Category: Attitudes towards beavers

A NEW BEAVER WORLD IN SQUAMISH BC

I’ve been feeling lately like we’re getting to be in a new world. That my old fashioned concerns about cities losing patience with beavers are quaint, like an old hippie in a Volkswagon bus complaining about “the man“. It’s a new age for beavers. A whole new age. And it’s might be time for people to start patting my head and saying condescendingly, “Okay beaver boomer we got things from here.”

Just check out THIS article. I was sure it was from Washington state at first. But Squamish is in British Columbia.

Dam good news: Why Squamish needs beavers

Have you spotted a beaver dam around Squamish?

At first, one might think, “Oh no, is that going to be a problem?” But actually, it’s pretty exciting.

While beavers sometimes get a bad reputation for disrupting urban spaces, experts say their presence is actually a great sign for the health of our local ecosystems.

Jennifer Rae Pierce, an expert in urban wildlife and biodiversity, has studied beaver populations and their role in city environments. In a recent conversation with The Squamish Chief, she explained how beavers are a keystone species, meaning their activities help sustain a rich, biodiverse ecosystem.

“They create environments that support a wide range of species and contribute to resilient ecosystems,” Pierce said. “Beavers help store water in the land, which is especially crucial for drought management. They also support fish populations and enhance water quality in many cases.”

Wait. What? An urban wildlife specialist that promotes beavers and isn’t me? An I dreaming? Who is this woman?

Jennifer is a political ecologist, urban planner, and urban biodiversity policy specialist with 18 years of experience with cities and nature. She is the co-founder of Urban Biodiversity Hub (UBHub)

Urban bioiversity Hub. I like the sound of that. Do you think she ever heard of Martinez?

Living with beavers

Of course, living alongside beavers isn’t always easy.

They cut down trees and flood certain areas, which is why some landowners want them removed. But according to Pierce, relocating them doesn’t really work.

“The habitat is what attracts beavers,” Pierce said.

“Even if you remove them, more will come unless the environment is changed. Also, beaver relocation is costly and difficult because finding suitable, unoccupied habitat is rare. Beavers are territorial and will struggle to establish themselves in a new place.”

So instead of removing them, Pierce recommended simple solutions like installing water flow devices (also called “beaver baffles”).

These help maintain controlled water levels without disrupting beaver habitats.

Worried about your favourite tree? There’s an easy fix.

“If people are concerned about trees being cut down, they can wrap wire mesh around them or use a paint mixed with sand, which discourages beavers from chewing on them,” Pierce added.

Boom! Beavers help biodiversity in cities and even if they cause an issue it is better to fix it and here are some easy tools to do so.

I am very close to retirement. Or as they say in the UK about layoffs “Being made redundant“, Wow.

Pierce believes locals should embrace beavers instead of seeing them as a nuisance.

“People can show their support by engaging with local authorities and property owners,” she said. “Decision-makers sometimes assume the public is against beavers when, in reality, many people love seeing them and appreciate their ecological benefits.”

Some communities in Metro Vancouver have already stepped up, preventing beaver relocations through activism and education.

For Pierce, one fun way is through storytelling and social media.

“Some places have given their beavers names and even [X] accounts,” Pierce said with a laugh. “It helps people connect with them and see them as part of the community.”

Okay admit it, You think I secretly wrote this article and made up Ms Pierce. I almost do myself. But no, its legit. I swear on a stack of beavers. That’s just the world we live in now.

Want to spot some beavers? Head to the wetlands around the Squamish River, Alice Lake Provincial Park, or the Mamquam River.

It maybe time for this beaver boomer to hang up her worry beads.

GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY IS AT CDFW!

This is the article that got all my attention after the holidays. And its not because I love Modesto so much. See if you can guess what caught my eye.

Beavers in Modesto? Sightings aren’t unusual, but you have to know where, when to look

Residents may not be used to seeing beavers in Modesto, but it turns out there is a long history of them in and around the area’s rivers and creeks. Jim Inman, wildlife biologist for FishBio based in Oakdale, said he sees beavers in Modesto fairly regularly, even in Dry Creek. “I’ve seen them downstream in the Grayson and Shiloh area and as upstream as La Grange,” he said.

Molly Alves, Beaver Restoration Program supervisor for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said this definitely is a part of the state where beavers are historically native.

Molly Allves is the Beaver Restoration Program supervisor for CDFW? She has been with the Tulalip tribes forever and just last month listed herself as employed there in her presentation at the Beaver Institute.

