Recognize this bridge? We stood on it many many nights watching our beavers tend the dam below it. Beavers who wisely thought to get outta town before all this flooding so they couldn’t be blamed. Water was pouring down Alhambra yesterday, and Escobar. In Napa Rusty says the lodge was entirely under water and the beavers were swimming around trying to find someplace safe. We just hope that beautiful lodge holds onto that tree beside it and isn’t washed away entirely like ours was in 2011. Rain is hard on creatures everywhere.
How hard? We were informed last night that a beaver was hit by a car at Mohr Lane in Concord near the actual Walnut Creek. Poor thing was dead when Cheryl got there. I suppose he was flooded out of his home, bumped along the flooded canal until he reached a place he could climb out, and was hit by one of the hundreds of cars in the area. Beavers can manage flooding, but they are really bad around cars. They’re so low and dark even the best-intentioned driver might hit them.
I saw this footage of the Yuba River yesterday and thought how hard it was for anything that lives on the shore. We are the ones who asked for an end to drought if I remember correctly. Now I’m just looking at all the snow in Oregon and thinking I might not make it to the Beaver Conference after all.
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:
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.
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.
The NH ‘beaver trapping as a last resort’ law discussion yesterday generated all kinds of fallout. First the usual trolls who commented on the article that “Voices of Wildlife weren’t really conservationists because they were vegan” (?). Second, some local interest by a certain pro-beaver politician that I happen to know and made sure the article crossed his path. He thought it was pretty interesting and sent me the beavers in Marin article, whose author I then introduced him too. The two swapped strategies for reintroduction And kicked around that crazy legislation in NH. Beaver matchmaker! Nothing may happen but connections were made.
(It was my very best moment of 2017 so far, I can tell you.)
In other news this smart article came out yesterday, but I thought New Hampshire took precedence. It is by photographer Peter Cairns for the Rewildling Europe website.
Glen Affric is one area in the Scottish Highlands that has been extensively rewilded in recent decades. Peter Cairns / SCOTLAND: The Big Picture
The Scottish Highlands, an area covering around half of the country, is a rugged region of wild mountain and moorland and supports a population of just 350,000, or roughly 8 people per sq.km. With on-going depopulation of the more remote Highland areas, the fragility of some rural communities is ever-present. You might imagine therefore that rewilding, with all the ecological, social and economic benefits it can bring, would be seen as a platform for reinvention; a springboard for rural revitalisation; an opportunity to be grabbed by both hands. You’d be wrong and the tortuous debate over returning beavers to Scotland, offers a clue as to why.
Consider this list of countries: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine. Each of these nations – most much more crowded and industrialised than the Scottish Highlands – has got on with the research, got on with the trials and got on with returning beavers to their landscapes. Germany now has 30,000 beavers. France 15,000. Here in Scotland, after 20 years of debate and a £2m five-year trial, the Government has recently finally approved beavers as a native species and allowed those few animals that exist here to remain.
So why has it taken so long to get beavers back and why, in many circles, is rewilding viewed with such suspicion? Scotland with its near-natural river systems and chains of freshwater lochs is perfect for beavers and yet the process of restoring them has been laboured. The reason, in my view, has very little to do with beavers.
Whilst the ecological case for rewilding is beyond debate in a country that has been burned and bitten to a frail shadow of its former self, resistance to rewilding – and beavers – comes from the threat of change. People don’t like change; especially when that change is perceived to be forcefully imposed. The strong Highland traditions of deer stalking, grouse shooting and crofting have created a barren landscape, bereft of the biotic communities that once kept it alive. Many traditionalists would argue that this landscape should not only be conserved but celebrated; that the Highlands aren’t broken so why try fixing them?
This entrenched perspective is entrenched further by the notion that the “establishment” – those public sector academics and administrators who understand little of rural life – is forcing its will on communities that see no justification for change. The arrival of beavers is perceived as the tip of the iceberg and what next? Wolves? The media in its constant quest for conflict and sensationalism is quick to re-enforce that narrative and further alienate an already sceptical audience.
I’m always interested in the discussion of psychological motives behind beaver resistance but I actually think he’s making a 500 year old mistake here. He thinks resistance to the idea of beavers comes because they have been absent so long and people are afraid of change. Let me tell you, as woman who has researched beaver resistance fairly thoroughly for a decade, it has nothing to do with the amount of time they’ve been missing. People are afraid of beavers whether it’s been five minutes, five years, or five hundred years.
Trust me.
Beavers are now going about their watery business for the first time in 400 years and given time, will become part of Scotland’s landscape. For those of us wedded to the vision of a wilder Scotland with more life – human as well as non-human – we have to accept that change is never easy. Returning beavers to the wider Scottish landscape requires the winning of hearts and the unlocking of minds, showcasing successes and learning from mistakes. That can be a slow and frustrating process but further “dewilding” is surely not an option? We cannot carry on losing species and habitats, disrupting natural processes, contributing to an acceleration in climate change and hoping that the fortunes of fragile rural economies will miraculously turn around? The road ahead for the Scottish Highlands remains uncertain but without rewilding, that road will ultimately lead to a dead end.
I have tremendous respect for the rewildling movement and think it represents what is best about our wish to live a more natural life. But whether or not it has any hold on a nation I think beavers should be reintroduced to Scotland. Period. Lynx or no lynx. Beavers are more important than rewilding. In a world where clean water is a premium and biodiversity is on a constant downward spiral, beavers matter more than just about anything I can think of.
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.
Whit Gibbons photo
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.
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?
Yesterday I asked how beavers break the ice – using their heads, backs or tails? I needn’t have wondered. When anyone has any question about beavers at all they only need to do one thing. Ask Bob Arnebeck because he’s seen it before and has it on film. I love this video more than Christmas itself. Turn the sound UP so you can hear the ice cracking in the beginning.
Isn’t that wonderful? Not only does the beaver break the ice and gain exit, he uses all three methods in a row! Because, why limit yourself?
I had always thought about the importance of breaking OUT of the ice so you can forage for food when your cache gets low, but this video made me think of the other, more pressing concern. Sometimes in these temperatures the water is quick to refreeze. That means it can be a struggle for the beaver to get back IN! A beaver who’s frozen out has no warm lodge, no family members to cuddle with and can’t reach his food cache. There must be some beavers who can’t get back in and simply die of exposure or predation eventually.
Not this beaver. The video’s a little blurry but watch how he deals with that big sheet of ice that covers his exit hole.
If I haven’t told you often enough, I LOVE BEAVERS. They are SO COOL! Thank you Bob!
Another fine beaver report from Eastern Massachusetts – where we need beaver wisdom most! This from Langsford Pond in Glouster, lovingly recorded and described by Kim Smith on the award winning blog, Good Morning Glouster.
Beaver Pond, also known as Langsford Pond, is located on the outskirts of Cape Ann’s Dogtown. Exquisitely beautiful and peaceful, the pond is teeming with life, habitat largely created by the relatively new presence of the North American Beaver (Castor canadensis).
Beavers are ecosystem engineers and the ponds they create become wildlife magnets. Think about just this one example of the ecology of a beaver pond: woodpeckers make holes in the dead trees engineered by Beaver activity, Wood Ducks nest in the holes created by the woodpeckers, and raptors hunt the smaller birds.
More examples of how Beavers benefit other species of wildlife include favored nesting sites of both the Great Blue Herons and Osprey are the dead treetops of older trees in beaver swamps. Local species of turtles, the Snapping Turtle and the Eastern Painted Turtle, benefit from abundant vegetation created by beaver tree felling, which causes the forest to regenerate. Snapping and Eastern Painted Turtles prefer standing and slow moving water and hibernate under logs and lodges of Beavers. Painted Turtles also use floating logs to bask upon.
Langsford pond is all the way at the ocean end of the state – the side that isn’t usually too patient with beavers. The pond is near the Atlantic 150 miles from Skip Lisle or Mike Callahan and 300 miles from Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife. Wherever she gleaned her beaver information it probably wasn’t from any of them, but its refreshingly accurate nonetheless!
Thanks Kim, for a beautiful look at a baystate beaver pond!
Recognize this bridge? We stood on it many many nights watching our beavers tend the dam below it. Beavers who wisely thought to get outta town before all this flooding so they couldn’t be blamed. Water was pouring down Alhambra yesterday, and Escobar. In Napa Rusty says the lodge was entirely under water and the beavers were swimming around trying to find someplace safe. We just hope that beautiful lodge holds onto that tree beside it and isn’t washed away entirely like ours was in 2011. Rain is hard on creatures everywhere.
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.
