Category: Beavers elsewhere

PUBLIC EYES MATTER TO BEAVERS

Isn’t that a weird coincidence? Rob Schroeder was the mayor of Martinez since forEVER and during that time every single group and nonprofit and team and hobby was invited to display in the artifact case at city hall except for you know, Worth A Dam and those very famous Martinez Beavers. But now for the first time another nice lady is mayor and we’ve been invited to display items and photos for the beaver festival for the entire month of June.

Isn’t that just a weird coincidence?
I think we will have some great ‘artifacts’ to add along with this, maybe a lunch bag beaver puppet, a charm bracelet and our congressional record certificate?

The other bright spot in my day today was reading this gruesome article which gave me exhilarating domestic terrorism fantasies because if a few believers paid trappers to do this in a few more state parks all our troubles would be over.

New Hartford Town Board bans trapping in public parks after skinned beavers found

NEW HARTFORD — Members of the New Hartford Town Board engaged in a tense discussion about trapping and hunting in public parks after several skinned beaver carcasses were discovered on the Rayhill Trail in New Hartford.

The meeting room in New Hartford’s municipal building was filled with concerned and angry New Hartford residents who pushed the town board to pass a resolution to ban trapping in public parks at the town board meeting on Wednesday, April 19.

The board held the public comment period at the end of the meeting. Town Supervisor Paul Miscione wanted to postpone the discussion about the beavers until the next meeting, when council had time to review the report from the DEC investigation that has been closed.

Yup. Drop a few skinned beavers on a nice family trail near the kiddie park and get yourself some popcorn to sit back and watch the drama unfold before your eyes.

Attendees were unhappy with this, saying that they went to this night’s meeting to discuss the beavers, and that the board does not need to review the report to listen to how the attendees feel about the slaughter of the beavers.

“I understand your concern and I think it’s appalling,” Miscione said. “I spoke to other people that are trapping … and you don’t leave anything like that. There’s trapping, and then there’s that. Again, I agree, but there’s other people that’s going to be here, the state official will come to the next meeting.”

The board allowed Judy Cusworth, founder of the Woodhaven Wildlife Center, a nonprofit wildlife sanctuary in Chadwicks, to speak. Cusworth has been working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and received the initial complaint about the beavers.

“Unless you take the initiative to post every park in the town of New Hartford, this can go on,” she added. “Do you want your kids to see this? To walk off the trail and step in a leg-hold trap?”

Cusworth had pictures of the dead beavers, and presented the graphic and upsetting images to the board.

If a few fliers and a video is upsetting, a family of dead skinned beavers has got to be be an alarm bell. Ohh and a few dead skinned kits laying along side their parents. Now that would be a five alarm fire.

“I’m not asking you to start saying, ‘No hunting, no trapping in the entire town. Listen, I’m not that stupid,” Cusworth said. “I understand that people who own property, who pay taxes, if they want to give somebody permission to hunt and trap, I’m not asking you to shut them down. I’m asking you to shut your parks down.”

Cusworth said that in the investigation, the DEC determined that this was not done by any government entity.

BOCES, which has property that closely borders the Rayhill Trail, is posting signs that ban hunting and trapping on its property.

Miscione said that none of the board members have experience in environmental conservation, so they would like to speak with a DEC representative to learn more before making any decisions. This led attendees to become upset and raise their voices at Miscione, urging the board to ban hunting and trapping in the parks that night.

Yes please. Go on. Tell me more about how this never happens and how its a very unprofessional mistake from a careless recreational trapper. I’m pretty sure dead beavers wind up looking the same where their carcasses are left in the trail or buried without a trace.

“The frustration is that it’s the will of the community, and we’re being overspoken repeatedly,” an attendee said.

“Why not make a motion tonight to post signs” Why not?” another attendee asked.

Town Attorney Herb Cully attributed his hesitance to the uncertainty of the legality of this decision.

“Normally there would be some kind of a public hearing, these parks are in part funded by state and federal funds, … these folks are asking this board, and no one has presented this that I’m aware of prior to today, saying ‘OK, you guys pass it right now.’ I’d like to make sure it’s done legally and properly,” he said.

Dave Liebig, executive director of the New York Trappers Association, said that he walked the trail that day, and that both sides of the Rayhill Trail are private property — only the trail itself is public property.

Liebig said that beavers are trapped in the water, and so they would not have been trapped on the walking path itself. The carcasses were left by the trail on BOCES property.

“Trappers do not condone dumping carcasses anywhere,” Liebig said. “We do not condone that. … the only other time that happens is if they have a long walk back, and say if it’s an elderly gentleman that’s trapping, so they can’t carry the beaver that distance.”

The board passed a motion to post signs on public park land that ban trapping, which garnered a round of applause from attendees. The meeting adjourned shortly after.

If the people lead then the leaders will follow. Here’s proof of that once again. These people were riled and spitting mad that their nice park was polluted with dead beaver carcasses and they were on display for all their children to see. I actually wonder who took them away eventually? Did some one step up or call public works to do the deed?

Who ever did I want to personally thank that family of dead beavers. They selflessly changed the world for beavers in that park for a good long time. People always say when they trap and eat beaver isn’t it good that they didn’t go to waste? Well these beavers definitely didn’t go to waste.

They changed the world.

Beaver on the move, another on the mend, plus BI’s new Elevator Pitch

Bob Kobres Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver News, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers, Beavers in Wales, The Beaver Institute, Urban beavers, Video, Who's saving beavers now? April 13, 2023

It’s not clear yet whether this is one beaver who escaped from elsewhere or a pair who were released by rewilders, but it sounds like a good dam move to me!

Dam it! Couple discover elusive night-time garden vandals are actually the first wild BEAVERS in Wales for over 400 years

By FFION HAF Daily Mail

A couple whose garden was being vandalised in the night has uncovered a surprising culprit in Wales’ first wild beaver for 400 years.

The dam-building rodent was discovered by a husband and wife who noticed trees going missing and machete-like damage in a field next to their house in Pembrokeshire, west Wales.

Curious about the cause of the damage, the homeowners bought a ‘stealth camera’ which captured footage of the creature swimming in their pond and felling their trees.

The origins of the beaver are unexplained, but the landowners believe it may have come from an unsanctioned release by rewilding enthusiasts.

The rodent has been found living near a rural property where it has started to build itself a lodge under the family’s pond deck.

Nicknamed Anthony by the family – after military historian Antony Beevor – the herbivore has become as ‘fat as a pig’ spending as much as six hours a night chewing tree trunks and dragging branches around.

The discovery is only the fourth time a beaver has been found living wild in Britain.

Beavers – which can grow to be the size of a large spaniel – were hunted to extinction in Britain 400 years ago, but have been slowly reintroduced in recent years.

The landowners, who wished to remain anonymous to protect the location of the animal, were ‘astonished’ to discover the herbivore was living behind their house.

They said: ‘Some of our trees began to go missing overnight and others were simply being mauled. It looked like someone was hitting them with a machete.

‘There are no deer in Pembrokeshire, so we couldn’t work out what was causing the damage.

‘The only clue were some teeth marks left in the bark.’

Two weeks after first noticing the damage, the couple decided to buy a £100 stealth camera and leave it out overnight to try and catch the vandal in action.

When they reviewed the footage a week later, they spotted the creature.

‘To our astonishment, the camera showed a beaver swimming around our pond and eating our trees. We couldn’t believe it.

‘Since then, it has cleared quite a few trees and branches.

‘There is nothing subtle about a beaver. They are very easy to spot.’

The closest official colony of beavers to Pembrokeshire is in the Dyfi Estuary over 50 miles away in Mid Wales, where no escapes have been reported.

‘It’s much more likely the beaver has been released in Pembrokeshire by a determined rewilder’, the landowners added.

Since their reintroduction to the country in Argyll in 2009, beaver numbers have been increasing across the UK through enclosed colonies set up by various wildlife trusts.

But this is only the fourth time a beaver has been found living wild in Britain.

Other wild populations were discovered in Scotland’s Tay-Forth catchment area, in East Devon’s River Otter and on the Avon near Bristol.

A similar beaver discovery was made in East Devon in 2014, despite there being no reintroduction trials in the area.

Initially, DEFRA planned to remove the beavers, but the Devon Wildlife Trust persuaded them to allow England’s first wild beaver trial.

The trial was successful and in 2020 DEFRA announced the beavers could stay. In October 2022, beavers were protected by law in England.

But in Wales, where environmental law-making is devolved, no such protection exists, and the discovery of a wild beaver could now force the Welsh Government to legislate on the issue.

The Pembrokeshire landowners continued: ‘It looks like the Welsh Government need to legislate or they’ll be in danger of trying to close the stable door after the horse has bolted.

‘With so many enclosed beavers around Britain, you wonder how long it will be before there are more escapees.’

The animals, which can live for as long as ten years and weigh up to 30kg, are not universally popular.

In Scotland, where beavers have been so successful many farmers feel their livelihoods are being threatened because beaver dams can flood valuable farmland.

The Scottish Government has even begun issuing licenses to cull them.

But rewilders call this ‘ecosystem engineering’ and highlight the positive effects of wetland creation, providing habitat for animals like otters, water voles, toads, frogs and wildfowl.

This is what makes beavers a ‘keystone species’, in other words, they are the glue that holds a habitat together.

We are key! Have a look at the entire report — lots more photos!

Now for a tale of a wounded tail.

Kelowna’s downtown beaver on the mend

By JACQUELINE GELINEAU KELOWNA CAPITAL NEWS

Eva Hartmann — Interior Wildlife Rescue Society

One of Kelowna’s urban beavers is back splish-splashing after being rescued with an injured tail.

The beaver was captured from the Rotary Park Marsh on April 5, after a pedestrian noticed the sick-looking critter and contacted the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (IWRS).

The volunteers jumped into action and took the beaver to a vet to have the abscess drained. While waking up from the sedation, the beaver was given carrots and sweet potato, but she is now back on her regular diet of ‘browse’ such as twigs and other high-growing vegetation, said Eva Hartmann, founder of IWRS and registered veterinarian technician.

Everyday volunteers head out to the bush and pick twigs for the beaver to snack on.

Beavers munch on the tissue layer found just under the bark. Hartmann said the downtown girl in the IWRS’ care only likes to snack on poplar trees. The beaver spat out the Saskatoon berry bush and pine tree twigs that were collected for her. Hartmann laughed and said that she knew beavers preferred poplar and willow trees, but didn’t realize how picky they could be.

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A post shared by Kelowna Capital News ?????? (@kelownacapitalnews)

That’s quite a video but beavers usually have a bit deeper voices. ;*)= Click for the rest of the story and more pics.

A new video was released from the Beaver Institute that is fantastic but they are going to tweak it and re-release it at a later date for now. Just know good things are afoot. Sneak preview my favorite line is that your local beaver pond is your rainforest, and your coral reef. How smart is that? This is a special edit from heidi who came home yesterday and is trying to figure things out.

Pretty cool, I think! And don’t forget to sign the petition to protect we beaver folks on federal lands! It’ important!!

Bob

Improper Beavers Doing Well in Great Britain and Beavers Getting Proper Respect in the US

Bob Kobres Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver ecological impact, Beavers, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Fire Prevention, Beavers and food caches, Beavers and Wetlands, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental, History, Video April 3, 2023

Beaver families thriving in the West Country after unofficial reintroductions

By James Ashworth, National History Museum

13 beaver families are thought to exist along the River Frome and River Avon. Image © Rudmer Zwerver/Shutterstock

Beavers have returned to the waters of Somerset and Wiltshire, hundreds of years after being wiped out.

Escapes from enclosures and unlicensed introductions are suspected to be behind the rodent’s return.

As many as 50 beavers could be living in the West Country, Natural England has revealed.

The government’s nature advisor had been investigating the possibility of beavers in the region following reports of the rodents in and around the Rivers Frome and Avon. The resulting report, published earlier this month, found a wealth of evidence that beavers were thriving in the areas, including dams, gnawn trees and burrows.

In total, it is estimated there could be anywhere from 36 to 62 adult beavers in sections of the rivers near Bath, Chippenham and Trowbridge, living in 13 families. If baby beavers, known as kits, and family units living in areas of the river which couldn’t be surveyed are included, then this figure could be even higher.

