Beaver through the Looking Glass

And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry

 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found

 

Ohio is one of the states that I have nearly given up for lost when it comes to beaver management. Along with Pennsylvania and Oklahoma I’ve come to regard them as ecological wastelands, mostly devoid of kindred spirits who care about nature. I’ve unkindly assumed that Ohio is the state where conservation (and most recently 17 tigers) go to die. Think of a famous naturalist from Ohio. You can’t, can you? In 7 years of covering beaver news I have read some of the most alarming and ignorant things about beavers from Ohio. Remember the trapper that gave a lecture about beavers at the local nature center? When I wrote them that they should bring someone to really talk about beaver benefits his aunt wrote me back and helpfully offered to make a coat from me.  I honestly thought they’d be the very last state in the nation to recognize the value of beaver wetlands.

Until this morning.

Balance of beaver, human needs.

A detention basin along King Street has become an accidental wetland at the paws of furry, semi-aquatic rodents that recently moved into the village.

Beavers have transformed a three-acre stormwater management area on the 45-acre Village-owned Glass Farm into a diverse ecosystem that has attracted great egrets, wood ducks, snapping turtles, cedar waxwings, foxes, green frogs and more.

 But the beavers have been a menace, too. Over the last few years, Village crews were forced to repeatedly destroy beaver dams blocking a culvert that carries a stream on the property under King Street. The dam-blocked culvert may have worsened flooding on the stream during a five-inch rain event in May.

In a recent truce between castorimorpha and human, the beavers are now allowed to stay, thanks to a contraption proposed by two villagers, designed by a local engineer, built by Village crews and installed this summer.

 The “beaver deceiver” allows local beavers to dam the culvert while allowing some water to still flow through. And while the formerly dry detention basin now has standing water, its ability to prevent flooding downstream has only been slightly reduced.

Someone pinch me, I’m dreaming! Ohio using a beaver deceiver instead of a trap? A fence instead of a back ho? If you told me this was happening I wouldn’t believe you. I’m still not sure I believe it now. Ohio put in a beaver deceiver. I can’t stop shaking my head. Admittedly, they’re still worried about mosquitoes and the engineer who installed it thinks he INVENTED it, but it is a pretty remarkable thing when Ohio decides to protect a culvert because it might benefit wetlands.

Not only were the beavers saved, but other species attracted to the new ecosystem can thrive too, while the wetland will additionally purify the stream, according to Village Council member Marianne MacQueen, who was instrumental in the effort. He said he believes the combination of ecological and educational benefits are worth it, as does MacQueen.

 “Given the destruction we are doing to our environment, to have one little gem of a wetlands in our village that’s providing for a diversity of species is well worth the effort,” MacQueen said. “We spent a couple hundred dollars on a flow device so the beavers can remain, and now the rest of the species can remain too.”

Beaver benefits

In a talk last week on how beavers are “nature’s extraordinary engineers” local biologist Vickie Hennessy explained how beavers are essential to species diversity. About half of all rare and endangered species in the U.S. require wetlands to survive, while the decline of the beaver — and wetlands — have been a major factor in decline of species diversity, she said.

“Beavers are a keystone species because they create an ecosystem other species are dependent upon,” Hennessy said.

That did it. A  talk about beavers? Last week? The description of beaver benefits  is so accurate I had to go look Vickie up. Turns out she teaches at a community college and is the president of the Green Environmental Coalition in Yellow Springs Ohio, which is largely responsible for this thoughtful response to beavers.  The website says GEC is a grass roots organization devoted to clean water, chemical reduction and citizen participation. No kidding. They have a smart looking logo and website and this all shouldn’t surprise us since  Vickie is from Menlo park and went to San Francisco State.

Do you wanna bet she’s heard about the Martinez Beavers?

She sure  did an outstanding job of educating the reporter, as well as at least one wildlife photographer.

Nature photographer Scott Stolsenberg, whose Robinwood Drive home backs up to the Glass Farm, has witnessed a transformation on the property in a short amount of time.

 “The whole ecosystem has changed,” Stolsenberg said. “There is a diversity of wildlife because you have trees, fields and water there,” he said, referring to a small stand of trees and active farmland also located on the 14-acre conservation area on the eastern portion of Glass Farm.

 Stolsenberg has seen in the area — and photographed — nesting mallard ducks, foxes hunting, spawning toads and frogs, a catbird dining on a praying mantis, blue herons diving for fish and a variety of birds passing through, including sandpipers, blue herons, great egrets, cedar waxwings, yellow-shafted flickers, sharp-shinned hawks and more.

Wow. This is how it all started. First you get the photographer and a few reporters on your side, and then you change the way a city handles beavers and start teaching other cities to do the same. Great work Vickie!

Beaver Festival Ohio?