Category: Who’s saving beavers now?

ENJOY YOUR RITUAL SACRIFICE WITH PIE

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? November 28, 2019

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American readers, and happy Thursday to everyone else, pilgrims and natives alike. Honesty who hasn’t done a favor for someone and later regretted it? Whether it’s that roommate you let borrow your civic or the boyfriend you gave your trig notes too, we’ve all made deals we lived to regret. Take Ukraine for instance.

It’s actually kind of sweet they made an national holiday for it.

Of course just because the relatives are coming over and you’re busy basting is no reason not to complain about beavers. God knows every day is a day to complain about beavers. Right?

A busy beaver wreaks havoc in Olathe

An unwelcome guest at Olathe Community Park has done a lot of damage to trees there.

Working at night, a suspected beaver rapidly gnawed his way through several trunks, and high winds did the rest. Rather than gathering larger wood to build a dam, the animal is apparently after the tender twigs and leaves at the top of the tree and is storing them in a hidden den as food for the winter. At least three trees are down including the pictured one which represents about 15 years of growth. More than a dozen others have lost bark to the busy creature

What I particularly love about this story is the photo. Notice they put up orange caution fencing around the scene of the crime to keep the neighborhood safe. Good lord I almost expect to see a chalk outline of the tree itself. Or maybe some crime scene tape marking off the area.

Darrin Scott, parks director for the Town of Olathe, has set out a live trap in hopes of capturing and relocating the beast. As of Nov. 22, parks personnel haven’t caught the beaver, but they also haven’t seen the animal or spotted him on camera, so they’re hoping their attempts at capture have made him uncomfortable enough to leave the area.

Sure. Great idea. It’s 32 degrees this morning in Olathe and the area gets three feet of snow on average so a beaver dropped into a soon freezing home will quickly starve. But hey, it looks good in the paper so just say you’re going to “live trap” and everyone will feel better. And sure, don’t bother wire wrapping any of the remaining trees to prepare for next time, because why on earth would you waste time with actual solutions that when you can just kill the intruders?

One of my favorite modernish Thanksgiving traditions is to watch the Buffy episode about its celebration, which, if you never have, you really should before you leave this life, even if you’re not a Buffy fan. She’s in college and a angry Chumash indian and when his ghostly tribe attacks the southern California campus and a surprisingly profound discussion of what the holiday means ensues. Here’s a little taste, For clarification in these scenes the blonde tied-up fellow is a vampire, and the woman in the front of the second clip is a 1000 year old ex-demon. Everyone is plain folk like you and me, well you anyway,

Enjoy your ritual sacrifice with pie.

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E.P.I.C. CHANGES PROPOSED IN BEAVER DEPREDATION

It begins with an ask.

If you want to have something new you have to start by requesting the change. Even if they’re sure to be turned down. Even if they’re pie-in-the-sky and way more than you can achieve. You have to start by making it clear what you want. Even if its just to yourself, so that you have something to push against as you move forward.

Consider this the ask.

EPIC Petitions for Better Beaver Regulations: Proposed Rules Would Clarify Rules for Trapping

EPIC filed a rulemaking petition with the California Fish and Game Commission to ensure greater protections for beavers and to clarify existing legal rules concerning their trapping. Together on the petition were the Center for Biological Diversity, the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, and the Northcoast Environmental Center

The proposed regulations would impact the 700+ beavers killed each year because of conflict with the human environment, and would require individuals to exhaust non-lethal methods to deter or diminish conflict before a permit could be issued that would allow their lethal removal. It further codifies federal law prohibiting the removal of beavers if that removal would harm a species protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Consider this the shot across the bow. Don’t kill beavers until you’ve tried not to kill them first. And don’t kill beavers when endangered species like salmon and red-legged frogs and least bell’s vireo rely on them for habitat. Actually the rule change text is gentler than the article makes it sound. The landowner just has to show they tried one non-lethal means. Like wrapping trees. Many depredation permits already include this info. But I assume it’s not required.

