Category: Beavers elsewhere

A HAPPY ENDING IN ORCHARD PARK

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? April 20, 2024

Sniff, this is a proud morning for beaver advocates everywhere. 17 years after the Martinez beavers changed our world, another champion is unfolding her story. Hurray for the beavers of Orchard Park!

Bedeviled by beavers, Orchard Park chooses non-lethal solution

The beavers in Orchard Park’s Birdsong Park may be deceived, but not deceased, under a nonlethal means to control flooding.

Town Board members approved a plan to split the cost of hiring a Vermont company to install devices to allow water to flow through the beavers’ dam in a way that fools beavers and does not stop the flow.

Beaver Deceivers International will install one to two devices in the pond and tree chew guards for a cost not to exceed $13,500. The cost will be divided between the town, the Friends of Birdsong and a grant the Friends group obtained, with the maximum contribution of $4,500 each.

Raise your hands if you recognize this story! I heard about the city’s agreement weeks ago but Julie wasn’t sure they had any beavers left. Was it too little too late? Yesterday Julie told me she just saw two at the pond and was over the moon.

The Friends group started lobbying the town late last year after the Village of Orchard Park hired a trapper to kill five beavers that had built a dam near Highland Avenue to prevent flooding. The Town Board approved a contract with the trapper for the beavers at Birdsong Park, but residents urged the town to investigate other methods.

Skip Lisle created his first beaver deceiver as a boy when a beaver clogged a culvert near his family’s property. He later earned a master’s degree in wildlife management, and honed his interest in beavers and saving the habitats they create into his company in 2001.

“One skilled person can eliminate the beaver conflict in a town with hand tools in a couple weeks for 50 years,” he said in a recording on his website.

Fifty years? that might be a little exaggeration there Skip, but we get the idea. That’s four generations of beavers. I wish Martinez had beavers for fifty years. Don’t you?

He maintains that killing beavers does not solve the problem, because the area will attract more beavers in the future.

The flow device usually includes a pipe that goes through the dam, creating a permanent leak to lower the level of the pond. The long pipe empties the water away from the dam, deceiving the beavers that would otherwise notice water flowing and fill up the hole.

Boy Scouts installed a similar pipe years ago but it doesn’t work anymore, according to Town Engineer Wayne Bieler.

Never send a boy scout to do a man’s job they say. Or adult woman’s job. Or trained young person. You know what I mean. Get a professional to do the work. And Skip invented the profession so he knows what he’s doing.

Before making arrangements with the company, Wettlaufer said she made sure the beavers were still in the park. There was a concern that they may have been the same beavers that were killed in December.

Wonderful work Julie. Things are headed in a very good direction and I’m thinking Orchard Park would be a great place for a beaver festival.

Happy Earth Day Julie and beaver friends! Just remember what Willly Wonka warned about the boy who got everything he always wanted.

AB 2196: CALIFORNIA’S BEAVER BILL

California’s Beaver Bill!

I have one job here at beaver central and I was feeling pretty horrified at myself for not doing it all these days until I realized that this has been publicized in exactly 2 capitol beat news collection five days ago. In other words I’m not doing too badly.

Did you catch that? So assembly man Connoly introduced a bill at the end of February to codify the focus of the CDFW beaver restoration team and to make it permanent regardless of who is governor at the moment. Protecting the new beaver policy in California for good. This is from the bills fact sheet:

ISSUE

Because the state’s Beaver Restoration Program was created through a budget proposal, the objectives of the CDFW program are not codified to ensure this important work remains a priority in the future, particularly beyond the current Administration, which has prioritized such projects and wildlife goals.

Not sure how he drew the short straw and got this job for the state, I assume because nearby Marin and their push for beavers, (My 95 year old uncle who calls me every time beavers are on the news lives in San Rafael but I don’t think he has anything to do with it?)

I’m sure you are not surprised that this is my favorite part:

Part of this important program, which was created through an Administration funding proposal in the FY2022-23 budget, includes CDFW issuing new policies to reduce lethal depredation of beavers and promote coexistence.

If this were around in 2008 Martinez would have been pretty dam lucky. But think of all the other cities that can benefit from our pilot program!

The bill ends with a list of co-signers including California Trout and Climate Reality and Project Coyote, Hmm it sorta seems like one important name is missing… You might think that such legislation would want the support of the one non profit that actually HAS coexisted with beavers for a decade and has been internationally famous for it.

Maybe cuz we have a swear?

FACT SHEET AB 2196 - Beaver Restoration

CO-EXISTENCE IS KEY

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Who's saving beavers now? March 13, 2024

Thank Goodness! The dry spell is over and we finally have good beaver news to report, This time from West Virginia!

