Category: Beaver ecological impact

MENDELL’S FOLLY: SHORTCUT TO UNDERSTANDING BEAVERS

Finding the right tools to reach the right people is a constant struggle for ecology. Nature is usually the easy part. It’s human nature that takes an age to understand. Every now and then I run into projects that have truly been decades in the making, the Napa river coalition for instance, and I realize that truly making any kind of difference in this ecological world takes massive time, contact, and persuasion. Relationships that get built and rebuilt over decades. Shiny technology is fun and all, but its the basics that get positive changes to stay in place.

The Beavers of Mendell’s Folly

Conserving Wetland Areas

Wetlands are valuable to both people and animals. They provide an environment for a great amount of wildlife diversity and valuable ecological services to many organisms, including human beings.

Throughout history, wetlands have faced many major changes because of human settlement, pollution, and runoff from agriculture. Scientists estimate that 40% of all species reside in wetlands, so without any healthy wetlands many species would suffer. In addition, wetlands provide flood control, storm barriers, and clean water. They also provide foods such as rice, cranberries, and fish. Protecting wetlands in our ever-changing world means protecting the services wetlands provide us in our day-to-day lives.

In collaboration with UConn’s Conservation Training Partnership (CTP) Program and the Bethany Land Trust , this project was made to spread awareness and educate the public about the importance of wetlands and how beavers impact them.

The research for this story map was done on Mendell’s Folly, a Bethany Land Trust Property.

Okay, this was NOT a long term project built over generations where relationships have been built over decades. It was a lucky coalition between a conservancy and a training group and some nice technology. They created something fairly cool but I’m curious how long it will remain.

At Mendell’s Folly, there is a big wetland area. The Hockanum Brook flows through this wetland which provides a habitat for many different animals. This is especially important for increasing biodiversity within the wetland and areas around it. Along with the wetland, there is also upland forests which also is home to many other species.

The website shows their digital map of the habitat with GIS markers for all the areas of interest. I can’t embed it here but if you click on the markers they open little descriptions of images of what you see there. I will link to it and you can check it out yourself. Of course sense beaver habitat is VERY dynamic, to be truly effective this would have to be updated every week at least. It’s fun to imagine how we could have used this in Martinez, for example where everyone might contribute.

Beavers are extremely important in increasing biodiversity and maintaining the wetland. Their role is vital to the survival of the wetland and the survival of many animal In Mendell’s Folly, the beavers have changed the flowing stream to a beaver pond. However, there is no clear pictorial evidence of this.

Many consider beavers a nuisance because of their infamous tree cutting, but it has a positive effect on the ecosystem. After taking down the trees, the stumps grow new shoots that becomes food for many animals. The fallen trees helps bring more light onto the forest floor. This provides sunlight for low lying plants which gives them a chance to thrive, ultimately, resulting in plant biodiversity.

Beavers play a huge role in creating and maintaining wetlands. By doing this, wetlands can provide benefits like improving the quality of water, recharging underground aquifers, alleviate droughts and floods, and provide a habitat for many animals.

Well yes they do. The site has a nice run down of birds and wildlife affected at the pond. Please think of the entire cascade in reverse every time a beaver is trapped: fewer native plants, fewer salamander eggs, fewer macroinvertebrates, fewer fish to because there’s less bugs to eat, fewer otters and herons because there’s less fish to eat, and so on.

Oh, and less water because there’s no one left to fix the dam.

IOWA STATE OFFERS BEAVER WEBINAR

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and Nitrogen removal, Beavers and soil January 24, 2023

This was a surprise. I have grown accustomed to a certain kind of beaver hydrology lecture, from earnest professors like Dr. Fairfax or charming wisdom fonts like Kent Woordruff or Brock Dolman or even classic new england types like Skip Lisle or Leila Philip. I never heard the beaver gospel delivered from anyone quite like Andrew Rupiper and his stalwart professor Dr. Billy Beck of Iowa State.

Something about the unaffectionate pragmatism works though.

Can Beavers Be Water Quality Superheroes?

AMES, Iowa – Iowa Learning Farms, in partnership with the Iowa Nutrient Research Center and Conservation Learning Group, is hosting a free virtual field day on Feb. 9 at 1 p.m. Central time. Join for a live discussion with Billy Beck, assistant professor and extension forestry specialist at Iowa State University and Andrew Rupiper, graduate research assistant in natural resources ecology and management at Iowa State University.

The event will explore a unique research project, located at the Ann Smeltzer Trust Iowa Learning Farm in Webster County, looking at a free in-stream conservation practice tying together water quality, wood and wildlife.

Funded by the Iowa Nutrient Research Center, the team is working to quantify hydrologic impacts of beaver dams in the stream system and their effect on nutrients and sediment to determine the influence, positive or negative, these ecosystem engineers have within their watershed.

Iowa isn’t exactly a place I would go to meet ecologists who care about beavers. But it’s a state that cares a lot about its SOIL and of course that means you’re very interested in the things that improve it and the things that wash it away. Turns out this is a natural precondition for being interested in beavers.

“Many of the stream channels in Iowa aren’t able to assist with nutrient and sediment reductions and may be sources instead due to the straightening of streams, removal of riparian vegetation, removed in-channel wood and added artificial drainage to the landscape,” noted Beck. “While contentious, beaver dams are a free in-stream conservation practice that could help improve water quality and reduce nutrient and sediment loads within the watershed.”

Webinar access instructions

To participate in the live webinar, shortly before 1 p.m. Central time Feb. 9:

To access online, click this URL, or visit https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/events-1.
To join from a dial-in phone line, dial +1 312 626 6799 or +1 646 876 9923; meeting ID 945 3331 7620.

The field day will be recorded and archived on the ILF website so that it can be watched at any time.

Participants may be eligible for a Certified Crop Adviser board-approved continuing education unit. Information about how to apply to receive the CEU (if approved) will be provided at the end of the event.

So Iowa State is having a webinar about beavers. Let that sink in. Roll it around in your mouth for a moment. First New Mexico. Then California. Then Colorado. Then Iowa. It’s not impossible to think that every state will come around eventually. If you can’t wait until February, watch this video with Andrew now. He says all the things we already know but in a completely different way for a very different audience.

And he does it really well.

More ‘Wild kingdom‘ than ‘Lily Pond’. More about soil than beavers. More about ecosystem services than engineers. More fact than furry.

It’s the right message to the right audience and I love it.

YEAR OF THE WATER RODENT 新年快乐

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver Art, Beaver ecological impact January 23, 2023

新年快乐

Since it’s officially the year of the rabbit. Each zodiac animal is associated with one of five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water) which also cycle through in their own direction. That means this year specifically is the year of the WATER RABBIT which I’m sure you can guess that I’m going to suggest a corresponding water rodent that is having an especially prosperous year.

Rabbits represent fertility, sociability and are generally ready to make others feel at home. In the year of the water they ascend into a fluid power that lets them be sensitive to others needs and able to solve problems.

The element of water also represents going with the flow, and being more receptive to our higher senses. Last year we experienced the element of Yang Water, which is connected to rapid-flowing water and large bodies of water such as the ocean. Yin Water however, is softer and is connected to slow-bubbling streams, lakes, and rain.

You know it’s kind of a coincidence being the year of the water rabbit where this magical peaceful rodent can make things better for everyone and help everyone get what they need. Don’t you think that’s a coincidence?

PREACHING TO MORE THAN THE CHOIR

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver ecological impact, Beavers January 22, 2023

This was a very surprising and interesting interview to come across. Jakob is knowledgeable and adept in navigating the slippery terrain of his old professor who is both a brilliant and newly convinced beaver convert AND a fairly distrustful Bundy-esque nay sayer who is used to having his word be the last word, I can imagine that if you were lucky enough to be in his course you would have days where you learned a ton, admired the heck out of him and days where you hated most of his guts and thought about dropping out. Not necessarily in that order.

The end result is a fantastic marathon interview, especially the first half and with a heaping dose of respect for Jakob Shokey who knows by heart the first lesson of saving beavers: you can’t only talk to people that you agree with or agree with you, I can’t embed the interview so you’ll have to click on the link but it’s mostly worth it,

Beavers? Bret Weinstein Speaks with Jakob Shockey on the Darkhorse Podcast

Jakob Shockey, founder of the Beaver Coalition, has spent years researching and working to preserve, restore, and understand beaver habitats. He discusses with Bret the rarely discussed impacts of Beavers on all aspects of our world, and how we have thrown this equilibrium out of balance by trapping beavers and industrializing north America with little regard for preserving the factors that made it as hospitable as it has been.

WHEN BEAVERS ARE GREETED WITH OPEN ARMS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver Chewing, Beaver ecological impact January 17, 2023

In the 15-year history of this website I have written very few stories of Pennsylvania. Maybe a couple here and there,with beavers being trapped for chewing trees or causing flooding but this is the first WELCOME BEAVER! article I’ve read that I can recall. It’s not brimming with accurate information but we are soo darn happy it’s there at all I won’t complain. Say hello to Frick park.

What Frick Park’s resident beaver means for the health of the restored Nine Mile Run

Frick Park’s newest resident is causing quite a stir. Wildlife fans and hikers have come to the park in the weeks since park rangers first spotted a beaver in late December, with hopes of stealing a glance.

