BEAVERS MAKING A SPLASH EVERYWHERE

Wow. The Sunday before Christmas. Presents bought. Check. Presents wrapped. Presents under the tree. Check. Tree still alive. Check. Dried orange slice garlands on windows. Check. 72 butternut squash raviolis made. Check. 72 short rib raviolis made. Check. 72. Mushroom leek raviolis made. Check.

I think everything is on track!

It’s a good time to catch up with all the news I’ve been setting aside. I know some of you will be so full of eggnog, good cheer and family obligations that you won’t think about beavers again until 2020. But this should get everyone through the holidays.

BeaverCON_Social Media outreach

BeaverCon 2020 is offering three minority scholarships. (Enrollment only.) You still need to get yourself there and housed but its a great opportunity to share the beaver doxology with folks who might not otherwise hear it, Apply for the scholarship with this form: But do it before January 17th or it will be too late.

Attending the conference will be James Wallace of the UK and lots of the good folk from Beaver Trust. We had a truly dizzying conversation this week about all the excellent work they’re doing and who’ve they partnered with along the way. Honestly, they are starting out with a BANG and will make a huge difference for beavers in the UK and beavers generally. We also had a nice chat about the three E’s that come with this work: Exhausting Elbows and Egos that can sometimes make this work harder than it needs to be, and I was happy to provide some normalization and context.

I was so excited about some of their plans I practically had to take a nap after our conversation. Hopefully I told them some good things too. Because now I’m officially a “partner” of the project and listed on their alliance page. La!

**Heidi Perryman Worth a Dam**: Heidi started Worth A Dam to defend the beavers in her home town of Martinez CA, and then started helping other cities learn how and why to co-exist with these important animals. Since 2008 they have organised an annual beaver festival and maintained an internationally respected website. As California faces more drought years they believe it is more important than ever to coexist with these important ‘water savers’.

Welcome to team beaver, new friends!

And finally, to keep things interesting I put this together for the 2020 festival. Amy Hall was kind enough to say we were free to use her wonderful creation. Buckle up boys and girls, something tells me this is going to be one helluva year!

SONOMA COPIES MARTINEZ IN EXACTLY THE WRONG WAY

heidi08 Who's blaming beavers now? December 21, 2019

This was the SOS I received yesterday afternoon.

The Sonoma County Water Authority took a chain saw to the Beaver Dam behind Bettencourt St., between 2nd St. West and the walking path. They claim to have been given “verbal permission”. These beaver’s have pups…please help protect them. Please notify what ever agency can help spare our wildlife. These are the only Beavers in the City of Sonoma. Help!

I was surprised because these are beavers I’ve never heard of an the message was sent by someone I didn’t know. I eventually turned over enough rocks to learn that SCWA had been worried about the dam for a while and was hoping that the recent rains would take it out. When it didn’t they got permission to do it themselves.

Kind of.

A series of emails were forwarded basically explaining that SCWA was concerned about the obstruction of the dam, the possible blockage of culverts down the road and the increase in mosquitoes in the summer (!) so they talked to CDFW who advised them to notch the dam.

A self justifying account was sent by SCWA to folks at Sonoma ecology Center whose phones were ringing off the hook when this all went down. That list is pretty much all bogus official-speak designed to make people not argue with them, except for the first one about obstruction which I’m sure is the whole reason they did it

It seemed stupid to me at first to do this on the first day of christmas vacation when children and parents are home and watching. But the thing is it when you think about it friday was EXACTLY the kind of day they would choose to do this. The last act before heading off for a 2 week vacation so all the public attention and yelling wouldn’t bother them. And don’t think for a moment there wasn’t yelling. Lots of people mistakenly think beavers live in the dam. So cutting into one with a noisy chainsaw probably got some attention.

Of course SCWA could have notified residents that this was going to happen. And explained ahead of time that they weren’t going to harm the beavers. They could have notched the dam with a silent clam rake instead of a chainsaw. They could have put up a little sign to let folks know what they were doing. They could have written the Sonoma Ecology Center BEFORE they got caught and let them know and asked for their help getting the word out.

