Month: October 2023

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

heidi08 Beavers October 16, 2023

You can’t solve a problem that hasn’t happened yet. It’s like trying to have surgery before the cancer sets in. You have to actually let the beavers move in and build a dam before you actually try to make a leak in it,,,

What to do about pesky beavers at Tripp Pond?

Beavers started the initial high-water problems on Tripp Pond, and wildlife officials say they are very likely to return. In anticipation of that, the Tripp Lake Improvement Association has advocated for the use of a “beaver deceiver” at the outlet of the lake. A letter to select association members in late September said Maine Department of Environmental Protection officials suggested applying for a federal permit to install a beaver deceiver.

Association President Robin Rolle wrote in an email to the Sun Journal that once beavers have been reintroduced and the dam partially reestablished, the Tripp Lake Improvement Association will renew its work with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to have a beaver deceiver installed at the site.

However, Rob Wood, director of the Bureau of Land Resources within the DEP, wrote in an email to the Sun Journal that “the DEP is not encouraging any specific permit application. In general, DIFW expressed concerns about a beaver deceiver at that site and stated they would not encourage this solution.”

Likewise you can’t apply for a permit before the solution is even needed and you can’t pay in advance for every traffic ticket.

At the site of a working beaver deceiver in Auburn recently, Scott Lindsay, a biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, explained why the device is not a workable solution for Tripp Pond.

“It’s a scalability issue,” he said. The site in Auburn is at a culvert under a road, which was flooding because of the beaver lodge. He pointed out there are no homes along the small wetland, no boats, no beaches and no people. “You can install one of these to keep this outlet going. Keep it open and free flowing, which is really what you want in this site.”

“You (are) talking about a massive structure that now has to be engineered (for that specific location) — not for a 12-inch or a 15-inch pipe. That’s not going to come anywhere close to what you need over there. That is like a 20-foot opening (on Tripp Pond). Yes, and you look at how many millions of cubic yards of water are in that lake. That is something that is far beyond the scale of this. And anything you do over there, one of the first things we have to decide when we put this in is, OK, where is that water level going to be?”

Okay he’s right about that. You can’t put on the band aide before you get the owie. But I wish he would stop referring to beaver dams as HOUSES. If someone put a pipe through your house how cooperative would you be?

Lindsay said he knows beavers are still active in Mud Pond, which is adjacent to Tripp Pond. He said it’s only a matter of time before they return, which is why he suggests a beaver management plan be put in place.

“I would say your best bet is to have some active beaver management in there,” he said. “That includes trapping. It doesn’t mean there’s a goal to eliminate them, but you can always know that they’re there and what they’re doing.”

Clairvoyant trapping. That’s what is needed here. We don’t know when the beavers will come or if they will move in hereor even if they’ll cause a provlem but we need to decide in advance to trap some of them if they do.

It just makes sense.

THE RETURN OF THE BEAVERS

I was thrilled to come across this yesterday. Make sure to watch it and share with all of your contacts. Then explain to me how it is this came out in May and I never saw it until now?

“RESTORATION ROOMBAS”

heidi08 Beavers October 14, 2023

I came across this and got all excited = like when I was a kid and found some of my mom’s old news blocking sheets…I think I started a newspaper about my siblings and transcribed several stories before I learned the hard way that “Maryjane got drunk once” was a story that pleased none of my readers…

This would be better:

Unfortunately it’s for the OSU football team, which recently caused great inconvenience by drafting a running back with the name Damien MARTINEZ so I keep getting news alerts for “Martinez beavers” and being disappointed.

Anyway this wasn’t about football, so that’s something…

How are the actual beavers in Corvallis doing?

Corvallis is home to not only Oregon State University and its many students, but also the beavers we champion as our school’s mascot. OSU is seated on the Willamette River Valley (the mother of many rivers), which makes Corvallis a natural wetland perfect for beavers. There are protected parks too, like Avery Park, the Willamette River itself and Bald Hill Natural area, meaning sanctuaries exist for our mascot that ensure they aren’t driven out or built over. But what about long term threats, including climate change?

For a campus mythology built around these creatures, it’s surprising how little is known about their situation.

“There’s no research that I am aware of to suggest beaver populations are declining in Oregon,” John Stevenson, doctoral candidate for the Dept. Fisheries, Wildlife & Conservation Sciences, said. “Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has indicated that harvest levels from recreational trapping have been fairly stable.”

Hmm…”Patient stable” is the notorious chart note you right in the record at the psych hospital when you are behind in your paper work and can’t really remember anything they said in session…I assume it’s the same for ODFW…

Phew! Though not all news is good news for local beavers.

With global warming comes drastic changes in when we get our freshwater. The Oregon Cascades are getting less snowpack as temperatures become warmer, which is causing water to flow downstream earlier and earlier each year, an especially concerning problem for both salmon and beavers.

“A common hope is that watersheds where beavers are active will be more resilient to these impacts, but in reality the science has turned out to be somewhat mixed,” Stevenson said. “In some cases, beaver dams have increased groundwater storage and lowered summer stream temperature, but other studies have indicated that beaver dams can also do the opposite.”

This opens up the conversation about the extent to which beavers and climate change are interconnected. Despite beaver population levels remaining consistent, instability in beaver ecosystems from climate change may result in beavers behaving in new, impactfully-ambiguous ways to their surroundings.

No the data from the arctic tundra does not apply to Oregon. Stop jumping to conclusi0ns.

As OSU continues to change, so do Corvallis’ ecosystems, making it clear that even though research is being conducted in these areas, there can always be more work and more funding towards it.

“I’d keep funding the research I’m doing!” Stevenson said. “The first study in my dissertation suggests that we need to put more thought and research into where beavers’ activities align with our restoration goals and where they might not. I would put more resources into answering those questions.”

We’re beavers after all–and beavers look out for each other. Looking to the future, it’s important that OSU continues to support this level of research, not just for Benny, but for the ecosystems that beavers support as well.

And where the do not? Where are beavers not helping? Tell me more…

Stevenson shared a story about how his first year of PhD field work was full of “Caddyshack moments.” Testing for different ways to monitor water temperature had Stevenson and his crew struggling against beaver rule. Equipment had been cut from anchors, beavers had severed what their teeth could get through, and in one instance, equipment had been packed into a dam as if it were woody construction material.

According to Stevenson, Beavers in Corvallis are doing okay, and they continue to cultivate their environments into something more complex. For a school known for its engineering and forestry programs, it makes sense we’d have them as our mascot– not to mention our state’s!

But in our college worship of Benny and the fact that most OSU students and faculty have never seen a beaver in the flesh, it’s easy to misrepresent them in our mind as something transcendental. If we want to protect them, we have to know them.

“Beavers are fascinating in so many ways, not least of which is their ability to modify their environment and reengineer streams,” Stevenson said “In some ways, though, we’ve imposed on them an almost mythic status that is not always consistent with their actual life-history. As much as we want to think of beavers as little restoration-Roombas that we can set loose to clean up degraded streams, we need to remind ourselves that they are wild animals that will do what’s best for them. In some cases their behavior may align with our goals but there are numerous examples of when that is not always the case.”

Restoration Roombas??? Are you kidding me???

SONOMA WOULD LIKE BDAs – NOT Bs

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, BDA's October 14, 2023

We received word yesterday from the city of Martinez that we were awarded a grant for our next beaver festival, which is always nice to know. It’s like a legitimacy stamp on our forehead and gives us the courage to march forth another year. This article from Sonoma by Bill Lynch seems to imply their considering beaver wisdom as well.

Musings: Sonoma Valley beaver analogs coming?

I was happy to read in a recent edition of the Index-Tribune that the Sonoma Ecology Center and those concerned with Sonoma Valley’s groundwater sustainability are considering the merit of creating man-made beaver dams on Sonoma Creek as a way to help boost groundwater supplies and other benefits that come from having more water in our creeks.

I first wrote about this idea in May of 2017 after returning from Scott Valley, where the Scott River, a relatively small tributary of the Klamath River, meanders through an area that was once heavily mined for gold and is now mostly devoted to cattle ranching.

Of course you’re aware that having a discussion of the value of BDAs means that you’re quite naturally going to provoke a discussion of the actual BEAVERS themselves right? According to my records Sonoma has killed beavers about 12 times in the past decade and I’m not entirely sure you deserve BDAs until you fully commit yourself to the animals they might encourage.

While we were there for the fishing in the ponds, the property owners told us that they were working with a local organization to restore fishing in the nearby Scott River. They said that the river is slowly being brought back to life thanks to a small, but determined, group of local residents who formed the Scott River Watershed Council (SRWC) in 1992.

The river, which dried up during most summers like Sonoma Valley’s creeks do now, was no longer suitable for trout and salmon fry (nor are our creeks.)

The more I heard about the project, the more I wanted to learn.

Fortunately, Dottie and I were able to meet with Betsy Stapleton, local chairman of the SRWC. She told us that several years ago, the group began constructing “beaver dam analogs,” which are human-made structures that mimic natural beaver dams, store water and create habitat for all kinds of local species, including steelhead trout and Coho salmon. Over time, these natural-looking dams create pools where fish can survive.

I agree Betsy is admirable. She has done years of hard work trying to coaxe her neighbors to see the value of saving water by saving it’s stewards. In fact there’s even a movie about her…

Betsy took us to the river and showed us some of the work her group has done on the creek, including putting in dams. The results are impressive. The beaver analog dams are actually working. There’s lots of water and all that it supports, including fish in places that were once bone dry all summer.

Betsy said that she and the SRWC committee receive a lot of support from local residents, including the ranchers, who see the benefit of having a healthy watershed in their area.

They understand that these man-made virtual beaver dams are able to preserve large areas of fresh, clean water in which Coho and trout fry are surviving. Every season, the fish count goes up.

Just remember that there is just one thing that builds perfect BDAs over and over without grant money or fundraisers. And it has a flat tail.

It seems to me that our local grape growers would feel the same way about Sonoma Valley’s watershed. Fortunately, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Beaver analog dams have already been built in other places like Scott Valley, with measurable success. I hope this idea turns into real action here.

BEAVER CONSERVATION BIOLOGIST: ODFW

heidi08 Beavers October 12, 2023

I saw this article and thought what a FANTASTIC job title! I wish all fish and games across the state had such a job! Don’t you?

Living and Working with Beavers for Salmon

Brilyn Brecka, ODFW Beaver Conservation Biologist

On October 12th, 2023 the Lower Nehalem Watershed Council will be hosting their regular board meeting and a presentation w/ Brilyn Brecka, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife North Coast Beaver Conservation Biologist.

Brilyn Brecka’s presentation will begin at 7 pm. Tune in to this presentation by Brilyn Brecka, a beaver biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, to learn how intertwined the lives of beavers and salmon are. For thousands of years, beavers and salmon have co-evolved, creating a relationship between the two species that generate several important benefits to salmon restoration and recovery in coastal systems. Consequently, restoration projects that focus on creating and maintaining beaver and beaver-modified habitats can have a trickle-down effect on salmon populations, not to mention other benefits to both humans and the environment.

My my my, Brilyn sounds fascinating, doesn’t she? Considering that I just got an emergency alert for CDFW saying the would be hand migrating the few remaining coho this year because things were so dire. We’d never do something crazy like make sure there were enough beaver ponds in their path because we’re too busy worrying that beavers cause whorling disease.

Brilyn Brecka is the Beaver Conservation Biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in the North Coast. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, majoring in Wildlife Ecology and Management, and she integrates her passions for habitat restoration, ecosystem-based management, and wildlife into her everyday work with beavers in Oregon. In her free time, she enjoys hunting, fishing, hiking, and reading.

Graduating in Wisconsin and working in Oregon? Good lord since she must have gotten VERY contradict0ry messages about beavers and fish. Wisconsin is one of the states where they regular blow up dams to improve things for trout. Ironic Much?

Both the Board Meeting and this presentation will be hosted on Zoom and are free to the public. The zoom link is us02web.zoom.us/j/82002702767 or on the Faceboook event at www.facebook.com/lnwc1. You can also contact the watershed council at info@nehalemwatershed.org. A recording of this presentation will also be posted on the LNWC’s YouTube channel with our other recorded presentations. Just search for “Lower Nehalem Watershed Council” on YouTube.

Event Information: This event is FREE and open to the public. Find more information on our speaker series and the links for access on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/lnwc1).

Well that sounds like a fascinating discussion, I hope everyone pays attention.