Category: Beavers and salmon

GOOFUS AND GALLANT: BEAVER VERSION

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and salmon, Festival August 16, 2019

You know how it is. Two steps forward, one step back. You know it as well as I do. Beaver progress is as closely woven with beaver failure that the seam between them isn’t visible anymore. Both just happen together.

So it occurs that National Geographic launches an issue with beaver benefits to salmon at the same time the Anne of Green Gables releases this pressing concern.

Beaver dam, debris cluttering up endangered salmon habitat in Cornwall, P.E.I.

“Most of our work has to do with rehabilitating salmon habitat in Watts Creek. Watts Creek is a very well-known salmon river,” said Karalee McAskill, co-ordinator for the watershed.

“Beavers tend to dam up the flow of the river and, as a consequence from that, any sediment that’s coming down from up above settles out into these large beaver pond impoundments,” she said.

“Sometimes it’s six- to seven-feet deep of silt and sediment and mud, it’s almost like quicksand if you’re stepping in it.”

Oh those darn beavers, trapping sediment and maintaining a tireless dam. I just hate when they do that. And boy does NOAA fisheries hate it too.

It there’s one thing that juvenile salmon don’t need its all those annoying deep pools rich with food where they can fatten before heading off to sea. They hate that.

Salmon can thrive in other provinces with deeper rivers and streams, she said, as they can leap up waterfalls and rapids.

But some of P.E.I.’s gentle, relatively shallow waters do not offer salmon the depth or swift currents they need to push past dams built by beavers. As a result, endangered Atlantic salmon will not spawn or they’ll find another area altogether, which is concerning for the watershed.

Our special water is too special for salmon to use if there are nasty beaver present. Where have I heard that before?

Beavers can drag their bellies and create “beautiful, magnificent channels that salmon love to cruise through.” Fish and other wildlife behind dams can also thrive because there’s more food.

“So the beavers are actually great in one sense, but the dam is the issue,” she said. “We can’t relocate that beaver because then it will become someone else’s problem.”

Drag their bellies? Drag their bellies? You think we construct all these complex channels by “dragging our bellies?”

Shorter Karalee McAskil: I mean I’d love to have the benefits of beavers, but you know. Those rotten dams. They just mess everything up for those fish that we mostly don’t actually have anymore. So screw the woodducks and the otters, because we just can’t have our imaginary fish jumping over rotten dams, Right?

Oh adorable, misinformed and neglected P.E.I. You are so plucky in your persistence to be wrong. It’s almost admirable. Don’t worry, information is trickling very slowly, we can tell. It won’t come as one big shock, You used to complain that beavers weren’t even native, and that they ruined habitat for everything. Now you’ve advanced three whole baby steps and say they CAN be good in some places, just not on the special unique water you have on the magic Anne island.

Sure, I guess, whatever.

Now let’s hurry up and get to the steps forward part. Guess what?

Come September ANOTHER beaver ~~festival~~ celebration kicks into gear. Seems our friends at the Methow project can’t wait to follow in our webbed footsteps.

Beaver celebration to be held Sept. 14

The Methow Beaver Project will hold its first Beaver Celebration on Sept. 14 and 15, 5-9:30 p.m. Come join in the fun at this free event, starting with a social in Mack Lloyd Park at 5 p.m. on Saturday the 14th. Mingle and share in the excitement around beaver ecology and restoration while sipping on Special Edition OSB Tail Slapper Ale or Sixknot Sawtooth Cider, available for purchase, and sampling “small bites” from Sunflower Catering.

At 6:30 p.m., the celebration will move into the Winthrop Barn for presentations by Ben Goldfarb, author of Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, and Sarah Koenigsberg, who will screen her feature film The Beaver Believers. Beaver restoration site tours will be offered on Sunday morning, the 15th, sign up at Saturday’s event and choose an easy, moderate, or more strenuous option.

Well, well, well. They’re offering beaver tours, a Ben presentation and A Film screening! Remember its Washington so I imagining it won’t be hard to get folks to come and enjoy your efforts. Maybe something for the kids to do while all those grownups are drinking and listening? And I might suggest some live music and a raffle?

We wish you every success!

BEAVER BENEFITS IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

heidi08 Beavers and salmon, saltwater August 14, 2019

Just when you were feeling like summer had gotten to that sleepy, not-much-happening stage, we find a glut of beaver news. Yesterday four prime articles dropped and they all deserve our attention but I’ll start at the top and let the others trickle out later. There are beavers again in National Geographic. Sadly not written by Ben Goldfarb, but quoting him. Does that count?

Beavers on the coast are helping salmon bounce back. Here’s how.

This tidally salty wetland might seem a strange place to search for beaver, which are known to settle in freshwater ponds, lakes, rivers, and wetlands throughout North America, but that’s what I had come for. The beavers’ presence is remarkable not just because they’re only typically found inland, but also because their ecosystem engineering is the suspected key to the remarkable Chinook salmon recovery that’s going on here.

These dam-created pools are one of numerous, well-documented ways beavers create advantages for fish. They provide havens during times of drought. They also create slower-water habitats that host many more insect larvae—which feed fish—than fast-moving channels. Beaver lodges offer physical refuge for young fish navigating the predator-rich waters.

Oh this is fun. Having the full force of NGO and its team of graphics specialists turned for the moment like a bright spotlight on the subject of beavers. Promise me you’ll go read the whole thing later, okay?

Got that? Before beaver very few salmon. After beaver very many more salmon. Are you even listening wildlife services?

In near-shore areas, where tides impact the lives of all animals daily or seasonally, low-tide pool habitats created by beaver dams allow juvenile fish to seek refuge from predation, says Greg Hood, a senior research scientist at Washington’s Skagit River System Cooperative, who has researched beavers there. “The pools beavers make are too shallow for diving predators like mergansers and kingfishers and bigger fish. But the pools are too deep for waders like great blue herons, and there’s too much shrub around the margins, so birds with big wings can’t get in there.”

In his research, Hood found that pools created by beaver dams in the tidal marshland channels tripled juvenile Chinook salmon habitat compared to similar marshlands without beavers.

I have a question. How do fish know to avoid predation from birds? What is their thought process? “A big beak comes when the waters deep sometimes and eats my friends so lets go somewhere shallow?” Do fish even know whether water is shallow or deep?

Despite this evidence, there has been resistance to beaver dams in salmon streams, the concern being that they might impede the salmon’s ability to swim upriver—after all, the reason human-made dams have been removed is to help salmon. “Beaver dams are nothing like human-built dams though—they are lower, semi-permeable, and due to their porous construction, fish can go over or around them,” says Ben Goldfarb, author of Eager: The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, who points out that beavers and salmon co-evolved in the same ecosystems.

HOORAY! A fine Ben-sert! Nicely done sir. And people who think beavers block salmon don’t do their homework. Everyone knows that.

Beavers have probably continuously lived in environments that are difficult for people to access, says Hood. Beavers in out-of-the-way places were protected from humans and other predators, so they were likely unknown—or forgotten. Hood blames “ecological amnesia” for some of our assumptions about where beavers are “supposed” to live. He found just as many beavers living in the tidal shrub marshlands at the mouth the Skagit River than in other non-tidal rivers.

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Back at the mouth of the Elwha, Shaffer shows me how the beavers here are trying different channel locations and building techniques for their dams, looking for just the right placement in this particular ecosystem. It’s this kind of adaptive flexibility to local environments that led to beaver’s widespread success in North America in the past—and is key to its survival in the future. Because beavers’ building naturally expands entire ecosystems, their triumphs are a boon for other animals too, including those in need of all the help they can get—like Chinook salmon.

Ooh lala. Beavers are adaptive ecological swiss army knives that get the job done. I love this article! And that video. Isn’t it amazing? NG doesn’t allow it to be embedded so I tried a workaround with a new tool. If a team of attorneys come lock me up and throw away the key just remember I tried to spread the beaver gospel.

Now go read the whole thing, and make sure it’s open in all the waiting room coffee tables later this month.

SAVING SOME BEAVERS SOME OF THE TIME

heidi08 Beavers and salmon July 31, 2019

The good news involves one branch of government telling another that beavers are good for fish and other things, and a whole wing admitting this might well be true. We’re pretty happy about the Center for Biological Diversity’s outcome. Except for a few parts that aren’t that happy.

Legal Action Forces Trump Administration to Curb Killing of California Beavers

SACRAMENTO— The federal wildlife-killing program known as Wildlife Services has agreed to stop shooting and trapping California beavers on more than 11,000 miles of river and 4 million acres of land where the killing could hurt endangered wildlife.

Native salmon, southwestern willow flycatchers and other highly imperiled animals use habitats created by beavers.The agreement came yesterday in response to a threat of litigation from the Center for Biological Diversity.

Wildlife Services, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, also agreed to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to analyze the impacts of killing beavers on threatened and endangered species.

Ho Ho Ho…no more USDA trapping of beavers in California in most places. Which places? The Eleven Hundred Rivers and Protected areas that they have agreed to seek advice from the Marine Fisheries Commission.

I just read through their list of exceptions and am less excited than I once was. But still its a step in the right direction.

In accordance with Section 7(d), pending the completion of the consultation and out of abundance of caution, WS-California has ceased the following aquatic mammal damage management activities that have potential to affect water abundance or habitat character at fish rearing sites within ESA listed salmonid habitat (i.e., designated critical habitat or other habitat occupied by the above-listed salmonids, sturgeon, and eulachon):

1. Lethal beaver damage management in natural rivers and streams, except as noted below in subparagraphs (e), (f), (g), and (i);

- E) THE LEVEE EXCEPTION: Aquatic mammal damage management, including lethal removal, in response to public safety incidents declared by a regulatory or enforcement agency. In situations where human health and safety is at risk, such as levee burrowing, road flooding, or animal aggression
- F) THE PLANTING TREE EXCEPTION: Beaver damage management, including the lethal removal of beaver, for the protection of T&E species and at conservation and habitat restoration sites at the request of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), CDFW, or other land manager.
- G) THE NO DAM NO MA”AM EXCEPTION: Beaver damage management, including the lethal removal of beaver, in locations where beavers cannot build dams, either due to topography or recurring removal of debris by another entity (i.e., lakes, rivers too wide to be dammed, and leveed rivers or channels managed for continuous water flow by resource managers/owners).
- I) THE FISH PASSAGE EXCEPTION: Beaver damage management, including the lethal removal of beaver, at locations where beavers have blocked culverts, water control boxes, or other transportation crossings, to the extent that fish passage is prevented.

Hmm. So basically APHIS will still be killing beavers in the Delta, where the water is too wide to build dams and an where folks are planting trees to help restore habitat. All those big beaver killing reserves up stream are still open for business. And if a beaver blocks a culvert it better leave space for a salmon to get through or its curtains.

Because if we have to save beavers to save salmon we’re not saving any that are hurting salmon. And we’re not doing the math here. Never mind that even a beaver that doesn’t build a dam might produce offspring that does and ultimately helps salmon, and never mind that a beaver that doesn’t build a dam might dig channels or holes that affect the invertebrate population enough that salmon get more to eat.

We Wildlife Services and we have SPOKEN.

Based on the analysis above, it is my determination that that WS-California’s continued aquatic mammal damage management activities do not make an irreversible or irretrievable commitment of resources that would have the effect of foreclosing the formulation and implementation of any reasonable and prudent alternative measures for the listed salmonids, sturgeon, or eulachon, or their critical habitats

So basically we’re going to continue what we do in lots of places until Michael GODDAMN Pollock himself tells us to stop. Have a nice day,

Which I suppose is better than nothing.

Wildlife Services Memo signed - FINAL

Of the list of exceptions I’m mostly concerned about F Because everyone could say they’re planting trees to restore the creek, the city of Martinez could say it, and has, and there is zero requirement that says you need to try protecting trees before you kill beavers.

And as we know from years of depredation analysis, F is the most common reason for beavers to be killed in the first place.

I’m not sure we should break out the bubbly just yet, but baby steps. For Babies.

Here’s something to sooth our spirits as we see a kit get some early education in log handling from an adult in downtown Napa

On-the-job-training by Rusty Cohn

LATE BREAKING – WS TO STOP TRAPPING BEAVER IN ‘CRITICAL HABITAT’

heidi08 Beavers and salmon July 30, 2019

The Center for Biological Diversity is reporting success at their campaign to save beaver in critical salmon and steelhead habitat. We will report more on this tomorrow but here is the gist right now:

LEGAL ACTION FORCES WILDLIFE SERVICES TO STOP KILLING BEAVERS

Native salmon, southwestern willow flycatchers and other highly imperiled animals use habitats created by beavers.

The agreement came yesterday in response to a threat of litigation from the Center for Biological Diversity.

Native salmon, southwestern willow flycatchers and other highly imperiled animals use habitats created by beavers.

The agreement came yesterday in response to a threat of litigation from the Center for Biological Diversity.

Here’s a map outlining “Critical Habitat” which, by the way, includes Martinez.

CALIFORNIA SCHEMING

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beavers and salmon June 7, 2019

There has been an interesting response to this second punch from the Center for Biological Diversity threat to sue Wildlife Services over trapping beaver in Salmon habitat. It trails a similar suit from EPIC and the Western Environmental Law association by almost 6 months, but its making the right kind of waves at the moment.

