Category: Beaver relocation

BEAVER BENEFITS IN THE SMITHSONIAN

Well the beaver coho story is only 30 years old. Don’t you think its time for the Smithsonian to act like they discovered it? Me too.

Scientists Are Relocating Nuisance Beavers to Help Salmon

Alves helped launch the Tulalip Beaver Project in 2014 with the aim of using beavers to boost declining salmon numbers. Since the low-cost project began, scientists have relocated more than 200 “nuisance” beavers, as they are called, and created dozens of salmon-friendly beaver ponds. While scientists don’t have statistics on salmon population changes after beaver reintroductions, they say anecdotal evidence shows the rodents reshape the landscape in a way that’s fostering more fish. Now they’re set to expand their easily scalable work into new watersheds in western Washington, and other groups in the Pacific Northwest are picking up on their successful tactics too. “I’ve heard multiple people say that Washington is kind of a leader in beaver projects,” says Kodi Jo Jaspers, a Trout Unlimited employee and manager of the recently-launched Wenatchee Beaver Project on the other side of the Cascades.

Just so you know. There are no “Nuisance beavers”. Only property-owners that can solve problems. And property owners who can’t.

The reintroductions are important because the outlook for wild salmon is dire, especially in the Pacific Northwest. About a third Tof salmon and steelhead populations on the West Coast have already gone extinct according to a 2007 study in Conservation Biology. Today, 14 more populations out of 131 remaining are at risk of extinction in Washington alone, according to a 2020 report produced by the governor’s salmon recovery office. In the heavily populated Puget Sound area, only one of 22 different populations of chinook salmon—the largest species—has exceeded population goals set by NOAA in 2007.

These declines have led to a flurry of funding for salmon recovery projects. Many of those projects are costly and logistically complex; they include tearing down man-made dams that block fish passages, removing pollutants from contaminated waters and installing new salmon-friendly bridges over spawning grounds. The salmon recovery office estimates that only 22 percent of the funding needed for these projects has been met—after $1 billion has been pumped into salmon recovery efforts.

Moving beavers for fun and profit! That sounds like a book that needs to be written. Everyone loves a good ‘moving beavers’ story. Molly has been in the New York times. The Washington Post. And now the Smithsonian.

I wonder if any of these folks ever think about the problems that COULD be solved by installing a flow device and letting beavers stay put?

Salmon need icy cold, clear water year-round, and that’s exactly what beavers provide. A 2019 study by Benjamin Dittbrenner, the executive director of Beavers Northwest, showed that each beaver relocated by the Tulalip Beaver Project created a swimming-pool sized pond of water for every 328 feet of stream. The beavers also slowed the stream down, causing more water to soak into the ground. The dams cooled downstream water by more than two degrees Celsius because the deeper water was harder for the sun to heat. And the ponds increase the amount of water available throughout the dry summer months by 20 percent because of the small reservoirs created behind the beaver dams. All of these new conditions add up to ideal habitat for salmon fry, as the baby fish are called.

I’ve been dooint this so long I have the graphic all ready for every occasion. Fancy that. This is the paragraph I like the most.

“If you have beavers in conflict with people and they will be killed if they’re not moved, then yeah. We’re gonna move them,” says Alexa Whipple. “But we’re trying to create more programs for coexistence strategies.” Biologists use tools that homeowners might not be aware of to mitigate damage. For example, scientists install pond leveling devices that prevent flooding and wrap the base of trees in beaver-proof fencing.

Now that is worth the price of admission. Hey I wonder when the Smithsonian is going to write an article about the harm people do to salmon when they trap beavers. Any time soon?

Don’t hold your breath.

Despite the success of beaver relocation programs, quantifying the projects’ impacts on salmon is tricky. Limited funding means projects don’t have the resources to count salmon numbers in the streams. Instead, biologists measure easier-to-collect data like water temperature, the number of new ponds and the size of those ponds. “Our metric of success is just whether they have impacted their environment somehow, in some way, by some structure,” says Jaspers, with the assumption that building better habitat equals more salmon.

Even though the biologists don’t have the written numbers to show it, they have witnessed direct benefits to the fish. “We’ve seen sites just completely transform to these massive beaver complexes of like 12, 13 dams and ponds everywhere,” says Alves. “Now there’s hundreds of salmon fry swimming in these ponds.”

Or you know. You could leave the beavers where they are. Solve any issues they cause with about 2 hrs of work. And have salmon populations explode across the pacific coast.

Your call.

TODDLER RELEASED ON LOCAL HIGHWAY

It turns out, that to relocate beaver successfully, you have to care whether they live or die.

I know it’s a lot to ask, Mostly people just care that they’re GONE, I know, but you have to spare a thought for, Oh I don’t know, how is that beaver going to survive in its new home and have I really made things better by relocating him rather than putting him out of my misery? I mean you could idly glance at the internet and learn a little bit about best practices before you do it.

But maybe that’s too hard. It certainly seems too hard.

Banished beaver gets second chance in San Pedro River

Rather than kill the “nuisance animal,” Steven Martin from Critter Control of Northern Arizona worked with the Tucson-based Watershed Management Group to find the beaver a welcoming new home at an educational nature center on the San Pedro near Sierra Vista.

“We were all really excited. It made our week,” Martin said. “You don’t always get a win in this business, so it was nice to have a win.”

Private landowners in the small community of Cornville hired him to get rid of the beaver after trying and failing to keep the animal away from the cottonwood trees on their creek-front property.

The thing is, the trapper probably feel like HEROES for going the extra – well not mile – but certainly 7 inches -and live capturing and releasing the beaver rather than killing it outright. The landowner feels like a saint because they wanted him moved instead of killed and the trapper feels like a wildlife hero because he was willing to do it. Of course a beaver alone in strange territory has no guarantee of survival and its odds would be better if they had A) thought to provide it shelter and b) thought to capture a family member at the same time.

This is about as noble as ‘catching the toddler’ from your neighbors kitchen and “setting it free” on the local highway.

That’s when Shipek turned to naturalist Sandy Anderson, whose nonprofit Gray Hawk Nature Center sits on private property and includes a stretch of the San Pedro River that has hosted beavers in the past.

Anderson was more than happy to welcome the transplant from up north. “Are you kidding me?” she said. “I told them, ‘Bring that beaver to me.’”

The aquatic rodents were once plentiful on the San Pedro, but they were hunted to extinction there in the early 1900s.

If beavers were first trapped out of the San Pedro in the early 1900’s I will eat a bug. But hey, it’s your article. Write whatever you like.

Within a decade, the population grew to more than 100 animals, only to decline again for reasons experts still can’t explain.

Now Watershed Management Group and others are trying to bolster beavers on the San Pedro and other so-called international rivers in the deserts of Arizona and Mexico.

Call it a hunch, but if you wonder what happened to all those beavers I would start talking to the neighbors. Because if I’ve learned anything in this 15 years it’s that most dangerous animal as far as beavers are concerned is about six feet and walks on two legs.

And it ain’t an ostrich.

SCOTLAND GETS A 21-BEAVER SALUTE

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver relocation, Beavers and Scotland January 11, 2021

You might remember that Scotland had an”Official beaver reintroduction” and an “unofficial one”. The unnoffcal one resulted in around 300 beavers across the Tay and recently reported the horrific 80-something murders by farmers unsettled by their presence. The official one just got a big population boost and is celebrating.

It’s all going swimmingly: Releasing 21 more beavers is ‘a success’

Scottish Beavers, a partnership between the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and the Scottish Wildlife Trust, released 21 more beavers into the area between 2017 and 2019 to bolster the population.

Monitoring throughout 2020 shows the endangered species are now “more widespread and breeding throughout the area”.

The final report from the Scottish Beavers Reinforcement Project reveals the genetic diversity of Knapdale’s beaver population has increased, which is important for its future survival.

The new beavers brought to Knapdale were sourced primarily in Tayside and originate from Bavaria, while the original Scottish Beaver Trial population was sourced in Norway.

Mind you that last sentence is especially encouraging, because it means that beavers were relocated from areas they weren’t wanted rather than killed outright. Of course they probably had to spend months in quarantine and pass all kinds of genetic tests first, but it’s still good news.

Gill Dowse, of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, said: “The trial was a landmark conservation project that showed how beavers can create and restore important wetland and native woodland habitats.

“A limited number of beavers were introduced during the trial so it was important to go back and release more, giving them a good chance to thrive.”

“After three years of fieldwork we can be confident this reinforcement project has been a success, and that we have done all we can to bolster the wild population in Knapdale.”

Dr Helen Taylor, RZSS conservation programme manager, said: “Monitoring the beaver population in Knapdale for the past three years and tracking the fortunes of these newly-released animals has painted a clear picture of a steadily growing population that is beginning to spread out into all the various waterways available in Knapdale Forest.

“It’s been fantastic that the project provided an initial solution for moving beavers from high-conflict areas in Tayside into Knapdale, where their positive impacts on the environment and on native biodiversity are clear to see.”

The article notes that there is no indication that the fancy Norway beavers have begun to breed with the scruffy Bavarian beavers yet, but give them time. Beavers don’t see borders.

Ms Taylor added: “After a 400-year absence from this country, beavers are back and we need to ensure they have a long-term future in Scotland, and throughout Britain.

“We need to make space for these incredible ecosystem engineers, build a better understanding of where the most suitable release sites are, and learn to live alongside them again so everyone can enjoy the benefits of beavers, while reducing human-wildlife conflict.”

Conservationists call the beaver a keystone species because its presence has such a major impact on the natural environment and its wildlife. They have been shown to increase an area’s amphibian and aquatic insect abundance, productivity and diversity and play a beneficial role in enhancing wetland processes, including strategic flood management and water quality improvements.

Can I get an amen? Gill says that Scotland needs a THRIVING and robust beaver population and I couldn’t agree more. California does too. Let’s learn from their example and start appreciating the good things that are right under our bridges.

MOVING AND REMOVING BEAVERS

heidi08 Beaver relocation November 2, 2020

It’s grim and stressful in the world. Time for some random acts of beaver kindness so we remember why we’re here.

Trapped Beaver Returns to Lake After Southlake Officers’ Creative Rescue

Authorities helped a beaver trapped in an enclosed pool of water make its way back to a lake Sunday morning in Southlake.

Officers were called to rescue the beaver, which was hanging out on a blue float, at a pond off Westmont Drive behind the Central Market on Southlake Boulevard, according to Southlake DPS

I am so bummed. Last night this article had adorable video showing the beaver climb up the ramp and the amused officers patting each other on the back for staging the rescue operation. Today the video is gone. But there is this cute still, so you can imagine the rest.

After officers tried to catch the beaver in a net and entice it to leave its float using other methods, they finally opted to balance a wood plank on the pool float, leading the beaver out of the enclosed area.

The beaver climbed the plank and returned to the neighboring lake.

This reminds us that their are a plenty of horrific jobs in the word where trying to rescue a foolish beaver from a ditch on a fluke creates a bright spot in an otherwise grueling day. Like city workers rescuing baby ducks from a sewer or Cal-trans saving a raccoon from an overpass.

It’s not their actual job, but it is so much more fun than what we pay them to do, it’s well worth trying. And letting the tax=payers do something humane is a good investment in everyone’s future.

They certainly deserve more credit in Texas than Pennsylvania.

Pa. Game Commission Catches Beaver, Relocates It To Establish Wetlands

HARRISBURG (KDKA) — A beaver that was causing trouble for a runoff water management company has now been relocated to help the environment.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission said in a recent Facebook post that they were called to retrieve a beaver from a mine mitigation retention pond because the beaver was creating a dam that led to overflow in a nearby stream.

Um. That beaver was relocated to “help the environment” in exactly the same way as accidentally running over your neighbors cat was intended to help the wild birds in the area. It’s an explanation you come up with after the offending action has already been taken.

The State Game Warden and another cadet captured the beaver, the Pennsylvania Game Commission relocated the beaver to a property looking for beavers to create wetlands.

Yes. A lone beaver taken away from his family and dumped into strange habitat at the beginning of November is a perfect way to start a wetland. I can see the dragonflies and frogs just lining up. I’m sure there are entire weeks before the first freeze for that beaver to build a lodge and establish a food cache. Right?

Robin found this inexplicable political cartoon which make only seems to make sense if you’re me. I’m asking our friends across the pond to explain it, but for now just enjoy.

Now, stay calm. Have fun at the beaver summit. And just remember not to jinx anything.

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BEAVER MORTALITY CONFOUNDS RESEARCHERS

heidi08 Beaver relocation, Dispersal October 23, 2020

Everyone has been thinking more about the desert beavers, as we get ready for the NM Summit. Apparently it grew out of advocates wish for Game and Fish to adopt a beaver management plan like Utah’s. Of course not ALL of Utah gets the idea. Some of the regions are still chugging along without a single beaverclue.

Beavers in the Desert? The Potential for Translocated Beavers to Serve as Restoration Tools in Desert Rivers

The USGS Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Utah State University (USU) is partnering with the Ecology Center (USU), the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Wildlife Research Center to evaluate the efficacy of beaver translocation for desert river restoration by comparing the fates, space use, and dam building activity of naturally occurring and translocated beavers in the Price and San Rafael Rivers in eastern Utah.

Beaver translocation is an alternative solution to lethal control that is gaining popularity. Beavers are taken from a conflict situation and translocated to a targeted area with the goal of harnessing their dams as a passive, cost-effective, and natural method of restoration. The challenge of translocation is getting beavers to stay, survive, and build dams in a specific area. Success of beaver translocation projects varies widely and lacks standardized best practices; failures are typically undocumented, and the cause of failure is often unknown.

Well it’s known by the beaver I dare say, but I guess that’s not what you mean.

So far, nine naturally occurring beavers have been captured and monitored, seven adult residents and two subadults, while 31 nuisance beavers have been translocated to the rivers, 18 adults and 13 subadults. All individuals were fitted with a tail-mounted radio-transmitter and a PIT- (passive integrated transponder) tag for post-release monitoring. Most (65%) of the translocated beavers have unknown fate, from radio-transmitter failure or individuals leaving the targeted restoration areas, while only 33% of resident beavers had unknown fate. Translocated beavers also experienced proportionally higher mortality (19% vs. 11%), primarily due to predation or exposure during drought. The only mortality of a naturally occurring beaver was a dispersing subadult, preyed upon by a mountain lion.

The researchers calculated the farthest straight-line distance an individual was detected from its release location to compare space use between resident and translocated beavers. Resident adult beavers exhibited an average maximum displacement of 0.58 km²and dispersing subadult beavers had an average of 42.76 km². Translocated adult beavers had an average maximum displacement of 79.13 km²and translocated subadult beavers had an average of 67.74 km².

Hmm I guess that means the relocaters got their release sight an average of 25 km wrong?

In this study, it appears that translocated beavers have not directly contributed to restoration efforts by building dams, likely due to their higher mortality rates and larger space use, spending more time traveling and exploring than remaining in an area and using their energy to construct a dam. This is similar to the behavior of dispersing subadults as they search for a new territory to establish. However, given the behavior of the translocated beavers and the wood-limited systems they were translocated into, the outcome likely would have been different if translocations were accompanied by the construction of structural features such as beaver dam analogues.

Yes it is very hard to build a maintain a dam when you’re dead. New research has shed light on the confounding effect of mortality. The researchers will remember not to overlook that fact next time? That’s encouraging.

This study also highlights the importance of post-release monitoring. If no monitoring of individual movements and behaviors were taking place, it may be falsely assumed that translocated beavers built the newly observed dams. Other studies have had varying success with translocation, but perhaps the initial results are an indicator that harsher, arid systems are more difficult for translocated beavers to establish. This could be due to poorer habitat quality, with the best habitat already occupied by naturally occurring beavers.

Those pesky beavers. We sprinkle them like table salt into dry areas and they either crawl to water or die outright. Sheesh who do they think they are?