SKIP LISLE WORKS HIS MAGIC IN MAINE

Apparently Skip Lisle isn’t retiring quietly onto the deck with a scotch and soda sipped from the arm of his adirondack chair. He’s continuing to travel to other states and save beavers, this time in a Peat bog in Maine.

Beaver Deceiver: Device aims to mitigate Rail Trail’s dam problem

SPRINGVALE, Maine – For years, beaver dams have caused flooding after high watershed events along the Rail Trail abutting the wetlands of Deering Pond, but the installation of a new device on site is expected to help resolve the issue for decades to come.

Skip Lyle, the founder and owner of Beaver Deceiver International, traveled to the community on July 30 and worked with Kevin McKeon and Steve Mallon, both of the Sanford-Springvale Trails Committee, to install one of Lyle’s custom-designed flow-control devices at Deering Pond’s culverts within the Hall Environmental Reserve. Lyle, of Grafton, Vermont, is a conservationist, builder, biologist, inventor and entrepreneur.

“My goal is to protect any threatened property while at the same time maximizing ecological and hydrological value,” Lyle said.

No word yet on why a reporter who looked up Skip’s website still failed to get the correct spelling of his name. It’s L-i-s-l-e. We learned to spell in Martinez. Why couldn’t you in Maine?

“If they hear it, if they see it, if they feel it, they will try to stop it,” he said. “They can’t help themselves. It’s a natural thing that they do.”

Lyle said his devices are effective anywhere between 30 and 40 years and are a more practical, long-term and humane alternative to trapping and killing beavers. Trapping in the area also is risky for the trappers themselves, McKeon noted.

“This is a peat bog,” he said. “Unless you know the area pretty well, you could be walking along the shore of Deering Pond and all of a sudden you could find yourself chest-deep in muck. It’s a pretty dangerous area for trappers to be trapping.”

The entire installation of the Beaver Deceiver cost about $2,900, according to Trails Committee Chair Lee Burnett. The committee will cover the expenses, with hopes of being reimbursed through the state’s Municipal ATV Grant program, Burnett said.

Mousam Way Land Trust funded a video production of the installation as part of the organization’s goal of increasing the awareness of how people exist within their environment, McKeon said. WSSRTV, the broadcast station out of Sanford High School and Regional Technical Center, produced the video and is currently editing it for availability soon.

Good for Maine and hurray for Skip! I went searching for the video of this installation but it hasn’t been released yet, but while I was hunting I found this video of Skip’s presentation at BeaverCon in Maryland this year was just uploaded. I didn’t know this happened. How smart. What a fantastic look at the history and evolution of the beaver Deceiver. Don’t miss it.

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EMILY FAIRFAX WILL INHERIT BEAVERS

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? July 24, 2020

I got to thinking yesterday about how long I’ve been doing this. I really have lost all track of time when it comes to beavers. 365 articles about beavers a year for 12 years ads up. I just checked the stats and by the time we hit 2021 I will have written 5000 columns about beavers. That’s a lot of unpaid advertisement for the hero that never stops surprising.

I guess there are a few fruits to my labors. I at least have learned a lot. Even if no one else ever ever reads this. I have seen the beaver needle edge ever so slightly towards the plus column. I have even seen things change in California, to a minuscule degree, And I have seen a new wave of beaver heroes swing onto the horizon.

Emily Fairfax gave a knock-it-out-of-the-park podcast interview to Artemis that dropped yesterday. It’s an hour of the very best beaver discussion you are likely to hear this year or many others. She did a bang-up job, and has a delightfully engaging way of presenting science in an unscientific way. There are about three things I would quibble with if we up late comparing notes and swapping stories in the tavern somewhere. But this is must-isten radio. Some day I’ll hand in my keyboard and retire from the beaver stage. But I’m no longer worried.

Emily can inherit beavers.

THE WILD WONDERS IN WENATCHEE

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Who's saving beavers now? July 21, 2020

So yesterday some one asked for an introduction to the Wenatchee Beaver group and I scratched my head in total ignorance. I can see they got a couple mentions on this website and there somewhere in Washington but I hadn’t more info than that.

Here’s a great introduction that slipped by me on July 1st.

Wenatchee Beaver Project Continues to Assist Wildlife, Habitat in Region

Kodi Jo Jaspers, Beaver & BDA Program Manager with Trout Unlimited in Wenatchee chats with KOHO Morning Show host Chris Hansen about the Wenatchee Beaver Project, a program designed to assist in the relocation of nuisance beavers and protect their natural habitat.

Sounds like the install low devices, wrap trees AND if all else fails relocate beavers. That makes them very popular with me. Also they have a Trout Unlimited crossover. Good Work. So Washington has the the Methow beaver project. And the Lands Council beaver project. And Yakima beaver project. And now the Wenatchee beaver project.

And what does California have?

“INVENTING PONDS”

heidi08 Devon Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? July 15, 2020

I’ve been staggering with shock lately at the viral firestorm that will clearly be with us long after the NEXT festival is cancelled. There will certainly be no donations to the silent auction ever again. Because zoos and restaurants and museums will be clinging by their fingernails if indeed they manage to survive at all. It’s a dark and terrible time with no hope in sight.

So I comforted myself on working with Chris Jones poem yesterday and was fairly happy with how it came out. Amazing what they let you do with free tools on the internet. I was even happier when he responded overwhelmed and grateful this morning. That makes a nice way to start the day.

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I’m sure this will be used by the good folks at the Beaver Trust some way soon. It’s a funny thing. I first began to communicate with Chris when I saw Derek Gow berating him affectionately on FB. Then I learned that his farm is very near where Jon went to school in Cornwall and where his grandfather retired. There are something Facebook is horrible at, but it has a few salient uses.

I was shocked to read Chris’ bio on the beaver trust. Besides being a farmer who also writes poetry he has had an impressive resume, He must be a horse of VERY MANY COLORS indeed.

Chris Jones

Chris Jones is a farmer and ecologist based in Mid Cornwall. He has worked as a policeman in Africa, as a forester in SW England, as a drilling fluids engineer in the North Sea, Middle East and Africa, and as a theme running throughout as a farmer in Cornwall. He has been interested in the idea of reintroducing beavers to the UK for many years, and has been practically involved setting up and running the Cornwall Beaver Project with Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Exeter University since 2014.

NEW ORGANIZATIONAL CHART NEEDED FOR CDFW

heidi08 Beavers, What's killing beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? July 10, 2020

It’s finally time to talk about some heady new developments in the beaver world. They start with the very unlucky beavers in Oakley that we all know about where County Flood Control made the unpopular decision to kill some adorable little dam builders in April. This lead to a big article and a big meeting between the county supervisor and some flood control and some beaver buddies including me. Which lead to a series of conversations that are still ongoing.

One of them is with Jennifer Rippert a scientist of the Habitat Conservation Unit of CDFW for the Bay Delta Region. (Who knew that there even was such a thing inside the enormity of Fish and game? I’m ashamed to admit, not me) And yes, I do still call it that sometimes when no ones looking.

Well the Habitat Conservation District is charged with making sure California’s regulated species have sufficient habitat to go on existing.

Habitat Conservation Program

California’s fish and wildlife resources, including their habitats, are held in trust for the people of the State by CDFW (Fish and Game Code § 711.7). CDFW has jurisdiction over the conservation, protection, and management of fish, wildlife, native plants, and the habitats necessary for biologically sustainable populations of those species (Fish and Game Code § 1802). CDFW’s fish and wildlife management functions are implemented through its administration and enforcement of Fish and Game Code (Fish and Game Code § 702).

Color me surprised. Of course up until now I’ve mostly dealt with “the-permission-to-terminate-lives” division of the agency. I mean I know of course that there’s more. But it’s hard to see sometimes. The entire department layout is a behemoth to behold.

So that first yellow box on the left is the division that hands out permission to depredate that we review each year. And the next yellow box is the department of habitat conservation, and even though they’re close together in the chart you might well notice there are zero lines connecting the two. Because they have very little interaction with one another. Even less now that Covid means every one stays in their safe zones.

So it turns out that long before the beavers in Oakley were killed. Jennifer got called to the scene and did a sight visit of the little beaver dam in Oakley. She pointed out that it was making great habitat for fish and wildlife and that they should endeavor to keep it by accessing resources available through various nonprofits. She referred them to Friends of Marsh Creek and she truly felt that a tragedy had been avoided. That was the day before the Covid shutdown in California.

Following that contact, however, she learned that even though the lower divisions at flood control were content to work with her recommendations the highest parts of flood control wanted extermination. In fact there were conversations between them and the city manager of Oakley and they all insisted the beavers must be exterminated. Apparently there was even concern that the interest by the local residents might lead to someone being BITTEN.

Because you know how beavers are.

So Flood Control did the same thing you did in junior high when your mom said you couldn’t go stay over at your friend Marcy’s: they asked their dad instead. Or in this case – the wildlife division of CDFW. And of course they knew nothing about the habitat concerns or what had transpired already and they quickly granted permission for shooting beavers.

And you know how the story ended.

In my wildest dreams of reform I have only ever wished that there was a site visit and a consideration of the habitat that would be lost BEFORE a depredation permit was issued. And in this case that actually happened. The thing I dreamed about for 13 years actually happened. And the beavers still died.

It never in a million years occurred to me that the people who did the visit would not have any direct communication with the people that allowed the killing.

Obviously it’s time for a new dream.

In my new dream when department A gets a request for killing beavers they pick up the freakin’ phone and CALL department B to find out if there are any ecosystem services needed in the area before they grant a the goddamn permit. And the head of B sends out a scientist from the appropriate region to check, then reports the answer to A who either grants the permit OR recommends they wrap some frickin trees instead.

In summary, allow me to add that the very best thing California can do to sustain it’s species is to allow the ECOSYSTEM ENGINEERS to do their jobs without interruption. Please let me know i there are any questions.