International Beaver Day was first celebrated in 2009, after being created by a nonprofit group called Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife. The group chose April 7 as the date because it is the birthday of Dorothy Richards (1894-1985), a woman who had studied beavers for almost 50 years at the Beaversprite Sanctuary in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. She had been an inspiration for Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife, and the group’s first work was to finish reforming management of the 1,300-acre Beaversprite Sanctuary. They also have worked to stop anti-beaver legislation from being passed in several states, and have worked to find solutions to human and beaver conflicts. Eventually, they became an internationally recognized authority on beavers. In the first year of International Beaver Day, they donated almost 1,000 copies of the teachers’ edition of their DVD Coexisting with Beavers to schools.
There’s more about our day from the site above but you might have seen some of it already. What’s happening now really shows that past efforts to get the word out about how valuable we are is paying off!
A river–forest ecosystem in Northern California, USA within the historic range of American beaver. Including ecosystem engineers in restoration and management decisions may lead to better outcomes for ecosystem functioning. Credit: Understory
In ecosystems, all species interact with each other and their environment. However, some species have a much greater influence than others. Certain plants or animals are able to greatly modify their landscape through just their mere presence. This makes them part of the group know as “ecosystem engineers.”
One of the best known examples of an ecosystem engineer is the beaver. By building dams, beavers change the flow of rivers and transform terrestrial ecosystems into wetlands. This leads to a whole cascade of processes and the arrival of new animals.
Although the individual cases of ecosystem engineers helping biodiversity are well documented, the mechanisms at work are not yet well understood. Scientists from UNIL have developed a guide for predicting and measuring the influence of species on ecosystems under different conditions. The aim of the guide is to include “ecosystem engineers” in the process of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem maintenance. The team’s review is published in Functional Ecology.
To establish this framework, the scientists proceeded in several stages. First, knowledge and literature about the known ecosystem engineers was collected. Next, the team developed a comprehensive framework to model and quantify the effects of the species. Finally, a procedure for including these natural regulators as much as possible in the field was created.
Gianalberto Losapio is the lead author of the study and a researcher at the faculty of Geosciences and Environment at UNIL. He is also affiliated with the University of Milan. He said, “This guide is intended to help specialists and communities ask themselves the right questions when setting up conservation programs. For example: What is the goal? What are the characteristics of the terrain, as well as the spatial context?”
The guide also provides tools to assess the impact of the actions carried out so that they can be adapted if necessary. “Some restoration projects end up being abandoned because introduced species cannot survive,” adds Losapio. “We believe a comprehensive approach is more likely to succeed.”
Burlington, Vt. – Ahead of International Beaver Day (April 7), PETA sent a letter this morning to Champlain College President Alex Hernandez, appealing to him to slap a fur ban on campus so as to protect beavers just like the school’s own beloved mascot, Chauncey.
PETA points out that tens of thousands of beavers are killed every year and that, as Champlain College itself points out, they were once on the verge of extinction in North America due to hunting for their pelts. With a ban, the school could help protect beavers and other animals still trapped and killed for their fur, joining Kingston University in London and the many cities that are also implementing or considering fur bans, and further the college’s mission to advance society and encourage students to help create a better world for all.
“Beavers are caught in steel-jaw traps, which clamp down with bone-breaking force, causing excruciating pain and a slow death,” writes PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “Please help end cruelty to beavers by informing students and staff members about the threats these animals face and by establishing a fur-free campus.”
PETA’s letter to Hernandez follows.
April 5, 2023
Alex Hernandez
President
Champlain College
Dear President Hernandez:
I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—PETA entities have more than 9 million members and supporters globally, including many thousands across Vermont—ahead of International Beaver Day on Friday, April 7, with a dam good request that would help protect beavers like Champlain’s beloved mascot, Chauncey: Will you please ban fur on campus? This step would not only further the college’s mission to advance society and encourage students to help create a better world for all but also help protect beavers and other animals who are trapped and killed for their fur.
As you likely already know, beavers are intelligent and resourceful animals. They’re well gnawn for building dams to create ponds that offer refuge from predators and space for food storage. They also construct lodges that provide shelter and a safe place to raise their young. They’re great swimmers, and their fur is naturally oily and waterproof, which helps them keep dry and warm, even when submerged for a very long time. They’re also among the few animals who can alter their surroundings to produce a suitable home. The dams they make generate wetlands, which are vital ecosystems for many species.
Tens of thousands of beavers are killed every year, often in response to their natural dam-building efforts or so they can be used for their fur. Champlain College even points out that beavers were once nearly extinct in North America due to hunting. To trap beavers, humans often use steel-jaw traps, which clamp together with bone-breaking force, causing excruciating pain. Beavers are also often strangled in neck snares and crushed in body-gripping traps, which are barbaric devices with metal bars designed to slam shut on an animal’s body. Some traps are designed to hold beavers underwater until they drown. But since they’re used to holding their breath while they dive for long periods, death by drowning is a slow, agonizing process for them.
Please help end cruelty to beavers by informing students and staff members about the threats these animals face and by establishing a fur-free campus. Many U.S. cities have already implemented bans on fur sales, and various institutions of higher learning are considering fur bans. Your efforts to help animals would beavery impactful. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing that Champlain will be a leader on this important issue.
Very truly yours,
Ingrid Newkirk
President
We are intelligent and resourceful and do do well at gnawing trees to sustain us and make our dams, but I’m not sure if the mention above of “being well gnawn” is a punny insert or auto-correct glitch. It sorta fits though. . .
A beaver dam on Lake Lowell in Caldwell, ID | Mackenzie Davidson | Argonaut
The U.S. government is looking to an unlikely rodent in an effort to repair ravaged riparian ecosystems, and it might be working.
Beavers are one of the odder species, in terms of appearance. With their long buckteeth, paddle tail and rounded shape, they don’t often attract sympathy from the owners of the land they choose to settle down on.
Due to unregulated trapping in the 1800s, beavers were largely eradicated from the U.S. This had cascading effects on the ecosystems they once called home. Beavers, as “ecosystem engineers,” change their environment in ways that promote a healthy ecosystem. With beavers gone, the riparian, or water based, ecosystems they frequented were in trouble.
Many other animals rely on the work beavers do to remain healthy. Without beavers, fish populations, predators, birds, amphibians and even the plants lining water banks were suffering.
Since 2008 the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest has been reintroducing beavers to various areas in order to promote riparian health. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the project has documented an increase in salmonid spawning and rearing as a result of the beavers’ presence.
In Idaho there are between 50 and 75 beaver restoration projects currently operational. These projects either directly introduce beavers to damaged riparian areas or have biologists build dam-like structures in order to encourage beaver populations to return to those areas.
The U.S. has a history of killing off vital species, directly resulting in whole ecosystems decaying; a cursory examination of the history at Yellowstone National Park can attest to that. The eradication of wolves, grizzly bears, mountain lions and, of course, beavers have all resulted in the lack of riparian vegetation, predatory species and healthy landscapes.
It brings hope to the environmental community seeing these restoration projects underway, reversing the damage once done to the American landscape. Recent legislation, like Idaho’s SB 1211 and Utah’s HB 469, attempt to undo some of those efforts, but biologists and conservationists are not so easily deterred.
The beaver represents a great success in conservation; once nearly extinct, there are now almost 15 million in North America alone thanks to supremely dedicated conservationists.
Mackenzie Davidson can be reached at arg-opinion@uidaho.edu or on Twitter @mackenzie_films
But coexistence is key. We just want to get along without hurting anyone. So maybe you can help out these friendly folks.
Humans often kill beavers when their damming and tree-chewing behaviors cause problems such as flooding and destroyed vegetation. This approach is ineffective because new beavers will soon move into the empty habitat. Lethal trapping, dam destruction, and culvert unclogging are only temporary solutions that, in the long-run, are expensive and unsustainable.
How is coexistence possible?
Beavers and the wetland habitats they create are beneficial to people, plants, animals, and entire landscapes and watersheds. We believe it is possible for people to share land with live beavers while addressing flooding and tree-chewing problems using long-term, cost-effective solutions.
Got some images of kids playing beaver at the recent SLO County Beaver Festival.
Beavers from Space launched April 4th on the Zooniverse. The citizens science project uses satellite imagery to uncover beaver habitat in Canada. Read on below to learn more about how you can help out.
Become a dam detective by searching satellite imagery for signs of beavers on the landscape!
Despite the cultural and ecological importance of ksisskstaki (beaver) little is known about their presence in Alberta’s streams and rivers. By searching through satellite imagery for beaver dams and lodges in the waterways of the Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe) in southern Alberta, Beavers from Space seeks to determine where beavers are present on the landscape and where they are not. Volunteers will search through imagery of over 7,000 kilometres (4,300 miles) of streams within the study area, a task that would be overwhelming and expensive to undertake with field work alone. This information, in combination with field work data, will inform riparian (river ecosystem) restoration locations, which may include the installation of beaver dam analogues. Beaver dam analogues are a proven riparian restoration technique that improves watershed health and function by mimicking the work of beavers.
Our study area is focused on the 3 watersheds (outlined in black below) that the Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe) reservation and timber limit are located in (outlined in red below). Generally, this area stretches west from Lethbridge, Alberta, to the British Columbia border, and includes Waterton Lakes National Park. The study area is just north of the Canadian-American border in the State of Montana.
By reviewing satellite imagery for beaver dams, you can help us understand where beavers are present in our watershed or where beaver-mediated restoration could occur where beavers are absent. We anticipate a relatively low density of beavers on this landscape, which is why we need your help to search every stream in the study area.
Dam neat project if you ask me! Click this link for a lot more information.
There was a bit of news from The First Annual SLO County Beaver Festival. It went well with around a thousand attendees over the day. A good time was had by all and especially the kids who got to build dams out of mud and sticks! There is also a fun video of Cooper Lienhart joining The Loving Mosh to sing Go Little Beaver Go at the Festival on April 1st, 2023.
Oh! One more thing. The Cambridge Filmworks people got rid of the darn nutria photo that I told them about! They found an image of a handsome European cousin to head the article like I hoped they would. Yeah!
Beavers have returned to the waters of Somerset and Wiltshire, hundreds of years after being wiped out.
Escapes from enclosures and unlicensed introductions are suspected to be behind the rodent’s return.
As many as 50 beavers could be living in the West Country, Natural England has revealed.
The government’s nature advisor had been investigating the possibility of beavers in the region following reports of the rodents in and around the Rivers Frome and Avon. The resulting report, published earlier this month, found a wealth of evidence that beavers were thriving in the areas, including dams, gnawn trees and burrows.
In total, it is estimated there could be anywhere from 36 to 62 adult beavers in sections of the rivers near Bath, Chippenham and Trowbridge, living in 13 families. If baby beavers, known as kits, and family units living in areas of the river which couldn’t be surveyed are included, then this figure could be even higher.
A spokesperson for the Avon Wildlife Trust previously described the presence of beavers in the area as ‘extremely significant’, adding that ‘the presence of this beaver population will support other wildlife and help us to tackle the ecological emergency.’
Where have the West Country’s beavers come from?
Eurasian beavers are rapidly being reintroduced across the UK, having been driven to extinction in the country over 400 years ago through hunting for the fur, meat and perfume trade. The mammals are now present across the country, from Scotland all the way south to Devon and London.
Officially, beavers can only be reintroduced into enclosures with a license from the government. However, many beavers are living wild following escapes from these sites, as well as unofficial introductions.
For instance, one of the UK’s largest populations of beavers can be found in Tayside, Scotland, is thought to be the result of a mixture of accidental and illegal releases.
While beavers are now considered a native species in England, Wales and Scotland, it is still a crime to release them without a license, which can result in up to two years in prison as well as an unlimited fine.
Many of the beavers in the West Country are thought to have been released unofficially, with the report estimating that these have probably taken place since 2016. Others, meanwhile, may be the descendants of animals which escaped from a private collection in the 2000s.
The beavers have now spread widely, with the majority of the families found in the River Frome, a tributary of the River Avon. Four families are found in the Avon itself, while another is found on the By Brook.
Though there had been reports of beavers in the River Brue and Kennet and Avon Canal, the latest report didn’t find enough evidence to verify their presence.
In total, the beavers may occupy as much as 11% of the available riverbanks in the areas of Wiltshire and Somerset where they live. Each family is estimated to have a bankside territory as long as eight kilometres, which is above average for England’s beavers.
While they may cover a relatively large area, the beavers are not thought to be having a major impact on their ecosystem at the moment. Though some families have started building dams and felling trees, the majority are still getting established in their new home.
With beavers having been made a protected species in England in October 2022, it’s thought that their populations will only grow if left undisturbed. While the report notes their activities could eventually pose a risk to transport, this is not likely in the near future.
Instead, it recommends further research to promote co-existence with these beavers. Assessing their genetic health, and coming up with management plans, can help to ensure these rodents can keep beavering away in the West Country.
The signs are instantly recognizable: partially chewed trees, pointy stumps and sprawling collections of sticks and logs in the middle of waterways. These all signal the presence of beavers, the plump, semi-aquatic critters that were once nearly hunted to extinction.
Established wildlife laws and reintroduction brought their numbers to stable levels, but they still remain a fraction of what they once were. Further recovery of beaver populations is crucial.
Because they significantly alter, manage and even improve the areas around them, beavers have earned the title of “ecosystem engineers.” Their work enhances the surrounding landscape and ecosystems, making these critters some of the most important, not to mention adorable, stewards of nature. Here are five ways beavers help the environment.
Beavers help control water flow.
You might assume that since beaver dams block water, they must cause floods, but that’s far from the case. Dams are penetrable structures that slow water flow, resulting in less erosion and flooding than undammed, fast flowing water. Dams physically store water on land where it soaks into the soil and initiates plant growth, able to turn bone-dry areas into bountiful wetlands. If you repeatedly visit beaver habitat in different seasons, you can see the transformations that take place thanks to their dams. A landscape often looks completely different from even just a few months prior.
Beavers improve water quality.
Rainwater runoff from artificial surfaces washes toxins into waterways, threatening aquatic ecosystems. Wetlands surrounding beaver dams act like kidneys by removing pollutants from water, effectively cleaning it. As dams decrease water flow, nutrient-rich sediment usually swept away by the current instead sinks and collects on the bottom. This abundance of minerals filters and breaks down harmful materials like pesticides and leaves areas downstream of dams healthier and less polluted than upstream.
Beaver activity creates more habitat for other wildlife.
Since beaver dams slow water flow, the original path is altered as the water meanders over additional ground, creating more wetlands where other species thrive. Important plants that feed animals and provide for people see their numbers increase over 33% in beaver wetlands, while birds nest on riverbanks, fish swim about and mammals forage for food in these natural havens. In fact, 25% of species living in these wetlands fully depend on beaver activity for survival.
Beavers stop wildfires.
Increasing wildfires destroy nature and emit greenhouse gasses, but beaver activity can hold the devastating flames at bay. Wetlands made by beaver dams concentrate water and moisturize the landscape, making it harder for fires to spread as potential fuel becomes harder to burn. Wildlife can shelter in these wet sanctuaries, safe from an encroaching blaze. Beavers might not drive red trucks or slide down poles, but they make an excellent fire department nonetheless.
Beavers help us fight climate change.
The primary driver behind climate change is the massive amount of carbon human activity pumps into the atmosphere. The more we emit, the more it builds up, but beavers help reduce its accumulation as their wetlands absorb and store the greenhouse gas. Globally, beaver wetlands hold 470,000 tons of carbon each year and perform carbon-capture work worth tens of millions of dollars. Restoring beavers to their natural habitats and widespread numbers can lead to further carbon absorption as the animals proliferate, construct dams and establish more wetlands. More beavers mean more wetlands, which mean less atmospheric carbon, a win-win-win scenario.
The incredible feats beavers perform should not be understated, whether it’s their beneficial environmental work or ability to transform landscapes. As the world’s foremost natural ecosystem engineers, they play crucial roles in managing nature unlike any other animal. You can celebrate these incredible critters on International Beaver Day every April 7. The next time you’re hiking and come across those telltale bites on trees or piles of sticks, be sure to thank a beaver for all they do in supporting the natural world by just being their busy little selves.
Please join with 250 non-profit organizations, scientists and advocates who submitted this letter to President Biden on February 27, 2023 asking for an Executive Order to protect beaver on our federally managed public lands as a proactive emergency climate response!
This petition will close on May 31, 2023 and be prepared for submission to the Biden Administration.
Ending beaver trapping and hunting on our federally managed public lands is a nature-based climate solution that will help restore many of our streams and wetlands, and bring real, tangible benefits to our communities.
Drought, floods, wildfires, and crashing fish and wildlife populations are no longer confined to small areas but spill across state boundaries. State wildlife agencies have failed to act in our best collective interest as they continue to narrowly focus on select recreational user groups even as our human and wild communities are increasingly stressed by the accelerating impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss. It is time for action at the national level.
Benefits include: More dependable water for cities, towns, farms and ranches; natural water filtration systems resulting in improved water quality; natural firebreaks creating refuges for wildlife during wildfires and protecting water quality post fire; temporary surface and groundwater storage that dampens flood peaks and improves stream flows during droughts; abundant quality fish and wildlife habitat; and drawdown of atmospheric carbon as wetland habitat expands.
Beavers can help us meet the challenges before us but only if we protect them. It is time to ask the President to take action as a matter of national security. Time is of the essence.
Matt Kaminski stood on a road scarcely higher than the floodplain, glassy pools on all sides stretched out like something from a dream. In the distance, a storm lumbered over the Coast Ranges.
The marsh all around him, Kaminski said, was a window into the Central Valley’s past. Back then, the waterways that twist down from the Sierra Nevada mountains would flood unrestricted by the current thicket of dams, canals and levees.
The more you know about rivers, the less confidence you have in a mapmaker’s static squiggle. Kaminski, a biologist from Ducks Unlimited who helps oversee the floodplain and, when it dries out, the grasslands, explained that when “the state of California was wild, it had a lot more wetlands.”
During the rainiest years, the whole valley could transform into an enormous, shallow sea. Floodwaters would spread over the landscape and percolate through the soil into the aquifers beneath. Little aquatic creatures would make their home in the tules and migrating birds would stop to gorge on their long journeys in the spring and fall. The Valley oaks and Fremont cottonwoods would rise, improbably, out of the shallows.
That appeared to be happening just east of Gustine in Merced County, as yet another storm from the tropics approached the valley: The San Joaquin River seemed to spread out and create an ephemeral wetland, a natural process.
But Kaminski pointed to the edge of the water, where three concrete slabs jutted into the marsh, and little slats of wood controlled the flow under the dirt road to the other side.
This marsh hadn’t flooded on its own.
Instead, the wetland was an artifice on top of an artifice. Powerful California interests “reclaimed” the Central Valley’s wetlands in the 19th and early 20th centuries, draining them for agricultural use and transforming the landscape.
The vast majority of the state’s marshes are gone.
But in little pockets in the state, people like Kaminski are reworking the land yet again to bring back a version of California’s past, in service of the future. By allowing rivers to spread out, flows are diverted from downstream communities, replenishing groundwater and staving off unwanted floods.
“These wetlands,” Kaminski likes to say, “act as a sponge.”
And the state agreed. In September, the California Wildlife Conservation Board earmarked $40 million for the nonprofit River Partners to spend on similar projects in the San Joaquin Valley.
But in the governor’s proposed budget released in January, that funding was axed. The news came early in the procession of climate-change-fueled winter storms that have led to staggering snowpack in the Sierra, extensive flooding throughout the state and more than 30 deaths. Facing a budget shortfall, Gov. Gavin Newsom had moved to kneecap efforts to use the historical floodplain as a way to recharge groundwater and to prevent disasters in human-occupied areas.
