Category: Dispersal

It’s all fun and games until somebody loses a beaver

*LEAVE IT TO BEAVER – St. Albert resident and owner of Mission: Fun and Games John Engel had a run-in with a beaver late Tuesday night, which sent him to the hospital for stitches.*

Beaver versus bike

After a long day at Mission: Fun and Games, Engel was cycling home along his usual route on the Red Willow Trail system. He reached the underpass for the Perron Street bridge around 11:30 p.m. when something bolted out of the shadows and across his path.

“It was under my tire almost immediately,” said Engel.

The wheel went left; Engel went right, falling hard on his elbow.

Cursing, the business owner spotted a large dark mammal on the pavement next to him. It was that bucktooth symbol of Canadiana – the beaver – that had wedged itself under the front tire of Engel’s bike.

Stunned, Engel watched the animal pick itself up, and once again bolt – this time down the embankment and into the Sturgeon.

“I heard the splash into the river and I knew it must have been a beaver,” he said. It appeared unhurt as it swam away.

When he went to check in at the Sturgeon Hospital’s emergency department, he told the triage nurse that he had a collision with a beaver on his bike.

The nurse turned to Engel’s wife with a smile: “What did he say?”

“A beaver,” said his wife.

The triage nurse then asked Engel if he’d been drinking or if he was taking any medication.

Ba-dump-ump!

It’s not bad enough that dispersing beavers have to contend with cars, mounties and drunken Belarusians trying to pick them up for a photo, now they have to worry about the whizzing cyclists too! I guess if you’re biking home beside a waterway, you should keep the potential for a beaver collision somewhere in mind. Which reminds me, Jon crossed paths with Bob Rust (maker of the wattle beaver, the giant inflatable beaver, and other wild inspirations) and he’s working on a beaver-cycle for this years festival.

I can’t even imagine.

Beaver Impressive

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Dispersal, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? February 3, 2016

Too much good news. Some days there is almost nothing to cover, and other days everything good seems to happen at once. Yesterday I found out for the first time that Patti Smith keeps a blog about her observations of wildlife. You might remember she was the gentle soul keeping an eye on the beavers of Popples Pond in Vermont. She brought some helpers to the snowy stream to reinforce their food supply yesterday.

This afternoon, Margaretta and Isabelle arrived to help the stranded beavers with an offering of poplar boughs from their home in Dummerston. Once at the pond, I call to Willow and then we all sit quietly on the upside-down sled hoping that Willow won’t think it too early to come out to visit. After a few minutes, David, the lucky dad of these two great girls, spots Willow hauling herself onto the ice at one of the upstream holes.

How much do you envy that child? Willow is such a good sport. If you’d like to read more of Patti’s adventures you should check out her blog and pick up a copy of “The beavers of Popples Pond“. You won’t be disappointed.

Now onto more good news and a fine article from Vancouver. Just in time for our urban beaver chapter, too.

Vancouver’s urban-beaver plan focuses on enhancing habitats

Several dozen beavers are thought to be living in Vancouver, some of them making themselves at home in restored marshland near the Olympic Village, and now the city’s park’s board has approved a strategy that will give them some company.

The Vancouver Park Board has approved a detailed strategy to enhance and expand coastlines, forests and wetlands across the city. The Biodiversity Strategy aims to restore 25 hectares of natural land by 2020 – much of it spread across various shorelines – as well as tackle forest restoration near the Fraser River.

“There’s lots of evidence that there are physical and mental benefits for those who access nature in their daily lives,” biologist Nick Page, of the parks board, said in an interview. “Compared to rural populations, there are few points of access to nature in the city.”

How wonderful is THAT. Of course wildlife is good for our physical and mental health. So good in fact that they might have lifted that sentence EXACTLY from my section of the chapter. I’m so envious of the beaver plan in Vancouver. The impressive thing is that they even have the chops to stand up to pressure like this.

“The problem comes when beavers start working on natural water courses,” said Wayne Goodey, a University of British Columbia lecturer with a background in animal psychology. “In general ecological principles, even a couple of animals can do a large amount of damage to the landscaping.”

Mr. Page, however, is confident that adaptation, not relocation, is the best strategy for these local beavers.

“There’s not really an opportunity for them to dam anything, and if they do, there’s very little chance of them flooding important infrastructure,” he said. “Relocation is very expensive, $10,000 each beaver. You can protect a lot of trees and clean out a lot of culverts for that price.”

My mind is reeling from this article. What a WONDEFUL response to beavers appearing in an urban environment, and to a pompus know nothing who pretends to understand that beavers are bad for creeks. Hrmph. Think of how much our chapter will help them justify this bold decision. I am so impressed with Mr. Page. He gets a letter.

And silly Mr. Goodey does too. He apparently understands neither animals nor psychology.

Finally, I came across this yesterday and feel so irresponsible I hadn’t seen it months ago. Dietland is THE author on beavers and kind enough to donate two copies of his book to the silent auction at this year’s beaver festival. He also has done head-turning research on scent mounds, and if you ever wondered about this unique beaver behavior, you really should watch this all the way through. His video footage is fascinating.

Thank you Dr. Muller-Swarze for your lifetime of beaver research and for sharing it with us!

Muhammad goes to the Mountain House

heidi08 Beaver Chewing, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Dispersal, Environmental, What's killing beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? January 29, 2016

If the name Moutain House sounds vaguely familiar it should. In the turmoil of 2008 it had the dubious distinction of appearing in the NYT as the community with the most homes “Under Water” financially. More recently they had other water issues to deal with, when their historic source was cutoff and they had to scramble to find a new one.

I wonder if you can guess how they feel about ‘watersavers’?

Yesterday I received a panicked email from a resident worried that the beavers in Mountain House creek were going to be trapped. Of course the creek was being used by the planned community as a handy drain, and they didn’t want anything backing up the water. She didn’t know who was in charge of the decision to depredate but she said Brian Lucid was on the Community Services District and interested in learning about options.

The appropriately named Brian Lucid is a native San Franciscan and 20-year veteran who served in Iraq before running for a seat on the board. When he actually contacted ME yesterday I was starting to get a little hopeful.

He told me about their concerns and talked about beavers blocking the water and nibbling neighbor’s trees. And I told him how Martinez had dealt with similar concerns a decade ago, and how downtown businesses were worried about flooding, and how we had studied the issue and decided what to do. I told him about the beaver population rebounding all over the state, and getting new beavers very soon if he gets rid of these ones. And I told him how when we decided to install a flow device and let the beavers stay they kept any other beavers from moving into our creek.

“Flow device?” He asked. “What’s that?”

So I told them about controlling vertical growth of a dam, and protecting culverts, and how 10 years ago there was no one trained in this work in the state and we had to bring in Skip Lisle from Vermont to do it for us. But now, there were several people trained in CA and the whole thing would probably cost about 500 for materials. Worth A Dam could even help with a scholarship. I even sent him a copy of Mike’s DVD.

He mentioned that he was a backpacker and appreciated wildlife, and was interested to hear about the role beavers play for salmon, steelhead, groundwater recharge, biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and climate change resilience. We talked about the controversy and the resolution, how our creek never went dry when the beavers were here. How beavers were great for teaching children about nature and science and mentioned our annual beaver festival. Then I sent him a big care package of information and said I would be happy to answer questions or connect him with the answers. I also suggested he might talk to Mark Ross or Lara Delaney to get the city’s perspective. He was eager to talk with his general manager, because in his words “it sounded like a no-brainer”.

Heidi Happy!

Not that this means everything’s solved and Mountain House beavers are out of the woods. It’s just a beginning.Lots of obstacles could hinder Mr. Lucid along the way. One swallow doesn’t make a summer, they say.

But summer has never come without at least one somewhere. So it’s a start.

Then I arranged a speaking date with Pinole Rotary who wanted to hear about the Martinez beavers and get the story first hand. Since there are eager beavers in Rodeo they must be on their way to Pinole next – I say not a moment too soon!

Ingredients for success valiantly overlooked

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Chewing, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Dispersal, Who's saving beavers now? January 10, 2016

What if you could stand on this platform, overlooking the historic Allegheny River in Pennslyvania, and watch beaver. How happy would you be?

Beaver makes home in Harrison Hills pond

Park officials in Harrison Township plan to let the beavers be so visitors can glimpse into the lives of these secretive mammals.

Allegheny County Parks is hosting two other beavers in North Park in McCandless, according to Allegheny County Parks Director Andrew Baechle.

“It’s a tremendous educational opportunity,” he said. “And with the bird blind at Harrison Hills, it’s a great place for people to easily view the animals.”

But there hasn’t always been such enthusiasm for beavers.

In the past, Harrison Hills park management removed the occasional beaver setting up shop at the pond because they build their dams and lodges at vital drainage points — potentially wreaking havoc on water levels, according to Patrick Kopnicky, a member of the volunteer group, the Friends of Harrison Hills.

But now, the animal is actually doing the park a service, he said.

“I’m so happy he is taking out those Russian olive trees,” Kopnicky said surveying the pond and pesky invasives that have crowded out its banks.

“It’s going to make fishing easier,” he said.

It isn’t every day you open your paper and read that Pennsylvania is appreciating beavers. Especially urban beavers. I kept reading this article with my fingers over my eyes, like watching a horror film, ready to cover them at any moment. But it’s good and has many of the key ingredients of success. Photographers, people watching, news reporters, and a temporary lull in the beaver trapping routine. So far so good. This is the river where he grew up, before hiking up to the pond.

A volunteer at the park, Dennis Johns, 64, of Harrison has been photographing the new visitor. “I hope it stays because you don’t get to see them every day,” he said.

The park plans to monitor the animals’ handiwork to make sure it doesn’t damage the earthen dam at the pond and cause flooding. Johns believes that the beaver is likely a youngster from last year’s litter.

“Mama probably kicked him out and he came up the creek to here.”

The animal made a long climb — about 2,200 lineal feet — up the steep bluff from the Allegheny River, according to Kopnicky. Tom Fazi, information and education supervisor in the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s southwest region office in Bolivar, said, “It’s one of the coolest mammals we have in the state.

“I don’t know if it gets the attention it deserves,” he said. “It has so many different adaptations.

The best times to see beavers are in the early morning and late evening, according to Fazi. “Sit quietly with binoculars near a pond where there are beavers, and sooner or later, they’ll show up,” he said. “You’ll see them swimming, and you might be lucky to see them on the tree.”

Ohh be still my heart. Encouraging the public to actually watch the animal they usually pay to kill. This is the beginning of something beautiful. I can almost take my fingers down entirely. Apreciative volunteers: Check. An interested media: Check. And a momentary lull in trapping by the officials: Check. This could actually work out well for that little beaver. Lots of food surrounding that little pond for this disperser, shown on google earth.

There’s just one wee little problem with this charming article, and its the very last line.

Beaver trapping season runs from Dec. 26 through March 31.

Speaking of depredation, the noble Robin Ellison of Napa has just received a big stack of permits for her PRA request of 2014. Bless her heart she already tackled the spreadsheet. But this should keep me busy for a while. 48 new permission slips to kill beaver.

Natures first green is Gold Medals

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Chewing, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Dispersal, Educational, Environmental January 4, 2016

Maybe you remember the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Stephen Colbert sponsored a skating team and Lindsey Vonn became the first American woman to ever win the downhill Gold for a ski run that broke every record. Of course there was the usual Olympic Village built in an old industrial park which had once been a parking lot- it boasted wonders named FALSE CREEK and FALSE SEAWALL.

Well guess who’s back in False creek now?

Beaver resurfaces in Vancouver’s Olympic Village

A beaver, perhaps even two, have been spotted in Vancouver’s Olympic Village.
The iconic rodents have built a large dam in the man-made wetlands of False Creek.

“There’s two,” said Jeremy Murphy who lives in the area. “They hang out in the middle of the pond usually, back-to-back or cuddling a little bit, gnawing on everything they can find.”

It’s not the first time a beaver has called the area home. Two years ago, residents came across another beaver — possibly the same animal as the one seen recently.

A beaver was also seen in the summer of 2015.

I’m not so surprised that beavers are there. They really don’t care whether they’re living in a false creek with planted trees or an actual creek with generated trees. They’ll make do. Aside from the very foolish people trying to feed them bread, this story makes me smile. And lead me to something that made me smile VERY wide indeed.

An entire instagram page dedicated to URBAN BEAVERS.

Photos of lodges on city trails, beavers walking over concrete, I’m a kid in a candy store. Here is the one that terrified me though. Look to the far right front.
Well, we can’t know the fate of that brave little beaver, but I’m grateful that this Olympic beaver pointed me in his direction. I will definitely try to keep an eye on this now.

Sometimes the last few lines of a poem write everything else for you. I was happy to put this together yesterday. It started with the ‘how the west was watered’ line. And of course there’s only one word that rhymes with ‘watered’.