A spokesperson for the Avon Wildlife Trust previously described the presence of beavers in the area as ‘extremely significant’, adding that ‘the presence of this beaver population will support other wildlife and help us to tackle the ecological emergency.’

Where have the West Country’s beavers come from?

Eurasian beavers are rapidly being reintroduced across the UK, having been driven to extinction in the country over 400 years ago through hunting for the fur, meat and perfume trade. The mammals are now present across the country, from Scotland all the way south to Devon and London.

Officially, beavers can only be reintroduced into enclosures with a license from the government. However, many beavers are living wild following escapes from these sites, as well as unofficial introductions.

For instance, one of the UK’s largest populations of beavers can be found in Tayside, Scotland, is thought to be the result of a mixture of accidental and illegal releases.

While beavers are now considered a native species in England, Wales and Scotland, it is still a crime to release them without a license, which can result in up to two years in prison as well as an unlimited fine.

Many of the beavers in the West Country are thought to have been released unofficially, with the report estimating that these have probably taken place since 2016. Others, meanwhile, may be the descendants of animals which escaped from a private collection in the 2000s.

The beavers have now spread widely, with the majority of the families found in the River Frome, a tributary of the River Avon. Four families are found in the Avon itself, while another is found on the By Brook.

Though there had been reports of beavers in the River Brue and Kennet and Avon Canal, the latest report didn’t find enough evidence to verify their presence.

In total, the beavers may occupy as much as 11% of the available riverbanks in the areas of Wiltshire and Somerset where they live. Each family is estimated to have a bankside territory as long as eight kilometres, which is above average for England’s beavers.

While they may cover a relatively large area, the beavers are not thought to be having a major impact on their ecosystem at the moment. Though some families have started building dams and felling trees, the majority are still getting established in their new home.

With beavers having been made a protected species in England in October 2022, it’s thought that their populations will only grow if left undisturbed. While the report notes their activities could eventually pose a risk to transport, this is not likely in the near future.

Instead, it recommends further research to promote co-existence with these beavers. Assessing their genetic health, and coming up with management plans, can help to ensure these rodents can keep beavering away in the West Country.

There’s more info on the website. But don’t miss this flattering article below! They really did a great job of describing just how valuable we are!

Beavers are “ecosystem engineers” and fight climate change, too.

By Conall Rubin-Thomas & Steve Blackledge, Environment America

ralf82 | Pixabay.com

The signs are instantly recognizable: partially chewed trees, pointy stumps and sprawling collections of sticks and logs in the middle of waterways. These all signal the presence of beavers, the plump, semi-aquatic critters that were once nearly hunted to extinction.

Established wildlife laws and reintroduction brought their numbers to stable levels, but they still remain a fraction of what they once were. Further recovery of beaver populations is crucial.

Because they significantly alter, manage and even improve the areas around them, beavers have earned the title of “ecosystem engineers.” Their work enhances the surrounding landscape and ecosystems, making these critters some of the most important, not to mention adorable, stewards of nature. Here are five ways beavers help the environment.

Beavers help control water flow.

You might assume that since beaver dams block water, they must cause floods, but that’s far from the case. Dams are penetrable structures that slow water flow, resulting in less erosion and flooding than undammed, fast flowing water. Dams physically store water on land where it soaks into the soil and initiates plant growth, able to turn bone-dry areas into bountiful wetlands. If you repeatedly visit beaver habitat in different seasons, you can see the transformations that take place thanks to their dams. A landscape often looks completely different from even just a few months prior.

Beavers improve water quality.

Rainwater runoff from artificial surfaces washes toxins into waterways, threatening aquatic ecosystems. Wetlands surrounding beaver dams act like kidneys by removing pollutants from water, effectively cleaning it. As dams decrease water flow, nutrient-rich sediment usually swept away by the current instead sinks and collects on the bottom. This abundance of minerals filters and breaks down harmful materials like pesticides and leaves areas downstream of dams healthier and less polluted than upstream.

Beaver activity creates more habitat for other wildlife.

Since beaver dams slow water flow, the original path is altered as the water meanders over additional ground, creating more wetlands where other species thrive. Important plants that feed animals and provide for people see their numbers increase over 33% in beaver wetlands, while birds nest on riverbanks, fish swim about and mammals forage for food in these natural havens. In fact, 25% of species living in these wetlands fully depend on beaver activity for survival.

Beavers stop wildfires.

Increasing wildfires destroy nature and emit greenhouse gasses, but beaver activity can hold the devastating flames at bay. Wetlands made by beaver dams concentrate water and moisturize the landscape, making it harder for fires to spread as potential fuel becomes harder to burn. Wildlife can shelter in these wet sanctuaries, safe from an encroaching blaze. Beavers might not drive red trucks or slide down poles, but they make an excellent fire department nonetheless.

Beavers help us fight climate change.

The primary driver behind climate change is the massive amount of carbon human activity pumps into the atmosphere. The more we emit, the more it builds up, but beavers help reduce its accumulation as their wetlands absorb and store the greenhouse gas. Globally, beaver wetlands hold 470,000 tons of carbon each year and perform carbon-capture work worth tens of millions of dollars. Restoring beavers to their natural habitats and widespread numbers can lead to further carbon absorption as the animals proliferate, construct dams and establish more wetlands. More beavers mean more wetlands, which mean less atmospheric carbon, a win-win-win scenario.

The incredible feats beavers perform should not be understated, whether it’s their beneficial environmental work or ability to transform landscapes. As the world’s foremost natural ecosystem engineers, they play crucial roles in managing nature unlike any other animal. You can celebrate these incredible critters on International Beaver Day every April 7. The next time you’re hiking and come across those telltale bites on trees or piles of sticks, be sure to thank a beaver for all they do in supporting the natural world by just being their busy little selves.

Bob

Sign the Petition to Protect Beavers on Public Land!

Bob Kobres Beaver ecological impact, Beaver News, Beavers, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Flooding, Beavers and Wetlands, Beavers elsewhere March 30, 2023

Ask President Biden to Protect Beavers on Public Land!

Western Watersheds Project & Dr. Suzanne Fouty started this petition to President of the United States Joseph R. Biden

Photo credit: David Moskowitz

Please join with 250 non-profit organizations, scientists and advocates who submitted this letter to President Biden on February 27, 2023 asking for an Executive Order to protect beaver on our federally managed public lands as a proactive emergency climate response!

This petition will close on May 31, 2023 and be prepared for submission to the Biden Administration.

Ending beaver trapping and hunting on our federally managed public lands is a nature-based climate solution that will help restore many of our streams and wetlands, and bring real, tangible benefits to our communities.

Drought, floods, wildfires, and crashing fish and wildlife populations are no longer confined to small areas but spill across state boundaries. State wildlife agencies have failed to act in our best collective interest as they continue to narrowly focus on select recreational user groups even as our human and wild communities are increasingly stressed by the accelerating impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss. It is time for action at the national level.

Benefits include: More dependable water for cities, towns, farms and ranches; natural water filtration systems resulting in improved water quality; natural firebreaks creating refuges for wildlife during wildfires and protecting water quality post fire; temporary surface and groundwater storage that dampens flood peaks and improves stream flows during droughts; abundant quality fish and wildlife habitat; and drawdown of atmospheric carbon as wetland habitat expands.

Beavers can help us meet the challenges before us but only if we protect them. It is time to ask the President to take action as a matter of national security. Time is of the essence.

This petition is a good dam thing to support! But I don’t understand why they didn’t mention our ability to help out in this piece below:

The cure for winter flooding might be in this swamp—if California actually funds it

by Ariane Lange, The Sacramento Bee

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Matt Kaminski stood on a road scarcely higher than the floodplain, glassy pools on all sides stretched out like something from a dream. In the distance, a storm lumbered over the Coast Ranges.

The marsh all around him, Kaminski said, was a window into the Central Valley’s past. Back then, the waterways that twist down from the Sierra Nevada mountains would flood unrestricted by the current thicket of dams, canals and levees.

The more you know about rivers, the less confidence you have in a mapmaker’s static squiggle. Kaminski, a biologist from Ducks Unlimited who helps oversee the floodplain and, when it dries out, the grasslands, explained that when “the state of California was wild, it had a lot more wetlands.”

During the rainiest years, the whole valley could transform into an enormous, shallow sea. Floodwaters would spread over the landscape and percolate through the soil into the aquifers beneath. Little aquatic creatures would make their home in the tules and migrating birds would stop to gorge on their long journeys in the spring and fall. The Valley oaks and Fremont cottonwoods would rise, improbably, out of the shallows.

That appeared to be happening just east of Gustine in Merced County, as yet another storm from the tropics approached the valley: The San Joaquin River seemed to spread out and create an ephemeral wetland, a natural process.

But Kaminski pointed to the edge of the water, where three concrete slabs jutted into the marsh, and little slats of wood controlled the flow under the dirt road to the other side.

This marsh hadn’t flooded on its own.

Instead, the wetland was an artifice on top of an artifice. Powerful California interests “reclaimed” the Central Valley’s wetlands in the 19th and early 20th centuries, draining them for agricultural use and transforming the landscape.

The vast majority of the state’s marshes are gone.

But in little pockets in the state, people like Kaminski are reworking the land yet again to bring back a version of California’s past, in service of the future. By allowing rivers to spread out, flows are diverted from downstream communities, replenishing groundwater and staving off unwanted floods.

“These wetlands,” Kaminski likes to say, “act as a sponge.”

And the state agreed. In September, the California Wildlife Conservation Board earmarked $40 million for the nonprofit River Partners to spend on similar projects in the San Joaquin Valley.

But in the governor’s proposed budget released in January, that funding was axed. The news came early in the procession of climate-change-fueled winter storms that have led to staggering snowpack in the Sierra, extensive flooding throughout the state and more than 30 deaths. Facing a budget shortfall, Gov. Gavin Newsom had moved to kneecap efforts to use the historical floodplain as a way to recharge groundwater and to prevent disasters in human-occupied areas.

“In the San Joaquin Valley, we’ve got a product pipeline of about $200 million worth of floodplain expansion projects that are ready to go,” said Julie Rentner, president of River Partners. But the proposed budget, she said, “has zero dollars to be used towards that pipeline.”

Rentner said that habitat restoration cannot wait.

Well I certainly agree that habitat restoration cannot wait! But I still don’t understand why they didn’t mention our potential to do much of this fixing up for free? We’re certainly at work in the San Joaquin River Ecological Reserve! We got some good press on the BBC though:

Beavers released in Trentham Gardens to boost biodiversity

By Chris Steers & Liz Copper
BBC Radio Stoke

A family of beavers has been released on an estate in Staffordshire in one of the largest enclosures in the UK.

Trentham Gardens, near Stoke-on-Trent, has welcomed the native British species to help improve the biodiversity of the Grade-II listed gardens.

Beavers were hunted to extinction in England and the project aims to conserve the species.

It is believed to be the first time the aquatic rodent has swum in the region for more than 400 years.

The moment a family or four were released into the waters of Trentham Gardens

Take a look at the entire report. There’s a nice video that unfortunately won’t embed here. And don’t forget!:

Plus, remember that the first annual SLO County Beaver Festival is coming up this Saturday! Here’s a PDF of the flyer below.

Bob

Heidi & Mitch tell the tale of the Martinez Beavers!

Bob Kobres Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver Behavior, Beaver News, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Friends of Martinez Beavers, History, In the News, Urban beavers March 16, 2023

Linksploration – Bay Area

Exploring the many paths to a greener future

Beavers! They’re baaack! Beavers are amazing animals. Hear about their incredible physiology, Heidi Perryman and Mitch Avalon relate the story of the Martinez beavers, and what’s next for them in the Bay Area.

Click to listen in a new tab.

Show notes

Moving in on Motor City.

Beavers reclaim land in southeast Michigan

Marina Johnson, Detroit Free Press

Over the past decade, beaver populations have returned to southeast Michigan in places such as Belle Isle, Stony Island, the Conner Creek Power Plant and other places along the Detroit River.

Why did beaver populations decline?
When settlers moved into metro Detroit, beaver trapping for the fur trade was plentiful, eliminating much of the population. The existence of this species was almost wiped out due to 300 years of trapping and trading. Along with trapping, industrialization and habitat loss pushed beavers out of the area and they were last reported in 1877 as a result, said Great Lakes Now.

When did beavers return to the area?
Beavers were first reported back in the area in 2008, according to Friends of the Rouge. For the first time in over 100 years, beavers gnawed away at trees and built damns near Conners Creek Power Plant. Since then, beaver sightings in the Detroit and Rouge Rivers aren’t uncommon and continues to increase.

But not necessarily welcome throughout.

Are beavers good for urbanized areas?
The DNR has beavers categorized as nuisance wildlife due to damage caused in urban and industrialized areas. They often gnaw on trees and their damns cause flooding and problems for homeowners. The DNR does offer trapping services and permits for those impacted in certain areas.

Cooley wrote the DNR is given a difficult hand because they want beavers around but not at the expense of someone’s property.

“Beaver in residential areas typically lead to problems, it’s their nature to back up and flood a waterway to create a pond,” he wrote. “Up North or out in the country, they can do that and it doesn’t impact anyone, most people would never even know it happened. However, down here in southeast Michigan if they back up a drain or a river, it is eventually going to flood someone’s yard and possibly impact their house.”

Read the whole article here.

Better acceptance in Cropton:

Cropton Forest beaver project by Forestry England proving successful

A trial project that’s re-introduced beavers to a forest in North Yorkshire is going from strength to strength as it enters its final year.

By Leigh Jones, The Northern Echo

The Cropton Forest beaver project, which saw two beavers released on enclosed land upstream of Sinnington in April 2019, has been credited with helping to reduce the flood risk for the village and for transforming the ecology of the area for the good.

The five year project, which is overseen by Forestry England, hopes to examine the impact of re-introducing beavers to the wild in England after they were hunted to extinction in the sixteenth century. It’s one of a number of pilots across the UK which have support from a number of organisations including the RSPB.

Ecologist Cath Bashforth next to a beaver dam at Cropton Forest in North Yorkshire. The beavers in the pilot scheme at the enclosure have “far exceeded” her expectations. (Image: Forestry England)

At the centre of the North Yorkshire beavers’ habitat is an enormous 70m long dam that the original beavers have built over the years alongside the kits that they’ve had since being re-introduced to the area four years ago.

Ecologist Cath Bashforth, who leads the project, said that the pilot has “far exceeded what we expected.

“We never expected such a dramatic impact in such a short space of time.”

In terms of the dramatic impact, the slowing of water flow through the site helps protect downstream areas from flooding, however the beavers’ presence has a knock on effect in many areas surrounding their habitat.

“At the start of the trial we had some fantastic volunteers who helped us take a baseline biodiversity survey to examine what impact the beavers would have,” says Cath.

The view of the enormous beaver dam in Cropton Forest from above. (Image: Forestry England)

Having built their enormous dam along with five or six smaller ones Cath is optimistic that the beavers will be able to stay in North Yorkshire on conclusion of the pilot scheme.

As the project looks to reach its conclusion in a little over a year, the fate of the beavers presently on site remains undecided.

Read the whole article here.

And you might want to add this to your calendar:

Posted on The Ukiah Daily Journal

Peregrine Audubon Society to present The Beaver Believers program

Peregrine Audubon Society Program will be hosting a zoom presentation on Tuesday, March 21 at 7 p.m. featuring The Beaver Believers hosted by Sarah Koenigsberg of the Beaver Coalition.

In this film, we follow our Beaver Believers out into some truly spectacular landscapes of the interior West, from the east slopes of the Cascade mountains in Washington to the Rockies in Colorado, from the parched red rock deserts of southern Utah to an urban park in central California.

We take you to places where beaver have already begun to transform damaged watersheds, and we learn of the many challenges that stand in the way of larger scale efforts to use beaver as a restoration tool, including trapping, which is tragically still legal in most states.

Perhaps most importantly, we meet incredible people who, undaunted by climate change, are working tirelessly to protect and restore beaver out on the landscape, who embody the spirit and joy that comes from “thinking like a beaver,” who show us that collaboration and watershed restoration truly are possible. All we have to do is let the beaver come home.

The coalition is dedicated to strategically advancing a paradigm shift in society’s relationship with beaver. Learn more at beavercoalition.org

Lastly, from Unofficial Networks: