Category: Beavers and Forests

Fortune Favors the Beaver

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, 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, City Reports, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? June 2, 2016

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;

i love what you are doing and am happy to help!

John Muir Laws

As if this all these rewards weren’t heady enough, at the end of the day I received notice of this article about Louise Ramsay.

Beavers are helping to restore the biodiversity to the Perthshire countryside

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!

The Un-memorial Mural

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? May 31, 2016

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!

The Beaver Queen Pageant brings puns, fur and fun to an ecological cause

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!

Help from Beaver Friends

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water May 17, 2016

Yesterday was a volatile day, filled with unexpected reunions and thrilling returns. It was a day of very wonderful and very upsetting things. So of course I got our two grant applications back from the CCC Fish and Wildlife Commission. Sadly the mural application received a rejection letter, but the Wildlife train bracelet was funded in full.

Hurray! Beaver money from the feds! And what on earth is the All Aboard project you ask? A.L.L. A.B.O.A.R.D.

(A little learning about beaver operations and riparian dwellers)

As a foundation species and ecosystem engineer, beaver offer invaluable service in riparian zones. Teaching children about this function encourages them to think more dynamically about the way species systems are interconnected, and how our human behavior can disrupt or encourage the healthy function of streams. With their constant dam building, chewing, mudding and digging of channels, beavers create stream complexity, invertebrate abundance, and habitat enrichment. Beaver wetlands are among the most biodiverse areas on the planet, and are rapidly being recognized for their important role in providing salmon and steelhead habitat, protecting amphibian populations and removing phosphorous and nitrogen. It is important for children to understand that preserving these valuable Ecosystem Engineers can benefit many species, including ourselves.

Beavers are such obvious examples of Ecosystem Engineers that they are often used to explain the concept overall – but this language itself is not very child-friendly and can be hard for youngsters to grasp. With that in mind we’ve decided to employ the concept of a ‘train engineer’ with which children are much more familiar, to cheerfully introduce the idea. We emphasize the way the beaver ‘engineer’ drives the ecosystem with their works, pulling new species into the wetland much like a train ‘pulls along’ the other cars behind it. The concept of ‘linking’ separate cars together, works naturally with the idea of an ecosystem engineer bracelet activity, which children would put together by learning about how beavers help other species.

Yes the acronym monster strikes again, and she believes victory is sweet. Mike Warner of Wildbryde is already hard at work on the charms for 150 children while we speak, and this grant and the recent one from Kiwanis will go a long way to making that possible. (975+450=1425). Now I just need to start breaking it gently to Erika that she will need to put on links for 8 charms x 150 children that day. I’m thinking chocolate and gerber daisies, what do you think?

And while we’re on the topic of ‘breaking it gently, I must assume that somebody told the mayor we were seeing beavers in the creek again, because I joyfully posted the news on Martinez Rants and Raves and this morning that post has received over 400 likes. This comforts me since this forum is limited to folks in Martinez just in case we need to rally the troops again on short notice.

Finally there’s a very fun headline from Devon which has adopted a ‘beaver mascot’ and is looking for the public to help them provide a name.

A DEVON-BASED conservation charity is looking for help from the public to suggest names for its new beaver mascot

The beaver in question is a human-sized beaver costume made to promote the work of Devon Wildlife Trust with England’s only known wild beaver population on the River Otter in East Devon. The costume, which has striking teeth and tail has been produced with support from South Devon-based Cofton Country Holidays.

Steve Hussey , from the Devon Wildlife Trust, said: “We wanted a beaver mascot to help us raise the profile of the River Otter Beaver Trial and its vital work. When Cofton Country Holidays generously stepped in to help us we were delighted.

Gotta name suggestion? I have several. “Resilience, Recovery, Engineer, Keystone, and Evolution” spring to mind first. But “Fish friend” is up there too. Let’s just face the inevitable reality of “justin” and get it over with. You know people will think it’s insanely clever.

At least have the heart to give him a last an herbal middle name to make the point.

And finally here’s a special present from Moses Silva on Sunday that I know you’ve all been waiting for. Thanks Moses!

Beaver splashes

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? May 13, 2016

Here’s the excellent documentary I was talking about yesterday. Don’t ask how it became possible to share it – just enjoy the ride! The Martinez story starts around 15:30 after a trapper segment – but you’ll be smarter if you watch the whole thing.

Untitled from Heidi Perryman on Vimeo.

Yesterday I spoke to a VERY packed house at Martinez Kiwanis, who were eager to know what was up with the beavers. I gave them the full update and talked about the mural and our very odd summer with Suzi and the unexplained beaver deaths. Lara Delaney from city council was happy to have the update. People said afterwards it was one of the best talks they ever had, so I going to assume I did okay. There was a lot of interest in the little Napa segment I added, and people were very surprised to learn how little controversy their arrival had caused in Napatopia as opposed to Martinez.

Unfortunately they mentioned during the meeting they had already voted last week to decide funding allotments for scholarships. So I hope they remembered how much they loved beavers then! The greedy marketer in me would rather Worth A Dam was fresh on their mind when they considered our grant application!

Now my desk is officially cleared and I have no other commitments before Portland. That will give me time to focus on that speech and the mural progress. Mario didn’t work yesterday because he had business in the city, but hopefully well march onward today and tomorrow? I would sure like to have a full bridge before we leave town.

The lying month of May

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, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now? May 9, 2016

We are just two weeks from the purifying ritual that occurs every year apparently at SARSAS in Auburn. Before they invite me to come tell the truth about beavers, they conjure the opposite so as to soothe the evil bureaucratic spirits. I guess them helps sneak me in the gates, so to speak, since the powers that be are thus duly convinced they hate beavers. By the time my booming beaver beatitudes arrive no one of consequence suspects anything.

By evil spirits, I’m referring, of course, to Mary Tappel, who still takes time out of her busy life on the water board to spread vile lies about beavers. I once called her the ‘human beaver deceiver‘. Her bio in the SARSAS newsletter has some rich allegations of her merry volunteer brigade and their wondrous application of various nonlethal techniques. But this is my favorite one.

Mary also dealt with beaver management questions and in foothill areas such as Granite Bay, Loomis, & Roseville; and towards the Bay/Delta area in Fairfield & Martinez, and to the south in Elk Grove, all in creeks and small retention basins.

So not only does Mary have the outright gall to take credit for the unrivaled beaver slaughter in Elk Grove and Granite Bay (The biggest beaver genocide in 2007 and the site of the most depredation permits in 2013-14.) She also PROUDLY proclaims her work in MARTINEZ.

We’re actually on her resume.

What was her service to the home town of John Muir you ask? Fortunately nothing at all that was useful or true. She told the Gazette that beavers breed for 50 years. She told our mayor that flow devices never work. She advised city staff to kill the father beaver so that the mother would be forced to mate with her offspring. And, at a public meeting of 200 people nearly a decade ago said that the beavers were leaving Martinez, and wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

I have to say I remain very grateful for her unique level of competence.

Maybe I’ll thank her publicly when I come present in June and talk about the many transformations that beavers made to our creek in Martinez. I’m constantly reminded of how many individuals’ incompetence was instrumental in saving our beavers. The lawyer on the subcommittee who wanted them trapped, for instance, was lackadaisical at best in his half-hearted efforts to convince the city they would ruin the creek. He brought a large stuffed beaver once to the meeting with a sign that said ‘send me to Plumas county’. I thought maybe he was just ineffective generally until I saw him speak on another issue in opposition at a meeting. In that instance, he was forceful, competent and had done all his homework, which is what my lawyer friends told me he was like in court.

If THAT attorney had shown his face on the subcommittee we might have had a very different outcome.

As it was, folks just didn’t really care that much. Maybe enough to toss some money to hire a lawyer, but not enough to do research and really examine the allegations in the case. Like say, um, me for instance. If I had been my opposition, there would have been trouble.

Thanks, Mary.