Our friends at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center just released their new ‘beaver guide’. It’s well done and beautifully presented. You can download your free copy here, or pick up a hard copy for 10.00. It’s definitely worth checking out!
Sometimes I see glossy productions like this and feel guilty that Worth A Dam hasn’t done more of lasting value that you can hold in your hands. But then I remember than maintaining a beaver website for a decade and literally flooding the internet with information ain’t nothing. And then there’s that other thing we do. The part that makes me laugh is at the end where they list ‘what can you do to help’. I especially like the last one.
Heh heh heh. Been there. Done that. Literally have the tee shirt.
Speaking of new releases, Love Nature just released a beaver video for Canada Day with a photo of a nutria, so I made them this helpful graphic. Unfortunately the video can’t be embedded, but click on the link if you’re curious. I expected better from a country with a beaver on their money! (I bet no one has nutria on their money.)
The endearing youngster with its lavish coat was filmed swimming in Devon’s River Otter, marking an important milestone to bring the rare creature back to the countryside.
Beavers were hunted to extinction in Britain 400 years ago but conservationists are striving to see them return to quiet waterways and play a positive role in natural cycles.
In CS Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, a family of beavers help save the lives of four children transported to the magical world of Narnia.
Footage captured by wildlife expert Chris Townend shows how the endearing creatures are themselves being nurtured through an reintroduction project to establish them back as native British mammals.
His delightful clips show a nursing mother and her cute kit, one of the triplets she has recently produced.
Triplets! So exciting. I want beaver triplets! You know when I first posted the beaver kit news article on the english facebook beaver group they asked me to take it down, because they were worried about the media bringing foot traffic. I said, okay but um, cats outta the bag? Use this moment to educate people about how to behave around wildlife? But they were sure the story was in a tiny paper and would die down.
I think they forgot that baby beavers have been missing from the english countryside for 4oo years and are going to make news. The video first shows mom grooming and then the kit hurling himself indelicately underwater.
It’s July First! And end of Map day! Who hoo, after rearranging and squeezing I’m finally done arranging the festival map, and any one else who comes just has to tag along at the edge and deal with being unlisted. We are about as big as we can be anyway. See for yourself. Oh and Suzi Eszterhas is donating an archival quality matted print to the auction. And guess what which one she is choosing?
Beavers are regarded as ecological engineering wonders – and now Banff National Park is relying on some manmade engineering solutions to retain vital beaver habitat in the Bow Valley.
Parks Canada is embarking on a $26 million project to replace an aging wildlife exclusion fence along the busy Trans-Canada Highway, but the fence runs through several areas that beavers have turned into impressive wetlands.
Officials say there are two beaver dam areas that are causing particular concern – one along the Legacy Trail and the other by the Norquay interchange where culverts beneath the highway are being affected.
“Where we’re able to, we’re going to re-route the fence design to keep out of the wetlands beavershave created,” said Bill Hunt, resource conservation manager for Banff National Park.
26 million dollar project? Did I read this right? Culvert Protection along the entire TransCanada highway – all 5ooo miles from sea to shining sea? The mind reels. The jaw drops.
Beavers are known for unprecedented feats of ecological engineering – building dams, ponds and wetlands that can flood and damage human infrastructure – and are persecuted by humans as a result.
But they are also considered a keystone species, creating ponds that consistently have higher waterfowl diversity, more complex invertebrate communities, and provide critical habitats for amphibians. The buck-toothed creatures also create habitats that provide flood mitigation and resilience to extreme drought.
Hunt said when beavers cause problems for human infrastructure, the traditional go-to solution has long been to live trap or kill beavers, or go in with heavy equipment to destroy their dams.
“None of those historic remedies are very appropriate these days,” said Hunt. “We’d like to come up with solutions that work to ensure water flows through the culverts, but also preserves the habitat for the beavers.”
Beavers probably see a culvert beneath a road as a hole in an otherwise good dam, so they try to plug the hole. Parks is using flow devices, which are relatively cost-effective, low-maintenance solutions that regulate the water level of beaver dams and keep culverts open.
