Category: Beaver-themed merchandise

These are unusual beaver-themed designed merchandise we like. Some of the items have been donated to Worth A Dam, and some we just hope they will be soon.

Beaver Champions

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors February 18, 2014

It’s nice to know that there are folks who will leap to the beaver-rescue in other ways. Check out and sign this fine petition against re-opening the trapping of beavers to fur-dealers. It only takes a second to sign, and it was down at 200 signatures last night. Let’s push it to 1000.

And onward to advocacy from our Scottish friends, I loved Bob Smith’s letter.

Don’t make a beaver problem worse

SIR, – Through discussion with others, it has become apparent that some farmers within Tayside might be creating problems for themselves with regards to the beaver population here, which is currently being monitored by SNH via the Tayside Beaver Study Group.

There have been instances of individuals clearing away food caches. Unfortunately this will only encourage the animals to fell more trees.

Removal of bushes and trees as a food source results in sacrificing the integrity of the river banks and can/will lead to long term issues such as erosion and scouring of the banks.

Digging out dams and clearing out burrows will force them to create more burrows elsewhere, perhaps in a worse location. Lethal removal of the animals will often just encourage other beavers to take up the same location.

If you want some more discreet help without going through the study group, there are a number of people around who can quietly advise.

It is important to learn from this so that when the Scottish Government is deciding whether to formally introduce beavers or not, that it has some evidence to fall back on. If it is not aware off the range of situations that might be occurring, it will assume that no such issues exist.

Other farmers will thank you for coming forwards with your experiences now, as lessons learned may well help them in the future.

Bob Smith

Treetops, Victoria St,

Rattray, Blairgowrie,

Nice work Bob! People need to know some alternatives for meddling with beavers. Here in Martinez they would have happily take away their dams, their trees and their burrows if we let them.

This morning’s donation comes from the San Francisco Zoo, who generously offered four free tickets (two adults two children) for sale at the silent auction. When’s the last time you went to the zoo? Maybe stopped off along ocean beach to walk on the sand and hear a seagull or two. I have always had wonderful adventures at the SF zoo. One time a baby barking deer escaped and followed me around. One time a baby ant eater was getting a ride on his mother’s back. I always love to watch the lion feeding at lunch time just because of the roars that rattle through your bones. I’m thinking we all really need to go to the zoo. Thanks SF ZOO!

Quietly making a difference everywhere…

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental February 17, 2014

Oregon Minnow Is The First Fish Recovered From Endangered Species List

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday its petition to remove Oregon chub from the Endangered Species List and touting the success story of a minnow that’s no more than three inches long.

Other fish have made it off the endangered species list -– but not because their numbers rebounded. In many cases, it was because they went extinct.

Oregon chub are a different story. Their numbers have grown from less than a thousand when they were listed as endangered in 1993 to 160,000 today. In the last 20 years, the known chub populations dotting the Willamette Valley has grown from eight to 80.

And guess where they found this endangered fish? Hmmm… Go ahead, I’ll wait.

But Auer says the idea was improve habitat for salmon, steelhead and waterfowl. He didn’t even know Oregon chub existed until Bangs found the fish in a pool above a beaver dam on his land.

The chub is dependent on natural disturbances in the Willamette Valley,” he says. “That means flooding, and things that occur when you have beaver activity and wetland formation. A lot of these processes have been disrupted through human activities – agriculture, damming rivers, flood prevention. We had to figure out a way to mimic those processes and create habitats that provided those kinds of conditions for the chub.”

So every farmer and rancher who has a beaver dam on their property is helping this chub, and every farmer who doesn’t is hurting them. That seems pretty straight forward to me. How about a tax credit or a reduction in the fishing license fees for everyone who allows beavers on their land? Seems only right…

Today’s donation comes from Jess at AnimalOutlines. Beaver with a purple toothbrush on a mint green background. Hand painted with acrylic paint on a 6″x6″ by 1.5″ deep canvas. These small works of art are signed and ready to hang. Hand made with humor and love. Thanks Jess! I know several dentists in Martinez that should snap these up!

Oh and last night I got a call for a phone interview on KGO about beavers and drought. One day outta the hospital I tried to remember as much as I could about beavers and water and salmonids and why we should care. If you hear something today let me know.

Does Mark Ross think Beavers eat Fish?

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, In the News, Who's Killing Beavers Now? February 16, 2014

I have always considered Ross the most knowledgeable about beavers on the gang of five. And he and Lara are definitely tied in my mind for beaver good will. Maybe this quote is a miscommunication, a giddy on camera misspeak where you just say something you didn’t mean because it sounds good. I’m going to assume that he knows that beavers are herbivores and don’t make fishing trips.

Then again, our council got lots about the beavers wrong. They thought they were going to cause a flood, cause mosquitoes, block the steelhead, destroy the creek and collapse the bridges, breed like rabbits, etc. So maybe this is just par for the course.

I particularly like this video because it was filmed about 24 hours before I got sick – which is like remembering that there is a healthy woman somewhere inside me slowly making her way out. Or getting a letter from a dead friend that was mailed before they passed. It’s a glimpse into a world I once traveled in and theoretically will again.

In the mean time, the world has not gotten any wiser about beavers, and needs me to pay attention again.

Fur dealers could trap beavers under proposal

Beavers can be trapped now, but the measure would allow fur dealers to trap, something that has been outlawed at least as far back as the early 1900s.

“It is a law that we don’t need anymore,” said Scott Harbaugh, director for the trapper association’s northern Lower Peninsula region. “It was to keep the fur buyer from adding more beaver to his lot by using the bag limit of another seller, but now we have no bag limit on beaver trapping.”

Before it was removed in 1983, the limit was 25 beavers per person, said Adam Bump, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources bear and furbearer specialist.

DNR officials requested trappers push for a law change.

There are no exact statistics for changes in beaver population, Bump said. They are difficult to track, but the population is now healthy and has grown considerably since the prohibition against fur dealers trapping was made.

Trapping keeps the population of each animal down so they don’t overpopulate and end up with diseases that can spread to humans, Harbaugh said.

A small beaver pelt can be worth around $20 and a large one about $50, said Dale Hendershot, president of the trappers association.

“Most people just do beaver trapping as a hobby because it is kind of hard to make a living off of it,” he said. “However, those that do make a living off of it trap multiple species and make supplies as well.”

Trapping beavers with no limit to keep down a population that no one has ever counted. Kill as many beavers as you want just ’cause. Mind you this is the state where the great lakes themselves have a ‘microbead’ problem with little bits of silicon killing loons and fish. Beaver dams could probably help catch some of the runoff of the feedings streams and improve the invertebrate community, but never mind. Don’t worry about that. Just change the law so its easier to kill more beavers.

“We don’t need a bag limit to appropriately manage the population so it would be an easy way to allow a few more people to get out and trap beavers if they wanted to,” Bump said.

Sigh.

There were several packages of donations when I got home. This one made me smile widely even in the hospital. The brooch is from owner Jordan Kentris of HexagonInc in Toronto, Canada. “Our eco-friendly brooches are made from sustainably harvested wood and packaged in 100% post consumer recycled materials.” Go check out their many cheerful designs from birds to crowns to beavers here, and think how nicely this would match your blue and gold Worth A Dam shirt! Thanks Jordan!

Across the Pond

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers February 4, 2014

More good news from Britain, where Louise’s article in the Ecologist just keeps echoing. This one is from the Mammal Society on Smallholder. If you’re looking for a competent summary of beaver benefits all in one convenient place, this provides just about the best collected arguments I’ve seen. Bookmark the page and enjoy!

Bring back beavers to stop flooding, urges Mammal Society

In the aftermath of the recent severe flooding in parts of lowland Britain, with adverse impacts upon the lives and businesses of thousands of people, The Mammal Society has urged the government to consider a”bold and cost-effective” wildlife solution as part of its overall flood defence response: bring back the beaver and allow it to apply its benign engineering skills to our river systems.

Beaver activities have multiple physical and chemical repercussions for streams and rivers and the benefits of beaver dams can be considerable, vastly outweighing any minor, localised negative impacts. Water velocity and associated erosive forces are greatly reduced while large quantities of water are retained within surface, soil and groundwater compartments; this leads to attenuation of ‘flash flood’ phenomena as the stored water takes longer to travel through the catchment. ‘Beaver rivers’ do not exhibit such high and low extremes of discharge, which is regulated more evenly throughout the year, alleviating both floods and droughts.

Beaver dam building also improves water quality, through retention of sediments, organic carbon and pollutants; this could significantly reduce the cost of water purification for water companies.

Lastly, beaver rivers exhibit increased hydrological and morphological complexity and connectivity, and provide greatly enhanced opportunities for many different plants and animals, including invertebrates, fish, amphibians, birds and semi-aquatic mammals; biodiversity is significantly improved and, as a consequence, is likely to be more resilient to the effects of climate change. Recent studies in the United States have indicated that the economic benefits of beaver reintroduction into a river catchment, in terms of water storage, regulation of water flows, sediment retention and water purification is likely to run into many millions of dollars annually, and many projects are underway to re-establish the similar North American beaver into degraded river catchments throughout the country”

Oh what a glorious couple of paragraphs! It’s nice to see folks doing their homework and learning about beaver benefits. Let’s hope they are well into their tutorial by the times beavers actually bring themselves back on a grander scale. I think it really doesn’t matter much whether the country ‘decides’ to reintroduce beavers or not. Just like it doesn’t matter whether you ‘decide’ your teenager will become sexually active.

It’s going to happen anyway. All you can do is educate as much as possible. Here’s their handy bullet list:

Beavers exert many positive effects on ecosystem functioning including:
Regulation of stream flows
Flood alleviation
Increased water storage and raised water table
Sediment retention and sorting
Reduction in erosion and decreased turbidity
Improved hydrological connectivity within and between surface and groundwaters
Increased hydrological & morphological diversity
Improved lateral connectivity between channel & floodplain
Increased nutrient cycling
Improved acid-neutralising capacity
Carbon retention, pollutant retention and water purification

And on biological diversity:

Increase in habitat heterogeneity
Increase in species richness and diversity
Increase in aquatic, transition and deadwood habitats
Increase in open canopy riparian habitats and improved riparian understorey
Increased in-stream woody debris
Improved habitat for invertebrates, fish, amphibians, birds and semi-aquatic mammals
Improved connectivity and resilience

_________________________________________________________

Virgine St. Jean is the clever artist behind Green Banana Cards. She’s from from Ontario Canada and has crafted a brilliant idea for ordinary postcards. Her “Mail A Beaver” invention has morphed into “mail a lobster”, “‘mail a wolf” and “mail a panda”, missives that are a snap for travel sales. The card wryly notes “It has become increasingly difficult to clear airport security with a standard beaver” and offers a pragmatic solution. She sent a generous stack our way for the auction. Imagine how nice it will be to send some postcards to friends telling them you attended a beaver festival!

Sad and Cheerful Beaver News

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Who's Killing Beavers Now? February 3, 2014

LATE BREAKING:

We just got word from JDH of a beaver dead near the Marina Vista entrance onto Northbound 680. The kind woman who wrote to alert me says it was likely struck by a car. She’s certain it was a beaver. As it’s February and young beavers are ‘dispersing’ traffic deaths are not unheard of for beavers. We know there are other families of beaver in Martinez. A female beaver was found dead at nearby Mountain View sanitation not too long ago, and after the death another beaver came to the exact same spot – possibly looking for its mate. This could be the survivor of that pair. But we can’t be certain its not one of ours. It’s a sad day for beavers. Jon and Jean both went out to have a look. Looks like a yearling with a kit-sized tail. I don’t think it’s one of ours. Sad,though. Drive carefully and keep an eye out for beavers.

Now let’s think about something more hopeful:

This is Paulina Unrue. She is in first grade at Kensington Elementary School. Last year their teacher told the class the story of the Martinez beavers and encouraged them all to go see them before they were to turn in a report on the subject. She was a fiece wide-eyed little wisp of a girl who tiptoed around the footbridge watching our kits with a bouquet of fresh fennel clutched to her chest like a bride. The beavers did not disappoint, and were apparently appreciated!Since you’ve heard pretty much everything I have to say about beavers, I thought you’d want to see some highlights from Paulina’s report today. (Since she was so young and remembered so much, I have to imagine mom had at least something to do with it! Good job Mom!) This was my favorite part:

MY VISIT TO MARTINEZ TO SEE BEAVERS

Last weekend my family drove to Martinez where beavers moved into Alhambra Creek several years ago. We met Heidi, the President and Founder of Worth a Dam foundation, and her husband Jon.

They showed us around the creek and I could see several dams build by beavers, their old lodge and also hear some interesting stories.

There are seven beavers living in the creek now – father, mother, their five kits and yearlings. Old mother beaver died three years ago from infection after she broke her tooth. They were really worried because she left behind three kits but father did a great job raising them. Jon told me that the night the mother beaver died her older son who left a year before came back and they saw him swimming in the creek with a kit brother on his back.

Three years ago heavy rains washed out all beaver dams and lodges. Father beaver left after that and later returned with new young mate. Together they had four baby beavers. I got to see one of them swimming underneath the bridge. Little beaver swam to the shore, grabbed a branch of willow tree and dove into the creek.

Jon showed me some trees that were gnawed by a beaver. City of Martinez protects some trees and to keep beavers away they decided to put a metal net around some of the trees and also cover the bark with the paint that beavers don’t like.

Some of the beavers’ favorite trees in Martinez are willow and cotton wood. Female beavers also like wild fennel, especially when they are nursing. Martinez beavers also like carrots and I threw them at the dam so beavers can have their favorite snack.

Heidi explained to me why beavers were keystone species and presented me with a special necklace to remember it. She also invited me to their annual Beaver Festival that happens in Martinez every August.

Thanks Paulina for sharing your lovely report! Its a bright spot in a grim day and we appreciate it.

___________________________________________________________________

Yesterday’s gift was three stunning hand drawn pins from Niina Koivusalo in Tampere Finland. Her work can be found at NinnyandKook here. They are drawn in India Ink on pressboard. Usually the donations from Etsy are wonderfully evocative crafts from creative people who care about wildlife. Niina’s are truly works of art, and when you see them you will agree with me. Her shop is on vacation at the moment, but I wouldn’t hesitate pick up something of your own when she gets back. I assume Niina will be on Etsy for very little time before she is snatched up at a gallery somewhere. In the meantime, look at these: