Category: Beavers and trout

BEAVER FRIENDS AT TROUT UNLIMITED

I found this very inspiring. Quite a way to spend a ‘gap year’. Abelino Fernando Leger has a fine environmental career ahead of him I think.

In New Mexico, beavers and people aren’t so different

In fall of 2020, I worked with Trout Unlimited and Defenders of Wildlife and River Source — a small company specializing in watershed restoration, education and research in New Mexico — on a beaver habitat assessment survey in northern New Mexico. The project goal was to find rivers where beavers could be relocatedand where beavers could do the work to restore riparian water tables, wetland vegetation and in some places, improve the health of trout habitat.

Can you think of a better job description or something you’d rather be doing? No you cannot. I cannot either. Trout Unlimited is one of the few places on the planet where beaver wisdom doesn’t come as a surprise. They know what their fishes need.

Over the course of a few months, I worked with Rich Schrader, my mentor and River Source founder, on what he aptly described as our “dream project.” Rich and I completed the surveys with the help and teaching of former a wilderness guide, David Fay, and River Source water scientist and Cochiti Pueblo member, Carlos Herrera. We did both ground and drone surveys to discover as much as we could about the impact of cattle, riparian geomorphology and the vegetation present to determine if it would be a good beaver relocation site. It was also our job to determine what part of their historic range any beavers were still occupying.

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Can I get an amen? You hit the proverbial nail on the head Abe. I think the rest of your education is going to fall easily into place now that you’ve learned the beaver lesson.

This is not the only common goal we share with beavers. In one ephemeral creek we hiked along, private landowners had built a series of rock berms and grade controls in an attempt to retain surface water on their property. In Ponil Creek, another ephemeral waterway, the beavers we found had managed to keep several large, deep pools behind their dams in spite of seeing four weeks with no rain.

When doing this work, I learned so much about hydrology, riparian ecology, and, of course, the beavers themselves. After hiking along the rivers where beavers were present, I came to really appreciate the animals. They may not be the cutest rodent out there, they are awesome creatures. Hard-working, family-oriented and constantly molding the environment around them to their needs, beavers are not so different from us in the end.

I have to agree with you, Abe. Beavers can teach us most of what we need to know about hydrology, ecology, community and responsibility. You see beavers and humans are pretty different.

Beavers are better,

Beaver building dam with two rocks: Rusty Cohn

WASHINGTON IS A BIG DAM SHOW-OFF

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout January 2, 2021

Okay Washington, now you’re just showing off.

I mean everyone already knows that you are the shining western state on the hill when it comes to beavers, and that you have all the smartest people and the best understanding why they matter You have Michael Pollock, the Methow Project, The Lands Council, Ben Goldfarb. But this? Now you have this too? That’s just too much.

Cowlitz Tribe project will inventory beaver habitat

CENTRALIA — The Cowlitz Indian Tribe plans to inventory existing beaver habitat in Southwest Washington on private and public timberlands that are located on the aboriginal lands of the tribe. The project will include field surveys to gather data on beaver habitat sites, evaluate the habitat on the ground, determine the quality of the habitat and map the resulting classification of it.

Beavers are a keystone species in Southwest Washington. Their presence in nature affects watershed functions and all other wildlife species around them. Releasing beavers has great potential for ecological improvements. Construction of dams and ponds by beavers improves habitat for various aquatic and wetland-dependent species.

Cowlitz Indian Tribe Chairman Phillip Harju said beavers are important to the Cowlitz peoples.

“Our culture and members depend upon a healthy ecosystem,” Harju said. “Beaver are a key species that enable the ecosystem to function properly. This project will lay foundational work for strategic beaver relocation to suitable habitat within the aboriginal lands of the tribe.”

Waa! California sucks. I’m so jealous I could spit. Why does Washington get all the wisdom? And the rotten part is they just keep making more, with articles like this just going around persuading more people to think like them. It’s not fair. WA is the 2 percent crowd when it comes to beaver knowledge.

We are the peasants.

Beaver dams also help raise the surrounding water table, reducing water temperature and helping maintain flows during dry periods in the summer.

Fish species, namely salmon and trout, benefit when beavers create dams, and there are a number of other organisms, such as the threatened Oregon spotted frog, that rely on wetland and slow water for various stages of their life cycle.

Beavers have historically played a significant role in maintaining the health of watersheds in the Pacific Northwest, and act as key cogs in the functioning of riparian ecology. Live trapping and relocating of nuisance beavers has long been recognized as a beneficial wildlife management practice, and has been successfully utilized to restore and maintain stream ecosystems.

It’s just so dam unfair. California is the frickin home of John Muir and Yosemite. Why don’t we get nice attitudes about beavers! Why can’t all those protestors at Berkeley or SF city hall start demanding we let them do their jobs? Save OUR salmon. Put out our fires. Ohhh noo, We’re too busy demanding marriage equality and civil rights. We have no time left over for beavers.

Well the California Beaver Summit is going to change that. Or try anyway.

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TROUT UNLIMITED REMINDS US WHY BEAVERS MATTER

heidi08 Beavers and trout December 19, 2020

As if we needed to be reminded, TU has lept onto the beaver stage to get involved in the mostly one-sided beaver debate.

New mapping tool puts beavers to work for Upper Columbia fisheriesCrysta

Beavers and trout anglers are not strangers. Many of us have been startled while standing knee-deep in a trout stream when something big and brown and way larger than the fish we are targeting suddenly slips past.

Beavers can cause headaches for land managers as they engineer streams and ponds to their purposes without even a cursory nod toward collaboration with other interested parties. Then again, these same ponds can be great places to catch decent-sized trout.

Increasingly though, Trout Unlimited and other like-minded groups are turning to beavers — and certainly taking inspiration from them — to help restore resiliency to degraded public lands and waters.

Well obviously. You’d look to the expert to teach you how to solve watershed problems. Why should we be surprised beavers are at the head of the class?

That means adapting to climate change, creating habitat and maintaining water supply.

Focused in the right places, beaver-powered restoration can be a priceless tool. In Washington’s Upper Columbia River Basin, TU restoration and science staff have partnered with local agencies, universities, tribes and, well, beavers to develop a tool to help plan this kind of work at a landscape level.

In the aftermath of Washington’s recent mega-fires, TU realized the critical need to scale up beaver-powered restoration work to re-establish climate change resilience in the Upper Columbia.

While fire is an important component of natural ecosystem process in the Upper Columbia, the combination of uncharacteristically severe wildfires in recent years and watershed modifications (e.g., logging, roads, etc.) often results in higher degrees of sedimentation and other impacts to aquatic systems than would naturally occur. Beaver dams and their resulting wetland complexes buffer these effects, enhancing water availability both for humans and for fish species.

You know what I find works really good for preventing fires? Water and wetlands. You know what makes those more plentiful, right?

In order to maximize impact, we needed to create these ecological benefits at a watershed level. We wanted to think beyond individual projects and look at a landscape perspective in terms of prioritizing sites for, 1) improving habitat for Endangered Species Act-listed salmon, steelhead and bull trout, 2) increasing water storage capacity, and 3) buffering fire effects.

Utah State University’s Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT) is currently the best model restoration practitioners have for digging into the feasibility question, but we needed a more broadly-focused tool to drill down to where beaver-powered restoration could do the most good in the Upper Columbia’s post-mega fire landscape where critical fish populations are struggling to survive.

Hot off the press, TU’s Upper Columbia Beaver-Powered Restoration Decision Support System (DSS) tool helps aid conservation specialists and agency staff in the identification of beaver-powered restoration opportunities across the Upper Columbia, including BDA installation, beaver relocation, and low-tech wood placement, such as post-assisted log structures (PALS).

In a nutshell, this tool provides a powerful landscape-level analysis to serve as a first-order filter for identifying the most impactful, high priority areas for beaver-powered restoration work in a critical basin for salmon and agriculture. The region is also on the front lines of mega fire impacts and climate change – making it a place where beaver-powered restoration is needed most.

They used the BRAT to find out where BDA’s could do the most good, and they worked to bring them about. Now its up to the beavers themselves to do the rest.

Simply put, we have learned a lot from beavers in ways we can help protect our most important fisheries from the ravages of climate change. We know how to utilize their skillsets to restore resiliency to our home waters. Our Upper Columbia Beaver-Powered Restoration DSS and field data collection tools help us to make smarter and more efficient decisions in where we apply these tools. We’ll spend some time in the lab with the DSS this winter and by spring we will be ready to take the field data collector to potential sites and get started with more beaver-powered restoration.

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Gosh I think Trout Unlimited in the west is doing some outstanding beaver advocacy. Remind me to invite them to speak at the California Beaver Summit will you?

WILL DYNAMITE SALES PLUMMET IN WISCONSIN?

heidi08 Beavers and trout September 3, 2020

It’s been a very strange couple of beaver days. At the end of August I posted that I had carefully gone through my hoard of “good beaver news” and that it was time to expect some bad beaver news as more folks got worried about flooding. Then I started getting deluged with good beaver news. In 24 hours my holding bin is once again filled to the brim. I don’t pretend to understand it.

And not just ‘any’ good beaver news, either. But the most hoped for and argued against all reasonable hope for. The spots where my beaver sensibilities were the most chafed and sore. Suddenly feeling lighter. I don’t understand it at all.

Yesterday I told you about the new research in South America, well later on phys.org AND the Science blog reported it. It’s already made its way to the desks of every scientist, Let’s hope it sparks a flurry of new research as Pantagonia considers whether lemons can, indeed, make lemonade.