It talks about trapezoidal culvert fences AND beaver deceivers, pond levelers and clemsons. It even goes into how and why they work. Then after truly blowing our minds for several paragraphs it interviews Dr. Glynnis Hood to check that all this is true.
Glynnis Hood, author of the Beaver Manifesto and an associate professor of environmental science at the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus in Camrose, said she was pleased to hear about the work that Parks Canada is doing.
She said she has installed 29 flow devices since 2011 in various places, including at Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area, as well as in the rural municipality of Beaver County.
“I think what Parks Canada is doing is great, especially in a national park,” she said. “I’ve installed many of these devices in various places and the success rate has been very high. There’s been minimal to no maintenance on most.”
Hood, who studies wetland ecology as it relates to wildlife habitat and management, said she started to look into some of these flow devices because she was tired of seeing beaver habitat destroyed.
“I’m an ecologist, but over time I’ve turned into a wetland plumber because I was tired of seeing these wetlands, and specifically ones that are occupied and modified and transformed by beavers, with the highest biodiversity, disappear,” she said.
“I would be at a beautiful pond, with nesting songbirds, tadpole, frogs and waterfowl and then the next day I would go back and it would be drained because of management concerns. I thought ‘there’s got to be a better way.’ ”
Beavers play a vital role in the environment and are referred to as a keystone species.
“When beavers are in areas, it ends up supporting many other species that otherwise wouldn’t have habitat,” said Hood. “They do remarkable things.”
Parks Canada is hoping to showcase the work to be done at the beaver dam by the Legacy Trail to educate how important beaver habitat can be saved instead of destroyed.
“It’s one of the best beaver dam viewing opportunities in Banff National Park, and it’s completely and totally accessible,” said Hunt. “It’s like a demonstration project. We really want to show there are ways to allow beavers on the landscape without having the detrimental effects people often associate with them.”
This article just calls for this anthem. Timely because Jon and I are still reeling from Brexit which kinda symbolically unmarries us (we met in Germany where he was working as a British citizen, lo these many years ago).
Two beavers this morning at 5:00, one noisily chewing near the hole and the other swimming across. When it was still not quite light he or she plunked down toward the edge of the water and munched something with their back turned to the intrusive humans. We are on day 1 of “Project habituation” where we are trying to get the beavers acclimatized to us by repetition. I’ll let you know how it goes.
The only thing I was able to capture in with enough light was this feral cat making his own particular use of the beaver dam. It makes you think about how many species were affected when the beavers left, not just fish and ducks, but raccoons and deer. Beavers and their dams make such a difference that I’m sure many creatures come to rely on them.
One idea that Jeanette Johnson suggested at the meeting was scrabble tile earrings, which I of course had to try right away. I amused myself a great deal with these.
Hmmm do you think an etsy shop is in our future?
Very nice article from our friends in Devon, England that several folks sent my way. It deserves our only slightly divided attention. It doesn’t list the author, but its featured in the “rewildling britain” magazine.
As an ecologist, it’s clear to see how the beavers have had a huge impact within the enclosure. Habitat variety and structure are the first things that have changed – wet areas, ponds, deadwood, open grassland, scrub and trees and areas of sphagnum. Visually, there also seems to have been overall improvement in biodiversity.
But not everyone is an ecologist and sometimes we take it for granted that everyone sees what we do. Others may just see an electric fence, or a flooded area, or not really see it at all. So how can we influence political and economic decisions if we can’t relay this message to those who don’t appreciate or see nature and wildlife in the same way? How can we say for sure that biodiversity has been improved? Based on our experience, we would expect this to be the case, but in what way has change occurred? And how does this relate to other disciplines such as hydrology?
Beavers and biodiversity
We picked the most relevant indicator groups related to change associated with the beavers: bryophytes, bats and aquatic invertebrates
Ecosulis, driven by its shared vision of rewilding Britain, uses a Biodiversity Quality Calculator, developed by Dr Alan Feest, which measures change in biodiversity quality.
