Category: Beavers and water

BEAVER ARTICLE MANQUÉ

heidi08 Beavers and water November 13, 2018

And on the morning when the deaths from the camp fire hit 42 we gathered to talk about beavers and water because that’s what we do even when horrible things are happening all over our state, We had two family members from England call to check on us yesterday because from far away its easy to assume everything is burning.

California needs water and water doesn’t burn.

This was on NPR yesterday and it was very close to being a story about what beavers might have do if we let them. Call it a beaver man·qué article and lets listen.

Our Turn At This Earth: The Beaver Creeks

Just because its named “BEAVER CREEK” and has dried up every year since the beavers were trapped out in the fur trade, that doesn’t mean anything, right? I mean why would a person writing a story about lost waterways particularly jump to that crazy conclusion.

Beavers watered the west. We killed the beavers and moved into the places they made lush for us. Then we wondered why they stopped being lush. I’m sure it was just a coincidence.

ON SECOND THOUGHT, DON’T DRAIN THE SWAMP

There’s crazy political news every where, but good beaver news just keeps creeping in. Starting with this very practical film from our friends at the Scottish Wild beavers I pulled off facebook. When you consider that the majority of depredation permits are issued for damage to trees, this video becomes pretty dam important. I would love to see millions more. Maybe one where the people keep changing, teenagers, kids, grandmas to show how this is EASY. And then maybe the wildlife beavers benefit keeps changing to show that it’s worth doing.

The funny thing is that last night I dreamed that I had a meeting with Dave Scola the head of public works, who was unhappy that beavers were eating trees at the marina. In the dream I was simultaneously filled with dread and brainstorming solutions, while trying to decide whether to call him on obvious lies and how best to organize tree wrapping soon with volunteers. All of those things at once, because that’s what life was like 11 years ago. I woke up so very happy I don’t have to deal with that kind of pressure anymore, although I would be would be willing to face it indefinitely if ithat meant I could see beavers.

*A beaver at Schwabacher Landing in Grand Teton National Park. Photograph by Charlie Hamilton James, Nat Geo Image Collection*

This makes twice in one year beavers have been the subject of a National Geographic article, but this one is mostly about the value of the swamps they create.

These swamp creatures serve a purpose… and need our help

The phrase “drain the swamp” goes back many decades in reference to changing bureaucracy—and it implies that swamps are stagnant, undesirable places.

In reality, swamps are wildly productive. The swamps in the Middle East’s were a boon to agriculture and human society, and the area is considered the birthplace of civilization.

Only five percent of the continental U.S. consists of wetlands, “yet they are home to nearly one-third of all of our plant species,” and to over a third of rare and endangered plant and animal species, says Mike Hardig, a biologist at the University of Montevallo in Alabama, via email.

“Swamp microbes improve water quality,” says conservation ecologist Christine Angelini of the University of Florida via email. They do this by removing excess nitrogen from the water, she says.

Also, many larger filter-feeding invertebrates such as mussels live on the bottom of swamps, “cleaning the water of suspended organic remains,” Hardig says.

That’s a pretty nice introduction to swamp 101. Of course my favorite part comes next.

Alabama’s Ebenezer Swamp is dependent on beavers, “whose dams create backwater areas where many other organisms can live,” says Hardig, who heads the Ebenezer Swamp Wetlands Research and Interpretive Program.

By damming up rivers, beavers create ponds. That creates “an open water component,” which is especially important in places like Texas that have experienced recent extreme droughts, White says.

These ponds “become the watering hole for local wildlife.”

Insects that require water to lay their eggs in, such as dragonflies and the mosquitos they eat, provide food for birds, fish, amphibians, bats, and other bugs.

And far from being ugly or foreboding, wetlands “provide an abundance of natural beauty that is capable of soothing the ragged psyche of typical modernite,” Hardig says.

No one ever said anything so nice about politics. We’re voting for the swamps.

Well in Martinez beavers were politics, so you talked about them both at the same time. Ahh memories.

Finally today there’s a snippet of beaver news from Missouri of all places. This report on KBIA. from the Department of Conservation’s Discover Nature series. The brief report ran with that nice illustration which I thought you would appreciate. Considering where it’s from this is pretty deft beaver praise.

Discover Nature: Beavers Prepare for Winter

A RIVER TRIES TO RUN THROUGH IT

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and water October 27, 2018

“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”

Not Mark Twain (Charles Dudly Warner)

In Germany they have had so much drought this year that the shipping freight can barely make it down stream. I can imagine if beavers talked that would be a subject they repeated again and again at beaver cocktail parties.

Cry me a river: Low water levels causing chaos in Germany

BERLIN (AP) — A new island in Lake Constance. A river in Berlin flowing backward. Dead fish on the banks of lakes and ponds. Barges barely loaded so they don’t run aground.

A hot, dry summer has left German rivers and lakes at record low water levels, causing chaos for the inland shipping industry, environmental damage and billions of euros (dollars) in losses — a scenario that experts warn could portend the future as global temperatures rise.

The drought-like conditions have hit nearly 90 percent of the country this year.

Wow, that’s one lost looking ship. Germany must be suffering. Much of their industry depends on shipping and with fewer rivers still passable it must be chaos. I wonder how the beavers are doing?

A family of beavers living in the German capital’s central Tiergarten park has attracted a lot of attention for taking matters into their own paws. They built a new dam about six weeks ago to keep the area wet — but that just dried other areas up.

“They wanted their old water level back,” Ehlert said.

Other wildlife has been less able than the beavers to cope. Hundreds of tons of fish and countless freshwater mussels have been dying as waters have receded, said Magnus Wessel, head of nature conservation policy for the environmental group BUND.

Causes for the die-offs include greater concentrations of pesticides and other toxins due to the lower volume of water, boat traffic riding closer to the riverbeds, the increased number of boats on the rivers and less oxygen in the water, Wessel said.

I wish them rain, rain and rain. The summer I spent in Germany (where I met the Jon, lo these many years ago), had the most wonderful rainstorms. Only at night when you were home safely in bed the sky would burst open and drench the earth. I wish them those.

Meanwhile our friends in Port Moody B.C. are facing a different kind of calamity. Even though the election swung the right way the decisions have not and the DFO fishery folks have been charging ahead with ripping out the beaver dams to nurture what they worry are lazy, handicapped chum. Judy was so upset when she posted this, and I don’t blame her, It’s hard to watch. I told her to bring wilow branches. Beavers are hardy, they will figure out a way to stay around when there is food. Just like ours did when the sheetpile split their home in two.

Ouch. That kit is so little for the end of October. I imagine they’re going to stick around just for him. I remember watching our beavers ‘walk upstream’ after a dam washout. It’s a horrible, suspenseful feeling.

Been there. Done that.

I have to believe beavers are uniquely equipped to figure out how to cope with the watery problems in their own lives. I’m sure they are less upset by this than we are.

WATER SAVERS AND CALIFORNIA

heidi08 Beavers and water October 26, 2018

Time for some vote-inspired beaver writing. This one from our friends who never realize they’re writing about beavers.

How do we cope with demands for water as we enter an era of scarcity?

Urban water systems in California and elsewhere face a time of reckoning, warns Richard Luthy, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford.

Groundwater aquifers are being depleted and rivers are drying up, even as demand for water keeps climbing. Yet cities can no longer meet society’s thirst by importing more water from far away. Luthy, however, is optimistic. As director of the National Science Foundation’s ReNUWIt effort—short for Re-Inventing the Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure—he helps to develop alternative sources through wastewater recycling, stormwater capture and desalination.

“We will have to make big investments, just as we had to make big investments a century ago in dams and aqueducts,” he says. “But with good decisions, we should be in good shape.”

Wait, I know this one. Shhh don’t tell me the answer, I can guess.

California has a long-standing “Public Trust Doctrine,” which holds that we have to protect the “common heritage” of streams, lakes, rivers and marshlands. Following a 1983 case about how Los Angeles was diverting water from Mono Lake, the California Supreme Court ruled that “common heritage” meant protecting recreation, aesthetic values and the ecology. The decision meant people had to leave more water for ecosystems and for fish.

Put all this together, and it means that we need to set aside more groundwater for our aquifers and more surface water for our rivers, streams and lakes—even though the state’s population and economy are still growing. These aren’t just challenges for California. The same issues are arising in the Southwest, in Texas, in parts of Florida and in Atlanta. We are experiencing it first, but we’re hardly alone.

I’m thinking of this animal that stores water better than we do and does it in a way that benefits a whole lot of critters. Can you guess what I’m thinking?

Of course his recommendation has nothing to do with beaver. It involves reusing water and installing recycling plants to collect grey water. Never mind your endearing rodents that would raise the water table and keep valuable resources on the land. They don’t matter.

Which brings us to measure 3.

If you’ve been paying attention you’d know that the Nature Conservancy supports this and the Sierra club opposes it. My friends on the waterboard and the urban streams support it and say its essential to the work to protect salmon, the SF Chronicle and East by Express says its a give away to agriculture interests who should invest money to solve their own water problem.

What’s a beaver supporting ecologist to do?

Feel free to write or post your thoughts and advice. I can’t imagine that any water measure that divides the conservationists into two camps can ever pass anyway, so it might be moot.

But I know what I’d vote fore if it was on the ballot. And I’m saving that story.

BEAVERS MAKE RESILIENT LANDSCAPES

heidi08 Beavers and Flooding, Beavers and water October 15, 2018

Pensacola beach after hurricane Michael.

There are about a million reasons why wetlands matter. Here’s just one.

Protecting Wetlands Helps Communities Reduce Damage From Hurricanes And Storms

You know what is really good at making wetlands? Yeah, I’m sure you do. If only we would stop killing them long enough to let them do their jobs maybe they would have a chance to help us.

Beavers work hard. Our New Hampshire friend Art Wolinsky posted this yesterday showing the beavers at his condo are hard at work trying to expand theirs. Remember that silly young beaver who was trying to dam a tree last time?

Let’s just say he’s found his niche.

That little snickerdoodle! I love this beaver with a fiery passion. Doesn’t it remind you of those childhood stories where some little hero is too short to reach the water fountain, or play rugby with his brothers but because he is so small it turns out he’s the only one who can crawl for help when the mine collapses or whatever?

He or she turns out to be the unexpected hero of the day!
I’m sure Art will do what needs to be done to manage things safely. There should be more stories like that. Speaking of which, here’s a fine story-time from the Louiseville Public Library.

I hate to break it to you but it’s monday and we always know how that turns out. You are going to need this just to get by. I know it’s not about beavers, but believe me, don’t try and sip your coffee while you watch it. I know you’ll thank me for it.