Let’s start with some local news. Readers of this website (both of you) will know instantly the name of the county in California that kills the most beavers. (Placer) And you’ll remember how doggedly I tried to persuade them differently, presenting to the board of supervisors and the fish and game commission, talking to the media. It was the 2013 depredation records that showed Placer County was killing beavers at a rate 7 times greater than the entire state – significant at the .02 level even when we controlled for things like population density and water acreage.
A dream of mine has always been to take some willing site with beaver issues in Placer county, install a flow device, and publicize the heck out of it. Worth A Dam would even help pay. Well now it looks like my dream might come true. On two sites, one in Lincoln and one in Auburn. Kevin Swift went out last week to assess them and there might even be funding for the projects through the fish and wildlife partners program. Fingers crossed! I’ll keep you posted as this moves forward. But this could be a big win for beavers!
Speaking of big wins for beavers, Ben’s book moved from the Science Blog to the Science Magazine now with another lovely review for all to see and an awesome photo. I thought I would share a little with you this morning.
Got an environmental problem? Beavers could be the solution
Most people probably don’t think of beavers until one has chewed through the trunk of a favorite tree or dammed up a nearby creek and flooded a yard or nearby road. Beavers are pests, in this view, on par with other members of the order Rodentia. But a growing number of scientists and citizens are recognizing the merits of these animals, science writer Ben Goldfarb explains in his new book Eager. Beavers are industrious architects, key engineers of healthy ecosystems and a potential solution to a host of environmental problems.
Beaver dams are more than just stoppages for waterways. “The structures come in an almost limitless range of shapes and sizes, from speed bumps the length of a human stride to a half-mile-long dike, visible from space,” Goldfarb writes. The lodges, dams, burrows and other structures offer the animals shelter from predators and weather, as well as storage for food. And the structures turn fast, narrow streams into swamps, wetlands and marshes that host a wide range of wildlife, from fish to insects to birds. These aren’t classically pretty ecosystems, but they are incredibly diverse and provide benefits such as water storage and pollution control.
Goldfarb’s writing shines with beautiful language and colorful stories — like that time dozens of beavers were air-dropped into Idaho in one of the most successful beaver restoration projects in history. That tale and others make Eager an especially pleasant read. The mountains of evidence of beavers’ ecological benefits provided within the book’s pages just might make a “Beaver Believer” out of you.
That’s a pretty fantastic review, aimed squarely at all our non-believing biologist friends. Yeah, I’m talking to you, CDFW officers who hand out depredation permits like they were candy. Lets hope some of these excellent reviews sink in among the powers that be.
On a related note, I noticed this week that a chapter of Ben’s book was posted in audio format at the publishers. It was the bracing, ‘buckle up’ introduction that describes where you’re going on this journey to better understand the beaver impact.. This morning it’s the Roosevelt chapter, which is also wonderful to behold so I thought I’d share it.
i found it a little disconcerting to have someone else reading his grand words, but Ben reassured a friend on facebook that his editor explained “He had a voice for writing books” – which is a pretty droll way to say he was not the man for the job. I don’t know about that.. I thought his reading at the festival was wonderful!
Anyway, enjoy.
