Category: Attitudes towards beavers

BDAs to correct a century old problem

Bob Kobres Attitudes towards beavers, BDA's, Beaver ecological impact, Beavers, Beavers and water March 12, 2023

Leave it to Beaver: Partners Collaborate on Beaver Dam Analog Project

Mimicking Mother Nature for Maximum Impact with Minimal Financial and Environmental Cost

By Amanda Smith

“One plus one plus one equals six on this project,” said Kat Hall, restoration manager for The Lands Council, an environmental non-profit organization that seeks to preserve and restore Northwest ecosystems through partnerships.

The excitement is evident in Hall’s voice as she speaks about an innovative and collaborative effort to reconnect and restore aquatic habitat in Thompson Creek, a primary tributary to Newman Lake located northeast of Spokane, Washington. For the past 3 years, Hall has been part of what she calls “a dream team” of federal, state, and local partners to design, implement, and monitor beaver dam analogs (BDAs), human made structures inspired by nature’s busiest builder that efficiently improve the health of aquatic ecosystems.

Historically, Thompson Creek meandered through the lower watershed; but over a century ago, it was straightened to accommodate for agriculture, helping to reduce flooding for farmers. While the straightened channel was beneficial to the farmers, it had less desirable impacts on watershed health. The straighter, less natural flow path increased the speed of the water, led to the erosion of the bank, and transported more sediment and pollutants downstream into Newman Lake. This incision of the creek has also caused a disconnection between the creek and its surrounding floodplains, which has allowed for the dominance of reed canary grass in the area, a non-native species that outcompetes more diverse and beneficial vegetation.

Drone footage of a artificially straightened creek passing through an agricultural field. — Aerial photos taken of Thompson Creek before the completion of the beaver dam analog structures.

Drone footage of a creek beginning to widen and meander after the construction of a beaver dam analog. — Aerial photos taken of Thompson Creek after the completion of the beaver dam analog structures.

There doesn’t seem to be much food to entice beavers yet and that might be good for awhile due to the current poor water quality!:

“One of the primary concerns about straightening the channel and disconnecting it from its floodplain is the increased phosphorous levels we are seeing as a result,” explained Brian Walker, a private lands biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service). “Phosphorous travels with the sediment through Thompson Creek and ends up downstream in Newman Lake, which really impacts the water quality in the lake.”

While phosphorus is a naturally occurring and essential nutrient for plants and animals, too much of it can cause explosive growth of aquatic plants and algae. This can lead to a variety of water quality problems, including low dissolved oxygen concentrations, which can cause fish kills and harm other aquatic life. The major concern with phosphorus in Newman Lake is a toxic blue-green algae bloom that can cause the lake to be closed to recreation and private landowners (see a write-up from USGS on phosphorus and water quality).

“High levels of phosphorous are detrimental to both people and wildlife — just a couple licks of contaminated water can be lethal for pets; it’s pretty bad stuff,” said Walker. “But thankfully, we people are learning how to mimic wildlife to come up with a solution for us all!”

Phosphorous-laden sediment plume flowing into a waterway. — Phosphorous-laden sediment plume flowing from Thompson Creek

Improving Thompson Creek has long been a goal, and several time consuming and costly measures have been implemented in the past with varying degrees of success.

“We weren’t getting the results we hoped for from other projects and we needed to go in a different direction; we needed to get creative,” said Walker.

Inspiration struck in the form of brown fur and bucked teeth — beavers. Like ecosystem engineers, beavers manipulate their environment by building dams that slow the passage of water through a river and can act as a natural filter that cleans the water supply. Beaver dam analogs aim to do the same thing through creating roughness — think speed bumps — to slow water velocity and allow sediment and pollutants to settle. The beaver dam analogs will also raise the water level of Thompson Creek, reconnecting it to its floodplain and allowing for the growth of more natural vegetation to create a healthier ecosystem.

A completed beaver dam analog structure obstructing the flow of a creek. — A completed beaver dam analog structure on Thompson Creek.

