Category: Beavers and Birds

Skip tells the truth about beavers

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, featured, Who's saving beavers now? February 13, 2017

This is a fantastic article about Skip Lisle’s upcoming beaver ecology presentation in Maine. It says everything about beavers you ever wanted to read in print – pointing out their importance to wetlands and wildlife, and challenging folks to be smarter than a beaver and save money by doing it. In addition to all this it permanently lays to rest the age-old question as to whether the man that Martinez secretaries once clustered to the windows to watch install a pipe shirtless has, in fact, matured well.

The answer is, yes.

Beaver ecology talks set for Belfast, Liberty

Beaver expert, inventor and entrepreneur Skip Lisle of Beaver Deceivers International will speak in Belfast and Liberty on how to install deceivers and other devices designed to protect human infrastructure, wetlands and beavers.

The assumption is that we cannot outsmart beavers so we have to kill them,” Lisle said in a news release. “I’ve spent my life inventing and installing a number of devices that permanently outmaneuver beavers. I’ve helped communities across the country and in Poland save huge sums of money, and wetlands in the process.”

Lisle’s talk will demonstrate how towns can save thousands of dollars by permanently protecting roads and culverts from beavers. He will also cover the history of beavers in Maine, and the essential role they play in creating habitat and maintaining healthy aquatic systems.

“I don’t know how many people understand just how important beavers are ecologically,” he said. “Without beavers, we basically wouldn’t have wetlands. We can coexist with them; it just takes some creativity and commitment.

“Many people do not know that wetlands are one of the richest habitats, with a greater density of life than anywhere else on land,” Lisle said. “We have to approach the problems we have with beavers intelligently. It is our obligation as stewards. But, we also need to be smart with our money. The human and machine hours it takes to constantly repair roads, destroy dams and kill beavers is really a squandering of public funds. And it never solves the problem because beavers will always return to the site.”

Ahh, Skip, you do this so well. It seems like just the right things to say tumble effortlessly out of your lips at exactly the moment when people need to hear them. The reporter covering this story was obviously impressed because got the entire story down beautifully. Come to think of it, it’s kind of amazing that at both ends of the country there will be important beaver ecology discussions happening on February 22. Now if only we could just get some started in the middle.

This has to be my favorite part of the article:

Of the hundreds of conflict sites where he has worked, Lisle has yet to find one he could not solve. Consequently, he has never had to kill, or recommend killing, a single beaver. Skip serves as a selectman in his hometown of Grafton, Vt., where deceivers are a line item in the budget, and all roads are fully beaver-proof.

Did you read that? I didn’t know Skip was a selectman. When did that happen? I need to pay better attention. But in Grafton EVERY ROAD HAS CULVERT PROTECTION!!! This is a beaver utopia that we can only fantasize about. In fact I’m fantasizing right now. If it could happen in Grafton, why not all over Vermont? Or New England? Or the country?

Sometimes I just get that contented feeling of being a child asleep in the back seat after a long day at the beach on the car ride home. The happy adults are in the front seat and totally have everything under control. There is nothing I need to do, and everything is going to be okay. Ahh
Since I don’t need to be mature right now, I’m going to surrender to the very inappropriate impulse to post this for obvious reasons:

Listen to your Elders

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? February 1, 2017

I was surprised to come across this yesterday in my search for donations. I hadn’t seen this site before and knew nothing about it, which is rare for beaver news so close to home. Thinking about the Tuleyome website from yesterday, I suspect similarities. The two names aren’t actually linked anywhere I can find, but their location is, and the websites are very similar. Either they have the same technician or they are staffed by a handful of similar people.

Either way, I like them.

The Elder Creek Oak Woodland Preserve is a private preserve soon to be protected by conservation easement that encompasses 233 acres of primarily steep hills of blue oak woodland containing dozens of old-growth manzanitas. This preserve is located in the Elder Creek Watershed, which covers about 150 square miles and ranges in elevation from over 8000 feet to about 250 feet above sea level. Over 72 miles of streams and creeks make up the watershed, making it one of the longer ones on the west side of the northern Sacramento Valley

What we do to encourage beavers on Elder Creek:

• Never kill beavers and encourage others to join us in protecting them.
• Regularly comment to California Fish and Wildlife to prioritize restoration of beaver populations.
• Build small, beaver-like check dams and baffles in the creek in mid- to late spring (depending on flow).
• Leave cottonwood and willow along the creek, occasionally removing dead wood and coppicing some of the willow.