But like many others who came before, resident Jane Bernstein returned to the parking lot just off the Nine Mile Run trail unsuccessful. Since the flat-tailed mammal is nocturnal, Bernstein got to the park before 8 a.m. on a snowy Friday this January.

This wasn’t the first time she had gone to look for him, either.

“I went on a beaver walk with somebody from Nine Mile Run — a group — and that was great,” Bernstein said. “We learned a lot about how excited they are about the beaver, despite the fact that the beavers do gnaw down trees.”

Excited about the beaver! Imagine! Frick park is in an oasis of wooded steep trails in the middle of the city of Pittsburgh. It was a large estate bequeathed for a park in the early 1900’s by Henry Clay Frick an early founder of the Coke industry which was a treatment for coal that fueled iron smelting.

So I guess it’s kind of nice a fossil fuel’s founders tax write-off is happy to see beavers?

While elusive, the beaver, aptly nicknamed Castor — the North American beaver’s scientific name is Castor canadensis — leaves a pretty clear trail of pointed, jagged little sticks behind him.

“You can see he’s been out munching around,” park ranger Erica Heide points out as she walks down a path parallel to the stream.

Castor is the second beaver to be spotted in the park in recent years, according to Heide. The first one appeared in Nine Mile Run in 2019, likely having migrated up from the Monongahela River, the waterway that sits at the mouth of the stream.

Heide said that the beaver stayed in the area for about a year, but no mates or kits (the term for baby beavers) were spotted with him.

“He moved on, we assume, for mating season,” Heide said.

So far, Castor has appeared alone at Nine Mile Run, too. Heide said while beavers are friendly within their family units, they’re territorial creatures, with just one family inhabiting a single section of a waterway at a time.

In any number, though, Heide said the presence of beavers is a sign of a healthy ecosystem where sewage and industrial waste once dominated.

“They are known as nature’s engineers,” she said enthusiastically. “They’re the only one of the only species that can change their environment and alter the hydrology.”

I would say the hardy beaver is a BRINGER of a healthy ecosystem – not exactly a sign of one. I mean there are beavers in Chernobyl and I’m pretty sure that’s not healthy. But still I get your point. They can do good things for the hydrology.

This years-long effort to detoxify the stream, led by the City of Pittsburgh and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, included rerouting the stream channel by adding curves and ripple rocks to slow down the water and the rate of flooding.

A decade and a half later, fish and beavers have continued the work of improving the surrounding wetland environment. For instance, beavers’ chomping habits can be useful in shaping a climate-resilient landscape.

“See how clustered and how tight they are,” Heide said pointing to a group of streamside willow branches. “That’s actually really bad. They’re even starting to uproot themselves because of how heavy they are.”

But beavers love to eat willows, which grow back once cut down.

“It will cut those down and then they can regenerate into like a healthier cluster,” she explained.

Doing so helps protect the stream bank from erosion. Heide said the parks plan to plant more willows this spring and will hold several willow staking events where residents can get involved.

To protect the trees they want Castor to stay away from, park rangers and conservation groups put protective cages around nearby trunks, prioritizing those that are young and native to the northeast, like oaks, aspens and maples.

Well I would rather have a team of beavers working on that stream than the army core of engineers, but honestly, I’m not sure about your statement that FISH helped the stream, That’s like saying cars help roads?

Heide said it’s unlikely beavers will ever build a successful dam on Nine Mile Run. During storm surges, the area is susceptible to intense flooding that dams would likely not withstand.

Still, if Castor or any other beaver in the park was able to complete a dam, Heide said it would be another step toward successful environmental restoration. For one thing, it can cause flooding that brings up nutrients and seeds from the water into the soil, sparking a surge in vegetation for wildlife to eat.

At the same time, dams can further reduce the rate of flooding by slowing down floodwaters while filtering out pollutants that travel downstream.

Well that’s no more than the truth. I think I like having a beaver welcoming committee strew their path with good news. And hey the name can’t hurt. “Heide” (Hmm even if she spells it wrong…)

Hiller said the organization hopes to continue that work to protect the health of habitats throughout the watershed and restore other parts of the park, like the Fern Hollow Valley.

The presence of a beaver, he added, is a sign that they are headed in the right direction. For those who want to see the beaver, Heide advises people not to get their hopes up.

“He’ll probably become more and more elusive as we get into the colder and colder weather,” she said. “Just like us, we don’t want to be out in the cold. Neither does he.”

In the event he is spotted, Heide stresses that people give him space, and keep any dogs in the park on leash.

“That will ensure that this beaver is safe for future years to hopefully come back.”

Gosh. I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop. But I guess it’s darn cool that a industry giant’s park can be somewhere that is happy to have beavers. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t always the case.