Category: Beavers and soil

IOWA STATE OFFERS BEAVER WEBINAR

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and Nitrogen removal, Beavers and soil January 24, 2023

This was a surprise. I have grown accustomed to a certain kind of beaver hydrology lecture, from earnest professors like Dr. Fairfax or charming wisdom fonts like Kent Woordruff or Brock Dolman or even classic new england types like Skip Lisle or Leila Philip. I never heard the beaver gospel delivered from anyone quite like Andrew Rupiper and his stalwart professor Dr. Billy Beck of Iowa State.

Something about the unaffectionate pragmatism works though.

Can Beavers Be Water Quality Superheroes?

AMES, Iowa – Iowa Learning Farms, in partnership with the Iowa Nutrient Research Center and Conservation Learning Group, is hosting a free virtual field day on Feb. 9 at 1 p.m. Central time. Join for a live discussion with Billy Beck, assistant professor and extension forestry specialist at Iowa State University and Andrew Rupiper, graduate research assistant in natural resources ecology and management at Iowa State University.

The event will explore a unique research project, located at the Ann Smeltzer Trust Iowa Learning Farm in Webster County, looking at a free in-stream conservation practice tying together water quality, wood and wildlife.

Funded by the Iowa Nutrient Research Center, the team is working to quantify hydrologic impacts of beaver dams in the stream system and their effect on nutrients and sediment to determine the influence, positive or negative, these ecosystem engineers have within their watershed.

Iowa isn’t exactly a place I would go to meet ecologists who care about beavers. But it’s a state that cares a lot about its SOIL and of course that means you’re very interested in the things that improve it and the things that wash it away. Turns out this is a natural precondition for being interested in beavers.

“Many of the stream channels in Iowa aren’t able to assist with nutrient and sediment reductions and may be sources instead due to the straightening of streams, removal of riparian vegetation, removed in-channel wood and added artificial drainage to the landscape,” noted Beck. “While contentious, beaver dams are a free in-stream conservation practice that could help improve water quality and reduce nutrient and sediment loads within the watershed.”

Webinar access instructions

To participate in the live webinar, shortly before 1 p.m. Central time Feb. 9:

To access online, click this URL, or visit https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/events-1.
To join from a dial-in phone line, dial +1 312 626 6799 or +1 646 876 9923; meeting ID 945 3331 7620.

The field day will be recorded and archived on the ILF website so that it can be watched at any time.

Participants may be eligible for a Certified Crop Adviser board-approved continuing education unit. Information about how to apply to receive the CEU (if approved) will be provided at the end of the event.

So Iowa State is having a webinar about beavers. Let that sink in. Roll it around in your mouth for a moment. First New Mexico. Then California. Then Colorado. Then Iowa. It’s not impossible to think that every state will come around eventually. If you can’t wait until February, watch this video with Andrew now. He says all the things we already know but in a completely different way for a very different audience.

And he does it really well.

More ‘Wild kingdom‘ than ‘Lily Pond’. More about soil than beavers. More about ecosystem services than engineers. More fact than furry.

It’s the right message to the right audience and I love it.

AMERICA THE BEAVER-FUL

heidi08 Beavers and groundwater, Beavers and Nitrogen removal, Beavers and soil, Beavers and water November 3, 2020

What, me worry?

When beavers are on NPR? Not bloody likely. In addition to being most excellent reporting and great news for beavers, this also happens to provide me with the perfect audio to make into a powtoon later today which is an ideal low-stress way to spend nerve-racking election day. Thank you Dr. Brazier!

Beavers bring rich biodiversity back to Devon, England

Come to think of it. America is pretty darn lucky England killed all their beavers 500 years ago. Hear me out. I mean in addition to the shortage driving people to look for them elsewhere and paying for the pilgrims to come to America and basically starting our whole country, the fact that they want them back NOW and are doing such excellent research to justify their existence works well for us in America.

So, thanks England.

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Yesterday’s NM Summit was beyond awesome. Any day when you get to listen to Joe Wheaton AND Jeff Ogburn in the same place you should literally jump at the chance. Jeff is the North Eastern Habitat Biologist for NM Game an Fish so of course he’s very interested beaver. He also has that enviable, pragmatic, energetic style that says ‘lets solve problems and work together and I’m not trying to sell you beavers’ which is SO SO SO helpful and needed on the landscape. (Something I will never be able to do because I am literally always trying to sell beavers, obviously.)

The entire presentation will be available online later an you can bet I’ll be sharing it. Much of Joe’s work is available already in his guidebook online, but wow here’s just a little. Remember he is from the Bay Area, went to high school in Napa where his mother still lives AND his sister came to the beaver festival twice.

By which I mean to say obviously he’s brilliant.Beavers are SO LUCKY to have Joe an all these amazing defenders on their side. Mary Obrien will bring it all home tomorrow, and hopefully by then we will know much more than we do now.

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Now here’s one last gift to get you through today. It has already made the humans in this household cry hopeful tears several times today which is not something I ever believer Taylor Swift could do.

You’re welcome.

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BEAVERS ARE MOVERS AND SHAKERS

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and soil, Beavers and water October 3, 2019

Are beavers good for streams? Dam straight they are. Very, very good. Don’t take my word for it. Check out this excellent new paper from the Methow Project.

Reintroduced Beavers Rapidly Influence the Storage and Biogeochemistry of Sediments in Headwater Streams (Methow River, Washington)

Rita K. McCreesh , Kena Fox-Dobbs , Peter Wimberger , Kent Woodruff , Gordon Holtgrieve , Thomas K. Pool

Abstract

North American beavers (Castor canadensis) were targeted within North American headwater landscapes by European loggers and fur traders in the 19th century, reducing beaver populations to near extinction by 1900. The extirpation of beavers from river networks has had profound effects on riparian zones, including channel geomorphology, temperature regimes, sediment storage, channel-floodplain connectivity, carbon storage and nutrient dynamics. i

Consequently, reintroducing beavers has been provisionally implemented as a restoration approach within some watersheds. We characterized how reintroduced beavers influence the short-term dynamics of organic material accumulation within the sediments of 1st and 2nd order streams within the Methow River watershed of Washington State. In collaboration with the Methow Beaver Project, we identified four creeks where they had reintroduced beavers within the past five years, as well as a control non-beaver pond. At each site, we collected shallow sediment cores from upstream, downstream, and within beaver ponds, and then measured organic material via elemental analyses of sediment carbon (%C) and nitrogen (%N) content. We compared those samples to sediments accumulated in local pond areas not created by beaver activity.

Our results show greater organic C and N content of sediments in beaver ponds than non-beaver ponds. C/N ratios indicate elevated accumulation of allochthonous organic material in beaver impoundment sediments that would otherwise not be integrated into headwater streams from the terrestrial landscape. These findings suggest that the reintroduction of beavers could be an effective means to promote restoration of whole ecosystem function.

Allochthonous means appearing other than where it originated, so material moved by the beaver and then by the stream the beaver influenced. Basically this article is saying that moving things around is one of the essential ecosystem services that beavers provide because these materials and nutrients are integrated into headwater streams in ways that couldn’t have happened without them.

I really really believe that.

BEAVER TREATS

heidi08 Beavers and soil, kits August 27, 2018

Hmm Ben shares our horror about the beaver destroying ponds story, and says that I’m not the only one who suggested a companion piece to his book but written for children is worth doing. Gosh, it’s too bad he doesn’t know a nice child psychologist who can help.

In the meantime the National Geographic beaver headline is making the rounds and I keep getting emails from people who are happy to see my name come up in the article, which is fun. And there are more beaver headlines just waiting to be explored.

Eager beavers could benefit British agriculture

“Beaver engineering at Combeshead, particularly the building of dams has transformed the environment, increasing water storage and creating diverse wetlands,” Dr. Alan Puttock of the University of Exeter told the Daily Mail. “Our research has shown that beaver activity can slow the flow of water following rain storms potentially providing a valuable component to future flood and land management strategies.”

The study found that the beaver dams prevent nutrients and soil from being carried downstream during by trapping sediment, benefiting soils both upstream and downstream.

A study released in May found that 70 percent of the sediment trapped by the dams had eroded from grassland fields farther upstream.

“We are heartened to discover that beaver dams can go a long way to mitigate this soil loss and also trap pollutants which lead to the degradation of our water bodies,” Dr. Richard Brazier, who led the study, said in a press release.

Me too! I am heartened by the good beavers can do and the good you have done in broadcasting it. Thank you!

Now a great dose of ‘heartening’ watch this video sent to me by the watchful eyes of Robin Ellison. Tell me honestly if that isn’t the sweetest thing you will see all week. I mean sitting in a tubby turtle pool is always wonderful, but this just takes all the cakes.

YOU DON’T SAY!

heidi08 Beavers and soil May 10, 2018

Well, knock me over with a feather and color me surprised! This comes as a complete shock.

Beavers do dam good work cleaning water, research reveals

Beavers could help clean up polluted rivers and stem the loss of valuable soils from farms, new research shows.

The study, undertaken by scientists at the University of Exeter using a captive beaver trial run by the Devon Wildlife Trust, has demonstrated the significant impact the animals have had on reducing the flow of tonnes of soil and nutrients from nearby fields into a local river system.

The research, led by hydrologist Professor Richard Brazier, found that the work of a single family of beavers had removed high levels of sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus from the water that flowed through their 2.5 hectare enclosure.

The family of beavers, which have lived in fenced site at a secret location in West Devon since 2011, have built 13 dams, slowing the flow of water and creating a series of deep ponds along the course of what was once a small stream.

Researchers measured the amount of sediment suspended, phosphorus and nitrogen in water running into the site and then compared this to water as it ran out of the site having passed through the beavers’ ponds and dams. They also measured the amount of sediment, phosphorus and nitrogen trapped by the dams in each of the ponds.

Their results showed the dams had trapped more than 100 tonnes of sediment, 70% of which was soil, which had eroded from ‘intensively managed grassland’ fields upstream. Further investigation revealed that this sediment contained high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, which are nutrients known to create problems for the wildlife in rivers and streams and which also need to be removed from human water supplies to meet drinking-quality standards.

Well isn’t that delightful! The research ran first in a Devon paper, and I’m sure everyone in the UK is on pins and needles hoping the farmers realize finally that beavers are good for them and stop trying to cut off their noses to spite their farming faces. You know, kind of like at the end of that movie where the old crabby sheriff decides that young debuty’s not so bad after all. And they shake hands and go out for a beer together.

Not to burst anyone’s bubble but we here at Beaver Central aren’t holding our breath, because we’ve had years and years to realize that opinions about beavers aren’t changed by good news. Even if God himself comes down from the mountain and says “Beavers are the second coming” folks will still fear and kill them.

It surpasseth all understanding and science.

Professor Brazier said: “It is of serious concern that we observe such high rates of soil loss from agricultural land, which are well in excess of soil formation rates. However, we are heartened to discover that beaver dams can go a long way to mitigate this soil loss and also trap pollutants which lead to the degradation of our water bodies. Were beaver dams to be commonplace in the landscape we would no doubt see these effects delivering multiple benefits across whole ecosystems, as they do elsewhere around the world.”

The research findings about beavers’ positive impact on soil erosion losses and pollution in water courses come at a time of growing concern about these issues. In 2009 a separate study estimated that the total cost of soil loss from the UK’s agricultural land was £45million, much of which was due to the impacts of sediment and nutrient pollution downstream.

Ahh as if logic anything to do with it! Sure they would reduce a 45million dollar problem, but hey, they’re beavers. And as rancher Alan Newport put it so well in his 2017 article of the same name.