This is WONDERFUL news because she knows more about beaver relocation than anyone except maybe Gerhard Schwab. I was worried that CDFW was modelling itself after the Utah program for moving beavers, but this is MUCH MUCH better news.

Alves, the Beaver Restoration Program supervisor, said there have been problems with beavers felling fruit or ornamental trees, and they are attracted to human infrastructure, for example “culverts” or tunnels that allow water drainage under roads. “Culverts are the biggest thing. Basically, a beaver sees a culvert and it sees a dam with a tiny hole in it, and those are easy to plug, particularly when the culverts are undersized,” she said. Hart, the Fish and Wildlife volunteer, said beavers have been known to plug up canals and flood out farmers’ lands. “Beavers are controversial because to an environmentalist and nature person, they’re a keystone species that creates an ecosystem,” he said. “But where man land-manages the rivers and waterways and agriculture, they are a nuisance species.” Hart fished a large, dead beaver from under the footbridge at Kewin Park last year. “They do get poached,” he said. “So the one I picked out might very well have been shot.” For the first time in 75 years, beavers are being relocated to other areas of the state, but it’s in small numbers for restoration of historic beaver populations like at the Tule River Indian Reservation, and only as a last resort. There are several ways to reduce the negative impact of beavers in areas that are more populated. Lundquist said her team is creating a beaver help desk to inform and provide resources on how to coexist with beavers. Wraps have been placed around some cottonwood trees in Tuolumne River Regional Park’s Gateway parcel that prevents beavers from chewing on them as they grow.

Well well well. Is Valerie Cook still the program manager? And she hired Molly after she presented her relocation data to the staff? Either way this is VERY GOOD NEWS for the beavers, because being relocated is hard work.

And they have a much better chance under Molly’s watchful eye. This deserves celebration as other than making Chuck Bonham cry at the first relocation its the very most encouraging thing I’ve heard yet about the CDFW beaver restoration program.

Welcome aboard, Molly.

A BANDIT FOR BIODIVERSITY IN BELGIUM

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver ecological impact December 22, 2024

I’ve been saving the best for last. This is the PERFECT listen for the Sunday before the big day. Belgium is an ideal destination for a snowy Christmas adventure. With steaming bowls of melted chocolate and creme in every cafe showing Starbuck a thing or two. Whether you are wrapping last minute gifts or baking a struedel this the fun listen you didn’t know you needed.

Lots of us are bogged down with heavy environmental regulations and the delicately needed to calm our anxious neighbors. Olivia’s story offers blessed and naughty relief from all that. Just for an hour climb alongside the Robinhood sleigh of the Beaver Bandit.

You’re welcome.

ONE MAN’S TRASH IS ANOTHER MAN’S TREASURE

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver relocation December 1, 2024

I’ve been frustrated with Utah’s beaver relocation program in the past but this was very close to cheerful. The only missing piece is a discussion of how difficult and expensive relocation is for both humans and beavers and how flow devices can be used to coexist.

Utah program helping relocate beavers to restore environment

PARADISE, Cache County — Agencies from around the country are looking to Utah for a new program designed to help preserve our outdoor spaces, and it all has to do with the beaver.

“BEAVERS ARE HAVING A MOMENT”

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers November 23, 2024

This article made me smile. For obvious reasons I like the headline very much. It just gets better from there.

Beavers are having a moment!

In October, WildEarth Guardians’ Hop Hopkins (Executive Director), Lindsay Larris (Conservation Director), Chris Smith (Wildlife Program Director), and Joanna Zhang (Endangered Species Advocate) all attended BeaverCON in Boulder, Colorado.

Why? And what is BeaverCON? Read on to learn how beavers are “having a moment!”

Maybe this is a bit obvious, but I have to ask it first: what the heck is BeaverCON? When I mention it to my friends, most of them just look at me like I’m crazy. So what is it, and why did you go?

CS: I got a lot of funny looks when I told my friends about it. Someone asked if it was just a bunch of nerds who like beavers. And, that is kind of right, I guess. But, I’d say it’s a gathering of beaver nerds who are mostly interested in figuring out how to help this rodent help us.

Just so you know, Chris was one of two leaders of the New Mexico beaver summit that I plied with questions when he inspired me to try something like that in California.

HH: BeaverCON is a biennial International Conference organized by The Beaver Institute. The event is held every other year and this year’s event was held at the University of Colorado, Boulder. This was the third BeaverCON and my first time attending. It was attended by professionals, practitioners, researchers, and everyday people who are interested to learn from others and to celebrate beavers. Such a wonderfully conceived advocacy, educational, and social event.

Why are beavers important?

JZ: Brock Dolman, conservation biologist and permaculture teacher at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center has this mantra, “Slow it, spread it, sink it,” when it comes to water management. Beavers do exactly that. By building dams, and by extension ponds and wetlands, beavers reduce flow rates, increase water storage, trap sediment, create still-water habitats, and a myriad of other effects. From flood mitigation to wildfires to drought resilience, beavers are incredibly important partners to work with.

I’m looking at the attendee list and I see an enormous diversity of professions and perspectives. What do you make of so many crosscutting groups coming together to celebrate and restore a rodent?

HH: I had such a great time meeting other conservationists interested in employing nature-based solutions utilizing beaver-related ecological and community restoration strategies. There were presentations, workshops, field outings, and social events – something for everyone and every learning style. One could see this as single issue advocacy, however, it is an intersectional conservation systems thinking approach to addressing an interconnected set of ecological issues. This is an example of what the “Bigger We” looks like in practice – unlikely allies in the form of organizations, disciplines, and tribal communities converging to collectively realize a future of ecological balance and coexistence with beavers.

At the time I thought beavers were such a whiff of mild curiosity in California that the Summit needed to be virtual and cover a lot of short introductory topics to get attendance.

That seems so quaint now.

What was your favorite panel, speaker, or side conversation at the conference? What did you learn?

CS: I got to chat with Mickki Garrity (Potawatomi Nation) who is studying the interplay between wild rice and beavers in the Upper Midwest from an ecological and cultural perspective. I would mess up some of the details of what Mickki is researching, but my basic understanding is that wild rice can survive and thrive in beaver-engineered waterways, but is losing ground where beaver populations have decreased. I am very much a west-of-the-Rockies person, so I know next-to-nothing about the Midwest or wild rice. It was fascinating and lent me a totally different angle for why beavers matter so much to so many. Mickki also wrote this amazing story.

JZ: My favorite speaker was Cristina Mormorruni (co-founder and executive director of INDIGENOUS LED), who gave a talk called, “Between two worlds: relational conservation and restoring relations.” She explained her group’s Indigenized approach to conservation, which focuses on holistic, science-based, community-centered social change. Cristina highlighted the sanitized language used in Westernized conservation – for example, referring to forests or wild animals as “natural resources.” In this framework, mitigating and reversing extinction trajectories isn’t just addressing a biodiversity crisis, but restoring relationships with relatives.

I like the idea of beavers and wildrice thriving side by side. Makes sense to me.

What’s a “beaver believer?” Do you think of yourself as one? Why?

CS: I think a beaver believer is basically someone who has learned just enough to put a lot of faith and hope in a smelly, awkward rodent. I’m definitely a beaver believer. I’m always looking for answers and reasons to keep working toward a world that doesn’t always seem like it wants to emerge. Beavers are a good ally in that search.

JZ: I saw the documentary, “The Beaver Believers,” when it was part of the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival Tour in 2018, and that was the first time I heard the term. The documentary tells the story of a group of activists in the Mountain West who work with beavers to restore watersheds from the Cascades in Washington to an urban park in central California. I’d say a beaver believer is someone who sees the value in working with this unique species rather than trying to dominate nature with overengineered solutions.

Beavers are known as ecosystem engineers, and they can have far-reaching, sometimes surprising effects on the landscape and other species. What was the coolest beaver-related effect you heard about at the conference?

CS: It’s a little bit old hat to me now, but I’d be remiss to not spotlight the wildfire mitigation and refugia impacts that beavers can have. Dr. Emily Fairfax, who has been a friend of the New Mexico Beaver Project since our launch, has led the science on beavers and wildfires and seeing some of the photographic evidence of this relationship is always inspiring.

I’m so old I remember when beavers were just a punchline and you had to beat the bushes to fill 200 chairs at a conference.

CS: In New Mexico, Guardians is spearheading the New Mexico Beaver Project, advocating that the state invest in beaver coexistence and restoration on a broad scale.

When’s the next BeaverCON, and how can I get involved in helping beavers?

JZ: The dates for the next BeaverCon haven’t been announced yet, but I heard at the conference that it’s likely to be held at the University of Minnesota, where Dr. Emily Fairfax’s group is based. There are countless beaver-based projects happening across the country, so I’d recommend looking up your local restoration groups and environmental nonprofits and letting them know you’re interested in helping out.

Nowadays everybody and his brother wants to learn about or work for beavers. And its still only scratching the surface.

Things are better than they were but we all still have a lot of work to do.