Category: Beavers and climate change

THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY

Wanna get Heidi Perryman’s attention?
Headline an article about beavers with the title: “WORTH A DAM”
That should do it.

Worth a Dam

The earth is warming. Weather trends are changing. Some say it is nature’s way. Many believe we humans have nothing to do with it. Most scientists say otherwise. Whatever you believe, it’s hard to negate that a warming trend is upon us and our planet is changing faster than ever in recorded history. Here in the White Mountains, snowfall has been scant, and two historically large fires have plagued us of late.

While we humans are pondering the problem, other species on our planet are doing their best to counteract these changes. Both ocean and mountain environments each have at least one wild creature who is working to mitigate the effects of a warming planet. In the oceans, whales are helping to save us, and on the mountain it just might be the beaver who does the most to counter our drought conditions.

What many of us might not realize, is how the return of the beaver benefits us right here in our own surroundings. This fascinating creature may be our saving grace as our planet warms. Other than Homo sapiens, the American beaver does the most to make changes in its habitat. Perhaps it is this amazing animal who does more than its share to enhance our world with a work ethic that puts many of us to shame. You might not see much action from them in the daytime, but at night? Well, they are definitely busy beavers.

It is now thought that the presence of beavers on our lakes and streams could be part of an answer to the effects of global warming. We can be ever so thankful to those forward-thinking law makers and voters who passed laws to protect them, because now we have had a chance to study them and learn some amazing things from the largest rodent in North America. Votes do matter.

When beavers build a dam, they create a pond for themselves which serves many other life forms. When water backs up behind the dam, it not only creates a deeper body of water, but also spreads the flow, creating wetlands where a diverse number of plants flourish in the shallow rich silty soil. Aquatic life abounds, and birds, reptiles, and larger animals feed in the rich environment. Wetlands only cover about 2 percent of our forest, but support about 80% of our wildlife. Additionally, a marshland filters water and is one of Mother Nature’s purification systems. We can thank the beaver in many cases for our fresh water.

Ahhh a nice description of beaver benefits all the way from the white mountains in Arizona. Hmm, I wonder what got you thinking about this anyway? I mean did you wake up this morning liking beavers and dreaming up our 11 year-old name or was there something else?

These incredible engineers build new dams along mountain streams, create ponds, and keep streams wet all year long. As proclaimed by Ben Goldfarb in his book, Eager Beavers Matter, “beavers function as a climate adaptation strategy, compensating for the loss of snowpack and glacial melt.”

Ah HA! I know what you’ve been reading! Okay so chapter 6 either got your attention or slipped subliminally into your brain, I guess its nice to know you like it. We like it too. I’m not sure how I feel about you borrowing it. I guess the best part of being in a book is that it’s official that at least we thought of it first.

How can we repay the beaver? Perhaps one simple contribution from those of us who live in the White Mountains is to recognize the value of these amazing mammals. It seems to me that they are certainly worth a dam.

Ya ya ya. We know it’s a clever pun. It’s brilliant! The worst part is that her editor probably thinks she’s a fricking genius for thinking of that pun. Maybe she’ll even get a raise. Or a new job offer. Or maybe she’ll finally get the attention of a neighbor who never believed her before. And it will be good for beavers in Arizona. Which is the point, Heidi.

And we will always know the truth, right?

CASTOR AND CARBON

heidi08 Beavers and climate change September 13, 2018

We have been spoiled for choice this year in beaver central. There have been so many alarmingly positive beaver stories because of the ripples cast by Ben’s book that I often decide to write about them instead of the same old story of beavers plugging the pipe in farmer john’s field or whatever. I just can’t bring myself to write about the same old bad news when there’s such FANTASTIC news waiting in the wings.

Carpe castor diem, I say.

Sometimes the wonderful news is disguised. It’s wrapped up in packaging that pretends to be about something else entirely. But if you hold it to the faintest light source you can see the beaver outline clearly between the lines. We call these “secret beaver articles”. And yesterday’s was a doozy.

What the world needs now to fight climate change: More swamps

“Drain the swamp” has long meant getting rid of something distasteful. Actually, the world needs more swamps – and bogs, fens, marshes and other types of wetlands.

These are some of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on Earth. They also are underrated but irreplaceable tools for slowing the pace of climate change and protecting our communities from storms and flooding.

Scientists widely recognize that wetlands are extremely efficient at pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and converting it into living plants and carbon-rich soil. As part of a transdisciplinary team of nine wetland and climate scientists, we published a paper earlier this year that documents the multiple climate benefits provided by all types of wetlands, and their need for protection.

You can see where I’m going with this, right?

Wetlands continuously remove and store atmospheric carbon. Plants take it out of the atmosphere and convert it into plant tissue, and ultimately into soil when they die and decompose. At the same time, microbes in wetland soils release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as they consume organic matter.

Natural wetlands typically absorb more carbon than they release. But as the climate warms wetland soils, microbial metabolism increases, releasing additional greenhouse gases. In addition, draining or disturbing wetlands can release soil carbon very rapidly.

For these reasons, it is essential to protect natural, undisturbed wetlands. Wetland soil carbon, accumulated over millennia and now being released to the atmosphere at an accelerating pace, cannot be regained within the next few decades, which are a critical window for addressing climate change. In some types of wetlands, it can take decades to millennia to develop soil conditions that support net carbon accumulation. Other types, such as new saltwater wetlands, can rapidly start accumulating carbon.

Or put another way, any UN-TRAPPED beaver TRAPS CARBON. How’s that for incentive? Certainly it’s easier to do than riding your bicycle to the office or giving up your iPhone. When are people going to realize that the list of problems beavers can help solve is quite a bit longer than the list of problems they might cause?

SOME GOOD NEWS AND SOME STUPID NEWS

heidi08 Beavers and climate change, Beavers and trout August 30, 2018

Today’s beaver news is brought to you by “SOMETHING WONDERFUL” and “SOMETHING STUPID”. Which helping would you like first? My Catholic upbringing always directs me to get the bad thing out of the way first, so let’s talk about beavers and carbon, shall we?

This is from yesterday’s phys.org, but it’s not the kind of report that gets a special beaver graphic.

Beavers have an impact on the climate

“An increase in the number of beavers has an impact on the climate since a rising water level affects the interaction between beaver ponds, water and air, as well as the carbon balance of the zone of ground closest to water,” says Petri Nummi, University Lecturer at the University of Helsinki.

Growing beaver populations have created a large number of new habitats along rivers and ponds. Beaver dams raise the water level, enabling the dissolution of the organic carbon from the soil. From beaver ponds, carbon is released to the atmosphere. Part of the carbon settles down on the bottom, ending up used by plants or transported downstream in the water.

Oh so THAT’s the problem is it! All those damn beavers releasing all that carbon by saving water for us to drink and water our crops. Forget the fossil fuel industry, lets stop all the beavers!This is my favorite paragraph. It is so rich with knowledge and precision.
urrent estimates indicate that beaver ponds range from carbon sinks to sources of carbon. Beaver ponds and meadows can fix as much as 470,000 tons of carbon per year or, alternatively, release 820,000 tons of carbon annually. Their overlapping functions as carbon sinks and sources make landscapes moulded by beavers complex.
Okay, either beaver ponds are REALLY REALLY GOOD or their REALLY REALLY BAD, and our scientists in Helsinki are hard at work flipping coins to find out which,

Alright we’ve eaten our spinach, now lets settle in for our dessert, shall we? This wonderful work is from our friends at the Miistakis Institute and Cows and Fish. It will be a great resource for handing out to agencies or officials who don’t know (or need to reminded of) their fish facts. Give this a second to load and don’t forget to check the second page because its worth it.

Here’s the link to it on their website because I know you’ll want to pass it on.
MIR_BeaverAndFish_FactSheet_JUL2018_FINAL_ART

HALF WAY INTO A FOREST

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and climate change July 3, 2018

We have been in a beaver festival tunnel for days now. I can barely see light at the other end. We finished up 24 transactions for the silent auction yesterday and have three more to close out today. There is a pile of sorting to go through for me and some heavy lifting for Jon, and then we should be free to celebrate the fourth.

Our last transaction last day was with the beaver-supporting county supervisor of Napa who bought the “Connors Creek Beavers” book at the auction and wanted to read it to visitors at the farmers market Sunday, because – you know – Napatopia. (Hey when do you think our mayor will be doing that?) Brad dropped by the house at 7:30 for the book and stopped to admire Mario’s painting on the porch.(!)

Which all goes to say that life has been very, very busy since the big day, and really before the big day too. It meant I never got a chance to tell you about the college instructor in Rocklin who was noticing how much more wildlife was in the creek since the beavers came and alarmed that the city wanted to kill them.

Mind you, Rocklin is in Placer county, the beaver trapping capital of our state.

So even though it was the friday before the festival I stopped what I was doing to introduce him to some local beaver minds and gave him some ideas about how to intervene. Yesterday I learned that it didn’t matter because the city trapped out 7 beavers and ripped out the dam anyway.

(There but for the grace of God goes Martinez.)

Folks were very upset. Apparently there were some beavers still sighted in the area so there’s hope at least that there can be a response that will inform things next time. Sometimes it takes outrage to make folks pay attention.

The other thing I didn’t get to tell you was about Ben’s column in the Sierra Club magazine! Pretty nice to dangle beaver benefits in front of the noses of all those environmentalists. The magazine article has a great layout with an adorable beaver which I’ll post afterwards, but here are the highlights.

Beavers Are the Ultimate Ecosystem Engineers

Beginning in the early 1600s, fur trappers pillaged the continent’s streams and shipped millions of pelts to Europe for felting into fashionable hats. Not until the 20th century did conservationists begin to help beavers recover, a task that often required creativity. In 1948, for instance, biologists packed 76 beavers into crates and parachuted them into the Idaho backcountry (all but one survived the drop). These days, as many as 15 million beavers swim North America’s waterways, a 150-fold increase from the species’ nadir. As the rodents have rebounded, scientists have learned that beaver-built water features help address environmental problems, including drought, pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change. Says Mary O’Brien, a conservationist in arid southeast Utah, “They’re kind of magic.”

Time for an army of conservationists to take up the mantel! Let’s give them some talking points, Ben.

FILTERING POLLUTION

Every year, America’s farmers use 20 million tons of synthetic fertilizers. When those chemicals reach the sea, they breed low-oxygen “dead zones” devoid of marine life. By trapping runoff nearer to its source and encouraging bacteria that convert nitrates to harmless gas, beaver ponds can help avert such disasters. In Rhode Island, researchers discovered that beavers could cut agricultural pollution by up to 45 percent, keeping estuaries healthy.

STORING GROUNDWATER

The weight of beaver ponds forces water into the ground, recharging the aquifers that we’re depleting at a breakneck pace. In the Canadian Rockies, scientists calculated that beaver ponds raised water tables by half a foot. Some researchers estimate that ponds hold up to 10 times as much water belowground as above it.

CREATING WETLANDS

Wetlands are cradles of life: In some arid regions, they support 80 percent of the species despite covering just 2 percent of the landscape. Beavers, whose dams broaden streams, submerge meadows, and raise water tables, are the ultimate wetland engineers. Between 1944 and 1997, Acadia National Park’s wetlands nearly doubled—the handiwork of beavers that were reintroduced to the park.

PREVENTING FLOODS

Although most people associate beavers with flooding, their ponds can actually help prevent catastrophic deluges by slowing, spreading, and storing water. In flood-prone England, researchers found that during rainstorms a complex of 13 beaver dams reduced runoff by about 30 percent—proof that beaver architecture can prevent widespread floods even as it submerges local fields.

ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE

As the climate warms, more precipitation falls as rain instead of snow, running off directly to the ocean rather than gradually melting throughout the summer. Groups like Washington’s Methow Beaver Project are combating snow decline by relocating beavers to headwaters on public lands, where their ponds capture rainfall and keep streams full as the planet gets hotter.

SUSTAINING SALMON

Salmon are vital to the Northwest’s ecosystems and Native American cultures, and beavers are vital to salmon. The rodents create deep, cool pools and slow-water side channels in which fry can rest, feed, and shelter from predators. In Oregon and California, scientists are building artificial beaver dams to help endangered salmon recover.

STORING CARBON

Just as forests suck carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it in wood, so beavers trap carbon in the form of organic sediment that settles to the bottom of their ponds. Before the beaver population was decimated in Rocky Mountain National Park, their complexes stored 2.7 million megagrams of carbon—the equivalent of what’s trapped in 37,000 acres of forest.

BENEFITING BIRDS

Beaver ponds furnish habitat for countless species, from boreal toads to otters to trout. Some of the most important beneficiaries are birds: Wood ducks breed in beaver wetlands, trumpeter swans nest atop the rodents’ lodges, and songbirds like flycatchers and warblers perch in stands of willows irrigated by rising groundwater.

Beaver powers to the rescue! So good to read this summary and think that all the sierra club members are reading it too. Here’s the centerfold layout in the magazine.

Sierra Club Article on Beavers 6-29-18

Isn’t that one adorable beaver? Wonderful to get this out in Sierra magazine. But you know what they say. A picture’s worth 1000 words.

MARTINEZ BEAVERS ON THE BIG SCREEN

heidi08 Beavers and climate change June 1, 2018

Oh my. It’s really happening. Thursday before the beaver festival.

The Beaver Believers is a story of passion and perseverance in the face of climate change. It follows an unlikely cadre of activists – a biologist, a hydrologist, a botanist, a psychologist, and a hairdresser – who share a common vision: restoring the North American Beaver, that most industrious, ingenious, furry little engineer, to the watersheds of the American West. The Beaver Believers encourage us to embrace a new paradigm for managing our western lands, one that seeks to partner with the natural world rather than overpower it. As a keystone species, beaver enrich their ecosystems, creating the biodiversity, complexity, and resiliency our watersheds need to adapt to climate change. Beavers can show us the way and even do much of the work for us, if only we can find the humility to trust in the restorative power of nature and our own ability to play a positive role within it.

The filmmaker posted this yesterday on facebook

Bay Area friends! We’re excited to announce the California premiere screening of The Beaver Believers in conjunction with the annual martinezbeavers.org/wordpress #MartinezBeaverFestival, at the Empress Theatre in Vallejo! *AND* we’ll be joined by two of the film’s leading characters, Heidi Perryman and Suzanne Fouty, as well as author Ben Goldfarb, who’s on tour promoting his new book #Eager, for a Q&A after the screening. Tickets on sale now!

You might remember in 2013 the film crew from Whitman College was at the beaver festival. Well now you know why. You don’t want to miss the west coast premiere do you? You can by your tickets online and meet the filmmaker in person at the Empress theatre in Vallejo. It’s a beautifully refurbished old theater in one of the most lovely historic streets in Valleho that will be an honor to see – doing beavers proud.

Come!