SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN PRAISES BEAVER DAMS

heidi08 BDA's, Beavers, Beavers and Fire Prevention, Beavers and fire runoff, Beavers and Forests February 9, 2022

Every now and then a beaver report emerges that is SO exactly what we need right now and SUCH very good news that I am torn between waving my beaver pompoms and cheering madly in the bleachers and stamping my foot in anger shouting SEE? IS THIS ENOUGH? Do you believe me now? Will you stop killing them now?

For the sake of brevity I’ll just do the first for now.

Beaver Dams Help Wildfire-Ravaged Ecosystems Recover Long after Flames Subside

Dams mop up debris that would otherwise kill fish and other downstream wildlife, new observations suggest

Oregon endured the third-largest wildfire in its recorded history last summer. The Bootleg Fire tore through the Upper Klamath Basin, an ecologically sensitive area that is home to multiple threatened and endangered species including the northern spotted owl and two fish—the koptu and c’waam (shortnose sucker and Lost River sucker)—that are culturally vital to the area’s Klamath Tribes. The fire left behind a charred landscape more than twice the size of New York City.

After the local fire season ended in autumn, Bill Tinniswood, a fisheries biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, went out to survey the damage. Ash from the fire, which burned for more than a month, had clogged formerly pristine tributaries and turned them into black slurries. Thriving trout populations had disappeared, presumably choked to death by waterborne debris particles that deprived the fish of oxygen. “I was in total shock,” Tinniswood said. “It just looked like devastation.” (more…)

COULD I PLEASE JUST HAVE THE DAMS AND NOT THE BEAVERS?

heidi08 BDA's, Beaver ecological impact February 7, 2022

Well we had a great meeting. And it was good to see everyone. And I would say we’re definitely going to have a beaver festival this year…probably…and it will be either in June or in October…probably. Don’t you feel better having that all cleared up? I certainly do.

Now I don’t know how this slid by my beaver after christmas except to say it came out the exact day I was released from the hospital so maybe I had other things on my mind and my alerts weren’t very alert yet. But it’s a grand article and deserves our attention.

How Beavers Are Inspiring Efforts to Restore Degraded Rivers

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TELLURIDE UNDERSTANDS BEAVER BENEFITS

heidi08 BDA's, Beaver ecological impact January 27, 2022

I have read headlines with nearly every B pun possible. Beaver battles. Beaver Bites. Beaver Bitter. But I rarely get a bun in the right direction. This one pleases me.

New partnership focuses on stream and wetlands restoration

In December, Adrian Bergere was officially named executive director of the San Miguel Watershed Coalition (SMWC), an independent nonprofit established in 1997 that works to maintain and improve the ecological health of all 80 miles of the free-flowing San Miguel River and its connected watershed system, including rivers, lakes, wetlands and tributaries. Now, Bergere and Western Colorado University graduate student Paul Kieras are looking to enlist interested landowners in a processed-based restoration project that utilizes beaver dam analogues (BDAs) to achieve wetland restoration, increasing water for a healthier environment across the watershed.

“Beavers happen to be these wonderful, ecological engineers that a lot of our ecological systems are based around,” Bergere explained. “They are what we call a ‘keystone species.’ Their positive impacts far outweigh their negative impacts on environment and infrastructure. We’re looking to use beavers for regional stream and wetlands restoration.”

Whooo hoo! Something very positive to say about my very favorite subject. Just what does Adian intend to do about it?

Bergere added that by utilizing BDAs across the region as a low-tech, low-cost solution that “mimics hydrologic, ecologic and geomorphic processes” that a natural beaver dam would provide to a stream, along with post-assisted log structures and flow devices or “beaver deceivers,” SMWC hopes to establish beaver complexes which help slow the flow of water and create wetland complexes.

“What we’re looking to do is give the rivers a step-up to help store some of its natural processes so these same rivers will reconnect to their flood plain to re-charge and revitalize surrounding wetlands,” Bergere said.

Bergere and Kieras, along with the National Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, are currently identifying optimal sites across the watershed to install these BDAs. Bergere hopes to establish a program rather than a series of projects by creating a portfolio of work and a knowledge base for contractors so that this program can operate long into the future. They are also exploring multiple funding sources for the planning and execution of this program, including local and state granting opportunities.

Good work. I am thinking that’s the right direction to go in. Build it back and they will come and Build it back Better.

“Thinking to the future, I believe the program becomes a staple with a formal space in town where students, organizations, agencies, and community members can interact with one another,” Smith said.

The beaver-wetlands program will serve as Kieras’ capstone project for his MEM degree.

“Given my background, I would like to get involved in river wetlands restoration projects,” he said. “The prospect of getting an actual program going for wetlands restoration really excites me because it’s going to hopefully allow me to have a job I’m really passionate about in Telluride.”

THIS IS HOW IT STARTS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver Behavior January 20, 2022

This is the way it begins. You and some friends form an innocent walking group to be outside and enjoy some fresh air and exercise. You stroll to the creek because it’s interesting and not as many cars and spot what you think is an otter in swimming by. It all snow balls from there, Sandi. You’ve been warned,

Busy beaver captured on camera along Maple Ridge dike

A Maple Ridge resident out for a walk along the dikes got some quick pics of a busy beaver paddling in the water.

Sandi Thiessen, who started a weekly walking group on the site of a local Facebook group called Ridge Meadows 55+ Social, was walking with several members of the group last week when they heard the beaver jump into the water. They were along the stretch of dike that begins along 216 Street and ends at Neaves Road, said Thiessen. (more…)

WE’RE NOT OVER-HARVESTING. YOU’RE UNDER-TREEING!

heidi08 Beaver Chewing December 21, 2021

There is hardly a thing not to like about this article from Kootenay British Columbia. Located just above Idaho they are using students to wrap and protect cotton woods which is way better than trapping beavers.

Ecological Comment: The relationship between cottonwoods and beavers in Kootenay ecosystem

Not only are beavers our national animal, the largest rodent in North America, and skilled builders, they are a keystone species. A keystone species is a living thing that fills an essential role in their ecosystem that no other species can.

Our friendly beavers are ecosystem engineers and one of the only mammals capable of changing a habitat. The trees that beavers fall to construct their dams and lodges are also a source of food for them. Unfortunately, this practice has impacted populations of young cottonwoods negatively in out river (riparian) systems. (more…)