Category: Who’s saving beavers now?

A HAPPY ENDING IN ORCHARD PARK

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? April 20, 2024

Sniff, this is a proud morning for beaver advocates everywhere. 17 years after the Martinez beavers changed our world, another champion is unfolding her story. Hurray for the beavers of Orchard Park!

Bedeviled by beavers, Orchard Park chooses non-lethal solution

The beavers in Orchard Park’s Birdsong Park may be deceived, but not deceased, under a nonlethal means to control flooding.

Town Board members approved a plan to split the cost of hiring a Vermont company to install devices to allow water to flow through the beavers’ dam in a way that fools beavers and does not stop the flow.

Beaver Deceivers International will install one to two devices in the pond and tree chew guards for a cost not to exceed $13,500. The cost will be divided between the town, the Friends of Birdsong and a grant the Friends group obtained, with the maximum contribution of $4,500 each.

Raise your hands if you recognize this story! I heard about the city’s agreement weeks ago but Julie wasn’t sure they had any beavers left. Was it too little too late? Yesterday Julie told me she just saw two at the pond and was over the moon.

The Friends group started lobbying the town late last year after the Village of Orchard Park hired a trapper to kill five beavers that had built a dam near Highland Avenue to prevent flooding. The Town Board approved a contract with the trapper for the beavers at Birdsong Park, but residents urged the town to investigate other methods.

Skip Lisle created his first beaver deceiver as a boy when a beaver clogged a culvert near his family’s property. He later earned a master’s degree in wildlife management, and honed his interest in beavers and saving the habitats they create into his company in 2001.

“One skilled person can eliminate the beaver conflict in a town with hand tools in a couple weeks for 50 years,” he said in a recording on his website.

Fifty years? that might be a little exaggeration there Skip, but we get the idea. That’s four generations of beavers. I wish Martinez had beavers for fifty years. Don’t you?

He maintains that killing beavers does not solve the problem, because the area will attract more beavers in the future.

The flow device usually includes a pipe that goes through the dam, creating a permanent leak to lower the level of the pond. The long pipe empties the water away from the dam, deceiving the beavers that would otherwise notice water flowing and fill up the hole.

Boy Scouts installed a similar pipe years ago but it doesn’t work anymore, according to Town Engineer Wayne Bieler.

Never send a boy scout to do a man’s job they say. Or adult woman’s job. Or trained young person. You know what I mean. Get a professional to do the work. And Skip invented the profession so he knows what he’s doing.

Before making arrangements with the company, Wettlaufer said she made sure the beavers were still in the park. There was a concern that they may have been the same beavers that were killed in December.

Wonderful work Julie. Things are headed in a very good direction and I’m thinking Orchard Park would be a great place for a beaver festival.

Happy Earth Day Julie and beaver friends! Just remember what Willly Wonka warned about the boy who got everything he always wanted.

AB 2196: CALIFORNIA’S BEAVER BILL

California’s Beaver Bill!

I have one job here at beaver central and I was feeling pretty horrified at myself for not doing it all these days until I realized that this has been publicized in exactly 2 capitol beat news collection five days ago. In other words I’m not doing too badly.

Did you catch that? So assembly man Connoly introduced a bill at the end of February to codify the focus of the CDFW beaver restoration team and to make it permanent regardless of who is governor at the moment. Protecting the new beaver policy in California for good. This is from the bills fact sheet:

ISSUE

Because the state’s Beaver Restoration Program was created through a budget proposal, the objectives of the CDFW program are not codified to ensure this important work remains a priority in the future, particularly beyond the current Administration, which has prioritized such projects and wildlife goals.

Not sure how he drew the short straw and got this job for the state, I assume because nearby Marin and their push for beavers, (My 95 year old uncle who calls me every time beavers are on the news lives in San Rafael but I don’t think he has anything to do with it?)

I’m sure you are not surprised that this is my favorite part:

Part of this important program, which was created through an Administration funding proposal in the FY2022-23 budget, includes CDFW issuing new policies to reduce lethal depredation of beavers and promote coexistence.

If this were around in 2008 Martinez would have been pretty dam lucky. But think of all the other cities that can benefit from our pilot program!

The bill ends with a list of co-signers including California Trout and Climate Reality and Project Coyote, Hmm it sorta seems like one important name is missing… You might think that such legislation would want the support of the one non profit that actually HAS coexisted with beavers for a decade and has been internationally famous for it.

Maybe cuz we have a swear?

FACT SHEET AB 2196 - Beaver Restoration

CO-EXISTENCE IS KEY

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Who's saving beavers now? March 13, 2024

Thank Goodness! The dry spell is over and we finally have good beaver news to report, This time from West Virginia!

As Beavers Return To W.Va. Wetlands, Conservationists Promote Coexistence

Donning rain boots and gloves, volunteers trudged across a Charles Town wetland Tuesday to prepare the habitat for a pair of unexpected residents.

Jefferson County’s Cool Spring Preserve is currently home to at least two beavers, possibly mates, according to local conservationists. If trail camera photos did not offer proof enough, their presence is made clear through bite marks on trees and a growing number of dams in Bullskin Run, the local stream.

Beavers are native to wetlands across North America, including those in West Virginia. But they were hunted to near-extinction during the 18th century fur trade. With fewer people hunting them for their pelts, beavers are growing in population across the continent. According to many conservationists, that’s a good thing.

Alison Zak serves as founder and executive director of the Human-Beaver Coexistence Fund. The group develops nonlethal strategies to manage beaver populations across the mid-Atlantic.

Zak said that beavers play a key role in bolstering biodiversity, storing groundwater and filtering pollutants in wetland ecosystems. But they also bring what she describes as “beaver problems,” which fall into two main categories: flooding and tree damage.

When beavers build dams, they can redirect the flow of water and prompt flooding. This can disturb roadways and personal property, so conservationists often fence off culverts so beavers cannot disrupt the flow of water with their dams.

Hurray for the Human Coexistence fund. I can’t believe Joe Manchin’s state is wrapping trees for beavers. That tickles my nose like champagne.

Beavers can also chew trees that protect rivers from erosion, as well as saplings planted as part of reforestation efforts. In response, conservationists build wire fences around the bases of trees that need to be protected from local beavers.

That is what brought a team of volunteers onto the preserve Tuesday: to help build fences that ensure trees and beavers can coexist in West Virginia and to strengthen wetland ecosystems.

“A lot of people aren’t aware beavers are around unless, all of a sudden, they come across very obvious signs of beavers, maybe even causing problems on their property,” Zak said. “But also, we’re seeing an increase in tolerance toward beavers, and people wanting to use nonlethal management and wanting to coexist.”

Tuesday’s volunteers placed new wire frames around the bases of trees with overly tight fences or no fences at all. They took particular care to cover saplings, and to give trees enough space to grow freely.

KC Walters, associate director of conservation at Potomac Valley Audubon Society, organized Tuesday’s event. She said that coexistence strategies like these help people come together to solve environmental problems.

“It’s not just conservation, and not just about the relationship with wildlife,” she said. “It’s also about the relationships of the human organizations that exist in keeping us all working together for a common goal.”

Zak said she hopes volunteers left Tuesday’s event with a better understanding of how conservation works.

“I hope they got a little taste of how complex it can be, but how also doable it is,” she said.

Getting audubon involved is smart work. They want those trees for nesting grounds and are motivated to learn about anything that increases the bird population. Good work Alison!

CHINA CREEK COOPERATES WITH BEAVERS

heidi08 Flow Device Installed, Who's saving beavers now? April 29, 2023

This was a lovely article to come across this morning.

Device on China Creek Allows Beaver and Residents to ‘Coexist’

Centralian Owner of ‘Beaver Craftworks’ Installs Pond Leveler at Centralia College

By Isabel Vander Stoep / isabel@chronline.com

Luc Lamarche, of Beaver Craftworks, installs a pond leveler in China Creek along South King Street in Centralia as Centralia College Biology Professor Francis Bozzolo sets up a trail camera on Friday, April 21, 2023.

Poor academic performance aside, one Centralia College attendee has been causing grief for the school’s neighbors.

It’s a beaver. The creature has built its dam where China Creek runs through campus. With the rodent’s residence backing up water, businesses and homes in the area see an increased risk of flooding. However, trapping the beaver is a temporary solution, according to Luc Lamarche, of Centralia, owner of Beaver Craftworks.

“Some local beaver is going to notice, ‘Hey those digs are better than my digs. I’m going to move over there,’” Lamarche said. “It creates this black hole … (for the) landowner or the county or the public works department.”

Plus, Lamarche said, with Centralia in the flat, lush valley of the Chehalis River and its tributaries, “this whole area is beaver heaven.” Moving the creature simply makes it some other landowner’s problem.

Beavers are a keystone species, meaning they play an integral role in a healthy watershed. Lamarche’s business aims to create “beaver coexistence”: preventing flooding while letting the beaver stay in its chosen spot.

“Neighbors had voiced concerns like, ‘Well what’s up with this extra water?’ The college cares about that,” Lamarche said. “They’re excited to have a beaver, but they want to be good neighbors. And good fences make good neighbors, just like good boundaries make good relationships. … Anyone who’s married will understand that.”

This week, he installed one of a few coexistence contraptions at the Centralia College site. It’s called a pond leveler, which essentially runs a pipe through the dam so water continues to flow. The beaver will patch the holes from the pipe on its own. As the dam is built, more water will flow through the pipe.

The contraption also ensures the water level stays high enough for the beaver to swim down to their dam’s entryway, which protects them from predators.

Among other beaver coexistence devices Lamarche makes are culvert fences, as drainage pipes under roadways are destination getaways for beavers.

I just had to check and China creek is it in Washington state of course. I never heard of beaver craft before and didn’t know that Jakob was training people but that is wonderful news.

Living in Centralia since 2007, Lamarche studied as a civil engineer. Living in the rural area, he fell in love with nature.

“I started learning about beaver’s history and had this ‘Aha!’ moment,” he said. “(Beavers are) the animal kingdom’s civil engineer.”

He began learning more about North America’s largest rodent through classes and, in 2021, founded Beaver Craftworks.

While the devices are an “upfront investment,” he said, they can save time and money accrued by the permitting process and the execution of beaver trapping. The work is founded on decades worth of research preceding his business, Lamarche said.

Every beaver presents new challenges, he said. There are beavers in Canada with dams that stretch for more than 1 kilometer, which Lamarche referred to as “beaver New York City.” As much water is held back above ground by one beaver dam, it’s estimated that two to five times as much is stored underground.

This groundwater can be beneficial to plants and other species in an ecosystem. Beavers essentially create new wetland habitat, which can be critical for many other species’ survival.

Lamarche recommends anyone who’s interested to go online and research “beaver coexistence.” Check out more about the business and its work on Instagram at “beavercraftworks,” or the website https://www.beavercraft.works/.

Someday, cooperating with Beavers will be as common as planting tomatoes, without pesticides. And when that day comes, you know I’ll be there celebrating and I’ll invite you to celebrate too.

Beaver on the move, another on the mend, plus BI’s new Elevator Pitch

Bob Kobres Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver News, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers, Beavers in Wales, The Beaver Institute, Urban beavers, Video, Who's saving beavers now? April 13, 2023

It’s not clear yet whether this is one beaver who escaped from elsewhere or a pair who were released by rewilders, but it sounds like a good dam move to me!

Dam it! Couple discover elusive night-time garden vandals are actually the first wild BEAVERS in Wales for over 400 years

By FFION HAF Daily Mail

A couple whose garden was being vandalised in the night has uncovered a surprising culprit in Wales’ first wild beaver for 400 years.

The dam-building rodent was discovered by a husband and wife who noticed trees going missing and machete-like damage in a field next to their house in Pembrokeshire, west Wales.

Curious about the cause of the damage, the homeowners bought a ‘stealth camera’ which captured footage of the creature swimming in their pond and felling their trees.

The origins of the beaver are unexplained, but the landowners believe it may have come from an unsanctioned release by rewilding enthusiasts.

The rodent has been found living near a rural property where it has started to build itself a lodge under the family’s pond deck.

Nicknamed Anthony by the family – after military historian Antony Beevor – the herbivore has become as ‘fat as a pig’ spending as much as six hours a night chewing tree trunks and dragging branches around.

The discovery is only the fourth time a beaver has been found living wild in Britain.

Beavers – which can grow to be the size of a large spaniel – were hunted to extinction in Britain 400 years ago, but have been slowly reintroduced in recent years.

The landowners, who wished to remain anonymous to protect the location of the animal, were ‘astonished’ to discover the herbivore was living behind their house.

They said: ‘Some of our trees began to go missing overnight and others were simply being mauled. It looked like someone was hitting them with a machete.

‘There are no deer in Pembrokeshire, so we couldn’t work out what was causing the damage.

‘The only clue were some teeth marks left in the bark.’

Two weeks after first noticing the damage, the couple decided to buy a £100 stealth camera and leave it out overnight to try and catch the vandal in action.

When they reviewed the footage a week later, they spotted the creature.

‘To our astonishment, the camera showed a beaver swimming around our pond and eating our trees. We couldn’t believe it.

‘Since then, it has cleared quite a few trees and branches.

‘There is nothing subtle about a beaver. They are very easy to spot.’

The closest official colony of beavers to Pembrokeshire is in the Dyfi Estuary over 50 miles away in Mid Wales, where no escapes have been reported.

‘It’s much more likely the beaver has been released in Pembrokeshire by a determined rewilder’, the landowners added.

Since their reintroduction to the country in Argyll in 2009, beaver numbers have been increasing across the UK through enclosed colonies set up by various wildlife trusts.

But this is only the fourth time a beaver has been found living wild in Britain.

Other wild populations were discovered in Scotland’s Tay-Forth catchment area, in East Devon’s River Otter and on the Avon near Bristol.

A similar beaver discovery was made in East Devon in 2014, despite there being no reintroduction trials in the area.

Initially, DEFRA planned to remove the beavers, but the Devon Wildlife Trust persuaded them to allow England’s first wild beaver trial.

The trial was successful and in 2020 DEFRA announced the beavers could stay. In October 2022, beavers were protected by law in England.

But in Wales, where environmental law-making is devolved, no such protection exists, and the discovery of a wild beaver could now force the Welsh Government to legislate on the issue.

The Pembrokeshire landowners continued: ‘It looks like the Welsh Government need to legislate or they’ll be in danger of trying to close the stable door after the horse has bolted.

‘With so many enclosed beavers around Britain, you wonder how long it will be before there are more escapees.’

The animals, which can live for as long as ten years and weigh up to 30kg, are not universally popular.

In Scotland, where beavers have been so successful many farmers feel their livelihoods are being threatened because beaver dams can flood valuable farmland.

The Scottish Government has even begun issuing licenses to cull them.

But rewilders call this ‘ecosystem engineering’ and highlight the positive effects of wetland creation, providing habitat for animals like otters, water voles, toads, frogs and wildfowl.

This is what makes beavers a ‘keystone species’, in other words, they are the glue that holds a habitat together.

We are key! Have a look at the entire report — lots more photos!

Now for a tale of a wounded tail.

Kelowna’s downtown beaver on the mend

By JACQUELINE GELINEAU KELOWNA CAPITAL NEWS

Eva Hartmann — Interior Wildlife Rescue Society

One of Kelowna’s urban beavers is back splish-splashing after being rescued with an injured tail.

The beaver was captured from the Rotary Park Marsh on April 5, after a pedestrian noticed the sick-looking critter and contacted the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (IWRS).

The volunteers jumped into action and took the beaver to a vet to have the abscess drained. While waking up from the sedation, the beaver was given carrots and sweet potato, but she is now back on her regular diet of ‘browse’ such as twigs and other high-growing vegetation, said Eva Hartmann, founder of IWRS and registered veterinarian technician.

Everyday volunteers head out to the bush and pick twigs for the beaver to snack on.

Beavers munch on the tissue layer found just under the bark. Hartmann said the downtown girl in the IWRS’ care only likes to snack on poplar trees. The beaver spat out the Saskatoon berry bush and pine tree twigs that were collected for her. Hartmann laughed and said that she knew beavers preferred poplar and willow trees, but didn’t realize how picky they could be.

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That’s quite a video but beavers usually have a bit deeper voices. ;*)= Click for the rest of the story and more pics.

A new video was released from the Beaver Institute that is fantastic but they are going to tweak it and re-release it at a later date for now. Just know good things are afoot. Sneak preview my favorite line is that your local beaver pond is your rainforest, and your coral reef. How smart is that? This is a special edit from heidi who came home yesterday and is trying to figure things out.

Pretty cool, I think! And don’t forget to sign the petition to protect we beaver folks on federal lands! It’ important!!

Bob