“The Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program has had success with at least 20 BDAs in other Washington watersheds and, with the help of our “dream team,” we knew our odds of making positive change in Thompson Creek were high,” Walker said.

The “dream team,” compromised of partners from every level — The Lands Council, Partners for Fish & Wildlife Program at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, Gonzaga University, Spokane Conservation District, Newman Lake Property Owners Association, and Spokane County — got to work in 2019 and began making the beaver dam analogs in Thompson Creek a reality.

A group of people stands in a marsh near a beaver dam analog structure. — Engineering students from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington share the work with staff from the Service and The Lands Council during the implementation phase of the beaver dam analog project which involves pounding posts into the ground.

Read the entire piece here and there is an earlier report from The Spokesman-Review that includes this informative video on BDAs from Life on the Range below.

Heidi is still on the mend but hopes to be back to posting soon.

Bob

From Valley of the Beavers to Methow Valley Beavers

Bob Kobres Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver ecological impact, Beaver News, Beaver ponds, Beavers, Beavers and Bobcats, Beavers and Ice, History March 10, 2023

Methow Valley beavers are the stars in Wild Kingdom episode

BY MARCY STAMPER

The film crew from Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom visited three sites in the Methow Valley to highlight the role of beavers in restoring a healthy ecosystem. Local beavers — and work by the Methow Beaver Project (MBP) to create a healthy ecosystem — are starring in an upcoming episode of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. The “Eager Beavers” episode on the long-running nature show features three sites in the Methow Valley — a Twisp River side channel and the Bear Creek and Texas Creek watersheds. The program also highlights beaver-restoration work in Oregon and California. Eager Beavers, part of the Protecting the Wild series, premiers this month at WildKingdom.com. The beaver project is hosting a free screening on March 17. The episode showcases the role beavers play in creating a sustainable future across the country and, in particular, in the arid West, MBP Restoration and Outreach Assistant Willie Duguay said. The Wild Kingdom crew went to the Bear Creek watershed where beavers are helping reclaim an area that burned in the 2014 Carlton Complex Fire. The crew also looked at the connections between beavers and salmon habitat. Eager Beavers chronicles changing attitudes toward beavers. After widespread trapping, beavers had been extirpated from the West by the early 19th century. With few beavers on the landscape, people settled along rivers and took advantage of fertile soil in former floodplains, according to MBP.“ Long thought to be a nuisance animal, beavers have been waiting for their time to shine. Now as climate change, drought and other damaging ecological factors severely impact groundwater and wetland habitats, science is finally understanding the importance of these natural engineers for the health of our planet,” Wild Kingdom said.

Also, if you’re in the vicinity of Methow Valley, there will be a free screening:

The Methow Beaver Project is screening “Eager Beavers” on Friday, March 17, at 6 p.m. at the Methow Valley Community Center in Twisp. There will be beaver-themed trivia and a Q&A session. Admission is free. Beverages for adults and children will be available for purchase.
The episode will also be screened that same night at 6 p.m. at the Community Cultural Center in Tonasket.

Eager Beavers can be viewed on WildKingdom.com starting March 19.

Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, one of the earliest TV shows to feature nature and adventure, broadcast its first show 60 years ago. The Protecting the Wild series will be hosted by Peter Gros, co-host of the original series.

Eager Beavers is the sixth episode in the 10-part series.

More at the Methow Valley News.

In the meantime you can travel back in time to the early 1980s when Wild Kingdom aired Valley of the Beavers, which was shot in Canada. Probably due to the difficulty of finding healthy beaver habitat in the US at that time.

Valley of the Beavers, Part I

Valley of the Beavers, Part II

They’re each around twenty minutes long with some very good photography. Single mom raising her kits story.

Bob

WHO ARE PUBLIC LANDS FOR?

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver ecological impact March 3, 2023

Lots more good coverage of the beaver letter to Biden while the crazy beaver dam removal article from TWS dissolves into obscurity. This morning there is even coverage from Oregon Capitol Press, which means it will be seen by the broader capitol Press.!

Group asks Biden to ban beaver trapping on federal land

BAKER CITY, Ore. — A coalition is calling on President Joe Biden to issue an executive order banning trapping and hunting of beavers on public land managed by federal agencies.

