Category: Who’s blaming beavers now?

Patagonia Beaver Paranoia

heidi08 Beaver Chewing, Beaver News, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now? May 6, 2015

On a mid week morning where news is slow, I have to ask myself, honestly. Am I ready for another beaver alarm from South America? This time on PRI for god’s sake. It is stunning to me that after everything that’s been done to the region from military coups, massive burning, agricultural campaigns that destroyed native plants, and ripping out trees at an alarming rate to plant soya for biofuels – we have the gall to blame BEAVERS for destruction in South America.

It’s open season on Patagonia’s voracious, disruptive … beavers?

Even furry, seemingly friendly creatures like beavers can become big problems when dropped into an ecosystem with no predators to keep them in balance.

That’s what happened in Patagonia, where the busy dam-builders are profoundly changing the once-pristine region that spans the southern ends of Chile and Argentina.

In 1946, 25 pairs of Canadian beavers were brought to Patagonia to kickstart a fur industry. That business didn’t take off, but the beavers flourished; there are now about 100,000 beavers in Patagonia that don’t belong there.

They’ve completely changed the entire ecology of the region,” says Derek Mead, editor-in-chief of Motherboard, a digital magazine and video channel.

The industrious beavers have chewed down trees and diverted rivers, reshaping the area’s river system. That’s a useful function in their normal habitat, but in Patagonia, they’ve turned beech forests into barren wastelands. The trees, cut down to stumps by the beavers, can’t regenerate or hold onto the soil. Rains and heavy flooding erode the soil, turning a previously dense forest and tight river into an open pit, Mead says.

Lets start with “no natural predators”. I understand since they are 5000 miles away from their natural predators they are not likely to get eaten by a bear. But hmm I wonder if there are any predators in Argentina and Chile that might like a little exotic beaver meat? Let me just check what’s around there, “87% of South America’s carnivore population occur in Argentina”. The maned wolf for one, and a variety of others. This book outlines seven species of carnivores living in the Pampas. Not to mention a dozen different kind of Caiman (crocodiles) that can be found anywhere there’s water. And let’s not forget those in that Youtube video. I guess no “natural predators” but a host of “unnatural” ones. And It’s not like beavers can offer much self defense.

Seven years ago they were whining that the beavers had grown SO LARGE in South America that they were eating FISH. Seriously. At least they seem to have stopped that nonsense. Now they are paying anyone to hunt them and selling the meat in local restaurants. I’ve been in the beaver biz for so long, I already wrote about it in 2008.

Never mind. Go ahead. Blame the beavers for everything that’s wrong in your lopsided countries. I admit they don’t belong there. And everyone deserves a scapegoat.

Oh and if you don’t think the PRI article and film is stupid enough for me to complain about, check out the comments on Youtube. Grr.

“Those bad beavers are ruining all our nature!”

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Environmental, Who's blaming beavers now? May 2, 2015

Maybe it’s the week I’ve had but I’m having zero empathy with the fancy international art gallery upset that beavers are ruining all their aspen. Maybe you’ll see it differently.

Experts called in to handle gnawing issue

John Kinkade and daughter Alyson, owners of Columbine Gallery at 2683 N. Taft Ave., are seeing a recurrence of a beaver problem that first plagued aspen trees at the gallery in June 2001. Back then, a group of beavers from the little Lake Tern next to the gallery took down 35 trees in the sculpture garden area before John hired a company from Boulder to assist with the problem. This time, a beaver has caused one tree to fall and gnawed almost all the way through a second tree.

“In 2001, we would hear the beavers in the pond. They would flap their tails in the water and we thought that was fun until all of a sudden trees started falling all around us,” John said. “We lost 35 trees. They were coming into the interior of the sculpture garden, so we lost one group of aspens that had seven trees in it with 8-10-inch diameters.”

He said the Boulder company did not manage to trap any beavers, but the beavers were seemingly scared away, since they didn’t return to the area for a long time.

This time, one beaver has built a lodge at the base of the sculpture garden in Lake Tern, and the family is seeing the evidence of beaver destruction in the aspen trees again.

There is also a goose that has nested outside John’s window and he joked, “We specialize in wildlife sculpture and real wildlife as well.”

The Columbine Gallery consists of the kind of artISTE expert advice that will help you find a painting that matches your sofa, or commission a sculpture for that perfect garden nook. They certainly are not the rough and tumble gaggle of art workshops and new showings that our own artist FRO Butler maintains in Art Cottage. They are more like this:

They’re about 50 minutes away from Sherri Tippie but something tells me they never invited her to consult on their problem.There’s not a single mention in the article about wrapping trees or painting with sand. They probably didn’t see her in the documentary either. Because they were busy dying grout green to match the mosaic in the patio. This is the way they like to see their Aspen trees.

Not this:

On a kinder note, beaver fam Lee-Anne Carver from Canada posted this photo she took and it’s remarkable.

11182135_10153193143473467_4925592789839701436_n — Floating beaver: photo Lee-Anne Carver

Three Strikes for beavers

heidi08 Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? April 24, 2015

Milford Daily News has covered interesting beaver stories in Massachusetts before. But this is far more surprising. Just look at the photo on their beaver story this morning.

If that photo looks familiar it should. It was taken by Cheryl Reynolds back in 2010. It is two of the three kits whose mom died. It’s not on wikipedia and not for common use. But the crime gets even more alarming when you see this: A little shopping cart which if you click on you can order copies of the photo! 40 dollars for a glossy 11 X 14!

I called the front desk and the editor and they assured me it will be changed. But it hasn’t yet. I’d be shocked if I wasn’t so very familiar with the common place theft that occurs on the internet. When I finally calmed down enough to read the article I identified the third outrage:

Bellingham: Beaver dams in culverts a thorny issue

Beavers have dammed up several culverts in town. Daily News file photo (No its NOT)

by Matt Tota/Daily News Staff

BELLINGHAM — Department of Public Work crews on Wednesday started to demolish a beaver dam plugging a culvert on Whitehall Way, releasing a stream of water downstream that flooded five residential roadways.

DPW Director Donald DiMartino, responding to the flooding, found himself mired in the high water on Newland Avenue, where his vehicle sat until rescued by a front-end loader. Beavers had bested the department again.

In recent months, the DPW started monitoring several culverts around town where beavers have taken to building their dams. The culvert dams are new, potentially costly maintenance issues for the department.

And removing the dams usually requires heavy equipment.

“They are dumb animals, but their instincts are fantastic,” DiMartino said.

I’m confused, Do you think he’s talking about DPW employees? Or photo editors?

Thickly Settled

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Who's blaming beavers now? April 21, 2015

This famous mountain lion who made a show Saturday of nibbling the Martinez beavers, has gone on to even greater things. Now he is in the New Yorker with Michelle Nijhuis new article on the stranded big cats of LA. Someone else we know is in the article too.

This particular mountain lion is no stranger to Angelenos. Three years ago, in early 2012, he left his home in the Santa Monica Mountains, crossed two eight-lane freeways, and, after travelling at least twenty miles, dead-ended in Griffith Park, a former ostrich farm that is now one of the country’s largest municipal green spaces. Biologists tranquilized the lion and fitted him with a radio collar; he became popularly known by his tag number, P-22.

The most promising location for the first mountain-lion crossing in the Los Angeles Basin would span ten busy lanes of traffic, and it is by no means guaranteed to deliver the genetic variation that the lions need. Yet the project has momentum. Beth Pratt, an energetic campaigner for the National Wildlife Federation, has won support from congressional representatives and local governments for a crossing in the Santa Monicas, and earlier this year the California State Coastal Conservancy awarded a million-dollar grant to the department of transportation for the design and permitting of the crossing, with the goal of beginning construction by 2018.

Beth has been a tireless voice for wildlife crossings for big cats in particular. She will be making her way to Martinez this summer for our own beaver festival. I’m thrilled this story made the New Yorker but it has prompted me to reconsider for myself how many articles about beaver have made the magazine in the last 25 years. Hmm, let me count.

Oh, that’s right. NONE. (Except cartoons. Beavers are funny.)

No single mention of beaver benefits or struggles in the New Yorker Magazine about salmon or water or even Scotland. Not even when the famous Jose was discovered in the Bronx river. Nothing since a 1991 article on Hope Buyukmihci and the formation of Beaver Defenders. I realize of course, mountain lions are sleek, sexy and powerful. But the beaver is the state animal of New York fer cryingoutloud. Let’s get interested in them!

The New Yorker is so far behind the times about beavers that they don’t even realize this cartoon isn’t comic at all. It’s just boring old prosaic truth. Like a telephone book. Beavers make the ecosystem work for them. And us.

Period.

Oh and the big beaver news of the day is that a beaver is being blamed for taking out power to thousands in Maine. I got ten alerts for it this morning, and now it’s made the Discovery News.

Beaver Knocks Down Tree, Thousands Lose Power

A beaver in Maine’s northern Aroostook County was doing what beavers do on Monday night — and chewed down a tree to help build its dam.

The problem is the tree happened to fall on a power transmission line and soon nearly 3,000 residents

“(The downed tree) is in a very remote, wooded area which has been challenging to reach, but workers will remain working to restore power by mid-morning,” Bob Potts, spokesperson for Emera, told the Bangor Daily Ne

No word yet on how, if they were able to get someone on site to identify the beaver-chewed culprit that caused the outage, they couldn’t get a crew there as well. Or how they know for certain it wasn’t the wind taking out a tree they should have trimmed years ago. But oh well. It’s a good beaver-blame anyway. In fact, this finger is pointed with such dexterity that the power company is even getting a news cycle boost out of it. Nicely done boys and girls.

I was a little confused about this though:

As often-cited W.T. Cox wrote in a 1940 article in American Forest, “Beavers do not belong in thickly-settled communities, since their flooding operations may become troublesome…

Would you call Martinez “thickly settled”?

Conservation Awareness

heidi08 Creative Solutions, Earth Day, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? April 17, 2015

What a great article from Troy Alabama. I won’t say of all places because Alabama is the site of the most important fine EVER for removing a beaver dam and destroying the habitat of the rare watercress darter. Looks like the city of Troy learned nothing from their northern cousin’s misfortune.

Dam destruction raises concern

The city of Troy tore down a beaver dam beside McKinley Drive near the walkway that connects the Edge apartment complex to campus.

Vaughn Daniels, environmental services director for the city of Troy, said the city worked with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to make sure the dam removal was environmentally safe.

The beavers were not killed, Daniels said. According to Daniels, the dam was a threat to the road.

After the beaver dam was removed, the pond it created drained.

Members of Troy University’s Environmental Club moved animals from the remains of the pond to the Lagoon.

“In one day out there doing a visual survey, we saw 3-foot grass carp, sunfishes, red-winged blackbirds, belted kingfishers, musk turtles, pond sliders, gray and green tree frogs, Eastern garter snakes, as well as a huge female great horned owl,” said Tanner Stainbrook, a senior ecology and field biology major from Huntsville and a member of the Environmental Club, in an email.

Members of the Environmental Club have voiced concern about the effects tearing down the dam will have on the area. “The big thing is that this eliminated the major wetland ecosystem in the area,” Stainbrook said. “This mud hole, in two days, will be just that. There’ll be no water left.”

Group members said they were concerned that this may harm the great horned owl’s habitat, as the owl fed on the frogs in the pond.

A university, an environmental club, and a sympathetic reporter. Something tells me these beavers might be making a splash. I spent time yesterday tracking all the major players so I could make sure they new about solutions and consequences of dam removal. I haven’t heard anything back, but I’m hopeful. And it gave me a new idea for responding to these stories. Since we review every beaver report that’s written every year, we may as well give notice to the best and the worst beaver articles of each caagory. Gradually notify contenders that they’re in the running and pick the winners in January. I already got Robin excited about the idea and she’s going to help! I took the liberty of inspiring myself for the project with some graphics this morning. Hahaha! Aren’t they fun?

A less pleasant article came out of Norway yesterday about one of the many hazards of beaver life. It’s nice to see it written about respectfully though (except for the headline).

Timber! Beaver crushed by tree it was felling

7fcbe58b21bbdf87d9928ca0b87d7c8725f277a21c837eca694e7115f78d3d64 — The unlucky beaver trapped under a birch. Photo: Beate Strøm Johansen

A beaver in Norway has been crushed to death after misjudging which way the tree it was gnawing down was going to fall.

Beate Strøm Johansen, a Zoologist at the Agder Natural History museum in Kristiansand on the southern tip of Norway, was called to the scene after a local logger stumbled upon the unfortunate animal.

“This beaver has been extremely unlucky,” she told The Local. “I hope it’s not something that happens very often for the beavers’ sake.”

Johansen said that beavers normally have an uncanny ability to predict when and where a tree is likely to fall.

“When the tree is falling they have to jump aside so the tree doesn’t hit them. Instinctively, they should know where it is falling, but sometimes they don’t know which way to jump,” she explained.

I might be strange, but it seems almost kind of sweet to read this article. As if it mattered that a beaver was killed by a tree when we all know sooo many are killed on purpose. Yes trees are unpredictable, and I’m not sure beavers have any uncanny abilities to know where they’re falling except practice and luck. As the old saying goes, that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Now it’s time to invite you to the birthday Earthday event at John Muir tomorrow. The event information is here for you to print. The guest speaker is going to be Beth Pratt for the wildlife federation, the winner of the conservationist of the year is going to be our friend Camilla Fox, and the non-profit of the year is going to be our friends at the River Otter Ecology Project. My congressman is getting a lifetime legacy award, which we hope he will be able to pick up in person. At the moment my office is literally surrounded with art supplies for our ‘build your own totem’ project. Rusty from Napa is coming to help with our booth and 57 other environmental exhibits will be on hand to celebrate the day. Plus Frank Helling as John Muir, which is sooo appealing. Whatever your planning tomorrow stop right now and plan to come. It will be an amazing day.

My graphic for the award winners will be a big sign. The background is Muir’s letter to Enos Mills congratulating him on his conservation work and inviting him to the house. See for yourself.