Category: Beavers and trout

Beaver Marvels

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Who's saving beavers now? November 13, 2015

Several people were very kind about my happy little post yesterday, and I was excited to find this in my beaver wanderings. It seems almost fated find it now.

“Even in an area teeming with millions of people, the marvels wrought by this amazing animal can still unfold. On a forest preserve land in northern Cook County, beavers transformed what had been an ordinary field into a beautiful open water cattail marsh. In early April, hundreds of newly arrived tree swallows skimmed the smooth surface for insects. Painted turtles soaked in the spring sun, and chorus frogs filled the air with music. Yellow-headed blackbirds, pied-billed grebes, great blue herons, and other water-dependent birds nested or tarried during migration …. Then, after a few years, the beaver disappeared. There hasn’t been as much water or wildlife since, but some day a young beaver looking for a home of its own will come upon the site, find it hospitable and stay.”

Isn’t that a beautiful quote? I happened upon it when I found this nice article from The Illinois Steward, which immediately got my attention by leading with a quote from Enos Mills. The careful author, Susan Post, also read up on beavers with Dietland Muller-Swarze, so I was liking her even before she rewarded me with Greenberg. You can see why;

In a Place Called Illinois: Watchable Wildlife: Beaver

On a recent March visit to Heron Pond, a part of the Cache River State Natural Area, it was a duck-kind of day, gray and raining. There were no wildflowers blooming, and birds were hidden or silent. Yet there was a lot to see and ponder. I noticed an increase in beaver activity. Quite a few small cypress saplings had been cut; along the boardwalks, I noticed many debarked twigs and branches, several trees bore scars from gnawing, and some new raised mounds had appeared. Back in Champaign, I visited our library, where I discovered the book The Beaver, Nat-ural History of a Wetlands Engineer by Dietland Muller–Schwarze and Lixing Sun; and I talked with Illinois Natural History Survey mammalogist Joe Merrit. My observations took on new meaning; they were more than just visions of gnawed wood!

The work of beaver helps maintain a healthy hydrologic balance. Their dams help replenish the water table and store water. Stored water and a raised water table are helpful to plants and animals during a drought. The water-flow pattern is altered, reducing erosion. When they open up forests along the streams, they create new habitats—ponds, swamps, and meadows. New habitat attracts other organisms, and soon a complex community develops.

Can I get an amen? Nice work, Susan! We shouldn’t be surprised, because there has been, over the years, a fluttering of beaver advocacy from the state. Donald Hey, founder of the Wetlands Initiative, is a huge beaver believer, and the Lincoln Park beavers received pretty significant media attention and public backing. It is also the source of one of my favorite urban beaver photos. This is a fence at Lincoln Park with a beaver lodge behind it. Don’t you wonder what it sounded like when you walk by?

A week from now Worth A Dam will be doing a tree planting with the watershed steward intern, and the documentary crew from the UK might want to film it and visit. We’ll see. I was horrified to learn yesterday that I received a my first youtube STRIKE for sharing the recent video of the Devon beavers. I had to go to copy right school and everything. I am more mortified than I should probably be I guess. But lets just pause and remember how adorable that footage was of mom beaver moving the kits to the second lodge. Ahh. Maybe it was worth it.

Now I’m on probation for 6 months so you will get no more secret videos from me. Sorry!

On a clear day, you can see for beavers

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver News, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Who's saving beavers now? November 12, 2015

Here’s a nice article from last month’s Freshwater Magazine. It’s a sweet piece of writing with some delicious frosting added yesterday that I’ll tell you about later. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

When a group of five scientists in the Pacific Northwest began advertising for workshops on the science of beaver restoration, they didn’t anticipate a few things.

The workshops would be filled to capacity within a week. There was so much interest they needed to increase both the workshop size and the total number of workshops offered. There would be a waitlist, followed by phone calls and emails from people clamoring to get in.

“People are starting to see the value of beaver for more than just their pelts or more than just pests, but how we can work in concert with them to fix more rivers and streams.”

Regulatory agency staff, nonprofits, tribal representatives, private landowners, members of the general public and others paid the $50 fee for one-day intensives on the science behind how beaver restore streams.

But the sharing of knowledge and best practices would live beyond the day-long events. Workshop discussions were captured in an official guidebook on beaver restoration, published this past June.

“The publication is meant to be an accessible resource for anyone using beaver to restore waterways,” said Greg Lewallen, a master’s student at Portland State University and the research assistant for the project. “With enough educational outreach, the perception of these animals will start to change. That’s why it’s critical we continue to spread the word about the large role that these animals play in ecosystems.”

This article does a great job of emphasizing how thrilled they were by the response they got. Waiting lists are a reminder that the west was hungry for this information. You probably remember this publication from the delightful cover that featured Cheryl’s photo. People were really excited by this information. Now the crew was so estatic by the response they got that they want to work on volume II.

Only in this second version they want to include a chapter on the topic dearest to my heart. Are you sitting down? They want to include a chapter on this:

Did you know that 81% of all Americans live in urban settings? So if most of us are going to deal with beavers its going to be someplace next to sidewalks and parking meters. And if the fact that they were including a chapter on the topic was all the news for this morning, that would be enough. I’d be in heaven floating on a pink fluffy cloud.

But that is not all. No, that is not all.

Now if you want to study tortoises you go to the Galapagos, if you want to see the works of Michaelanglo you go to Rome, and apparently if you want to learn about Urban Beavers you contact Martinez. Greg wrote me this week and we arranged a fantastic phone call for yesterday, where I told him the long and winding story of our beavers and the tireless work the people of Martinez had done to save them.

I was so flattered to be asked, and thrilled to think that before our city the topic of Urban Beavers was never even discussed. (In fact the words were probably only paired as an obscure reference to leggy females that drank Manhattans and smoked black cigarettes.) But now the words actually existed. And Urban Beavers were a THING, like open space or two-way traffic. And they wanted to include them in the next edition!!!

My excitement could only be described with this video short.

So I was as excited as little Madeline here during our conversation, and kept missing words and skipping over myself. But, since this was a story I had told a thousand times before, I found my way well enough. And before the conversation was over, a little moth of a thought started fluttering wistfully in my mind. I shushed it away many times but it came only back stronger.

What if I could be a co-author on this chapter. Was it even possible?

All through the hour long conversation I waived the fluttering thought away and tried to imagine whether I was qualified for such an auspicious venture. It’s true I had already co-authored two papers on beavers that were published in scientific journals. And a few in my trained field of psychology, where I had even been sole author. So maybe it wasn’t a crazy idea. But was it impossible? This was NOAA, Fish and Wildlife and the USFS; did my scrabbling, back room beaver-tactics really belong there?

Well, some dreams never see the light of day, and some apples fall to the ground before they ripen.We can never know what would have happened if I had summoned the courage to ask Greg if I could be a co-author of the chapter.

Because HE ASKED ME FIRST.

Guess what I answered. Go ahead, guess, I can wait.

“The stream restoration is on us – don’t mention it!”

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Who's saving beavers now? November 11, 2015

Finally!

There’s been such a pack of good beaver news lately that I’ve been waiting to share this lovely guest-post forever! It’s from Dr. Dougald Scott whose on the board of the Salmonid Restoration Federation, and past editor of the River Mouth, the newsletter for the Northern California Council Federation of Fly Fishers. It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that he’s also a member of the California Working Beaver Group, and a believer in the cause of beaver streams everywhere.

This will delight you.

The attached a photo shows how beaver had rehabilitated the tiny creek on my property in Western Colorado. Rick Lanman admired the photo and asked if I had fenced out the cattle. It turns out this is an interesting story regarding cattle and beaver on our land.

Basically we lucked out. There was no way that we could afford to fence our 160 acres to keep cattle out; so up until 2001 we leased grazing rights to our neighbors whose cattle were already there and going to graze anyway. Living so far away and lacking in resources, there was little we could do to further manage the situation.Through the late 80’s and 90’s, all the land up and down the canyon was terribly overgrazed. The resident beaver were finally extirpated in the late 80’s due to the overgrazing.

In 2001 a wealthy hotelier from Florida purchased 23,000 acres immediately down canyon from us. He intended to make it into an upscale hunting and retreat lodge, and as part of his plan he ended cattle grazing in our valley. None of the other landowners seem interested in cattle, so we’ve been cattle free since 2001.

