Category: Dispersal

The Scottish Beaver Trial Report

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Dispersal, Who's saving beavers now? December 5, 2014

Scottish Beaver Trial publishes its final report

The Scottish Beaver Trial, the first formal reintroduction of a mammal ever to take place in the UK, has published its final report. The five-year-trial, at Knapdale forest, Argyll, is a partnership led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.

The first Norwegian beavers were released in Knapdale in 2009 and monitoring ended in May. This report will help ministers decide on the future of beavers in Scotland.

Now this is worth curling up and reading next to a good fire with a cup of hot chocolate. Or maybe Scotch. It’s a huge file and is taking forever to download but the entire thing is accessible here and you can count on me for some highights. I thought it was impressive but Victor Clements just scoffed that its mostly presentation with little information. I was interested in details of the beavers lives. Here’s the family tree, (ours is so much better!)

The first thing that really caught my eye is that the trial site turned out not to be secure and maybe some of the beavers got away into the sea!! (Which our friends of the River Tay Beavers should find fascinating!) They installed a kind of flow device in the first dam and then realized it didn’t matter if the pond flooded! I was also interested to learn that two of their kits were predated, one by a fox and one probably by a large domestic dog. This surprises me not at all, but is worth remembering the next time someone says beavers don’t have predators.

Two kits were also found predated during the course of the Trial. One of these was a Dubh Loch kit found dead on 8 September 2011 in shallow water at the edge of a flooded track at the marshy eastern end of the loch by the SBT Field Officer while carrying out a routine field-sign survey. The cadaver was collected and taken for full post-mortem examination, which indicated that the beaver had been in good body condition but had died as a result of traumatic injuries to the head, possibly caused by a large predator. Although unconfirmed, it was felt by SBT staff that this could have been caused by a domestic dog–a diagnosis strengthened by later comparison with a kit killed by a fox. The second kit was found on Loch Linne by researchers from the University of Stirling, who were undertaking vegetation transects as part of their annual data collection. This kit was quite badly decomposed, and all internal organs were missing, so full post-mortem examination was not possible, though from the location of the puncture wound and marks on the bones it was presumed that this individual had been predated by a fox.

Remember that these beavers got “injected, inspected, detected, dis-infected, neglected and selected.”They had Ear Tags, tail radios and GPS systems on their backs. They were weighed, sexed, measured and monitored at regular intervals. Their private moments were caught on film and they still managed to elude the researchers at times. Dispersal, it seems was really hard to catch, and the first and second year it didn’t happen at all. Population density seemed to really effect behavior because where there was only one male at Dubh Loch the father (Bjornar) surprised everyone by mating with his own undisperssed offspring (Mille) who went on to have several kits. This is not totally unprecedented, but theu didn’t exactly issue a press release!

And speaking of press releases, there is an entire section on how they educated the media and the public for this monumental undertaking. They really included public support at every level and I am not at all surprised it worked for them. This is a great learning activity they did with the lower grades that has me thinking about the beaver festival! They made sure there was accessible, inviting viewing for the public and encouraged visitors. They did what they could to bring the public along with them and make sure everyone understood where their tax dollars were going. There’s a very good reason why the Scottish Beaver Trial received an award for being the best Conservation Project of the year.

The report concludes with these exciting remarks:

The authors of this report, along with many others across Scotland, Wales and England, look forward to the coming months when a decision on the future of beavers in Scotland will be made. Perhaps one day we shall see the widespread return of this native species to our lochs, rivers and burns.

Worth A Dam welcomed the trial in 2009 and is proud of its conclusion in 2014. And when you watch this inspiring baptism think about how much bigger our festival is now.

The new ‘Lily pond’ story

heidi08 City Reports, Dispersal, Who's Killing Beavers Now? September 16, 2014

Beavers invade Chico backyard, damage property

The funny thing is that I met a woman on the Butte county environmental team involved with this case on Sunday at the Optics Faire. She sent me the report and I tried to track down Mr.Barker through facebook. I suggested the best way to get rid of these beavers is to temporarily drain the pond and said if he does it without hurting them Worth A Dam will buy that chewed table to sell at the festival. It terrifies me to think of beavers wadering through the dry suburbs of Chico looking for a new home, but they did it once and it’s definitely better than their odds if USDA comes to the homeowners rescue. And who on EARTH said that beavers mate in September?

Stay tuned.

Yesterday I got some VERY VERY good news, that if it actually happens will be the coolest thing ever. I’ll let you know more when its firm. Fingers crossed.

A Dissertation of Death

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Dispersal, Environmental, Who's Killing Beavers Now? August 10, 2014

Capture So yesterday morning our Napa Beaver friend RE sent me the results of her public records request from Fish and Game. She was trying to figure out if any depredation permits had been taken in Napa County, but of course that’s not the way bureaucracy works. So they gave her a pile of all the depredation permits in the state of California from 1-2013 to 8-8-2014. They are actually organized unhelpfully by the last name of the person who obtained the permit.

Robin, Jon and I spent yesterday going through the records and making a spread sheet so that we could see what was issued where, by whom, for how many beavers, and because of what problem. It was a horrible, grisly, unpleasant day, so you have to forgive me if I am more sarcastic than usual. Remember that Depredation permits can be issued for 1-2 beavers or for an unlimited number, for a few weeks or for the whole year or more. But what we learned is that the VAST majority are issued for an unlimited number of beavers to be taken during the span of an entire year. I’m putting the finished list online here by county.

Counties in CA by Number of Depredation Permits Given 1-01-13 to 8-8-14

Alpine 4

Amador 1

Butte 8

Calaveras 1

Colusa 6

Contra Costa 18

El Dorado 9

Glenn 4

Lake 2

Lassen 5

Merced 13

Modoc 6

Napa 2

Nevada 7

Placer 50

Plumas 8

Sacramento 30

San Joaquin 8

Shasta 12

Sierra County 3

Solano 7

Sonoma 3

Stanislaus 3

Sutter 13

Tehama 5

Yolo 19

Yuba 7

Total 254

Before you turn your head away in horror, pause for a moment at the staggering number of permits issued in Placer county: FIFTY in all, each for a year and only 9 of which had any limit at all to the number of beavers that could be taken. This, for a county which is only 1500 square miles – fewer than 100 of which are water.How could this be?

I have a theory.

Remember that the county seat of Placer county is Auburn, where our long standing nemesis recently gave her umpteenth presentation on how bad beavers are – I’m referring of course to Mary Tappel who long ago took time out of her busy beaver-killing schedule to come all this way to try and get Martinez to kill ours. I know she recently presented at the Salmon meeting because someone from Fish and Wildlife who was there wrote me and said in disbelief, wow, there was this woman there who was soooo negative about beavers! And when I looked at the schedule I knew who it was. I’m thinking Mary’s done many presentations in Placer county and her icy fingers have pushed the kill permits for thousands of beavers.

August 26, SARSAS 2013, Beaver Specialist Mary Tappel, “Beaver Management in the Age of Salmonid Restoration with Focus on Beavers in Auburn Ravine”

In case your a visual person, here’s the county count. There were no permits issued for Southern California in the records we received, but the woman who released the data did say that the department is in the process of transitioning to electronic files, so some lovingly hand-written death warrants may not be included. I’m sure Fresno killed some beavers. They always do, so maybe they aren’t using computers yet?

Wow. Since the highest number of specified beavers issued in a permit was 50, that must mean UNLIMITED is >50. So if the total number of beavers listed to be killed is added up with that change the number for just Northern CA is at least 7958.

A nice Surprise!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Dispersal, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? June 29, 2014

Surprise police called to beaver sighting near Fry’s

Surprise-AZ Surprise police protect the city from more than unruly humans as wild animals are often the subject of calls. Police responded to a beaver sighting about 6:30 p.m. June 20 near Nick’s Diner at Litchfield and Waddell roads. Police captured the beaver with a shopping cart and then called Arizona Game and Fish Department.

“Surprise” is actually a city outside Phoenix and not too far from the Agua Fria River which flows down to the Gila. But the real surprise is here is what happened next.

Darren Julian, an urban wildlife specialist for the agency, said beavers are indigenous to Arizona and are usually found in areas with water such as the Salt River and Lake Pleasant.

