Category: Beaver economics

THIS IS THE BIG ONE! UTAH DOT HELPS BEAVERS!

Every now and then we come across a story that shakes my understanding of Beaver advocacy and makes me feel; we have truly arrived at a new world. Stories like THIS are what I’ve been waiting for. When this project is successfully implemented in California I will officially kiss the flag and retire. The world won’t have to read my nagging and fault finding beaver monologues any longer. The final battle will be won. The infamous Dam Quixote of Martinez will officially lay down her arms and stop stabbing at windmills.

Utah DOT Testing New Beaver Habitat Protection Effort

The Utah Department of Transportation recently began testing what it describes as “a different approach” that allows beavers to remain in their habitat while protecting nearby roads and bridges from water damage caused by their natural dam-building instincts.

This is the single finest sentence I have ever read, Read it again out loud. Not moving beavers. Not killing beavers Not building imitation beaver dams, but letting beavers stay where they are and installing tools that will protect the road.

Just like I always dreamed of.

The agency explained that beavers build dams to expand their access to food and habitat, and while such dams can benefit the surrounding environment, the water behind them can rise high enough to seep beneath roads – eroding roadways and creating safety concerns.

To manage that risk, Utah DOT recently partnered with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR), the Sageland Collaborative non-profit environmental group, and Utah State University’s Beaver Ecology and Relocation Collaborative to install three pond “levelers” in Beaver Creek in Logan Canyon.

You always imagine this day, but you never really dare to believe it can come true. This is IT! This is the one I’ve been waiting for. How do we set this in motion everywhere there are roads?

Those levelers use pipes to carry water through the beaver dams, keeping the water levels with those ponds at safer levels for nearby roadways. Because the intakes are designed so beavers do not detect the flowing water, they are less likely to block them, noted Matt Howard, Utah DOT’s natural resources manager.

“This gives us another tool to protect our transportation system while allowing the beavers to stay,” he said in a statement. “If the levelers work as intended, we can manage the water level without repeatedly relocating beavers or removing dams.”

In the past, managing “conflicts” at sites at such beaver habitats often meant trapping and relocating the creatures or removing the dams. However, when the habitat remains attractive, other beavers may move in and begin rebuilding. Thus, Utah DOT and DWR hope the pond leveler will help break that cycle by reducing the threat to infrastructure without removing the animals.

I can’t even believe this is really happening, Some pinch me. I might be asleep.

Oh My Goodness! That is the best movie I ever saw on you tube. Watch it again and share it with everyone you know. Can they okay this movie on my television every Christmas?

Beaver ponds also offer broad environmental benefits, Utah DOT said; they retain water, support native plant communities, reduce erosion and create habitat for many fish and wildlife species.

Water stored across the landscape may also create natural firebreaks and help surrounding areas withstand dry conditions, stressed Shane Hill, riverscape restoration project manager at Sageland Collaborative.

“What I see in this work is an opportunity to expand Logan Canyon’s capacity to support wildlife habitat, hold water, create wetlands, improve water quality and make the area more resistant to fire,” said Hill. “The challenge is the conflict beavers can have with our infrastructure. These pond levelers give us a way to coexist with beavers and keep their benefits on the landscape.”

Where do I press COPY to make more of you. I need a duplicator.

Utah DOT noted that it will monitor the three pond levelers to see how well they manage water levels and protect the nearby road. The results will help the department determine where pond levelers or similar approaches may be useful in the future, the agency said.

“This is about finding practical solutions that protect both Utah’s transportation system and its natural resources,” stressed Utah DOT’s Howard. “The beavers can stay in a productive habitat, and we can help keep the road safe for everyone who uses it.”

There is only one way to reply to that. And you know what it is.

Not surprisingly, Beavers shown to preserve biodiversity in Poland as well! Plus a new annual Beaver Festival!

From: The Revelator

Nature’s Supermarket: How Beavers Help Birds — And Other Species

New research shows that these ecosystem engineers can be an “ally in stopping the decline of biodiversity.”

by Tara Lohan

Researchers in Poland have found another reason to love beavers: They benefit wintering birds.