This is a “proposed rule change” which has to go up before the fish and game committee to be considered and you can already imagine the resounding NO votes it will receive. But it’s an ask. And it is filled with really epic, important things. Like this:

Beavers are Biologically Important to California

The North American beaver (Castor canadensis)is native to California. Accordingly, the flora and fauna of the state have co-evolved with the beaver, developing unique and complexinterwoven relationships.Beavers, however, are currently missing from much of their historic range and the effects of their absence are felt by the species that co-evolved with beavers. Beaver create freshwater habitats used by a variety of wildlife, including fish, birds, and other mammals. Their dams filter stream water, improve water quality, raise the water table, increase water storage, and repair eroded riparian areas. In particular, beavers have a significant beneficial relationship to many species currently listed as threatened or endangered under the California Endangered Species Act and/or the federal Endangered Species Act, such as coho salmon. The proposed amendments to the regulations recognize the unique ecological importance of beavers and take steps towards promoting our co-existence with beavers by prohibiting the commercial trapping of beavers,and by requiring that non-lethal or less-lethal measures have been taken to avoid and minimize conflicts with humans.

For reasons I am not privy Worth A Dam was not asked to be a cosponsor of this proposed rule change OR asked for any information obtained from the last five years of review of depredation permits, ahem. or asked for information about how other states regulate beaver trapping. Still, the somewhat glaring omission doesn’t negate that this is an important ask. An ask that’s a big deal

The total impact of beavers to the hydrologic characteristics of streams is difficult to overestimate. Beaver dams increase in-stream storage capacity, which in turn has been shown to result in greater summer flows, even going so far as to result in continual flow in previously seasonal streams. Impoundment of water also has been shown to stabilize water temperatures.Beaver dams slow stream flow resulting in increased sedimentation, thereby raising incised channels to the point where streams are reconnected to their historic floodplain

We are very happy for the mention of hydrology and water impoundment. California cares about drought. But I would argue this doesn’t go far enough. What about groundwater and the sinking aquifers in much of California? What about fire prevention? What about saturation of soils that prevents the wildfires that destroyed Paradise?

Well, as far as shots across the bow go, this one is pretty dam good. We’re EAGER to see what muffled excuses CDFW offers in response. You know it will be something pretty effusive and super concerned with landowner interests. I just wish the application had included more about how GOOD it is for landowners to have beavers on their property. Keeping water on their land and making sure their well doesn’t run dry while preventing fires.

And Cinderella of course wishes she’d been invited to the party, sniff, but I’m very interested in seeing what happens next.

MARTINEZ GOT OFF SO CHEAPLY!

heidi08 Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? November 16, 2019

So I’m finishing up the urban beaver pamphlet, and liking how it looks. Lory is kindly proofing it for me and wrote yesterday that it has a lot of really good information, which I am very happy to hear – because that’s totally what I was going for. This morning there are three city article that cover a 3000 mile radius and cross two nations reminding us that there is a BIG NEED for such things. Let’s do the bad news first.

Province hires trapper to euthanize pesky beaver wreaking havoc near Yellow Lake

B.C. government officials say a pesky beaver wreaking havoc to the shoreline of Yellow Lake southwest of Penticton, B.C. will be captured and euthanized by a licensed trapper.

Local resident Dave Campbell is an avid canoeist who expressed concern about the brazen beaver chomping down dozens of trees near a wheelchair accessible ramp to a popular fishing lake.

He said the risk of falling trees near the well-used ramp and walkway to access the lakefront dock is posing a public safety threat and the damaged trees impacts the aesthetics of the area.

“Whole families come here with children — I get a tickle, I get a buzz out of it, seeing people here with their kids playing, running around, having a picnic and enjoying this spot,” he said.

Whole families with children. Really. Good thing you’re killing the beaver because god knows whole families would never turn out if it was allowed to live. You know how destructive beavers are. They just leave a wasteland everywhere they touch.

Campbell said he’d like to see the beaver trapped and re-located or destroyed.

