Category: Beavers and salmon

“EVEN ONE DAM CAN REALLY AFFECT THE FISHING”

There is lots in this article I disagree with, but the line in the header is true. Just not in the way they mean it.

Beavers expanding north bring damming consequences for Inuit and wildlife

Eddie Kumarluk remembers a time when thousands of Arctic char swam in the Pamiullujusiup Lake near Umiujaq, Que. In the 1970s, there was a local who set up his nets in the winter, recalled Kumarluk, manager of the hunting, fishing and trapping association of the community in Quebec’s northern Nunavik region.

“He used to catch nothing but Arctic char,” said Kumarluk. “It’s one of our main foods that we like so much, and they have been in decline in recent years. We have hardly caught any.” What he described as a once plentiful area for fishers is no more. Newly arrived beavers are to blame.

The buck-toothed rodents have been expanding north over the past few decades — now found in parts of Nunavik, past the treeline. Experts say they are travelling out of survival instincts, but the move has a cost on wildlife and the traditional ways of life for Inuit.

So Artic char is a circumpolar fish salmonid that lives in the very very cold waters that other fish can’t tolerate. They are like steelhead in that they can be landlocked or navigate to sea and back again. Those darn beavers with their icky dams ruining things for Artic Char. The declining numbers MUST be because of the spread of beavers north right? I mean it’s not like there are regular populations of Char in the lower parts of Alaska or down in Canada right?

Locals began noticing the encroaching animals as early as the 1970s and ’80s, says Kumarluk.

Ten to 15 years ago, they started finding beaver dams built along the lakes. From there, they realized the extent of the damage caused by the semiaquatic animals — and the need to study their impact on the northern environment.

Kumarluk says it’s the “architecture” of the dam — built as a shelter for young beavers — that poses a problem to Arctic char specifically.

“They’re not as strong as salmon. Salmon can jump over a beaver dam … but Arctic [char] are weaker,” said Kumarluk, adding that the beavers’ presence has become a concern for the community.

“We don’t know how many rivers they have blocked or dammed and we have so much work ahead of us,” said Kumarluk. “We’re doing what we can.”

Part of the effort has been on securing funding to dismantle the dams to restore proper water flow to the lakes.

The mind literally reels. The jaw literally drops. First of all. BEAVERS DON’T LIVE IN THE DAM. Second of all just because two things appear to happen at the same time doesn’t mean that one caused the other. And third of all just because you have native ancestry doesn’t mean you are the repository of all tribal knowledge. I have tin mining ancestry going back many generations, for example, it doesn’t I have the faintest idea where you should dig for anything.

You had the same luck we all did. You and your father grew up in a world without beavers. Because every man and his cousin already trapped them out. Now that luck is changing. And if you were a little better informed you’d realize that’s a GOOD THING.

Some communities, such as Umiujaq, are particularly at risk to be impacted by beaver expansion because of the geography, says Mikhaela Neelin, director of the Nunavik Hunting Fishing Trapping Association.

Umiujaq is one of the communities located just north of the treeline — the edge of the habitat where trees are capable of growing.

“In the tundra and a lot of regions, they’re seeing beavers appear there for the first time,” said Neelin, adding that the consequences are a mixed bag.

Mixed bag? You mean like the increased invertebrates resulting for beaver dams actually feeding MORE fish and I suppose maybe some competition for the char? And more things for wildlife to eat?

“It’s not black and white … beavers are often pretty beneficial. They do a lot,” said Neelin. However, she notes the negative consequences are more severe in the North.

“They migrate into the lake and even one big dam could really affect a fishing area,” said Neelin.

Beavers might also affect the quality of the water, says Neelin. As water systems and rivers get dammed, there is concern over whether water from the lake or river could still be consumed without treatment.

You know. With all that Beaver FEVER. Because we never ever had even single cases of Giardia before beavers moved in. Dam them. And sure I’ve hear they do SOME good things some places. But not here. Because we’re artic.

Part of the problem has to do with what Neelin calls the “shrubification” of Nunavik — with more willows and small branches growing in the region because of a warming environment.

“Willows for example, they would be at ankle height. Some of them are now at human height and with that amount of deciduous material beavers are able to survive in areas that they couldn’t before,” said Neelin.

“Climate change is really increasing the height.… So that’s a huge impact on beavers moving northwards.”

Those dam beavers. Always going where they aren’t wanted. Just so we remember the Yellowknife conference where this beaver group came together, YK is the community where a trapper reported a few years back “that beavers were so aggressive they spring on their tails like pogo sticks”

That’s the kind of image that stays with you. So I’m sure they know just what they’re talking about.

“The Inuit, we hardly work on [beavers],” Kumarluk says. “We don’t bother them.”

Kumarluk and Neelin represented Nunavik at a conference on the beaver’s Arctic expansion in Yellowknife last month.

Kumarluk says they recently bought a drone to survey the area and are trying to get a Cree elder to come to Umiujaq to teach the community how to control its growing beaver population.

“We really wish to teach the youngsters, the young people, even elders, how to trap beavers so that maybe we can control at least part of it,” said Kumarluk.

“Hopefully we will be able to get more funding.”

Hopefully we get More funding to teach more youngsters to kill MORE beavers. But when the char population continues to decline because the water gets warmer from climate change or they get eaten by new trout that move into the area we will just say it’s because we didn’t kill ENOUGH beavers soon enough.

Our minds are made up you know. Don’t tell us that beavers are good for salmonids. We know we’re right about this.

And beavers raise their young in the dam. No matter what you say.

FEATHERED PREDATORS EAT SCALED PREDATORS BECAUSE OF VEGETARIANS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beavers and salmon December 9, 2022

So yesterday’s presentation was less than ideal. Michael called in sick with the flu and Heidi had to present all by herself to a bunch of hard core fishies who weren’t all that happy about beavers. There were one or two positive converts in the audience. The rest asked questions like “Don’t beaver dams in urban settings cause more fish predation” and “Don’t they make erosion worse?” and “How can juvenile steelhead get out of those ponds the beavers trap them in“.

I make an effort to share photos like this in my talks because I think it shows that both bird and fish species are augmented by beavers. They saw them and thought it showed the long line of feathered predators waiting along a beaver dam to pick off all those heroically trapped fish.

That’s it. A long line of feathered predators waiting to ruin the lives of those scaled predators because of those dam vegetarians.

I confess to being a little dumbfounded. I’m used to questions about flooding and salmon passage and population explosions. I never ran into a crowd of people who thought there were too dam many birds and otters.

I bet Chelsie would have handled it better. That’s the thing about having a very deep beaver bench. Stupid doesn’t get to stand around very long before it is contradicted by intelligence.

Beavers and salmon can thrive when they share a creek

In response to B. Fleming’s letter recently published in the Sun: Beavers are a friend to salmon, not a foe.

Prior to colonization, beavers and salmon coexisted for hundreds of years. Before beavers were trapped near extinction, they covered North America with salmon habitat. Salmon are adept at going over, under, around and through dams; I witnessed a handful of chum take down a beaver dam on Barker Creek via blunt force in a matter of hours a few years back.

Beavers are amazing for salmon! This was the focus of my master’s degree so I can (and did) write at length about it, but a few of the main benefits of beavers in a salmon-bearing stream include reduced stream velocity, reduced pollution and turbidity, improved stream flow during dry periods, and increased salmon habitat. Slower streams are easier for salmon to navigate, especially during heavy rain events, and reduce the potential for redds (egg nests) to wash out. Slow moving water is clearer because sediment and pollutants sink to the bottom, which is so important for our sensitive coho friends. Beaver dams create places for juveniles to hide and spawners to rest with their ponds, which also help maintain a steady flow downstream during periods of scant precipitation. There is also evidence that beaver dams contribute to cooler water temperatures (salmon thrive in brisk, low 40s temps), plus cold water holds more dissolved oxygen.

Final note: Tampering with beaver dams is illegal in Washington without a hydraulic permit from the Department of Fish & Wildlife.

Chelsie Webb, Central Kitsap

NORTH CAROLINA: 1 WASHINGTON STATE: 0

heidi08 Beavers and salmon, Urban beavers December 7, 2022

So tomorrow I’m presenting to the Alameda Creek Fisheries Group and hoping that everything works according to plan and a squirrel doesn’t decide to chew my internet cable again. This dropped last night and it’s very good, especially considering it’s from North Carolina. But you just have to ignore the thumbnail image of a Nutria which is sooooo obviously not a beaver you can even see its tail!!!!

But I shouldn’t be too regionalist in my appraisal of beaver IQ because this letter to the editor was just published in WASHINGTON which should remind us all that it ain’t over til it’s over.

Wasted money on salmon runs unless beavers are addressed

The Dickerson Creek salmon run (usually last 2 weeks of October or first 2 weeks of November) did not happen this year. The salmon were blocked under the Taylor Road bridge by a beaver dam. The entire Dickerson Creek watershed, one of the most productive salmon runs in Kitsap County, is sterile due to this beaver dam. Chico Creek almost shared the same fate. Persons unknown removed the dam on the golf course, allowing a run to proceed. Otherwise, the Chico Creek watershed in its entirety would also be sterile.

Beavers are not threatened or endangered in this state. Salmon are. Beaver may be taken alive in an appropriate trap and relocated. Also, any licensed trapper may take this animal for fur and meat.

Tens of millions of dollars have been spent salvaging the Chico watershed. The work on Highway 3 is an ongoing example. A beaver dam on the golf course would stop all salmon migration, possibly into the “salmon park” also. I am told by the conservation district that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife refused to do anything about the beaver problem.

So hey, don’t come crying to me about Wisconsin or Minnesota blowing up beaver dams. People in the smartest fricken state in the entire NATION about beavers and why they matter – with the likes of NOAA fisheries and the PSMFC can still be dirt stupid about beavers and salmon. Even though they should know better. Thanks Bernie for setting us straight.

So, instead of a salmon enhancement in the Chico watershed to help several thousand salmon, we seem to have a beaver enhancement saving maybe a half dozen beavers, costing taxpayers many tens of millions of dollars.

Go figure.

Bernie JMW Fleming, Bremerton

THE NAVY IS MOVING THIS PROBLEM BUT FIXING THE NEXT ONE

heidi08 Beavers and salmon November 21, 2022

Sometimes I read an article and can’t decide how I feel about it. Inspired? Deflated? Confused? This is one of those because of all the things the navy has ever done with beaver population this has to be among the nicest. But it leaves me very, very frustrated.

For beavers, tall dams don’t always make good neighbors

Naval Station Everett and the Tulalip Tribes teamed up to remove a family of beavers. Now, they’re restoring salmon habitat.

It wasn’t difficult for Alicia Higgs, the station’s natural resources manager, to determine the cause. A family of beavers had set up camp in the drainage between the two lakes and gotten as busy as, well, beavers in building a dam to call home.

She reached out to the Tulalip Tribes. Since 2014, the Tulalip Beaver Project has relocated “nuisance” beavers to strategically chosen spots in the upper Snohomish watershed. Dylan Collins, assistant wildlife biologist for the Tribes, said the transplanted beavers can then serve an important purpose: restoring critical salmon habitat.

When beavers start building in spots where water flow is low due to drought or human impediments, Collins said, the dams that caused problems in the beavers’ former homes help to create the clear, cold streams needed for salmon to thrive. A 2019 study showed each beaver relocated by the Tulalip project created about 2,600 square feet of surface water storage.

“It really comes down to the system that we are living in,” Collins said. “Salmon and beavers have coexisted for thousands of years, and dams in those natural systems rarely impede salmon migration, but that isn’t always the case in human-created systems.”

Hmm okay. Well. First of all BEAVERS DON’T LIVE IN THE DAM. Excuse me for that. I feel better. Just had to get that off my chest before I could even read your interesting proposal that Human infrastructure + beaver infrastructure = bad salmon populations.

I guess it’s impractical to move the humans.

Collins said the majority of removals performed by the project are in urban or suburban areas where beavers have set up shop in ditches or streams. These steep-sided, shallow waterways aren’t like the rivers where the critters might normally build a dam. Collins said dams here can be up to 7 feet tall and have almost no water passing under them, creating an “unnatural” blockage for fish and, often, flooding in their human neighbors’ yards and homes.

This wasn’t the case for the dams causing trouble at Twin Lakes — the beavers had just picked a rather inconvenient spot. Regardless, the Navy needed to send them packing.

Do you ever run into someone who tells you how bad things can get and warns you not to do X or Y or leave your trash cans in the street or whatever because the REALLY BAD THING will happen and then says quietly, well sure it didn’t happen THIS TIME but that’s just because you were lucky!!!

So urban beaver dams can reach seven feet high and ruin things for salmon, but not here. This time they’re just bothering the navy. And that isn’t allowed, ma’am.

This was the shocker though.

But just because one beaver family is out of the picture doesn’t mean another can’t move in and take their place, Higgs said.

The naval station is now working with Beavers Northwest, a Western Washington-based conservation group, to make sure future dams don’t wreak the same havoc. They’ll install devices, aptly known as “beaver deceivers,” to allow water to flow through a dam without its builders ever noticing the difference.

Collins said the Tulalip Beaver Project encourages anyone dealing with pesky beaver neighbors to reach out to the project. The team doesn’t charge for their services, and chances are the dispute can be resolved to everyone’s liking.

So you’re taking this family away and dismantling the dam. But then hiring beavers northwest to put in a deceiver? How on EARTH can you install a flow device BEFORE you know where the beavers are going to build their dam? And why on earth would you want too? If you wanted to fix the problem and keep future beavers away you should have called beavers northwest and did it THIS TIME.

I am so confused.

SHH, MOLLY ALVES IS TALKING

heidi08 Beavers and salmon September 23, 2022

Molly Alves is a Wildlife Biologist for the Tulalip Tribes of Washington, where she has worked for over eight years to protect and restore treaty-reserved subsistence resources. Unfortunately for her other job responsibilities, she dedicates most of her time and passion to salmon recovery via beaver relocation as manager of The Tulalip Beaver Project. Beginning this August, she will build on this work as a Masters student at Utah State University, where she will be studying the global policies and practices surrounding beaver relocation and management.