Month: January 2024

WINNING BEAVERS AT THE MARGINS

heidi08 Beavers January 26, 2024

Taking the lion’s den message straight to the lions den. I think I love this woman!

Mountain View County urged to protect beaver habitat

MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY – A board member of the Red Deer Watershed Alliance (RDWA) has called on Mountain View County to step up efforts to protect area wetlands, including beaver habitat.

Karen Fahrlander, a Sundre-area resident, appeared before council at the recent regularly scheduled council meeting, held in person and online.

“(Beavers) are known as climate superheroes,” she said. “With the impending drought we are facing and with wildfires, beavers can help mitigate drought and wildfires.

“What an amazing creature they are. I’m here today to help us learn how to co-exist with them. The value of beavers in an area cannot be underestimated.”

RDWA was created in 2005 as a non-profit society. It serves as the designated Watershed Planning and Advisory Council for the Red Deer River watershed. Members include Mountain View, Red Deer, and Clearwater counties.

Beavers help create wetlands that, in turn, support many other animals, she said.

Karen! What a great venue and opening! Have you ever thought about having a beaver festival? Maybe we could chat afterwards…

“They keep fresh water on the land, and it’s a great way to protect and prevent forest fires,” she said. “Their wetland support biodiversity, including 43 per cent of our endangered species. They help forests and plants grow and they maintain stream and river flow.”

Members of the Sundre Camera Club, including Fahrlander, have for many years photographed and observed local beavers in action, she noted.

“With increasing pressures from climate change, industrial activity, and recreational activity, beavers offer a solution towards maintaining a healthy ecosystem and thriving biodiversity,” she said.

Fahrlander called on the county to reconsider the practice of drawing water from area ponds, streams and creeks for use in dust control.

“I’ve talked to my neighbours about this and we’ve all agreed that we would much rather see a healthy wetland and we will put up with the dust,” she said.

Me too! I’d rather have a healthy wetland than a dust free road! Good point!

“I’m asking you if (removing the water) can be curtailed in the face of the drought that we are heading into and just maybe look at things in a different way. It’s definitely a concern.”

She says she has also witnessed private citizens and companies extracting water from area wetlands.

“I have seen an increase hydraulic fracking,” she said. “It used to be flat lines that I saw along the ditches in Mountain View County and that has been replaced by larger hoses along the sides of the ditches.

“I’m hoping that working together we can come to some kind of an agreement to protect wetlands and small streams because I think we are at a place where it really needs that.”

Clean water is more valuable than people think. We tend to take it for granted.

RDWA’s spring forum will be held in Sundre on March 8, she noted.

“I think it is important to have it in Sundre because Sundre is surrounded by water,” she said. “All of those tributaries that flow through Sundre invite us to look at water hopefully in a new protective way rather than taking it for granted.

“I invite you to attend. There will be speakers there from across Alberta and we will be there sharing ideas and working toward protecting our watershed.”

As well, a second event will be held on May 2-3, also in Sundre, she said.

“It will be an event where watershed partners will be invited to set up a table in the community centre and again collaboration is the key,” she said.

Students will be involved on the first day, with the public invited to attend on the second day, she said.

Good. Get the young people involved. Get the council involved. There’s something to be said for that combination. I should know.

“Together our actions do make a difference and I believe we can work towards achieving sustainable watersheds where biodiversity thrives,” she said.

Coun. Peggy Johnson said, “Thank you Karen, your presentation was excellent.”

Council carried a motion accepting the delegation’s presentation as information.

Oooh. High praise indeed. We are going to call your hard work actual INFORMATION. That’s really something.

Don’t feel unappreciated Karen. My first day on the beaver subcommittee I presented every member with a binder full of tabulated information about beaver benefits and beaver solutions. It cost a pretty to make and bind them at kinkos and I’m sure the mayors copy ended up in the trash.

But I know at least one member of public works referred to it over and over.. He once referred to it as the ‘beaver bible.’

Beavers are won and lost at the margins. Always try for the moon.

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBEM

heidi08 Beavers January 25, 2024

Too bad Houston didn’t install a beaver deceiver around that culvert. Five or six months ago when they first noticed it was plugged. There is zero chance a beaver decided to build a dam in the flooding.

