Category: Who’s blaming beavers now?

Beavers swim, who knew?

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Dispersal, stupid solutions, Who's blaming beavers now? July 13, 2017

All of the UK is scratching their heads this morning and tsking at the news that a mother and kits has been suddenly ‘discovered’ in Beauly Scotland. This is miles away from the Tay or Knapdale, nearest the town of Inverness. At the moment they are exclaiming the beavers were “illegally released” because obviously there’s a beaver bandit of sorts who is running around the countryside stashing beavers were they aren’t wanted.

I mean the dumb animals couldn’t it be doing it themselves, right?

Row over illegal beaver family found near Beauly

Trees for Life said a mother and at least two kits have been observed on a river near Beauly. It has asked that the mammals be allowed to remain where they are or be relocated.

The government has instructed that the beavers be trapped and then kept in captivity. Trees for Life believes the animals have been in the area for at least five years. The presence of beavers has been found previously in the Highlands.

In 2008, one was found dead on a beach at Eathie on the Black Isle after suffering what police described as a “cruel” death after ingesting a large quantity of sea water.

Police suspected the animal was linked to illegal releases of beavers in other parts of Scotland.

It’s horrifying to imagine that they would try and trap a mother and kits so early in the summer when they’re obviously young. And more horrifying to think they could capture part of the family and leave a kit or two behind. This story is literally an hour old as I type this and I can imagine there’s going to be a major ‘call to arms’ on both sides soon. The town of Beauly is over 100 miles away from the River Tay and it’s not like beavers could have travelled up the Tay to the Tummel to the Garry up, walked over land a few miles and swam up Beauly Firth, because beavers NEVER do that right?

This seems like a good time to remind our readers that Dietland Mueler-Swarze observed in his book on behavior of the animals that beavers can disperse long distance over land and water. In fact he specifically reported on Castor Fiber:

That pesky beaver bandit has so much to answer for.

Meanwhile, here in sunny California the county recorders office contacted me yesterday because they wanted to make a children’s activity book to make sure their services are more visible and of COURSE wanted to pick the best possible mascot for their story. I’m sure you can guess already what animal they picked.

Remember, that the original beaver habitat was right next to then new county recorders building, and its previous head (Steve Weir) was a huge beaver protector. Workers would visit the beavers every morning before they came to the office, or tell us if there were new things in the creek, and they were the one to photograph that turtle laying eggs on the bank. Its second story windows was famously crowded with eager secretaries watching the shirtless Skip Lisle installing the flow device back in 2008.Long, long ago, when Gavin Newsome originally made gay marriage legal for a split second in California, Steve and his partner were famously married IN beaver park. I wrote about the huge historic event in one of my favorite posts back in 2008.

Let’s just say beavers and the county recorders office go WAY back.

So it seemed wholly appropriate for them to want to ‘launch’ their activity book at the beaver festival, and we found them just the right spot. I was given a preview of the book yesterday and because I’m very bad at keeping secrets I’m going to share my two favorite pages with you. Shhh

In addition to being darn adorable, I’m pretty sure this is exhibit ‘A’ about the beavers’ civic importance when we have to go to court to protect the NEXT beavers that settle in Alhambra Creek. 🙂

The heavy hand of beaver fate

heidi08 Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Who's blaming beavers now? July 9, 2017

It’s OGNS! (Only good news Sunday) And we have a whopping dose for you this morning. Starting with on of my favorite beaver stories in history. Ever. Sure, it’s not exactly well written, and it describes a dam washout in the usual hyperbolic way, but it’s where the dam washed out that matters. I mean sometimes you just feel the hand of fate is playing tether ball with you.

Seriously.

Large beaver dam on county-owned land in Perryman draws local ire

Beavers are unmatched in the animal kingdom at being able to alter and control their environment – unless, that is, they run into an environment already controlled by humans.

That’s what happened recently on a piece of Harford County-owned land in Perryman, where a resident reported the most intense beaver dam he has seen in three decades.

The local beavers’ hard work at a small lake on Forest Green Road, off of Perryman Road, has created a headache for residents and the county has begun dismantling their efforts.

