Today is day of revealing salmon mysteries, which is handy because saving salmon is motivating for far more people than saving beavers, (present company excepted). We start with this fine article from the North Delta in British Columbia where a volunteer group spent the weekend making little dams for salmon, because ‘beavers can’t be allowed to do it anymore”.
The Cougar Creek Streamkeepers have spent a week doing construction down at Lower Cougar Creek to make it a better place for spawning salmon.
The streamkeepers have constructed five weirs, horizontal barriers across a waterway, along Lower Cougar Creek to increase depth of the pools behind the weirs and oxygenate the water passing over them.
“Back in the old days, it was the beavers who often made impoundments in the water,” streamkeeper Deborah Jones said. “But now we don’t have enough trees to allow beavers to just be cutting everything down.”
Yes it’s true. Mother beaver used to be allowed to do her job, but now the are so worried she will eat one of the few remaining trees we left after building that parking lot that the Streamkeepers have trapped her away and agreed to do the work for her. No word yet on whether they’ll also be putting out willow shoots for bird nesting, small pools for amphibian rearing, filtering the water for toxins and laying out feeding tables for waterfowl. Mother beaver really did a lot for nature, so the job replacing her is a big one.
There’s more about it on KTNA’s next installment of Glacial Rivers.
The seventh in a series from the Susitna Salmon Center. This segment by Jeff Davis deviates from the ecology theme to tell about the runs of the other four species of salmon in the Susitna River drainage. From tagging studies, Department of Fish and Game biologists have information about when the runs are, where most of the salmon spawn, how long they spend in freshwater habitats, and other details of the spawning season. Chinook salmon were covered in the previous episode.
So be kind to beavers fishermen or ELSE that salmon gets it, I think this means.
Speaking of kindness, I found this yesterday and thought it was the most truly adorable creation I had ever seen. It the brilliant work of Polish illustrator Emilia Dziubak for the children’s book “Hug me, please“. I believe it fully captures the oafish delight I feel upon having our beavers finally returned, don’t you? I especially like the beavers eyes because I’m pretty sure that is the very same enduring expression I have made nearly every time I was unexpectedly hugged. The timing of this couldn’t be better, so I adopted it for our beaver announcement too.
Has there ever, in ALL of history, been a beaver day like August 31, 2017? There are literally 7 positive stories to cover about beavers today, each more wonderful than the last. You dream of a day like this, when you’re just starting out telling folks that beavers matter, but you never think it will happen to you! Obviously I can’t cover them all today, so I will focus on our friends, because if this website is nothing else, it’s an old boys beavers’ club. And beaver friends lives matter.
Let’s start with our good friends at the Blue Heron Nature Preserve in Atlanta Georgia. Founder Nancy Jones trekked to Martinez to visit our beavers and hear the story years ago, and even made it to the festival one year. New Executive Director Kevin Jones came out as well and brought us a beaver chew from Georgia! Nothing could make us happier than to start with this story from WABE in Atlanta. I’m told it was on the radio this morning, and a link the the audio is coming later.
When you think of the wildlife in a city, beavers may not be the first animal that comes to mind, but they’re all over the place in Atlanta. And while the big, goofy-toothed swimming rodents can be a nuisance, it appears beavers may also help our environment.
“What I see is just the potential for all kinds of biological processes to be happening,” says Sudduth. “Cleaning the water. The wetland hosts a huge diversity of bird life that you wouldn’t see otherwise.”
Amphibians and fish thrive in Emma Wetlands, too.
What Sudduth is especially interested in is water quality. She’s studying if this creek is cleaner because of the beavers. She’s not quite finished with that work yet, but it has been done in other places.
“There’s more and more research coming out about that,” says Greg Lewallen, a Ph.D. student at the University of Saskatchewan, who studies beavers. He co-wrote a handbook on using beavers in river restoration for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and recently wrote a new chapfocusing on urban beavers. [Eds. note: with a little help. Sheesh]
Lewallen says beaver dams trap pollutants, and wetland plants help clean the water. Out West, in states including Oregon, Idaho and Colorado, there have been some projects that actively try to attract beavers. That can save money on river restoration work that would otherwise require things like backhoes.
