Colonel Gail Seymour “Hal” Halvorsen is best known as the “Berlin Candy Bomber” who dropped candy to children during the Berlin airlift from 1948 to 1949. Sometimes you need to sneak things into the people you want to have them, because they are surrounded by obstacles.
When I saw this report I wanted to Airdrop information to the poor besieged sufferers in North Carolina. Obviously the state is steeped in closely protected beaver ignorance from head to tail. I’m think we’d drop a package with Mike’s DVD and Dietland Muller-Schwarze beaver book with a little bag of sand and a can of latex paint to teach them how to protect trees. They obviously need all the help they can get.
So the good folk of Kingston believe that the hurricane brought beavers like a kind of ‘beavernado’ and if they dig enough holes in the dam they’ll find them. They wonder why they’ve never seen the culprits in the day time. And think trapping is the only way to stop them. When I’m finished slapping my forehead you should fire up the airplanes because something tells me Mr. Davis and the newscaster need an airdrop right away.
I noticed a very cool thing about one of Suzi’s photos yesterday. In addition to top and bottom teeth, (which is very rare in a photo) you can actually see the grooming claw if you look closely. I’ve only place I have ever seen this before in a dead beaver that we could photograph closely. This is obviously much, much better.
It’s almost my favorite day, Christmas Eve Eve – an underappreciated holiday with all of the seasonal charm and none of the social pressure. I will give you a Suzi Eszterhas treat. Hohoho!
My first evidence of something unusual happening came in autumn after a month of no rain when I measured the water level. I do this at least once a week downstream from our cabin and was surprised to find that instead of dropping an inch or so, it had actually risen 2 inches. I attributed it to mismeasurement until I took my walk.
Beavers are unquestionably keystone species in a region with small to moderate-size streams. They not only modify the habitat but can also change the environment in ways that dramatically influence the lives of animals, including people, and plants.
Beaver activity can result in big trees dying from flooding and smaller ones being debarked for food or cut down for dam construction. A mile downstream from my incipient beaver dam a larger one has flooded several acres, leaving tall, lifeless sweetgum and pine trees that began life in a terrestrial habitat and cannot persist in an aquatic one.
Whit Gibbons photo
Animals are affected, too. Large aquatic salamanders called sirens thrive and become more abundant in pools of a stream created by beaver dams. We once observed more than 500 sirens along the margins of a small stream when a dam was removed and the water level dropped.
Cottonmouths, watersnakes and turtles are more apparent, and maybe even more abundant, around beaver dams, which create areas for basking on sunny days. Waterfowl, such as wood ducks, are attracted to the pond created above the dam. Clearly, beavers and their dams set the tone of the neighborhood for many wildlife species.
So close. So very close. I feel we are standing at the very threshold of almost discussing beaver benefits – peering through the keyhole at the verdant green garden on the other side. But Whit isn’t wild about beavers. And he’s surrounded by UGA buddies who feed him bad information.
Beavers live 35 to 50 years in zoos and more than 20 years in the wild.
One of the conundrums with beavers is that their positive traits – being chubby, cute, industrious pioneers – aren’t always enough to outweigh less desirable traits. I know folks who have had beavers cut down a beautiful dogwood tree, flood an area intended for a garden not a fish pond and dismantle a wooden boathouse to build the beaver lodge. The predicament is how to keep beavers for outdoor show-and-tell yet not have them misbehave, from a human’s point of view.
An ecofriendly society will always face perplexing wildlife problems and environmental dilemmas. Entertaining, yet potentially destructive, beavers are a good example of the complexity inherent in environmental preservation, with no simple solution as to how to handle the issue. A range of responses are available for dealing with nuisance wildlife. Which solution people choose will depend in part on their environmental conscience.
Whit is a reflective and thoughtful man with an ecological conscience. He wants to appreciate the inherent coolness of beavers because it’s fun to see wildlife in his creek, but he doesn’t want to be flooded out for 50 years. What’s a good man to do?
When information fails you its time to get better information. I’m glad you asked. First of all beavers don’t live for 50 years. Who ever wrote that down was wrong and should have their credentials surgically removed. I did read a scientific report that identified one as 19 once, but in the wild 10-15 years is an astoundingly good run.
Beavers do cause problems. True. And cars get flat tires. We can fix them.
Why not just trap the beavers and get rid of them instead of fixing the problem? First of all you can’t, because more beavers will return to adequate habitat and you’ll be in this fix all over again in a year or a season. But more importantly all the wildlife that depends on the beaver dam will be lost if you remove the beaver. Meanwhile, that dam is removing nitrogen, letting trout fatten, filtering toxins, and regulating water flow which god knows you need in South Carolina and Georgia!
The article concludes by saying Whit teaches at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. I can’t think of a more useful place to start a conversation. Our retired UGA librarian friend needs to have coffee with him and nudge some useful information his way. Hey, maybe you could take this image into your classroom?
Not a bad beaver report considering its from Indiana. I can’t embed it here but click on it for a nice review of the issues. Even though they newscaster can’t tell a lodge and a dam apart, there is actually discussion about beaver benefits and options supposedly being considered.
A family of beavers is currently living the Hawthorne Park Wetlands it’s kind of like having, squatters move into your neighborhood. The rodents are causing a big problem and the Vigo County Parks Department is facing a tough decision.
The Parks Dept. say trapping and killing the beavers in the area is an option. The other alternative would be to capture and relocate the animals, but that equipment can cost around $200 per beaver. The issue is the dams they build can cause water back up in other areas.
On a cold, frosty day there’s not much activity at Hawthorne Park. But there’s definitely something going on.. and it concerns the wildlife here. In particular some pesky beavers. “When they create dams, stop up water bodies, which creates sort of artificial wetlands in areas where people might not want those wetlands to be,” Falyn Owens, said
Owens, Urban Wildlife Biologist with Department of Natural Resources says the ideal would be to put up barriers to stop the animals. But if something more drastic is needed, then trap and kill is favored over capture and release because then the beaver essentially becomes someone else’s problem.
The beaver taking down trees and potentially causing flooding are primary concerns, but the animal does a lot of good too.
“They are what we call ecosystem engineers which makes them an incredibly important species in the natural system, just like human beings, they have the capacity to change their environment,” Owens said.
Since we’re talking about Indiana I would ordinarily hold little hope for these beavers, but I was tipped to the story by someone who works for the parks department who was tipped by the reporter. I was able to pull up email for Ms. Owens and the park superintendent, and send them information about flow devices and beaver benefits. Who knows? At least there’s a chance things could work out.
To be honest I was surprised they have a biologist in charge of Urban Wildlife at all. And Falyn Owens wrote me back twice, basically saying I can’t do anything and the park has a license to kill. But still. We’re grading on a curve.
Robin let me know that the infamous dollar store beaver made his way to Anderson Cooper at CNN the other night. Apparently causing him to get a bit of the giggles. Discretion being the furrier part of valor, I won’t comment. Sit thru a short commercial and enjoy the clip.
A beaver appears to be causing some flooding issues to land on and near the Hutchinson Correctional Facility, but it looks like there isn’t much anyone can do about it.
Jeff Nichols, City of Hutchinson public works maintenance/flood control superintendent, said a beaver dam has caused water to back up along the Cow Creek in this area in years past and it wouldn’t be atypical for it to happen again.
In the past couple of days the high water has been on the west and east side of K-61 between Avenue G and Blanchard.
Nichols said the creek crosses multiple private properties and it is the owners’ responsibility to maintain it – including beaver dams.
Craig Curtis, Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism regional wildlife supervisor, said based on Kansas law you can get rid of the beaver, but you legally can’t get rid of the dam.
Curtis said the landowner can reach out to the department for information on a water level control device that can be put inside the dam to keep the water an at acceptable level.
Hutchinson correctional facility is in Kansas, where you are apparently allowed to kill beavers as long as you don’t destroy dams. Not sure about the logic in that – I’m sure it’s flood related but I would think that if beavers aren’t around anymore to tend the dam it will eventually break and cause flooding anyway?
I’m pleased at least to see that Kansas knows about flow devices. What do you want to bet that paper would describe the expensive and unreliable Clemson and not Mike or Skip’s Designs?
A pleasant winter trip to the pond from Larry Weber of Minnesota makes me wish that we had snow. Sure feels cold enough anyway.
With all these changes — cold, snow and the beginning of the freeze up — it was time to visit to a beaver pond.
John Warner photograph, Montana
Each November, I like to wander through the woods and adjacent field to a favorite beaver pond. This year, I was able to observe a few others as well. I like to see if the beavers are still present and how well prepared they are for the coming winter season. Three beaver lodges that I went to in past weeks revealed newly cut branches on the top with saplings in the nearby water to serve as food. None were large, but each showed activity. Often in the previous weeks of AutWin, I was able to watch the beavers as they swam by.
As I went towards the large beaver pond, I walked in the new snow cover. AutWin may be over, but now the next chapter in the seasonal changes begins. Though I cannot see many of the low plants that I saw in the woods last week, I could see the animal tracks that tell of their activity during these recent days and nights. Even before I left the yard, I found footprints of deer, squirrel, deer mice and shrew. Within the woods, I noted where a ruffed grouse and fox have passed and a runway of snowshoe hare. Out in the field, I found the tunnel openings in the snow made from underneath by the local field mice. These vole holes are always very common early in the snow season. Arriving at the beaver pond, I saw a few coyotes had left their tracks as they moved along the shore. A more adventurous raccoon tried walking on the new slushy ice. And out in the center of the pond, I saw what I came here to observe: the beaver lodge.
The structure is large and solid. Looking it over, I saw the aquatic dwelling site has many recent cut branches on it; the beavers have worked much in previous weeks to reinforce the strength of their home. Nearby in the water are many branches and twigs sticking up above ner photogfraph, Montanathe pond’s surface. This large gathering of woody material tells of a well-stocked cache of food that allows the beavers to have meals all winter. Though the cache is wet and cold, it does give enough substance and nutrition for these large water rodents. The entire pond was covered with ice, except for a small open space near the lodge. Here the beavers are able exit from their unique house if they desire to do so. (I have previously found their tracks on the nearby shore, but not this time.)
From the size of the lodge and cache, it looks like a whole family will be wintering here. I have visited this beaver pond every November for years and nearly always I find what I saw that day. They appear to be doing fine. It was a good walk and visit to the beaver pond and I wish them well for the coming winter.
I love to think about beavers planning ahead for the snow. It never ceases to amaze me that they make a food cache and share with family members. My dream is to someday see the cracks they make in the ice before it freezes up so they can have access as long as possible. I wish I could see how they do it, Do you think they use their heads or strong backs? Beavers in snow work so much harder than ours. But it never troubles them. It’s not like you ever see a mass migration of beaver retirees moving to the warmer temperatures so they can take it easy in their golden years.
Of course this beautiful glimpse of beaver under the ice is from our good friend Bob Arnebeck. Thanks Bob.
The poor beleaguered Czechs. They are being invaded by beavers. Or at least think they are. Given this photo I’m not so sure.
The article mentions that wrapping trees with wire or painting is a good way to protect them. And failing that suggests keeping a dog in the hard or gluing dogfur to the tree trunk will help. (Dogfur?) But I suppose children need crafts with the winter holidays coming up. (And it sure looks like someone glued dogfur to that photo.)
Which, I’m sure you know, is a nutria and not a beaver.
The most severe damage is caused by the dams that these rodents build because they raise water level and may inundate the surroundings. Besides, beavers damage levees in ponds. This is also why steel nets have been installed on the reconstructed ones.
On the other hand, some dams built by beavers help during floods as they slow down the water flow during snows thawing and torrential rains, MfD writes.
Wow, they even took time to mention beaver dams do some good. I guess the takeaway from this article is that the Czech republic, where slightly more than 10,000,000 people earn salaries of just over 1000 a year, uses culvert protection and wraps trees to prevent beaver damage which makes them much, much smarter than us.
Think about that while you listen to one of my favorite pieces of music of all time.
Colonel Gail Seymour “Hal” Halvorsen is best known as the “Berlin Candy Bomber” who dropped candy to children during the Berlin airlift from 1948 to 1949. Sometimes you need to sneak things into the people you want to have them, because they are surrounded by obstacles.
When I saw this report I wanted to Airdrop information to the poor besieged sufferers in North Carolina. Obviously the state is steeped in closely protected beaver ignorance from head to tail. I’m think we’d drop a package with Mike’s DVD and Dietland Muller-Schwarze beaver book with a little bag of sand and a can of latex paint to teach them how to protect trees. They obviously need all the help they can get.
something unusual happening came in autumn after a month of no rain when I measured the water level. I do this at least once a week downstream from our cabin and was surprised to find that instead of dropping an inch or so, it had actually risen 2 inches. I attributed it to mismeasurement until I took my walk.
Jeff Nichols, City of Hutchinson public works maintenance/flood control superintendent, said a beaver dam has caused water to back up along the Cow Creek in this area in years past and it wouldn’t be atypical for it to happen again.
