Category: Beavers and climate change

BEAVER AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Beaver Trust has been at it again, this time with a climate change summit of their very own. This happened two days ago and you might recognize California’s own Dr. Emily Fairfax.

Excellent! You know the staff of Beaver Trust requested a meeting with me, and I assumed it was to ask for my many wise thoughts about urban beavers, or generating public interest by throwing a festival but it was just because they wanted to poach the design of my ecosystem poster and replace it with their own english species.

Ahh sure I said. Go ahead. Mention Worth A Dam somewhere in its release. Then the Scottish Wild group asked the same thing and I said yeah yeah take a number. But no one asked me to be part of a summit! Hrmph.

I spent yesterday painfully cataloguing the reasons people wanted to kill beavers in 2020. You can definitely see that it’s a drought year because people are more worried about them blocking water than raising it!

Once again the easiest problems to solve are at the top and the actual problems that require skill to solve are at the bottom. Because people are very stupid when it comes to solving beaver problems. You knew that, right?

POETRY FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beavers and climate change May 28, 2021

How are your muses feeling this fine Memorial day weekend? Maybe you can imaging spending some of it by a windowsill somewhere with pen in hand and writing about beavers? I sure can. The inimitable Beaver Trust is giving prizes for the best ecological beaver poem. I know you want to enter.

Nature and the Ecological Emergency International Poetry Competition 2021

Beaver Trust is delighted to announce its inaugural International Poetry Competition on the theme of “Nature and the Ecological Emergency”. We are continually inspired and moved by people’s creativity and love of nature. This competition is about exploring new ways to think about nature and our connection with it, whether through the engaging, humble beaver, the wide range of emotions brought about by the ecological emergency, our recovery and resilience building, or any other aspect of nature and ecology.

Beaver Trust is working in association with Resurgence & Ecologist magazine, who will print the winning entry and feature the other prize winning poems online.

Poems are invited that deal with any aspect of nature and the ecological emergency. These terms will be given a wide interpretation by our guest judge Terry Gifford.

Tempted yet? Winning entires are paid cash award. Here are the rules.

Rules of Entry:

The competition is open to all. International entries are welcome.
Poems should be on the theme of Nature and the Ecological Emergency. You may interpret this in any way you wish.
There will also be a special prize for the best poem that has the theme of beavers at its core.
Poems must be in English and not exceed 40 lines of text. There is no minimum length. Titles, epigraphs, dedications and blank lines are not included in the line count.
Poems must fit on a single side of A4 and must have a title
Poems are judged anonymously. Each poem must be on a separate page, which must not bear the author’s name or any other mark by which the author could be identified.
Online entries are preferred – please send a .doc or pdf document to poetry@beavertrust.org with competition entry as the subject header.
Please first pay your entry fee online at https://beavertrust.org/poetry.
Please accompany your entry with the following information: name of poet, title of poem, contact details including phone number and the Paypal reference number you received when you paid your entry.
If you are unable to enter online, you may send a Postal Entry. Two copies of each poem are required, accompanied by a covering letter with your name, address and phone number, a list of the poems submitted and where you heard about the competition.
Entries should be sent by normal post (NOT registered post) to: Poetry Competition, The Cornwall Beaver Project, Woodland Valley Farm, Ladock, Cornwall, TR2 4PT. Please quote your Paypal reference number if you have paid online, which is our preferred option. If you need to send a cheque these should be made payable to The Beaver Trust. If you require confirmation that your postal entry has arrived please enclose a stamped self-addressed postcard marked ‘Acknowledgement’.
There is no restriction on the number of poems that may be submitted, provided the appropriate entry fee is included.
Poems must be the original work of the entrant, unpublished and not accepted for publication in any medium. They must not have been awarded a prize in any other competition.
Winners will be notified by email or post. No person will be awarded more than one prize.
Poems entered will not be returned. Make sure you keep a copy for yourself.
Copyright will remain with the author, but the organisers reserve the right to publish any of the prizewinning poems as they deem appropriate.
Once entered, poems may not be amended.
Shortlisted poets will be informed on Tuesday 2nd August 2021.
Shortlisted poets will be invited to read their poems at a ceremony at the Quaker Meeting House in Bradford on Avon on Tuesday 28th September, at which there will be the opportunity to meet experts from the Beaver Trust. Results will be announced at the ceremony.
The full list of winners will be announced on our website, https://beavertrust.org shortly after the presentation.
The judge will read ALL the entries
The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
Beaver Trust reserves the right to change the judge if the need arises.
In exceptional circumstances the organisers reserve the right to return poems and entry fees.
The Competition is open to all, other than team members, trustees and staff of the Beaver Trust. There is no age limit to entries
ALL EMAIL ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED BY MIDNIGHT 31st MAY 2021. We will accept postal entries received by Saturday 5th June, provided they are post-marked no later than 31 May.

They are so good at this. English beavers are so lucky to have them. Here’s what you win. I am most jealous about the clay beaver made by the creators of Wallace and Grommet. But maybe I’m quirky that way.

1st prize – £150 and publication in Resurgence & Ecologist magazine
2nd prize – £50
3rd prize – £25

Additional prizes

- A further prize will be awarded for the best poem with a theme of beavers at its core – £100 – plus a plasticine beaver made by renowned model-maker Jim Parkyn, of Aardman and Shaun the Sheep fame.

Well sure, I already had my entry written, it doesn’t quite fit the theme of impending ecological doom, but sure describes the doom that already took place.

NATURAL SOLUTIONS WORK BETTER

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and climate change May 27, 2021

I set this aside to share with you last week but there was a clutter of news that got in the way. I’m sure it’s going to come as a huge shock.

Natural climate change solutions highly effective in the long term

Nature-based solutions (NbS) can contribute to the fight against climate change up to the end of our century, according to new Oxford research in the leading scientific journal Nature. The analysis suggests that, to limit global temperature rise, we must slash emissions and increase NbS investment to protect, manage and restore ecosystems and land for the future.

Wha-a-a-a? I can hear you saying. Natural solutions like beavers are the best for fixing the problems we cause? Well yes they are. Let me tell you more about it.

The Oxford team found NbS measures, including the protection and large-scale restoration of eco-systems and improved land management, could cut peak global warming by between 0.1°C for a 1.5°C peak warming target, to 0.3°C for a 2.0°C peak warming target.

This would be achieved by removing as much as 10 gigatons of CO₂ per year from 2025 onwards—more than the global transportation sector’s annual emissions, at a cost of less than US$100 per ton of CO₂.

According to the lead author Cécile A. J. Girardin, technical director of Oxford’s Nature Based Solutions Initiative, “The world must invest now in nature-based solutions that are ecologically sound, socially equitable, and designed to deliver multiple benefits to society over a century or more. Properly managed, the protection, restoration and sustainable management of our working lands could benefit many generations to come.”

I couldn’t agree more. And I know just the partner you’re looking for. She has a flat tail and likes to eat wood with her family.

But, the report warns, if global warming is not held in check, wildfires and other ecological damage could lessen the effectiveness of nature-based solutions. Therefore, close attention must be paid to their long-term carbon sink potential and their impacts on biodiversity, equity and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. It also means global warming must continue to be limited through other ways, from decarbonisation to geological storage of CO₂.

The authors call for increased investment combined with rigorous evaluation of activities undertaken, using metrics which consider the complex, long-term benefits that NbS provide.

“An ambitious scaling-up of nature-based solutions needs to be implemented fast but also carefully, in a way that supports biodiversity and local people’s rights, while keeping fossil fuels in the ground,” concludes co-author, Professor Nathalie Seddon, Founding Director of Oxford’s Nature-based Solutions Initiative.

“Nature-based solutions can help cool the planet—if we act now” has been published in Nature.

Pretty encouraging right? I heard a report on Maddow last night that did a lot to boost my climate mood. Just in case you missed it, here it is.

You push and you push and you push. And then one day everything changes. Remember that.

WHAT THE SMITHSONIAN SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Fire Prevention May 4, 2021

Now THIS is the article that should have been in the Smithsonian. Plus a link to the California beaver Summit.

Killing is easier than paperwork

If a farmer, landowner, or property developer wants to get a beaver out of a certain area, it’s easier to kill the beaver than to apply to move it elsewhere. Across the states, it’s common for landowners to dynamite beaver dams, with whole forums dedicated to the topic and dramatic instructional YouTube videos.

In 2019, the California Fish and Wildlife Department issued 187 depredation permits to kill beavers across the state. In 2020, that number rose to 204. While not all permits are necessarily fulfilled, it’s also true that multiple beavers in a single area can be killed under one permit. Despite the fact that beavers once roamed far and wide across the state’s waterways, it’s illegal under California law to release one into a new location. Though beavers are native to the state, they weren’t recognized as such by California Fish and Wildlife until 2013.

BOOM! This is the article that she wanted to write in the Smithsonian. I’m sure of it. This is the article ALL of california needs to read. Great thinking to start with the Sierra Club.

The beaver does more to shape its environment than nearly any other animal on Earth. They can cause incredible amounts of destruction to infrastructure; downing power lines, and blocking and rerouting waterways. But their dam-building also can improve water quality, reduce flood risk, and create the conditions for complex wetland habitats to form —providing refuge for wildlife and storing carbon in the process.

“It’s not that complicated,” says Joe Wheaton, an associate professor at Utah State’s Department of Watershed Sciences, who developed the university’s BRAT project (short for Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool.). The initiative serves as a planning aid for researchers and restoration managers who are looking to assess the potential of beavers to restore watersheds. Wheaton has worked on the Tule River Tribe’s reintroduction project and many others across the States. “If you wet up the sponge of your valley bottom you have the potential to at least slow the spread, if not at least have the land act as livestock and wildlife refuge during wildfires. If you have a wide enough valley bottom, and beaver are present, it can be big enough to actually stop the advance of these wildfires. That information just needs to get out there.”

Articles like this are going to help. I can tell you that.

Dr. Emily Fairfax and the case of the missing beaver research

One thing that has been missing in the discussion of beavers and wildfires has been science connecting the two. But that is beginning to change. In 2018, Emily Fairfax, a young PhD student studying hydrological science at the University of Colorado Boulder saw a tweet posted by Joe Wheaton, of the wildfire-scorched landscape following Idaho’s Sharps Fire, with a small patch of green at the center. “Why is there an impressive patch of green in the middle of 65,000 acres of charcoal? Turns out water doesn’t burn. Thank you beaver!” wrote Wheaton.

But she found herself struggling to find any previously published research on the subject. “It was no man’s land,” says Fairfax, who found plenty of research on beavers, fish, and waterways, but none on beavers and fire. “When you try to do new research it really helps when you can stand on the work of previous scientists,” says Fairfax. “After a certain amount of time, after a question hasn’t been studied, you start to think ‘oh, it’s because there’s nothing there.’”

Instead, her leads came through people like Wheaton, and an educational site called Beavers in Brush, which aggregates information about prescribed burns, as well as rewetting the lands through beaver protection. “That made me realize this has merit, there are people who are aware that this can work,” says Fairfax “I don’t know why people haven’t studied this, but obviously this is a thing.”

Yes it’s a thing, If you pay attention you’ll realize how much of a thing. Now let’s write the article that SHOULD be written Lucy, Beaver help salmon, help drought, help erosion, help fires, help frogs. When is California going to HELP THEM?

Fairfax hopes her research will help change California’s strict rules around beaver relocation, the way policy is already changing in Washington, especially as wildfires in California have reached record-breaking levels over the past several years. In 2017, while McDarment was still trying to get permission to relocate beavers to tribal lands, the Pier Fire consumed 8,800 acres of Tule River tribal lands, including several giant sequoias.

Meanwhile, Fairfax’s research on beavers and wildfires is only beginning. “I set out to ask a question: Do beavers keep the land green during fires, yes or no?” she says. “The answer was yes. But that’s not the end of the story. Why? How? Does this happen everywhere? What if you have a tight canyon? I’m digging into the specifics now, so people can implement this and actually use beavers for fire prevention. I would love to be able to call someone up and tell them how many beaver dams they need in their creek.

Here endeth the lesson. Allow me to leave you with a special explanation of why beaver habitat is 3xs more protected from fire.

UWM: WE NEED MORE BEAVER DAMS

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Flooding April 28, 2021

You might remember that on valentine’s day I did a talk with Bob Boucher for the Oakmont Symposium in Sonoma. He was very excited that the final draft of this academic paper had just been released and talked about the difference this could mean to Milwaukee. Fittingly this research was paid for by a grant from the local water agency. Which is the kind of thing that makes sense but rarely happens.

UWM researchers find that beavers could be a remedy for downstream floods

A new study by two UWM researchers shows that restoration of an animal that Wisconsin was known for 300 years ago – beavers – could be a part of the solution.

Enough of the dam-building animals living in the right spots along creeks and streams can alleviate flooding in some of Milwaukee County’s worst-struck areas, according to research by Qian Liao, an associate professor of civil engineering, and Changshan Wu, a professor of geography.

When beavers build homes, called lodges, in wetland habitats, they also construct dams to create a pond so that they can enter the lodge from under water. A significant amount of water backs up as the pond forms, and that hinders fast-moving water, which has a cumulative effect downstream.

Whoohoo! Everything about the opening is perfect, except for that line about Wisconsin knowing beavers for 3oo years. Hmm I’m thinking they’ve been around a bit longer than that. Maybe you want to check in with the Oneida or the Chippewa about that? They might have other opinions.

Bob Boucher, founder of the environmental advocacy organization Milwaukee Riverkeeper, proposed the study to officials at the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, which funded the research.

“If there are hundreds of beaver dams distributed across the entire watershed, you have many locations where you can reduce the water flow,” Liao said. “And not just the volume, but also the timing, so that the combined delay at each dam has a significant impact on the downstream peak flow.”

Collecting data with their cellphones, Boucher, Holloway and students Max Rock and Madeline Flanner spent much of 2020 visiting 163 locations on the GIS maps. They made observations either by canoe or by hiking into areas at bridge road crossings to evaluate whether locations had ample food sources and the kinds of trees the animals use for building.

A cellphone app that Rock developed helped the team rank the locations by quality, based on all the data. What they found was enough habitat to support around 4,500 beavers – or about one family for each 100 acres of wetlands

That’s right. Bob is so skilled at maneuvering these things he got Milwakee sewage to pay for it and a student to develop a cell phone app that could study it.

Liao fed the model different scenarios of beaver dam activity at 52 locations that would provide the highest potential to reduce downstream flooding, while also having ideal conditions for beaver. According to the model, dams would reduce the peak flow by between 14% to 48%, depending on the details of the storm, but also on the dam location.

“For example, if the storm was relatively uniform across the entire watershed, then you would have the highest reduction of water flow,” he said. “But if the storm dropped most of its rain on southern areas of the river watershed, then dams located upstream where there’s less rain will have a diminished effect.”

How awesome is this research? Beaver dams can make a huge difference. But we need MORE OF THEM. That’s what I take away from this article.

“There have been other studies that showed the effect on flooding of introducing beaver dams, but those studies only measured the effect a few miles downstream,” Liao said. “What we did is a little different. We looked at it on the watershed scale.”