Not only is the ruptured beaver dam in Perryman, Maryland (which I never knew existed btw) but it’s on frickin’ Perryman ROAD! For extra measure the article even goes on to talk about the good that beavers do for other wildlife. I have always said that I don’t really have ‘good luck’ or ‘bad luck’ – I have GREEK DRAMA luck! Coincidences that couldn’t possibly be explained in real life just happen in mine both good and ill. I have no idea why. But this is a fine culmination of a career saving beavers. Don’t you agree?

More predictable good news comes from Bay Nature Magazine where our beaver festival ad is nicely placed this year. Combined With our Community focus, and Water bill ads my fingers are crossed we have a great turnout.

The third piece of good news is the VERY BEST of course. I’ve been told to give him or her time to get bigger before I blast it all over the press and facebook, but you folks are true beaver believers and I know it’s safe to tell you because no one but crazy beaver people would EVER read this site.

Check out their 2017 model. It’s a fairly dark photo because in the beginning the parents are very cautious and don’t let kits outside until the coast is clear. But look at that adorable face, straight tail and bright eye. I believe Napa gets a cigar.

2017 model in Napa — *2017 kit: Rusty Cohn*

From the beaver sublime to the beaver ridiculous

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, stupid solutions, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? July 6, 2017

Some days are just huge demonstrations of that fact that beaver knowledge isn’t evenly distributed.Take today for instance where there is a wonderful article about doing a beaver installation in Alberta, juxtaposed with an stunningly ignorant article about beavers chasing fleeing motorcycle-riding trappers by leaping on their pogo-stick tail.

No. I’m serious.

Keep in mind that it’s summer and beaver parents are protecting their new kits by getting rid of anyone that doesn’t belong there. Meanwhile, dog walkers let their hot pooches take a swim, (and to be perfectly honest yearlings are probably in a fowl mood anyway because they are just realizing they aren’t the baby anymore). July and June are the time of year we read frantic articles about beavers attacking dogs. And no one seems to get that the assault pattern is seasonal.

Canada’s beaver problem

Not expecting to get chased by a beaver that he claims had aerial capabilities, Donnie Springer once set out to hunt a moose. He drove a three-wheel dirt bike in front of his father-in-law, around Devil’s Lake, Man., but soon realized his father-in-law was missing. Springer turned back, and found the man speeding away from a bucktooth terror. The beaver then turned on Springer.

The beaver first chased him using its typical method of running on its legs. However, Springer was riding at about 25km/hr, he recalls of an incident around the year 2000. For the beaver to catch up, Springer claims it deployed its tail as a spring. “It would sit on its tail, and it would go shooting itself about 10 feet in the air,” he says. “It would use its tail to propel itself … he was just a givin’ ‘er”

There is a perception in several parts of Canada that beavers are invading. In June, CTV reported that the city of Edmonton put up signs warning dog owners about dangerous beavers after several beaver attacks on pets, and the Winnipeg Free Press reported recently beavers “wreaking havoc in parts of Manitoba on a scale not seen in a lifetime.” Saskatchewan inaugurated a controversial beaver-hunting derby last spring, which reaped 589 kills, and some municipalities have introduced bounties. Farmers continue to bereave the flooding of fields; drivers, of roads, and cottagers, the loss of their favourite trees. The population is in fact surging, and the species even became a recent fascination of genome researchers.

What to say when an article uses the ‘springing beaver’ accusation as a story’s lead? The mind reals, the jaw drops. It’s not the first time I’ve read these allegations from a Canadian trapper either. Do you think they watched too many ‘Tigger’ cartoons as youngsters? There was a story about Yellow Knife that had a trapper accusing them of lunging forth by bouncing on their tails. Maybe it’s a collective hallucination?

What I will say is that Moses did tell me one night while filming he saw what looked like a beaver fight, and see what appeared to be a beaver lunge on it’s tail. He was so surprised he didn’t get footage, so he has no proof and isn’t always the most reliable reporter so who knows? When I was 11 I was certain if you said ‘bloody mary’ over and over at a pajama party she would appear in the bathroom mirror. And I saw it twice!

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that beaver male leap on his tail
And bounce after Sam McGee

Ahh, my apologies to Robert, but you knew it had to be done. Now that it’s on your mind, go read that poem again, it’s such a fun tale, er tail!

Thank goodness for this other story in the morning, which is every bit as wise as the former was stupid, proving that the entire country has not all lost it’s collective minds.

Michichi boardwalk project approved

As a new way to engage people into real-time educational experiences, the Michichi boardwalk has now been approved. The three-phase project is set to begin in late fall with construction of the boardwalk to be closely monitored as not to disrupt too much of the surrounding environment.
   “We’re going to have a bit of frost in the ground and that’s going to help a lot with the equipment going in and making ruts and stuff like that,” said Starland County Agricultural Fieldman Dara Kudras.
   “There will be some damage but that is the price we have to pay to get this boardwalk in there.”
   They have hired a company that has smaller equipment to cause a tinier carbon footprint.
   “What we are aiming for is minimal disturbance just because it is a sensitive area,” said Kudras.
   The project has three phases to smoothly add the boardwalk into the region as well as create a healthy riparian monitoring program and pond leveller.
   The beaver dam which is built every year, is located where the spillway is. By springtime, the water level becomes too high causing the dam to break and the water to drain.
   “If the beavers weren’t there building that dam, then all the water goes out and there is no habitat area,” said Kudras.     A pond leveLler is a large plastic tube that is put through the middle of the dam where a cage is placed on one end of the tube.
   “It’s so the water can go through and the dam won’t blow out and the beavers won’t have to build so high either,” said Kudras. “It will allow water to go through without wrecking the dam.”
   Instinctively, if the dam does happen to break, beavers will find trees to repair and rebuild. Instead of allowing them to take out new trees in the area, Kudras and her team have been gathering other already fallen branches or vegetation for the beavers to use.

“That’s part of the coexistence part of it that we want to be able to grow trees there and keep beavers happy at the same time,” said Kudras.

$12,000 of the grant is going towards signage along the boardwalk to help explain the usage of the pond leveller and other interesting facts about the riparian area and what it has to offer. Different types of birds and other animals will be on the signs as well. Of the total budget, the largest cost of $80,000 will be going towards the actual construction of the boardwalk.
   A 20-foot by 16-foot viewing deck area with seating and a gazebo close to the dam will be a special addition to the boardwalk with the possibility of up to two bridges depending on the budget.
   “If local craftsman or local schools want to come and a have like a wetland field day and learn about the ecosystem in the area and stuff like that, then they can come out and use that,” said Kudras. “We’re just trying to make it really accessible for everybody.”
   Starland County is putting $32,000 forward as the lead administrator and will be partnering up with the current landowner of the area as well as Cows & Fish and the Red Deer River Watershed Alliance.
   After the project is finished, an established riparian monitoring program will be put in place, a pond leveller will be constructed and implemented, and the half kilometer long boardwalk will be complete.
A grand opening is expected to happen shortly after everything is in place. Kudras plans to increase awareness and get help from local farmers to build up drought and flood resilience.
   “This project is a cornerstone going into the future with the rest of the watershed resilience restoration program,” said Kurdas.

Have you hugged Cows and Fish this morning? I think I might name my firstborn after Mr. Kurdras. This is just such a smartly designed and coordinated project. I can’t think of anywhere better to spend an early morning than on their finished boardwalk watching beavers that have had trees planted for them to do their work. And a trail with interpretive signs explaining what everyone is seeing. This is fantastic! Maybe you want to use this?

A final note comes from Napa where Rusty says that he met up with Brock, Kate and Ben on a field trip to visit some urban beavers. Rusty invited county supervisor Brad Wagenecht to join them and they all hung out for a bit with our Napatopia beavers. Maybe the wine country beavers will even make it into the book?

Urban Beaver Bonanza

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Shameless Self-promotion, Should I pet beavers?, Urban beavers, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? July 3, 2017

Sometimes the stars align and a great deal of good news comes to the forefront at once. Sure, days and weeks and sometimes years of hard work went into it. And sure it’s just random now that its finally coming together in sync. There isn’t really a reason for it, except folks want to tie up loose ends before the long weekend of celebrations. But let’s just celebrate the independence of some urban beavers and their founding fathers, shall we?

Beaver sightings reported in Los Gatos Creek in Campbell

Steve Holmes, executive director of the South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition, said he’s seen beavers along the creek stretch in Campbell—in person and on video shot with a camera stationed where they primarily reside.

Back in 2013, Holmes said he saw a small family of beavers in the Guadalupe River near the SAP Center in downtown San Jose. At the time he wasassessing the area for potential creek cleanups.

“We’re down there and looking down from a bridge in the downtown. I looked down and saw a tree had been chewed,” he said. “It looked like someone was chopping it down with an ax. We went down for a closer inspection, and it turned out it was a beaver. Not just one, but a whole family.”

Hurray for beavers in San Jose! And hurray for Steve for being happy about it! We’re not going to say hurray for this reporter because she’s a little lackluster on the subject and doesn’t talk to the right people or do nearly as good a job as the 2013 stories. Just look at this cartoon stick figure of a biologist from fish and game who is SO out of her element!

Terris Kasteen, a biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, confirmed that beavers were reintroduced into Lexington Reservoir and said some may have been pushed down from the reservoir during the heavy winter rains and subsequent flooding in the area.

“One wandering downstream is not surprising,” she said.

Navroop Jassal, a Santa Clara Valley Water District biologist, said beavers were introduced to the reservoir in the 1990s, and the ones seen in the creek could be from there or possibly from the family of beavers seen in 2013 that Holmes spotted as well.

“The history of beavers in the area isn’t well known,” Jassal said.

The water district monitors certain species in creeks, but does not have an active program for beavers and does not plan to start one, according to Jassal. Instead, it will keep an eye on the fallout from potentially destructive beaver behavior such as fallen and chewed trees or damming. The district would then alert the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“We would be concerned if it’s damming up areas and backing up the flow of the waterway,” Kasteen said.

Kasteen said a beaver presence in the creek over time could affect waterways and result in trees dying and not regrowing. People are advised to keep their distance from the animals and their habitat.

“More or less stay away from them,” Kasteen said.

I’m sorry but that’s HILARIOUS!!! Not only haven’t you read our articles published in your OWN journal Terris about the history of beaver in coastal rivers in including Campbell, but are ready to depredate them now before they do anything because they’re going to build a dam one day, and you warn folks not to approach them because beavers are like furry hand grenades with the pin pulled out.

They could go OFF at any moment.

Goodness gracious, Terris. I think you get a letter. And guess what else? Now that we’re all talking about URBAN BEAVERS I found out yesterday that our chapter on urban beavers was published in the restoration guidebook 2.0 yesterday. I know you will want to read every word but I’m not yet sure how to just publish that section, so check out the entire document and get ready to spend a great deal of time on chapter 7. I would just post what we wrote but of course the slasher editor fairy altered much (but not ALL) of my beautiful prose, and the original no longer relates entirelt. There is stuff in this chapter I’m not thrilled about – like the word MANAGEMENT for one, and a sentence that is so horrifying I’m still trying to get it shaved off. (Go find it yourself). But the fact that it exists at all is a Martinez miracle, and the sections by Dr. Wohl are breathtaking, the accounting of beaver solutions prodigious, my own humble tweaking of psychology and ecology is pretty darned effective, and the silly sheet is gone, so let’s look on the bright side, shall we?

The very first case study is MARTINEZ whooo whoo and makes us seem pretty dam plucky, and kind of adorable I must say. I do get the feeling that our story has changed the playing field forever, and that’s a pretty sweet legacy.

What are you still doing here? Go read it!

I question his veracity, your honor.

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, Beaver Chewing, Beavers elsewhere, Mike Callahan, Who's blaming beavers now? June 29, 2017

After 10 years on the beaver beat you think you’ve seen it all. You get a little jaded. There’s nothing new under the sun you say to yourself. But sometimes you have to admit that it’s time to admit the truth. It’s time to quote Lily Tomlin again.

“No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up.”

Take this article from Massachusetts for example, where a forest manager has been explaining his continual removal of beaver dams because the property should be classified as agriculture. You know, I grow trees! The headline says it all. It means I’m going to keep looking for information until someone tells me what I want to hear.

More research needed to control beaver

A request by John Mirick to continue to work to maintain existing water levels and flow on his Chapter 61 property, and clean, clear and restore existing manmade and natural management system for ongoing agricultural commodities, raised lengthy discussion among conservation commission members at their June 20 meeting.

The DEP advised the commission of a beaver dam breaching on the property. Commissioners visited the site in April and learned that sticks had been taken out of the spillway and were piled up in a field and eventually burned to maintain the natural flow of the brook. Beavers have constructed two additional dams on the brook.

“We have to come to a determination about what activities are permissible in the stream within the Wetlands Act,” said commission chairman Brian Keevan.

The property has been in the Forestry Program since the 1970s. The beavers moved into the stream in 2008 and property owner John Mirick has kept the spillway open since then by removing some of the sticks. An enforcement action was issued to put a time frame on the project and give Mirick time to file a notice of intent to manage the water levels or ask for a request for determination.

Mirick said he’d talked with Peter Mirick from Mass Fish & Wildlife and was told that forestry is agriculture and he could maintain the water channel to keep it open. About once a week we pull out sticks and once a year burn them, he said. It seems to me it falls under the regulations to maintain the area for agricultural use, to restore or maintain a man-made water system, and to maintain the flow on existing waterways, he said. “So it appeared to me to be exempt under the regulations. We’re just trying to maintain the water level, not lower it,” said Mirick. “If the water backs up it saturates the soil and kills the trees.”

“Breaching a beaver dam isn’t allowed,” said Commissioner John Vieira. He said there are devices that can be used to control water level when beavers are present. “We’ve been asked to look into this and render a decision,” said Vieira. When beaver activity has created a public safety problem there is a process you have to go through, he added. They can be trapped and the board of health is usually contacted and they work with the commission, said Vieira. Breaching a dam changes the hydrology of the surrounding area so it’s considered an alteration, he said.

I didn’t destroy the building your honor, I just took out some of the concrete and a few of the girders, the rest fell down on it’s own! At least Commissioner Vieira has hear of flow devices before and knows this problem has a solution. I believe this particular forest is a whopping 2 hour drive from Mike Callahan and beaver solutions. You would think the word had trickled down by now. Apparently Mirick will keep right on searching for answers until he finds the one that tells him to keep doing exactly the same thing over and over.

I realize I’m not being very patient here. But this man is arguably in the best place for solving beaver problems in the entire country, if not the world. And not only has he not gone to see Mike or bought the DVD or talked to a neighbor, he hasn’t even cracked open a website to read about it. Just a reminder the the city of Martinez brought in an expert from Vermont because everyone in our town 3000 miles away had done their homework and read about the solutions in 2007.

And we’re not exactly a university town, if you take my meaning.

More confusion from this article posted yesterday about famed photographer Rick Price of Canada. It’s quite a nice article about how he captures wildlife in their element, but it has one photo of a beaver I cannot comprehend. Maybe you can help me?

Hungry bears and busy beavers: Alberta photographer captures animals in their elements

This is a busy time of year for Alberta’s wild animals as they emerge after the long winter — even if we don’t get to see most of the action. But with skill, patience and some long lenses, nature photographer Rick Price recently snapped these great shots of beavers in Hinton and bears in the mountain parks.

“The trick to beaver sightings is that they are only out at extreme dawn and dusk, and the other 95 per cent of the day you won’t see them,” he said.

Okay, there are lots of photos like the one above that we totally recognize and understand but then there’s the one I can’t get my head around. It honestly doesn’t even really look real. The caption says “don’t be fooled by this the fuzzy appearance, this is a ferocious rodent”. But honestly what puzzles me isn’t the ferocious part, or the larger bottom teeth, it’s the fact that those sets of teeth are two different colors.

Now we are taught that beaver teeth turn orange from the iron in their diet, and kit teeth are white until they eat enough solid food. But does this mean that all beavers only eat with their bottom teeth? Or that this particular beaver only eats with his bottom teeth? Jon doesn’t think the top incisors even look like teeth.

Has the evil hand of photoshop has played a part?

You, tell me. I don’t know. I just am well aware that it’s not what anyone would expect. Remember we have one shot of upper and lower teeth from our good friend Sylvie, and I believe they were all the same color. So is this a fake? Or a freak?