The group, which sent a letter to the White House on Feb. 27, contends that killing beavers — most are trapped rather than hunted — is preventing beavers from expanding their populations.

They advocate for the federal government to help boost beaver numbers to take advantage of the benefits of their dams. Chief among those is storing water, both in ponds and wetlands, which can help ease the harmful effects of drought and climate change on a variety of activities, including farming and ranching, said Suzanne Fouty, a retired U.S. Forest Service hydrologist who lives in Baker City.

“Our public lands are the best place to begin landscape-scale stream, wetland and riparian recovery needed to help tackle the challenges our communities face,” Fouty said.

Fouty is one of two co-signers of the letter to Biden, along with Adam Bronstein, Oregon and Nevada director for the Western Watersheds Project.

Which is good because Suzanne was anxiously watching who might pick this up, the louder the message the more likely it is to be heard. The article itself seems a little AI to me because it quotes Fouty and then says “Says Fouty who has a doctorate”

Hahahahaha. Maybe you could say that a little better? You know like “Hydrologist/Soils specialist. Retired Forest Service from Wallowa-Whitman National Forest”

Just a thought.

The Herald and News out of Klamath Falls does a slightly better job.

Advocates urge Biden to protect beavers, Oregon’s state animal

Beavers are natural engineers. They build dams, slowing down and spreading water that would otherwise run off — and that makes them a natural ally for Biden’s climate agenda, said Suzanne Fouty, a retired U.S. Forest Service hydrologist who co-authored the letter.

“It turns out that wetlands, which beavers are capable of creating very effectively, are a tremendous carbon storage zone,” she told the Capital Chronicle.

Wetland soil can store up to 10 times more carbon than the same amount of forest soil, and up to 35 times more than grassland, the letter said. Carbon in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels is the primary driver of climate change, and scientists say we have to both reduce our emissions and pull more carbon out of the atmosphere to stabilize the climate.

Bronstein points out that beaver trapping is only one use that actively competes with the other services that wetlands with beavers can provide. In Oregon, fewer than 200 people actively trap and hunt beavers to sell their fur or because some landowners consider them pests. Others hunt them recreationally. “Public lands belong to all Americans, and wildlife is in our collective trust,” says Bronstein. “We want our public lands to provide the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people.

From your fingers to Biden’s ears, here’s hoping that this message gets carried outside Oregon soon.

BEAVERS GO THE WHITE HOUSE but TWS SAYS THEY HURT TROUT

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and trout March 1, 2023

This is unbelievable. It’s been days since there was a significant beaver news story and this morning there are two stories of exact opposite dramatic weight. Neither one can wait until tomorrow. There’s no alternative, you must hear about BOTH of them. The best of times and the worst of times. The zenith and the nadir. The story we’ve all been waiting for and the story that we’ve never expected to read.

My only love sprung from my only hate, said Juliet. I can’t do a split screen but let’s just look at the headlines side by side, shall we?

Lest you think I exaggerate YES that headline says President Biden and YES that other headline is from The FRIGGIN’ WILDLIFE SOCIETY. So you can see my dilemma. Let’s start with the good news. It will give us strength for the other part.

by Western Watersheds Project

Yesterday, this letter was delivered to President Biden requesting an executive order protecting beaver on federally managed public lands. “In order to fully realize the wide array of social, ecological, and economic benefits that beavers provide to human and wild communities, the federal government must take bold and decisive action,” said Adam Bronstein of Western Watersheds Project. “This executive order would provide clear direction and is needed because state wildlife agencies are too narrowly focused on the interest of hunters and trappers, leading to their continued failure to protect this critical keystone species. Anxieties are high and cut across state boundaries and addressing them requires a national strategy rather than a piecemeal approach.”

Why are beavers so important? Beavers and — the habitats they create — sequester vast amounts of carbon, provide vital habitat for fish and wildlife, create natural firebreaks, filter drinking water, store water during drought and temper flooding events. When beavers are removed from the landscape, these important benefits are lost. Beavers nearly went extinct in North America after centuries of fur trapping and extermination efforts and their populations have yet to recover across most areas of the United States. Protecting beavers by closing public lands to beaver trapping and hunting will vastly improve survival rates.

Suzanne Fouty wrote me weeks ago about this being in the works and Worth A Dam is a signatory to the letter but it’s nice to see the headline. The attached letter is a wonderful read and the signatories below are like a who’s who in the beaver world. Of course you know me, I wish it said something about killing beavers for other reasons like blockign culverts, but it’s a start and we all have our own fish to fry.

“Beavers are a keystone species, meaning that they play a crucial role in maintaining the biodiversity and stability of ecosystems,” adds Dr. William Ripple, Distinguished Professor of Ecology at Oregon State University. “Beavers have been referred to as ‘nature’s firefighters’ due to their ability to create wetland habitats that can act as natural firebreaks, slowing or even stopping the spread of wildfires.”

And as weather becomes increasingly unpredictable and severe and the economic, ecological, and emotional costs rise, we need all the help we can get. Long-time environmental advocate and singer/songwriter Carole King summed up the reality of the situation, “No matter how far downstream we live, beavers and their dams are beneficial to all of us because they create wetlands, mitigate drought and flooding, and filter pollutants from our rivers and streams.”

Nicely said. Beavers do a lot of things for the country that you say you want done. So lets not kill them. Except of course for in Michigan and Wisconsin where they degrade habitat and pollute our streams. How’s the whiplash coming along? This is from article II:

Beaver dams are a major cause of habitat degradation in the streams that drain into Lake Superior, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. While beaver ponds can be beneficial to some species of wildlife, obstructions on these small tributaries can negatively impact critical habitat for migrating fish, including brook trout, particularly during spawning season. A single obstruction has the potential to impact fish passage over miles of the stream and can disrupt gravel stream bottoms necessary for successful spawning, decrease stream flow causing lower oxygen levels and negatively increase water temperature.

We expect malarkey like this from USDA. I mean goodness what else are they likely to do. But to read this report in THE WILDLIFE SOCIETY? Honest TWS has done some of the best and earliest beaver education in the country. In fact way back when the Martinez beavers were in danger I remember one of my most hopeful moments was when fellow committee member Igor Skaredoff attended a TWS beaver conference in Oregon. I expect better from them. Good lord.

Wildlife Services coordinated with the Michigan and Wisconsin departments of natural resources to identify stream locations that represented traditional coaster brook trout habitat. Staff then surveyed designated streams on foot, watercraft and fixed-wing aircraft to identify stream barriers. After locating beaver activity and dams through surveying, barriers were removed using a combination of hand pulling and explosives.

From 2018 to 2021, where the goal was to protect areas of coastal wetland and other habitats in Michigan, Wildlife Services staff monitored targeted areas along 19 streams, surveying approximately 200 acres and removing 120 beaver dams. During the same timeframe, Wildlife Services staff in Wisconsin worked to maintain stream connectivity established for aquatic species. Wisconsin Wildlife Services staff monitored targeted areas along 32 streams, spanning just over 300 miles, and removed a total of 225 beaver dams.

We are living in times of feast and times of famine. The best of times and the worst of times. The beaver renaissance and the beaver dark ages. It ain’t over until it’s over, Your help is still need.

Stay vigilant.

NOPE IT’S NOT APRIL FOOLS. IT’S ANOTHER BEAVER FESTIVAL!

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver Art, Festival February 28, 2023

What if there was just one beaver festival in all the world every summer for fourteen years. And then, suddenly there were two!

This graphic was dropped yesterday by the San Luis Obispo Beaver Brigade. It’s the creation of Terre Dunivant, the artist who helped with our flyer last year when Amelia could not. I love the language “Habitat Creator”. It’s like the term job creator for wildlife.

Isn’t that marvelous? Turns out Wes and Margie the two helpers who came to our festival last year will come up in March and get whatever materials we can share, like our beaver lawn signs and some larger artwork so that we can be there in spirit, showing them 14 years of support and cheering them on.