The rodents, once maligned as destructive pests, have been getting a lot of positive press lately. And for good reason. Beavers are ecosystem engineers. As they gather trees and dam waterways, they create wetlands, increase soil moisture, and allow more light to reach the ground. That drives the growth of herbaceous and shrubby vegetation, which benefits numerous animals.

Bats, who enjoy the buffet of insects found along beaver ponds, are among the beneficiaries. So too are butterflies who come for the diversity of flowering plants in the meadows beavers create.

Some previous research has found that this helping hand also extends to birds. For example, a 2008 study in the western United States showed that the vegetation that grows along beaver-influenced streams provided needed habitat for migratory songbirds, many of whom are in decline.

Pile of branches of beaver dam in green wetland. — A beaver dam in Bierbza Marshes, Poland. Photo: Francesco Veronesi (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The new study published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management found further evidence by focusing on birds in winter. The researchers looked at assemblages of wintering birds on 65 beaver sites and 65 reference sites in a range of temperate forest habitat across Poland. Winter can be a challenging time for birds in that environment, as they need to reduce energy expenditures in the cold weather and find habitat that has high-quality food and roosting sites.

Wintering birds, it turns out, find those qualities near beaver habitat.

The researchers found a greater abundance of birds and more species richness near areas where beavers had modified waterways. Both were highest closest to the shores of beaver ponds.

“All beaver-induced modifications of the existing habitat may have influence on bird assemblage,” says Michal Ciach, a study co-author and a professor in the department of Forest Biodiversity at the University of Agriculture in Krakow, Poland. “But different bird species may rely on different habitat traits that emerge due to beaver activity. It’s like a supermarket.”

Beaver crouched by water's edge. — The Eurasian beaver. Photo: Per Harald Olsen/NTNU (CC BY 2.0)

The growing research about beavers suggests a greater need to protect their habitat and understand their important role in the ecosystem.

“Beaver sites should be treated as small nature reserves,” says Ciach. “The beaver, like no other species, is our ally in stopping the decline of biodiversity.”

Read the whole article here.

A more practical and peaceful strategy emerging in the land know for beaver!/?

Dam nuisance: St. Albert explores beaver-habitat flood mitigation

The City of St. Albert is upping its engineering-ante in an ongoing duel with the local beaver population by installing some new water infrastructure safeguards over the next few years.

By Jack Farrell at the St. Albert Gazette

The City of St. Albert plans to add a couple of new tools to its water-management tool belt over the next few years to counteract problems caused by the local beaver population.

Melissa Logan, the city’s environmental coordinator, said staff will install pond levellers in high-priority spots throughout Carrot Creek and the Sturgeon River, starting this summer.

Unbeknownst to the estimated 16 individual beavers who call these rivers home, pond levellers allow water to flow through dams to prevent flooding, Logan said.

“The pond levellers you can put right in the middle of a dam and it will keep the water flowing through so that we don’t get flooding, but still allow the beaver to create some of the habitat that it needs,” she said.

“It’s just a method of coexisting with beavers on the landscape instead of getting rid of them entirely.”

0903-beaver-management — City staff are getting some new tools to counteract regular infrastructure damage caused by the estimated 16 local beavers. FILE/Photo

“Best-case scenario is that beavers are still able to be active on the landscape and do their natural water management,” Logan said of what she hopes the new tools will accomplish.

“Protection of our infrastructure in the long term is really what we’re looking for.”

Logan said staff will install the tools in high-priority areas this summer, and in lower priority areas over the next few years.

Major cost savings

Glynnis Hood, an environmental biology and ecology professor at the University of Alberta’s Augustana campus in Camrose and author of The Beaver Manifesto (2011), told The Gazette she has seen pond levellers save municipalities thousands of dollars.

“There’s cost savings, there’s ecological advantages, (and) there’s infrastructure advantages for reducing maintenance needs,” said Hood.