But – I ask you – where’s the fun in that?

Better to throw a live grenade into the crowded foxhole and then go on vacation for two weeks. It is so exactly what our public works would do – and DID do – that it almost takes my breath. But then I remember how very differently this all feels when I’m not in the front lines protecting OUR beavers.

So I passed on what I could to the right players. I made sure folks knew what had happened and who to talk to, and then I went to make 72 mushroom and leak raviolis for the upcoming beaver dinner. Because, even I, eventually remembered this wasn’t my circus. And those weren’t my monkeys. So to speak.

Sonoma has very smart people who care about this. They will figure it out. But even people who know better can be stupid about beavers.

Case in point: made last year in CANADA for Chrissakes,

Ontario Power Generation “Dammy the Beaver” from Nathan Love on Vimeo.

“HAVE YOU NO DECENCY, PRIMGHAR?”

heidi08 Who's Killing Beavers Now? December 20, 2019

Primghar Iowa is in the upper left hand corner of the state – almost touching Minnesota. A small county seat of less than 1000 people it’s primary claim to fame is its most famous resident Joseph Welch the head counsel for the United States Army, who asked Joseph McCarthy, incredulously what we no longer bother to say in the current administration “Have you no decency, sir?”.

Well apparently they’re not content with simply being first to pick the president anymore. Now they want to kill all the beavers. In fact they want to kill 90% more beaver than they actually have.

I’m not kidding.

O’Brien County establishes beaver bounty

PRIMGHAR—O’Brien County is leaving it to beaver trappers to take care of cutting down the large furry rodent’s numbers.

On Tuesday, Dec. 10, in Primghar, the board of supervisors established a new countywide beaver bounty policy effective with the beginning of beaver trapping season through one week after the end of the season.

“The price doesn’t change based on the age of the beaver,” said board chair Sherri Bootsma. “They’re going to have to indicate where the beaver was harvested,” Bootsma said. “It is kind of an honor system, but they do have to map out where it came from.

A bounty of $35 will be paid per beaver until a maximum of $5,000 from the county’s rural services fund for the season has been paid out.

Just so you understand what we’re dealing with here, at 25 dollars a head -er a tail- pays for 142 beavers to be slain. Iowa has been subject to plenty of flooding and I suppose those dislocated beavers could be swimming about trying to find a home, but when I check wikipedia it tells me that the entire county has .2 square miles of water to its name. That’s about three football fields of water if they’re lucky. And there is zero fucking chance of finding 142 beavers in 3 football fields.

So basically what they’re done is create a dead beaver import business. Good luck with that.

“The theory is, it’ll start a decrease in their population,” said supervisor Dan Friedrichsen. “Then they get harder to trap and their population is where maybe it needs to be.”

He noted he does not want to see the county’s beaver population totally wiped out.

“If it’s a lake, they deserve to be there; they should be there,” Friedrichsen said. “Certain systems — they need to be there.”

“We have a pond that has a family of beavers there,” Friedrichsen said. “We like to take two a year out of that family, and then that keeps the damage low. It keeps them from spreading.”

That’s pretty charitable if you, sir. Only killing off a few family members every year. Pretty dam charitable. Bless his heart,

Apparently you have to bring in the WHOLE beaver with tail attached because they don’t want to shell out money for someone who just goes to a fur dealer and buys up a bunch of tails. You know?

BEAVERS RUINING THE PLANET AND OTHER NEWS

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Who's blaming beavers now? December 18, 2019

It’s impeachment O’clock. There were more than rallies supporting accountability last evening that you didn’t get a chance to see on your teevee. They looked like this.

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES – 2019/12/17: Protester holding a giant banner with impeacment articles at the rally in Times Square. The night before the House of Representatives takes a somber vote to impeach Trump, hundreds of thousands of Americans joined the “Nobody Is Above the Law” coalition at more than 500 rallies planned around the country, calling on the U.S. House to vote to impeach President Donald Trump. In New York City thousands of protesters took to the streets, gathering at Father Duffy Square in Times Square, and marched down Broadway to Union Square. (Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)

This morning Ben’s on the radio trying to be nice to beavers while all of National Geographic says they’re ruining the ENTIRE PLANET. No really.

Enjoy?

DAMMED WITH HIGH PRAISE?

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Who's saving beavers now? December 10, 2019

Beavers, as it turns out, are good for plenty of things. For cities and for salmon and for nitrogen removal. Some days we even get to read about it. Enjoy.

Guess what’s in the last page of the city magazine on outdoor things to do in Napa? I’ll give you a hint, It’s not wine tasting.

Remember when the city of Martinez placed the beavers on the city Marquis downtown? It was a horrible comical drawing but it was I think the first time they used the beavers as an asset instead of a burden. Things change,

Low rainfall during November contributes to smaller salmon runs

Salmon managers are reporting dismal returns of chum and coho salmon to Puget Sound streams this fall, and a sparsity of rainfall during November could result in low salmon survival during the next generation.

Overall, the low rainfall was detrimental to the salmon, which ended up spawning in the lower portion of streams where flows are higher. But Jon Oleyar observed a few positive features this year, such as beaver dams on Chico Creek — the largest producer of chum salmon on the Kitsap Peninsula.

Although beaver dams can impede the movement of chum during low flows, they also can hold back water during high flows, reducing the risk of extreme currents that can scour salmon eggs out of the gravel.

“In the Chico system, we had about 10,000 fish total, and 95 percent of them spawned below river mile 1.5,” Jon said.

That means most chum and even coho spawned this year in the mainstem of Chico Creek, with very few fish getting to Lost or Wildcat creeks. Those tributaries of Chico Creek normally support large numbers of juvenile chum and coho.

“The only saving grace that I can point to is the beaver dams,” Jon said. “In bad weather, the dams can hold back the water instead of having it shoot downstream like a fire hose.”

You’re welcome. I’m sure the beavers would tell you it’s easy being saving salmon. Anyone could do it if they tried. Yes, they don’t blush from all that praise,

On an English Estate, Reintroduced Beavers Might Make a Damn Difference

The future residents of the Holnicote Estate, which sprawls across a portion of Exmoor National Park in Somerset, England, are two families with dark eyes, strong teeth, and thick brown fur. As they settle in in early 2020, these new tenants—mums, dads, and probably a couple of kids—will go about making the place their own.

The beavers are being moved in by the National Trust as part of an effort to reduce flooding and ramp up biodiversity. They’re one branch of a multiyear river restoration project, which is slated The hope is that the beavers, by doing what beavers do, will decrease flooding, limit erosion, and improve water quality. Drone footage, time-lapse photography, and water-quality monitors will be used to help researchers gauge whether it’s working.to wrap in 2024 and also includes bioswales (vegetated channels for runoff), ditches, and more.

Beavers moved into West Devon in 2011 quickly constructed 13 dams along a narrow stream. “The beavers have transformed this little trickle of a stream into a remarkable, primeval wetland,” Mark Elliott, lead beaver project officer of Devon Wildlife Trust, told The Guardian. When beavers do overstep their bounds, Eardley says, it’s easy enough to nudge them along or discourage them from building dams, rather than resorting to lethal measures.

This lovely article even mentions Carol Johnson and Ben Goldfarb’s writing! Which is nice to see in a news story. Bonus points for quoting some old english about the engineers.

“The creatures, “all hearie saving the tail, which is like a fish taile, as broad as a man’s hand,” built themselves great wooden “castells,”

Indeed, They built castles alright. Castles made by their own labor that fed and housed an entire community for miles upstream and miles downstream. Beavers didn’t take surfs, They did the work themselves.

They are much better than “castells”