger area “sub-irrigating” the plants growing there. One study estimated the economic return of beaver ponds may be $1,000 or more per acre per year in benefits relating to ecosystem services such as sediment retention, flood control, water quality, and wetland habitat enhancement, and recreation.

Beaver activity, mainly associated with the ponds behind dams, has also been credited with a variety of desirable changes in the local ecosystem including increased aquatic habitat, increased plant, fish, and bird diversity and abundance, and habitat for big game such as deer and elk. Beaver ponds also generally support greater numbers of ducks, geese, reptiles, and amphibians compared to the free-flowing streams. Plus, the felling of adjacent trees may help rejuvenate stands of aspen and willow which provide important food and cover for a wide variety of animals.\

So, when we see signs of beaver activity, perhaps we should give greater consideration to how we can put them to work for us. If all goes well, we could gain some important benefits… at no cost!

Color me surprised! The whole segment is on audio and a great listen. I can’t embed it here but feel free to go head for yourself and lets just tap our feet and wait for the late bloomers like Texas and Iowa.

Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Corner: Leave it to beavers

The beaver told the rabbit as they stared at the Hoover Dam: ‘No, I didn’t build it myself, but it’s based on an idea of mine.’” — Charles Hard Townes

As it turns out, these natural engineers may well be humans’ natural allies in efforts to confront climate change.

Beaver dams completely alter the landscape, flooding the surrounding area, and creating wetlands. It’s one reason beavers have often been considered pests that can cause serious damage when they build dams too close to homes or roads.

Scientists have understood beavers’ importance for decades. Studies are finding that beavers play a vital role in dampening the effects of the worsening climate crisis, especially in areas prone to fire, drought, and heat waves.

These web-footed, fat-tailed, amphibious rodents help countless other critters survive a heat wave. They not only drench certain landscapes in cold water but also help cool the air. They help make forests and grasslands less likely to burn.

It’s increasingly clear that these animals help safeguard ecosystems against the worst of climate change. Beavers are very much wildlife heroes in a warming world. We know that beavers build dams. But these structures are so much more than just a pile of sticks laid across a stream. They’re hydrological wonders.

Aw shucks! Stop! Beavers are blushing! The way you folks do go on!

Dams form ponds, widen rivers, and create wetlands, building all kinds of aquatic habitats that many other animals like birds and frogs rely on. Beavers are the ecosystem engineers of the animal world.

Because every ecosystem is unique, beavers can have different effects on the environment depending on where they are located.

More than just spreading water around, beavers’ dams also help cool it down. Dams can deepen streams, and deeper layers of water tend to be cooler. As streams run into these structures, they can start to carve into the river bed. So, there can be, for example, a six-foot-deep pool behind a three-foot-high beaver dam.

Dams also help force cold groundwater to the surface. Made of sticks, leaves, and mud, dams block water as it rushes downstream, forcing some of it to travel underground, where it mixes with chillier groundwater before resurfacing. Scientists tell us that is really important for a lot of temperature-sensitive species like salmon and trout.

The presence of beaver dams can also help chill the air. As all that water in a beaver habitat starts to evaporate, the adjacent air cools down. Turning water into vapor requires energy, and some of that energy comes from the heat in the air. It essentially functions like an AC system sitting out there in the landscape, keeping the air temperature, 10 or 15 degrees cooler, which, scientists point out, is a sizable difference.

Beaver damming also plays a significant role in protecting surrounding vegetation during wildfires. By helping replenish the groundwater that humans rely on, beavers’ dams also provide insurance against droughts.

We need smart, out-of-the-box ways to defend against the worst effects of climate change. Instead of just relying on human-made technologies and infrastructure, we can also restore species like beavers to the landscape, working with nature, instead of against it. We need to make our cities and towns much more resilient, not unlike a habitat filled with beaver dams.

Enlisting beavers in the effort could be one such way forward. They are, after all, the only other species anywhere nearly as capable as humans at transforming a landscape.

Wow what a mouthful, Suddenly beavers are Sally Fields at the oscars. YOU LIKE ME! YOU REALLY LIKE ME!

It couldn’t happen to a. nicer rodent.