Beavers do it for free, with their teeth.
“They’re an incredible species,” says Lewallen. “We can relate to them in a lot of ways as humans in my opinion. They’re incredibly industrious and hard-working, and for a rodent species, they are extremely family-oriented.”
Lewallen says almost all major cities now have beaver populations. We don’t see them much because they’re nocturnal.
Hurray for Greg and BHNP. I am so happy to see urban beavers discussed on NPR, you can’t imagine. Kevin wrote me this morning and was really excited about the news. BHNP is a success story like no other, and I’m so proud of everything they achieved. I’m thrilled that this report included our chapter in the restoration handbook and talked to Greg too. If folks are going to see urban beavers differently success stories need to come from all around them. Congratulations Greg, Kevin and Nancy!
More great news about our beaver buddy in Napa, Rusty Cohn who’s fabulous photos appeared in an Essay on the beavers of Tulocay Creek. I’m not going to post every photo here, just a few favorites, but GO LOOK AT THE ARTICLE it’s well worth your time.
The Tulocay Creek beaver pond is located next to the Hawthorne Suites Hotel, 314 Soscol Ave., Napa. At the creek, you’ll find river otters, mink, muskrats and herons as well as beavers. Here are some photos of the critters taken by local photographer Rusty Cohn.
“Since Beavers are nocturnal, the heat doesn’t seem to bother them,” Cohn said. “They come out a little before sunset and are mainly in the water. During the day they are sleeping either in a bank den in the side of the creek bank under a fair amount of dirt, or inside a lodge which is made of mud and sticks mainly.”
P
Go look at the whole thing and I PROMISE you won’t regret it. Wonderful work Rusty, Napa beavers are so lucky to have you.
And wait, there’s more, this from the big glossy magazine of the center for biological diversity. Guess who finally got the memo that beaver help salmon?
Manmade “dam analogues” could help beavers recolonize former habitats — and help fish in the process.
In one project landowners and public-land managers have started building structures called “beaver dam analogues,” which are essentially starter kits designed help beavers recolonize rivers.
The premise is simple: Drive a row of narrow logs into a streambed and then weave the pilings together with cuttings sourced from nearby trees. The structure slows the pace of the water and traps sedimentation, allowing a small pond to form and creating favorable conditions for nearby beavers (Castor canadenis) to move in. Then the beavers can build their own homes and continue to modify streams to meet their needs.
Their use has spread. In California Brock Dolman and Kate Lundquist, co-directors of the WATER Institute at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, facilitate the effort to introduce beavers to watersheds. Because the animals provide ecosystem services, Dolman and Lundquist see them as underutilized allies in watershed recovery efforts. Their handiwork transforms the landscape, creating a mosaic of habitats. First, beaver dams modify streamflow, creating slow and fast-moving bodies of water. This leads to an increase in the types of streamside habitats available to a variety of wildlife, boosting biodiversity in the process.
Lundquist says the North American beaver is the continent’s original water manager, renowned for storing and caching water for future use. Since beaver dams are temporary and permeable, she explains, the structures allow water to flow, thereby reconnecting mountain streams with the floodplains below.
As California looks for ways to become more resilient in the face of climate change and the prospect of prolonged droughts, the construction of these dams may prove to be advantageous. They could even buy more time for stressed aquatic species such as oceangoing salmon and steelhead trout, which have been left high and dry by California’s prolonged droughts, deforestation and water-diversion projects meant to help farmers.
What remains unchanged is the beaver itself. “They are highly adaptable animals and able to persist,” Lundquist says. “What limits beaver are water and wood — period.” And that combination may be a damned good way to restore streams and solve water woes in California and other parched states.
Hurray for Brock and Kate and writer Enrique Gili[s for the wonderful article. It is great to see the benefits of beavers get discussed specifically in California. We all need to start having more serious conversations about water storage and beavers in our state, so I’m grateful for this push. It is great to have this issue noticed at the upper levels.
One thing that’s not clear in the article is that actual beaver relocation in California is still illegal. Unlike many other states who understand that value of sending in beaver to work their magic, our state still thinks of them as a pest and you aren’t allowed to relocate pests. Unless you’re on tribal lands, and then you can do anything you want. I’m happy the center for biological diversity came to the party, but wish they had clarified that one nagging detail! It’s hard to organize a campaign to change the law if the folk think the law already allows it!
Fantastic column today from Karen Corker, the director of WildWatch in Maine. I’m guessing she attended Skip’s lectures last year in the state. Or maybe she even made them happen? Either way this is exactly the kind of writing we want to see everywhere.
At the end of each summer, Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife determines the fate of thousands of beavers. August is the month the department sets the trapping season dates for beavers across Maine’s 29 wildlife management districts. Towns and private property owners may request that specific areas be closed to trapping, but the closures represent a tiny fraction of the vast territory that is open to trappers to kill beavers in Maine without limit for five to six months a year.
Approximately 10,000 beavers lose their lives each year as a result of this aggressive, expansive approach to beaver management. The number of other, non-targeted animals killed in traps set for beavers is not generally reported, but the department admits that otters are frequent victims because they share the same wetland habitats.
Now I just have to interject and say how on earth does she know that the number of beavers trapped? I’m guessing she’s citing the numbers that come from the USDA stats for Maine, but is USDA the only folks allowed to do nuisance trapping? In California APHIS is responsible for a very small fraction of beavers killed by depredation permit, which can also be used by private trappers. I assume that’s true for other states as well.
There are two primary justifications for such extensive trapping. The first is that beavers have historically been regarded as “nuisance” animals, largely because of their damming behavior. When beavers clog culverts, the channels that run under roads, it often results in the flooding of roads and other properties.
The second justification derives from the department’s embrace of trapping as a recreational activity and primary wildlife management tool. In 2015, trapping proponents persuaded IF&W’s legislative committee to rewrite Maine statute to require the department to use trapping as a key basis for managing the state’s wildlife.
Another correction based on our reviews of depredation permits, is that the vast majority of depredation permits are sought for damage to landscaping. In fact there’s even a comment to the article that mentions tree damage. There are far more landowners who own trees than culverts I guess. So it’s a more common complaint. In California the deniens of beavers killed as ‘nuisances’ dwarfs the fur trapping numbers. That may be slightly different in Maine, but I doubt it.
A rapid evolution in our understanding of beavers and their value is eroding these justifications. Beavers are a keystone species; they create ecosystems that nourish a multitude other animals and plants. The marshes and meadows they build create ecological stability. With more than a third of freshwater fish and amphibians in the U.S. either extinct or at risk of extinction, the wetlands beavers produce have unrivaled potential to reverse these accelerating losses.
Along with the evolution in understanding of beavers’ contributions to healthy habitats, high quality flow devices – Beaver Deceivers, for example – have also evolved in recent decades.
When these devices are well-designed, well-constructed, and professionally installed, they prevent flooding, keep beavers and their benefits on the landscape, and offer long-term solutions to human/beaver conflicts at significantly lower cost than road repairs and beaver trapping. When such devices are not employed at conflict sites, beavers have to be destroyed continually. This approach is not only costly, it precludes the formation of the fertile habitats that support a rich and diverse assortment of wildlife and plant life.
In short, removal by trapping is not a lasting, economical, or ecologically-smart solution; any emptied beaver habitat is soon resettled, and the never-ending cycle of conflict and killing simply begin again. IF&W is not unaware of the benefits and effectiveness of flow-devices. The department has, in fact, stepped up its promotion of non-lethal solutions to beaver/human conflict through their use.
This is obviously my FAVORITE part of the letter, and the best wording I’ve seen on the subject. Good job Karen, you hit all the right notes. And it sounds a lot like Skip so I’m assuming they know each other. The column goes on to talk about the humane concerns about trapping, but in my considered opinion THIS is the power part. Just leave out the compassion next time Karen, and go straight for the economic value. People are inherently selfish and listen closer when their pocket book is involved, I promise.
