BOUCHER BELIEVES IN BEAVERS

It made me happy to see this headline the other day…I guess Bob isn’t retiring any time soon…

Boucher shares a healthcare plan for the watersheds

At the FLOW Science Symposium, held on September 23, at the River Arts Center in Prairie du Sac, Bob Boucher, founding president of the Superior Bio-Conservancy (SBC) shared his healthcare plan for watersheds, including the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway. His talk was entitled ‘Rewilding with Beavers: Improving Hydrology, Biodiversity and Climate Resilience.’

“Beavers are the original ecosystem engineers and habitat builders, and when humans can find ways to work with them and co-exist, the co-benefits will be profound,” Boucher explained. “The hydrological structure of streams with beavers give us the ideal shape to store and retain water on the landscape, increased resilience in the face of weather and climate extremes, improved water quality, stable quantities of water, increased biodiversity, flood reduction and climate resilience.”

And he’s off! One thing that particularly impresses me about Bob is how he gets the media to write down what he says exactly, and not fill in their gaps in attention with their own made up misinformation.

“Beavers were locally extinct in the Milwaukee River watershed by 1730,” Boucher explained. “All rivers in Wisconsin in pre-settlement times had a beaver pond structure.”

According to Boucher, beavers, when included in a natural watershed and landscape management plan, retain eight times as much volume of water as in watersheds without them. This results in making the watersheds flood resistant. They also filter and cool the groundwater entering the system, producing increased stream health, complexity and biological productivity.

“Essentially, beaver ponds function as sewerage treatment plants and storm detention ponds,” Boucher said. “Beavers create conditions for the abundance of flora and fauna, and natural predators create a counter pressure and help to regulate the populations. Home territories of predators focus on connected routes between beaver wetland complexes.”

Nicely done Bob, tie it into something they can relate to.

According to Boucher, including beavers in a watershed increases the amount of water retained on the landscape. This provides numerous ecological benefits, and supports the goals of ‘biological integrity’ in the Clean Water Act by:

• creating habitat and shelter for fish, plants and organisms

• reduction of pollutants, especially nitrates

• cleaner water through filtration and recharging groundwater

• stabilizes water temperature to be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

“Beaver wetland ponds are keystone habitats to waterfowl, and all bird populations, including ducks, geese, swans, cranes, herons, bitterns, egrets, and more,” Boucher pointed out. “They also create connected habitats that facilitate species migration, which is crucial given the plummet in bird populations in recent years.”

Beaver wetland ponds also, by retaining more water on the landscape, can serve as firebreaks and a refuge for species during a wildfire, according to Boucher.

Perhaps the most significant benefit of co-existing with beavers for humans is the ability of their ponds to support storm water storage. With the increasingly large and intense rainfall events seen in recent years, beaver ponds serve as natural storm water retention structures, similar to the dams built by humans. These structures, like dams, store the runoff and release it slowly.

Dam that reporter is paying attention. Didn’ t I tell you? Bob and I did a talk together for the Oakmont Symposium a couple years ago, a smart ecological group of movers and shakers in Sonoma. He was a man who was often mystified by technology and absolutely brilliant when it came to explaining beavers.

Wisconsin out of step

Boucher pointed out that the State of Wisconsin is completely out of step with most states in terms of beaver management. He said that from 2000-2021, there had been 37,205 beavers killed in the state. He said this had ‘accidentally’ resulted in the killing of more than 2,200 otters.

“Wisconsin DNR sees beavers as threatening trout streams and creating nuisance flooding,” Boucher said. “On June 22, 2023, the Superior Bio-Conservancy filed a lawsuit against the USDA for killing 28,141 beavers, 1,091 river otters and destroying 14,796 beaver dams in 10 years, with all of the activity funded by the Wisconsin DNR. In 2022 alone, these activities hit a record high by killing 3,492 beavers – a figure more then three times the number anticipated in the 2013 environmental assessment.”

According to Boucher, the lawsuit alleges that as a result of this activity, WDNR and USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) have destroyed wetlands, weakened flood resiliency and hampered biodiversity in the State of Wisconsin. The funds used for this ‘Beaver Elimination Program’ total millions of dollars, including revenue from timber sales from Wisconsin’s national forests.

According to WDNR, 32 percent of the state’s listed species are wetland dependent, and the state has already lost 47 percent of its original 10 million acres of wetlands. Thus, Boucher explained, beaver and beaver dam elimination further devastates and destroys the precious remaining damaged wetlands.

“After the 2013 assessment, APHIS failed to carry out the requirement to conduct annual reports on the beaver elimination program until 2020, when the six years prior were reviewed. The conclusion was that a revision to the program was needed because the amount of beavers killed was triple the amount targeted,” Boucher said. “And WNDR is no better, not following any accepted wildlife management guidelines for beaver. There is no WDNR tagging requirement or bag limit for the beaver trapping season, and in 2014, they discontinued all population counts.”

“To avoid being sued, APHIS responded to our lawsuit by August 17,” Boucher said. “We are hopeful that this will cause all stakeholders, and especially WDNR to review and revise the ongoing outdated beaver elimination program.”

Well to be fair, killing lots of beavers is right in step with most states including California. It’s just that the reason they do it is unique in all the world except for the next state over which is also insane. Blowing up beaver dams to save trout is deeply insane. Good luck fixing that Bob.

In summary, Boucher detailed things that citizens can do to produce a beaver management plan in the state that allows us to capture their ecosystem services for the benefit of humans, and allow for co-existence between beavers and humans:

• become a ‘Beaver Believer’ and encourage others to become one too

• talk with elected representatives to promote legislation and policies aimed toward co-existence and beaver protection

• promote non-lethal management

• continue learning, and stay engaged.

Well that’s pretty good advice for everyone and not just the part about beavers! Thanks Bob.

NEW YORK PULLS A ‘MARTINEZ’

Pass the popcorn, this is my favorite kind of story. From New York.

Order to trap and kill beavers halted in Orchard Park

“The traps are not in place at the moment. No beavers are being trapped at the moment. We heard the public comments and we delayed that action and we are going to listen to what solutions are brought forward,” Town of Orchard Park councilperson Scott Honer said.

Well isn’t that special! 6 whole people came to the podium! The town wised up and wouldn’t let people from out of town speak at the podium. Hmm I wonder what that would have meant to Martinez. There were soo many townies in line that the lookie loos who had just seen it on the news didn’t want to waste their time standing in line.

To this day I still meet people who said they were there but didn’t speak because so many other people were doing it for them.

New York has Beavers Wetlands and Wildlife at rolodex and Mike and Skip are just a stones throw away. I’m guessing this moves along quickly in the right direction.

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“It says nature trail. The beavers are the part of nature. There must be some way to possibly keep them there and maybe somebody will have to go out and not mess with their dams and make sure the bridges aren’t overflowing with water or whatever they said they were causing,” Orchard Park resident Lisa Kuppens said.

You know that if I were there I couldn’t resist telling the council that the either needed to save the beavers or change the name of the park. Putting in all new signs is expensive. Which would they rather do?

LIFE IS BETTER WITH BEAVERS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver Anatomy October 18, 2023

This was a fine study to emerge yesterday. No one at all should be surprised, but we can all bask in the glow of having it prove exactly what we all knew it would.

Study shows beavers had a big influence on how people in the Stone Age lived

For thousands of years, beavers had a big influence on the Dutch ecosystem and the people that lived there. This is the conclusion of research by archaeologist Nathalie Brusgaard. The rodents were used for food, clothing and tools, and created a landscape hospitable to many other species.

Together with fellow archaeologist Shumon Hussain (Aarhus University), Brusgaard analyzed previous excavations in the Netherlands, southern Scandinavia, the Baltic region and Russia. These showed that beavers were a much larger part of the human diet and landscape of northern Europe than had previously been thought.

Hunter-gatherers hunted beavers in the Middle and Late Stone Age for their meat, fur and castoreum, and used their bones and teeth to make tools. Beavers were one of the most common mammals at some archaeological sites in the Netherlands according to research recently published in The Holocene.

According to Brusgaard, the beavers created a diverse ecosystem. They change the water level in their habitat so the entrance to their lodge is flooded but they can sleep in the dry. To achieve this, they need the water at a certain level, which they control by building dams.

Other organisms, such as fish, waterfowl and certain plants, benefit from the resulting landscape. “Beavers create a lot of dynamism in a forest, which is good for biodiversity. At archaeological sites where there were many beaver traces, there were also many traces of otters, wild boar, pike, perch and carp. These species thrive in the ecosystem that beavers create.”

