Category: Beavers and Frogs

GO! Tell it on the mountain!

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? December 15, 2015

I thought this article deserved some seasonal celebration and this endeared itself to me. Especially the twirling little girl in red on the left who is certain it’s a ballet she’s been asked to conform. Ahh youth! Now read that upcoming headline and just SEE if this doesn’t make you want to add a little pirouette of your own!

Leaving it to beavers: Communities make room for natural engineers

Once valued as little more than pelts, beavers are back in vogue and rebuilding their reputation as habitat engineers.

It helps their cause that the dams they build as homes also create water quality-boosting wetlands and habitat for other species. In the process, the structures slow the flow of water and filter out sediment that would otherwise be on its way to the Chesapeake Bay.

John Griffin, director of urban wildlife programs at the U.S. Humane Society, said beavers are often embroiled in conflicts when their dams result in flooding or other impacts to the developments around them.

“When people are living in an urban area, they think that animals belong in a natural habitat — not here,” he said. “We’re not thinking about there being a functioning ecosystem here.”

The problems arise when both humans and beavers build their homes around natural water features, and each has impacts on the other. But, Griffin said, there are solutions that allow both to be good neighbors.

Residents can use tree guards to protect their expensive ornamentals from beavers’ teeth. Rather than destroying dams or trapping beavers, they can mitigate the impact of rising water tables with devices like the “beaver deceiver,” which uses pipes to channel water through the dam while giving the beaver the feeling of damming the stream.

Beavers and their dams also bring new habitats to urban and suburban environments, creating the wetlands known to be key to several species’ survival. Griffin said more people are warming to the idea that a beaver can bring benefits to the neighborhood.

Urban parks can be a great place for beavers to redefine the landscape, as they have at Bladensburg Waterfront Park along the District of Columbia’s stretch of the Anacostia River. Jorge Bogantes Montero, stewardship program specialist in natural resources for the Anacostia Watershed Society, said three beaver dams constructed in one stretch of the park demonstrate their ability to attract wildlife and clean the water even in the middle of the city.

Nice.

I always believed the day would come when I would read an entire article that said exactly what I would have said if I had written it, but I in fact didn’t write it and knew nothing at all about it – from the other half of the country. I believed the day would come, but I didn’t know for sure, because you never, ever know how these things will turn out. I worked so hard I had wanted to show you what I’ve written so far for the urban beaver chapter, but if you read this article very closely you will get the idea.

Just remember that before Martinez took the plunge in 2007 the phrase ‘Urban Beavers’ was on no one’s lips. And now its popping up on East Coast articles where beaver phobia is usually rampant. I’m so proud of us. We all deserve this to get us ready for what’s to come.

SO MUCH LEARNING!

heidi08 Beaver Chewing, Beavers and Birds, 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? December 9, 2015

The bright sparks of dimly lit Nevada are continuing to process ground-breaking research and expert advice using their intricate circular filing method. They have received consultation from the Sierra Wildlife Coalition, the Human Society, the Sierra Club, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, and Worth A Dam, so of course they are paying the most careful attention.

Sparks changes tactics with nuisance beavers

Nuisance beavers have been gnawing their way through trees and building dams along the North Truckee Drain in Sparks, causing damage and increasing the risk of residential flooding.

After spending city resources focusing on the dams to little long-term effect, the city of Sparks recently tried to shift its focus to the beaver population itself. In order to mitigate the problems caused by the dam-building beavers, the city was advised by the Nevada Department of Wildlife to seek a special permit last month to catch and kill the animals. As of last week, however, the city decided to put that strategy on hold, concerned about the inhumane nature of the process.

The permit, which was issued Nov. 10 and is good for a full year, gave the city permission to remove the animals through trapping and/or shooting them, which they decided to do through a third party contractor. Captured animals are not allowed to be moved or relocated due to the potential spread of disease, such as the infectious bacterial illness tularemia, and the territoriality that occurs between beaver populations.

The beavers in Sparks were being trapped underwater to avoid potentially capturing domestic animals, or even small children, above ground. The beavers were drowning to death, which the city now feels is not the most humane way to take care of the problem. Five beavers were killed in total.