“This one was probably in the midst to find some open water to recolonize,” said Mr. Julian, noting they do not have to swim and can move long distances in canals and drainage areas. It is unlikely the beaver hitched a ride on a truck or trailer.“They are pretty heavy and low to the ground,” he added.

Someone from Fish and Game (sorry, in AZ it’s Game and Fish!) actually knows about beaver dispersal? And even understands about overland dispersal? Are you telling me Game and Fish has a special warden assigned to urban wildlife?

Someone hand me my smelling salts, I’m feeling faint.

Darren Julian sounded like such a potential beaver friend I had to go look him up. I found his contact info at the Global Institute of Sustainability where he presented a poster session with colleagues in 2007 called

An integrated approach to resolving urban wildlife conflicts by using public education and community involvement. Poster presented at the January 10, 2007 CAP LTER Ninth Annual Poster Symposium, Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ..

No seriously. He was the lead on a project that educated citizens about living with wildlife and gave them tools for effective coexistence.

That’s right. Someone from Game and Fish presenting on coexistence. Go read the whole thing and maybe drop Julian a note of gratitude. I did. Julian_et_al

In the mean time, that lucky beaver got dropped in the river. Not that icky urban Gila where he would have been trapped out in minutes mind you (just a 20 minute drive from Frys). He was delivered to the beautiful and mostly wild Verde River which is 40+ miles to the east.

Now that’s a surprise.

Well, did you watch it?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Dispersal, Environmental, featured, In the News May 15, 2014

In case you were busy or want to see a section again, the entire program is online:

It’s how I got this very special screen grab that whizzed by at the end.

I’m was already happy because I noticed corrections I had made to the script that were actually incorporated! In fact, I don’t think there’s a single thing incorrect in the entire documentary, which is both awesome and rare! Last night I admired Glynnis presentation of science, loved Suzanne and Carol’s wonder at the beaver improvements in Nevada, enjoyed Michel LeClare better in this american version, and was touched by Michelle Grant’s beaver rescue that remained perfectly untouched from the Canadian original. Sherri Tippie stole the show though, and I’m still getting emails from beaver civilians who adored her presentation. This supports my theory by the way, that saving beavers ultimately isn’t about changing minds with science, it’s about touching hearts.

Sherri made such a splash that she’s on Grist today

Dream of cradling a beaver in your arms? Live vicariously through this Colorado hairdresser!

In case you needed it, here’s something to celebrate: You now live in a world where the sentence “I’m a hairdresser and live beaver trapper” has been uttered in earnest. Sherri Tippie is just an ordinary Colorado jail barber who happens to love beavers – so much so that she’s become one of the top live trappers in North America.

But do not for one second presume that she’s some granola-crunching, Tom’s-of-Maine-using hippie:

I am a hairdresser, honey. I like HBO, I want a toilet that flushes, OK? I do not camp out, baby.

You and me both, girl! To witness Tippie tenderly cradle a squirming water rodent as if it were her own child, watch the video above.

There’s another affectionate article from Bloomberg Business week of all places! I’m expecting more to follow.

Large Rodent Tackles Climate Change: Hoelterhoff

A Colorado hairdresser with a fondness for large rodents is doing her bit for climate change, and so can you. Sherri Tippie is the nation’s champion beaver relocation specialist and the sight of her wrestling them into carriers adds to the fascination of “Leave it to Beavers,” which airs tonight at 8 p.m. EST (check local listings) on PBS’s Nova series.

Having nearly died out as hats in more formal times, the beaver seems determined to survive. I trust the encounter of a pathetic moose and an angry beaver will go viral.

The show’s timing is pretty great: Last week, the National Climate Assessment report affirmed that climate change is a fact that can’t be blustered away by simple radio hosts, grandiose columnists and the Washington servitors of the coal industry.

Beavers deploy every cell in their equally tiny brains keeping America fertile and driving developers crazy. In the Rocky Mountains, their structures filter billions of tons of water. When a drought dried out big stretches of Nevada, the beaver-managed areas remained nice and green.

I love to think of all those business men reading about beavers. I’m eager to learn more about the reactions people had to this, so I’d love you to send me your thoughts. I’d be happy to collect and share them. In the meantime, I’m one happy camper.

Tell PBS how AWESOME that documentary was. Leave your comment here.