Because the beaver isn't just an animal; it's an ecosystem!

Category: Beavers


One of the finest tools frequently used against beavers is the misunderstanding of population. People opposed to them say that they must be trapped or their population will explode. Leading to my favorite graphic ever created on this website years ago.

Even more sinister is the subtly applied misunderstanding of intent.  Like for example pretending to oppose this bill because the beaver population is not in danger. Of course protecting the beaver population has little to do with this bill. It’s intent is protecting STREAMS and the wildlife and people depending on them. The fact that it prohibits the trapping of the animal who makes them bettter is incidental. This columnist knows it. And is just pretending he does not.

And like most trapping advocates he is doing an excellent job.

OPINION: Oppose the House Bill 3932 beaver bill

As a lifelong conservationist, I hope you will join me in opposing Oregon House Bill 3932, “Relating to protecting beavers” and urge Oregon Senators and Gov. Tina Kotek to vote no on HB 3932.

Right away you know you should watch out. Whenever anyone starts an argument with a phrase like “As a lifelong conservationist” you can tell right away they are going to say something that threatens nature, usually beavers, and they are trying to seem reasonable by dressing up in their Gilford Pinchot costume as a disguise.

This bill is an overreach by misinformed Legislative sponsors, the fourth such effort in five years, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, to limit existing wildlife conservation tools, specifically trapping beavers, and more broadly to eventually ban all trapping in Oregon.

Unsurprisingly, over 80% of the nearly two dozen Legislative sponsors live in urban districts that largely do not support sufficient habitat for healthy beaver populations. These urban Legislators are largely out of touch with the realities of wild ecosystems found in rural areas. It is yet another sad manifestation of the deep urban-rural divide that no Oregon politician in recent memory has effectively bridged except, perhaps, senior U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden.

Why would the state of Oregon knowingly deny decades of credible science from ODFW that show “available data indicate it (trapping and other forms of harvest) is not limiting beaver abundance”, according to testimony ODFW provided the House Committee on Climate, Energy, and Environment, and, furthermore, countermand Oregon Statute ORS 496.012, the wildlife policy of the state of Oregon, to “maintain all species of wildlife at optimum levels”?

You silly rabbits. We don’t need this bill to protect the beaver population, it’s doing just fine! And trapping helps it stay fine! Trust me! Just look at my outfit!

Be honest. Trapping is just  tribal hobby. You just want to keep it around because it reminds you  of your single days.

Make no mistake, HB 3932 seeks to end beaver trapping in Oregon and wipe out an effective management tool and a part of Oregon’s cultural heritage forever.

Trapping is a proven effective wildlife management tool. I know this firsthand, because in my youth, as a third-generation trapper, I trapped beaver growing up in rural Benton County. I saw firsthand the effective application of trapping to control furbearing animal overpopulation, including beaver, in excess of the habitat’s carrying capacity which sadly leads to pathetically diseased, starving and suffering animals, not to mention depredation of nearby agricultural crops. The reality is stopping trapping would have the perverse and unintended biological consequence of actually harming healthy beaver populations.

Please take time to familiarize yourself with already existing and extensive beaver trapping rules found in the Oregon Furbearer Trapping and Hunting Regulations. Licensed trappers willingly follow these science-based rules of quantifiable, geographic harvest reporting for, at their core, they promote healthy ecosystems.

Ahh you cannot tell me anything to which I will more hardily agree than that you were once a trapper yourself. I really really believe that.

A special class of furbearer trapping rules apply to beaver to ensure trappers work directly with local FW biologists in sensitive areas such as salmon-rearing rivers. These regulations use modern science-based, wildlife management principles and they work. They have promoted and helped maintain a healthy ecosystem in rural Oregon for nearly three decades and form the scientific backbone of a successful, cooperative conservation best practice.

They’ve made recommendations about salmon and trout ducks for years and trappers have been opposed to every single one along the way. Just like they are now.

 I regularly canoe over a dozen rivers between the north Oregon coast and the Willamette Valley. Beaver are absolutely everywhere in abundance! Many of these rivers on public lands could be capriciously deemed “impaired” and, therefore, off limits to beaver trapping by the Department of Environmental Quality, staffed by well-meaning lawyers but ill-prepared, when it comes to directing conservation efforts, as compared to the professional wildlife biologists found at ODFW.

Furthermore, it is the Oregon citizen trappers who pay for trapping licenses which directly funds much of the actual conservation of the American beaver to which all Oregonians, both rural and urban, can enjoy as our state’s designated animal.

Oregon trappers pay for beaver conservation? Are you kidding me? What funds actually are required to keep beavers around? None. Just the “Don’t kill them fund”.

Oregon trappers pay for fish hatcheries and the little trucks that drive to the lake and dump them in so your buddies can feel like good fishermen. You know it, I know it.

They are no beaver hatcheries and there never will be.

Now, as an adult and an urban dweller myself, this is something I see my fellow urban neighbors forget or are otherwise unaware of. Outside of hunters, anglers and trappers, the license fees of which make up one-third or about $200 million of ODFW’s biennial budget, what other citizen group directly supports conservation in Oregon with regular funding; answer: none. HB 3932 would diminish this conservation revenue stream.

I am a licensed professional engineer in the state of Oregon and science provides the underpinning of all I do in my career as a mechanical engineer. Please do not be a science denier and replace an effective conservation tool providing a useful revenue stream with a convoluted, bureaucratic and unworkable new law promoting government overreach that will break the imperative of a working conservation system for healthy beaver populations. Vote no on HB 3239.

Puleeze. The very idea that allowing ecosystem engineers to maintain streams and elp combat the devastation of climate change is ANTI SCIENCE is laughable in the extreme.

I can see what’s anti science right now and it isn’t AB3239.

 


Apparently beavers in New Hampshire are so fiendish they have figured out how to build INSIDE a culvert to LOWER the water levels. No I don’t understand it either, but here you can hear from yourself straight from the reporter onscene.

I’m assuming that there is a dangling participle somewhere responsible for this error, but its much more fun to take it at face value.

Case in point: once upon a time my sister asked my PGandE father how squirrels feet could walk on electric wires and not get shocked  and he answered accurately:

“Because they’re insulated”.

Which was technically true. But my sister grew up much of her life believing that squirrel’s feet were insulated.

Gotta watch out for those subject verb relationships.

 



You probably know the talented wildlife artist John Muir Laws whose many books highlight the wonders of nature journaling and stewardship. His wonderful notes and sketches have graced the last page of Bay Nature for decades. Well this is him sketching the Martinez Beavers long ago at the dam site.

Naturalist’s Notebook: Go See the Beavers in Martinez

Well teaches a free online workshop once a month and has a conservationist from the community come talk about the focal species. And guess what it is this month?

Thursday May 15th I’ll be joining him and his many students to talk about the most famous beavers in history and why great engineers deserve great artists. Hopefully we will encourage many new creators of beaver wonders.

Learn why to love beavers and how to draw them with John Muir Laws and special guest Heidi Perryman.

Join John Muir Laws and Heidi Perryman as we explore beaver conservation, why beavers are important parts of ecosystems and how to draw these amazing creatures.

Heidi Perryman, Ph.D., is a child psychologist who became an accidental beaver advocate when beavers moved into her hometown in 2006. She served on the beaver subcommittee to help the city decide how to respond, Then started the organization “Worth A Dam” to coordinate solutions and educate others about their value in the watershed. She has been particularly interested in the way that the beavers’ struggle has connected residents more closely to their environment, to their city government and to each other.

This year, Wolrth A Dam will hold its sixteenth beaver festival – an annual event that has grown to be one of the largest celebrations of urban wildlife in the state. California has come a long way in learning why beavers matter and how to live with them. Heidi is happy that Martinez could be an important part of that process.

All ages and experience levels are welcome. No registration is necessary.

Suggested donation: $20. Your donation helps support me and my family. Your generosity is deeply appreciated and it makes an immediate difference in my ability to continue to offer these programs. Your donation is tax-deductible. Click here to donate. If you are not able to donate at this time, no problem–please continue to enjoy the classes and find another way to pay it forward in your community with acts of kindness and service. Thank you!

If you are new to Zoom or are having trouble with the meeting controls, please see these notes and suggestions on Zoom Tips for Online Classes with John Muir Laws to help you get more out of the online workshop. When possible I will also make a recording of the workshop and post it on my blog. I look forward to seeing you there!

He is a wonderful teacher and nature is lucky to have him. I can’t wait to see what beaver wonders will trickle down from this class. He has already said he is interested in doing a new Nature Notes for the magazine.

Bring

    • Your Journal and favorite drawing materials. Taking notes while you watch and participate will help you remember the new techniques and incorporate them into your journaling.
    • Your sense of humor!

Go hear to join the class next Thursday from 10-11:30, no need to register.

 

 

 

Meanwhile I’m pulling together some notes of my own:

 


Who would have guessed? With everything going on in the world and Trump saying he doesn’t know if he has to follow the constitution and wanting to reopen Alcatraz, Doonesbury has decided that beavers are our biggest threat.


One of the fun things about reading Charles Dickens is that the character names always had a creative clue about what their nature was likely to be.. Like Sinister Black or Grace Darling. Well this beaver article is written by some one even better designed to sing their praises and spread the good news; Ryan Messinger.

This read is perfect for sunday morning with an expresso and some coffee cake. Enjoy!

Talking Green: A dam good partner

Not all heroes wear capes, but the one we need most actually wears a tail. A warmer, drier climate necessitates we work with nature to create more resilient watersheds, and what better partner could we ask for than a fuzzy engineer who will do the work for us? I’m talking, of course, about the beaver.

If you’ve been attending the Bud Werner Memorial Library’s talks, panels, and workshops as part of this year’s One Book Steamboat featuring the book “Eager” by Ben Goldfarb, then you’re well-versed in the power of the mighty beaver. But for those of you who are confused at the recent influx of local beaver fanatics (a.k.a. “Beaver Believers”), I’ll make the case here for our bucktoothed hero.

As Goldfarb notes in his book, beavers once dominated the North American landscape, which supported as many as 400 million individuals prior to European colonization. As the demand for furs skyrocketed, beaver populations plummeted — by the early 20th century, their numbers had fallen to as few as 100,000.

Are you paying attention? Another great beginning from Colorado. They really had some beaver benefits from the conference this year.

Though they have rebounded slightly, we are still grappling with the legacy their near-disappearance has left behind. Water, once an abundant resource in the West, has now become one of its most precious.

Our rivers and streams face increasing pressure from drought, but beavers create natural water storage solutions. Their dams slow down fast-moving water, creating ponds and wetlands that hold onto moisture long after the snowmelt has passed.

These beaver-made reservoirs act like sponges, soaking up water in wet seasons, thereby reducing spring flooding, and gradually releasing it during dry periods. That means more water when we need it, and less when we don’t.

Who said beaver ponds are just for beavers? These wetlands are hotspots of biodiversity, attracting everything from fish and frogs to moose and migratory birds. According to the National Audubon Society, up to 80% of wildlife in Colorado rely on riparian habitats like beaver ponds at some point in their life cycles. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to name a species that didn’t evolve to cohabitate with beaver ponds.

Oh my goodness, Shout it from the mountain tops. You have a lot of those in Colorado right?

We all know Smokey the Bear advocates for preventing wildfires, but we should give some credit to beavers for stopping fires in their tracks. The ponds and damp soil surrounding their dams create lush, green firebreaks that are far less likely to burn. Research has shown that landscapes with active beaver populations recover faster from wildfires, and the ponds act as catchment areas that capture sediment flows.

Beavers and humans are more alike than we realize: we both settle near streams, live in expansive valley bottoms, and place a high value on trees (though perhaps for different reasons). Given our shared landscape preferences, it’s no surprise we are often in conflict with our beaver brethren. They dam our culverts, flood our fields, and chew down our favorite trees.

Fortunately, the Yampa Valley Beaver Working Group, a new initiative comprised of local non-profits, and state and federal agencies whose goal is to maintain and expand local beaver habitat, can help alleviate damage caused by pesky beavers.

Go forth and multiply! This is just a fantastic summary of beaver benefits. I hope you inspire many, many more.

Non-lethal beaver management techniques offered by the group keep rising ponds at bay, fence out culverts, and cage high-value vegetation while allowing the beavers to stay in place. If you or your neighbors are dealing with beaver-related challenges, contact ryan@yvsc.org or emily@friendsoftheyampa.com for information on how the Yampa Valley Beaver Working Group can help.

While we may never restore beaver numbers to the hundreds of millions, we can advocate for their return and mitigate challenges as they arise. Their work as both an engineer and a firefighter will be invaluable as we brace ourselves for varying snowpacks, flashier floods, and more intense wildfires. So you see, we have a furry friend indeed when it comes to creating a more resilient Yampa Valley.

Ryan Messinger is the Natural Climate Solutions Project Manager for Yampa Valley Sustainability Council.

Ryan I know we’ve never met and are miles apart, but you are truly WORTH A DAM in spirit!

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