Category: Beavers elsewhere

A LESS TRAP-HAPPY INTERNATIONAL BEAVER DAY

Happy International beaver day! I asked Stacy Studebaker yesterday to post a reading of her wonderful book for the occasion and she said one was forthcoming so expect an addition soon. (I of course tried but my arms aren’t long enough to film and read at the same time.) In the meantime feel free to share Suzi Eszterhas wonderful photo far and wide. It’s about time we celebrate the beaver!

And just in time, the state of California has banned most federal wildlife trapping in our golden state. Which is a kind of good thing even though we all know most beaver trapping isn’t federal and there will be plenty killed anyway, it doesn’t apply to our county and there is still plenty of wiggle room. But still. Hurray for today, right?

California Court Approves Ban on Federal Wildlife Poisoning, Trapping

SAN FRANCISCO— In response to a lawsuit filed by wildlife advocacy groups, a federal animal-killing program must restrict its use of bird-killing poisons in Northern California and stop setting strangulation snares and other traps in places like the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex.

The agreement, approved today by a San Francisco federal court, also directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services to analyze the environmental impacts of its killing of coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions and other wildlife in California’s “Sacramento District.” This 10-county region covers Colusa, El Dorado, Lake, Marin, Napa, Placer, Sacramento, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties.

So the idea is if they have to actually evaluate the effects of their actions they will come to their senses? Or find it easier to just give in? This is the part we care about most.

The court order further ends most beaver-killing in waterways where endangered wildlife depends on beaver-created habitats.

Of course there’s a catch, right? There’s always a catch.

APHIS-Wildlife Services agrees not to engage in lethal beaver damage management in natural lakes, rivers, and streams within the Critical Habitat, as set forth by FWS, of the southwestern willow flycatcher, tidewater goby, Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, and Steelhead, except where beavers have blocked culverts, water control boxes, or other transportation crossings to the extent that fish passage is prevented.

So we the undersigned agree NOT to kill them EXCEPT for when we would want to kill them anyway for doing the rotten things that get beavers trapped in the first place. Oh and did you know fish passage was prevented by beavers? Well now its in a court document. It even specifies they can’t remove dams UNLESS they block fish passage.

Let’s not chill the champagne just yet. okay?

The whole ruling is here if you want to read all the fine print.It doesn’t include Contra Costa though. Some day our prince will come.

When I sat down this morning there was a beautiful pink moon setting. It reminded me of this look of one of my favorite places on earth that we used to spend the first part of every summer. The wildflowers will be insane this year.

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THE MOST STUDIED BEAVERS PERFORM AS EXPECTED

More news about the effects of the most studied beavers in the history of the species.

Beavers! Investigation of the Geomorphic effects of Beaver reintroduction using High Resolution Topographic surveys

In March, Dr Mark Smith and Dr Megan Klaar returned to Cropton Forest, North Yorkshire to a site in which two beavers (and the later addition of two kits) were released as part of a Forestry Commission reintroduction scheme aimed at restoring natural processes and reducing flood risk in the area.

Mark and Megan had previously visited the site in March 2019, just before the beavers were introduced, and carried out a 3D high resolution topographic survey combining both Terrestrial Laser scanning and Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry. This was repeated one year on to quantify the beaver-induced changes to the environment.

Our beavers might have been the most visited in the world, but the river otter beavers are surely the most studied. Good for them. They need all the help they can get.

Not quite knowing what to expect on their return, they were amazed at how busy the industrious beavers had been. The beavers had dug a canal to connect two pre-existing ponds and then greatly expanded the pond area by blocking the pond outlets. They also constructed a fresh dam that completely spans the river, and forces it out of the bank and onto the woodland floor (handily, directly in the location that was surveyed pre-beaver). The changes are sure to have an impact on the local hydrology of the site as well as the geomorphology and ecology of the area.

Yup. That sounds about right. Beavers change things, that’s what they do.

Mark and Megan will carry out an additional survey next year to further determine how the beavers have been interacting with their environment, as well as teaming up with Exeter University who are monitoring the hydrology of the site.

I should do a graphic of all the research generated by a beaver. It could be the same as that inverted pyramid showing all the wildlife a beaver pond supports, only it could be researchers and hydrologists all getting funded for studying the activities of a family of beavers.

Hmmm…something to work on.

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LANDS COUNCIL SPEAKS TO MONTANA

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? March 24, 2020

The Lands Council in Washington State was one of the first real sources of beaver ecology. They got to the right answer a lot faster than all of us, and I remember being so happy I cried a little when their water PSA came out. It seems like a million years go now.

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Well they are still plugging along with beaver good works. Like this letter to the officials of Beaver Creek Park in Hill County Montana.

Lands Council offers help on managing beavers in Beaver Creek Park

The Lands Council is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Spokane, Washington. We are dedicated to the preservation and protection of forests, water and wildlife in the Inland Northwest.

Since 1984, The Lands Council has been a community leader, promoting responsible recreation in wild places inherently valuable to the region. We are inspired to preserve nature’s legacy for future generations.

As part of our restoration ecology program we actively relocate nuisance beavers. To date, The Lands Council has relocated over 140 beavers in the Inland Northwest. Throughout the American West, beavers are increasingly recognized and utilized as a solution to various natural resource concerns. Science and traditional knowledge conclusively demonstrate that beaver ponds and wetlands create fish and wildlife habitat, thereby improving recreational opportunities; capture nitrogen, heavy metals, and other forms of runoff; mitigate destructive flood and fire events; sequester carbon; and perform other crucial services. Beaver populations, though growing in some places, are dramatically reduced compared to pre-trapping levels.

Pretty good letter huh? Ben is listed as one of the authors. which should surprise no one. Not sure how they got involved with the Montana case, but I bet someone who cared about the issue wrote them and asked.

We acknowledge that beaver impacts to human property need to be managed in certain circumstances. However, we caution that lethal beaver trapping is only a temporary fix: Because beavers reproduce readily and disperse widely, they quickly recolonize vacated territories, forcing trappers to remove beavers in perpetuity. Many communities around the country have therefore turned to a non-lethal solution known as a flow device, a pipeand-fence system that drains beaver ponds to an acceptable level. Flow devices have been shown to resolve flooding concerns up to 97 percent of the time. Furthermore, because they are one-time installations that require little maintenance, they are extremely cost-effective compared to annual trapping (see, e.g., Boyles & Savitzky, 2008).

We are heartened to learn that the Hill County Park Board has been in contact with noted experts David Pauli of the Humane Society of the United States and Skip Lisle of Beaver Deceivers International. We strongly encourage the Park Board to attempt non-lethal beaver coexistence efforts at Beaver Creek Park, and offer our technical input should you deem it helpful.

Chris Bachman, The Lands Council, Wildlife Program Director Board of Directors

Ben Goldfarb, The Lands Council, Author, “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beaver and Why They Matter”

Hurray for beaver nonprofits that stick their two cents in! Hurray for concerned citizens that ask experts for their opinion! We are so glad to have cousins in the beaver world, doing such great things, why yesterday our beaver cousin Derek Gow in Devon shared this fine piece of art he’s been working on.

THIS LADY OF THE LAKE ISN’T WELCOME

heidi08 Flow Device Installed, What's killing beavers now? March 23, 2020

When should you stop ‘trying’ to live with your neighbor and commit to violence instead. The first time his cat defecates on your lawn? The tenth? When his teenage sun drives the truck over your marigolds? When his son brings your daughter home drunk?

I mean there’s a time for reasonable people to meet and hash things out. And there’s a time for war. And who knows when one becomes the other?

Walter Scott: Tired of undoing springtime beaver activity

Spring is supposed to be the season of change, not just cold and snowy. The wildlife in the area are also showing signs of spring.

Geese on the lake are swimming around in pairs, looking for a good place to nest. Bluebirds are checking hollow trees and the houses we have put out for them. In the evening, we can hear the call of the wood ducks in the timber near the far end of the lake. We have also noticed an increase activity from our resident beavers.

Beavers are fascinating creatures. When we first built our lake, I thought it would be fun to have a pair of beavers to watch. At the time, Iowa State University had a pair of beavers move into a small pond in the center of campus. They were becoming destructive by removing the ornamental trees in the area, so the Department of Natural Resources was asked to re-locate them.

I contacted the DNR and offered a home for them, but never heard back. They must have found a home closer to Ames. A few years passed and one day I noticed some trees near the lake being felled by beavers. I excitedly told my wife we had new residents. A week or two later, I noticed the lake level had increased by more than a foot.

This starts out so promising. Walter actually WANTED beavers on his lake. He volunteered for the job. And he likes watching the birds and wildlife they bring. What could possibly go wrong? Oh. you know. The usual.

Our lake is fed by three creeks and the outflow is through a 36-inch concrete tube through the dam. I checked the tube to find dozens of pieces of wood neatly arranged and packed with mud almost totally blocking the outflow of water.

It is no small job to dislodge the carefully constructed plug in the tube. When all their building materials are freed up and sent through the tube and downstream, the beavers must cut all new building materials and start over. This takes them about a week.

After several times of fighting to remove their plug in my tube, I decided beavers were not as interesting as I first thought. They were cutting down every oak and hickory tree near the lake, leaving behind any Osage orange or thorny locusts. I finally gave up and had them trapped and removed.

When is it time to commit violence against your neighbor? When they chop down your hickory tree I guess, Then its time to bring in the big guns. Er traps. Problem is sometimes violence doesn’t work.

Things went along smoothly, even when I noticed new beavers moved in last fall. They were mostly cutting down willow trees, which was fine with me. They built a den at one end of the island and moved tons of willow trees to their site to use for winter food and building materials. They left the outlet tube alone and all was well.

You are a very foolish man if you think it will stay well. They didn’t bother plugging the tube in the winter because there was plenty of water. Now that we are seeing some sunny days they are going to want to keep all that flow. I predict they will start plugging that pipe. But hey, what do I know?

After a week or so, the water had not gone down and may have even risen more than when the snow first melted. I stopped by and checked the tube one day on our journeys and discovered the tube was plugged. Many small logs, sharpened on both ends, were lodged in the tube and the neat framework was sealed with mud.

I realize it is spring and the beavers are afraid all their water is going to go out of that tube if they do not plug it up, but I am getting tired of undoing their work. They need to get about their other springtime activities and leave the lake level where it is, or they will be forced to find a new home.

Or they will be killed. Isn’t that what you mean? I spent an hour looking for how to contact Walter and came up empty. He is a free lance columnist so the paper doesn’t provide contact info. He lives in the very bottom right hand of the state of Iowa, but I couldn’t find his name in any city records or Gun club. I posted it on the facebook management page in desperation and Mike Callahan wrote Chris Sorflaten who lives in Iowa and just did a beaver institute training in flow devices saying he should contact him and Beaver Institute might pay materials.

Fingers crossed good neighbors can get this right.

CELEBRATING ‘BAD’ BRITISH NEWS

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Devon Beavers March 19, 2020

I tend to be a glass-half-full kind of girl. And who can blame me? I’ve always been comforted by air bubbles underwater. Hear me out. It strikes me as kind of advice from the universe that says “when things look bleak, and you’re completely turned around, follow the bubble UPWARDS. Not Downwards. That little ball of floating oxygen will tell you exactly the direction you need to go to find the surface and fill your lungs with sweet air. Follow it closely and do what it does.

So remember to keep the glass half full when you see this headline,

England’s beavers move from ‘extinct’ to ‘critically endangered’

The reintroduction of beavers to parts of England has led to the species being formally recognised as ‘critically endangered’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, where previously they had been classified as extinct.

Well sure, it’s no heartfelt wedding vows or national anthem. But we’ll take it. I’d rather be endangered than extinct, wouldn’t you? In these dark days we have to take our good news where we find it.

Following research commissioned by wildlife regulators Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and Scottish Natural Heritage, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) last week accepted the presence of beavers in Britain.

According to the study’s lead, professor of environmental biology at Sussex University Fiona Mathews, shifting the IUCN’s status has been “highly controversial”.

“There are lots of people who would rather not see them have any sort of listing, because once you start recognising that something is threatened, then there is an obligation to actually start doing something about that,” said Mathews.

The new status puts an onus on the international community to see these species restored, according to Mathews. In England and Scotland, introduced beaver populations are doing well, but remain small and very fragmented.

Isn’t that great news? Sing it with me now. “

I once was lost, but now am found. Was extinct, but now I’m threatened!“

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