Any Maine citizen who would like to share comments or concerns about the proposed beaver trapping season can express their views at a public hearing on Aug. 29 at 6 p.m. at the Augusta Armory, Room 209B, 179 Western Ave., Augusta. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is also accepting written comments on the season until Sept. 8. Comments can be emailed to becky.orff@maine.gov.
That’s a formal cue to send some comments about how well flow devices work and how beaver problems can be managed. You know I will! Right after I send Karen a note to thank her for this nicely written reminder.
There’s a nice article out of the Michigan Fishing Wire that I know you’ll enjoy. It’s all about the Riparian and why it matters. The term riparian is from the latin riparius meaning river bank and first use in 1849. But it also relates to the old norse term meaning ‘rip’ as the bank is cut away from the land by water. Now Michigan got really excited about beavers coming back to the Detroit River, but they don’t exactly love them if you know what I mean.
The thousands of rivers, lakes and streams in Michigan are beautiful, special places, not only to a wide range of people, including anglers, boaters and campers, but numerous plant and animal species. Those areas between the water and the uplands are called riparian areas or riparian zones. A riparian management zone is “an area designated and consciously managed to protect functions and values of riparian areas.”
Within a watershed — the area drained by a river or stream system — the lands next to streams and rivers are particularly important to the health of those waterways. “Because of the unique conditions adjacent to lakes, streams and open-water wetlands, riparian areas harbor a high diversity of plants and wildlife,” Michigan Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologists said in a report on “Riparian Zone Management and Trout Streams: 21st Century and Beyond.” “Life is simply richer along rivers and streams.
“Riparian areas are ecologically and socially significant in their effects on water quality and quantity, as well as aesthetics, habitat, bank stability, timber production, and their contribution to overall biodiversity.” Plant habitat along rivers and streams is called riparian vegetation. The plants that grow there have an affinity for water.
“Vegetative cover refers to overhanging or submerged tree limbs, shrubs and other plants growing along the shore of the waterbody,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website states. “Rivers, streams and lakes can be buffered from the effects of human disturbance in the watershed by varied, multi-layered vegetation in the land corridor that surrounds them.
“Healthy, intact vegetative cover in these riparian areas can help reduce nutrient and sediment runoff from the surrounding landscape, prevent bank erosion and provide shade to reduce water temperature. Vegetative cover can also provide leaf litter and large wood (such as branches and logs) to serve as food, shelter and habitat for aquatic organisms.”
In Michigan, large woody debris from mature trees growing along streambanks controls how streams look and function.
“Large woody debris provides cover for salmonids (trout and salmon), habitat and food for aquatic invertebrates, adds nutrients, traps smaller debris, provides feeding and resting sites for a wide variety of wildlife, and has other beneficial effects,” the DNR fisheries biologists said. “When leaves, twigs, sticks and even entire trees fall into streams, they provide both food and shelter for aquatic insects, and habitat for reptiles, amphibians, fish, mammals and birds.”
“These include larval and/or adult water bugs, water beetles, caddisflies, stoneflies, dragonflies/damselflies, mayflies, fish flies/alderflies, true flies, riffle beetles, aquatic earthworms, scuds, leeches, snails and limpets, and crayfish,” the park’s website said. “The presence of caddisfly, stonefly and May fly larvae indicate that streams here are of high quality and are in good ecological health.”
The DNR fisheries biologists said the agency and its partners spend many thousands of dollars each year to introduce additional large woody debris into our river systems, debris that has been lost artificially over time due to a variety of circumstances.
Do you think this article, focused on the benefit of the riparian and emphasizing the thousands of dollars spent every year to get woody debris into it, might mention the importance of the hardworking animal who does it for free? Well only in the briefest nonspecific way, of course.
Tree frogs, wood turtles, salamanders, and many other reptiles and amphibians, use the water for laying eggs and breeding each spring. Ospreys, eagles and herons are among the bird species that rely on streams, lakes and rivers for food and nest in large trees nearby.
The endangered piping plover nests and feeds on the sandy and rocky beaches of Lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior. Terns and gulls nest on rocky shoals and island shorelines. Ducks, geese and swans nest on coastal marshes.
“Mink, otters, muskrats and beavers can be found feeding and denning along river shorelines,” Vaughn said. “A handful of unique tree species also grow on the banks of Michigan’s rivers. Paw-paw, blue beech or musclewood, and sycamore trees thrive in the wet, periodically flooded soils along rivers.”
That’s all the mention they get, but it’s still a pretty nice article. And hey, I just realized you could easily replace the word ‘RIPARIAN’ with the words ‘BEAVER” and have yourself a very nice article.
Riparian Beaver areas help control non-point source pollution by holding and using nutrients and reducing sediment.
Riparian Beaver areas are often important for the recreation and scenic values. However, because riparian areas are relatively small and occur in conjunction with watercourses, they are vulnerable to severe alteration and damages caused by people.
Riparian Beaver areas supply food, cover, and water for a large diversity of animals and serve as migration routes and stopping points between habitats for a variety of wildlife.
Trees and grasses in riparian beaver areas stabilize stream banks and reduce floodwater velocity, resulting in reduced downstream flood peaks.
Alluvial aquifers help maintain the base flow in many rivers in humid areas because of high water tables. In drier climates, streams lose water that can help build up the water table deep beneath the stream.
Tadaa! Much better! The article mentions a group called ‘River Partners’ based in California. Which makes me wonder how those feel about the flat tailed partner in general? Maybe they get a letter.
Speaking of the valuable things that come out of Riparian Zones, look what Moses filmed yesterday morning along Alhambra Creek. Looks like that little dam is cousin to a slightly more established one upstream which is the front yard of at least TWO beavers. The smaller one looks young (check out that tail length) and could easily be the youngster that was born in the creek last October (ten months old?). Which would suggest that there are actually more of them than this film shows. But who really knows, they could be a totally new family just settling.
That particular RIPARIAN is very very deeply incised, so I can’t imagine a dam will stand any chance at all once it starts raining. And every foot is lined with houses, so operation ‘educate and pacify the neighbors’ will have to be in full swing! I’m just happy they’re here. And so, obviously is that little skunk who finally has a way to get across the creek.
When author Ben Goldfarb was here, I mentioned how whistful I’d be when the UK finally accepted the inevitable decision to live with beavers. He wondered why, and I explained that needing to extoll their benefits over and over to convince their countrymen was hugely valuable to all of us – and an international reminder of the good that beavers do EVERYWHERE. Take this newest article in the Guardian for example.
The return of beavers to Britain half a millennium after we hunted them to extinction is both thrilling and controversial. The Eurasian beaver has been reintroduced into virtually every European country in recent
decades, including densely populated nations such as the Netherlands, where conservationists laugh at Britain’s agonies over the animal. While Britain remains a member of the EU, it is obliged to reintroduce extinct species “where feasible”. In Scotland, the government last year declared the animal a native, protected species after an official trial and unofficial releases – the first ever formal reintroduction of a once-native British mammal. In England, several Bavarian beavers unofficially let loose on to the river Otter in east Devon are now part of an official trial licensed by Natural England, the government’s conservation watchdog. In 2020, the government will decide whether to allow them back for good.
In Europe, beavers have stimulated ecotourism, but they may also benefit human communities in other ways. Scientific studies show that their dams remove pollutants from water – they are particularly effective at filtering out harmful phosphates – and reduce floodwater peaks. Enthusiasts proclaim these large herbivores could become 21st-century water engineers, protecting towns from flooding. But some farmers hate beavers because their dams can also flood productive land. In one Scottish valley, where beaver numbers are estimated to have risen to several hundred, beavers have been shot before the formal legal protection is in place. Beavers can live in Britain but can the British live with beavers?
The experimental site in Devon is vivid proof of how beavers create a wildlife paradise, re-engineering small valleys with amphibian- and insect-friendly ponds. Exeter University scientists counted 10 clumps of frogspawn here in 2011; this year there are 681. There were eight species of water beetle in 2011; 26 in 2015. Herons, grass snakes, kingfishers, willow tits, rare barbastelle bats have all returned. In Scotland, ecologists recently found that beavers increased the number of plant species by nearly 50% because they create such a rich variety of habitats, from saturated meadows to sunny glades where moisture- and light-loving plants prosper.
But it’s the beavers’ water works that have really struck those studying the site in west Devon. Its small beaver ponds and soil saturated by damming hold nearly 1m litres of water. Scientific instruments measure water flows and quality above and below the site. The beaver dams improve water quality. (Phosphates and excessive fertilisers washed into waterways can create toxic algal blooms, which can be fatal for anything from fish to swimming dogs.) Exeter University researchers have collated data in a remarkable graph showing flood events. During heavy rain, the volume of water flow increases rapidly above the site, creating a dramatic spike in the graph. But when the floodwater is measured again below the site, there is a gentle curve. In other words, the beavers dramatically reduce the peak flow of floodwater on this stream.
With articles like this in huge papers like the guardian, I can’t imagine the decision is very far off. But I honestly wish it were. I wish it would take them centuries of public debate and mountains of scientific study just so that we could see articles like this over and over again in the paper. I’m the first to admit my motives are entirely selfish. There is enormous value in highlighting for the public and the farmers alike how radically important beaver are to the landscape.
Don’t rush into anything, Britain. Talk about it some more.
Elliott says that, in Devon, “the farmers say to us: ‘We don’t mind the beaver, but if they return we need to be able to deal with problems quickly.’” This doesn’t necessarily mean killing them. In two instances so far on the Otter, dams have flooded small areas of grazing pasture. Under the trial’s terms, Devon Wildlife Trust pays to solve the problem at no expense to the farmer. In one case, it installed a “beaver deceiver”. This pipe goes through the dam, lowering the water level and stopping flooding. The pipe is concealed and covered with mesh, so busy beavers can’t block it. Important trees are protected with a sandy-textured anti-beaver paint – the animals hate chewing it. The trust hopes that such technologies will allow beavers back into human-dominated countryside, but also knows that farmers’ acceptance may depend upon government payments to reward them if agricultural land is given over to beaver-created flood defence.
On the banks of the Otter there are more storylines than a soap opera. A nosy dog recently got a nip from a beaver for straying too close to its lodge. The other night, a badger slipped from the riverbank into the water and was hustled out by a beaver. Locals named one adult Bob, but were surprised when it returned with a pink eartag. So it’s now Mrs Bob, its mate Mr Bob; their kits Miss Bob, Master Bob, Bobby Junior and Roberta.
“It’s the little ones that have really enthralled me,” says local Gaynor Cooper, who comes out most nights. “They are tranquil and seem very gentle.” These slow-moving herbivores don’t eat fish and are much more easily spotted than otters. Five minutes after the first picnic blanket is laid down, there’s a plop of flat tail against water and Mrs Bob glides upstream, with a cute black button nose and brown fur matching the muddy bank.
Ah, yes, I remember. Those golden hours spent watching and waiting at the dam. The surprise at finding how unhuman and unquarrelsome beavers are with each other. I’m happy to know the origin of Mrs. Bob. I had heard of her generous and exhibitionist ways but didn’t know how she got the name. Reporter Patrick Barkham does a great job talking to the right people and learning about beavers, but apparently everyone who works for the paper didn’t do their homework. The current copy of the article has that adorably fuzzy baby beaver photo at the start. But a woman from the UK posted their version yesterday on the Save the beavers of England FB page and it had a photo of a groundhog.
Obviously learning about all beavers is still a work in progress.
The Cougar Creek Streamkeepers have spent a week doing construction down at Lower Cougar Creek to make it a better place for spawning salmon.
The seventh in a series from the Susitna Salmon Center. This segment by Jeff Davis deviates from the ecology theme to tell about the runs of the other four species of salmon in the Susitna River drainage. From tagging studies, Department of Fish and Game biologists have information about when the runs are, where most of the salmon spawn, how long they spend in freshwater habitats, and other details of the spawning season. Chinook salmon were covered in the previous episode.
So be kind to beavers fishermen or ELSE that salmon gets it, I think this means.
