Category: Beavers and climate change

Endless beaver promotion!

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Who's saving beavers now? March 21, 2016

Trees for Life charity puts case for governmental commitment to reintroducing beavers

The award-winning conservation charity, Trees for Life, is saying today that allowing beavers to be reintroduced to Scotland would be a golden opportunity, offering wide-ranging environmental, social and economic benefits.

The Scottish Government is due to decide on whether Eurasian beavers will be allowed to live freely in Scotland after an absence of some 500 years and in the run up to this decision, Trees for Life is urging ministers to recognise the beaver fully as a resident, native species.

Alan Watson Featherstone, Trees for Life’s Founder. says: ‘Allowing this native species to return would offer Scotland huge benefits. Beavers are superb ecosystem engineers and could transform and greatly improve the health of our rivers and forest ecosystems, help restore our depleted wetlands and reduce flooding – while substantially boosting wildlife tourism.

Beavers play a crucial ecological role and provide a range of important benefits for other species. They coppice and fell trees – letting light into the forest, enabling other species to grow and stimulating new growth of the trees themselves. By damming watercourses they create wetland areas – providing habitats for amphibians, invertebrates and fish, which in turn attract birds and otters.

Another great advertisement for beavers. Thanks Trees for Life and Scotland! Please keep dragging this decision out so more and more environmental groups write articles about how good beavers are. Scotland has become the beaver gift that keeps giving. Even if at the end of this they decide to defend their favorite ‘f’ words (Farmers and Fishermen) they will have done soooooooo much to promote beaver benefits in the news cycle that we will never ever stop thanking them.

Sometimes stubborn decision-makers produce the very best kind of opposition. Look at Martinez. If they had made up their mind quickly and intelligently I never would have had to research reasons why they were wrong and this website wouldn’t even exist!

Thank you notes all around.

www: Wetlands Work Wonders

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and water, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental March 17, 2016

Wetland enhancement in Midwest could help reduce catastrophic floods of the future .

According to a new study from Oregon State University, restoration of wetlands in the Midwest has the potential to significantly reduce peak river flows during floods—not only now, but also in the future if heavy rains continue to increase in intensity.

Wetland restoration could also provide a small step toward a hydrologic regime in this region that more closely resembles its historic nature, before roads and cities were constructed, forests were lost, and millions of acres tile-drained to increase agricultural production.

An evaluation of potential wetlands in one watershed in central Indiana found that if just 1.5 percent of the land were used for wetlands, the peak flow of the overall watershed could be reduced by up to 17.5 percent. Also of importance, researchers said, is that expansion of wetlands appears to provide significant benefits across a wide range of possible climate scenarios. The study was published in Ecological Engineering, in work supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“Flood management in the Midwest is now almost entirely concentrated on use of dams and levees,” said Meghna Babbar-Sebens, an assistant professor of civil engineering in the College of Engineering, and the Eric H.I. and Janice Hoffman Faculty Scholar at OSU.

“Wetland construction or restoration could provide a natural and ecological option to help with flood concerns, and serve as an additional tool for flood management. Greater investments in this approach, or similar approaches that increase storage of water in the upper landscape of a watershed, should be seriously considered.”

What was that? More wetlands in the midwest could reduce flooding and improve water quality? Get out! If only there was some crazy way the farmers could have those wetlands for free – providing a buffer for their crops and absorbing all those harmful nitrates. The article says there isn’t much funding for wetland restoration. Isn’t there anyway this could get done without a lot of money?

Wetlands help reduce some of these flooding problems by storing water away from stream channels and releasing it more slowly, while also improving water quality and providing wildlife habitat. Other studies have shown that wetland construction in the Mississippi-Ohio-Missouri river basins could also significantly reduce nitrogen loads in the rivers, which has led to an enormous “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico.

Robin Ellison just sent this perfect addition!

Rusty Cohn

Speaking of wetland restoration and Napa, Rusty took this last night at Tulocay pond in Napa when he was lucky enough to see FOUR beavers. Oh, I love the breathless anticipation of this time of year, or I would if we had any beavers still in Martinez.

Sniff.

Looks like we got ourselves a horse race!

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, What's killing beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? March 15, 2016

Residents unhappy with Stratford’s flooding issues

According to residents, beavers built a damn [sic] on Peck’s Pond, which connects to Pumpkin Ground Brook. They say they’ve experienced flooding as a result of the dam, which started in October.

Department of Public Works officials say they tried to create a piping system to keep the water level to no avail. Attempts to breach the damn were also unsuccessful.

The town’s solution is to trap and kill the beavers. Officials say it’s not a solution they wanted to come to. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officials say they can’t trap and relocate the beavers.

That’s right, channel 12 news couldn’t pass up an opportunity to swear about beavers and said they built a damn. (Does that mean if the flooding gets worse they’ll say they built a god damn?) Apparently public works put a weighted pipe through the dam but can’t understand why that doesn’t stop beavers? The video shows the pipe flowing, so if they didn’t just blow it out, it’s clearly not big enough to handle the amount of water needed to control flooding. At any rate the city needs to pry open its clenched wallet and actually hire Mike or Skip who actually know what they’re doing. Looks like public pressure might help that happen.

Beaver advocates to speak to Town Council

People concerned about the town’s plans to trap and kill beavers in Roosevelt Forest are planning to ask town officials if anything can be done to change the trapping plans.

A group of Fairfield County animal activists and concerned residents will ask Mayor John Harkins and the Town Council at tonight’s regular council meeting about town’s plans to remove beavers who have settled at Pumpkin Ground Brook. The activists plan to speak to the Council during tonight’s public forum, which begins at 6:45 p.m. in the Town Council chambers. They also plan to host a brief demonstration regarding the trapping at 6:15 p.m.

The animal activists will ask if the Town Council can overrule the Roosevelt Forest Commission’s decision to lay down traps. Town officials opted to trap the beavers to alleviate flooding in the forest after residents living on Barrister Road complained in October. After Public Works crews tried to break up the dam and installed a flow device to prevent the water backup, the beavers patched up the dam, leaving commissioners with little choice.

Before the meeting they’re going to have a little demonstration too. Something to bring the news cameras I warrant. All this fuss – wouldn’t it be easier to do this right from the beginning? I wrote the forest commission and the mayor yesterday about what to do and real solutions. Do you think anyone will listen? I’m not holding my breath, but we’ll see.

Yesterday Jon and I went down memory lane and kept watch at the Escobar bridge from 6:30 to 7:30. We saw no beavers but it was surprisingly familiar and peaceful. One young man strolled by and asked if we had seen any beavers. He said he had watched a muskrat yesterday at about this time. As if hearing his cue, a rather fat and happy muskrat suddenly appeared out of the area of the latest beaver home, swam across the bank and hopped up onto the shore to paddle in the bushes and get some food. After this he marched back down, hopped in the water, and dove back into the lodge.

Maybe feeding a family?

I was thinking how happy he must be to have the space all to himself! He looked like we all feel after a the very large man sitting next to us gets off the bus. Apparently Napa saw one too, so maybe its the season.

Delightful presents arrived last night. Jamie Larson of Tags and Tiles in Havasu Arizona has a soft spot for beavers and was encouraged by our story to donate six of her gloriously layered dogtag necklaces. She even created them especially for us! If you can believe it, they are even more adorable in person. But if you want a beaver I’d go buy one yourself now, because it will be cheaper than the bidding war we’re going to see on August 6.

People saving beavers

Friends saving beavers! I watched this video public comment yesterday and it gave me total PTSD flashbacks of our November meeting, lo those many years go. Caitlin does a great job starting the conversation AND rallying the troops, despite the fairly dickish admonishment to “Talk to staff, not us”. I love the sleeper cell confrontation in the last speaker who points to an article two years ago and says “If its such a terrible problem why haven’t you done anything yet?”

Now there’s a man after my own heart.

I fiddled a bit more with Elizabeth Saunders lovely illustration and was very happy indeed, until Bruce Thompson of Wyoming suggested there was an unfortunate urinary tract association. Sheesh. There’s always a critic. Still, when I got over the giggles, I was still this.

Artist Mario Alfaro came by yesterday with his latest additions and Ron Bruno came down to do a lovely panoramic so the city could see the final product. Note the fish in the mouth of the egret and the lurking frog in the corner! Click to see larger.

The only other thing we would like for him to incorporate is the top of the filter sticking out upstream. I gave him this photo yesterday and we’ll hope its possible.

Final news. Nearly month after a resident reported a beaver tailslap and sighting in the area next to the creek monkey, Linda Kozlowski sent this right before daylight savings:

hey! this is probably old news to you but…at about 5:45 (just now…still light out) was standing on north side if escobar and saw a b.a.b. (big ass beaver) come part way up on the bank just a bit north of the old lodge and forcefully pry a stick out of the mud and swim across with it to the other side….for sure went no further downstream. not as big as old dad but pretty big. cheers!

It’s the kind of news that’s almost too hope-inducing to bear, but we’ll head down tonight and check it out. The part that made me chuckle was realizing that BIG STICK he was trying to pry out of the ground was one of the cotton wood stakes we planted this November. Funny thing is, I almost couldn’t bear to go thru with the planting because the city was being so horrible and the beavers were gone. Then I thought, well if I was a returning beaver checking to see what was if there was anything worth coming back for, some fresh tasty trees might convince me.

Hahaha. Stay tuned.

Beaver Believers Far and Wide

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Earth Day, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? March 12, 2016

This document is so packed with information it will take a while to upload but I thought it deserved to be browse-able. To download your own go to their website. You won’t regret it!

Beaver-Our-Watershed-Partner-for-WEB

Incredible new achievement from our friends at Cows and Fish in Alberta. They are smart persuaders of beaver benefits for some pretty tough customers. And this really well-designed document covers all the issues and then some. Honestly, these are some of the finest beaver illustrations I’ve seen (besides Amelia’s of course!) I had to show you this one especially. Doesn’t that just say it all?

The whole document deserves a solid read and reread on a rainy day by a window. Click here for the link to it on their website, and please pass it on!

And just in case that news isn’t exciting enough, try this new research from the forest service, to be published next month in the Journal of Fresh Water Biology.

Beaver activity increases aquatic subsidies to terrestrial consumers Summary

Beaver (Castor canadensis) alter freshwater ecosystems and increase aquatic production, but it is unknown how these changes influence the magnitude and lateral dispersal of aquatic nutrients into terrestrial ecosystems.

We examined differences in abundances of dominant aquatic invertebrates, wolf spiders (Lycosidae), and deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), at beaver and non-beaver sites. We used stable isotopes to track aquatic-derived carbon in terrestrial consumers and linear mixed-effects models to examine the importance of beaver presence and distance from stream channel on the percentage of aquatic-derived carbon in terrestrial consumers.

Sites with beaver activity had >200% higher aquatic invertebrate emergence rates as well as 60% and 75% higher abundances of spiders and deer mice, respectively, relative to non-beaver sites.

More beavers mean more bugs. Haven’t I always told you that? The USFS has been kind enough to count how many. And then look at all the happy spiders and deer mice who get to eat them. Hurray! I can’t wait until the entire article is available but this is a great place to start. Thanks!

Yesterday we worked on the project for this year’s Earth day and made stencil’s for these. Jon was kind enough to model, but just imagine 100 kids walking around with these on the day. We just found out that two of our hearty regulars won’t be able to help out that day! Maybe you are free on April 23rd and want to honor the spirit of John Muir by helping beavers? If you might, email me and I’ll make it sound even better! It’s a beautiful day, lots of ecologically minded folks, and beaver-admiring children. Persuaded yet?