Category: Beavers and trout

Painting the town – er trunk, in Fargo

heidi08 Beaver Chewing, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? November 8, 2015

Beaver Backers paint trees in Fargo to protect furry friends

Thief River Falls resident Nina Berg, a member of the Beaver Backers organization that sprung up to defend the Fargo beavers, said the large-scale tree painting Saturday will hopefully spare the beavers.

The board voted to cull beavers after hearing concerns from residents and staff about the animals destroying trees and costing the city thousands of dollars. Park District officials said later they were open to non-leathal options.

The painting is a solution that will appease beaver backers and those concerned with the trees, Berg said.

“(The mixture) will be very unappealing to the beavers, and they will avoid those trees that we’re trying to protect,” Berg said.

The group spent several hours on Saturday painting more than 1,300 trees on the Fargo side of the river. The group will paint about 75 percent of the trees in the park and save 25 percent of the trees for the beavers to munch on and build dams

Hurray for the sensible, compassionate folks of Fargo who held a kickstarter to raise funds for the project and got 30 volunteers out in November to sand paint trees! 1300 is A LOT of trees. They are officially the tree-painting capital of the world now. I’m thrilled that this was able to happen, but still a little confused about the color choice.? Why not match the trunk? We’ve certainly marched into Home Depot with willow branches for them to match. But heck, maybe mint green was on sale.

Michelle Peterson said the painting will save beavers and the trees and hopefully sway the Park District to allow the beavers stays of execution. “If they come out here and see that it’s working, then hopefully they’ll let us keep coming out and doing this every year,” Berg said, adding that the group had permission from the Park District to paint the trees.

Nina and Michelle ROCK! They got tons of media for this project and volunteer support. Fingers crossed they used enough mason sand to really discourage those beavers. Jon always found that by the end he was using his hands to really get the sand to stick.

And because remarkable stories like this deserve a treat, I’m sharing the stunning photo found by Ann Cameron Siegal on Creative Commons. It was taken by Elizabeth Haslam and posted yesterday on the US Fish and Wildlife Facebook page. And some lovely human said, “I just saw this fantastic documentary on all the great things beavers do”.

Guess what the nation’s wildlife experts commented. Go ahead, guess.

great mother kit beaver — Elizabeth Haslam: Creative Commons

“Awesome! Do you remember what it’s called? In case folks are interested.”

That’s right, even though all of America and parts of Canada watched Jari Osborne’s incredible documentary in 2014, and all of Canada watched it in 2013, even though it had the highest ratings of any Nature program on Public television that year and was the one that PBS sent for Emmy consideration, the experts at fish and wildlife didn’t even know about it. Because, I guess, busman’s holiday. They already know it all. Why learn more?

If they wanted to learn more they should come to the beaver festival this year. I spent yesterday finishing the grant application for this year’s children’s activity. It details how Mike at Wildbryde will design charms shaped like rail cars to for children to fashion into a bracelet. I can’t help being a little proud of this.

“Oh, the beaver and the cowman should be friends”

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, featured November 7, 2015

Do you know who Carol Evans is? You really should. I read about her work in Elko, NV many years ago and knew I had to reach out. You for sure saw her in the beginning of the PBS documentary checking out the beaver restoration of Suzie Creek in Nevada with Suzanne Fouty. Now do you remember? Carol has been working her special collaborative magic with the unbelievably complex cast of characters in her state with some pretty amazing results.

So amazing, in fact, that she was recently invited to a biodiversity and climate change workshop at Tufts University in Boston. (Which is about as close as you come in this line of work to being a rock star). Because the university is among the finest in the land, the web page for the conference has everyone’s presentation and slides up and downloadable. You could spend many hours but, start with Carol and Jon, who are a superhuman tagteam of why to live with beavers.

I know that everyone is busy and maybe thinking you don’t have time to watch. But believe me, you should. Here’s my favorite slide of Carol’s, showing the ground water increases adjacent to a beaver dam.
(That’s a little thing beavers do called “recharging the aquifer”.)

And just in case you are inclined to watch hers and not his, I will warn you that you would be making a very grave error. Because Jon Grigg’s straightforward, plainspoken presentation is wonderfully powerful. I can completely understand why they have had such success all over the state because of his resonance. I don’t agree with every single thing he says, but that is how collaboration works. You form alliances based on mutual interests and set aside disagreements until you get things accomplished. And I am proud to think both of them are allies in our work to educate folks about beavers.

Wasn’t that awesome? That’s right, now even Nevada knows more about beaver restoration than California. Sigh.

I got a call this week from a producer working on a beaver film for the UK, he wanted to make the argument for beaver reintroduction there and will be interviewing Carol, Mary Obrien and Michael Pollock, among others. They will be doing the bulk of their filming in Nevada and Oregon, but I made a strong case for urban beaver restoration and pitched what we had done and what Napa was currently doing. He was actually really interested in including Napa because it was so well known and was going to pitch the idea to his team. Fingers crossed, their local beavers maybe stars someday.

It’s been a weirdly busy month. In addition to everything else, I received a disappointing note that my beaver article won’t be included in this ‘Phoebe’ newsletter for the Sierra Foothill Audubon Society because it got bumped for climate change. Hrmph. Another year of massive beaver depredations in Placer county I bet. Hopefully it can appear sometime in the future. In the meantime, I received a great video this morning about genetic resilience and climate change in cottonwoods, that actually has a segment on the importance of beavers. The title is aptly a quote from Martinez’s own John Muir.

Its very well done, I learned several new words and you will be much smarter at the end than you were at the beginning. It won’t let me embed it here, but click on the title to go see for yourself. The beaver segment starts at 31.20. Just remember, we are what we learn.

A Thousand Invisible Cords: Connecting Genes to Ecosystems, the complete movie from Research on Vimeo.

The opposite of ‘News’

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental, History, In the News November 6, 2015

There has been such a horn-of-plenty full of great beaver news lately; beaver removing nitrogen and beavers saving LA. If you’re like me, you probably get this tingly, turning-a-corner feeling. Like the SEA CHANGE we need in beaver thinking is FINALLY here. That were steps away from changing beaver policy in California, the west, – even the world. At last, things are starting to take root and penetrate the richer soils where they can sustainably grow and reseed generations. We start to see headlines like this, and get really excited.

Bullish on Beavers

While some cattle ranchers scorn the giant rodents, others are putting beavers to work Mellen is one of about a dozen ranchers in a four-county area of south-central Idaho who are bullish on beavers. While some folks scorn the big rodents for their propensity to choke culverts and clog irrigation ditches, ranchers are discovering that beavers can be a valuable tool for restoring riparian areas, the green strips of vegetation that border waterways and provide most of the habitat for wildlife along Rocky Mountain streams and elsewhere in the West.

Mellen and his neighbors are not alone. Ranchers in Colorado, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada are also working with federal officials to rejuvenate riparian areas with beavers. “Beavers are now looked upon as an integral part of stream recovery,” says Wayne Elmore, a national riparian restoration expert for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Prineville, Oregon.

Slowly, public-land officials, along with some ranchers, are working on ways to reverse a large part of the damage. In 1990, the BLM and Forest Service developed tougher regulations for riparian areas on public lands. And last year, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt announced a plan for range reform on most public lands that includes higher grazing fees and penalties for land abuse.

In practice, to restore riparian areas, federal range managers must gain the cooperation of ranchers who hold grazing permits-and that’s not always easy. Ranchers often harbor a distrust of the government; some consider public grazing allotments to be their own land. And ranchers often detest beavers. “I don’t know why some people have such contempt for beavers,” Pence laments. “It’s hard to get people to let loose of that. Heck, there’s even some people in my agency that think I’m crazy.”

Probably no one can convince a cowboy of anything as well as another cowboy. Retired Colorado rancher Bill Barnard has won numerous awards for turning the Cathedral Bluffs BLM grazing allotment near Meeker, Colorado, into a shining example of range stewardship. He gives beavers a heap of credit for his success. He says of fellow ranchers, “Maybe they don’t like beavers, maybe they don’t want beavers, but I tell them maybe they’d better try beavers or they’ll be out of business.”

Fantastic! Getting a cowboy to talk sense to other cowboys. BLM has the sense to use a trusted voice to promote a very suspicious product! It seems like there is a real recognition that human psychology is the biggest obstacle to our seeing beaver as a resource. How exciting to come across such an encouraging article. I guess we can expect many more to come!

There’s just one little problem.

Read the date again.

If you were reading this article in the delivery room after just having a beautiful baby girl she’d be sipping her first chardonnay by now. Bill Clinton was president. Friends had its first season. Whitney Houston was winning the grammy for singing the song you never need to hear again. And everyone who didn’t go to Two Weddings and a Funeral was watching Pulp Fiction.

In other words, this was a long fucking time ago.

Now I’m fairly used to finding brilliant remarks about beavers from 100 years ago, in the writings of Grey Owl or Enos Mills. I’m even used to reading them surprisingly from Fish and game in the 20’s and thirties. But reading something THAT smart from our recent past makes me realize that we’ve been ‘turning the corner’ on beavers for such a ridiculously long time. Frogs, salmon, water, carbon. We’ve turned ‘more corners’ than the media reporting on Iraq. We’ve turned ‘more corners’ than an octagon riding a tilt-a-wheel. We’ve turned all the corners. There are no corners left to turn.

Which doesn’t mean I’m giving up. Just taking a slightly longer-term view. It’s not about getting better science. It’s not about telling better stories. It’s not about proving that we can. The next time I’m inclined to hold my breath because ‘its finally happening!’ I’m going to make myself watch this.

Wait, Wait! Don’t Tell Me!

heidi08 Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Educational, Environmental, Who's Killing Beavers Now? November 4, 2015

Oh look, California has a drought sad. They think concrete dams will make them happy. Good thing they have millions of dollars. Here’s a clip from yesterday’s PBS Newshour.

You know they said the word ‘environmental’ several times in this report, but did they ever say the word FISH? I don’t think so. Or SALMON. I mean obviously the fact that they talked to Dr. Moyle means they know the word and are thinking about it, but I guess they didn’t want to say it aloud?

Imagine what other western states use to save water? I’ll give you a hint. It starts with a “B” And it works for free. And it eats from a tree.

And California kills a bucket load of them.

You know I’ve been in the beaver biz so long that I remember how THRILLED I was when this video came out. Five years ago I thought for SURE this would turn the tide. Hahaha. I was so young and naive.

Thanks BK for sending this and HI PETER MOYLE who often is willing to play name that fish with us! I only wish the News Hour would invest this kind of money in the real solution which California ignores and kills every day.

Now beaver fans everywhere have an important job to do, and that is to turn the head of the master craftsman who made this stunning piece. I wrote him yesterday how beautiful I thought it was and told him I would send him a million beaver friends, asking him to think about donating to the silent auction.

I heard back from him right away. He had a purchase from England immediately after my email. And he’s thinking about it. This morning he is sold out of beavers, but has other beautiful wildlife to choose from. Help him be persuaded?

William Guse, known in the Society for Creative Anachronism as Master Ark of Ringholden, has been making Medieval jewellery for over 35 years. He has spent his whole life as a craftsman. Making things is not just his livelihood, it is his passion.

From the beaver sacred to the beaver profane

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? October 23, 2015

I sometimes like to think of this website like a big spiders ‘web’ in the corner of a very active barn. Everything that flows through beaver-related breezes winds up passing thru here in one way or another.

Last year in may I received an email from a Vince Patton of Oregon Field Guide. I was especially excited because they produced a great video on beavers and salmon that I refer to all the time.

First, I’d like to thank you for featuring some of our videos from Oregon Public Broadcasting on your website. That’s very kind. I’m a reporter with Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “Oregon Field Guide.” My latest story is about urban beavers.

We are in search of video of beavers in Oregon, especially in urban areas. Might you know who would have some? Or could you please share my inquiry with your members in the Portland metro area? I saw one video on line which credited Heidi Perryman and Worth A Dam. Could you put me in touch with her?

Thanks for any help you can lend!

Vince Patton
OPB News
Oregon Field Guide Producer

What do you think, could I put him in touch with Heidi Perryman? He was working on a piece about urban beavers and wondered if I had any footage he could use. I put him in touch with lots of local resources because I was having lots of conversations with local folks at the time about the Tiger and Greenway beavers. He didn’t really need footage from here, as you can see. But was grateful for the contacts.

You never know if projects are going to amount to anything. So you can imagine how happy I was to see this:

Isn’t that wonderful? Don’t you want to meet all those people who are cooperating with beaver in their own yards? Don’t you want to buy those houses and live there yourself! Vince did an EXCELLENT job telling this story and, go figure, when I hear city officials saying why its good to live with beavers I instantly tear up.

I am pretty certain that line “beavers change thing. It’s what they do.” is a direct quote from me. But don’t worry. I don’t want credit.

I just want my own way, and obviously I’m getting it in Portland.

More stunning video was released yesterday with such fanfare that, in addition to beaver experts, my niece and cousin sent it along excitedly! This from 1950 by the Idaho Fish and Game commission showing the reintroduction of muskrats, beavers and fisher. The muskrats are tossed by their tails, but the beavers are thrown from a plane and dropped by parachute.

This has been a story from the beaver history books for years now, and it’s nice to finally see the [mostly cruel] footage. I’m sure they were thinking it was a win-win for them. Either the beavers thrived in the upcountry and improved conditions, OR they died on impact and they got to get rid of a nuisance once and for all.

Either way, it was worth spending government money on.