Dam drama: Beaver’s aquatic antics wash out Livingston neighborhood road, prompting shelter in place

Residents stranded as a beaver’s engineering escapade turns a road into a river, leading to an unexpected shelter-in-place orer in Livingston’s Crystal lakes West.

The main access road of Crystal Lakes West, perched above a culvert, succumbed to the mischievous endeavors of a beaver during a torrential Tuesday night rainfall, prompting a mandatory shelter-in-place order.

The unsuspecting neighborhood, just off U.S. Highway 190 East, found itself facing an unusual challenge as a colossal chunk of its roadway vanished, courtesy of a beaver’s ambitious construction project.

That;s some sandy looking soil you got there in Houston. I’m imagining a washout isn’t that hard to achieve on that particular bedding. Just so know the offending beaver probably built this months ago. Too bad you didn’t check back in September. Beavers don’t make dams in heavy storms.

They aren’t stupid.

As rain poured down on Tuesday night, a beaver den blocked a culvert. The ensuing flood, courtesy of the beaver’s handiwork, loosened the earth, culminating in the dramatic vanishing act of a chunk of the main access road.

Mitchell Murphy, on-site with a repair crew Wednesday, described the scene: “It cut the road completely in two.”

The Polk County Office of Emergency Management jumped into action, urging residents on the west side of the neighborhood to shelter in place until the road could be resurrected.

Despite the inconvenience, Murphy assured that the stranded residents are doing well. “They’re doing good. The Sheriff’s Department and some emergency management people have been there, checked on them, and done wellness checks. So far, so good.”

Well you at least get the colorful language award for describing beaver difficulties as antics and ambitious rather than ‘dam nuisances’…I’m so very tired of puns…

A dedicated crew had been tirelessly working on-site since midnight, determined to mend the fractured road. Murphy outlined the mission, “We’re hauling in dirt to fill up the hole, and we’ve got to get to the end of the culvert and clean it out. And hopefully at 2 or 3 o’clock, maybe we’ll have it fixed where folks can get back and forth.”

One can’t help but marvel at the unexpected drama caused by a beaver’s ambitious construction project. Turns out, beavers aren’t just dam architects; they’re road engineers too!

Ha ha ha! They’re road engineers that do not build during storms so maybe you want to encourage public works to check the culvert is flowing BEFORE the rains come. You know just in case one of the residents needs an ambulance or something before that sandy road washes out.

MAPPING THE PROBLEM

heidi08 Beavers January 24, 2024

A friend helped out by making this with the recent depredation numbers. The hot spots are the same and predictable by now. But look at all that grey. That’s lots of places where beavers probably aren’t.

BIRDS IN BEAVER HABITAT

heidi08 Beavers January 23, 2024

I haven’t heard from Laurie the beaver guardian in Rocklin for a while and was wondering how she was doing and what shenanigans the city got into in the new year. It’s not like her to be so quiet so I was wondering if she was well.

Today she posted this so I got my answer.

I love this rare little bird and have seen it a couple times although I was introduced to it by a different name” Rufus sided towhee.

Thanks for the reminder!

ALL I WANT IS A COUNTY THAT WANTS BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers January 22, 2024

More great news from Washington state of course

Beaver expert advocates for coexistence in Stanwood-Camano

Camano Wildlife Habitat Project kicked off the new year with its first program of 2024: Living with Beavers.

Ariana Winkler, habitat restoration project coordinator for Snohomish Conservation District, gave a presentation to Camano Islanders interested in learning more about beavers.

“They can be a little bit of a nuisance if you want to call them that,” she said. “But we want to live with them.”

Yes we do. Something tells me Ariana and I ARE Going to be beaver buddies soon. Camano is an island north of Seattle in Washington State very near where my niece got married which is neither here nor there.

Winkler also heads the Conservation District’s Living with Beavers program and devotes much of her free time to beaver research.

Though there are many similar-looking animals, there are some characteristics that set beavers apart, Winkler said.

One primary way to tell whether or not a beaver has been spotted is their size.

“I like to think about them as like a medium or large dog,” Winkler said. “They can get up to 70 pounds as grown adults.”

We occasionally see them even bigger, but no need

Beavers also have large, flat tails — unlike muskrats and nutria which have rat-like tails.

There are ways to tell if beavers have been in the area without actually seeing one, too, Winkler said.

“A telltale sign of beavers is when a stick is denuded, so all of that bark is gone and you can see the little teeth marks,” she said.

Winkler described beavers as choosy herbivores. They love willow trees, and in the summer months, will also eat lily pads and spatter docks.

“(Dams) can vary in size and shape,” Winkler said. “A lot of times they’ll build them in series. So they’ll build a large dam and then downstream of it, they’ll build a smaller dam.”

“That’s to support the larger dam but also just to increase that habitat,” she said.

Form and function. I believe it was beavers that gave him that idea in the first place.

Winkler’s goal of hosting the presentation and being involved with beaver education is to promote tolerance and appreciation for beavers, she said.

“Some people call beavers ecosystem engineers,” she said. “But also farmers, because they’re changing that environment to increase their favorite foods, which is pretty cool.”

Beavers add complexity to a landscape — taking a simple stream and turning it into an intricate waterway.

“They take a streamside or a ditch and then create a wetland, which is very unique and very important,” Winkler said.

Doing so increases aquatic habitat which can be beneficial for many different species.

“Amphibians love beaver ponds,” Winkler said. “Other predators, like great blue herons, also hang around these ponds because there’s more food, there’s more habitat, there’s more refuge for them to live.”

Frogs and fish love them some beaver benefactors that’s for sure.

Beaver habitats and dams also help recharge groundwater — something especially important on Camano since all houses are on a single-source aquifer.

The aquifers on Camano fully run on and can only be recharged by the rain and snow that physically falls on the islands. So, by allowing beaver dams, more water can be absorbed into the ground.

“Beaver ponds can help improve water quantity and improve stream flow all year round,” Winkler said.

Do you like it in July when your well doesn’t go dry? Well thank a beaver.

Coexistence is key

Sometimes, Winkler said, beavers can get on people’s nerves.

“They’ll chew down trees, they may chew down fruit trees, or they may chew down those really large old grove trees or they may just chew down trees that landowners like and want to keep,” she said.

One solution to tree chewing is tree wrapping.

“I’ve seen people put chicken wire on trees and staple it to the tree — that’s not something I recommend because the tree is gonna outgrow that and it’s gonna hurt the tree,” Winkler said.

Instead, Winkler recommends tall wire fencing sturdy enough to keep out even a 70-pound beaver.

Guess which is bigger. A beaver or a chicken? Go ahead I’ll wait…

Another issue people often run into is culvert blockage, which can lead to flooding.

The solution here, Winkler said, is sometimes called a beaver deceiver.

“I call it an exclusion fence,” she said.

After cutting away a small section of the dam — called “notching” — the exclusion fence is installed. Essentially, the fence is a wire cage that keeps beavers from clogging the culvert with mud, rocks or sticks.

As a last resort, after coexistence has been attempted, Winkler said relocation can be an option.

“They have to be a nuisance,” she said. “It has to be causing a problem to your infrastructure or safety.”

The Tulalip Beaver Project helps relocate nuisance beavers to hydraulically impaired streams and rivers in the upper watershed.

“It’s kind of a restoration technique that they’re using to get beavers back in the places that beavers maybe can’t get to because it’s too high up in the watershed right now,” Winkler said.

I like where this appears in the conversation. Beavers are good. There are ways to solve problems. and if you really try but still can’t solve the the Tulalip tribe can use relocation.

Resources available

Those in need of assistance managing beavers on their property in the Stanwood-Camano area can reach out to the Snohomish Conservation District.

The district can install beaver management devices on properties, and help landowners identify management options.

More information can be found at snohomishcd.org/living-with-beavers or by reaching out to Winkler at awinkler@snohomishcd.org.

See THIS is all I’m asking for. A training that anyone can attend about why beavers are good news on your property and a county that will install a flow device of you need one.

It’s good for the county if you coexist. Less fires. Less droughts. Better stream quality. Whats not to love?