What a thoughtful man. And so very flexible. The article said you canoe? That’s odd. I usually like canoers.

A re-location of the beaver would be logistically difficult and cause the beaver anguish by live trapping and transporting it and introducing it to an unfamiliar area, according to the ministry.

Beaver populations are not considered a conservation concern near Yellow Lake.

We wouldn’t want to cause ANGUISH now would we? Much better to crush it to death until it drowns.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Now to Minnesota for some worries and bad puns.

Answer Man: Has a beaver taken up residence near Apache Mall?

Can’t a rodent cut down trees without it leading to a bunch of dam questions? (I tried to resist the low-hanging dam puns, but like the beaver, I thought, “gnaw.”)

Yes, Minnesota Department of Transportation officials confirm that a beaver has indeed taken up residence in the highway runoff pond and has taken down a couple of trees. (That’s not the work of a sloppy maintenance crew with tiny axes.)

MnDOT gets a handful of reports of beavers building structures in and around MnDOT structures each year, said Mike Dougherty, MnDOT District 6 director of communications.

MnDOT maintenance crews will work with other agencies to trap and relocate beavers if they block needed drainage, divert water onto roadways or knock trees over roadways. MnDOT works with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers if a tiny corps of (beaver) engineers interferes with drainage infrastructure.

Okay, I am a very cynical jaded woman. But if the department of transport in Minnesota actually uses Hancock traps to humanely relocate problem beavers in safe locatiions I will eat the bug of your choice. You and I know that this is the thing they say when they want crazy vegans to leave them alone. It’s the middle of November for God’s sake. It’s 33 degrees in Rochester and going to snow tonight. Do you really think that sounds like an ideal time to relocate a beaver with no food cache, and no territory?

Lets have some good news for a change. Some VERY GOOD NEWS from our hardworking friends in Port Moody, B.C.

Management plan welcomes beavers to Port Moody

A new management plan for beavers in Port Moody will make it easier for the industrious rodents to co-exist with other species like salmon — and especially humans — says an advocate for the creatures, Judy Taylor-Atkinson.

At its meeting Tuesday, council unanimously endorsed a comprehensive plan that has been in the works for several months and involved input from several groups and individuals representing the interests of beavers and salmon as well as local streamkeepers, and was prepared by JBL Environmental Services. The plan will be implemented with an annual budget of $45,000 and any unused funds will be put into a reserve to cover potential cost overruns in other years.

Jim and Judy, you are my HEROES. You did this. It was soo not easy. It was so not going to happen without you. It was so difficult at every sticking god-forsaken turn, BUT YOU DID THIS!!! 45,000 dollars a hear for a beaver budget? My god. These are practically beaver moguls. What can’t they do?

The need for such a plan was sparked after an attempt by city workers to relocate a family of beavers from Pigeon Creek in the Klahanie neighbourhood went awry and a young kit was drowned in a trap.

Taylor-Atkinson said the plan ensures such a mistake likely won’t happen again as it puts the emphasis on finding ways for the community to coexist with beavers.

This is it, This is what cost you 45000 dollars. If you hadn’t horrified an entire community by locking up a drowning baby then you might have walked away a little more cheaply. You are paying for insensitivity and bad planning. Well that and the salmon.

But Ruth Foster of the Mossom Creek Hatchery on the city’s north shore told council she’s not convinced the dramatic changes to the creek’s dynamics are good the salmon.

“We fear many years of work to restore Suter Brook for fish may be in jeopardy,” she said.

That’s why education is also a major component of the city’s new management plan, Taylor-Atkinson said.

“Beavers are a public relations challenge,” she said.

You’re poor little handicapped salmon. Apparently Judy has been told that hatchery chum can’t jump over a dam and will just stop swimming if they come to any obstruction. You can see why they had to fight EVERY STRETCH OF THE WAY to get this done.

Taylor-Atkinson said the end result may not look pretty, with chopped and gnawed trees scattered across the pond’s banks, but that’s the point.

“The messier a watershed is, the healthier it is,” she said.

As a result of these efforts, Taylor-Atkinson said the beaver family has thrived. It now numbers at least five but could be as large as seven. So far, it’s still the only known beaver colony in the city.

As well, the watershed has benefitted, Taylor-Atkinson said. Chum salmon heading upstream to spawn have been spotted in the fish ladder and a heron has made the pond a regular stop on its rounds looking for tasty morsels that might happen along.

Let us all pray, every morning and every night, to be half as successful, smart and patient as Judy and Jim. Let us strive to make a tenth of the difference they have made for beavers and nature in Port Moody and lets all celebrate an international holiday in their honor!

Hmm. 45000? That could be a pretty awesome Canadian beaver festival. Just saying.

A FISH FESTIVAL FOR BEAVERS?

heidi08 Beavers and salmon, Who's saving beavers now? October 8, 2019

One of the very first things that our friends at Sierra Wildlife Coalition got involved with was the ironic situation at Taylor Creek where the forest service would rip out the beaver dams every year because the animals ‘weren’t native” and they got in the way of the Kokanee salmon which were truly introduced. They went round and round and round with the fine folks at Taylor creek, installing flow devices and wrapping trees. The publication of the history papers did a little to help convince them that beavers belonged and Sherry and Ted’s plucky persistence did the rest. Continued flow device adjustments are now tweaked by Toogee Sielsch who has valiantly stepped up to fill Ted’s ~~shoes~~ er, waders.

It’s good to see things have reached a kind of rapprochement.

Kokanee Salmon Spawning Creates Unique Experience at Taylor Creek

KTVN Channel 2 – Reno Tahoe Sparks News, Weather, Video

Gosh don’t you wish you could see an underwater beaver swim by that observation window? Maybe someday, if we’re lucky.

GO AHEAD. I DARE YOU. SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT THE BEAVER WISDOM.

heidi08 Beaver Art, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? October 5, 2019

Today Worth A Dam is off to Wild Birds Unlimited for their fall nature event. It is the first such event since Gary Bogue’s death and likely to be tinged with rememberence. Last night I received word that his widow was hoping I’d come to the memorial. It startled me in an echoing kind of empty-corridor way to learn that I and the beavers were ever a topic of discussion in Gary’s home or personal life.

One life touches so many others.

Enough of this reflection. Off to Havre Montana where there is much debate over what to do with some namesakes that have interfered in Beaver Park. Havre is about half an inch from the Canadian border and I guess they’re getting some urgent messages their neighbors that trapping may not be the solution.

Is trapping the right way to manage beaver in Beaver Creek Park?

The Hill County Park Board for several months has been hearing proposals for alternative ways to control the beaver population in Beaver Creek Park, but one user of the park says the best way is how it has been done for decades – trapping.

“The (Hill County Park Board) has managed the park for decades,” Fran Buell said. “They did it right.”

Buell, a long-time trapper herself and member of the National Trappers Hall of Fame, added that the park has healthy wildlife and the only thing detrimental to the park is the beavers cutting down trees and causing flooding.

Sure, any solution you have to repeat over and over again is the best solution right? Like how when your tire has a leak and you keep refilling it with every day so you can get to work. There’s no single better way than to just keep repeating what was done before is there? I mean you can’t fix the leak right?

Park board member Renelle Braaten said that she is trying to put together a natural resource committee to look at wildlife management because the issue is larger than just beavers – it’s overall management of the park.

“It’s not all about trapping beavers,” she said. “It’s about the ecosystem and the need to get someone who knows what they are going to see what needs to happen.”

Braaten said the park board and the members of the community have a responsibility for promoting, preserving and protecting the park for future generations and she disagrees with trapping as a method of wildlife management.

“You can learn to work with them,” she said. “… I’d like to see us work with Mother Nature, not against her.”

