BEAVERS IN THE DAILY KOS

I’m so old today that I can remember when the daily Kos was the shiny new thing and Markos himself was on meet the press Those days are long gone but apparently left a highwater mark because look what I found yesterday…

Hi! I’m a long-time lurker! In April 2021, I was minding my own business, watching TV with my husband, when I scrolled through Facebook and discovered that there was a family of beavers in my Chicagoland suburb that was about to be trapped and killed by an HOA because they were damaging trees. Humans confuse me. They plant amazing natural settings and then get mad when nature moves in. Anyway, a group of us sprang into action. We created a Facebook group, wrote a press release, talked to the media, held a rally, and got the HOA to agree not to trap and kill the beavers.

Hey that sounds familiar doesn’t it.

But then I started thinking. “My” beavers were going to have babies (kits) who eventually were going to disperse, and then those juvenile beavers would be at risk of being trapped and killed. I read Ben Goldfarb’s book, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, and I knew what I needed to do. Obviously, I needed to form a nonprofit, the Illinois Beaver Alliance, and I needed to go to graduate school and get a certificate in Environmental Law & Policy so I would have some qualifications to become a beaver advocate. So I did!

Wow. I know that story too. Hey this is Rachel Schick Siegel. What a great place to tell the story.

Beavers are amazing ecosystem engineers who provide valuable ecosystem services for humans. Beaver ponds purify water; recharge aquifers; raise water tables; create habitat for fish, birds, amphibians, and mammals; and create floodwater storage capacity. Beaver ponds don’t burn, so more beavers would help combat wildfires in arid regions. In fact, more beavers would help us develop climate resilience in the face of climate change. And they are skilled engineers who work for free. Beaver restoration, a type of low-tech, process-based river restoration, is being used out west to restore salmon habitat; and in the Plains states to raise water tables for livestock.

I like this story! I may start reading the daily Kos again!

So I started to think about Illinois environmental problems, and I realized that while we are trapping and killing hundreds of “nuisance” beavers every year (not to mention the thousands being trapped for their pelts, with no bag limits), we are also spending $25 million+ per year on our “Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy.” The Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, aimed at reducing point source pollution (wastewater and stormwater treatment facility discharge) and nonpoint source pollution (agricultural runoff) from entering out watersheds, which then feed into the Mississippi River, which then feeds into the Gulf of Mexico and causes a big dead zone, is at some level a failure—every year we fall further behind in our goals. But what if we had wider riparian buffers, with more beaver wetlands to filter out the nitrogen and phosphorus? We have water quality issues, we have loss of habitat which leads to loss of biodiversity, and we also will have a lot more flooding in upcoming years due to anthropogenic climate change leading to changing precipitation patterns.

So what if, instead of trapping and killing all of those beavers, we coexisted with them instead, using proven tools such as culvert fencing and pond levelers to prevent flooding that would damage human infrastructure? You can find out more about “flow devices” at the Beaver Institute website!

Yeah what if we did it right instead of stupid? Go Rachel.

Anyway, the Illinois Beaver Alliance, along with the Superior Bio-Conservancy in Wisconsin, has been planning a virtual, two-day Midwest Beaver Summit. We held our first day last week. Here is an article about it that appeared in the Chicago Tribune. It’s behind a paywall, though, so you can access it elsewhere; here is one reprint in the Seattle Times.

The second day is tomorrow, and you are invited to register! Midwest Beaver Summit Registering will also gain you access to the videos recordings of all the presentations.

Last week, Dr. Emily Fairfax and author Leila Philip both gave presentations. They were also featured on CBS This Morning last Sunday. Here is the link to that segment.

Anyway, I hope to see you tomorrow at Day 2 of the Midwest Beaver Summit, and that I can convince some of you to become Beaver Believers!!! Currently there are 795 registrants for the event. We have hundreds of people signed up who work for state and federal natural resource management agencies, land trusts, environmental nonprofits, watershed groups, and other stakeholders, from the Midwest states in general and across the entire nation!

Go Rachel! And Go Midwest Beaver Summit! What a great birthday present for me and beavers everywhere.

SCOTLAND BUILDS BDA’S

heidi08 Beavers September 19, 2023

MICROTHERIOMYS ARTICULAQUATICUS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver Behavior, History September 18, 2023

So the birthday beaver bash continues with beavers on CBS news over the weekend and a fine appearance with Leila and Emily to boot. I will share that soon but this news has waited 30,000,000 years already so it gets to go first.

30-million-year-old amphibious beaver fossil is oldest ever found

A new analysis of a beaver anklebone fossil found in Montana suggests the evolution of semi-aquatic beavers may have occurred at least 7 million years earlier than previously thought, and happened in North America rather than Eurasia.

In the study, Ohio State University evolutionary biologist Jonathan Calede describes the find as the oldest known amphibious beaver in the world and the oldest amphibious rodent in North America. He named the newly discovered species Microtheriomys articulaquaticus.

Calede’s findings resulted from comparing measurements of the new species’ anklebone to about 340 other rodent specimens to categorize how it moved around in its environment – which indicated this animal was a swimmer. The Montana-based bone was determined to be 30 million years old – the oldest previously identified semi-aquatic beaver lived in France 23 million years ago.

