Category: Beavers and trout

A Fountain of Good News

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions, Educational, History, Who's saving beavers now? January 6, 2016

Do you remember when I first referred to Napatopia? I shared a little fairytale about this celebrated land where beavers were honored guests. It was one of my more fanciful and favored posts, and everyone (including me) thought I was exaggerating I’m sure.

Not anymore. Look what Robin found on the fountain when she strolled in the other direction for a change.

*Beaver on fountain mural – photo by Robin Ellison*

It appears on a glorious huge fountain fashioned out of a 20th century grain silo for the Napa River Inn. Designed by artist and Napa resident Alan Shepp, famous for his large scale public art and multimedia sculpture, this was his first mosaic. The shapes are glass rather than tile – making for stunning lighting at night.The whole thing tells the glorious and sometimes dark history of Napa and was finalized in December 2005, two years before beavers came to Martinez. In addition to donating 2 years of his life to this project, Mr. Shepp is also an avid flyfisher who made sure to add the wildlife he wanted to see back in the river.

Something tells me he’s going to be particularly happy about the Tulocay Beavers.

City’s past — both good and bad — explored in downtown mural

Finally, downtown Napa has a significant piece of public art.

It’s not a statue or another clock tower, but a riotous mosaic mural that captures the history of the Napa Valley in brilliantly colored vignettes, with an equal tribute to the Napa River’s flora and fauna.

The mural is part of a tall fountain built around an early 20th century grain silo. At night, the cascading water amplifies thousands of points of reflected light, creating a dazzling panorama worth braving the winter cold to see.

Two years in the making, the large mosaic mural was unveiled three weeks ago at Napa Mill on Main Street, serving as the centerpiece to Riverbend Plaza behind the Napa River Inn.

Within a few years, the plaza will be a key stop on the Napa River trail from Trancas Street south to Kennedy Park. With the new art installation, hikers and cyclists will have more to look at than the tulles.

My my my. I’m enormously impressed with this artistic vision and execution. And the free reign the artist was given to dive into the darkness even if others would rather see it forgotten. Another stark contrast to Martinez I guess, where one particular artist was even forbidden from adding a beaver.

Now who will be the first to share a selfie in a Worth A Dam shirt posing in front of that fountain?

Treasures we missed

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Urban beavers, Who's saving beavers now? January 5, 2016

This looking up ‘urban beavers’ thing is producing some amazing results. An awesome article on several beaver habitats in Dallas Texas, with what is quite possibly the best urban beaver photo I’ve ever seen. I’m a sucker for curved dams in the country or the city!

Beaver – Population Density

For this project we explored two stream beds for the purposes of observing and documenting evidence of Beaver activity. The small creeks we chose were located at opposite corners of an approximately six square mile rectangle of suburban North Texas.

Beaver sign was abundance and easy to find in these areas. The evidence we found included felled trees, dams, lodges, slides, and Beaver skeletal remains. We found a total of five dams in the areas we explored—four active and one that had been recently destroyed by people.

Isn’t that remarkable? Beaver dams all over Dallas just trying to save water for the poor folks in Texas. Apparently the author of this blog is a well known local naturalist and colleague of our beaver saving friends in the area, so I’m pretty excited to have more voices on our side. Let’s remember this site.

Next up is an UNBELIEVABLE article on urban beavers from Seattle. I was absolutely floored how delightfully relative this was and could NOT believe I had failed to remember writing about. Surely I couldn’t have missed it?

Then I noticed the date. About 4 months before my time.

Meadowbrook Pond: A beaver playground

Thursday, August 24, 2006

“This is the Disney World of beavers,” said Bob Spencer, creek steward coordinator for Seattle Public Utilities, as he looked out over Meadowbrook Pond in Northeast Seattle. Fuzzy mallard ducklings and great blue herons were playing second fiddle to the obvious star attractions: several of North America’s largest rodents entertaining an enthusiastic crowd of visitors.

“Beaver! Beaver! Beaver!” three kids shouted in unison to their dad who hurried over to watch a large furry brown head tote a leafy branch to the edge of the lodge.

“These hip, urban beavers have kind of gone condo,” Spencer said, pointing out their home, a jumble of materials ingeniously supported by the bridge turned wildlife viewing platform, which spans this detention pond. A large dent in the handrail shows where a broken alder located midway across the water fell under their sturdy front teeth.

Spencer has found that, like Ryer, even those with beavers in their backyards are excited to be living among them: “Seattleites regard having beavers back as a sign that something is getting better.”

Every single word could have been lifted from Martinez. Right down to the excited children and using the bridges as viewing platforms. I’m sure we’ll revisit this article again, but for now go read the entire thing and imagine it as a trailer for our own beaver movie that was coming soon.

One last treasure I could NOT believe finding were these promotional/educational tools from PBS. Theoretically released to coincide with the beaver documentary, but missed by me and countless others. I vaguely remember Jari talking about the plan for these, but I think they were delayed or something. When I shared them on facebook yesterday there were 25 immediate shares from beaver experts who had obviously missed them too.

So we know it isn’t just us. Whew.

Natures first green is Gold Medals

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Chewing, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Dispersal, Educational, Environmental January 4, 2016

Maybe you remember the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Stephen Colbert sponsored a skating team and Lindsey Vonn became the first American woman to ever win the downhill Gold for a ski run that broke every record. Of course there was the usual Olympic Village built in an old industrial park which had once been a parking lot- it boasted wonders named FALSE CREEK and FALSE SEAWALL.

Well guess who’s back in False creek now?

Beaver resurfaces in Vancouver’s Olympic Village

A beaver, perhaps even two, have been spotted in Vancouver’s Olympic Village.
The iconic rodents have built a large dam in the man-made wetlands of False Creek.

“There’s two,” said Jeremy Murphy who lives in the area. “They hang out in the middle of the pond usually, back-to-back or cuddling a little bit, gnawing on everything they can find.”

It’s not the first time a beaver has called the area home. Two years ago, residents came across another beaver — possibly the same animal as the one seen recently.

A beaver was also seen in the summer of 2015.

I’m not so surprised that beavers are there. They really don’t care whether they’re living in a false creek with planted trees or an actual creek with generated trees. They’ll make do. Aside from the very foolish people trying to feed them bread, this story makes me smile. And lead me to something that made me smile VERY wide indeed.

An entire instagram page dedicated to URBAN BEAVERS.

Photos of lodges on city trails, beavers walking over concrete, I’m a kid in a candy store. Here is the one that terrified me though. Look to the far right front.
Well, we can’t know the fate of that brave little beaver, but I’m grateful that this Olympic beaver pointed me in his direction. I will definitely try to keep an eye on this now.

Sometimes the last few lines of a poem write everything else for you. I was happy to put this together yesterday. It started with the ‘how the west was watered’ line. And of course there’s only one word that rhymes with ‘watered’.

Beavers taken for granted

heidi08 Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, What's killing beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? January 3, 2016

Yesterday was grant-writing day. Worth A Dam is submitting two to the Contra Costa County Fish and Wildlife Commission, who generously paid for our button project last year. This year one grant is asking for funds for the Ecosystem Engineer teaching project using Wildbryde charms to make the bracelet project called “A.L.L. A.B.O.A.R.D.” (A little learning about beaver operations and riparian dwellers). Each charm will be a wildlife railcar and the beaver will be pulling the train.The second grant is for the beaver mural, and I’m calling the project “The bridge to nature” and saying its civic and ecological to pay attention to what the beavers did in our creek. I have no earthly idea if they’d consider a project like this, but I figure I might as well ask. Because of my recent work on the urban beaver chapter I was able to pull some nice language out of my section and use it in the grant, which I think makes us sound really deserving, but that might be just me. We’ll see.

Amongst the crowded demands on urban waterways, expected to handle storms, street runoff and flood prevention, there is often little attention paid to the habitat needs of wildlife drawn to urban creeks. This misses a critical value for both the watershed and the public. Numerous studies have shown the psychological and physical benefits to residents of urban wildlife. These include reduced stress, greater satisfaction and even crime reduction! Some researchers argue that urban wildlife’s significance in urban planning should be regarded with as much weight in composing a healthy community as open space or air quality. In addition to encouraging social cohesion, people consistently report feeling enriched by living with nature, even when they are challenged.

Martinez became an unsuspecting (and not entirely willing) test case for all these benefits with the arrival of the beavers in Alhambra Creek in 2007.

I’m actually very proud of that introduction, wonder if anyone else will like it! There are strict page limits on your submission so I’m using the graphics in the footers as attempted subliminal influence. Jon will drop them off monday afternoon, and then we’ll try to forget about them and not wait anxiously by the phone. Worth A Dam will still fund both projects regardless of their decision but approval would be nice! I found a great quote for the mural one too, which I’ll share.