As Beavers Return To W.Va. Wetlands, Conservationists Promote Coexistence

Donning rain boots and gloves, volunteers trudged across a Charles Town wetland Tuesday to prepare the habitat for a pair of unexpected residents.

Jefferson County’s Cool Spring Preserve is currently home to at least two beavers, possibly mates, according to local conservationists. If trail camera photos did not offer proof enough, their presence is made clear through bite marks on trees and a growing number of dams in Bullskin Run, the local stream.

Beavers are native to wetlands across North America, including those in West Virginia. But they were hunted to near-extinction during the 18th century fur trade. With fewer people hunting them for their pelts, beavers are growing in population across the continent. According to many conservationists, that’s a good thing.

Alison Zak serves as founder and executive director of the Human-Beaver Coexistence Fund. The group develops nonlethal strategies to manage beaver populations across the mid-Atlantic.

Zak said that beavers play a key role in bolstering biodiversity, storing groundwater and filtering pollutants in wetland ecosystems. But they also bring what she describes as “beaver problems,” which fall into two main categories: flooding and tree damage.

When beavers build dams, they can redirect the flow of water and prompt flooding. This can disturb roadways and personal property, so conservationists often fence off culverts so beavers cannot disrupt the flow of water with their dams.

Hurray for the Human Coexistence fund. I can’t believe Joe Manchin’s state is wrapping trees for beavers. That tickles my nose like champagne.

Beavers can also chew trees that protect rivers from erosion, as well as saplings planted as part of reforestation efforts. In response, conservationists build wire fences around the bases of trees that need to be protected from local beavers.

That is what brought a team of volunteers onto the preserve Tuesday: to help build fences that ensure trees and beavers can coexist in West Virginia and to strengthen wetland ecosystems.

“A lot of people aren’t aware beavers are around unless, all of a sudden, they come across very obvious signs of beavers, maybe even causing problems on their property,” Zak said. “But also, we’re seeing an increase in tolerance toward beavers, and people wanting to use nonlethal management and wanting to coexist.”

Tuesday’s volunteers placed new wire frames around the bases of trees with overly tight fences or no fences at all. They took particular care to cover saplings, and to give trees enough space to grow freely.

KC Walters, associate director of conservation at Potomac Valley Audubon Society, organized Tuesday’s event. She said that coexistence strategies like these help people come together to solve environmental problems.

“It’s not just conservation, and not just about the relationship with wildlife,” she said. “It’s also about the relationships of the human organizations that exist in keeping us all working together for a common goal.”

Zak said she hopes volunteers left Tuesday’s event with a better understanding of how conservation works.

“I hope they got a little taste of how complex it can be, but how also doable it is,” she said.

Getting audubon involved is smart work. They want those trees for nesting grounds and are motivated to learn about anything that increases the bird population. Good work Alison!

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE NEW DEPREDATION POLICY

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, What's killing beavers now? June 9, 2023

I came across this written stepwise outline for beaver depredation in California and thought I’d share some thoughts. Keep in mind that in some regions most of these steps already happen: I’ve seen a small percentage of reports that describe in detail the reasonable efforts taken to try and resolve the problem without trapping.

Sometimes it’s just summed up in one terrible word. “Hazing”.

As a keystone species and ecosystem engineer, the North American beaver (Castor
canadensis) provides ecosystem services that promote biodiversity protection, habitat restoration, and wildfire-resilient landscapes in California, as aligned with the State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP, 2015) and the state’s Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy (Executive Order N-82-20). Beavers also have an ecological relationship to many species listed under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA; Fish & Game Code (FGC), §2050 et seq.) and/or federal Endangered Species Act (ESA; 16 U.S.C. §§1531-1544). The Department of Fish and Wildlife (Department) is committed to ensuring that humans and beavers can coexist, recognition of their ecological value, and that the removal of any depredation beaver is done in a thoughtful manner.

You hear that? No more thoughtless manners when it comes to killing beavers. That should mean no more permits issued for UNLIMITED numbers of beavers, right?

The Policy outlined in this document is intended to implement a deliberative, tiered approach when responding to reported beaver depredation. The Department will promote the use of various nonlethal beaver damage deterrent techniques to resolve depredation conflicts where feasible. This approach is consistent with FGC section 4181, California Code of Regulations (CCR) Title 14 section 401, the CDFW Ecosystem Services Policy (DB 2017-06), and the Fish and Game Commission Policy on Depredation Control. Therefore, we are providing the following direction for all beaver depredation permits issued in the state. Authorizing the removal of beaver dams is beyond the scope of this policy and may require federal, state, and/or local authorizations (e.g., FGC section 1602
agreement, FGC section 1610 emergency notification, CESA Incidental Take Permit).
Additionally, this Policy is intended to support coordination between the Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) Program, HWC staff, wildlife unit biologist, and others (responders), and the newly established Beaver Restoration Program (BRP). Upon completion of the Department’s new Beaver Management and Restoration Plan, the BRP will conduct beaver conservation translocations to restoration and reintroduction sites approved by the Department. When and where opportunities exist, the BRP will seek to utilize depredation beavers in its projects. Such efforts will require advance communication among the BRP and appropriate Department staff about impending translocation projects, BRP capacity to intake beavers, and depredation reports that may warrant beaver take.

Where feasible? What exactly does feasible mean? Was Martinez feasible? And in general is the term undefined so that one man’s feasible is another man’s out of the question? What’s “Feasible” in Placer county?

STEPWISE PROCESS FOR BEAVER DEPREDATION INCIDENTS IN CALIFORNIA

Confirmation of depredation. Per Fish and Game Code section 4181, a
beaver depredation reported by the reporting party (RP) must be verified by a
Department responder.

Responders will collect the following information:
Full description of the property damaged, destroyed, or immediately threatened, including pictures as available, and the date(s) occurred.
Method of identifying the species suspected of damaging, destroying, or threatening

Description of nonlethal or less-lethal measures used to prevent beaver damage prior to requesting the permit.

If the location of the property with reported damages is located within the known range of a species listed pursuant to CESA or ESA (see 3b).
Responders will assess if the damage to the property pose an imminentthreat to public safety.
If the responder determines that the beaver activity poses an imminent threat to public safety (e.g., catastrophic infrastructure damage), the responder, in consultation with their chain of command, may prioritize issuance of a depredation permit uponrequest of the RP. The responder, at their discretion, shall add termsand conditions to the permit necessary to protect wildlife and ensure public safety.

Allow me to say here that Martinez would have claimed there was an imminent threat to public safety and that trapping was the only way to prevent terrible flooding that would have destroyed roads and infrastructure and ruined our downtown.

They would have been LYING. How do you plan to rule that out?

Education.

To help reduce requests for permits, the responder shall first educate the RP regarding beaver behavior, ecology and ecosystem benefits, and site-specific options to mitigate beaver damage.

Responder will have reasonable situational awareness, such asunderstanding of relevant research, population dynamics, co-occurring species, habitats, or natural communities that may be impacted, as well as any other pertinent factors.
Responder shall provide the RP options to institute logistically and economically feasible corrective actions to prevent future occurrence ofthe beaver damage. The concurrent use of multiple methods is recommended.
Potential actions may include, but are not limited to:
Install water-flow management devices (e.g., flexible pond levelers, Clemson levelers, “beaver deceivers”, “Beaver Back-Saver Device”).
Install trapezoidal fencing with or without pond leveler device attached.iii. Install cylindrical cages, exclusion fencing (e.g., electric fence,hardware cloth around trees).

This is better known as the TRY SOMETHING, TRY ANYTHING clause. Which I suppose is dimly better than not trying anything, Saying that you should use a Clemson or a Pond Leveler or cotton balls and duct tape reads as if their both the same amount of research and effectiveness. There is no recognition of the fact that using a well understood tool with a proven track record is in fact better than using one that’s so outdated people don’t use it anymore.

Deploy repellents (e.g., coating trees with paint/sand mixture).
Eliminate local attractants (e.g., gardens, crops, lush vegetation).
Install cylindrical cages, exclusion fencing (e.g., electric fence, h ardware cloth around trees).
Deploy repellents (e.g., coating trees with paint/sand mixture).
Eliminate local attractants (e.g., gardens, crops, lush vegetation
Subject matter experts may be consulted to help identify appropriatenonlethal measures and corrective actions.

WE LIKE Step 6! Can we make step 6 Step 1 and forget the Clemson? Can we please give rp’s extra credit if they actually follow that step? And cam we make cities that wrap trees with orange plastic an automatic fail? (I’m looking at you Bakersfield).

RP requests a permit. If the RP requests a depredation permit, the Department may issue a revocable permit that authorizes take of the animal(s) by the permittee and their authorized agents, pursuant to FGC section 4181 and CCR section 401.

Consistent with Fish and Game Code section 86, “take” means to hunt,pursue, catch, capture, or kill, or attempt to hunt, pursue, catch, capture, or kill.
Responder shall provide technical guidance to reduce the risk of incidental take of a non-target species. If the BRP has communicated with HWC staff or wildlife biologists that beavers are needed for an approved project, the responder will consult BRP staff to determine whether to request voluntary cooperation from theRP to live capture/relocate the depredation beaver(s). This action wouldoccur in place of issuing a permit. If there is no active request for beavers,BRP consultation is not required.

