TELLURIDE UNDERSTANDS BEAVER BENEFITS

heidi08 BDA's, Beaver ecological impact January 27, 2022

I have read headlines with nearly every B pun possible. Beaver battles. Beaver Bites. Beaver Bitter. But I rarely get a bun in the right direction. This one pleases me.

New partnership focuses on stream and wetlands restoration

In December, Adrian Bergere was officially named executive director of the San Miguel Watershed Coalition (SMWC), an independent nonprofit established in 1997 that works to maintain and improve the ecological health of all 80 miles of the free-flowing San Miguel River and its connected watershed system, including rivers, lakes, wetlands and tributaries. Now, Bergere and Western Colorado University graduate student Paul Kieras are looking to enlist interested landowners in a processed-based restoration project that utilizes beaver dam analogues (BDAs) to achieve wetland restoration, increasing water for a healthier environment across the watershed.

“Beavers happen to be these wonderful, ecological engineers that a lot of our ecological systems are based around,” Bergere explained. “They are what we call a ‘keystone species.’ Their positive impacts far outweigh their negative impacts on environment and infrastructure. We’re looking to use beavers for regional stream and wetlands restoration.”

Whooo hoo! Something very positive to say about my very favorite subject. Just what does Adian intend to do about it?

Bergere added that by utilizing BDAs across the region as a low-tech, low-cost solution that “mimics hydrologic, ecologic and geomorphic processes” that a natural beaver dam would provide to a stream, along with post-assisted log structures and flow devices or “beaver deceivers,” SMWC hopes to establish beaver complexes which help slow the flow of water and create wetland complexes.

“What we’re looking to do is give the rivers a step-up to help store some of its natural processes so these same rivers will reconnect to their flood plain to re-charge and revitalize surrounding wetlands,” Bergere said.

Bergere and Kieras, along with the National Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, are currently identifying optimal sites across the watershed to install these BDAs. Bergere hopes to establish a program rather than a series of projects by creating a portfolio of work and a knowledge base for contractors so that this program can operate long into the future. They are also exploring multiple funding sources for the planning and execution of this program, including local and state granting opportunities.

Good work. I am thinking that’s the right direction to go in. Build it back and they will come and Build it back Better.

“Thinking to the future, I believe the program becomes a staple with a formal space in town where students, organizations, agencies, and community members can interact with one another,” Smith said.

The beaver-wetlands program will serve as Kieras’ capstone project for his MEM degree.

“Given my background, I would like to get involved in river wetlands restoration projects,” he said. “The prospect of getting an actual program going for wetlands restoration really excites me because it’s going to hopefully allow me to have a job I’m really passionate about in Telluride.”

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

heidi08 BDA's, Beaver ecological impact August 14, 2021

You’ll remember that a while ago we talked about “The Medium”, the newish platform for reading tightly written articles that make you a whole bunch smarter about a subject you might not have even known about before. Two months ago they hosted a fantastic article about beavers and salmon by Megan Michel and I guess it did pretty well because here comes another by Rosie Struve. All I can say is GO BEAVERS!

Building a Better Beaver Dam

To understand the story of the beaver, it’s important to see the role that beavers play in a riparian ecosystem. Beavers maneuver deftly through water with their paddle-like tails, gnaw through wood with their sharp teeth, and fell entire trees across streams to build their habitats — beaver dams. Their hands are nimble and dextrous, enabling them to arrange rocks into a sturdy foundation, weave branches into dense wooded walls, and spread mud and silt like masons laying mortar. Through the construction of these dams, beavers are able to alter the surrounding environment more than almost any other mammal, aside from humans.

Like man-made dams, beaver dams fully or partially block the stream or river. This blockage slows the flow of water, creating nearby ponds and shallow wetlands. These wetlands are fertile ground for diverse vegetation, which serves as a perpetual food source for the beaver and other animals. Beaver dams also filter water and trap sediment, creating a protected and ideal environment for fish to lay their eggs. More than just a habitat for the beaver alone, beaver dams have positive impacts on the surrounding ecosystem, affecting everything from the water temperature to the biodiversity of flora and fauna in the area.

Nice summation Rosie, we’re right there with you.’

These man-made knock-offs are called Beaver Dam Analogues, or BDAs. BDAs are constructed by pounding wooden posts into a stream bed and weaving in smaller limbs and willow branches across the channel — a tidy and streamlined interpretation of the beaver’s craft. The goal is to imitate the complex environment of a beaver dam to reap the environmental benefits, to ultimately restore a more vibrant and biologically diverse ecosystem.

So far, the results have been encouraging. A 2019 report from a project in the Bridge Creek watershed in Eastern Oregon, conducted by the US Forest Service, found that BDAs resulted in more opportune water temperatures for fish, increasing the overall population of threatened Columbia River Steelhead. The water tables in the area were also raised, creating a larger floodplain and naturally irrigated meadows.

Yes but Rosie, that’s not because humans stepped in and took over the beaver job, it’s because humans allowed the beavers to do their job again and helped them be more successful.

Beavers may have once been the architects of the natural world, but that position has long been overtaken by humans. But just as we have innovated our way to the brink of a climate crisis, we are now faced with the challenge of innovating our world back to the state it was once in. The Oregon Office of Fish and Wildlife suggests that “beaver are being hailed as one of the most cost effective and sustainable solutions for ecological restoration and climate change resilience.” After centuries of inflicting human egotism on the landscape, we are finally looking to the creatures who have been mediating intertwined natural systems since long before we got here. BDAs are a small glimpse of hope that reverting back to that state may be possible.

BEAVER MURAL FOR SLO

heidi08 BDA's, Beaver Art, Who's saving beavers now? July 19, 2021

There’s a new beaver mural in San Luis Obisbo thanks to the hardworking beaver brigade and inspiring artist Victoria Carranza. Victoria uses community engagement to bring murals to life. She is especially interested in highlighting local nature, so you know this beaver wetland was a natural choice. Members of the brigade and their children and families came and did the painting, prepping the surface priming and working at night when it got too hot.

I’m not sure the beaver is CENTRAL enough for my tastes but it’s a beautiful tribute nonetheless. Audrey Taub has done a fantastic job of engaging her community and really getting beavers the attention they deserve. Cooper Lienhart explains things very welll in this is a nice film made by an appreciative pilgrim to the site. He does a good job profiling the word the Beaver Brigade is d[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://vimeo.com/575017115″ lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]oing and why it matters.

MAIDU CONSORTIUM CELEBRATES BEAVERS

heidi08 BDA's, History June 20, 2021

A weekend of wonders this father’s day, Here’s beaver news from about the maidu consortium, whose leader spoke at the beaver summit, SF Estuary magazine. Written by our friend Lisa Owens Viani.

Thinking Like Beaver to Aid Yellow Creek

Last fall, the Maidu Summit Consortium, a nonprofit composed of nine Mountain Maidu tribal member groups, installed 73 BDAs—beaver dam analogs—in Yellow Creek, a tributary to the North Fork Feather River and a state-listed heritage trout stream. Swift Water Design and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designed the structures, and Mountain Maidu tribal youth worked with Swift Water to build them. The idea behind the structures, which mimic beaver dams, is to slow erosion, catch sediment, and build up the river bottom to reverse the incised channel—without importing soil and other materials or emitting carbon from heavy, diesel-powered equipment.

BDA’s to the rescue. Let’s learn all about the work that beaver do for free!

In 2019, the 2,300-acre Humbug Valley, known as Tásmam Koyóm to the Maidu, was returned to the tribe as part of PG&E’s land divestiture resulting from their bankruptcy settlement. The tribe has been working to restore meadow and riparian ecosystems ever since. “We want to see more fish diversity, a more diverse ecosystem,” says Cunningham. “We miss the beaver, porcupine, and other animals that are important to the ecosystem. Compared to pond and plug, if you have beaver doing the work they can restore meadow systems, catch sediment, address head cuts, and stop incision just as good if not better than equipment.”

Much better, any stream will tell you. No diesel fumes and hazardous soil replacement. Only careful hand excavation any archeologist would prefer.

Kevin Swift, founder of Swift Water Design, led the team installing the BDAs in the first of what will be several phases. “It’s process-based restoration rather than using diesel and rock and insisting on imposing a form on the river,” he says. “Instead, we use the power the stream brings us and introduce materials that give the stream something to work with. Those structures drive channel evolution and add roughness and complexity—with a small bit of human nudging you can begin to correct structurally starved streams.”

You know Kevin was also a speaker at the California Beaver Summit. It’s almost like all the best people were gathered in one place by some unseen force.

Although the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) will not allow people to bring beavers back to the site, the BDAs could attract the furry, long-toothed engineers, say Swift and other consortium members, who would love to see them return: there are beaver present in nearby tributaries, and cattle grazing has been discontinued since the Maidu took over land management, so there is now plenty of willow and other vegetation for beaver.

No of course they don’t. That would just be too damn logical. Much better to keep with the killing. Something they do understand,

Kate Lundquist, WATER Institute director with the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center (OAEC), who got involved in the BDA work through a grant from CDFW and developed a planning strategy for recruiting beaver, says, “We need to keep the ‘B’ in ‘BDAs.’ We want people to be doing instream structures, but we want to make sure people don’t forget the beaver. If you are building them in areas where you have beaver, they will manage and maintain the structures. Instead of being on the hook for maintenance, let the beavers do the work.”

Great point Kate. I couldn’t agree more. Although I personally might not have even said the B word. I might just have said, sure, if you know some other team of affordable engineers that live on site and make repairs every single day go ahead and use them.

If only the article had stopped there then there wouldn’t have been time for this.

Lundquist says that while some state officials have expressed doubt that beaver were native to the Sierra, she and OAEC co-director Brock Dolman have combed through historic accounts and found plenty of evidence of their presence, including a remnant dam carbon-dated to 1,270 years ago and an account from an older resident of the area who remembers a giant beaver dam and the best fishing of his life on a Yellow Creek tributary. “Tásmam Koyóm is ripe for beaver again,” says Lundquist.

Well. It is true Kate combed through accounts to find historic evidence. For the coastal paper which came later. Kate and Brock didn’t find a remnant beaver dam carbon dated 1300 years ago. That would be BLM archeolgist Chuck James. Kate isn’t listed as an author on either paper because we didn’t even meet her until the paper had already been submitted for publication. She was instrumental to the coastal paper which followed, In fact we might never have crossed paths with Dr. James if it weren’t for Barry Hill from the forest service hydrologist whom Cheryl met at the Flyway Festival in Vallejo who persuaded him to eventually give his original paper to Rick Lanman to rework. The rest is, as they say, is corrected beaver history,

Beaver failure is an orphan they say. But success has many parents. But it’s father’s day and to paraphrase Farley Mowat there are no orphans in beaver world. So enjoy this reminder.

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HERE ENDETH THE LESSON

heidi08 BDA's, Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and Fire Prevention April 20, 2021

Anyone who occasionally reads this website knows the name and shame of Placer county. It is the county in California that issued 7 times more depredation permits for beaver om 2013 even when we had a statistician look at the numbers and control for things like water acreage and population density. Well, a few years back Damion Ciotti of US Fish and Wildlife service suggested that the Placer land trust get the rancher to stop killing beavers on Doty preserve and use some BDAs to give them a kick start instead,