Because the beaver isn't just an animal; it's an ecosystem!

Category: Beaver Behavior


Taos is a historic and artist mecca in the upper middle of New Mexico. With an elevation of nearly 7000 feet, you will definitely feel the visit all the way down to your lungs. There’s plenty to keep you busy whether your hiking, painting or meditating. But save some free time tomorrow evening because Ben Goldfarb will be talking at the Harwood Museum about beavers and his new book.

Talk targets beavers and ecosystems

Environmental writer Ben Goldfarb will spend his October residency at the Aldo & Estella Leopold Cabin putting the final touches on a manuscript about the importance of beavers in restoring ecosystems.

Goldfarb holds a master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies – the same school that Aldo Leopold attended and was among its first graduates. And the Leopold Cabin sits across the valley from the historic seat of the beaver pelt trade in the early 1800s at Taos Pueblo.

“I can’t think of a better venue at which to complete my present project, ‘Song of the Dammed,’ a book about the ecological and hydrological benefits of North American beaver restoration,” said Goldfarb, who spent last summer surveying ranchers, scientists and public land managers about beaver restoration. “Northern New Mexico plays in integral part of the story I want to tell. And I’m happy to be invited to U.S. Forest Service property, as that is an agency that gets the importance of beavers the most.”

Ooh that’s so exciting! I wrote Ben yesterday to see if someone will be filming or taping the talk so the poor souls not in Taos could see it. He said he wasn’t sure and corrected that the books title is now “Beaverland”.

Goldfarb will present elements of his book, including a history of beavers in North America, the ways beavers influence restoration, and several case studies that support his findings at a presentation planned Wednesday (Oct. 4), 7 p.m., at the Harwood Museum of Art, 238 Ledoux Street in Taos. The presentation is free and open to the public.

The Aldo and Estella Leopold Residency began in 2012 as “an inspiring retreat for writers to reflect and create in the home where Aldo and Estella Leopold first lived as newlyweds from 1911-12,” a press release states. “Now in its 6th year, the Leopold Writing Program selects one to two writers for one-month-long residencies, depending upon funding. Participants receive a $500 stipend to help defray travel and living expenses. In exchange, residents give a public presentation of their work in Taos.”

Past residents include Courtney White, John Hausdoerffer, Bonnie Harper-Lore, Leanna Torres, Gavin Van Horn, Tovar Cerulli, Priscilla Solis Ybarra, Andrew Gulliford, Maya Kapoor, Andrea Clearfield, and Ariana Kramer.

Could Ben be in better company than the spirit of these great writers? I don’t think so. He asked me what I thought of “Beaverland” as a title and I said it was nice maybe kind of similar to “Beaver World” and Enos Mills territory?  My personal inclination would be more to something about the way they are an  extremely unappreciated resource that gets ignored. Like “Untapped” or “Unsung” or more specifically focused as to their function,  “Water-Savers”.

I also tossed out the notion I had been toying about thinking of  beavers as “Stream-catchers” (playing off the idea of dream catchers being the Ojibwe  belief of the woven hoop you place near the infants crib to keep out the bad dreams) Maybe the beaver dam itself is the web? Keeping out flooding and drought, and the stream that it brings are the ‘good dreams’ vibrant with fish and full of life?

Ben liked that idea and thought it might become a chapter, so we’ll see what happens. In the mean time I’m excited that beavers get a book and Ben gets to talk about it tomorrow night.

 


Hurray for Ben Dittbrenner and Samantha Everett who will be presenting on our favorite topic on Monday Night.

Meet Seattle’s Urban Beavers

October 2nd, 6:30-7:30pm

Since their near eradication in the early 20th century, beavers have made a surprising comeback. Today, beavers have returned to many streams and waterways of Seattle, including Yesler Swamp in the Center for Urban Horticulture’s backyard. Come join us as we discuss beavers, tour their work, and potentially view some busy beavers in action. , Ben Dittbrenner (UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences), will provide a presentation on beaver life history and ecology. Samantha Everett, local beaver expert, will lead a tour through Yesler Swamp, stopping at active beaver areas with some potential beaver viewing at dusk.

If you are interested in the tour portion, please bring a flashlight!

Doesn’t that sound enormously fun? I first met Ben when he joined me and Mike Callahan  for a quick lunch at the state of the beaver conference before we presented that afternoon in 2011. At that time he was working as a watershed Steward in Sonomish County in Jake Jacobsen’s old job in Sonomish. Beavers were definitely on his mind and he knew they were the direction he was headed.

Now he is Executive Director of a beaver nonprofit called “Beavers Northwest” and operates a website and relocation project in Washington. Jake who was one of our very first beaver friends back in the drama, is on the board as Treasurer.

CaptureMeanwhile I received an alarm call from Cheryl yesterday who stopped by the Concord Dam on her way home from work. A not very appreciative homeless woman was ripping out the dam with her crutch. Seems too many people were stopping to look at the dam and giving them less privacy for their encampment. So she got rid of the attraction.

Of course the beavers will rebuild and it will all happen again, but it’s frustrating. It was such a beautiful dam.

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One of my favorite segments of Sesame Street when I was a child wasn’t cookie monster or oscar the grouch. It was the silly attention Bert paid to pigeons, treating them as if they mattered and were worth attending to.  He collected jokes and stories about them and even watched a favorite media segment called in an echoing broadcaster voice saying “Pigeons In The News!“.

I can’t imagine why that pops into my head now.

There’s local beaver business to report first. Our two little dams near Susanna Street were ripped out last week by Wednesday morning. I’m not sure by whom, but Moses left a note on my door when we got home from vacation, and when we went to look it was sure enough torn out, although not by heavy equipment. No word on what happened to our beavers but I have contacted folks to find out.

Stay Tuned!

Also I got an email from our old friend Glenn Hori who used to photograph the Martinez Beavers and spied a beaver dam in Concord near 680 and Willow Pass Rd. He couldn’t get a glimpse of actual beavers last night but that lovely dam isn’t maintaining itself.

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Concord Beaver Dam: Photo By Glenn Hori

This is right near the Willows so one images the name might have attracted them?

Meanwhile newslines are abuzz this morning with the story of valiant beavers being brought in to save English cities from flooding. I always get nervous when beaver promises are made, but we better just enjoy this while it lasts.

English town enlists beavers to prevent floods

In 2012, the center of Lydbrook, a village skirting the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England, was deluged with several feet of water. The flash flooding, unleashed by torrential rainfall across the region, sparked a mandatory evacuation and left badly damaged homes and businesses in its wake.

This wasn’t the first time this bucolic burg has been devastated by rapidly rising waters. Nestled between the River Wye and one of its tributaries, the flood-prone Greathough Brook, Lydbrook and surrounding parishes in the Wye Valley have long been vulnerable to inundation. In 2015, villagers collectively breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that a section of an aging culvert meant to tame the flow of water through the village would be replaced as part of a flood defense overhaul costing 290,000 pounds (nearly $400,000).

 Now, two years later, the Forestry Commission has decided to bring in the big guns to further prevent flooding: beavers.

As the Guardian reports, a scheme to release a family of Eurasian beavers within an enclosed area at Greathough Brook has been embraced enthusiastically by villagers and, most importantly, received a governmental go-ahead despite one report that it was blocked by a minister at the Department of Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs.

The idea is that once released, the clan of industrious semiaquatic rodents will get to work doing what they do best: constructing an intricate network of dams, ponds and canals that, in this instance, will slow the flow of Greathough Brook and prevent upwards of 6,000 cubic meters (1.6 million gallons) of water from rushing into the valley-bound village below.

While a qualified team of engineers that don’t have webbed hind feet could be brought in to dam the stream, the beaver is, well, cheaper and can get the job done in a swifter and less intrusive manner.

What’s more, there’s the chance that the beavers’ presence could be a boon for eco-tourism in the region as the animals, hunted into extinction across Britain and now being strategically released back into the wild, are still a relatively rare sight. A village that’s reintroduced beavers and put them to work to help prevent catastrophic flooding certainly could draw wildlife lovers to this sleepy northwestern section of the Forest of Dean.

Here’s a nice look at the Devon beavers from back in 2012. I shared this 5 years ago but it’s worth watching again.


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It isn’t just any day that you wake up to find whopping beaver mistake coming out of Portland of all places, but this is a doozy. You see Westmoreland  is one of the most desirable sections of Portland. It’s victorians and craftsman homes are some of the wealthiest places to live in the region. So they of COURSE have enough money to know better or at least hire someone to correct their mistakes.

Crystal Springs Creek becomes an urban salmon sanctuary; city council proclaims Sunday ‘Salmon in Our City Day’

What happens when humans build and develop without much consideration for other species. Well, sometimes it means using millions of dollars to go back and correct mistakes.

In Portland’s case, it meant spending $16 million to backtrack and widen culverts — the circular or square piping that sometimes runs through streams —at Crystal Springs Creek so that salmon could adequately pass through them.

The nine manmade culverts that support roadways and pass through the sparkling, 2.5-mile long creek, which snakes through Southeast Portland’s Westmoreland Park, until last year were too small, impacting salmon’s ability to spawn and swim through them and ultimately migrate to the ocean.

So far so good. A wealthy community spending money to fix its culverts and protect salmon. Having a festival to create awareness. That”s a good thing, right? Ahh but its when they talk about WHY salmon matter that we get interested.

But why are the salmon important at all? Turns out, for a lot of different reasons. It’s not going to be a food source for people from that creek, but it will be for other animals, including beavers and other critters. Additionally, according to Karl Lee, co-chair of the Crystal Springs Partnership and retired hydrologist for the U.S. Geological survey, they’re a “giant package of nutrients.”

The Crystal Springs Partnership is a lush coalition of agencies and advocacy groups working to protect the waterways in the fanciest way possible. (Did I mention that Portland is the city in the US with the highest density of nonprofits per square foot?) Well you’d think that ONE of them would explain that beavers don’t eat fish, wouldn’t you?

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Apparently not.

 


I thought I’d share a little about the odds and ends that followed my last few postings. One was about the water week events in Whatcom WA. You might remember that the paper said there’d be a showing of the film “Beavers in the Ecosystem” which I wanted to find out about. Turns out the paper got it wrong, it wasn’t actually a film but an event lead by the North Sound Baykeeper for Clean Water Services, Lee First. I got in touch with Lee through our friend Ben Dittbrenner of Beavers NorthWest. Seems Lee contacted Ben looking for properties with beavers on them that might allow a tour for his guided event and talk.

Lee impressed me right away with this response to my letter:

Hi Heidi, it’s not a film, it’s a site tour.  I’ll take photos during the tour, and I’ll probably write a little story about the tour.  I love beavers!

As far as I know there are two people in all the world who collect a city salary and love beavers. And now I know both of them! There surely aren’t any such people in Martinez.

The other follow up comes from my column on the story accusing the Welsh beavers of ruining the sequel film date. I got an email from Alicia Leow-Dyke of the Welsh Beaver Project thanking me for the graphic.

movie starThank you Heidi, that means a lot. I was so annoyed when I read the original article, beavers being blamed without any evidence! Someone has to stick up for them!  I love the graphic!! That’s brilliant! Would it be OK for me to use that graphic in our talks or on our website? I also love the beaver cushion that has been sent to you from the Ukraine. I am going to have to buy one for myself!

best baby everI told her of course she could use it, and showed her the photo of our kit where it’s from. Graphic Designer Libby Corliss didn’t work with us long, but the silhouettes she made that summer from Cheryl’s photos have been a lasting treasure I rely on again and again.

Onto the treats of the day, this time Parks and Recreation Department of Calgary, which is about 400 miles north of Montana across the Canadian border. Seems they just updated their beaver webpage and WOW they did an amazing job. Even when I read it the third time this morning, I was still surprised and impressed.

BeaversCapture

Beavers have found an inviting home in Calgary, with its two rivers, abundant green space, and lack of predators. In recent years, their population has grown, with lodges in various locations along the Bow and Elbow rivers, in storm water ponds and wetlands.

Beavers are good for our environment

Beavers play an important ecological role in Calgary’s waterways. Their dams can create ponds that provide habitat for other wildlife and help surrounding vegetation to flourish. The ponds and wetlands are very good at storing water, and can help reduce the effects of smaller floods and hold water during droughts.

Water flowing through dammed areas is naturally purified, and after a dam has broken, fertilizer created from the decomposing material in the dam will spread downstream.

I promise I haven’t embellished this or edited to make it look better. This is the ACTUAL website for Calgary and it starts by describing how lucky we are to have them. Then it gets around to talking about problems, but in a pretty reasonable way.

Beavers also present some challenges

Because conditions are so good, Calgary’s beaver population has grown in recent years. This can cause problems for our forested areas, infrastructure and property, and the beavers themselves.

A single adult beaver can cut down about 200 trees in a year. With each lodge housing four to six beavers, wooded areas can be devastated in a short period of time. This is harmful to other wildlife that rely on the trees for habitat. Beaver dams can also cause flooding that affects property, and in some cases, can damage storm drains and weirs that can be very expensive to repair.

Okay, that’s most reasonable. People can legitimately have concerns about these animals. There’s only a single sentence I take issue with.

“Without natural predators, beaver populations can grow to be unsustainable.”

Ahh Calgary, you were doing so well up until them. Did you never read that beavers were territorial? Did you never think that when the streams were full of beavers the new ones would have to look elsewhere for a place to call their own? I would be disappointed in them,  but they quickly redeemed themselves.

The City’s approach to beaver management

The City’s practice is to try and strike a balance between health of the surrounding areas and the wellbeing of the beavers.

When required, The City uses different measures to protect trees and property to make our river parks unappealing to beavers. Depending on the situation, we may use a combination of the following:

  • Placing metal wiring around tree trunks.
  • Planting varieties of trees along the shore that are less palatable.
  • Placing under-dam drains to control water levels.

surprised-child-skippy-jon

We consider all other options before turning to trapping. However, in some cases it is required. When we do remove beavers, we use traps that are designed to kill instantly. The traps are placed under water for the protection of dogs, park users and other wildlife, and are checked daily.

There’s a final paragraph on why they can’t relocate beavers that are causing issues instead of trapping them, but honestly this is ALL I WISH from any city beaver management policy. Protect trees. Plant Willow. Install flow devices.

Consider it my version of “Eat. Pray. Love.”

If every city tried to do these things before trapping I would be over the moon with joy. Honestly, this is the best and most sensibly proactive policy I have ever read.

They even have a video teaching how to wrap trees. Be still my heart.

I expect a mass exodus of beaver supporters moving to Calgary right away. Honestly, my bags are nearly packed.


One more present for Heidi in the Odds and Ends category. This lovely website I came across in my travels is called beaverlikemammals.com, with the actual tagline “A friendly place to post sightings of beaver-like mammals” which she dubs BLM’s.

Really.

CaptureBLM
abbreviation
Beaver Like Mammal.

Everyone wants to make a contribution to society, to leave their own little mark on the world. This website is my mark. It provides a public space where people can post sightings of beaver-like mammals (BLMs). Did you spot a BLM at the corner of 10th Street and West Main? Does a BLM emerge from the bushes by your back porch every evening around 6pm? Did you catch a glimpse of a BLM out of your car window on the way home on Thursday night? Submit your sighting to beaverlikemammals.com!

There is a page for submitting a sighting and your observation will be listed by your state. Most of the entries she has look like woodchucks with the occasional squirrel. I don’t see any actual beavers since back in 2007. But she definitely gave me a gift.

From now on, the next photo of a nutria I see on a news article about beavers I’m calling it a BLM.

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