Terms and conditions of permit.

The Department, at its discretion, shall add terms and conditions to the permit necessary to protect wildlife and ensurepublic safety, including but not limited to conditions that require the permitteeto implement corrective actions to prevent future damages.

The rest is pretty much the same. You know it by heart. Permit issued for a specific period of time, blah blah blah. For my money the best parts of this are actually writing down that beavers are important to California and saying that landowners must be provided with some basic education about beavers when they seek permission to kill them. I’m actually not sure what this will change in practice, but we’ll see when we look at the numbers again later this year.

I’m going to bet the will be LONGER descriptions of what they tried to do to solve the problem some of them actually useful, fewer unlimited permits issued and a smaller allowed take overall, but close to the same number of permits granted.

We’ll see.

CHINA CREEK COOPERATES WITH BEAVERS

heidi08 Flow Device Installed, Who's saving beavers now? April 29, 2023

This was a lovely article to come across this morning.

Device on China Creek Allows Beaver and Residents to ‘Coexist’

Centralian Owner of ‘Beaver Craftworks’ Installs Pond Leveler at Centralia College

By Isabel Vander Stoep / isabel@chronline.com

Luc Lamarche, of Beaver Craftworks, installs a pond leveler in China Creek along South King Street in Centralia as Centralia College Biology Professor Francis Bozzolo sets up a trail camera on Friday, April 21, 2023.

Poor academic performance aside, one Centralia College attendee has been causing grief for the school’s neighbors.

It’s a beaver. The creature has built its dam where China Creek runs through campus. With the rodent’s residence backing up water, businesses and homes in the area see an increased risk of flooding. However, trapping the beaver is a temporary solution, according to Luc Lamarche, of Centralia, owner of Beaver Craftworks.

“Some local beaver is going to notice, ‘Hey those digs are better than my digs. I’m going to move over there,’” Lamarche said. “It creates this black hole … (for the) landowner or the county or the public works department.”

Plus, Lamarche said, with Centralia in the flat, lush valley of the Chehalis River and its tributaries, “this whole area is beaver heaven.” Moving the creature simply makes it some other landowner’s problem.

Beavers are a keystone species, meaning they play an integral role in a healthy watershed. Lamarche’s business aims to create “beaver coexistence”: preventing flooding while letting the beaver stay in its chosen spot.

“Neighbors had voiced concerns like, ‘Well what’s up with this extra water?’ The college cares about that,” Lamarche said. “They’re excited to have a beaver, but they want to be good neighbors. And good fences make good neighbors, just like good boundaries make good relationships. … Anyone who’s married will understand that.”

This week, he installed one of a few coexistence contraptions at the Centralia College site. It’s called a pond leveler, which essentially runs a pipe through the dam so water continues to flow. The beaver will patch the holes from the pipe on its own. As the dam is built, more water will flow through the pipe.

The contraption also ensures the water level stays high enough for the beaver to swim down to their dam’s entryway, which protects them from predators.

Among other beaver coexistence devices Lamarche makes are culvert fences, as drainage pipes under roadways are destination getaways for beavers.

I just had to check and China creek is it in Washington state of course. I never heard of beaver craft before and didn’t know that Jakob was training people but that is wonderful news.

Living in Centralia since 2007, Lamarche studied as a civil engineer. Living in the rural area, he fell in love with nature.

“I started learning about beaver’s history and had this ‘Aha!’ moment,” he said. “(Beavers are) the animal kingdom’s civil engineer.”

He began learning more about North America’s largest rodent through classes and, in 2021, founded Beaver Craftworks.

While the devices are an “upfront investment,” he said, they can save time and money accrued by the permitting process and the execution of beaver trapping. The work is founded on decades worth of research preceding his business, Lamarche said.

Every beaver presents new challenges, he said. There are beavers in Canada with dams that stretch for more than 1 kilometer, which Lamarche referred to as “beaver New York City.” As much water is held back above ground by one beaver dam, it’s estimated that two to five times as much is stored underground.

This groundwater can be beneficial to plants and other species in an ecosystem. Beavers essentially create new wetland habitat, which can be critical for many other species’ survival.

Lamarche recommends anyone who’s interested to go online and research “beaver coexistence.” Check out more about the business and its work on Instagram at “beavercraftworks,” or the website https://www.beavercraft.works/.

Someday, cooperating with Beavers will be as common as planting tomatoes, without pesticides. And when that day comes, you know I’ll be there celebrating and I’ll invite you to celebrate too.