Imagine stumbling across a website like this by accident! I can assure you it made my afternoon.

According to Westbrook, 85 percent of all watercourses in the United States — and a comparable, though unquantified, percentage in Canada — are headwater streams and, therefore, small enough to be dammed by beavers. This continent-wide network of fine blue lines represents a wealth of potential beaver habitat. “We’re talking about beaver in nearly every headwater stream across North America prior to European colonization,” says Westbrook. (from Canadian Geographic)

Beaver streams resulted in:

Reduced stream sedimentation and erosion
Stream temperature moderation
Higher dissolved oxygen levels
Overall improved water quality
Increased natural water storage capabilities within watersheds, including recharge of ground water aquifers
Reduced stream velocities, which means a decreased number of extreme floods
Removal of many pollutants from surface and ground water
Drought protection through increased year-round stream flow
Improved food/habitat for fish and other animals, including 43% (according to one source) of the endangered species that the US Department of Fish and Wildlife is mandated to protect

All these benefits from one little rodent! (Or several million, actually) Beavers are proudly promoted by our new BFF’s at Elder Creek Preserve. Thank you for doing this important work sharing the beaver gospel. Let’s hope is saturates Woodland and begins to sink into Sacramento. (And I mean both the region and the governing bodies it houses.)

On monday we were contacted by a beaver supporter who wanted to donate her grand mother’s old beaver fur coat for us to use in education or rehab. Certainly it’s nothing we have ever considered for ourselves. I have always mocked a very widely used and un-admirable activity folks practice in schools of allowing one student to ‘dress up like a beaver, with a fur coat, goggles and flippers’ to teach them about their adaptions. We would never do that as it seems way more stunt-y than teach-y. And why not teach kids the amazing things about beavers while you have their attention?

But it occurred to me maybe we could teach about the fur trade and the toll it extracted on our streams and wildlife? We never really tried to do that kind of education at a festival, but why not? And maybe while we’re at it teach the martinez story and our creek response with series of display panels folks can look at their own pace. I have been working on a graphic we could use for a poster with the display. I will say, that Jon and I were both very surprised how soft the coat was. I always imagined beaver as more wiry. And you can definitely see how protective and thick it is. You can’t even see where the individual hairs separate. It also occurred to me that orphan beavers in rehab might like to snuggle up to beaver fur, so I’ve asked our beaver rehabber friend if that’s true and we will consider donating it to Sonoma where they do most of the beaver rehab work.

We like fur coats best of course ON the beaver, but it might be okay to put it to good use now.

Woodland Wilds and Wonders

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? January 31, 2017

I am tempted to tease the headline of this article as winning the prize for the single most consonance B’s ever in a beaver story, or mention that Capybara aren’t from Australia, but it’s a dam good article from a region where we have been short beaver support in the past. And authors don’t always get to pick the titles, and the paper is in Davis of all places. So I’ll politely refrain and just celebrate a wonderful article from our new best friend.

Tuleyome Tales: Big, burly beavers can be a boon

By Mary K. Hanson

Although some people consider them a pest species that causes temporary flooding of areas adjacent area to their home, the ever-active North American beavers (Castor canadensis) have actually been proved over and over again to be a boon to humankind in many ways.

In the past two or three years, projects and studies have been conducted throughout several Western states that conclusively prove that the beavers are actually 80 percent more effective (and less costly) at repairing and improving degraded stream systems than humans. And part of the reason for that is because the beavers instinctively know where the best places are to build their dams and lodges.

Beavers don’t kill the trees they harvest. Rather, they cut the trees down with their sharp incisor teeth to just above ground-level, leaving the root system entirely intact. In wildlife habitat restoration and management done by humans, this exact same process is call “coppicing.” The majority of coppiced trees don’t die; they instead grow new healthier shoots from the severed stump, providing for long-term regrowth and reforestation.

This is part of the reason why beavers are considered to be a “keystone species” in the environment: Their creation of new growth and water pathways and ponds actually increases the biodiversity in the areas in which they live.

What a great start! (Although I’m confused about the ‘past two or three years’ and think it’s been more like 2-3 decade.) But still. The article refers to Ms. Hanson as a ‘certified naturalist’ which I believe must mean that she completed the UCB program that our volunteers Deidre and Leslie did. Where means she studied with beaver guru Brock Dolman, which means she got an and unmitigated earful about the good work that Beavers do for us. Thank goodness. I love the idea of this article being printed in a paper from a region that depredates the second highest number of beavers in the state!