“In the San Joaquin Valley, we’ve got a product pipeline of about $200 million worth of floodplain expansion projects that are ready to go,” said Julie Rentner, president of River Partners. But the proposed budget, she said, “has zero dollars to be used towards that pipeline.”
Rentner said that habitat restoration cannot wait.
Well I certainly agree that habitat restoration cannot wait! But I still don’t understand why they didn’t mention our potential to do much of this fixing up for free? We’re certainly at work in the San Joaquin River Ecological Reserve! We got some good press on the BBC though:
Credit: Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, David Ljungberg
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a new method that can easily purify contaminated water using a cellulose-based material. This discovery could have implications for countries with poor water treatment technologies and combat the widespread problem of toxic dye discharge from the textile industry.
Clean water is a prerequisite for our health and living environment, but far from a given for everyone. According to the World Health Organization, WHO, there are currently over two billion people living with limited or no access to clean water.
This global challenge is at the center of a research group at Chalmers University of Technology, which has developed a method to easily remove pollutants from water. The group, led by Gunnar Westman, Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry focuses on new uses for cellulose and wood-based products and is part of the Wallenberg Wood Science Center.
The researchers have built up solid knowledge about cellulose nanocrystals—and this is where the key to water purification lies. These tiny nanoparticles have an outstanding adsorption capacity, which the researchers have now found a way to utilize.
“We have taken a unique holistic approach to these cellulose nanocrystals, examining their properties and potential applications. We have now created a biobased material, a form of cellulose powder with excellent purification properties that we can adapt and modify depending on the types of pollutants to be removed,” says Gunnar Westman.
Absorbs and breaks down toxins
In a study recently published in the scientific journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, the researchers show how toxic dyes can be filtered out of wastewater using the method and material developed by the group. The research was conducted in collaboration with the Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur in India, where dye pollutants in textile industry wastewater are a widespread problem.
The treatment requires neither pressure nor heat and uses sunlight to catalyze the process. Gunnar Westman likens the method to pouring raspberry juice into a glass with grains of rice, which soak up the juice to make the water transparent again.
“Imagine a simple purification system, like a portable box connected to the sewage pipe. As the contaminated water passes through the cellulose powder filter, the pollutants are absorbed and the sunlight entering the treatment system causes them to break down quickly and efficiently. It is a cost-effective and simple system to set up and use, and we see that it could be of great benefit in countries that currently have poor or non-existent water treatment,” he says.
“Going from discharging completely untreated water to removing 80% of the pollutants is a huge improvement, and means significantly less destruction of nature and harm to humans. In addition, by optimizing the pH and treatment time, we see an opportunity to further improve the process so that we can produce both irrigation and drinking water. It would be fantastic if we can help these industries to get a water treatment system that works, so that people in the surrounding area can use the water without risking their health,” he says.
Can be used against other types of pollutants
Gunnar Westman also sees great opportunities to use cellulose nanocrystals for the treatment of other water pollutants than dyes. In a previous study, the research group has shown that pollutants of toxic hexavalent chromium, which is common in wastewater from mining, leather and metal industries, could be successfully removed with a similar type of cellulose-based material. The group is also exploring how the research area can contribute to the purification of antibiotic residues.
This is what beaver poop looks like… a mini sawdust snowball. This beaver poop is special though because this beaver poop is out of the water. Beavers almost always poop in the water, usually within the very ponds where they spend most of their time.
It may not be nanocrystal cellulose but it’s twice chewed and filters water real well!
We’ve been cleaning water for a long time but in Iowa some of us figured that we better start farming willow before there was nothing left to eat except corn!
Walking sticks? Forgoing a bit of bark today for a whole willow in a few years is just the sensible thing to do when humans keep whacking down your favorite food! Watch the whole video though. It’s good!
Yay!!! April 7th is INTERNATIONAL BEAVER DAY!
