Muskrat taking nesting material back to Beaver Lodge it shares with Beavers
Green Heron eating tadpole preventing one less invasive Bull Frog from forming
Lots of fish for Herons to eat
Adult and kit
Western Pond Turtles
No lack of Duckweed for Beavers to eat
A mouthful of Crayfish
Mink
Duckweed overload
Giant Blue Heron with Beaver Lodge in background
Black Crowned Night Heron with Beaver
If you look close there is a Giant Blue Heron, Night Heron and Green Heron
Bad hair day?
By Joe Carter, DVM | For The Transcript
Are you looking for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education, storm water management and a role model?
I offer you the beaver!
Within sight of the lights of Owen Field lies a beaver’s dam. What a learning opportunity for Norman’s children.
You want more engineers? I can’t think of a better teacher than a beaver. They are one of the smartest animals we know. Construction management is no problem for them. They are the original “design and build” construction company.
You want a role model?
Beavers mate for life and are fiercely loyal to their families along with being very protective. “Tail slapping” against the water’s surface is an indication to their family that danger is approaching.
You want a hard worker?
“Busy as a beaver” as the old saying goes. A harder worker hasn’t been made. They start early and finish late.
A grand park along the Canadian River with a nature center and an outdoor classroom would give students a unique learning environment.
So how does a beaver build a dam?
Phase 1: They drop trees in a stream resulting in the water slowing down.
Phase 2: Then they gather branches, sticks and rocks in their mouths and swim out to the felled trees. Using their front paws, they start plugging holes constructing a dam that slows the flow of the stream. It creates a pond behind the dam.
They build their houses, called lodges, in the water. The dams create ponds that slow the water down (this is the central theme of todays column #payattention) so it doesn’t wash away their house. Good idea, eager beaver.
Here’s another good idea of the beaver. They build their lodges with underwater entrances. Predators have a tougher time getting to them this way i.e., they have to hold their breath and swim underwater. There aren’t many beaver predators that are snorkelers. I can only think of one. Us!
Beavers are always thinking ahead.
They manipulate their environment in order to survive. Again, very cleaver eager beaver.
Beavers love willow branches and will store them at the bottom of their pond for winter eating. Beavers don’t want to venture far in the winter to gather food since they are targets for all those hungry predators.
Beavers are herbivores, meaning they only eat plants.
Beavers are the original stormwater engineers. Shawn O’Leary, Norman’s public works director, gave a lecture once about stormwater. He said, “the number one principle to remember about stormwater/rain runoff management is — SLOW IT DOWN.” Fast water erodes the land, floods our streets and muddies our drinking water.
Beavers were designed for stormwater management. They are nature’s stormwater mitigator. Beaver dams are like speed bumps in creeks. They improve water quality by allowing pollutants to settle purifying dirty runoff water.
Beaver ponds also lessen the damage from droughts. They hold water for thirsty animals to drink. They are a natural filtration system, slowing down the water as it moves down stream.
Beaver dams create wetlands that are critical habitats for thousands of other species of animals. Birds, amphibians, fish and aquatic insects all benefit from the hard-working beaver.
Some more building history:
Carl LaVO Special to Bucks County Courier Times
My youngest sister, Deb, and I were hiking remote trails in the Dolly Sods region of West Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains when we happened upon something we’d never seen before. A massive wooden dam the length of a football field and intricately laced with twigs and small logs. It was so sturdy we explored it. It was the work of nature’s busiest mammals. Beavers.
Nature’s engineers are no strangers to Bucks County. They helped define its early history until hunted to extinction. Lenape Indians named streams for them — “amochkhannes”. That’s “amoch” for beaver and “khannes” for creeks. Tongue-tangled English settlers figured out the meaning. “Oh, beaver . . . beaver creek!” they declared. The translation endured for the longest at 11 miles in Nockamixon and Tinicum townships.
Amochkhannes were just about everywhere. On tributaries draining the Great Swamp below Quakertown, the plateau between Ottsville and the Delaware River in Upper Bucks and lowland streams of Central and Lower Bucks. Beaver ponds provided drinking water for livestock, places to fish and a natural means of flood control. It seemed the perfect symbiosis between humans and beavers. What’s more, the critters love working the dreadful night shift.
By the 1700s, a beaver holocaust was underway. European tailors couldn’t keep up with demand for the soft, furry pelts to make top hats and felt-trimmed haute couture.
Discovery of “castoreum” from beaver sex glands also became a key ingredient in perfume.
When the source of beavers dried up in Russia, furriers turned to an endless supply in North America. Indians and immigrant trappers raced to feed the market. Slaughter of beavers was relentless.
Hunters earned $4 a pelt. In today’s currency, that would be $80. A hunter could earn $4,000 for the typical 50-pelt haul.
Uncontrolled harvesting exterminated beavers from Pennsylvania and most Eastern states. A miracle saved those left in North America when beaver fur fell out of fashion. The hunts subsided. The hunts subsided. By the 20th century, citizens began realizing the animals’ environmental benefits. “Today this aquatic fur bearer is back,” declared the Pennsylvania Game Commission last year.
I’d say “Hurray! The best dam engineers are back! Don’t damn them for their fur ever again!”
Bob 
Having a Beaver Pond next to a Napa hotel brings up some issues. Napa Flood Control brought a crew to wrap trees to prevent the Beavers from damaging the hotels vegetation. Photo shows strong mesh wire being cut.
Giant Blue Heron on Beaver Lodge
Black Crowned Night Heron with crayfish
By Wendy Greenberg, Town Topics
A robust area beaver population provides an ecological benefit, but also presents challenges to open spaces, as the beavers’ sharp teeth can fell a variety of trees, sometimes causing flooding in urbanized areas.
While damming streams to create ponds for building away from human activity can result in more ecological growth by providing a healthier riparian buffer and bird habitat, chewing on softwood and hardwood tree species where human activity and infrastructure are present has been problematic, according to Friends of Princeton Open Space (FOPOS), a longtime nonprofit group that supports space for preservation and protecting natural resources. This activity has occurred in Pettoranello Gardens, and more recently in adjoining Mountain Lakes Preserve.
A solution may have been found, balancing the interests of the beavers, the habitat, and humans. That solution — a pond leveler and tree protection — has seemed to deter the beavers, said Cindy Taylor, open space manager for the municipality.
“We’ve had some success,” Taylor said of a pond leveling project. “It seems to deter them [the beavers], but not 100 percent. We’re still testing and experimenting with the paint/sand ratio (as a tree protector) and we’re observing and learning as we go. We’ll continue to observe and take a population count when possible.”
The tree damage seems to have decreased as well. “We saw a lot less tree damage during fall/winter 2022-2023 as compared to fall/winter 2021-2022,” she said. “I do visit in the late afternoons to look for activity, but haven’t seen active individuals recently to get an idea of a population count.”
While beavers nearly disappeared from New Jersey in the early 1900s, their population has increased due to legislative protections and trapping limitations, according to FOPOS.
. . .
FOPOS became involved when the staffs in the municipal departments of Animal Control, Public Health, Recreation, Public Works, Open Space, and Engineering reviewed possible options for managing the situation. Trapping and humanely killing or trapping and relocating the beaver were rejected, said Taylor. Taylor was familiar with pond levelers — devices designed to prevent pond flooding — and identified companies that provide and install them. “It offered the possibility of allowing the beavers to live their lives without causing further flood damage,” she said.
The pond leveler that was installed is designed to prevent beavers from disrupting the flow of water over the spillway at Pettoranello Pond, and will result in the pond controlled at a safe level.
In addition to the flooding, Taylor noted that the other concern that needed to be addressed was the felling of trees along the edge of the pond that anchor the shoreline and help maintain water quality by serving as a barrier against runoff, a concern which had spread to the lake shore in adjoining Mountain Lakes Preserve as well. Taylor said she was most concerned with maintaining trees around the edge of the pond for shade, with an approach that protects the trees rather than removing the beavers.
Anna Corichi, FOPOS’ director of natural resources and stewardship, said that FOPOS volunteers have painted trees with a mixture of latex paint and sand, a recommended technique. Caging the trees with wire fencing is also an option, but takes away from the aesthetic.
“We did start mitigating the trees that surround Pettoranello Pond and Mountain Lake to discourage the beaver from felling trees,” Corichi said in a press release. “The painting started at Pettoranello last spring, and at Mountain Lake when beaver activity was observed last fall. We’ve also caged some larger trees at Mountain Lake that are too labor-intensive to paint.”
“Whether in the riparian zone or not, our interest is in preserving trees and their ability to store carbon, and as much forested habitat with as much connectivity as possible,” Corichi continued. “We’re a nature preserve and our mission is to support wildlife and preserve their habitat, and if not here, where is there a better place for beaver to make a home?”
Read the whole article here
A beaver named Fig is recovering after a member of the public found him on a Scottish roadside with bullet wounds from a botched shooting.
The distressed animal had been shot in the face, damaging his vital upper incisors – which beavers use to gnaw down the tree stems they eat – and peppering him with shrapnel.
Fresh calls have been made by conservationists to tighten up the rules around the culling of beavers, as a result of Fig’s injuries.
The SSPCA has not revealed exactly where Fig was found, but said they found the dazed animal wandering on a Perthshire roadside. The River Tay area has a growing population of beavers descended from animals unlawfully released or escaped, and more than 1,000 of them live in the wild in Scotland.
Fig has been recovering at the SSPCA’s National Wildlife Centre near Alloa in Clackmannanshire, and his teeth have grown back as their roots were undamaged – beaver teeth continually renew as they are worn down. A new home in the wild is being organised for him in an area where there are no licences to shoot beavers in place.
Read the whole article here
Finally, a position focused on Beaver!:
Background: Beavers are ecosystem engineers capable of creating habitat for many other organisms, including amphibians. After being extensively hunted and trapped in the 1800s, beaver populations are increasing, and land managers are interested in the role of beaver reintroduction as a tool for stream and wetland restoration. Long-term amphibian monitoring programs in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have identified positive relationships between beaver activity and amphibian occupancy and colonization rates. This technician will work with a University of Wyoming graduate student to survey beaver and non-beaver wetlands in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park for amphibians, collect environmental DNA samples, and collect tissue samples for DNA extraction.
Location: This position is based out of Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. Housing will be provided for the field technician at the UW-NPS Research Station. The technician can expect regular days off to explore the parks and surrounding areas. Occasional camping may be required.
But it’s not for the timid:
Qualified applicants will have the willingness and ability to work long hours (including weekends and holidays) and be flexible with their schedule, as work hours will be determined by weather and collaborators’ schedules. Applicants must also be able to tolerate harsh field conditions (heat/cold, wind, rain, biting insects, mud, etc.), pay extreme attention to detail, and meet high standards of animal care. Interest in the research, a strong work ethic, and the ability to conduct meticulous data collection are most important. Priority will be given to individuals currently enrolled in or recently graduated from an ecology, wildlife biology, or related program with past field experience. Qualified applicants need a valid driver’s license with a clean driving record. The ideal candidate will have experience working long days outdoors and possess Wilderness First Aid, or Wilderness First Responder certification. Experience working in bear country is also beneficial.
Bob