The small creek running through our property quickly responded to the absence of cattle by sprouting riparian vegetation, especially willows and cottonwoods. In the spring of 2008 I had arranged with the local game warden to introduce a pair of beaver into our creek. When I arrived in Grand Junction to be on hand and welcome the beaver, the game warden told me he was swamped and wouldn’t be able to bring the beaver up to our place for another month.

I was disappointed, but when I arrived at our camp, I was pleasantly surprised to find the beginnings of a dam… the little buggers had found their own way to our place! In the seven years since, the number of dams has fluctuated with the drought, but this summer there were more that 10 dams. The beaver have also moved downstream and made an impact there, although not always positive for the lodge people. However they are learning to appreciate the beaver for their ability to restore riparian habitat in semi-arid locations.

Needless to say, we now have a thriving wetland community and are thrilled – rehabilitation of our tiny creek over time thanks to beaver.

Thank you, Dougald, for sharing this important story first hand! What a fantastic illustration of a very crucial axiom!

Keep the cows out of the stream and the willow will come.

Let the willow grow and the beaver will come.

When the beavers come back, the stream is restored.

Here endeth the lesson.

There’s too much nature in our parks

heidi08 Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Educational, Who's Killing Beavers Now? November 10, 2015

How much nature is TOO much? Let the biologists decide.

Maya Shikhman has photographed a Staten Island beaver busy at work, building and nibbling. The large, semi-aquatic mammal has been observed at two locations.

Beavers join the parade of wildlife attracted to Staten Island life

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — They have not been on Staten Island since the 1800s, but a few beavers have taken up residence in the last year or so.

Their population has increased in near-by locations in New Jersey and downstate New York. It’s likely our beaver were ‘disperser’ who left their original area due to competitive pressures from other beaver… similar to why the deer have come to the island,” said Wollney, a doctoral biology candidate at the College of Staten Island.

The growing numbers of the semi-aquatic mammal in New Jersey are leading to the consideration of solutions to manage their numbers.

“The Control Operators Association estimates New Jersey has around 10 million to 15 million beavers, mostly concentrated in the northwest part of the state,” reported the Associated Press in a story in January.

“Busy as a beaver” is an accurate description of an industrious animal or person. “The beaver’s ability to modify its environment is second only to humans,” reads the NY Department of Environmental Conservation website.

And though their industry is irresistible, it is not without consequences, beneficial or not, depending on the environment. Noting that in more wild areas, these “habiat engineers” play an important role by creating pools that become habitat for other species, Wollney observes “on Staten Island, their presence is generally not good.”

“The issue is that we have so few streams that they are all ‘sensitive’ to changes. Simply, we’d lose valuable habitats if the beaver alter it too much. The chewing down of trees just opens up the ground to be invaded by very undesirable non-native, invasive plants and ecosystems to replace what are right now “kind of” natural plant communities,” said Wollney.

Hmmm.Your use of the word ‘disperser’ was encouraging. But I’m concerned about your expectation of beaver population explosion. You do know these guys are territorial, right? I mean I suppose if the island has a million luscious trees and streams they will tolerate more sharing, but mostly beavers are pretty territorial. Which is why that little beaver had to swim so far to find a home in the first place.

I feel fairly certain that Wollney’s Ph.D. isn’t in beavers. Call it a hunch.

Finally, says, Wollney, they have “damned up a Blue Belt stream which is intended to relieve storm-water stress on the roads and sewers. The South Shore beaver(s) pose the same issue.

“One of the streams they are damning drains the Greenbelt and is used by American eels. “Their damn has the potential for blocking young eels from getting up in the water-shed where they mature,” said Wollney.

Well now you’ve gone and done it. You think you’ve heard it all. Every spurious beaver complaint the world can dream up. Blocking culverts, salmon, attacking dogs, causing beaver fever. But THAT is a new one. Blocking EELS. I have to hand it to you Wollney, for originality at least. And for giving me a chance to post my favorite brief poem of all time.

I don’t mind eels
Except as meals.
And the way they feels.

Ogdon Nash

I will try and track folks down and breathe a little beaver council their way, in the meantime our friend Sherry Guzzi of the Sierra Wildlife Coalition sent this my way and I’d knew you’d want to see it. Watch all the way through and look for a beaver surprise in nearly every frame.

More Beaver Gospel from HCN

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? November 9, 2015

In the beginning there was the word.

And the word was beaver.

The first truly exciting article I read about beaver was from High Country News in 2009. It described the way we had forgotten what watersheds were supposed to look like and introduced me to the dynamic character of Mary Obrien, describing her ‘long think rope of a gray braid.’ I was so excited to see her on the schedule at the first beaver conference that I peeked around looking for long gray hair, and was dissappointed that there were too many possibilities to guess. It was okay, she had cut her hair by then, but we met anyway, went to lunch and next year she came to the beaver festival. Remember?

Well this morning High Country News has done it again: celebrated beaver contribution on a grand scale with an article about the much beloved Methow Project and its guiding light Kent Woodruff. I feel obliged to say that the great headline was hijacked from the Canadian version of Jari Osborne’s game-changing documentary. But the rest of the text is golden.

The beaver whisperer

The lovers are wards of the Methow Valley Beaver Project, a partnership between the U.S. Forest Service, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Methow Salmon Recovery Foundation that, since 2008, has moved more than 300 beavers around the eastern Cascades. These beavers have damaged trees and irrigation infrastructure, and landowners want them gone. Rather than calling lethal trappers, a growing contingent notifies the Methow crew, which captures and relocates the offenders to the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest and state land.

Why would Washington invite ditch-clogging nuisances — so loathed that federal Wildlife Services killed 22,000 nationwide in 2014 — into its wildlands? To hear Methow project coordinator Kent Woodruff tell it, beavers are landscape miracle drugs. Need to enhance salmon runs? There’s a beaver for that. Want to recharge groundwater? Add a beaver. Hoping to adapt to climate change? Take two beavers and check back in a year.

Decades of research support Woodruff’s enthusiasm. Beaver wetlands filter sediments and pollutants from streams. They spread rivers across floodplains, allowing water to percolate into aquifers. They provide rearing grounds for young fish, limit flooding and keep ephemeral creeks flowing year-round.

“We want these guys everywhere,” says Woodruff, a white-stubbled Forest Service biologist with an evangelical gleam in his blue eyes. On this sweltering July morning, he watches as wildlife scientists Catherine Means and Katie Weber hoist Chomper and Sandy, now caged, into the truck that will convey them to the Okanogan-Wenatchee. “We want beavers up every stream, in all the headwaters.”

Yes we do. And mouth too. (Ahem). I’m so happy this is getting the attention of the higher-ups. Kent is a mild-mannered but passionate man who makes easy alliances across party lines. I’ve always been a little jealous of him. Compared to our hard scrabble here in Martinez, the Methow project has always lived a fairly charmed life because it has SO much agency support. Here’s the list of partners in 2014:

So you can see he’s very gifted at playing well with others. One thing I love about the article is getting the back story about Kent himself;

That’s where Woodruff came in. Since arriving in the Okanagan in 1989, he’d focused on birds, installing nesting platforms for owls. But he yearned to leave an enduring legacy, and in 2008 his opportunity -arrived. John Rohrer, Woodruff’s supervisor, had been relocating beavers on a small scale since 2001 — even digging a holding pool in his own backyard. Meanwhile, the Washington Department of Ecology wanted to improve regional water quality. Woodruff thought beavers could help. He offered to expand Rohrer’s endeavor.

I never knew he was a bird man! Cheryl will be happy to read that. Now I’m a purist and want there to be a sentence in here crediting Sherri Tippie for the realization that beaver families do better when they’re relocated as a unit. But I guess saving beavers is a bit like the story of Stone Soup if you’re lucky. Everyone contributes what they can without realizing it matters and in the end helps create something nourishing.

Anyway, its a great article. Go read the whole thing, and if you feel inclined leave a comment about the valuable role beavers can play in urban landscapes.

Here’s was my contribution yesterday, which is an timely response to the articles implication that the answer to our beaver problems is to take them out of the city and move them up country. (As you know, I believe the answer is to let them move wherever they dam well please and make adjustments accordingly.) Credit where its due, the play on words comes from our friend Tom Rusert in Sonoma. But I’m fairly happy with its application here. See if you can tell what city this is: