Category: BDA’s

MONTANA FACES THE TRUTH ABOUT BEAVERS

heidi08 BDA's, Beaver ecological impact, Beavers November 26, 2019

When I was a child I had a simple puzzle that probably many children learned their Geography from. It was a map of the America and every piece was shaped like a different state. The square states like the Dakotas were the hardest to place because they had nothing unique about them to remind me where they should go. California and Nevada of course were easy. Two of my favorite pieces were Idaho and Montana because I quickly made the connection that Montana had an edge that looked like the profile of a face with a prominent nose. The face tucked right into the curve of Idaho. Its oddly how I remember their connection to this day.

This morning we have more stories from the face!

How Human-Made Beaver Dams Could Help With Habitat Restoration

University of Montana ecologists are researching human-made beaver dams as a potential habitat restoration tool. Early case studies show the dams could dull the impacts of climate change seen in rivers and streams. The U.S. Forest Service is looking to use the simple structures on new sites in the state, but first, officials want to better understand the science behind simulated rodent engineering.

Beavers aren’t called ecosystem engineers for nothing. Their dams can rebuild eroded streams and create lush wetland habitat suitable to elk and insect alike. Meanwhile, the dams create ponds that can store water longer in the face of drought.

Hey, do you know what makes really great beaver dams? BEAVERS! I know its hard but just stop killing them and they’ll take over this job for you. Of course they won’t do the research projects to prove that what they do actually works, or publish the articles in peer reviewed journals nearly as often, but do you want to prove it works or do you want it to actually work? When it comes to building and maintaining those dams they’re a natural.

Don’t you just love how the university and forest service have to STUDY them first? To see if they;re successful? I mean we know they hold back water and restore streams but HOW much water exactly? And how restored?

Is there something we can count? We just love to count things.

Researchers say beaver complexes can provide first-rate trout habitat. But it’s unclear how well Montana’s native westslope cutthroat would navigate today’s low river flows with human-made mimics.

As for beaver ponds, their sun-drenched surfaces are warmer than rushing streams. Andrew Lahr, a Ph.D student in Eby’s lab, says that could create better habitat for invasive fish already displacing native trout.

“Here in Montana and across the western United States, we introduced eastern brook trout that have been really good invaders. They’re able to inhabit places that have become warmer — too warm for cutthroat to be.”

Lahr will track brook trout to see how analog dams affect their populations at the research areas.

That’s right. Beavers will knock those invasive trout right outta the park. Of course your average fisherman won’t care whether he caught a native or an imposter. He just wants what’s easiest and doesn’t care about purity. That how we got into this mess.

I dare say that even though they are going to study the facts to determine if gravity still operates in this particular section of Montana they will unsurprisingly discover the very same truth that everyone has for decades. Beavers help stream. Beavers help wildlife. Beavers help groundwater. Beavers help climate change. Beavers help drought. Beavers help birds. Beavers help insects.

But go ahead. Sure. Study it all again just to be sure.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE BEAVERS GONE?

heidi08 BDA's, Beaver Book, Beaver relocation, Beavers and climate change October 6, 2019

Years ago, and I mean more than a decade, I befriended filmmaker Mike Foster who was following the beavers of the San Pedro River. He was one of the few folks I knew at the time who had spent as much time as I had watching beavers. Our correspondence eventually tricked off as I got more involved in the beaver community and apparently the beaver population did too. Because this morning I came upon this headline:

Dam shame: Beavers face second extinction on San Pedro River

Twenty years after their triumphant return, beavers have nearly vanished once again from the San Pedro River.

No beaver dams have been recorded within the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area for the past three years, and only a few individual animals have been spotted along the river 85 miles southeast of Tucson. Experts fear the remaining population is now too small to sustain itself.

“There are beaver down there. We don’t know how many, but there has been a decline,” said Scott Feldhausen, local district manager for the BLM. Officials from the Bureau of Land Management and the Arizona Game and Fish Department said they simply don’t know why the animals are disappearing or how many of them might be left, because they long ago stopped monitoring the population.

And stopped paying Mike to film them. It’s hard to imagine beaver not being hardy enough to survive, but maybe they’re being killed? Or maybe climate change made their lives harder? And maybe they would have preferred BDAs along that river to help them get a foothold on a landscape that has been without them for 300 years?

The bad beaver news comes as state and federal wildlife officials are studying whether to introduce beavers into another Southern Arizona watershed, Las Cienegas National Conservation Area near Sonoita.

An early version of the plan reportedly called for as many as nine beavers to be turned loose along Cienega Creek, within the 45,000-acre conservation area.

An environmental assessment of the proposed release was on track for completion late this year or early next, but Feldhausen said he is considering shelving the project as a result of questions raised by the Arizona Daily Star about the status of the San Pedro population.

He said his agency has not followed through the way he thinks it should have when it comes to monitoring beavers on the San Pedro, and he doesn’t want to see that happen again.

“If we are going to do these efforts in the future, we are just going to have to make sure the time and effort are worth it,” Feldhausen said. “It’s incumbent on us to find out if it was successful or not, and if not, why not.”

Maybe from a bureaucratic point of view you need to monitor your project, but from a beaver point of view you most likely don’t. They’re going to survive or die off whether you count them or not. I definately thin BDA’s would improve their odds, though.

A growing number of ecologists and environmentalists now celebrate the animal for its role as a keystone species and a restoration specialist for damaged landscapes. Simply by doing what comes naturally to them, these furry engineers improve the overall health of watersheds and create new habitat for a host of other species, beaver backers say.

The beaver’s contributions to nature were chronicled last year in Ben Goldfarb’s award-winning book, “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.”

Now the animals and their advocates are the subject of a documentary called “The Beaver Believers,” which premiered in Tucson late last month at a fundraiser for the Watershed Management Group.

About 250 people turned out for the Sept. 27 screening. The beaver-themed event raised roughly $15,000 for the conservation group’s riparian restoration work in and around Tucson.

Watershed Management Group Executive Director Lisa Shipek said she didn’t know anything about the plight of the beavers on the San Pedro until someone mentioned it during a panel discussion before the movie was shown.

“It was surprising for sure,” Shipek said. “There have been positive impacts from (the beaver’s) reintroduction … but I think we’re still learning. That’s why we need to keep tabs on how they’re doing in the watershed.”

I don’t have a lot of tolerance in my heart for people who say they didn’t know how good things were until someone came in and told them they were valuable, BUT I’m glad Ben and Sarah are making an impression. I guess sometimes you need to “antique road show” your environment to find out that that river left to you by your great great grandfather is actually worth something!

“Oh that old thing is valuable? We’ve been using it for years to keep cans in!

Mark Hart, spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department in Tucson, said the agency followed the beavers for the first five years or so, but it is not a species they generally track. Once the population seemed to be established, they turned their attention elsewhere, he said. “As far as we were concerned, the reintroduction had taken.”

So where have all the beavers gone since then?

It’s a question Feldhausen said the BLM hasn’t even tried to answer at this point.

Some speculate that drought and groundwater pumping have reduced the river’s flow, leaving the mostly aquatic creatures with little more than stagnant puddles of warm, dirty water during the summer months.

Others suspect the beavers are being wiped out by mountain lions or even poachers.

Ironically, perhaps, the BLM just approved a new resource management plan for the national conservation area that opens much of the San Pedro to beaver trapping under Arizona Game and Fish regulations, though Feldhausen said he doubts there are enough animals left to attract serious trappers.

GEE YOU THINK THAT MIGHT HAVE HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT? I mean, in addition to the fact that you drained their watertable and that probably affected the riparian tree diet, and without food or shelter my population would decline too.

Filmmaker and naturalist Mike Foster thinks what’s happening to the beavers could be part of a normal population cycle and that the numbers will rebound on their own.

“They’re pretty tenacious. I would be surprised if they’re gone completely,” he said.

AGREED! Wonderful to hear from Mike. People who spend time actually watching beavers know a lot more than we give them credit for.

Foster has decided to take matters into his own hands. He said he’s going to start walking the river again, and he’s taking his camera with him.

If there are beavers still out there, Foster aims to find them.

HURRAY FOR MIKE! HURRAY FOR BEAVERS! I agree that the odds of a total wipe out are small. Beavers have a way of making things work unless people get involved and start mucking it up.

I really like everything about this article, holding the BLM accountable for followup and finding the heroes, and this line. I especially like this one line.

Where have all the beavers gone?

Where have all the beavers gone, Long time, passing.
Where have all the beavers gone, Long time ago.
Where have all the beavers gone. Gone to trappers everyone.
When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?

BEAVERS CAN HELP JEFF BEZOS AND TNC

heidi08 BDA's, Beavers and climate change September 30, 2019

Well, well, well, What do you know. Amazon is partnering with the Nature Conservancy on the Right Now Climate Fund to the tune of 100,000,000 dollars for natural climate solutions including forests, peatlands and wetlands. (I guess if you never pay taxes you have a lot of spare change to toss around.) The laudable part is that it will make Amazon carbon neutral 10 years ahead of the Paris accord schedule.

The Nature Conservancy and Amazon Partner to Bring Natural Climate Solutions to Scale

Today, The Nature Conservancy is announcing a $100 million commitment from Amazon to restore and protect forests, wetlands, grasslands, and peatlands around the world. Amazon is partnering with The Nature Conservancy – an organization with a proven track record of using the best-available science for conservation – to identify, design, and implement natural climate solutions initiatives.

The two organizations have entered into an exploratory phase to assess carbon reduction programs and to identify, design, and implement natural climate solutions, which will be supported by the Right Now Climate Fund. The fund is one part of the company’s efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its business by 2040 – 10 years ahead of the 2050 target outlined in the Paris climate agreement.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? 100,000,000 is a lot of money. 2 million per state. It is enough money to put BDA’s in every 10 miles in all the headwater streams in the contiguous united states. If you invested all that money in beavers they would make sure your investment paid off.

We know that TNC has done great things for beavers, and terrible things for beavers in its history. The acting director now of The Nature Conservancy is Sally Jewell, the former Secretary of the Interior under Obama. She’s a Washington-State outdoor loving former oil engineer so we have to assume she knows a thing or two about beavers.

I hope she remembers this article written in their own magazine not too long ago.

Beaver Mimicry Projects Could Be Key to Restoring Wetlands

Left to their own devices, streams are messy. They wander and wind, pushing up against one bank before turning to swirl around another. In the spring, they pour over the top of the walls created to contain them, flooding wetlands and bringing water and life to everything from willows to deer.

Recent research is beginning to show that if humans create dams to mimic those built by beavers, the final result can lure beavers back and ultimately result in the same positive effects for fish, wildlife and vegetation.

Let me just repeat again. You can build an awful lot of BDA’s with 100,000,000 dollars. And after you do beavers will move in and do the rest for you, saving water, trapping carbon, enriching biodiversity, improving habitat for hative plants.. The Nature Company knows this and has told Jeff Bezos, right?

Just to make sure I sent them both a note yesterday. Maybe you should too.

“Now is the time to think big and work toward innovative solutions to climate change,” said Kara Hurst, worldwide director of sustainability, Amazon. “We need a partner like TNC to ensure we apply the best conservation science and develop strategic programs to reach our goals.”

We couldn’t agree more, Kara.

BEAVER DAMS POST-HASTE

heidi08 BDA's September 18, 2019

Today is a good day to go on vacation to the ocean, don’t you think? (Not vacation from you of course, because the internet can follow wherever I go and people need to start their day always with beavers.) Apparently its fall here but it’s going to be clear skies and sunny in Mendocino all week so we’ll live like kings. It’s one of those destinations that you love every part of, the drive through the redwoods, the snaking coastline, the white buildings, the rustic grocery store, even buying gas is delight. Good time to start the day right with some excellent news from Idaho.

Beaver dam project near Leadore gets thumbs up

Landowners and conservation professionals are excited about a new type of woody structure that mimics beaver dams. The benefits are similar — they store water, slow down runoff in streams, and enhance fish and wildlife habitat.

They’re called beaver dam analogs.

Bruneau Rancher Chris Black worked together with a number of conservation professionals to install some BDAs on his private land on Hurry Up Creek, a tributary of Deep Creek.

“I’ve wanted to get beaver in here for years but it is an ephemeral stream,” Black said. “There’s enough willows to make good food for them and everything, but there isn’t enough water for them to stay.”

They’ve put in about 10 structures so far, and more are planned in the future.

People all over are getting excited about BDAs. How excited? I woke up to an email from Norway sending me Joe Wheaton’s River restoration manual about them! There are plenty of places that are never sure about beavers but like the idea of BDAs, Maybe it’s just the hydraulic post installer. Boys like toys, don’t ya know.

“They came in and put them in very successfully,” he says. “They’re backing water up, they’re creating habitat for spotted frogs, for sage grouse, for beaver.”

Conservation professionals with the Governor’s Office of Species Conservation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the Natural Resources Conservation Service are all interested in exploring the benefits of using BDAs to improve riparian habitat and store water.

“It just benefits a whole host of wildlife species and that’s why Fish and Game is really interested in this,” Chris Yarbrough, Fish and Game habitat biologist said. “It’s a low-cost way to get a lot of bang for your conservation buck.”

Oh yes it is. It’s called trickledown ecology. And beavers do it very, very well.

“I think it will benefit sage grouse in terms of expanding the sponge, that green line of habitat will bring in the sage grouse, and have more of a grocery cart for them when they come to the store, if we provide more of a green line for them, it’ll help during late brood season,” Uriate said.The Hawley Creek project is far more complex in many respects. With about 25 BDAs in place, it’s been turned into a perennial stream. But the objectives of the project are similar — to improve habitat for fish and wildlife and work toward providing season-long flows for endangered salmon, steelhead and resident fish.Hawley Creek is a tributary of the Lemhi River near Leadore at an elevation of 6,000 feet. The project has a major irrigation component for ranchers who have long-time water rights on the stream. Daniel Bertram with the Governor’s Office for Species Conservation in Salmon spent several years planning the project to make sure it worked for everyone.

The article also mentions that a project like this took TWO YEARS of negotiations to coordinate with the many farmers and ranchers who were worried that beavers were going to come ruin their streams and steal their water. I really, really believe that. Work like this takes enormous patience and a vision that looks long term.

“By slowing this water down, spreading it out, you can just see the response from the vegetation, the grass growing up, I can hear the grasshoppers in the background, passerines have just exploded, all of the wildlife species and insects have just exploded,” Bertram says. “And we’re already seeing brood-rearing sage grouse coming into this area and utilizing it in the short period we’ve been here. It’s been a huge success story for them, and I’m excited to see how the leks respond over time.”

Ultimately, Black likes the strength of multiple partners working together to improve wildlife habitat.

“With all of us coming together, we can create great leaps in conservation, with money and time, and it all comes together,” Black says. “Everyone’s working together, and it becomes a great story for how we can manage these lands in the future.”

Alright. Excellent work. May your streams have beavers soon and for many years to come. And may no one trap them for their fur because they are very very useful alive.

Yesterday, stickermule sent ANOTHER offer this time for for very cheap bumperstickers, so of course I had to start the vacation early. What do you think?

SOMETHING FOR THE BEAVER-CURIOUS

heidi08 BDA's, Beaver ecological impact August 30, 2019

BDA’s are very popular with the beaver-curious. No commitment, no surprises, just a fake beaver dam that is totally controlled and designated by you the landowner. By the time actual flat-tailed residents move in the difficult acceptance phase is already over. All that’s left is the sitting back and reaping rewards.;

It’s got to be a little tough when that planted willow starts getting eaten though. Hopefully by then they’re already convinced.

Rancher greens arid site with beaver dam analogs

BRUNEAU, Idaho — Rancher Chris Black is using beaver dam analogs to make his property wetter and greener.

The structures, with their willow walls and intermittently spaced wooden poles, mimic beaver dams by holding back or slowing water. They’re effective and fairly cheap — important in that they can blow out occasionally, just like the real thing.

“Since ’17 when they put them in, that whole stretch now has become continuously watered,” Black said. “The meadows are starting to sponge that water up, and become greener and more alive.”

Black, with help from state and federal agencies as well as volunteers, has been using the analogs on Deep Creek tributary Hurry Up Creek, which dries up in summer heat. The structures help to keep water in the creek longer and raise the water table. About a dozen of the 30-plus analogs planned are installed.

See how good it works? It might be hard to convince a rancher that beaver are his friend, but install a dam with hydraulic posts and he’s your man! Meanwhile much of the west is starting to get the message.

“Most species are pretty dependent on wet meadows and things, as are my cows,” he said. “If you can manage those and create habitat, you are going to have more wildlife and more benefits.”

“This is low-tech, low-cost restoration,” said USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Sagebrush Restoration Specialist Derek Mynear. “This is not a new concept, but it is certainly taking off here in the West.”

Several places in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Washington and Oregon have bravely tried BDA’s with excellent results. Only the feather river in poor cowardly little California. Gosh I wish we were all as smart as a rancher. Here’s an examUpload Filesple from up by Ashland.

It’s about dam time

Deep in the Colestin Valley, between a meadow and a rolling oak woodland, there is a creek. And in that creek there is a dam. Willow branches are intertwined with fir logs, creating a structure that spans the width of the streambed. Its base is lined with grapefruit-sized rocks, covered by a thick coating of mud.

It’s a dam that would make a beaver proud, but this one was built by humans.

Last week, Lomakatsi and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service created three engineered structures along Gen Creek to slow and spread the flow of water. Using all natural materials, these “beaver dam analogs” are designed to enhance streamside habitat for fish and other wildlife, while reducing further erosion of the creek. They provide many benefits of actual beaver dams.

Send in the humans. It seems like we let them do whatever they want anyway, Let them do some good for a change.

“One of the goals of the project is to slow velocities and encourage water in the creek to more frequently access its surrounding floodplain,” said Dave Johnson, wildlife biologist for the FWS office in Yreka, California. “Historically, before the stream became so deep and narrow, water used to frequently overflow into the surrounding meadow, supporting alder, willow, chokecherry and other plants that created a wealth of wildlife habitat.”

For centuries, beaver shaped the very makeup of the North American landscape. At one point, the United States was covered with enough water from beaver-created ponds to fill an area the size of California, Oregon and Washington combined. When beaver were eradicated during the fur trade, waterways lost their keystone stewards and hydrologic architects.

Fortunately, beaver populations are on the rise as resource managers and private landowners increasingly recognize the essential role they play in ecosystems. In fact, when using beaver dam analogs to restore streams, there is a high likelihood that the restoration efforts will attract actual beavers to move in and maintain the structures as their own.

They say that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Add to that the things YOU don’t kill also make you stronger, if you let them.

Let beavers make you stronger, California. Come on, you can do it. Just LET them already!