Category: Beavers and Forests

Invoking the past to change the future

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, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? March 1, 2016

Leave it to Louise Ramsay of Scotland to tie it all together. Beautiful, writing that echoes with history and foreshadow.

Beavers and the conflict in the Scottish countryside

Last July, Alyth flooded badly and a young farmer started a rumour that the beavers on our land had exacerbated the flood. He tweeted his theory to the media and the story spread like wildfire, though very few locals believed it: apart from anything else, it was clear that upstream beaver dams had all held firm.

SNH then commissioned a study that showed the beavers were not to blame. But this month things got even better when research that has been done on our land over the last 13 years by Stirling University was published and the beavers were not just exonerated, but shown to actually slow floodwaters and thus reduce the impact of flooding, as well as increasing biodiversity & soil retention and stripping out pollutants.

Of course, for these farmers the presence of beavers is something real in a way that for the majority of people it isn’t. They have to deal with beavers busily trying to re-wild their land, to slow the flow of water in their ditches which are meant to hurry water off the fields as fast as possible. They have to confront the beavers’ desire to create wildlife rich, bee loud, water purifying wetland habitat by backing water up into the edges and hollows of their valuable arable fields, and they are not over the moon about it.

Lets pause a minute just to savor the delicious word choice at work here. The innocuous and unassuming phrase “bee loud” just appears to be an oddly phrased reference to noisy insects, unless you are familiar with arguably the most famous poem describing longing for rural life in the context of the city that was ever written. You may know it as the Lake at Innisfree. Do not think, for one moment, that it was by accident Louise evoked that hymnal of longing for a wild life. She wants the reader to remember their own longing clover and clear water. Here’s Mr. Yeats himself singing his words.

People remember more farmland birds in the past, more butterflies, more flowers, more bees. Now they see farming methods which use artificial fertilisers produced by the use of large amounts of fossil fuels, raided from the earth, set alight and polluting the sky. They see huge tractors with deep ploughs churning the earth, and they see brown water flowing off the land in times of flood and brown dust blowing in the air in dry summers. They worry that the very soil on which our food security depends, is in danger of impoverishment, and of being blown away or washed out to sea. They worry rightly. This kind of farming which has been the prevalent kind for the last 50 years, is extractive not regenerative. According to a Sheffield University study published in the Farmers Weekly it has left us with soils that in many cases just have 100 harvests left.

Meanwhile uphill, on the sheep farms, we landowners are also under scrutiny from the progressively larger sector of the public that is getting its head round the thorny questions of flood prevention and biodiversity loss in the uplands. Sheep farming has been carried out in some of our hills for hundreds of years, often responsibly and with great dedication, and some sheep farmers are not surprisingly upset to be told they are ‘sheepwrecking’ the countryside. But as globalization hits the price the farmer gets for lamb it becomes difficult to justify economically such a highly subsidized traditional activity, and as climate change progresses it becomes harder to defend environmentally, especially in our highest and most vulnerable landscapes.

As organisations like Nourish Scotland know all too well, we need to take a long hard look at agriculture and try and be more rational and less traditional in our approach. We need to look back, but also forward to new kinds of farming being tried around the world. We need to consider the true costs of various kinds of farming and see whether they can really justify the impacts they have by the food security they offer us. Ask again whether its true that higher productivity of industrial farming really gives it the edge over organic farming. Look at the possibilities for influencing what people eat and steer them towards food grown in the least extractive, most regenerative ways.

With climate change, its causes and its effects, fossil fuels and flooding, or drought or storms, everything has to change. We can’t go on as we are just watching it get worse and we farmers and landowners, who after all have a far bigger impact than most people, a far greater chance to make a difference for good or bad, really need to start listening to what the rest of the population are saying and change our ways before things get any worse. Just for a small but symbolic start let’s hope by the time you are reading this beavers will be legally protected in Scotland and the farmers will be applying their pragmatic minds to the question of mitigation rather than getting their guns out of the locked cupboard and heading for the waters edge at dusk.

Beautiful summing up Louise! You have embroidered the separate threads of beavers, food politics, climate change and biodiversity into a delicate and powerful coat of arms for supporters to brandish in united sensibility. This was a well done piece of inspiration and perspiration and we here in Martinez could not be more impressed! I hope this finely crafted article gets all the audience it deserves!

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Yesterday was cheerfully blessed with a couple more donations. The first this charming print by Shirley Harvey of Montreal Canada. I know several bass players who will start a bidding war for this.

And some striking prints from Amy Calderwood’s Vavooxi of Kansas. Isn’t this beautiful?

Make New Friends, but Keep the Old

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Chewing, Beavers, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Tail slap, Who's saving beavers now? February 27, 2016

I noticed this winter that we had a new dove sound in the garden. The call has the quality of a regular mourning dove with a marching cadence. It was quite unmistakable.

Like all good mysteries the internet helped me solve it. I was hearing a “Eurasian Collared Dove”, which happened to be news worthy because the bird was introduced in Barbados in the late 1800’s and creeped to Florida and then across the United states. Apparently it got to the Bay Area around 2008, but I was busy with beavers so I didn’t notice then. Have you seen or heard this newcomer? He’s apparently well adapted to city life and folks are unsure whether he’s a competition to our other doves. It’s fun hear that new call though, like having a new kid move in across the street and wondering if they’ll be fun to play with.

Speaking of fun, Minnesota is about to have a tail-slapper.

‘Leave it To Beavers’ March 8 at Headwaters Center for Lifelong Learning

This 60-minute 2014 video from PBS will be shown on Armory Square’s 25-foot wide screen, with sound enhanced by a new wireless microphone. The stunning photography and important subject matter present an opportunity for the audiences to get a close up look at this once nearly extinct rodent at work.

“The beaver is nature’s original water conservationist and land and wildlife manager,” the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources explains. “Many biologists believe that the beaver pond supports a greater variety and abundance of wildlife than any other ecosystem in the forest. The ponds also control spring runoff, thus lessening the possibility of downstream flooding.”

While climate change, pollution and other negative impacts on ecosystems are much in the news these days, positive developments such as the useful work of the resurgent beaver population tend to receive less notice.

Ahh wonderful to hear such good praise out of MDNR And wonderful to see Jari Osborne’s well-crafted documentary continuing to do its job. You know, she just wrote the other day to congratulate us on our Conservation Education Award. Obviously she’s busy doing other things now that are not beaver related. But she’d be thrilled to know her work continues to entertain and educate.

Sigh. This remains one of my favorite parts of the documentary, I admit.

What John Muir thinks about beavers…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, 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, Creative Solutions, Earth Day, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? February 25, 2016

I’m officially allowed to announce our good news today, so of course I’m thinking of John Muir’s friend Enos Mills, who was invited to his house and came to Martinez in 1908. One of the many books he wrote was the very famous “In Beaver World“, all about our favorite subject matter, and whose very last chapter is titled thusly.

I’m very very proud to imagine that Worth A Dam has possibly been considered as good a educational conservationist as the beaver is. Congratulations to everyone and all of Martinez who made Worth A Dam happen in the first place.

Speaking of the many species beavers assist in their award-winning Keystone capacity, here’s an awesome photo from the Tulocay Napa beaver pond taken yesterday by Rusty Cohn.

rusty turtle — *Turtles at Tulocay Beaver Pond: Rusty Cohn*

Now I think we should all write than you notes to the Scottish Goverment for being so enormously stubborn the world keeps getting headlines like this over and over again.

Give beavers permanent residence – we’d be dam stupid not to

Beaver benefits

None of this is about nostalgia. Beavers are often referred to as “ecosystem engineers” and herein lies much of the reasoning and controversy behind their reintroduction. There is extensive evidence from Europe and North America that wetlands created by beaver dams benefit everything from water plants, dragonflies and amphibians to fish and ducks to song birds and bats. In Knapdale, damming by beavers transformed a small pond into a wetland of a type and complexity probably unseen in Britain for centuries.

Beavers can also restore habitats without the need for a bulldozer or planning permission. On the Bamff estate on Tayside, we found that grazing by beavers trebled the number of wetland plants over a nine-year period. Where raised water levels saturated a meadow thanks to damming of ditches, the number of plant species increased by 49% and the multitude of habitats created increased the total diversity of aquatic invertebrates by almost 30%. Indeed the benefits were even further reaching. We found that the beaver dams also acted as a sink for agricultural pollutants, and may also help to reduce the risk of flooding. Individually these findings are not that surprising, though it is unusual to demonstrate them all in parallel.

Go read the whole thing. And thank the famously stubborn scots for needing a lot of convincing on the subject!

Some good news about Michigan waterways…

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, Educational, Environmental, Urban beavers February 24, 2016

Yesterday two lovely copies of Gerry Wykes beautifully illustrated tale of the Detroit River beavers arrived in the mail. I can’t tell you how excited I was from the moment I opened and saw the striking frontspiece showing in part above. The first lines reminded me instantly of the Martinez Beaver story and the surprise with which people reacted to learn that beavers were lurking in their midst. But the tale continues with such a local sensibility to the particular meaning for this very urban river, that it was even more exciting.

The folks at the Conners Creek powerplant on the Detroit river were alarmed at first by some disappearing trees, which they attributed to vandalism, accident, or possibly Big Foot. The book makes a wonderful point of explaining that no one in their right mind would think the theft was the work of a beavers, since there had been no beavers in the Detroit river for 150 years! And just in case you’re wondering what America looked like then, Andrew Johnson was president (following Lincoln’s assassination) and in 1866 ‘negroes’ were officially recognized as American citizens.

Beavers came back to a very different Detroit river than the one they had been trapped out of.

The disappearing-tree mystery was solved with the help of a team of experts including Jason Cousino, who saw the remaining stumps and knew enough to install a night camera on one of the felled trees. Sure enough, a BEAVER was filmed returning to finish his hard night’s work. The city was elated, everyone merrily took credit for cleaning up the river. and it was even reported on Regis and Cathy Lee. Surely if the polluted Detroit river could make a comeback, anything was possible.

The hardworking beaver paid no attention to his fame, and set about making a massive lodge that from almost nowhere attracted a mate. To everyone’s surprise in the spring of 2009 kits were born. The author does a commendable job making the science of beavers, their adaptations, their life history, and even the fur trade exciting and accessible. Even though it’s written for a younger reader, I’d be fairly happy if every city official knew as much about beavers as they read in this book. Even the details of complex concepts like “coppicing” of trees are delightfully explained.

I adore this illustration in particular. (The colors are so vibrant and inviting I’m wishing it was the pattern on my bed sheets or kitchen towels.) In addition to the inviting animals, Wykes does a impressive job of showing the hardened urban skeleton they moved into, right down to the smokestacks and abandoned houses. His artwork beautiful captures the fragile resilience of “nature in the city”.

The representations of beavers are wonderfully accurate. He really captured all the parts of their lives in his illustrations. I’m not sure where the author gained such a fine familiarity with the beaver shape, shading and movements – but this gives me a little idea:

Compare - Copy — *Gerry Wykes Illustration: Cheryl Reynolds photograph*

There a few little mistakes we could have set him straight on if he had asked, like writing that beaver need Cottonwood or Willow to survive. Not true. Beavers LIKE those trees, but they can survive on a host of others including (but not limited to) Alder, Aspen, Maple, Oak, Elm and Fruit.There are even places like the Delta (the spot of historically the largest beaver population in California) where they survive without TREES – existing on Tule roots and cattails. He also mentions that folks came to America looking for the other kind of gold and were surprised to wind up with beaver gold. Which I suppose might be true for Columbus, but since we know even the pilgrims were hungry for cheap beaver fur, doesn’t sit right. It certainly doesn’t adequately describe the ruthless resource war that was taking place across this land for a century as folks sought out the ever-shrinking population of remaining beaver pelts. There, of course, could have been LOTS more information about the way that beavers help fish like salmon and trout, or wildlife like otter and mink, or herons, frogs, turtles and bats while helping rid streams of pollution. But, I’m picky. I admit it. Maybe I’m like the snobby wine connoisseur of beavers?

Regardless of those minor points, this is a beautiful book and worth holding in your hot little hands. It’s perfect as a gift for a curious youth or that nosy sister-in-law that was so interested in the sudden arrival of the curious Martinez Beavers. It goes on sale in March and is available from the publisher for 18.99. OR if you’re very lucky indeed, and no one gets there first, there will be a copy in the silent auction that you can claim for your very own.

Thanks Gerry and Wayne University Press for a truly delightful read!

White House Protects Beavers

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, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? February 23, 2016

So yesterday I was strolling blithely through the internet(s), minding my own business and expecting to see the usual array of appetizers and grandchildren on FB when I suddenly caught sight of this and became immediately interested. Something tells me you will to…

White House aims to put a value on ecosystem conservation

The White House has issued a directive (PDF) to point federal agencies toward building ecosystem-services valuation into their plans, investments and regulations. The directive, released late last year, will help agencies synthesize conservation’s ecosystem benefits with its value to society.

“For too long, we’ve thought of conservation as separate from society,” said Ken Elowe, assistant regional director of science applications for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Northeast Region. “What’s actually needed is a more landscape approach, one that doesn’t segregate people.

Like say, for instance, allowing beavers to work their magic in urban areas.

Of course I immediately marched off and looked for the memo they were talking about. And verily, I say unto you, it was much, much better than I ever expected. Truly.

Read that title again: INCORPORATING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES INTO FEDERAL DECISION MAKING!!! Do you realize what a presidential memo about this means? It means EVERY federal agency that works with nature, habitat or wildlife is advised to put special value on these services. NOAA. BLM. USFS. FWS, APHIS. They are all directed to consider the ecosystem services of any species they manage.

Now mind you, it doesn’t actually SAY the word beaver in this memo, but it might as bloody well have. It goes on to describe in detail every single service they provide and their irreplaceable value. Don’t believe me? Just read for yourself.

And why wasn’t there a parade for this memo? What is wrong with me that you didn’t read about it on October 7th when it was released? The truth is NO ONE KNEW ABOUT IT. Or if they did they weren’t allowed to talk about it. I heard from Suzanne Fouty yesterday that she never heard about it at the Forest Service. And Brock Dolman said OAEC didn’t know about it either. This was a SLEEPER memo, obviously uncelebrated to risk upsetting as few people as possible, the same way you might transition your father to decaf without telling him. But I’m ringing and ringing the bell. And you can help. Here’s my news flash of the memo. With the exception of a single word it only contains actual text of the memo. You should be able to hit the plus button to make it bigger.

You can probably guess that single word.

headline-1

After that extreme gratification, you should lie back and enjoy the virtual smoke of Beth Pratt’s recent TED talk at Yosemite. She does a great job describing the importance of Urban Wildlife and the book she mentions will have the photo by a certain Martinez beaver defender you might recognize. I’m guessing this is going to make a difference for a host of beavers.