“For instance, in Cooking Lake-Blackfoot, we installed about 13 (pond levellers) and then we monitored them over seven years. The maintenance that was required … was maybe pull a few sticks out here and there and they worked really well,” she said.

“The cost savings was in the tens of thousands of dollars, and if we added on some other economic drivers … it could even be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars of cost savings just for those 13 sites that otherwise have been chronically flooded for over 10 years.”

Hood said pond levellers, culvert protectors, and other beaver-damage mitigation can improve how people in the community view their neighbourhood beavers.

Beavers as extreme-weather mitigators

As part of an ongoing five-year project, Hood and Dr. Cherie Westbrook from the University of Saskatchewan are studying how beavers and their dams might help mitigate extreme climate events, such as floods and droughts.

“Over 60 per cent of the beaver dams actually held even in the 2013 flood that devastated Calgary and downstream areas,” she said. “Many of the beaver dams were only partially breached or didn’t breach at all.”

“They actually played a role in holding back some of that floodwater or at least delayed or slowed its downstream flow.”

Hood said it’s too early to say definitively if beaver dams could be a significant tool during extreme-weather events in Alberta, but current data and modelling looks promising.

“In climate change, you’re going to get more extreme-weather events, like these big rainfall events, but you’re also going to get drought, and beavers (might) play a role in a natural and nature-based solution for some of these things.”

To learn more about beavers and, as Logan described, their unmatched water management engineering ability, Hood was recently featured in a TED-Talk YouTube video.

Read the whole article here.

Sadly, sometimes beaver fall victim to flooding as well:

Winter storms hurt Central Coast beaver populations

KCBX | By Gabriela Fernandez, Benjamin Purper

The recent winter storms on the Central Coast didn’t just affect humans — they’ve also damaged the habitat of the local beaver population.

Audrey Taub is the Executive Director of the SLO Beaver Brigade, who describe themselves as “beaver advocates.” It’s a group of local biologists, science enthusiasts and community members who educate people about the rodents and the role they play in our ecosystem.

While talking and teaching about beavers is often a joyful experience, Taub said there has been some sad news recently about local beaver populations.

“The big rains pretty much washed everything out. This particular storm definitely displaced them,” Taub said.

“We found one dead juvenile. So they really can’t live on their own until they’re at least two. So these one-year-olds just didn’t have a chance.”

The SLO Beaver Brigade helped paint, “The Beaver Mural” on a local coffee shop they meet at once a week.

Taub said after the heavy rain, local beavers will have to rebuild their dams in places like streams and ponds. She said it’s not clear how long that will take, but she’s “excited for the whole community to watch the ponds develop,” Taub said.

Beavers play a major role in fighting climate change by building dams, which helps create and restore wetlands.

That’s important, because it’s estimated that globally, wetlands can store about 190 million cars’ worth of emissions every year.

Cooper Lienhart is the SLO Beaver Brigade’s Restorations Director.

“I used to think we would engineer our way out of the problem and make synthetic trees to suck CO2 back out of the atmosphere. But yeah, I learned that wetlands are [the] most efficient land ecosystem at absorbing and storing CO2,” Lienhart said.

Last week the SLO Beaver Brigade received the California Coastal Commission’s WHALE TAIL grant. Taub and Lienhart said the money will be used to offer educational tours, river cleanups, and translations for Spanish-speakers interested in learning about beavers.

More information on the emissions-fighting rodents is online at slobeaverbrigade.com.

Read the whole article here.
And there is more news from the SLO Beaver Brigade: The First Annual SLO County Beaver Festival!

Beaver Festival Info:
The SLO Beaver Brigade invites eager beavers of all ages to the First Annual SLO County Beaver Festival on Saturday April 1 in SLO Mission Plaza from 10 am to 3 pm. Kids are welcome and encouraged to come learn about beavers with us! The festival will be a celebration of our local beavers with live music, speakers, food and drink, educational displays, crafts and games, and local booths
Why do we celebrate beavers? Because we see them as climate change superheroes! Beavers build dams in our creeks and rivers, turning them into lush wetlands. This SLOWS the water down, allowing it to SPREAD out and SINK into our aquifers (slow it, spread it, sink it)! Not only does this help us in droughts, but their wetlands also create refuge from wildfires. Come join us on April 1st to learn about all this and more at our first ever SLO Beaver Festival.

And for the last bit of news, there is a very lively and informative interview with Ben Goldfarb by Taya Jae at The Pen and The Sword.

Bob

MAKING BEAVER EXCUSES?

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beaver economics, Beavers December 29, 2021

No snow in the valley, What a near miss. Reports that my parents home in the mountains got 14 inches in a single night and PGE is turning off power because of all the downed lines. The funny thing is we found out this year that Rob Rust (of beaver cycle fame) AND our own Leslie Mills own cabins up that way. Which I only learned about when they were watching the Caldor fire like me in terror. It’s lovely to think of all those scarred miles getting a drenching in this, although I imagine the Consumnes will look pretty rotten when it all melts, but getting rid of all that ash is an easier job with more water rather than less. Sherry Guzzi posted this photo of her Tahoe deck which she already shoveled earlier in the day!

Today there is news from Detroit which almost makes me happy for their beaver but mostly seems like they are making big excuses for not doing the work themselves. Maybe it’s both. I’m not positive which. Help me decide?

‘Let the beavers do the heavy lifting’: Roscommon County dams to be removed

In the battle between nature and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, it looks like nature won: the DNR will remove two Roscommon County dams and “let the beavers do the heavy lifting.”

The DNR-owned Little Mud Dam on Backus Creek and Denton Creek Dam on Denton Creek are slated for removal this winter and next spring, officials said this month. (more…)

BEAVER-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR ALL

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beaver economics October 31, 2021

I told you to expect more good news for beavers this week.. Here’s a healthy dose from Rocky Mountains Colorado PBS.

Beavers could be Colorado’s secret weapon to cleaning rivers and abandoned mines

Rocky Mountain PBS

SILVERTON, Colo. — Colorado’s San Juan Mountains are home to about 15,000 abandoned mines, according to Rory Cowie, the president and owner of Alpine Water Resources. Several hundred of these abandoned mines are in need of a cleanup, which is something multiple federal agencies are working on. Cowie refers to these mines as “legacy mines”— mines that are no longer in use.

“They either have draining water that’s of poor quality, or they may have a bunch of mine waste or tailings … near them,” Cowie said. “And so, for the past 25 or 30 years, there’s been efforts to clean up these mines, but there are a lot of them and it takes a lot of funding.”

But Cowie has a low-cost, natural solution in mind: the American beaver.

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The animals also improve water quality. When water sits in beaver-built ponds, it soaks into the ground and the porous earth acts as a filter before the water re-enters the water system down river.

These ponds also help slow the flow of water, which helps with filtering and erosion. “By slowing the water down in some of these tributary headwater areas, it helps to settle out excess sediments and suspended materials that are in the water,” Cowie clarified.

Slowing water flow will also be helpful in the face of climate change. Warmer conditions mean less snowpack and therefore less runoff, leading to dryer rivers in the late summer and fall.

Oh sure beavers can do all that and more,

“By increasing the beaver habitat in these headwaters, we can slow down that and capture the snow melt over a longer period of time in the summer and slowly release it to the rivers. So, by late summer there’s more water in the rivers than there may be now.”

All these functions could help in the long-term, expensive process of mine cleanup.

Many of these abandoned mines could collapse at any time. Dilapidated structures and sediments block mine entrances. Behind these blocked openings, “discolored and metal-laid waters” collect and, eventually, the pressure and water levels could increase enough to push through the blockage and run downstream.

But with a healthy population of beavers, such releases could be captured in pond systems and filtered out before reaching other water systems downstream.

Of course they could, Give us a hard problem to solve.

But the beaver isn’t just a great long-term, cost-effective solution for mining cleanup. Healthier watersheds are also important to economies downstream, whether that be clean water for agriculture or wildlife viewing opportunities for ecotourism. And as long as there is good habitat, beavers will continuously maintain a dam and pond.

“Engineering has been a huge part of how we manage our water. We’ve been building dams and reservoirs and hydropower and bridges and infrastructure for many decades. And when you take a step back, you realize that beavers are nature’s engineers,” Cowie said.

“And I think there’s a lot to be learned from nature’s engineers.”

Oh and here are the recently released nature-based solutions for climate start strategy. in California. Let me know if you’re spotting a theme. I mean honestly, how much good news can anyone take?

(more…)

“BEAVERS FUCKING BELONG HERE”

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beaver economics October 29, 2020

Don’t be shocked by the title. I’m just quoting what I heard. I’ll explain later, but for now I’ll just say I’ve been scooped by the Daily Mail.

It’s to to admit my total failure as a beaver journalist and humbly turn in my press pass. A couple of days ago our Saskatchewan friend posted amazing footage of the beaver Matriarch under the Canada ice and breaking through in dramatic resolve and I set the video aside intending to share it with you. I was going to call it the best thing you would ever see. But I got busy with the survey and the conference and it fell to the back of the list.

And now I’ve been scooped by the Daily Mail.

Icebreaker! Moment a beaver smashes through the frozen surface of a lake to grab a branch and then dives back underneath

Mr Digout said he had noticed the ‘adult female had a daily routine of swimming around the pond and breaking the ice at certain spots’.

The beaver, which is Canada’s official symbol, circles for a few moments before diving back below the surface. The large semi-aquatic mammals are herbivores and consume mostly tree bark, often chewing down trees for building material.

Mr Digout said he had noticed the ‘adult female had a daily routine of swimming around the pond and breaking the ice at certain spots’. The beaver, which is Canada’s official symbol, circles for a few moments before diving back below the surface. The large semi-aquatic mammals are herbivores and consume mostly tree bark, often chewing down trees for building material.

Isn’t that wonderful? And aren’t beavers wonderful? No matter how hard your day is I bet you didn’t have to start it by breaking through some ice with your head to get breakfast. Mike’s hard work and shivering effort has paid off with international fame. The Daily Mail has an odd soft spot for beavers. They are a rough tabloid magazine that doesn’t exactly appeal to educated naturalists, but the love their beavers. They published a story about our father beaver raising the kits alone many years ago.

As long as you don’t read the comments you’ll be fine.

Still congratulations to Mike! And lets hope the high profile of Saskatchewan gets people thinking of the animal in a new way. Here’s the other video I set aside to share. Notice she’s using her teeth to nibble the ice out of the way.

Yesterday’s conference was fascinating and really fun to be a part of. Lea Knutson of the Hermit Peak Alliance gave an awesome presentation about incorporating land owner support and how to deal with their very real beaver apprehensions. They showed a new film that hasn’t been released yet about beavers as neighbors. Aaron Hall of Defenders of Wildlife gave a excellent, practical, no nonsense talk about how to solve beaver conflicts the right way. But my favorite part was the informal presentation by organic farmer Ralph Vigil of the NM acequia commission, who said after talking about all the ways they could cause issues for farmer, in a rugged burst of enthusiasm;

“Beavers fucking belong here“

Whoa. I could not have said it better myself, Ralph.

The next one is friday and is all about why beaver. If you want to register I think you still can.

Why Beavers? – Friday, October 30th, 1:00 – 3:30 pm MDT

Zoom Meeting Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvc-msqDMoHtCnKyKWXYLHllcaMyVjTegB

Ben Goldfarb – author– Regional History of Beavers
Kai-T Blue Sky – independent biologist, Cochiti Pueblo – Tribal cultural perspective on beavers
Meaghan Conway – NMDGF – ecological role of beavers for other wildlife
Bill Zeedyk – ecological role of beavers for water conservation

See you there?