Category: Beaver Behavior

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.

BEAVER FRIENDS IN SWAN VALLEY

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver ecological impact November 24, 2019

I first made acquaintance with Ben Goldfarb and Rob Rich about the same time in late 2016 so in my mind they are kind of linked; like eco-wisdom salt and pepper shakers. They were both writing then for the High Country News, and had both contacted me through the website to indicate their appreciation of the constant beaver writing. I remember it startled me at the time because I frequently like to reassure myself with the notion that nobody really reads this website, or sees the many typos, malapropriations and word mishaps.

Ben, as you know, left HCN in order to write a EAGER, and Rob left and took a position as a Conservation and Education associate with Swan Valley Connections in Montana where he maintains his beaver-forward thinking and has kept in touch.

Now he is thrilled that Swan Valley actually has some nesting swans for the first time in many years and he has continued to share the beaver Gospel in Montana. He was excited to note that his co-worker was able to help him make this excellent film which I believe we are all going to enjoy. I’m especially excited that it taught me a new word. See if you can spot what it was.

Plus there is a fun outtakes section at the end of the film which will make you smile. Enjoy!

Swan Valley Almanac Episode 6: Beavers from Swan Valley Connections on Vimeo.

ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 Dispersal October 24, 2019

This article appeared at the beginning of the month but I liked it so much I always planned to get to it. I am going to call that photo the “Winsome” beaver. I’ve never seen credit for it and I don’t think that photo is castor fiber but Isn’t s/he adorable?

Awww, gnaw! Plucky the beaver dammed to a lonely life on the loch after epic trek

A beaver has been filmed living on Loch Lomond for the first time after embarking on a cross-country trek. But the animal’s solo relocation, hailed by experts as a big step in the development of Scotland’s wild beaver population, could mean a lonely life.

Ben Ross, beaver project manager for the wildlife agency Scottish Natural Heritage, says the animal is thought to be a singleton and probably made its way 14 miles across country. Beavers, which last lived in Scotland more than 400 years ago, were reintroduced to the Tay illegally in the early 2000s, and by the last count in 2017 were thought to number more than 400.

Now don’t you just love how the article automatically assumes that this pioneer beaver is a male looking for his honey? Dietland Muller-Swarze pointed out that the research shows female young beaver dispersers are likely to GO FARTHER looking for a mate than their male counterparts. In fact the only other species known where that irony happens is with porcupines! (And yes I have a weird brain that can remember I was on an airplane flying back from a shrink conference in San Diego when I read that fact and it stuck me so dramatically I remembered it.) The conference is over, the shrink days are over, but of course I’m not forgetting that fact of odd beaver feminism any time soon.

Workers at Loch Lomond National Nature Reserve near the mouth of the Endrick were first alerted when they saw beaver-gnawed willow branches. As a result, they set up a night-vision camera trap and captured the beaver on film.

He said: “It is quite a big deal that it has crossed to the west but it is what we expected What we want is good robust populations that are spreading and spreading away from those areas where there is greater conflict.”

He pointed out there were still many potential territories to fill around the Forth and Tay, saying: “It could very well be many years until another male or female comes over, then they’ve got to pair up.

“This is well within the range which these animals might be expected to travel. The hop-over from the Tay to the Forth was significant, and this is the start of another significant step.”

“I think it’s just a waiting game for this animal, he or she might be twiddling their thumbs for a while.”

If she had thumbs, that is. What will she twiddle instead? Beavers are fairly practical. They don’t do a lot of thinking about the future. They live in a room full of “right-nows”. So they fix the dam “right-now” and they chew a branch “right-now” and they look for a mate “right-now”. But the unlike humans, the ‘nows’ don’t seem to add up to any dissatisfaction or frustration. There are no beaver tally marks on the trunks of chewed trees or lonely beaver journals saying

“Day 170, The nights are getting cooler and there was frost on the dam this morning. I haven’t yet seen or scented any sign of chewing. I’m giving up hope of ever meeting another beaver on this godforsaken landscape. This is Ripley. Signing off.”

Which is good, because waiting through a series of “right-nows” is by far the best way of all to wait for anything. You should try it sometime.

The Lomond beaver is thought to have come from a group on the Forth at Kippen, 14 miles away. It may have been forced out when its parents had new kits. While beavers will cross open country in search of a territory, tributaries of the Forth run up to Balfron, potentially giving a beaver watery cover to take it to within six miles of Loch Lomond.

