Oh look. Santa Claus brought me an early present. And he wrapped it in newspaper just the way I like it. He must have me on both his lists, naughty AND nice because this article runs the gauntlet from VERY VERY IRKSOME to mildly pleasing. And it ignores our research nicely, So it has that going for it.
Bonus points: Here’s the title in the San Luis Obispo Tribune where it ran. In the broader issue they changed the headline and used OUR photo, But what’s a little theft between friends?
Giant rodents are changing Central Coast waterways
Beavers are known to be industrious engineers. They can drastically alter the flow of rivers and streams with dams to suit their homemaking needs — creating drastic impacts that can be both extremely frustrating and useful to neighboring humans.
Now beavers are busy on the Central Coast.
Scientists can’t decide if beavers are native to the Central Coast. And it’s unclear whether they’re friends to the environment, or foes.
See the present? See how nicely its wrapped? Scientist can’t decide whether beavers belong here or not and gosh, we don’t EVEN know if they’re good for the environment. Boy those scientists sure are a head-scratching bunch aren’t they?
Of course I spent all of yesterday writing a letter to the editor complaining about the things you would expect. And pointing them to our coastal paper. But this morning I received a response saying that the paper doesn’t SPECIFICALLY have a gotcha moment for Atascadero so the jury is stlll out on the issue.
I’m thinking that Newton didn’t prove gravity existed in Atascadero either, but people still feel comfortable making the inference, ya know?
They use their strong, iron-like teeth to cut down trees and chew on grape vines. Their dams can cause flooding in roads and fields.
They also make conditions for rich wildlife habitat by creating pools of water long after the rainy season when a river might have become a trickle. Yet some of the animals they support, such as bullfrogs, are bad for native species like red-legged frogs.
In the Arroyo Grande Creek channel, beavers have been known to cause dramatic problems for flood control as sediment and debris builds up in the backwaters behind a dam.
It’s a conundrum, particularly when the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s vision is an environment where “native fish and wildlife thrive.” What does that mean for the beaver?
I could spend hours writing a thoughtful treatise proving that beavers are native and good for the environment. But really what’s the point. It’s much more effective simply to post the proper gif that sums up where we are in this teachable moment.
State Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Bob Stafford said he’s issued five or six depredation permits to kill beavers in San Luis Obispo County in the last 20 years. In those cases, property owners had damage attributed to beavers.
“They can certainly chew up some stuff in an area,” Stafford said. But there’s “no large effort to eradicate them,” he added. “It’s unclear in the system how native or nonnative they are.”
Really, Bob, its unclear in the system? In what system exactly? In the California Department of Fish And Wildlife System? You mean the same system that PUBLISHED our paper in 2013 and hasn’t since published anything that refutes or challenges our findings? That’s quite a system.
Cal Poly graduate Stuart Suplick suggests putting that question aside to research beavers’ potential benefit now that they are here. He was inspired to research beaver activity along the Salinas River for his senior project after a professor mentioned that the mammal might help with groundwater recharge.
What the Cal Poly grad found is clear: They are here — hundreds of them — and they are thriving.
“Beavers are practically everywhere on the Salinas River,” Suplick said. What’s really interesting, he added, is their habitat tends to be in areas altered by human impacts to the river flow, such as human dams.
Okay we already know about Stuart. We like Stuart. Mostly. And he likes beavers. Mostly, But he wasn’t quite willing to go toe to toe with the naysaying bs-artists who are still non believers. Too bad, Stuart, You missed the thunder moment.
Water flow on the Central Coast tends to be flashy, meaning that stream flow is driven by flood events. The arid or semi-arid environment isn’t conducive to beavers, which generally work on lakes or rivers with yearround water.
Beavers were likely native to the Central Valley, Stafford said, where snow melt once fed lakes that flooded the lands from Bakersfield to the Bay Area.
Here’s a newsflash for you. If we had ENOUGH beaver our streams wouldn’t be so flashy. Dams would stabilize flow and both flooding and drought would be less common. That’s what I wrote Stuart this morning when he wrote back that they had ‘enough’ beavers.
Some research indicates beavers can help restore underground aquifers, which would benefit the Salinas Basin where over-pumping for agriculture has depleted underground reserves.
Unfortunately, Suplick said, while that could help in other areas, it won’t work on the Salinas River. Beavers build their dams too low to reach the flood plain, so water can’t percolate down and recharge groundwater.
Gosh darn those beavers. Building their dams too low so that the aquifer isn’t recharged. I mean sure, if you had ENOUGH of them the stream would be more stable and the dams could be higher and the watertable could be recharged. But okay. That’s fine. Just say what you like. It’s Christmas.
“Because of the flashy nature of flow in the region, dams tend to get washed out or destroyed with floods that come every winter,” he said. “The woody debris that comes down river creates habitat for fishes, which helps with birds and things that feeds on those.”
“The debris also changes the form of the river, whether in small pockets over time or by changing how the river flows by affecting habitat,” Suplick said.
Suplick suggests humans can mitigate whatever problems beavers cause, while working to research their ecological benefits..
With beavers, he said, “We have a healthier ecosystem that’s more resilient.”
Finally, a paragraph that LIKE! Maybe it is Christmas after all. Alright Stuart, even though you aren’t sure beavers belong in Salinas and you think we have ‘enough’ of them, and even though you decided to punch the beaver hippies a little bit so that everyone knows you’re a serious scientist – I’ll let you off the hook for now. Besides, this article introduced me to a new beaver friend, I’m always happy to meet those.
Red fox, bobcat, possum, mountain lions, black bear, badgers. You can see everything. It’s really an amazing spot,” nearby resident Audrey Taub said.
She’s been visiting the area regularly with her family ever since she came across a spot off Juan De Anza Trail while studying tracking a decade ago. And it’s inspired a new passion for her: Protecting beavers.
“I attribute it all to the beavers. They create the environment that helps all the others,” she said.
Audrey, something tells me this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