Well, well, well. Ranelle has the right ideas although the article says that she read on “facebook” that trapping was inhumane and beaver deceivers are easy to install. Who quotes facebook as a source for anything? Okay she’s not the best witness on the stand, but her opponent isn’t great either.

Buell said that trapping is the best method for wildlife management and is a human way to control the population of beavers. Trappers, also do have the ability to target specific animals by altering the triggers and a number of different methods, although it is not always 100 percent accurate. She added that trapping is also generally human and even if another animal, such as a pet, was caught in a foothold trap the animal will not be terribly harmed.

????

She said that Beaver Creek Park has a large population of beavers. One pair of beavers can repopulate from 80 to 150 beavers within four years, with one pair of beavers possibly producing three to five kits, infant beavers, every year. She added that if the park has an overpopulation of beavers, the park could be changed drastically, with the beavers cutting down most of the trees and making the park a large wetland area. Having an overpopulation of beavers also raises the risk of beavers contracting diseases, which could be spread to humans and other animals, and starvation from not having enough food and resources available to sustain the population. An overpopulation could also cause the beavers to migrate to other areas.

????

Science is such a poor substitute for custom. Why use it? Never mind that 80 percent of beavers don’t breed until their third year and never mind that you will disperse and find their own territory and never MIND that an adult beaver enters estrus once a year. It’s true if I say so. I’m a trapper!!!!

“Trapping is recognized by the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks as one of the most ethical, human and responsible ways to harvest an animal,” she said.

The article then goes into a description of the many different kinds of traps that could be used because it’s such a complex science. But I think we should pause and just comment on the reporters habit of using the word HUMAN when he obviously means HUMANE. What’s ip up with that? I certainly agree that trapping is human. An animal would never do something like that. But I’m not sure that drowning an animal that can hold its breath 15 minutes is anywhere close to humane.

Braaten said that trapping does the opposite of controlling the population, instead encouraging more beavers to breed.

“If you stop trapping them and stop killing them, the population would level out,” she said. “Killing off their offspring is making them breed more, so you’re not accomplishing anything. How many years have we been trapping out of Beaver Creek Park? And we still have a problem. So why don’t we try some of these other things.”

????? I’m getting a sense Havre isn’t the apex of public learning. The reporter seems uneducated. The Trapper seems uneducated and the beaver defender seems darn uneducated. Maybe I’m a cynic. Did we ever sound that foolish once? Or is Martinez just a city of beaver Elites?

Humane Society expert Dave Pauli said that the best way to manage any property and any program is generally not one specific way and the park board could use a number of different methods and tools to manage the park.

Pauli said that for the past 10 years, according to park records, the park has trapped about 180 beavers a year, but the park still has a flooding issue.

“So maybe that method doesn’t work,” he said.

???? 180 beavers a year? 180 beavers a year? There would have to be miles and miles of streams and rivers to get to that number. And how would you learn a figure like that. Surely there is no park officer who keeps a record of the numbers of beavers killed that year. Maybe there’s a primitive tally on some trappers fireplace?

He added that trapping also has some negative effects and disrupts the population. But tools, such as beaver deceivers, are effective and may be able to reach mutually acceptable results.

“Generally speaking, with wildlife, you cannot kill your way to success,” he said.

Pauli said he is not totally opposed to trapping although the park needs to have other tools it can use and turn to.

“I am not suggesting that it’s off the table, but it should be a tool that is used in a situation where it actually solves something,” he said.

He added that the beaver deceivers are generally successful, and although the beavers work to plug them up, if the beaver deceiver is maintained and regularly cleared out, the beavers will become discouraged and either learn how to live with it or move.

Welp. Everyone deserves a pat on the back for this one. It’s good to spend time talking about beavers instead of just trapping them. It’s good to consider the use of beaver deceivers and good to acknowledge that sometimes trapping can be necessary. Now I sure wish all off you had spent some time reading this website or any other reputable source on beaver management, and I wish you had any idea of the numbers of beavers you have or any understanding of population dynamics, but heck.

Not every town is Martinez you know.