“While the end products—the works of public art—are always beautiful, their deeper value lies in the conversations we create, the connections we build, and the legacy of relationships we foster along the way, often with transformative results.”

Jane Golden Mural Arts Program, Philadelphia

Meanwhile the terrible decisions in Tom’s River NJ have prompted a full protest, which is something considering the cold weather. I personally can’t see what it can possibly accomplish because I’m sure those beavers are already long gone. This brand of outrage is more likely to teach the administrators to be more sneaky next time, than to encourage actual reform. But who know’s? Once upon a time Martinez got lucky.

Beaver trapping sparks outrage, protests in Toms River

A Toms River neighborhood has become divided over how to handles the town’s beaver population.

The Toms River township administrator tells News 12 New Jersey that the town had to hire a trapper to catch the beavers after neighbors complained about the population around Lake Placid. Neighbors complained that the beavers have chewed up the trees and their dams are causing flooding.

Ahh memories.

The beaver cheer that we hold dear

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? December 26, 2015

After Christmas cheer from the Hartford Courant in Connecticut.

**The beaver dam separates pond from forest. The dam is impressive, rising 5-6 feet over the surrounding forest. (Peter Marteka / hc)**

Haddam Land Trust Busy As A Beaver Seeking To Preserve Parcel

Cowan had invited people from around the area to attend a “Walk About The Pond” hike last weekend to showcase the parcel the trust has an option to purchase. In the email he called it an “incredibly important conservation parcel” with “exceptional qualities.” The property lies just to the north of the Route 82 connector between Route 9 and the Tylerville section of Haddam.

“Believe it or not, this was just a big, soggy meadow before the beavers came,” Cowan said.

But like the popular phrase, the beavers have been busy. And they haven’t been busy gnawing down all the trees. The brilliant animal engineers have created several dams out of mud, effectively blocking up the former meadow’s outlet stream beds. A 6-foot-high dam is at the northern end of the pond. There is also a series of smaller dams that block other outlets. Simply amazing.

“Beavers always seem to get a bad rap,” said one woman on the tour. I couldn’t have agreed more. The transformation of this low area in the middle of the woods to a pond filled with water lilies by North America’s largest rodent was an impressive engineering feat.

Ahh thank you Hadam Land Trust, and reporter Peter Marteka. There is nothing like some beaver appreciation to start the day off right. I love to read the joyful recognition at what a well placed series of dams can do. Even if Martinez doesn’t get any at the moment. Sniff.

How about some more beaver appreciation, this time from just outside Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

Dog sledding, beaver habitats draws for visitors to Armstrong County trails

There have always been plenty of reasons for local folks and out-of-towners to visit the Armstrong Trail. But now, with an uptick in wildlife activity — and an offering of dog-sled rides — visitors have more of a reason to hit the trail.

ARTA supports and helps maintain about 30 miles of trail stretching from Rosston to East Brady.The volunteer organization recently gave permission allowing Allen Dunn of Rayburn to give dog-sled rides along the trail.

Recently, trail users have noticed a lot of evidence of beavers at work in the Madison Township area. On Tuesday, as rain dripped from bare branches and rushing water tumbled over rocks down a hillside, Owen stood near a section of trail between Rimer and Hook Station. Mist drifted through the valley and spilled over the Allegheny River.

Owen stooped to examine the trunk of a young birch tree that had been gnawed to a teetering point by the furry river-dwelling critters. More than a dozen chewed-up birch branches lay on the mossy ground near the river bank. The beaver dens were well-concealed and tucked out of sight far below the tree line near the water’s edge.

“We don’t consider them a nuisance,” Owen said. “They are a part of the natural world, and there’s no fear of them damming up the Allegheny.”

Ron Steffey agreed. He’s the director of the Allegheny Valley Land Trust, which owns the trail. “We’re the ones coming into their domain,” he said.

He joked that he trained the beavers to notch the trees so the trunks would fall toward the river rather than across the trail path. And he noted that because the beavers had thinned out the birch, young oaks growing in the area will have more of a chance to gain a foothold.

Wonderous. I would certainly be willing to take a sled dog ride to see beaver habitat in the snow. Wouldn’t you? And now we have evidence of positive regard for beavers from the state whose nickname happens to be “The Keystone State”. How appropriate!

Best beaver present yesterday came from Knob Creek Metal Arts in Kentucky. How’s this for a pair of book holders?

Finally a, proud photo snapped by Rusty yesterday at the Tulocay beaver pond which proves, once and for all, that Napa wins Christmas.