Studies have proved that where beaver dams are allowed to exist naturally, waterfowl and fish populations increase and become healthier and more diverse. In Washington state, for example, studies proved that beavers — which do not eat fish — were a benefit to local trout and salmon populations, increasing smolt production from about 15 individuals per range to 1,170 fish.

A similar effect on waterfowl diversity was seen in Wyoming, where it was shown that waterways where beavers were present resulted in a 75-percent increase in the number and diversity of ducks.

Other benefits afforded by beavers and their construction sites include:

* An increase in the variety of vegetation that enhances bird habitat;

* The removal of toxins from local waterways by filtering out sediments, phosphates and heavy nitrogen concentrations;

* A reduction in soil erosion, which can decrease flood dangers for people in surrounding areas;

* Helping to re-establish and increase riparian habitat, which also aids in the interception of runoff, increasing soil nutrients and providing habitat for a wide variety of plants and trees. Increased plant life has the added benefit of improving air quality as trees and plants naturally remove toxin form the air; and

* Because the dams slow down the flow of water near them they help to recharged spent aquifers (raising the level of water stored underground for use during drought conditions).

Be still my heart! Ms. Hanson is a friend of ours even if we never met! I’m thinking the nonprofit she works with (TULEYOME) might want to come to the beaver festival! They have a shiny new website and obviously have lots to share. I think they’d enjoy themselves at the festival, don’t you?

Time to talk about the Birds and the Beavers

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change January 8, 2017

One of the most amazing beaver benefits that gets overshadowed by their help for the loudly-worshiped salmon and trout, is the way that beavers and their ponds benefit birds. It is absolutely true that they take down trees, where birds might nest, and for that many a mistaken Audubon has decided to kill beavers. But that makes about as much sense as banning girl scouts because they eat too many of their cookies. Beavers create ponds that birds need to survive, and when beavers chew at trees the natural regrowth makes dense bushy places that are better to nest in. And don’t forget their increase of invertebrates which the birds either eat directly, or eat the fish that eat them directly.

One of the few groups that will say openly how important beavers are to birds are duck hunters. And while we may not love hunting we can appreciate hunters who care about beavers and make habitat for ducks, and by extension everything else that needs water. Given these strange bedfellows, I wasn’t at all surprised to find these two articles this morning:

Winter is prime time for South’s “summer duck”

While wood ducks have never been listed as a threatened or endangered species in modern times, the combination of overhunting, clearcutting forests and removal of beavers and beaver ponds nearly drove the species to extinction by the early 20th century.

Wood ducks were saved from the fates of the extinct passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet and ivory-billed woodpecker due to protections from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and later the use of nesting boxes.

Before the latter, wood ducks made their homes in the cavities of old and dead trees.

Historical society to host annual duck hunt benefit

On Jan. 21, members of the Saluda County Historical Society will hold their 17th annual duck hunt, with proceeds of the hunt benefiting the preservation of the Marsh-Johnson house, the Bonham House and the Saluda Theater, which are properties of the society.

The hunt will take place at Padgett Pond and Clouds Creek in Saluda County, held on beaver ponds owned by the Randy Barnes family. According to board member C. E. Berry, the hunt has been largely successful in the past.

“We’ve been very fortunate in the past that we’ve had a wide variety of ducks harvested, and also we’ve had a lot of large numbers,” Berry said. “Generally, we try to limit it to about 20 hunters, and generally, they usually harvest at least 20 ducks, generally.”

That’s right, whenever we want to find a duck we go looking for a beaver dam. Because enough of one is required before we get enough of the other. It’s amazing to consider the losses that must have stacked up when the beaver population was eliminated at the end of the 1800’s. Birds, bats, frogs and streams must have all started fairly immediately to disappear. Some of the species, like otter and muskrat, were also trapped out so people probably didn’t realize the impact for a while. It must have taken years for them to see the effect on drying streams and flashy floods. Probably there were few enough who knew what it USED to be like that no one really connected the dots for a while. There must have been those who argued it wasn’t a permanent change, and insisted the beaver and bird populations would bounce back after a natural correction. Maybe they even insisted the devastation couldn’t be caused by man.

Beaver-change deniers, we’ll call them.

But we can put it all together and make it clear. We know exactly what isn’t an animal but an ecosystem. I’ll make sure to bring the message to my next talk at Marin Audubon. Things were finalized yesterday and the timing couldn’t be better given that recent article by Jerry Meral about bringing beavers back to Marin. Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Bird Sanctuary is part of National Audubon and pretty much bird central. I think it will be a grand place to spread the beaver gospel.

Riparian Ecology 101 and Beavers

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Who's blaming beavers now? December 18, 2016

It’s hard to appreciate beavers in South Carolina. Even if you’re an environmentalist and teach riparian ecology, apparently. Sigh.

ECOVIEWS: A beaver dam could test your environmental conscience

Whit Gibbons

My first evidence of something unusual happening came in autumn after a month of no rain when I measured the water level. I do this at least once a week downstream from our cabin and was surprised to find that instead of dropping an inch or so, it had actually risen 2 inches. I attributed it to mismeasurement until I took my walk.

Beavers are unquestionably keystone species in a region with small to moderate-size streams. They not only modify the habitat but can also change the environment in ways that dramatically influence the lives of animals, including people, and plants.

Beaver activity can result in big trees dying from flooding and smaller ones being debarked for food or cut down for dam construction. A mile downstream from my incipient beaver dam a larger one has flooded several acres, leaving tall, lifeless sweetgum and pine trees that began life in a terrestrial habitat and cannot persist in an aquatic one.

Animals are affected, too. Large aquatic salamanders called sirens thrive and become more abundant in pools of a stream created by beaver dams. We once observed more than 500 sirens along the margins of a small stream when a dam was removed and the water level dropped.

Cottonmouths, watersnakes and turtles are more apparent, and maybe even more abundant, around beaver dams, which create areas for basking on sunny days. Waterfowl, such as wood ducks, are attracted to the pond created above the dam. Clearly, beavers and their dams set the tone of the neighborhood for many wildlife species.

So close. So very close. I feel we are standing at the very threshold of almost discussing beaver benefits – peering through the keyhole at the verdant green garden on the other side. But Whit isn’t wild about beavers. And he’s surrounded by UGA buddies who feed him bad information.

Beavers live 35 to 50 years in zoos and more than 20 years in the wild.

One of the conundrums with beavers is that their positive traits – being chubby, cute, industrious pioneers – aren’t always enough to outweigh less desirable traits. I know folks who have had beavers cut down a beautiful dogwood tree, flood an area intended for a garden not a fish pond and dismantle a wooden boathouse to build the beaver lodge. The predicament is how to keep beavers for outdoor show-and-tell yet not have them misbehave, from a human’s point of view.

An ecofriendly society will always face perplexing wildlife problems and environmental dilemmas. Entertaining, yet potentially destructive, beavers are a good example of the complexity inherent in environmental preservation, with no simple solution as to how to handle the issue. A range of responses are available for dealing with nuisance wildlife. Which solution people choose will depend in part on their environmental conscience.

Whit is a reflective and thoughtful man with an ecological conscience. He wants to appreciate the inherent coolness of beavers because it’s fun to see wildlife in his creek, but he doesn’t want to be flooded out for 50 years. What’s a good man to do?

When information fails you its time to get better information. I’m glad you asked. First of all beavers don’t live for 50 years. Who ever wrote that down was wrong and should have their credentials surgically removed. I did read a scientific report that identified one as 19 once, but in the wild 10-15 years is an astoundingly good run.

Secondly, if beavers are flooding an area you can’t live with then you install a flow device and make the water a height you can tolerate. Here’s a video that will teach you how to do it cheaply yourself. I know these things work because they solved our problem for a decade. The first flow device was invented in your own state! But this works better and is cheaper to install. Oh, and if the bad beaver is eating your dogwoods try wrapping the trees with wire or painting them with sand.

Beavers do cause problems. True. And cars get flat tires. We can fix them.

Why not just trap the beavers and get rid of them instead of fixing the problem? First of all you can’t, because more beavers will return to adequate habitat and you’ll be in this fix all over again in a year or a season. But more importantly all the wildlife that depends on the beaver dam will be lost if you remove the beaver. Meanwhile, that dam is removing nitrogen, letting trout fatten, filtering toxins, and regulating water flow which god knows you need in South Carolina and Georgia!

The article concludes by saying Whit teaches at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. I can’t think of a more useful place to start a conversation. Our retired UGA librarian friend needs to have coffee with him and nudge some useful information his way. Hey, maybe you could take this image into your classroom?