Category: Attitudes towards beavers

LEGISLATING BEAVERS TAKES TIME

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver ecological impact, Beaver population April 25, 2023

The Beaver Bill AB 64 came up for review in today’s California Assembly this morning. I was particularly interested in some of the changes and additions they made and thought you might be too. I missed the hearing but believe it may be online tomorrow.

(i) Beaver restoration includes coexistence, habitat enhancement and expansion, process-based mimicry, and relocation.

That right there is a Major addition. Restoration doesn’t just mean moving nuisance beavers. It means MARTINEZ and FAIRFIELD and SONOMA and DODY RESERVE and TAHOE every that flow devices have been installed and trees have been wrapped. Everywhere that BDAs have been installed.

(d) (1) If a wild beaver that is released onto public lands pursuant to this section migrates naturally onto private property, the private landowner of the property where the beaver now resides may request that the department relocate the beaver. The department shall comply with the landowner’s request determine whether relocation is necessary and feasible in a timely manner.

(b) (1) If, for the purpose of preventing damage to private or public lands, structures, or other improvements of value, a landowner needs to remove, breach, or modify a beaver dam that is utilized by the wild beaver relocated pursuant to subdivision (a) and that is located on the landowner’s property, the landowner shall submit a request for alteration to the department at least 48 72 hours prior to altering the dam.

(2) (A) If the department finds that the beaver dam poses no risk to private or public lands, structures, or other improvements of value, or is found to be providing critical habitat for any listed species pursuant to the California Endangered Species Act (Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 2050) of Division 3), then the request for alteration may be denied. The department shall provide to the landowner, in writing and in a timely manner, the reasons why the department denied that landowner’s request for alteration. These reasons shall include a justification on behalf of the department as to why the dam does not need or warrant alteration.

You asked for these beavers. Now it’s your job to either deal with the issues that arise or save all the frickin fish in the stream that are threatened if we give you permission to mess with the dam.

(B) If the request for alteration is approved, the landowner shall be responsible for monitoring the parts of the upstream and downstream that reside of the altered beaver dam on their property for stranded fish in isolated pools. The department shall provide guidance to the landowner regarding monitoring requirements. The landowner shall make a good-faith good faith effort to capture and safely move all stranded or isolated fish to the nearest free-flowing water.

So There.

4030. (a) The department shall, through consultation with beaver restoration program partners, develop a program to promote beaver restoration across California by revising policies and guidelines relating to beavers, coordinating restoration efforts, proactively mitigating human-beaver conflict, and relocating beavers into watersheds.

(b) No later than January 1, 2025, the department shall expand the program described in subdivision (a) to do both of the following:

(1) Develop a required training for the capture, handling, transport, and release of beavers on public and private lands.

(2) Develop a licensing scheme that includes the issuance and administration of permits for the capture, handling, transport, and release of beavers on public and private lands. Any costs imposed shall not exceed the reasonable costs to the department for the implementation and administration of the licensing scheme.

(c) Nothing in this article shall be interpreted to imply that federally recognized tribes shall be required to obtain training or a permit to capture, handle, transport, or release beavers on lands held in federal trust for a tribe’s benefit.

(d) As used in this article, “beaver restoration program partners” means federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, federally recognized tribes, nonfederally recognized California Native American tribes included on the contact list maintained by the Native American Heritage Commission, academic programs, and other entities.

Get on it already, It’s practically May.

This remains my VERY FAVORITE PART of this bill because I am proud for my own kittle role in proving it to their satisfaction”

(a) The North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) is a keystone species that is native to California and was once prevalent in watersheds throughout the state.

I GUESS EXXON ISN’T TOTALLY OFF THE HOOK YET

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers April 24, 2023

Every so often someone makes a mistake and actually says something reasonable about beavers. Even in Alaska where they are blamed for global warming and ruining the permafrost.

As beavers gain foothold in Arctic Alaska, some see benefits in how they reshape the landscape

“We think of these beaver ponds like oases in the Arctic, oases of warmth, biodiversity, permafrost thaw,” said Ken Tape, an ecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “We used to think Arctic streams were these little free-flowing things about as wide as my office. And it turns out that once beavers get involved, that’s not what our Arctic streams look like. They look like wetlands because of all these beaver dams.”

Tape — together with Benjamin Jones, research assistant professor at the Water and Environmental Research Center at UAF; biology doctoral student Sebastian Zavoico; and Northwest Alaska writer Seth Kantner — traveled by snowmachine from Nome to Kotzebue in recent weeks to study how beavers are changing the landscape.

While the implications of beavers’ increasing presence aren’t yet clear, several Northwest Alaska residents welcome the change. Beavers, they say, provide an additional food source for locals and create a more diverse environment.

More diverse is good right? I mean a more diverse environment is what you want, right?

“Unlike other animals in the Arctic that sort of migrate or move with the seasons, beavers are very reliable,” Kantner said. “They are almost like money in the bank: If you ever get hungry or we have starvation or need furs and need food, they’re an incredible resource.”

Um. Okay. We can always eat them later. I guess that’s a positive. But you know what ELSE? You can always eat all the fish and birds and caribou that move north because of the access to increased water too. And if you don”t eat them you can have those fish and fowl populations LONGER.

Researchers knew that the beavers have used springs and hot springs to gain a foothold in the Arctic because those are the first places where the habitat is really available, Tape said. So out of curiosity, they set up time-lapse cameras to observe them at Serpentine Hot Springs.

I like the idea of beavers utelizing hot springs, and if you click on the headline of the article you can watch a nice video of a beaver slipping by in freezing conditions and a hot tub. Sorry I can’t embed it but it’s fun.

Kantner, who was born along the Kobuk River, has his own experience to share. When he was growing up, there were already beavers in the area and people used them for meat and fur. He said he always had a lot of respect for beavers as animals.

“I personally always admired them because, you know, it lived very close to where I lived and had been hard-working all the time as I am too,” he said. “We sort of felt like we lived a little bit more like beavers because they were just a mile or two away in their latitudes with their hard work and hardscrabble life, and there we were, in our little sod igloo with a tunnel entrance.”

Changing the Arctic

When beavers make ponds, they alter the hydrology and tend to thaw the permafrost, Tape said. This can be a big issue in locations with a lot of ice-rich permafrost, like the Baldwin Peninsula and the northern part of the Seward Peninsula, though for now, beavers are actually occupying a relatively small part of the Arctic, Tape said.

“It’s not that every single beaver pond is thawing permafrost, but a lot of them do,” Tape said. “We think that they’re accelerating climate change. Is it a huge deal? Not clear right now.”

Ohhhh PULEEZE. Is it a problem that all those melting icebergs make the sun more reflectant and heats the ocean? Are icebergs hastening global warming?

There is one researcher in this article that actually does not make me want to pull the rest of my hair out.

Kantner pointed out that of all the causes for the warming Arctic, an increased beaver presence might not be the biggest. “The land is definitely melting but I’m not about to blame that on beaver,” he said.

Thank the GODS for Seth Kantner, Northwest Alaska writer. If one man out of ten can make sense in Alaska we can hope for some day 2 and then half and then all.

Well, a girl can dream anyway.

BEAVERS TO TAKEOVER IN BC & TENNESSEE’S COLORFUL SOLUTION

Bob Kobres Attitudes towards beavers, Creative Solutions, Mowachat/Muchalaht First Nation, Who's defending beavers now?, Who's living with beavers now? April 15, 2023

Beavers could help replace artificial dams being decommissioned in B.C. watersheds

Ducks Unlimited Canada is working on a project to repopulate wetlands with beavers to promote biodiversity

Maryam Gamar · CBC News

A team led by Ducks Unlimited is currently assessing areas in B.C. where beavers — which were historically over-trapped to make room for engineered dams — could wind up replacing them. (Submitted by Robert Perkins)

Members of a Canadian conservation organization are working on a project to increase biodiversity and healthy wetlands in British Columbia with the help of beavers. Ducks Unlimited Canada is mapping areas in the province where beavers can replace artificial dams once they’ve been decommissioned.

“Beavers are a keystone species,” said Jen Rogers, a master’s student at Simon Fraser University working with Ducks Unlimited Canada. “They’re considered ecosystem engineers.”

“The team is currently assessing areas across the province where beavers were historically over-trapped to make room for engineered dams.”

Many of those artificial structures are now decades old and due to be replaced. The team hopes to restore the beaver population, not only to replace the dams but to provide the added value of restoring biological diversity to the landscape.

Roger Dunlop, a biologist and the manager of lands and natural resources for the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation, says bringing the beavers back would have a positive domino effect on other parts of the ecosystem.

He has been monitoring Gold River water levels since the 1950s and is concerned about the increasingly low levels. He blames the change on reforestation.

“We’ve replaced [old-growth forests] with young, rapidly growing super tree plantations that require much more water,” said Dunlop. The water loss has, in turn, caused a decline in freshwater species, and as warmer months approach, the risk of drought increases.

He says that reintroducing beavers can “rehydrate the landscape,” giving it a break from overuse. Beaver ponds help surrounding land absorb water, allowing it to resist droughts and floods.

“If you think about it, forestry in B.C. is really overgrazing, just at a larger scale,” said Dunlop. “The blades of grass are just trees, right?”

Dunlop says his expertise as a biologist informs his work, as does his identity as a member of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation. He says First Nations communities involving themselves in biodiversity work is important.

“They’re exercising their right to take better management control of this particular landscape that’s really been over-harvested,” he said.

Take a look at the whole article. There’s a recent interview with Ducks Unlimited Canada‘s Jen Rogers and Roger Dunlop from the Mowachat/Muchalaht First Nation by CBC’s Gregor Craigie that you can listen to, plus a couple of links to past posts about how dam important and brilliant we beaver folks are!

Now for some colorful conflict resolution:

Chattanooga park staff finds solution to beaver problem at Ross’s Landing

by Emily Crisman, Chattanooga Times Free Press

Staff Photo by Olivia Ross / Painted trees are seen along Rosss Landing on Tuesday. The trees were painted with nontoxic latex paint with sand added to deter beavers from chewing on the trees.

Chattanooga beavers are especially eager this year to acquire building materials for their dams from Ross’s Landing, where the city’s Parks and Outdoors Department is taking unusual measures to manage the damage to the trees along the riverfront.

The parks team recently planted new trees along the riverfront at Ross’s Landing, and team members chose to plant bald cypress trees because beavers usually leave those alone. But the trees repeatedly were being damaged or taken down completely, sometimes within 24 hours of planting, city of Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors Communications and Marketing Director Brian Smith said in an email.

The beavers’ chewing can damage or kill the trees and cause them to fall onto the nearby playground and path, making them a safety hazard, he said.

The parks team tried several methods to deter the beavers from gnawing on the trees. Team members put fences around them, but the beavers climbed the fences and continued to chew. Then they put hot sauce on the trees, which kept the beavers from chewing them, but the sauce washed off in the rain.

Park staff cannot trap and relocate the beavers, because according to state law, beavers must be euthanized if trapped, Smith said.

Staff Photo by Olivia Ross / Painted trees are seen along Rosss Landing on Tuesday. The trees were painted with nontoxic latex paint with sand added to deter beavers from chewing on the trees.

The best solution they settled on — which is recommended by the Humane Society of the United States — was to paint the trees using nontoxic interior latex paint diluted with water and mixed with sand, which irritates the beavers’ teeth enough to encourage them to look elsewhere for a snack.

Pretty gritty I’d say, but considering what often happens, it’s A-OK with me! Read the rest of the report.

And don’t forget to sign the petition to protect we beaver folks on federal lands! It’s important!!

Bob

Beaver on the move, another on the mend, plus BI’s new Elevator Pitch

Bob Kobres Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver News, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers, Beavers in Wales, The Beaver Institute, Urban beavers, Video, Who's saving beavers now? April 13, 2023

It’s not clear yet whether this is one beaver who escaped from elsewhere or a pair who were released by rewilders, but it sounds like a good dam move to me!

Dam it! Couple discover elusive night-time garden vandals are actually the first wild BEAVERS in Wales for over 400 years

By FFION HAF Daily Mail

A couple whose garden was being vandalised in the night has uncovered a surprising culprit in Wales’ first wild beaver for 400 years.

The dam-building rodent was discovered by a husband and wife who noticed trees going missing and machete-like damage in a field next to their house in Pembrokeshire, west Wales.

Curious about the cause of the damage, the homeowners bought a ‘stealth camera’ which captured footage of the creature swimming in their pond and felling their trees.

The origins of the beaver are unexplained, but the landowners believe it may have come from an unsanctioned release by rewilding enthusiasts.

The rodent has been found living near a rural property where it has started to build itself a lodge under the family’s pond deck.

Nicknamed Anthony by the family – after military historian Antony Beevor – the herbivore has become as ‘fat as a pig’ spending as much as six hours a night chewing tree trunks and dragging branches around.

The discovery is only the fourth time a beaver has been found living wild in Britain.

Beavers – which can grow to be the size of a large spaniel – were hunted to extinction in Britain 400 years ago, but have been slowly reintroduced in recent years.

The landowners, who wished to remain anonymous to protect the location of the animal, were ‘astonished’ to discover the herbivore was living behind their house.

They said: ‘Some of our trees began to go missing overnight and others were simply being mauled. It looked like someone was hitting them with a machete.

‘There are no deer in Pembrokeshire, so we couldn’t work out what was causing the damage.

‘The only clue were some teeth marks left in the bark.’

Two weeks after first noticing the damage, the couple decided to buy a £100 stealth camera and leave it out overnight to try and catch the vandal in action.

When they reviewed the footage a week later, they spotted the creature.

‘To our astonishment, the camera showed a beaver swimming around our pond and eating our trees. We couldn’t believe it.

‘Since then, it has cleared quite a few trees and branches.

‘There is nothing subtle about a beaver. They are very easy to spot.’

The closest official colony of beavers to Pembrokeshire is in the Dyfi Estuary over 50 miles away in Mid Wales, where no escapes have been reported.

‘It’s much more likely the beaver has been released in Pembrokeshire by a determined rewilder’, the landowners added.

Since their reintroduction to the country in Argyll in 2009, beaver numbers have been increasing across the UK through enclosed colonies set up by various wildlife trusts.

But this is only the fourth time a beaver has been found living wild in Britain.

Other wild populations were discovered in Scotland’s Tay-Forth catchment area, in East Devon’s River Otter and on the Avon near Bristol.

A similar beaver discovery was made in East Devon in 2014, despite there being no reintroduction trials in the area.

Initially, DEFRA planned to remove the beavers, but the Devon Wildlife Trust persuaded them to allow England’s first wild beaver trial.

The trial was successful and in 2020 DEFRA announced the beavers could stay. In October 2022, beavers were protected by law in England.

But in Wales, where environmental law-making is devolved, no such protection exists, and the discovery of a wild beaver could now force the Welsh Government to legislate on the issue.

The Pembrokeshire landowners continued: ‘It looks like the Welsh Government need to legislate or they’ll be in danger of trying to close the stable door after the horse has bolted.

‘With so many enclosed beavers around Britain, you wonder how long it will be before there are more escapees.’

The animals, which can live for as long as ten years and weigh up to 30kg, are not universally popular.

In Scotland, where beavers have been so successful many farmers feel their livelihoods are being threatened because beaver dams can flood valuable farmland.

The Scottish Government has even begun issuing licenses to cull them.

But rewilders call this ‘ecosystem engineering’ and highlight the positive effects of wetland creation, providing habitat for animals like otters, water voles, toads, frogs and wildfowl.

This is what makes beavers a ‘keystone species’, in other words, they are the glue that holds a habitat together.

We are key! Have a look at the entire report — lots more photos!

Now for a tale of a wounded tail.

Kelowna’s downtown beaver on the mend

By JACQUELINE GELINEAU KELOWNA CAPITAL NEWS

Eva Hartmann — Interior Wildlife Rescue Society

One of Kelowna’s urban beavers is back splish-splashing after being rescued with an injured tail.

The beaver was captured from the Rotary Park Marsh on April 5, after a pedestrian noticed the sick-looking critter and contacted the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (IWRS).

The volunteers jumped into action and took the beaver to a vet to have the abscess drained. While waking up from the sedation, the beaver was given carrots and sweet potato, but she is now back on her regular diet of ‘browse’ such as twigs and other high-growing vegetation, said Eva Hartmann, founder of IWRS and registered veterinarian technician.

Everyday volunteers head out to the bush and pick twigs for the beaver to snack on.

Beavers munch on the tissue layer found just under the bark. Hartmann said the downtown girl in the IWRS’ care only likes to snack on poplar trees. The beaver spat out the Saskatoon berry bush and pine tree twigs that were collected for her. Hartmann laughed and said that she knew beavers preferred poplar and willow trees, but didn’t realize how picky they could be.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kelowna Capital News ?????? (@kelownacapitalnews)

That’s quite a video but beavers usually have a bit deeper voices. ;*)= Click for the rest of the story and more pics.

A new video was released from the Beaver Institute that is fantastic but they are going to tweak it and re-release it at a later date for now. Just know good things are afoot. Sneak preview my favorite line is that your local beaver pond is your rainforest, and your coral reef. How smart is that? This is a special edit from heidi who came home yesterday and is trying to figure things out.

Pretty cool, I think! And don’t forget to sign the petition to protect we beaver folks on federal lands! It’ important!!

Bob

You Can Help Keep Beaver Safe on Public Lands!

Bob Kobres Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver News, Beavers, Podcast, Who's defending beavers now?, Why We Care April 11, 2023

This is important! Listen to this podcast. It’s great!

Toward An Executive Order Protecting Beaver on Federally Managed Public Lands

By Jack Humphrey Rewilding Earth

An interview with Suzanne Fouty and Adam Bronstein

Suzanne Fouty has been exploring the issues of water and the return of wolves in the West for over 30 years, the contributions made by beaver to ecosystems for over 25 years, and the synergy between beavers and wolves in restoring stream systems for over 10 years.

Her work on wolves began in 1990 at Yosemite Institute where she gave weekly presentations to students on the pending return of wolves to the West and some of the social questions in play related to livestock grazing and ranching on public lands and wolves.

She worked for the Forest Service in eastern Oregon as a hydrologist and soils specialist for almost 16 years before retiring in 2018. Since retiring she has been deeply involved in five recent efforts to close federally-managed public lands in Oregon to beaver trapping and hunting as a proactive response to climate change and biodiversity loss.

Suzanne was included in the PBS Nature episode “Leave it to Beavers” and featured in the film “The Beaver Believers.” Her writing and presentations have been primarily for the general public to share how beavers and wolves contribute to preparing communities for climate change via stream and wetland restoration, and the social and political obstacles getting in the way of those contributions.

Adam Bronstein is the director for Oregon and Nevada with Western Watersheds Project, a non-profit conservation organization working to protect and restore public lands and wildlife throughout the West. He is the host of Wilderness Podcast and also serves as board president of the Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Alliance in Bozeman, Montana, working to protect the remaining wilderness-quality lands of the Custer-Gallatin National Forest.

Topics

History of Beaver trapping and hunting on public lands

The requested executive order to close federally managed lands to beaver hunting and trapping

Drought and flood management with Beavers on the landscape

Beavers and their role as a keystone species

Extra Credit

Read the letter here

SIGN THE PETITION!

Beaver Benefits and Closure FAQ (PDF)

The world’s biggest banks have pumped trillions into fossil fuel projects in the past 5 years – Bank article mentioned by Suzanne in this episode

Show transcript (PDF)

Below are some posters that you can post on your favorite social media sites to let more people know about the petition and why it’s important to treat us as a partner and not as a product or problem!