Environmental group threatens to sue over beaver killings in California

Noting that nearly 7,000 beaver were killed in California from 2010 to 2017, the Center for Biological Diversity has asked the department to consult with other federal agencies about how beaver killing affects endangered species.

The center sent a letter to the agriculture department telling the agency it plans to sue if it doesn’t consult with other federal agencies.

When beavers build dams and create ponds, the rodents create rearing habitat for young salmon that in some cases are endangered species, said Collette L. Adkins, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.

Okay, we knew that much. So what’s new?

Tanya Espinosa, a department of agriculture spokeswoman, said her agency already consults with federal agencies before killing beavers.

If that sentence is true I will eat a bug. What does “consult with agencies” even mean?” What agency? How do you consult? With whom? Is there any record of this alleged consultation? Do you send an email to Bob in Fish and Wildlife?

Adkins acknowledged Wildlife Services has begun consulting with other federal, but she said they had not yet completed a biological assessment of the effect beaver killing has on endangered species.

Elsewhere, the counties that had the highest number of beaver killings were Sacramento, Placer and Yolo. The three counties combined had 3,092, the center’s table of figures shows.

Now THIS I believe.

The Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted last year to terminate a contract with Wildlife Services after it received a letter from Animal Legal Defense Fund in Cotati objecting to the agency killing the animals without first doing an environmental study into the effects of its work.

Wow. This is news to me. Is it news to you? Of course this is the argument Mitch Wagner used in his lawsuit about trapping beavers in Lake Skinner lo these many moons ago, but it never really “caught on” so to speak. How did I miss this news? Oh right, the day before the festival last year that’s how. I looked up the case and found this:

On June 29, the Animal Legal Defense Fund sent a letter to Siskiyou County Agriculture Commission Jim Smith and the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors, which states, “Under [the California Environmental Quality Act], Siskiyou County has a duty to review the impacts of activities that affect California’s environment, including wildlife. Through repeated renewal of its contract with Wildlife Services without adequate environmental analysis, the County has failed to follow the legal procedure mandated by CEQA.”

WS also alleges on its web page that it “conducts environmental review processes to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act.”

So basically ADL scared the county board of supervisors enough that they dropped their WS contract rather than risk being involved in a lawsuit. Okay. Of course the article doesn’t mention that they still continued to kill beavers – just by not using APHIS. But I guess its a kind of chipping away at the problem I guess. You have to start somewhere.

A “First they came for Wildlife Services” kinda thing.

Shhh this is my favorite part.

A California Department of Fish and Wildlife website says people can take steps to protect trees and reduce flooding from beavers.

Fencing material can be placed around individual trees or groups of trees can be fenced off to keep out beavers, the state said.

There also are devices that can be placed in beaver dams that allow some water to pass through dams and reduce the amount of flooding, Adkins said.

While some want beavers removed in some areas, a group of federal biologists recently re-introduced beavers to Sugar Creek in Siskiyou County’s Scott Valley.

The project, which included building a beaver dam, was completed by officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries officials. Officials said bringing beavers back to the stream would improve habitat for coho salmon and other fish.

You see? When the beaver revolution finally comes to California it will begin in the North, because Scotts Valley is just about the smartest beaver region we have to offer. Hmm but even with that I not believe beavers were introduced though. I think the reporter misread the article about building BDA’s to encourage beavers to introduce themselves. Unless there’s some tribal land we aren’t hearing about, moving beavers is still illegal in the golden state. Here’s what fish and wildlife wrote about the project they undertook last month.

‘We became beavers’

Partnering with the Scott River Watershed Council, the Service designed a project to simulate what beavers had not been around to do for decades. In essence, the biologists became the beavers by implementing an innovative technique called beaver dam analogs, developed by Michael Pollock, an ecosystems analyst with the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

Analogs are rows of wood posts pounded upright across a creek with willow branches woven between them to simulate a natural beaver dam. These analogs are low cost because heavy equipment use is minimal and they are ecologically beneficial since the design allows for beavers to improve on or abandon them over time as they would a dam of their own design.

A series of analogs were constructed at the Sugar Creek location, since beavers had once occupied the area. Remarkably, in the fall of 2018, as if answering an advertisement in beaver realty world, a family of beavers moved in and started expanding the analog.

If you build it, they will come: A little over a year after the Sugar Creek analogs were completed, a beaver family moved in and began improving on the structures. Credit: Charnna Gilmore/Scott River Watershed Council