And yesterday this report dropped from the VERY same reporter in the VERY same state we bemoaned a week ago. Someone is clearly playing with me.

DNR Researching Effectiveness Of Beaver Dam Management On Trout Population

For years, many wildlife managers have assumed removing beaver dams on streams helps trout populations. It allows the streams to run colder and more free, conditions trout generally like. In an episode of The Stream last month, we showed you how wildlife managers often use explosives to remove dams.

“It’s really important to have these free-flowing from the very top, the cold-water sources, in many cases, all the way through to the larger systems,” said Jeremy Irish, who works with the USDA Wildlife Services program, as part of that story.

But now, a DNR researcher is testing just how true the management theory is.

What what? Wisconsin is doing actual RESEARCH on their dearly held little theory? And Ben Meyer is reporting on it? Someone pinch me, I might be dreaming.

“We’re trying to fill in the gaps in the understanding of how beaver are affecting these streams and trout populations in them,” said DNR fisheries research scientist Matt Mitro. “The trout population itself, if you have a beaver interrupting flow in a stream and creating different types of habitat, are you increasing trout population? Decreasing trout population? Changing the size structure?”

The assumption about positive impacts for trout is based on decades-old data from one part of the state. Mitro is now studying 15 streams statewide, manipulating some to allow for beaver dam-building and having dams removed on others.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Matt Mitro is a fisheries biologist with the DNR. Apparently he didn’t grow up in the state, so he didn’t drink the koolaide. The Wisconsin Center for Wildlife describe him this way:

Matthew Mitro is a fisheries research scientist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Based in Madison, Matt has been working with the DNR since 2003 on statewide fisheries issues with a focus on trout in Wisconsin’s inland streams. Matt has also worked for the EPA’s Atlantic Ecology Division and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. He earned his Ph.D. in fisheries at Montana State University studying Rainbow Trout recruitment.

Now this is exciting. Ladies and Gentlemen we finally have ourselves a real horse race. I wouldn’t claim to know how the story is going to end before its written but its hard to imagine that if you compare beaver streams to non beaver streams you won’t find something positive.

He said his research could change how the state manages its beaver dams and trout streams.

“Wisconsin DNR fisheries management expends a certain portion of their budget for maintaining this program. Are we wisely spending that money? Or are there ways that we could improve how we’re doing it?” he said.

Mitro hopes to release data as he gets it.

Matt, you are our new HERO. Someone willing to actually do the unthinkable and LOOK at the data for a change. I’m so glad you bumped onto the scene and will share your findings with us. I, for one, cannot wait.

NON NATIVE BEAVER HELP NON NATIVE TROUT

heidi08 Beavers and trout September 2, 2020

I’m so old I can remember writing about when two barristers from Canada said that the beaver in South America had grown abnormally large and (with no natural predators) had evolved to eat fish. I’ve been hearing people lie about the kidnapped beaver devastating the land by eating all the trees for more years than I can count on both my hands. Surely we all know they should never have been there to begin with. But I’ve been a little outraged to read over and over how entirely awful and difficult to eliminate they are.

So there is only one video that truly expresses how I felt when I read this particular headline.

Beavers appear to help the growth of brown trout in South America, study finds

CORVALLIS, Ore. – In the early 1900s, brown trout and rainbow trout were introduced to southern South America for recreational fishing and early aquaculture initiatives. About 40 years later, American beaver were introduced in the same region to develop a felt industry.

That history intrigued Ivan Arismendi, an aquatic ecologist at Oregon State University. He is originally from Chile but since 2007 has lived in Oregon, where the beaver is the official state animal and the mascot of the university that employs him. He wondered what impact the introduced beaver in Chile had on the health of the introduced brown trout.

Through field work in a remote area of Tierra del Fuego, Chile, Arismendi and his team determined that dam building by the beaver modifies the aquatic environment, providing a wider range of more energy-dense food sources for brown trout. This results in improved growth of the brown trout, they concluded.

Well, of COURSE they do. Of course they do. And hey I be those invasive fish aren’t the only thing that eat all those new water bugs. And gosh I bet having more fish to eat is pretty darned good news to all those cayman and heron and penguins or whatever else eats fish in South America.

They determined growth rates by measuring the scales of the trout, which, like tree rings, can be used to determine how much the fish are growing. They determined their diets by studying the food sources that were available at the field sites, and the contents in the stomachs of the fish.

They found that the growth rate of brown trout found in streams where beaver were present was 14% higher than in streams where beaver were not present.

“What we see in these invaded environments is totally coherent and similar to what we see between beaver and salmonids in the Pacific Northwest,” Arismendi said.

Well of course it was. That’ what you get when a student born in Chile immigrates to Oregon for college. People who can see the forest for the trees. I think we love Ivan Arismendi with all of our collective heats now. Maybe we should send a care package?