The bespoke calculator has been used in many ways to measure change as a result of management prescriptions and to gauge the effectiveness of biodiversity off-setting schemes. More recently, it was used to measure the change in biodiversity quality, using a range of indices, as a result of the beaver reintroduction at the experimental site in Devon.
Particular focus was given to finding out if the beavers could help maintain the open grasslands in the face of encroaching scrub species. This could allow us to see how biodiversity changes over time and could also be linked to other environmental changes, such as nitrogen or hydrology. This could then also be used to influence decisions on whether reintroductions should be undertaken on a wider scale or if management plans and prescriptions should be modified.
To do this we picked what we agreed to be the most relevant indicator groups related to change associated with the beavers: bryophytes, bats and aquatic invertebrates. One of the key benefits of the calculator is that historical as well as current data can be analysed, allowing for trends to be determined. We measured the changes in biodiversity quality between 2012 (one year after beaver introduction) and 2015 data collected by Ecosulis for bats and bryophytes (invertebrate data yet to be assessed). The data revealed some very interesting trends:
Bats
+ Increase in species richness
+ Increase in species evenness, indicating less dominance of common species
– Decrease in species dominance
+ Increase in species rarity scores on the site, including rare grey long-eared and barbastelle bats
+ Increase in biomass, indicating an increase in invertebrate prey species on the site (and number of bats)
Bryophytes
+ Increase in species richness
+ Increase in species evenness, indicating less dominance of common species
– Decrease in species dominance
+ Increase in biomass
+ Increase in nitrogen intolerant species (indicating lower nitrogen levels)
+ Increase in species associated with well-lit areas, and species associated with acidic soils
Invertebrates
+ Increase in species richness
+ Increase in species evenness
– Decrease in species dominance of any one species
+ Increase in population density
– Slight decrease in species rarity\
Rewilding – right here, right now
After an absence of 400 years, beavers are back in England and, within a few short years, are having an amazing effect
The scale and direction of the changes have been compelling. By taking a relatively simple, cost-effective and standardised approach to collecting biological records, a clear picture of biodiversity change has been recorded at the Okehampton site. The increase in indices such as biomass and species rarity reveals that habitat structure and the carrying capacity of the site have increased. A rise in biomass for bats indicates higher levels of invertebrate prey, which in turn benefits other species including birds.
The beaver have turned what was an area of dense scrub and simple channel into a mosaic of scrub, pools, dead wood, banks, culm grassland and habitat piles. After an absence of 400 years, beavers are back in England and, within a few short years, are having an amazing effect. Associated species are now diversifying and thriving, instead of declining – this is rewilding in action!
The full results are due to be published in the next Devon wildlife Trust Beaver Project update.
Beavers build nitrogen sinks
One unexpected consequence of the beaver was a potential reduction of nitrogen levels at the site, as indicated by the bryophyte assemblage recorded. By linking bryophytes with their nitrogen sensitivity we discovered that our data supports recent research that indicates beavers produce nitrogen sinks (Geographical. October 2015). This could be a handy additional tool in the argument favouring the reintroducing of beaver to Britain.
Clearly one of the fundamental principles of rewilding projects is that there is no ultimate destination. Rewilding is a journey and one that is to be shared both by people and wildlife. Like any journey, it makes sense to have a reference point to determine whether you’re heading in the right direction and are not back in the same place you started.
Our assessment measures the changes in biodiversity quality without the added value judgement of one species being more important than another. Instead, it tells you whether you have a dominance of any particular species, if you’ve recorded all the expected species present, what the spread and biomass of the species are and how this can be interpolated against the expected outcomes.
Once this quantitative assessment has been made, it can be incorporated into biodiversity and rewilding decision-making related to issues such as the location of rewilding projects, appropriate management regimes and the effects of externalities.
The next steps for the method are to help inform the debate regarding the decision to reintroduce beavers more widely back to Britain. We can also consider if this method might be applicable to other potential reintroductions such as those for pine martens or even lynx.
How’s that for a thorough recap of beaver benefits? Honestly I almost hope the United Kingdom never approves beaver reintroduction because it make for such fantastic efforts by the media to convince them – which benefit everyone! Go read the whole fabulous article, and share it with your friends or nonbelievers.
The city of Vallejo had such success with their Nature celebration last year for the anniversary of the State parks that they are working with USFS and FWS to do it again, specifically celebrating”Wild in the City”. Steve Dunsky has already asked me to give a Martinez Beaver intro and yesterday the project put out the plea for corporate sponsors. Uh oh. Check out their photo for the ‘Beaver sponsors’.
You would think that a team of scientists would know better than this, but you’d be wrong. Because I was three feet away from Dr. Michael Pollock of NOAA fisheries when he proudly displayed a photo of a nutria in is beaver talk. I of course wrote them they might want to make a correction, and supposedly they will. In the mean time their mass email asked us to share it on social media and I see no reason not to oblige.
Yesterday was a day of gifts. Early in the day Julian Fraser posted this photo from States Coffee downtown, and asked if I had something to do with it. I replied that I was innocent of contribution, but sure wanted to ask for one to be donated to the silent auction at the Beaver Festival. He took it upon himself to ask the manager Julian Gomez who thought it was a wonderful idea but needed to check with his boss. A few hours later I got a call to pick up one of these:
Hooohooo hooo! Apparently they’re nearly sold out so you may want to bid on it in person in August. Thanks Julian and Justin! And thank you States Coffee for coalescing the community just like the beavers did before you! Later in the day the mail contained this special donation signed by the author.
When I wrote to thank him, he warmly responded this;
It is an immensely beneficial animal, restoring biodiversity to the countryside, and where it builds dams in riparian forest, slowing the flow of water in a way that may contribute to the moderation or prevention of flooding downstream, as well as holding water in times of drought – that in the highly managed farmland of the low-ground the beaver can be challenging.
Beavers are also not good garden animals.
For example, if your garden is next to a stream or pond inhabited by beavers you may prefer to wrap any trees you want to protect with wire mesh before a beaver comes and chews them.
But, on the plus side, the branches in the water create a microhabitat which is a playground for small fish, giving them somewhere to hide from predators. The lying trunk of the dead tree will become home to many fungi and invertebrates and a crossing point for red squirrels.
On low-ground farms beavers may present problems if they build dams in ditches (and water backs up into valuable arable fields), or burrow into flood banks and weaken them.
Luckily there are solutions to these problems. Various devices such as pond levellers and beaver deceivers have been developed in North America and used with considerable success. Electric fencing can be used in suitable situations.
The good news is that one or two local people in this area are now learning how to apply the best of American beaver mitigation to our farmland – and all they need now is some farmers to try it out.
The wider environment wins because it gets more wildlife habitat, and if there is any agricultural run-off coming from the fields then much of it will be stripped out by the dams and wetlands, purifying the water that goes into the river and ultimately the sea, preserving more aquatic wildlife.
Ahh Louise! If only there were a primary election coming up for you as beaver president! This is a fantastic article that carefully lays out my two favorite beaver talking points: how and why! I have found that both are ESSENTIAL in changing minds. Thank you for making our case so clear and talking frankly about problems and solutions. Scotland beavers are lucky to have you, as are we all!
Okay, you really need to watch this. It took nearly all day to make and I’m kind of proud of the integration of our photos with Mario’s images. The painting process is done, he’s just sealing today, so it’s the right time for an un-memorial to christen the piece.
Mario said the mayor AND Dave Scola came by to congratulate him on how beautiful it is. And I just got an email from Lara on the council saying the same thing. There was a blurb about it in the community focus, and kids have been excited about the frog and the turtle. This was a hard project to complete at almost ever level, first convincing Worth A Dam that it was okay to do something that felt like a memorial, then convincing the city to let us, then wrestling with everyone get the project insured: it was a battle at every step.
But we won. The battle and the war. And now Martinez will have a beaver dam on Alhambra Creek forever.
Well it’s time to celebrate now. How about enjoying the 12th annual beaver pageant in Durham North Carolina. The fun part is, that Worth A Dam’s Lory Bruno will be attending so we have a beaver emissary!
Scarlett O’Beavah takes her reign at the 2010 pageant.
The Beaver Queen Pageant is not a beauty pageant with a twist. Rather, it’s a beauty pageant with a lot of twists. More twists and turns than its longtime beneficiary, Durham’s Ellerbe Creek Watershed.
For starters, its contestants dress up as beavers. In drag.
Still with us? Good. Now note that points are taken off if contestants’ tails aren’t at least partially, um, functional. Engineering is essential.
Contestants assume various alter egos. This year’s winner was a comer named Scarlett O’Beavah. Ostensibly, the lovelies are judged on the quality of their tail, evening wear, stage presence, something called wetland-ready wear and talent—which almost invariably involves pop songs rewritten for the occasion. (One year featured a mysterious contestant known only as Belvis.)
But at this pageant, the judges are gleefully on the take, available to the highest bidder—once, that is, they’ve bought their way into their seats. The more budget-conscious vote-riggers can help fudge the selection process by stuffing the ballot box with the perfectly good votes they’ve paid for. With their own (or other people’s) money.
In the tradition of the other kind of voter-financed elections that have marred North Carolina politics for too long, this exercise in civic representation isn’t merely pay-to-play: It’s strictly cash-and-carry.
Over the past six years, the pageant has substantially raised the visibility of its namesake—the beavers that have now made an unlikely lodge in a wetland behind a Roxboro Road strip mall. “The attention they’ve drawn has cleaned up that natural resource,” notes Duke Park resident Bill Anderson. “I can remember the Cub Scouts coming down to that marsh and pulling out five tons of trash in the early days.
“You go there now, it’s just amazingly clean, when in the old days it was a dump zone.”
But the Beaver Queen Pageant has done more than exhort neighbors to clean up an environmental eyesore. The $15,000 they’ve raised over the past half decade has helped the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association buy the wetlands the beavers call home this past year, as a part of their land trust efforts in acquiring and protecting ecologically significant areas in Durham’s urban environment. Their philanthropy has been “an enormous help in mobilizing the community to steward and maximize the benefits of the Beaver Marsh and our other preserves,” says Diana Tetens, the association’s executive director.
Still, this family-friendly neighborhood party and environmental, philanthropic endeavor started out as something significantly different. Picture an underground, after-hours drag pageant in 2005 led by activist Katherine O’Brien.
HA! This definitely has a more ‘diversity’ than ‘biodiversity’ flavor to it, but I’m thrilled that anyone in North Carolina is saving wetlands or valuing beavers! We loved their last slogan of ‘Peace. Love. and Beavers’. So we can only assume this year’s will be awesome too. Lory is bringing a flyer of our festival with her to cross pollinate!
Go see the mural today. Snap a photo of yourself with your favorite part and I’ll be happy to share it on the website!
Heh heh heh. Been there. Done that. Literally have the tee shirt.
Speaking of new releases, Love Nature just released a beaver video for Canada Day with a photo of a nutria, so I made them this helpful graphic. Unfortunately the video can’t be embedded, but click on the link if you’re curious. I expected better from a country with a beaver on their money! (I bet no one has nutria on their money.)
Oh and Suzi Eszterhas is donating an archival quality matted print to the auction. And guess what which one she is choosing?
To do this we picked what we agreed to be the most relevant indicator groups related to change associated with the beavers: bryophytes, bats and aquatic invertebrates. One of the key benefits of the calculator is that historical as well as current data can be analysed, allowing for trends to be determined. We measured the changes in biodiversity quality between 2012 (one year after beaver introduction) and 2015 data collected by Ecosulis for bats and bryophytes (invertebrate data yet to be assessed). The data revealed some very interesting trends:
