Now that’s a good start. In all of North America I know of a handful of organizations with the funds or experience to help folks manage their beavers humane.

Now I know another one.000

Beaver Dam Management Plan Update

The Kahnawà:ke Environment Protection Office (KEPO) and the Public Safety Division of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke are pleased to update the community on the progress of a new beaver management program aimed at reducing human-beaver conflicts while preserving critical wetland habitats.

Okay if you like me don’t know where KEPO and Mohawk territories are its in Montreal just North of Vermont.

To address areas where beaver activity negatively impacts infrastructure, KEPO has been installing devices such as culvert protectors and pond levelers. Culvert protectors ensure that water continues to flow through culverts even in the presence of beaver activity, while pond levelers are installed through existing beaver dams to manage ponded water.

These measures help protect nearby homes and infrastructure while maintaining sufficient water levels to minimize disturbance to beavers and the surrounding ecosystem. To date, two pond levelers and one culvert protector have been installed, with additional installations planned for later this year.

All of Canada isn’t quite sure how it feels about flow devices yet. It requires massive hoop jumping before you are allowed to install one in case you upset the creek. But I guess they are doing a trial run on native land. Just see how many things its ruins on their property and then we’ll decide if it can be allowed on ours.

I guess that’s progress?

In cases where culvert protectors or pond levelers are not feasible, relocation or trapping may be considered as a last resort if the risks cannot be managed by other means.

For more information or assistance with a beaver-related issue, please contact KEPO at 450-635-0600 or environmentprotection@mck.ca.

Well color me surprised. I assume Skip or Mike did some hands on to let them know how these work. Two devices already in service. The beavers of Quebec are lucky.

 

I LOVE this man! What can we give him as a present for his retirement! A brass clock made out of a beaver chew? A golden compass pointing the direction of the nearest beaver dam? A fountain pen that was once owned by Enos Mills?

Whichever it is it’s gotta be something good. Because he’s a friend of ours. I can just feel it.

Pemberton’s lone beaver caretaker stepping down

Ryszard Brykajlo has been engaged in a stalemate with Pemberton’s beaver population for the last six years. The trails around One Mile Lake are filled with evidence of his efforts to thwart the animals—stacks of sticks pulled from dams, cages around half-eaten trees and a massive rubber pipe that used to run beneath a dam.

Brykajlo does it all out of a love for the beavers.

“I keep the beavers alive and they keep me in shape,” he joked. Now, closing in on his 75th birthday, he’s retiring as One Mile Lake’s “Beaver Man” and looking back on his battle with the toothy locals.

Pemberton is in BC Canada about 100 miles from our friends in Port Moody. But he’s clearly picking yp the vibes from Vancouver and the nearby believers. Good for him. I love this story. Can they show it every Christmas?

When he moved to Pemberton eight years ago, Brykajlo signed on with the Stewardship Pemberton Society (SPS) to help manage the salmon population—a volunteer role that involved counting fish and learning how to measure the health of critical creeks. During a count six years ago, he came across a strange feature: a dam on the outflow creek used by salmon during the annual migration to the ocean.

“So I contacted [SPS] and asked, ‘Why would someone build a dam here?'” recalled Brykajlo. “And a few days later, I got a reply: ‘That is definitely a beaver dam.’”

In addition to blocking salmon, damming the outflow creek could lead to stillwater on One Mile, creating the perfect breeding ground for bacteria that could render the popular swimming area unusable.

Still, Brykajlo was initially worried removing the dams would destroy where beavers live, but a subsequent review of the literature confirmed the animals don’t actually reside in dams. Beavers build dams in an effort to raise water levels, expanding their territory and offering protection from predators. They live in lodges, mounds of branches and other vegetation that sit on water at least five feet deep. Lodges typically feature two underwater entrances that help beavers escape from predators, a food pile, and an air vent. Lodges can usually house up to 12 beavers—though Brykajlo estimates One Mile only had two when he started his work.

The lodge at One Mile is visible and located near a dog-friendly beach at the northeastern end of the lake.

A man who does his research! Be still my heart! He’s a better investigative journalist than the New York Times!

That’s not to say that One Mile Lake is now devoid of beaver dams. Brykajlo recognizes the critical role beavers play in keeping ecosystems healthy, and allowed dams that didn’t impede salmon to remain. 

“Especially when we have this uncertain weather, and we have these droughts,” said Brykajlo. “Beavers create these dams [which then] collect water.”

The inverse is true as well: beaver dams not only help prevent droughts, they can help minimize the impacts of floods. Dams help slow down the flow of water, which delays and reduces flood peaks further downstream. 

Wetland habitats are bolstered by beaver dams retaining water, which in turn create spaces for other species, including fish, mammals, waterfowl, songbirds, amphibians and insects—strengthening an area’s biodiversity.

The same goes for plant diversity. Removing trees and flooding land allows for other plant species to emerge in their place.  

“Because of how important the species are in the environment, there are all kinds of movements of people who call themselves ‘beaver believers,‘” Brykajlo told Pique.

“I’m a beaver believer.”

OH MY GOD. Do you think in pockets across North America their are mare park attendants like Ryszard ? We must meet them all. There could be a hall of fame.

SPS’ executive director Crystal Conroy said, although the society is working with the VOP on a beaver management plan, it isn’t actively looking for a replacement for Brykajlo right now.

“At Stewardship Pemberton, we will continue to advocate for ongoing maintenance of the dams in the channels to allow beavers to thrive in the area while helping to prevent vegetation overgrowth, keep the lake healthy for swimmers, and prioritize providing salmon access to return to their spawning location,” she said. “Working with the Village of Pemberton, we will continue to explore solutions that prioritize the well-being of the beavers and support sustainable management practices.

Brykajlo is optimistic about the beavers’ future. He hopes someone steps in to manage the animals to avoid a tough choice between having a growing beaver population or having healthy salmon runs and a swimmable lake.

The man must have a nephew in the area. Surely there’s some lad who enjoyed the park that is willing to work with the beaver Institute to fix this problem so it takes very little maintenance right?

“Maybe it is not very important, but this lake has a beaver,” he said. “Maybe there are some more important places for beavers. But I thought, ‘Where it is possible, every piece of work you do helps.’”

We are throwing him the BIGGEST retirement party with a beaver cake and a life time supply of bread sticks okay? This is a hero among men.

People love to think about beavers in the wintertime. Probably because everything is frozen and out of their way. When things start to thaw and melt we get much less interested.

Cool Critters: Beavers at home during winter – and maybe a muskrat or two

This time of year, it’s hard to beat having a good meal inside a warm, rustic lodge with a waterfront view.

Just ask a beaver.

Beaver lodges aren’t just by the water, they’re below and above it. When temperatures drop, these furry, buck-toothed, flat-tailed animals hunker down in their multilevel dwellings that are warm, safe and stocked with food.

You see, beavers don’t hibernate during winter. Instead, they stay active inside their well-insulated lodges built of sticks, stones and mud. Other than swimming through tunnels beneath the ice, “when ponds are iced over, beavers often spend almost all their time in the lodge,” said Joe Mouser, communications manager for Beavers Northwest, a nonprofit organization based in Washington state.

These beavers are used to icey winters. Not all beavers. Surely our beavers in Martinez never had to enure freezing winters or create a food cache.

Yet this winter is different. Here it is, mid-January, and beavers can be seen skimming across water and waddling on adjacent land. They’re still sleeping, grooming and eating in their lodges, but they’ve increased their time outside. Why?

Probably because temperatures in the Inland Northwest have been so mild, said Mouser. Consquently, our ponds, lakes and creeks remain largely unfrozen. In Western Washington, where the water seldom freezes, beavers spend plenty of time outside their lodges in winter, he said.

Whether a mild or frigid winter, beavers are at home this time of year. All the chewing, logging and hauling they do during the warm season? It’s not just about dams, said wetland wildlife species specialist Shawn Behling of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Washington knows its beavers so well they even know how the east and west differ!

“They spend a good part of late summer and the fall building lodges or beefing up their existing ones,” she said, adding that the semiaquatic rodents are skilled construction workers and ecosystem engineers.

Their jagged, dome-shaped structures, typically 6 feet high and 15 feet in diameter, resemble a tangled heap of sticks. But don’t judge a lodge by its cover.

It is a sturdy network of whittled-smooth sticks, rocks and aquatic vegetation – all sealed with a waterproof mud mixture that also provides insulation. The beavers’ living chambers are situated above the waterline, and two underwater entryways are located below. On the lodge’s roof is an opening that brings in fresh oxygen.

“On very cold days, warmth generated by the beavers’ bodies can cause steam to rise from the ventilation opening – as if their lodge has a chimney,” Behling said.

Who lives inside? A family of beavers – usually the parents, along with one to three yearlings and one to three kits born the previous spring.