Category: Who’s blaming beavers now?

Looks like we got ourselves a horse-race!

heidi08 Beavers, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? March 5, 2015

Beaverton beaver dam causes park to flood

Nancy Freeman’s home backs up to the park, and her deck has a view of one of the beaver dams. She loves watching the wildlife, and hopes what THPRD says is true.

“So much has been displaced because of development. Our animals, the creatures that were here first, we sometimes forget and want to displace them because they inconvenience us.”

The options are to create a wildlife viewing area, construct a new trail around the flood water or build a bridge over it.

A date hasn’t been set yet, but THPRD says it will hold a public meeting in April to get feedback on the options. Officials have already been hearing from park visitors.

Hmm, the Beaverton story is shaping up to have all the ingredients of a beaver polity. You remember, like we had in Martinez a few years back. I got several emails from the reporter and the natural resource guy yesterday, and there were a ton of responses to the article. Now I don’t like to gamble, but I’m going to guess that there’s a good chance the park will accommodate the beavers. I heard from the park yesterday that trapping them out is NOT being considered.

Readers say ‘Go, Beavs’ as THPRD ponders options for beavers at Greenway Park

The Greenway Park beavers are pulling in some interesting and funny comments from folks, most of whom support the beavers. The comments:

thomasg86 As a frequent user of the park, I have noticed this transition over the last few years. The “main route” is still mostly clear, except when passing under Scholls Ferry Road… a lot of the flooding seems to be on the “secondary loops” north of there. A big attraction with this park system is the eight or nine continuous miles through the heart of Tigard and Beaverton… that’s a pretty cool resource. So if we have to avoid a couple side trails to make peace with the beaver, I’m okay with that.

Jimmy Carter Just change the name to Peopleton and everything will be okay.

kpu7m Long live the beaver state….learn to coexist.

Values Voter Humans have dammed nearly every major river in North America and flooded the homes of billions of animals. Who is the bigger and far more destructive beast?

outersepdx Guess this is the only place where the Beavers (OSU) can get a win??? 😉 I’m guessing it’s duck fans who want to take the dam out.

sangre_naranja Go Beavs!!

I’m thinking we should just sit back and watch this one. It promises to be good.

Ohhh and two stories this morning you might not read anywhere else. The first that a 185 year-old gold beaver coin sold yesterday to a collector in Eugene:

Eugene dealer snares 165-year-old Oregon ‘Beaver Coin’

Nelkin bought the $5 gold coin in August from a private collector, who had paid $257,000 for it at an auction three months earlier.

The coin was made in 1849, a decade before the Oregon Territory became a state.

It’s unknown how many of the Oregon gold coins remain in existence. But fewer than 50 out of the 6,000 $5 coins made in Oregon City in the 19th century have been certified as authentic, Nelkin said.

Ooh a beaver coin valued at over a quarter of a million. That seems about right to me. Beavers are almost as valuable on a coin as they are in your creek! Amazing!

And this last story has nothing to do with beavers (probably), but blew my mind and I know will interest you. Get ready for a fast ride.

Weasel Rides Woodpecker in Viral Photo—But Is It Real?

Can weasels fly? According to an image captured by amateur photographer Martin Le-May, they can if they hitch a ride on the back of a woodpecker.

The picture shows a least weasel (Mustela nivalis) clutching on the back of a European green woodpecker (Picus viridis), likely as a result of a predatory attack gone awry. (Watch: “Hoarders: Acorn Woodpeckers.”)

Le-May told BBC News he snapped the photo Monday afternoon while visiting Hornchurch Country Park in East London. In fact, his presence may have saved the bird’s life.

“I think we may have distracted the weasel, as when the woodpecker landed it managed to escape and the weasel ran into the grass,” he told the BBC.

I know what you’re thinking. Is this a photoshop fake? National Geographic doesn’t think so.

But is the photo now known on Twitter as #WeaselPecker a fake?

Hany Farid doesn’t think so. Farid is a professor of computer science at Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, who researches digital forensics and image analysis.

Farid said that while the image’s low resolution makes performing a detailed analysis difficult, there are several other factors to consider. For starters, because the weasel is virtually hugging the woodpecker, forging such an image would be extremely challenging.

“This would have required a nearly perfect and coincidental alignment of the two animals in their original photos so that they could be composited together,” said Farid. “This type of forgery is therefore more difficult to create than, for example, two animals simply standing side-by-side.”

The fact that Le-May has posted several other photos of the scene is another indicator that the images are probably real, because it would be even more problematic to consistently alter two or more photos.

Finally, Farid said there doesn’t seem to be any obvious lighting, color, focus, or quality differences between the weasel and the bird.

“Combined, I don’t see any evidence that the photo is not real,” he said.

That is one lucky weasel. And considering he was probably pouncing for his meal, one lucky woodpecker to boot. The photo is one in a million, but honestly, I couldn’t get this song out of my head all day…

No Irony in Ironytown

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's blaming beavers now? March 4, 2015

Man vs. beast: Beavers blossom at Greenway Park, dams flood Fanno Creek Trail

Greenway Park used to have a beaver or two living along Fanno Creek, which winds through the area, and the park-goers and animals lived in harmony.

But now a family of beavers calls it home and they’re flooding the park. The beavers have dammed Fanno Creek, and Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District gated off a section of the flooded trail at least six months ago.

Even after several days of dry weather, the trail remains underwater. A secondary loop takes walkers and bikers around the high water but, lately, it’s been flooding, too, when it rains, said James Wilson, a frequent trail user.

Wilson said he has watched the park, which has playgrounds, basketball courts, tennis courts and disc golf as well as an extensive trail system, transform into a lake over the last three years.

“Beavers are cool animals but you can’t let them destroy the thing,” he said. “This is not a lake, it’s a park.”

That’s right, beavers are ruining a perfectly good city park with their mucky nature activities. That certainly doesn’t happen in BEAVERTON anyway. I’ve already written the park and the press about flow devices and Bruce wrote me back concerned that the city attorneys have warned the that changing the stream will leave them open to lawsuits. I told him what we did and said that removing beavers also opens you to lawsuits and we’ll see what happens. There are some smart beaver champions out that way and let’s watch and learn.

THPRD was waiting to see if Fanno Creek would wash away the dams, said Bruce Barbarasch, superintendent of natural resources and trails management. But that hasn’t happened, and the park district is considering other options.

Barbarasch said THPRD could let nature run its course and make a portion of the park a wildlife area. Other options could include rerouting the flooded trail or building a boardwalk or bridge over the area.

Building a new trail or a boardwalk, however, is expensive and the park district doesn’t have funding for it at the present time, he said.

Nearly 100 percent of Greenway Park is in a flood plain, Barbarasch said.

One helpful commenter on the article suggested changing the name of the town to Peopleton. Problem solved! Failing that, they all need to watch this video over and over.

Here’s an update from our friend Rusty Cohn at the Napa beaver dams:

two m — Hooded merganser males, crest lowered – Rusty Cohn of Napa

A wrinkle in beaver-time

heidi08 Beavers, City Reports, Friends of Martinez Beavers, History, In the News, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now? March 3, 2015

This weekend I was working on putting together my presentation for the Salmonid Restoration Conference in Santa Rosa and thought I’d try to find some photos of the big multi-million dollar creek fix done in 1999 that everyone said the beavers threatened. Considering the fact that the work is talked about all the time, and changed our creek-scape fairly dramatically, it’s surprising that there is not a single photo of it on the internet(s). You would think Martinez would be proud of this accomplishment?

While I was looking about I came across a website discussing some OTHER work done in our creek, which is often dramatically added to the price tag of how expensive the beavers were to Martinez. The work was done in 2008 but was posted by the engineering firm in 2012. Maybe they were waiting for the dust to settle or for everyone to forget what actually happened?

I certainly never will.

Project: Alhambra Creek Beaver Dam

In 2008, litigation was brought against the City of Martinez for damage to private properties caused by beavers living in Alhambra Creek (owned by the City). Cal Engineering & Geology reviewed the site conditions and met with the City’s attorney regarding the merits of the claim.

The litigation put the City in a politically difficult position since the beavers were not a protected species but were greatly supported by the politically active environmental community group called, “Worth a Dam-Martinez Beavers.org”.

rIn the interest of striking a balance between nature, public interest, the City’s liability, and private property, CE&G suggested use of a sheet pile wall to both support the private properties and to act as a barrier against beaver dens extending below private properties.

Based upon conversations with a beaver expert retained by the City and the City Attorney, the sheet pile wall concept was approved.

You can understand at once why this got my full attention. Right off the bat I’m curious why this article is titled the Alhambra Creek beaver dam since even by their own definition this work had nothing to do with the dam. It had to do with the [completely fallacious] argument that they were tunneling out from their lodge like coal miners and undermining the property beside the creek. It’s surprising to see our name (or at least our name as it might appear on the internet) used. But the really interesting statement is the one in red. Exactly what beaver expert did the city confer with to hatch the sheetpile idea?

You understand. there is a sequence problem here. Obviously the city attorney isn’t routinely involved with creek maintenance. I’m sure she’s busy with abutments and ordinance challenge. Neither she nor any expert were part of the decision which was made in some secret back room, I’m sure. The city attorney got involved when we tried to challenge their willfully misguided decision in court and failed. The beaver expert was hired as a result of our outcry in attempt to mollify public opinion.

Credit where credit is due – the city council hatched that horrific idea all by themselves (actually I heard from several sources that one of the few members no longer on the council came up with the idea in conjunction with the disgruntled party). This member later had an ex parte conversation with someone on the subcommittee and that member later called me saying would be no big deal to open the lid of the lodge, gently tap some sheetpile through, and then close it back up. Like a can of beans.

That terrifying phone call followed a closed door meeting on a Thursday night. The following Friday the action was proposed, we hired an attorney, and paid a geomorphologist to walk and assess the creek on Saturday. The following week Worth A Dam went to court and our request for a temporary restraining order was denied. If the whole thing wasn’t burned into my memory, it would be helpful to look at the blow by blow available on this website. Next wednesday the entire proposal was approved and retained and I was invited to participate on a citizen oversight committee that would have zero capacity for oversight of any kind. I declined and left the meeting in tears.

City Approves All Resolutions

Including the exemption from CEQA. Bids for the work open at 11 tomorrow. Sheet pile will be driven through the beavers lodge. Council responded to comments for citizen inclusion with an offer to set up an oversight committee including Worth A Dam, but then discussed it with the attorney and city engineer who advised that any oversight body could not make decisions, slow decisions or influence them in any way. I declined to participate under those conditions.

Supporters were in tears at the meeting’s end, including myself. Gary Bogue offers his condolences and wisdom.

Ahh Gary, we miss you. Sniff.

Dear Readers:

In other words, the city invited beaver lovers to sit on an oversight committee … that had no oversight. That kind of says what this is all about, doesn’t it?

The city now plans to charge ahead on their “emergency bank stabilization,” causing a MAJOR impact on the beavers’ environment and their home … and of course on the beavers themselves.

I guess we’re going to find out how tough those little guys are, whether we (or they) like it or not.

That was easily the darkest hour in beavertown, maybe of my life because I felt so personally responsible for failing to avert the decision that I believed would kill them. But Gary was right, we did find out how tough our beavers were. Pretty dam tough is the answer. Every beaver survived and adapted pretty well to the intrusion.

The whole thing introduced an element of freedom to how politely constrained I needed to be in dealing with the city. Up until then, I felt my hands were tied by always feeling obligated to assume they meant well. Now I understand better whose interests they really serve. After the shock and heartbreak wore off, the clarity was truly liberating. With the benefit of hindsight I can look at my remarks and Gary’s remarks and think they probably had something to do with this creative narrative:

Additionally, the beaver expert, who monitored construction at all times and had the authority to stop work, was satisfied with the project.

I’m so glad that our website was able to put together enough information so that Cal Engineering would know intimately how to lie about in their post. We tried not to leave anything out. I’m rankled that they are offering this whole dangerous charade as an example of their environmental engineering. Although to be fair, I’m not mad at CE, they were just getting paid. I’m mad at the liars and schemers who used the excuse of the beavers as a way to turn a legal award from an old oil spill into a personal flood protection barrier for one property owner.

But that’s all blood under the bridge, now.

Funny thing, it turned out the only thing really being undermined in this whole process was my faith in the city. But no amount of sheetpile will repair that.

In the end, they won the battle. But beavers won the war.

Back to reality

heidi08 Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now? February 24, 2015

Coming back from the conference one is left with this beaver haze. There are follow-up emails and last minute touches from people who wanted to say something appreciative but couldn’t find time in the moment. There are last minute ideas and connections. There’s a sense that, finally, everyone understands beaver value, and we are living in the golden age of beavers.

And then there you see things like this and come crashing back to earth.

Beaver problems in pond dams

Oklahoma State University- Not only do they build their own, but beavers can cause significant structural damage to pond dams. Dam problems can turn into big problems.

“The typical Oklahoma farm pond dam was built with too narrow of a top and is too steep sided,” said Marley Beem, Oklahoma State Univesrity Cooperative Extension aquaculture specialist. “Such ponds are at high risk of failing when animals burrow into the dam.”

“First, I would recommend calling USDA Wildlife Services to see if they might be able to send out a trapper,” Elmore said. “Beaver are not too difficult to trap if you have a little experience. But, if you miss them in a trap, they are very tough to get, so you need to get them on the first try.”

If Wildlife Services cannot help, pond owners can take matters into their own hands by trapping or night shooting.

“I advise shooting, as the only legal trap a private landowner can use is a leg hold trap in a drowning set, which is a little tricky,” he said. “Night shooting works well but you will need to call the county conservation officer and/or sheriff to let them know what you are doing.”

Using a shotgun is preferred and is much safer when shooting at water. Once the pest has been eradicated, repairs to the pond dam can commence.

Better hurry and get rid of them pesky beaver, you wouldn’t want them sticking around and improving the fish and birds on your property would you? How nice of the University system to offer advice for how to kill them. Higher education at its finest.

Honestly, why does Oklahoma even have a university anyway? They’re clearly aren’t capable of learning new things about beavers.

Marc Murrell: Leave it to ‘Big’ Beaver

Mark Brannock, 51, has been trapping in northeast Kansas since his days growing up in Perry. He admits that trapping for him isn’t necessarily about the money when he sells his furs, but a tie to conservation and simply a way of life passed on from previous generations.

“My biggest beaver ever was 72 pounds,” said Mark Brannock, 51, an avid furharvester who grew up in Perry. “I caught one this year almost as big and he was 71 pounds.”

Beavers don’t normally get quite that big.

“I’d say the average adult beaver weighs between 40 and 55 pounds and those are 3-plus years old,” said Matt Peek, furharvesting program coordinator for the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. “One that big into the 70’s isn’t uncommon, but it’s atypical and that’s definitely towards the bigger end of what trappers are likely to run across.

“Beavers can get to over 100 pounds, but I don’t ever recall ever seeing one that big from Kansas,” Peek added.

There’s no shortage of beavers in the Sunflower State. They’re found in greatest numbers in the eastern part of the state as one might guess — that’s where most of the water is located. Peek admits the beaver population is generally good in those locations based on annual harvest data and damage complaints.

“They’re particularly fond of the same types of trees we are in a lot of cases, especially in suburban areas where people have nice, ornamental trees,” Peek said. “The beavers prefer to cut these down, rather than other undesirable species like cedar or hedge or locust.

“And maybe the bigger issue is most Kansas beavers don’t build a lodge and they live in bank dens so they can cause some problems with dams (bank erosion, etc.) and then the other problem is flooding and they can back up a lot of water in places in agricultural fields and flood different areas that landowners don’t wish to have flooded,” he added.

Kansas beavers don’t have a lot of natural predators, other than humans.

“Coyotes and bobcats will take them if they can get them on land, particularly the younger ones,” Peek said. “Or if a creek goes dry they’re pretty susceptible to predation from those two.”

Beavers, like many species of wildlife, are fairly short-lived animals.

“Most of them don’t make it beyond two years, but those that do are capable of living to 10-12 years or more,” Peek said.

Leave it to Kansas and Oklahoma to provide the reality check we need after a beaver conference that seemed to suggest that everyone has learned the things they need to know. Apparently Marc has been killing them so long he has concluded they only live for two years. That is a stunning bit of self-prophecy isn’t it?

Do you know when we were just starting out with beavers, before the beaver subcommittee even formed, the pretend expert who tried to tell our city all about them (Mary Tappel) told the the Gazette that they could breed for FIFTY years. I called the editor in alarm and asked whether that was a typo. He insisted it w as not and called Mary back to verify. At that time Mary was supposed to testify to the subcommittee, and ‘help’ answer our questions, but after that drama she decided we were too challenge-y and only met privately with city staff to spread her lies.

It all happened such a long time ago I practically forgot until I was talking to someone at the conference about it. Water under the bridge I guess. Anyway a trapper saying they never live longer than two years because I kill them myself is much more accurate. And I for one believe HIS story, don’t you?

Speaking of scientific errors, there’s a new illustrated book on the subject that Robin sent my way. And the artist chose a wonderful illustration for correlation not being the same as causation that I know you’ll admire. Thanks Robin!

Talking about beavers

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? February 15, 2015

Knapdale scientists to discuss beaver studies

People interested in hearing about studies of Knapdale’s famous beavers are being invited to attend an event in Argyll next week.

The beavers were released in May 2009 by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland on land managed by Forestry Commission Scotland as part of the five-year Scottish Beaver Trial.

And a series of independent scientific research projects were carried out into the effects of the beavers on the area during the trial, which finished in May of last year.

Dr Martin Gaywood, of Scottish Natural Heritage, who managed the independent scientific monitoring of the trial, said: “We’re keen to bring local people up-to-date on the studies that have been carried out over the last five years.

“There are some interesting and quite surprising results and this is a one-off opportunity to hear about them from the scientists themselves

Don’t you wish you could be there? I love that they’re taking the results straight to the public and starting the conversation. Of course I and Derek Gow and Paul and Louise Ramsey can’t be there because we’ll be in Oregon presenting at the Beaver Conference! In fact I actually present on the same day! Do you know what that means? They’re 8 hours ahead so for an entire 16 hours over the span of 6000 miles the people will be talking and learning about beavers.More if you count the days before and after! The planet will hum with beavers!

Isn’t that awesome?

Beavers causing headaches for Berrien Co. residents

Bad news for beavers in Berriens county Georgia, which is just a little above Florida. Our retired librarian friend BK says the region is very flat, with lots of beaver problems. Apparently when they rip out one beaver dam the road gets flooded. Say, I’ve got an idea for them! (Don’t rip it out)

Some of you might remember that Berrien county is the home of the beaver-kill tail contest that upset me so much I sent a pack of children’s beaver drawings to the commissioners many years ago. They were from our very first Earth Day event. I even had a friend of a friend in the state send them so it would look like they were coming from constituents. It did no good at all but it made me feel better. Apparently they are still up to their old tricks.

Also there must be PLENTY of alligators to keep their beavers in check!

WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

Too bad that culvert fence isn’t a trapezoid- or fenced on bottom, because you know beavers will be incorporating it into their dam soon.

Now I thought yesterday there needed to be a better graphic for a beaver conference. And I’m happy with this one.