Well at least they finally got the beaver deaths reported, even if they didn’t admit that it was an entire family. Sherry and Ted Guzzi have been hard at work offering solutions to problems at hand, and we had a long discussion about how to wriggle maximum support out of their lying, opportunistic mouths. But obviously there has been little real change. Just look at what Mr. Healy is saying even after I specifically sent him three research articles on beavers and birds.

“This is part of the ongoing drought,” said Chris Healy, spokesman for NDOW. “When we have troubles with drought, water sources are limited, and so instead of the beavers taking out willows and creating dams, they go up drains and start taking out trees.”

Nevada law allows for the aggressive removal of beavers that are obstructing the free flow of water. Beavers can also cause significant damage to a river’s ecosystem, Healy said, in that they remove the limited number of trees that provide nesting for local birds and contribute to healthy fish habitats.

“Trees take decades to grow, whereas beavers only take a season to grow,” Healy said. “Nobody wants to kill an animal, but in some circumstances we have to do that. There are logical reasons for why we do what we do.”

Apparently trees in Nevada don’t coppice and Mr. Healy has never heard of the work beavers are doing to restore streams just up the road in his very own state. His is also unaware that beavers don’t respond to drought by moving into city drains. He feels no need to trouble himself with the research saying that beavers help birds, because he obviously knows better. Five years ago I’m sure he’d be saying beavers don’t belong because they’re not native. So that progress of a kind. And hey, beavers DO take less time to grow than trees. He’s got me there.

I guess what this all proves is that you can lead the NDOW to information about water, but you can’t make them THINK.

We need a good story to get that taste out of our mouths. This will do nicely.

New Beaver Dam in Roosevelt Forest teaches Lauralton Hall & Fairfield Prep students about beaver ecology

On November 24, Lauralton Hall students and Fairfield prep students met up with Christina Batoh, Stratford’s Conservation Officer, to learn about beaver ecology at the site of a recently constructed beaver dam in Roosevelt Forest. Students set out to answer the question, “Does the presence of the beaver dam impact stream water quality?” To do this they tested water samples from an upstream site.

Lauralton Hall students instructed their Fairfield Prep counterparts in how to conduct tests for dissolved oxygen, carbon dioxide, turbidity (sediment load), and pH. Students then analyzed their test results and concluded that the presence of the beaver dam does indeed impact stream water quality with water downstream having better quality than the water upstream or at the dam site.

Got that? Did the high school student go to fast for you Mr. Healy? Let me know and I can slow them down. There’s more to talk about in the Ecologist this morning, but I have a conference call for the paper this morning, and am going to have to stop for now. For some reason, I’m thinking this video might be helpful to our new BFF in his scientific quest for the ecologic advancement.

Beavers: too big to fail?

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? December 7, 2015

Thanks to our astute retired librarian friend BK from Georgia for sending this my way. You can guess what I immediately thought.

Researcher calls southwestern foundation species too big to fail

When a tree species supports more than 1,000 animals, birds, insects and microbes, the tree type can be considered too big to fail. “Cottonwoods are the General Motors of the plant world because they define a community and an ecosystem,” said Tom Whitham, Regents’ professor of biological sciences. Whitham’s genetics-based research is designed to conserve cottonwoods in the face of climate change.

Whitham and other scientists think this conservation strategy is especially important to keep foundation species in the landscape during climate change.

“Historically, there has been a very long lag time between basic research and implementation into management practice and we can no longer afford to do it that way,” Whitham said. “With the rates of climate change, there needs to be a seamless integration between the scientific findings and land management applications.”

This practice has already been achieved in agriculture, where a similar approach has changed management practices with soil scientists, plant geneticists and climatologists working together to increase crop production. Whitham said it makes sense to apply similar principals to wildlands, but with different goals of maintaining healthy ecosystems and high biodiversity.

Of course I immediately went there. Didn’t you? If sustaining many species makes something too important to lose beavers are a lock. Not to mention removing toxins, recycling nutrients, trapping sediments and storing water, which (last time I checked) EVERY species on the planet needs. Surely that must make them too big to fail. Or be failed.

I have such smart friends that I recognized Dr. Whitham’s work from the “A Thousand Invisible Cords” video a beaver supporter from Marin sent earlier. Consider this an educational website and remember one particular foundation species in the west is way too big to fail.

Beavers as Genetic Engineers from Research on Vimeo.

Blame it on the Rodent Again

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? December 6, 2015

Last night, this was the headline on Iowa’s The Gazette:

Discerning readers will be scratching their head and saying, “hey that’s not a beaver”. And they’d be right. It’s actually a ground hog! The paper posted a mislabeled photo by mistake. I wrote the author, Michael Castranova, last night and he immediately wrote back. This morning there is no photo, only a very interesting article about the pilgrims and the fur trade.

The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World, a New History,” explains that, “In the 1620s, a single beaver pelt fetched the same amount of money required to rent nine acres of English farmland for a year.”

So to Weston and the Fellowship, this seemed liked a reasonable business risk: Put up the cash for a number determined folk who were in a rush to flee the country — King James I referred to the Puritans as “pestes,” and the 30-Years War was about to chase them out of the Netherlands where these one-time farmers had taken up clothing-factory jobs — and then, oh boy, just wait for those spiffy beaver pelts to come flowing back.

But as with many a business venture, several calculations came undone. One of the two hired ships sprung more leaks than a rusty colander and had to turn back. And, in their dash to get going, they’d shipped out in September 1620 rather than wait until spring. That meant by the time they reached North America, two months later, planting season — and one assumes, beaver-catching season — was well and truly past.

And, even worse, they landed 200 miles off course. What they found upon arrival was not other colonists but “a whole country of woods and thickets.” Almost half the colonists died that first winter, and the Mayflower was sent back to England in 1621 with no financial benefit for the investors.

Now I knew Canada was settled by folk looking for beaver pelts, but I had NO IDEA America was. The price of a pelt was worth a year’s rent for 9 acres of farmland? Think about that, nearly a decade in a prime live-work space that will provide your home and your income. For one lousy beaver. Who knew? I think when I made this graphic years ago I was just kidding. Apparently it was almost true, or would have been true if they knew how to find them. Considering that in 1620 when they left there hadn’t been beaver in England for nearly 200 years. Nobody knew what they looked like. And nobody’s grandfather could tell them how to catch one.

Onto a great article from Louise Ramsay about the issue of farmers shooting beavers, this time in the ecologist.

Scotland’s wild beaver ‘shoot to kill’ policy is illegal and wrong

The Tay Beavers began when three of the animals escaped from a wildlife park in 2001. Nine years later, having bred and dispersed and been added to by subsequent escapes from enclosures in the same catchment, they came under threat of official elimination in the autumn of 2010.

A campaign to save them led to a SNH study that estimated their numbers at 106-187 (midpoint 147) in 2012 and mapped their spread across hundreds of square miles of the linked catchments of the Earn and Tay, from Rannoch to Comrie, Blair Atholl, Forfar and Bridge of Earn.

The presence of beavers and the wetlands that they build also brings great improvements in biodiversity, and the mitigation of both flooding and drought by re-naturalisation of the waterways. Recent research by Dr Alan Law has shown how beaver dams reduce peak flow by an average of 18 hours. A fact he tweeted in reaction to a farmer who falsely accused the beavers of having made the flooding worse.

In California, beavers are also credited with restoring rivers, wetlands and watersheds, creating conditions for the return of Coho salmon and increases in their populations.

We are calling on SNH and the Scottish Government to immediately place a moratorium on the shooting of beavers as another breeding season approaches, and to afford the animals the legal protection they are due as soon as possible.

But above all the two bodies – and nature lovers everywhere – need to recognise that the return to Scotland of this wonderful keystone species is something to be enjoyed and celebrated.

Nicely done, Louise. There are grand videos on the article too, as well as a link to Maria Finn’s California beaver article, so go see for yourself. Probably more so than any woman on the planet I feel a deep kinship with Louise who’s mild-mannered life was completely transformed by some unsuspecting beavers. She’s done a valiant job trying to keep all the correct people talking to each other, and managing some pretty challenging personalities with a single goal. And now, after finally getting the reprieve from the government they worked so hard to achieve, she is dealing with farmers shooting the beavers she worked to save.

Battle on!

From hats to heroes

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? November 28, 2015

Looks like Frances Backhouse book has hit the Canadian market in time for the holidays and is making quite an impression. I hope she sells many, many copies! I’m imagining Christmas morning all around the hemisphere is filled with happy fathers, grandmas, CEOS and science teachers reading about beavers over their morning coffee.

(Mind you, it would be great if she had a few extra copies lying around left over to donate to the silent auction at the beaver festival.)

Review: Frances Backhouse’s Once They Were Hats is fascinating and smartly written

Backhouse plots an absorbing itinerary that takes the reader on a tour of beaver habitats, as well as stops at a fast and furious Toronto fur auction and a visit to Smithbilt Hats, the legendary Calgary maker of western headwear. Among Smithbilt’s creations is the “Gus,” worn by Robert Duvall’s character in the series Lonesome Dove. Today, you can buy a wool version of the Gus from the company’s website for $110, but the highly prized, incomparably durable, full beaver model will run you $1,000. Sounds steep until you consider the guarantee that, “Once you get one, you’ll never need another.”

Most importantly, Backhouse identifies the beaver as a “keystone species.” By that definition, the beaver is “central to how a particular ecological community functions.” As such, its “effect on other animals and plants is disproportionately large.” Looking forward, the beaver’s positive impact on hydrology and water conservation could lessen the impact of drought caused by climate change. While not presented as a panacea, a strong case is made for how a “détente” between Homo sapiens and Castor canadensis can work to the benefit of both.

Hot dam! Beavers — extremely weird, and essential to who we are

Once They Were Hats is deeply, enthrallingly, page-turningly fascinating. Backhouse plays two roles in Once They Were Hats: narrator and historian; in one chapter she may be investigating the evolution of the beaver species — visiting the Canadian Museum of Nature’s warehouse to look at some whittled, wooden evidence of prehistoric beaver-like animals — and in another she is describing through dialogue her visit with a Native elder, whose Deisheetaan clan held the beaver as a crest animal. It’s in this way that Once They Were Hats is both a reliable source of scientific information and an interesting anthropological text, drawing two parallel lines through Canadian history: one human, one beaver.

Biologists began to redefine the beaver’s ecological significance — which is as or more interesting than its historical one. Beavers, like few other species, dictate their environments: their tendency toward deforestation has informed the evolution of many plant species, and the dams they build affect waterways and irrigation. They literally transform the landscape: One wetland scientist late in Once They Were Hats tells Backhouse that the near-extinction of beavers “fundamentally changed the way watersheds operate.”

How exciting for a beaver book to be heralded in this way! Congratulations Frances, and I hope it continues to generate adulations. I’m always especially thrilled to see folks talking about beaver benefits in the press. I would of course assume that this meant great things for beavers if I were not SO old that I remember the reviews of Glynnis Hood’s book that pronounced beaver as an “eco-saviour” and how dizzying that glorious inevitability seemed at the time. I was naive enough to write about it as “the New Gold Standard” in 2011, because I was sure the world’s attitude toward beavers was going to finally change at any moment.

Not so much. I guess Canadians are happy to celebrate beaver at regular intervals – just so long as they can keep killing them.

Kudos also to our good friend Robin Ellison from Napa whose lovely photos from the Tulocay beaver pond graced not one but two months of 2016 RCD calendar! A fine kit and a very regal pond turtle. You realize of course, that once adorable beaver kits adorn the watershed calendar the birds and otters are going to have to fight for space. Expect more grand beaver photos next year. The calendar isn’t for sale, but if you make a donation I’m sure they’ll let you pick one up at the RCD office (1303 Jefferson St, Suite 500B, Napa).

Bonus points for putting the beaver on my birthday month.