Do get that? For thousands of years primitive man found life better and more comfortable and more rewarding when they were beavers around, not just to dress up in their furs or carve things with their teeth but because they were actively making the world better for a million other species which they were going to use later.

Life is better with beavers. Say it with me now.

The research suggests that people liked to live in these “beaver landscapes” because of the presence of food and resources. “We suspect that hunter-gatherers benefited from the rich biodiversity that beavers created.” It is clear from traces on bone remains that people ate beavers. Research on beaver skulls shows that hunters killed them with a blow to the head, presumably to avoid damaging the fur to ensure it could still be used. Beaver jaws and teeth were used to make woodworking tools.

Brusgaard’s research shows that humans benefitted from beavers for thousands of years. “We can learn lessons from the past. And we all benefit from a healthy ecosystem. We have to learn once again to live with beavers.”

Annnnd scene! I could not have said that better myself Nathalie…you have all my full endorsement. So by the time that we completely destroyed the population for greed, we already knew how important they were for thousands of years and decided to do it anyway,

Not a surprise.

THE RETURN OF THE BEAVERS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver Art October 15, 2023

I was thrilled to come across this yesterday. Make sure to watch it and share with all of your contacts. Then explain to me how it is this came out in May and I never saw it until now?

SONOMA WOULD LIKE BDAs – NOT Bs

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, BDA's October 14, 2023

We received word yesterday from the city of Martinez that we were awarded a grant for our next beaver festival, which is always nice to know. It’s like a legitimacy stamp on our forehead and gives us the courage to march forth another year. This article from Sonoma by Bill Lynch seems to imply their considering beaver wisdom as well.

Musings: Sonoma Valley beaver analogs coming?

I was happy to read in a recent edition of the Index-Tribune that the Sonoma Ecology Center and those concerned with Sonoma Valley’s groundwater sustainability are considering the merit of creating man-made beaver dams on Sonoma Creek as a way to help boost groundwater supplies and other benefits that come from having more water in our creeks.

I first wrote about this idea in May of 2017 after returning from Scott Valley, where the Scott River, a relatively small tributary of the Klamath River, meanders through an area that was once heavily mined for gold and is now mostly devoted to cattle ranching.

Of course you’re aware that having a discussion of the value of BDAs means that you’re quite naturally going to provoke a discussion of the actual BEAVERS themselves right? According to my records Sonoma has killed beavers about 12 times in the past decade and I’m not entirely sure you deserve BDAs until you fully commit yourself to the animals they might encourage.

While we were there for the fishing in the ponds, the property owners told us that they were working with a local organization to restore fishing in the nearby Scott River. They said that the river is slowly being brought back to life thanks to a small, but determined, group of local residents who formed the Scott River Watershed Council (SRWC) in 1992.

The river, which dried up during most summers like Sonoma Valley’s creeks do now, was no longer suitable for trout and salmon fry (nor are our creeks.)

The more I heard about the project, the more I wanted to learn.

Fortunately, Dottie and I were able to meet with Betsy Stapleton, local chairman of the SRWC. She told us that several years ago, the group began constructing “beaver dam analogs,” which are human-made structures that mimic natural beaver dams, store water and create habitat for all kinds of local species, including steelhead trout and Coho salmon. Over time, these natural-looking dams create pools where fish can survive.

I agree Betsy is admirable. She has done years of hard work trying to coaxe her neighbors to see the value of saving water by saving it’s stewards. In fact there’s even a movie about her…

Betsy took us to the river and showed us some of the work her group has done on the creek, including putting in dams. The results are impressive. The beaver analog dams are actually working. There’s lots of water and all that it supports, including fish in places that were once bone dry all summer.

Betsy said that she and the SRWC committee receive a lot of support from local residents, including the ranchers, who see the benefit of having a healthy watershed in their area.

They understand that these man-made virtual beaver dams are able to preserve large areas of fresh, clean water in which Coho and trout fry are surviving. Every season, the fish count goes up.

Just remember that there is just one thing that builds perfect BDAs over and over without grant money or fundraisers. And it has a flat tail.

It seems to me that our local grape growers would feel the same way about Sonoma Valley’s watershed. Fortunately, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Beaver analog dams have already been built in other places like Scott Valley, with measurable success. I hope this idea turns into real action here.