Yesterday was a helluvaday for beavers, with a high velocity shot across the bow for our California historic population paper. We are still formulating our response but just in case you wondered, we noticed. I usually post links to articles I talk about but I’ll just post Emily’s tweet in response because they don’t deserve one so you can google it if you’re interested,
Have you ever noticed that sometimes when people have broken things beyond repair and pretty much given up on making them right they are willing to magnanimously allow the hated stepchild to try fixing them? I don’t mean actual stepchild of course, I mean the thing that nobody trusted or appreciated before is suddenly handed the keys to the burning castle and told “knock yourself our”. Maybe it’s your teen age son who insists he can handle it by himself and them suddenly at two in the morning wakes up mom for help. Or maybe it’s your boss who never lets you give presentations because he believes Jake is better at them, but one afternoon he finds out that Jake is stealing piles of toner from the printer room and the boss gets so mad he lets you try to give the talk instead. It happens all the time with republicans and the economy who once in a while give a democratic president a chance to fix the hole they’ve dug America into. (more…)
I was thinking this morning. You know what our politicians and bureaucrats really need? They need a nice simple explanation of all the good things beavers can do for them in language so simple a child could understand it. Hey we’re in luck! Because Suzanne Fouty just recorded a talk for Families for Climate. I think she does a super job. What do you think? (more…)
So beavers were on science fucking friday yesterday and Emily did a fantastic job. I will also say Ira asked excellent question. Especially asking her to describe the states with the best beaver policy. Of course I would have answered differently, maybe Washington and Vermont which installs flow devices to keep beavers on the landscape, or Utah which took the unheard of step a decade ago of creating a beaver management plan for the entire Forest service, but you get the idea. There are states with good beaver policy,
And it ain’t California.
Beavers Build Ecosystems of ResilienceYou would think California would catch on, Eventually. I mean drought after drought. You would think all those almond growers would eventually wake up and smell the coffee so to speak. But you’d be wrong, California is robust in its capacity to remain ignorant.
Maybe not Oregon.
Rancher Jay Wilde recently shared how he has used beaver dam analogues, human-made beaver dams, to conserve water on his ranch.
As drought conditions persist locally, some members of the agriculture community were recently provided some unique water conservation tips.
Jay Wilde, a rancher in Preston, Idaho, presented “BDAs, Beavers and Bonanza on an Idaho Ranch” earlier this month at the Crook County High School auditorium. The event centered on his story of stream restoration using beaver dam analogues (BDAs) on his ranch. The event was provided by Crooked River Watershed Council and BeaverWorks Oregon.
Jay Wilde is the secret sauce on the beaver acceptability burger. If we had two of him in every state I could retire. I’m so impressed with how he talks to folks about the things they never believe me when I say them,
“This is a process that took Mr. Wilde about 15 years to finish and really implement,” Mercer said. “He had a vision of what it should be. He really felt like his land was broken, and it was his commitment and inspiration to really start healing the land.”
The Crooked River Watershed Council supports the land restoration method, highlighting several ways it could help the local watershed.
“The council believes bringing beavers back to their former and appropriate habitats increases the overall amount of water retained in the watershed, raises groundwater levels in areas associated with beaver ponds, and makes for a more resilient landscape,” said Chris Gannon, council coordinator for the Crook River Watershed Council. “Using tools such as BDAs to encourage beavers to set up a permanent presence may be necessary to create suitable conditions and bridge the time gap until they become established.”
I believe that too Jay! Let’s hope that a few people will follow your lead and convince their neighbors to do the same.
I have to end today with a cautionary tale about what happens when you have a beaver mural painted by your front door. Yesterday comcast had to come back a second time to activate the phone line they said they activated the day before. This much improved tech announced his presence using the beaver knocker which is always a good sign. And then asked about the beaver mural. And also expressed interest in the ones he had seen in town and mentioned Tim Hon and the illuminaries.
