You know a lot of wonderful things are said about beavers, that their ponds help salmon and frogs and water storage and remove nitrogen and fight fires BUT is it enough? Could there be more wonderful things said about beavers that we haven’t even begun to discuss? Are we hiding their bright beaver lights under a bushel?
Enter the blanding turtle.
The challenge of beaver dams in Blanding’s turtle habitat
I had no idea that destroying beaver dams threatened Blanding’s turtle survival. I must confess that I find beavers adorable, but I learned that they can cause serious headaches for landowners and municipalities that have dams on their property. That’s why NCC has come to their rescue with a series of awareness workshops to help ensure the survival of Blanding’s turtle.
Beavers build dams, which create wetlands, to increase their food resource area and protect themselves from predators. In addition to regulating, filtering and purifying runoff water, these wetlands are also useful for other species; they promote the nesting and feeding of waterfowl, and also benefit several types of fish, amphibians, reptiles and even some mammals. A few years ago, a study on the movement of Blanding’s turtle, a species designated threatened in Quebec since 2009, revealed that more than 90 per cent of their habitat is in ponds created, maintained or regulated by beavers.However useful they may be, these dams can suddenly give way, flooding land and infrastructure. This is why they are sometimes destroyed by local residents. The option of destroying dams, besides being effective only in the short term (since beavers will return to rebuild their dam if they find the environment favourable) is a threat to Blanding’s turtle’s survival.
This was explained during a presentation given by NCC biologists Milaine Saumur and Caroline Gagné in Clarendon, Outaouais, last fall. They discussed alternatives dismantling beaver dams, including preventative structures designed to protect culverts and the installation of a water level control system upstream of a dam.
Well,now that’s very interesting, but if this author believe that the only thing that makes landowners fear beaver dams is the threat of the potentially washing out, she isn’t being creative enough. As we know all too well. beaver dams are removed because people are afraid they won’t wash out, they’ll cause flooding, they’ll bring mosquitoes, they’ll block fish passage, they’ll cause an eyesore, and any other possible reason you an dream up in your head.
Blanding’s turtles were once common in much of Canada but are now endangered. They happen to be of interest in longevity research, as they show little to no common signs of aging and are physically active and capable of reproduction into eight or nine decades of life.
But now THAT’s interesting. Don’t destroy beaver dams and you have a chance to live and breed forever! Hmm, that might get some traction!
Beaver viagra!
Another great photo this morning from our favorite Austrian photographer,
Leopold Kanzler is such a talent. The beaver in this photo looks like a windswept James Dean gazing off into the sunrise. Obviously anticipating the delicious cottonwood leaves that await him, or his children as soon as he slips back into the water.
Oh how I miss those mornings of gleefully watching beavers!
A final wistful article from Canada which is even sadder when read with thoughts of our recent beavers failed rescue at Lindsey. I’m not sure if this hospital is more patient or just less practical.
A beaver tale: Here’s what happened after the Mounties found this guy at the mall
Hope for Wildlife has been caring for the animal, which likely has a head injury from a car crash It’s hard to picture a more Canadian start to a news story: the Mounties getting called out to help an injured beaver in a Lower Sackville, N.S., mall parking lot.
And yet there’s as much of our national spirit — that urge to help — to be found in the news of the beaver’s recovery.
Little Nacho, as his caregivers call him, is in rough shape. An injured tail, road rash on his feet and missing fur suggest he was hit by a car, according to the founder of Hope for Wildlife, the rescue group that’s treating him.
He’s also showing signs of a head injury.
”Head injuries do take a long time to heal, but that’s OK, we take whatever time is needed for these animals,” Hope Swinimer says. “We’ve got three others in now so we might actually match him up with one other young beaver.”
Sigh. Add that to the list. Apparently even Canadian beavers get better health care than we do. But at least it give me another reason to post one of my very favorite photos EVER.
You’re welcome.