Watery beaver! Just so you understand this isn’t a new FIND but a new understanding of the previously found fossil because god knows people get the wrong ideas about beavers all the time. This little beaver adapted to life in the water SEVEN MILLION YEARS earlier than we used to think. And it happened in north America, not Europe.

The scientists, including Calede, who found the bones and teeth of the new beaver species in western Montana knew they came from beavers right away because of their recognizable teeth. But the discovery of an anklebone, about 10 millimeters long, opened up the possibility of learning much more about the animal’s life. The astragalus bone in beavers is the equivalent to the talus in humans, located where the shin meets the top of the foot.

Calede took 15 measurements of the anklebone fossil and compared it to measurements – over 5,100 in all – of similar bones from 343 specimens of rodent species living today that burrow, glide, jump and swim as well as ancient beaver relatives.

Running computational analyses of the data in multiple ways, he arrived at a new hypothesis for the evolution of amphibious beavers, proposing that they started to swim as a result of exaptation – the co-opting of an existing anatomy – leading, in this case, to a new lifestyle.

“In this case, the adaptations to burrowing were co-opted to transition to a semi-aquatic locomotion,” he said. “The ancestor of all beavers that have ever existed was most likely a burrower, and the semi-aquatic behavior of modern beavers evolved from a burrowing ecology. Beavers went from digging burrows to swimming in water.

As I have painfully learned this year, anklebones are very important and understanding the right way to use them so they do not break is even more important.

Microtheriomys articulaquaticus did not have the flat tail that helps beavers swim today. It likely ate plants instead of wood and was comparably small – weighing less than 2 pounds. The modern adult beaver, weighing 50 pounds or so, is the second-largest living rodent after the capybara from South America.

It looks like when you follow Cope’s Rule, (Keep getting larger as you evolve) it’s not good for you – it sets you on a bad path in terms of species diversity,” Calede said. “We used to have dozens of species of beavers in the fossil record. Today we have one North American beaver and one Eurasian beaver. We’ve gone from a group that is super diverse and doing so well to one that is obviously not so diverse anymore.”

Less than 2 pounds! That’s the size of a baby muskrat! I wonder what they looked like. And would still like to know when they started building dams…

Now because we all were good and did our science lesson for the day we get to go to the movies. Enjoy…

MIDWEST BEAVER SUMMIT: CHICAGO TRIBUNE

heidi08 Beavers September 17, 2023

I was thrilled to open the beaver ticker tape and find this today Good news for midwest beavers and a feather in the cap to all the hard work that made the summit possible.

Nice work Emily and Rachel and team summit! That’s sure to catch some eyeballs. Its the kind of thing that gets talked about and left on desks or read to the mayor,. I expect more interest to be paid to the subject.

”Challenges remain in Illinois, Siegel said, but there are encouraging precedents for beaver restoration in other parts of the country.“What we’re trying to do is move theism needle here,” Siegel said. “We’re trying to change the culture

I can’t wait for part two which of course is ON MY BIRTHDAY! Because beavers truly wish me a happy year and there’s more proof where that came from including the game-winning question in trivial pursuit last night about beavers and an exciting find this morning. I’ll give you a hint.

Beavers + the bone I broke this spring + 7 million years.

Palo Alto WELCOME PARTY CONTINUES

heidi08 Beavers September 16, 2023

So yesterday morning while we’re furiously packing getting ready to head for the Sierras I get a call from an unexpected number saying “Is this Dr, Heidi Perryman?” and I automatically froze a little bit thinking good grief did some old patient found this number? But It was ABC 7 news calling about the Palo Alto beaver,. They wanted to know could I give a quick interview for a spot on the evening news?

And I thought good lord NOW? My computer is packed, I’m halfway out door, I’m a mess and can’t string two sentences together and anyway how does channel 7 know my phone number? Is there like some giant bathroom wall where news crews just write the names of everyone they once interviewed?

So I declined and told her to call Rick instead, and I just caught the lovely story this morning,

‘Nature’s fighter’: Baby beaver spotting in Palo Alto excites wildlife experts

PALO ALTO, Calif. (KGO) — A recent sighting of a small baby beaver in Palo Alto is creating a big deal for wildlife experts.

Bill Leikam is the president of the nonprofit Urban Wildlife Research Project that focuses on restoring healthy habitats for ray foxes.

In August, one of Leikam’s trail cameras near Matadero Creek in Palo Alto captured a baby beaver.

Dr. Heidi Perryman, founder of Worth a Dam, confirmed to Leikam that was indeed a juvenile beaver.

Well I’m glad the little guy got so much attention and that my name found its way back into the story. And ooh look Rick’s on the teevee!

“The beaver ponds and the wetlands that they build are hotspots for biodiversity, they are uniquely resistant to droughts and wildfires and they can help take the power out of floodways so when we have these big atmospheric rivers and other kind of storm events it’s not so destructive downstream,” Fairfax said.

Dr. Rick Lanman, president of the Institute for Historical Ecology, says beaver ponds store water often in remote regions which provide a water source for firefighters.–

“Nature’s fighter. Not just an ecosystem engineer that is a keystone species but also nature’s free working firefighter,” Lanman said.