A few hundred yards of open country at Balfron Station separate one small tributary of the Forth from another burn that flows into the Endrick Water, which enters Loch Lomond just south of Balmaha. This could be the route the Lomond beaver took.

I’m sure she’s coping just fine. There’s lots to eat and no competition for the best places and she’s just making scent mounds and dams to her hearts content.

A kind of ‘Isle of the blue dolphins for beavers’ if you will
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READY OR NOT, HERE WE COME!

heidi08 Beaver Chewing, Beaver ecological impact October 14, 2019

The setting Hunter’s Moon is brightly outside my window as I type, so if you missed here’s a recap. Even though it is apparently as far away as it can possibly be it still manages to pack a wallop

In the beaver world there are two wonderful things to discuss. First and foremost this photo which was posted by our european friends and shows a fateful street in the capital of Latvia.

Allow me to contend this is one of the single finest photos in the known world. It does a far better job than any of us could hope achieve to say that the beaver population is rebounding and urban beavers are coming to a city near you soon whether you like it or not. Notice, if you will, the cobblestones and micro bus nearby. As well as the busy city streets and office buildings. There are even electrical wires for a crossing cablecar,

The beaver in question walked all around that tree to chew, in a dark city street for hours, but stopped just sort of the prize. Did the street cleaner interrupt? Or an approaching car of workers ready to start their day? Or was it left on purpose for a young beaver to take down easily tomorrow night and feel proud? I will never get tired of wondering, and never tire of looking at this wonderful photograph. Nor should you, Enjoy.

Which leaves is time for this fine article from Colorado by Dave Hallock of the Eldora Mountain Ear. Somethng tells me that having Sherri Tippie as a neighbor for a few years has rubbed off.

A look at nature: Leave it to beaver

Beavers are the engineers of the animal world. They build dams, lodges and canals to regulate water levels that provide shelter and access to food. Their dams raise the water table and increase the size of wetlands, benefiting the many animal species that depend on them, such as waterfowl and neotropical migratory birds that nest in willows (Wilson’s warblers, yellow warblers and dusky flycatchers to name a few).

Beavers can have profound effects on the stretches of stream they inhabit, as well as areas downstream. By raising the water table, they expand the size of wetlands. Beaver enhanced wetlands, with their mosaic of willow and birch shrublands, ponds and emergent vegetation, are some of the richest breeding bird habitats in Colorado. They are nodes of high biodiversity. Beaver dam complexes help catch and retain flood waters and sediment. In essence, they help manage watersheds. They help retain more water on our local landscape. During these times of global warming, that is a significant benefit to having them around.

Think of beaver as a legal way to keep more water on our landscape. And for this one factor alone, besides all the other benefits, try to see them more as helping to maintain a healthy ecosystem and less as a nuisance.

Isn’t that a fine sentiment? Good work, Sherri. We here at Worth A Dam couldn’t agree more, Dave.

LET’S TALK ABOUT “BEAVER MAGNETS”

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beavers and Culvert Protection, Dispersal October 11, 2019

October is the month I said I’d work on my booklet about urban beavers for BeaverCon 2020. Some pages are going better than others. But I finished Skip Lisle’s piece on culverts yesterday and am very happy with how it looks. He very kindly wrote something up and said it was okay to share on the website too. If the print is too small to read in this image double click on it and it should popup as an insert.

I especially like the idea of culverts being the most ideal damming site EVER made. It certainly explains their popularity. And don ‘t you just love the phrase “Beaver Magnets”? I had to try my hand at making a graphic for that. Skip has a talent for naming things, I’ll say that much.

I’ve been working the back cover too, using images from friends we met over the years. What do you think? I want it to seem like they’re getting beavers whether they like it or not and encourage them to start thinking of long-term solutions.

I have a few other states I want to add to the mix but I think that gets things started. I’ve also been working on the community education and response pages, maybe ultimately as a centerfold with Amy chalking beavers as the background. These took a while to make but I’m quite fond of them.
Today I’m working on something Mike Callahan wrote about using levelers to control pond height. I was thinking I’d like an urbanish friend to write something about protecting trees. know Sierra Wildlife Coalition has done a lit but I’d love to show off beaver-mindedness in another state. Maybe Jakob Shockey or one of the groups he’s worked with? Any ideas spring to mind?