Category: Beaver Behavior

CANADIANS APPRECIATE BEAVERS IN THE SNOW

It’s getting colder and beavers are busy all over trying to keep up with their demanding lives and jobs. We are starting to see more and more articles like this one from Alberta Canada.

Busy beavers chew down trees in Weaselhead Flats for new dam, winter prep

It’s an especially busy time to be a beaver in Weaselhead Flats. So busy, in fact, that trail enthusiasts who have recently visited the area might have noticed that many trees have been chewed to the ground, and water in the park’s popular beaver pond is shallower.

According to Lisa Dahlseide, a naturalist with the Weaselhead/Glenmore Park Preservation Society, this is because the beavers-in-residence are hard at work to prepare food storage for winter — and have built themselves a brand new dam.

It led to the need for some at-home repairs, she said.

“[The new dam] altered the water levels quite a lot in the beaver pond,” Dahlseide said Tuesday on the Calgary Eyeopener.

“And so, they’re also doing some renovations on their lodges as a result of that … [and using] a little bit of extra trees for those two construction projects.”

There is lots to be done in the winter. Keeping ponds deep enough to avoid a solid freeze requires adjustments. And stocking the larder is a mountain of work, especially when you have teenagers and kits and yourselves to feed for four months. How do beavers do it? It’s hard enough on us to limit our shopping to once a week during the pandemic. We’re always running out of something we wish we had like cilantro or green onions and wishing we could sneak to the store and get some more. Beavers make it an entire winter without going the store.

Beavers have their benefits.

For example, their dams, which are built to provide a habitat and protection for their young, also create ponds and wetlands that provide habitats for wildlife, and water moving through them is purified.

“At the Weaselhead Preservation Society, we honour the beaver. We want to promote coexistence with them, because we recognize that they are a very critical keystone species,” Dahlseide said.

“Without them, we don’t have that wetland, and the wetland is what provides an ecological service to humans. And especially in that area, that wetland there is filtering and cleaning the water very close to the ring road.”

That’s a nice start of the list of ways those beavers are helping you. Dahlseide isn’t burdened overmuch with beaver ecology knowledge, she says they are crepuscular and thinks their are 5 families living in the little park so we’ll just leave that for now an say, thank goodness for the handful of Canadians who appreciate beavers.

This from Valemont B.C., about 500 miles northeast of our friends in Point Moody. Not much of an article but a dam pretty photo shoot.

Busy beavers on Dominion Creek walking trail

The Dominion Creek walking trail is not passable due to a large beaver dam. The dam spans both the creek and the path creating a pond on the other side. There is evidence of busy beaver construction on the banks as well.

Isn’t it beautiful to see what beavers do in the winter? I never tire of looking at it, And our Saskatchewan friend Mike Digout’s movie of the beaver breaking through ice hit 11.1 million views this week, which is probably never gonna stop surprising him. I’m just glad so many people have a single moment where they enjoy beavers instead of killing them.

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BEAVER MORTALITY CONFOUNDS RESEARCHERS

heidi08 Beaver relocation, Dispersal October 23, 2020

Everyone has been thinking more about the desert beavers, as we get ready for the NM Summit. Apparently it grew out of advocates wish for Game and Fish to adopt a beaver management plan like Utah’s. Of course not ALL of Utah gets the idea. Some of the regions are still chugging along without a single beaverclue.

Beavers in the Desert? The Potential for Translocated Beavers to Serve as Restoration Tools in Desert Rivers

The USGS Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Utah State University (USU) is partnering with the Ecology Center (USU), the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Wildlife Research Center to evaluate the efficacy of beaver translocation for desert river restoration by comparing the fates, space use, and dam building activity of naturally occurring and translocated beavers in the Price and San Rafael Rivers in eastern Utah.

Beaver translocation is an alternative solution to lethal control that is gaining popularity. Beavers are taken from a conflict situation and translocated to a targeted area with the goal of harnessing their dams as a passive, cost-effective, and natural method of restoration. The challenge of translocation is getting beavers to stay, survive, and build dams in a specific area. Success of beaver translocation projects varies widely and lacks standardized best practices; failures are typically undocumented, and the cause of failure is often unknown.

Well it’s known by the beaver I dare say, but I guess that’s not what you mean.

So far, nine naturally occurring beavers have been captured and monitored, seven adult residents and two subadults, while 31 nuisance beavers have been translocated to the rivers, 18 adults and 13 subadults. All individuals were fitted with a tail-mounted radio-transmitter and a PIT- (passive integrated transponder) tag for post-release monitoring. Most (65%) of the translocated beavers have unknown fate, from radio-transmitter failure or individuals leaving the targeted restoration areas, while only 33% of resident beavers had unknown fate. Translocated beavers also experienced proportionally higher mortality (19% vs. 11%), primarily due to predation or exposure during drought. The only mortality of a naturally occurring beaver was a dispersing subadult, preyed upon by a mountain lion.

The researchers calculated the farthest straight-line distance an individual was detected from its release location to compare space use between resident and translocated beavers. Resident adult beavers exhibited an average maximum displacement of 0.58 km²and dispersing subadult beavers had an average of 42.76 km². Translocated adult beavers had an average maximum displacement of 79.13 km²and translocated subadult beavers had an average of 67.74 km².

Hmm I guess that means the relocaters got their release sight an average of 25 km wrong?

In this study, it appears that translocated beavers have not directly contributed to restoration efforts by building dams, likely due to their higher mortality rates and larger space use, spending more time traveling and exploring than remaining in an area and using their energy to construct a dam. This is similar to the behavior of dispersing subadults as they search for a new territory to establish. However, given the behavior of the translocated beavers and the wood-limited systems they were translocated into, the outcome likely would have been different if translocations were accompanied by the construction of structural features such as beaver dam analogues.

Yes it is very hard to build a maintain a dam when you’re dead. New research has shed light on the confounding effect of mortality. The researchers will remember not to overlook that fact next time? That’s encouraging.

This study also highlights the importance of post-release monitoring. If no monitoring of individual movements and behaviors were taking place, it may be falsely assumed that translocated beavers built the newly observed dams. Other studies have had varying success with translocation, but perhaps the initial results are an indicator that harsher, arid systems are more difficult for translocated beavers to establish. This could be due to poorer habitat quality, with the best habitat already occupied by naturally occurring beavers.

Those pesky beavers. We sprinkle them like table salt into dry areas and they either crawl to water or die outright. Sheesh who do they think they are?

FAIRFIELD BEAVERS IN THE NEWS

heidi08 food cache September 22, 2020

Well, well, well. The Fairfield beavers had a fine news day yesterday – akin to one of the many enjoyed in Martinez. The first was the local paper which launched into the story directly on their front page. Click the photo for a link to the online version.

It’s a nice article with of course plenty of airtime for city officials to say how they only did it to SAVE the city and would never kill beavers. Of course we know that isn’t true. Because we have the depredation permit obtained for city hall in 2015. But you know how they are. The dust they throw is magical and makes reporters obedient.

Less easily intimated was the report in the SF Gate by Jeremy Hay. He’s the reporter who was sent the story by a friend of mine in Martinez. I’m super impressed with the thorough job he did talking to Virginia, the city, me, and the Sonoma Water District about the flow device they just installed,

Something tells me Fairfield might be discussing this right now.

Removal Of Beaver Dam In Laurel Creek Draws Criticism From Residents

What happened, said Bill Way, a Fairfield city spokesman, is that the dam was removed last Wednesday as part of “routine preventative maintenance work ahead of the rainy season.”

The city “has experienced numerous instances of flooding due to debris blocking the culverts, which run beneath our roadways,” Way said. He acknowledged that the dam location had not been a flooding problem “in recent years,” though the dam is believed to have been only 10 months old.

Way said the beavers swam away unharmed.

Now, because this is my website and not at all my first rodeo, I get to play the cross examining beaver lawyer and comment that last sentence was odd. Go read it again. Obviously the dam wasn’t destroyed in the middle of the night and most likely the beavers didn’t rush out of their safe-hole when the water level dropped. So they could not have bee seen swimming away unharmed. It’s a pat on the head, and we are being told not to worry. In my considered opinion Bill Way said that because he is lacks basic knowledge and thinks that beaver live IN the dam. Which if he doesn’t know that simple fact how can we believe anything he says? And my god if you thought the dam was full of beavers how could you possibly hack it apart with tools?

Neighbors and others who have enjoyed the beavers and the wildlife that gravitated to the pool created by the dam say the city decided to take action without considering the ecological value of the dam and the beavers that created it.

“It just seems like it would be a very simple thing for the city to say, ‘Hey, we have a problem, we think this is the way to solve it. And have a discussion about alternatives,” said Noah Tilghman, who lives about 150 feet from the site of the former dam.

“It’s my hope that they (the beavers) will reestablish the dam. There are some real benefits to having it there,” Tilghman said.

Outstanding. Man on the street stuff and neighbors watching and wanting the best thing for the creek. I could barely have cast a better screenplay for real change. Fingers crossed.

Beavers are fast in water but, because they are heavy with short legs, they are slow on land. So they build dams to create a safe space for themselves where they can raise families, said Heidi Perryman, founder of Worth a Dam, a Martinez-based nonprofit that advocates for beavers.

The dams raise the level of the water — in this case, Laurel Creek — above the entrance to the beaver home, keeping predators at bay.

When a dam is destroyed, “the first thing that happens is that habitat is lost, their protected space,” said Perryman.

The second thing that happens is that the pond created by the dam washes away and with it the ecosystem that developed around it. In Laurel Creek that included tule reeds that the beavers ate, which now, Perryman said, will die because their roots are exposed, plus otters, turtles, cormorants, muskrats, and herons.

The problem with getting rid of beavers is you get rid of a ton of habitat,” Perryman said. “Beavers build kind of a neighborhood and everyone moves in. So it’s not just that you’re losing beavers, you’re losing a ton of species that are benefiting from beavers’ habitat.”

My my my. What a great quote if I do say so myself. I’m really pleased with how our interview came out. It was one of those perfect clarity moments where it feels like you have infinite time to get things right. And Jeremy was a great listener.

Way, the Fairfield city spokesman, said, “We agree that beaver dams do create ecosystems. However, when taking into account the damage caused when neglected within an urban setting, the responsible decision is to remove them.”

Ahhh that’s fantastic. He’s already on the ropes. Yes what you’re saying is true but we HAD to! Our job is to protect the city and the infrastructure. We had no choice.

Now it’s time to give him a choice.

Holsworth, Perryman and others say that there are viable alternatives that the city could pursue instead of dam destruction — essentially channeling water around, under or over the dam, thereby preventing it from backing up on one side of the dam and reducing the likelihood of flooding.

Way said the city has looked into such alternatives.

“We have considered multiple devices which have been brought to our attention, and in all cases, they require routine maintenance,” he said.

The “unnecessary risk” to city workers outweighs the other options.

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If it please the court could you clarify some of the multiple devices you looked into? I’ll wait while you pretend to look through papers. Hmm…The Clemson Pond Leveler? Yes that was a big invention back in the when Reagan was president. I’m curious, did you look at anything more modern? I mean did you for example pick up the fricken phone and talk to public works in Sonoma which just installed or your across-the-strait neighbor Martinez where one worked for 10 years? Did you ask them how much maintenance it took?

Holsworth thinks the city is just stuck in its ways.

“I think it’s just the process that has been going on for a long time, just like someone who has some behavioral routine, they don’t see anything wrong with it,” Holsworth said. “They’re not being open to solutions that can maintain our ecosystem and keep our infrastructure safe.”

Communities from Martinez — home to an annual Beaver Festival — to Diablo to Sonoma County have installed alternatives to destroying dams.

“It was a successful project,” said Barry Dugan, a spokesman for the Sonoma County Water Agency, which installed three levelers at dams on Fryer Creek, south of the city of Sonoma.

You were saying Mr. Way? Speak up the court can’t hear you.

In Fairfield, the issue of the Laurel Creek beaver dam has quickly acquired a political tone. Holsworth is leading a petition drive to get the city to install a flow device, and urging residents to contact Mayor Harry Price who, she said, hasn’t yet responded to repeated calls and messages.

And Kam Holzendorf, a City Council candidate in District 4, which includes the stretch of Laurel Creek in question, has adopted the dam’s removal as a campaign cause.

“I’m very concerned about the actions taken by our city and I’m going to go ahead and look for answers for the constituents to ease their frustration or find solutions to keep our ecosystem safe,” said Holzendorf, a Fairfield High School English teacher who recalled playing in the creek as a kid. “I don’t appreciate the fact that there was no heads up about this or no warning.

There is almost nothing I like better than politicians looking over their shoulder and seeing looming beaver support. It is the very definition of the old saying “Let the people lead and the leaders will follow“.

Another neighbor to the former dam, Linda Elkins, said once she saw it she expected it would be removed.

“I understand the necessity of it,” she said, “I’m not happy about it.”

But she said she would like to know about — and would like the city to explore — different strategies for the future.

“It would be interesting to hear about other alternatives,” she said.

In the meantime, Elkins said, “I think if nothing else, this brings awareness to people that right in our backyard we have nature that we should appreciate, and I’m glad to see that so many people are concerned. Maybe this will ultimately help our neighborhood.”

Oh man. This article has ALL the voices. The reasonable neighbor who understand the city but wants to consider options. The devoted neighbor who wants the wildlife in their creek to thrive. The weasily city official who is made to answer to these charges because HE will never have to be elected and the cowering mayor who is not available for comment until he figures out which way the scales will tip.

Now they just need a documentary filmmaker. And the scene is set for beaver resilience 2.0!

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SASKATCHEWAN’S BEAVER CHAMPION

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver Chewing September 21, 2020

Well. That was fun. I got a day filled with the cutest craziest beaver cards a person could imagine. Gosh, looking at them all together you people would think I’m obsessed with beavers or something. What ever would give someone that idea?

I am obsessed with this though. It was posted on the beaver management forum page yesterday by Mike Digout of Saskatchewan. It is pretty amazing that anyone living there is a fan of beavers, because they are so notorious for killing them. But here’s his comments.

Thought you all would enjoy this close up video I took in August. This beaver chewed through a poplar limb in 40 seconds, then flung it over her shoulder and headed for the beaver pond. Tonight I had a front row seat to watch and videotape this beaver gnaw through a poplar limb in about 40 seconds. Soooo cool (note: FYI, this was the adult female of the family)

When you see how FAST that beaver is chewing, not pausing to enjoy a single bite and scurrying off with her branch you realize how very unsafe she must be feeling. She’s totally exposed. In daylight. Away from the water. In Saskatchewan. That’s pretty vulnerable.

But boy does she get the job done.

Mike has been watching a family of beavers all summer long and taking photos and video. Obviously we know just what that was like. He has fantastic stuff and hopefully when all his friends and neighbors get to watch how cool beavers are they will think twice about killing so many. I’m also hoping that we will become best friends and he’ll be guest posting here soon.

For now you can see the collection on his facebook page here.

Mike Digout Beaver Videos

BEAVERS GET NO RESPECT WHATSOEVER

heidi08 Beavers and trout, Tail slap August 27, 2020

Don’t you just hate it when you have the very best fishing hole and a bunch of beavers move in saving water and trying to make it better? Building their rotten little dams that create more nutrients and generate more fish?

Yeah, me neither.

Dammed if they do, dammed if they don’t: Beavers have claimed a popular kayaking and fishing spot, and residents are not happy

Texas Pond in Oxford is officially under new management. While the new owners are longtime residents, they are pursuing a development initiative. Locals have raised concerns that such aggressive building will have a negative effect on the pond’s recreational and scenic qualities. However, construction continues unabated, as the developers are protected under Massachusetts law.

As surprising as it might be, Texas pond is about an hour away from Mike Callahan. And if people were really worried about the beaver activity there are answers a phone call away. But that’s not the issue. It’s massachusetts so we know COMPLAINING is the issue, about the law that banned trapping lo these many years ago.

“It’s like a fortress,” said longtime resident Kathy Doiron, describing the dam, “it’s ruining the pond.” The water level of the pond has fallen dramatically and residents have noticed the absence of the once-flowing current. Residents believe the enormous beaver dam to be the cause.

Doiron has lived beside Thayer Pond for over two decades and can see a difference from even five years ago, as the area becomes more swamplike. An avid kayaker, she said getting to the river requires dragging a kayak over the dam, which may soon be impossible.

Kayaking isn’t the only curtailed activity. As herbivores, beavers don’t compete with anglers for fish, but the two are traditionally at odds. Beavers are famous for slapping the water with their tails to alert the colony of possible threats and any fish are scared away — along with any hope for a decent catch.

You know how it is. You sneak down to the pond at dawn and throw in your line. And then one of those rotten overgrown rats slaps its tail at you and scares away all the fish! It’s not fair! Never mind that the fish are there to eat the things that are sustained by the pond the beaver built. Never mind that there are more fish and more diverse fish now. You can’t catch them because of those darned slappers!

“The beavers are horrible,” said John Bottcher, who fishes regularly at Thayer Pond. “The damming there is really bad. It can definitely affect fishing.” When beavers impound an area, changes to water depth and temperature can impact the type of fish there.

The beavers have always been there, Bottcher explained, but “it seems like lately they’ve been putting in extra work.” While true that beavers are a natural part of New England waterways, over the last couple of centuries, they have had an intermittent presence in Massachusetts.

You know the media spends so much time writing down the ridiculous lies inexperienced fishermen spread about beavers it’s no wonder they go to the same diners over and over to interview trump supporters about the Covid hoax. They are used to being lied to. They think its their job.

“When beavers came back, they got right back to work and found we had built in places where they like to impound water,” said Colin Novick, executive director of Greater Worcester Land Trust, leading to what he referred to as a “user conflict.” Novick makes no pretense of neutrality, saying that the landscape was initially “managed by beavers,” who are taking up their original role in the ecosystem.

From an ecological perspective, that role is vital — beavers are considered a keystone species, having an outsized benefit to the environment relative to their population. Through impoundment, they create ponds and wetlands that foster biodiversity by providing habitats for various plants and wildlife. The fallen trees make a submerged canopy that gives fish a place to hide from predators as well as potential spawning areas.

A multitude of species, including humans, benefit from the presence of wetlands, as they control flooding damage by slowing water release. Wetlands also improve water quality by removing toxic chemicals and filtering out sediment.

Colin has a clue. I’m so glad someone does. He’s the exectutive director and deacon at the local catholic diocese. Something tells me he and Mike have crossed paths before.

For the residents of Oxford, this is all well and good except “they’re creating dry lands, not wetlands,” said Doiron, citing the drop in water level. However, not everyone believes the beavers to be the culprit.

“We are in a protracted drought and water levels are dropping where they haven’t in decades,” said Jennifer Warren-Dyment, of the Oxford Town Manager’s office, describing a level two drought, with below average rainfall and above average temperatures. State reports indicate the drought began in late June, coinciding with the water level changes in the pond.

She said neither the Town Manager nor the Department of Public Works has received any complaints about beavers.

So wait. Rather than saying to yourself WHEW! There’s a drought! Good thing beavers saved the water or otherwise there’d be no pond at all and all the fish would be DEAD. You say DAMN THOSE BEAVERS for stealing our water! What is wrong with people? I ask you.

Besides the issues with recreational use of the area, residents have voiced health concerns due to the stagnant water, namely mosquito-borne viruses such as Eastern Equine Encephalitis. However, Novick clarified that it takes a special habitat for the mosquito that carries Triple E — “a cedar swamp, which is not going to magically appear just because beavers move in.”

First the slapping and now the mosquitoes! My head hurts from banging on the keyboard over and over. Hey do you know what those mosquitoes start out their lives as? Tiny little water dwellers. And you do know what eats those, right? I mean you must.

The situation at Thayer Pond reflects a larger debate about when and how wildlife should be reintroduced to an area. In the case of beavers, they are an integral part of an ecosystem that may become dysfunctional without their contribution. However, in bringing back a species, we also have to live with them, striking the balance between serving as stewards of the natural world and co-existing with it.

Just to be clear, these beavers weren’t reintroduced to this pond or landscape and I dare say beavers were back on the scene long before the condos were erected. The difference is that trapping has been curtailed in the time since 96 so you are having more situations that can’t be solved with a conibear.

Honestly, if I were you, I’d sit down by the pond for an hour. Watch the beavers, the fish, the birds and the wildlife that has grown around this pond and realize that those damn impoundments made it all possible.