Category: Who’s saving beavers now?

Beaver Solidarity

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? August 20, 2017

In Kingston Ontario, just across the border from New York, city Council member Lisa Osanic just made HISTORY by presenting arguments for no longer killing beavers but using flow devices instead in the entire city. She submitted a petition with 1000 signatures. No I’m not kidding.

Beaver Petition

Residents want Kingston to protect one of Canada’s national symbols.

Coun. Lisa Osanic presented a 1,000-name petition that urges the city to stop killing beavers, citing the practice as cruel and unnecessary. The industrious creatures are known for their dam-building abilities. The city currently hires a trapper to exterminate beavers through the use of underwater traps.

However, Coun. Osanic says there are other humane, non-lethal devices that can be used. She pointed to the City of London and Ontario’s use of flow devices to prevent beaver dam flooding. Coun. Osanic says an expert from Boston taught London city officials how the device works, and she wants local officials to be taught as well.

It was years ago that residents from Cornwall brought Mike Callahan out to install a flow device to save some beavers. This summer a petition was started to do the same in Kingston. This just goes to show the kind of RIPPLE effect that those earlier actions had. Hurray for everyone involved, and Hurray most of all to our newest beaver friend Counselor Lisa Osanic!

I heard this weekend from Kent Woodruff (USFS retired) who was in Oregon looking to connect with Suzanne Fouty (Also USFS not yet retired). Turns out now they’ll be taking a camping trip in the back woods to watch the eclipse together with friends! How beavery is that? Here in Martinez we don’t get a total but we’re still excited. This is a great resource if you want to see what to expect where you are. I don’t think the beavers have ever seen a total eclipse before but I’m assuming they’ll sleep through it. If you are looking for truly remarkable ways to record the experience or maybe keep your child curious, here’s what our good friend Jack Laws suggests.

On a salmon roll!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers and salmon, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? August 18, 2017

Don’t look now, but Andy Wallace and Jane Friedhoff are finishing off an Arcade game where two beavers carefully roll a salmon between them in such a way as to protect it from very hungry bears. No really. They call themselves “the upstream team”.

First off, I’d like to introduce you to Salmon Roll: The Upstream Team! Jane and I designed the game, with me taking on most of the programming and Jane handling the production. The amazing Diego E. Garcia is doing all of the art.

In Salmon Roll, two players take control of a beaver on either side of a wooden beam and must work together to guide the rolling salmon resting on the beam to its nest upstream all while avoiding the hungry bears along the way. The game is a collaborative, two-player, super-sized take on the early 80s arcade classic Ice Cold Beer (which itself was inspiration for the recent TumbleSeed). Its levels are designed specifically to utilize the architecture of the space, and players interact with it by using a 5-foot-long, wooden, custom two-player controller.

Here’s a peak at how it works. Oops! Watch out for that bear!

The controller for Salmon Roll is a 5 foot long wooden box held by players at either end and with joysticks sticking out of the sides. The joysticks move up and down, allowing the players to control their beavers, but the construction of the box requires players to hold it up together with their free hand. This ensures that it is impossible for any one person to control both joysticks at the same time: the size of the controller itself makes sure that this is a two-player game. The image of the two beavers holding a plank projected on the wall is mirrored by our players holding the controller in the real world!

Play NYC happens this weekend in NY and is being touted as the city’s first gamers convention where are the exhibits are 100% playable. Large companies and new startups will show off their newest creations. 25 dollars will get you through the door and access to three floors of adventure. But none, I’m sure, as fine as the salmon roll. Which cleverly demonstrates the very important fact that beaver help salmon.

And salmon need all the help they can get.

Now small world update, I just found out that one of the volunteers taking care of those two lucky beavers at AIWC was formerly one of our own Cheryl Reynold’s volunteers at IBRC! She just reminded us that there is a go fund me campaign for the two furry friends, and I thought you might want to help. Even if you don’t have funds to spare, watch the video just to appreciate how differently colored those two beavers are. Colors living in harmony.

Homecomings

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Behavior, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? August 16, 2017

Another beaver extravaganza combining the Beaver tails art exhibit, a beaver tour, and movie night all courtesy of the Nehalem watershed conservancy.

Beaver Tales: on the land and the big screen

NEHALEM — To celebrate beavers and their contribution to the ecology of the North Coast, Lower Nehalem Watershed Council, The Wetlands Conservancy and community partners are hosting the Beaver Tales Art Exhibit and accompanying events in August.

Beaver Trail tour

The watershed council and community partners will lead participants on a tour of beaver habitat sites throughout the Nehalem Watershed 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19.

The tour will stop at two to four locations where participants will see different examples of active and historical beaver activity. Alix Lee, coordinator for the watershed council will lead the tour and provide narrative on beaver ecology, history and importance for maintaining healthy ecosystems on the North Coast.

Transportation between sites will be provided and has been funded by Tillamook People’s Utility District.

This event is part of Explore Nature, a consortium of volunteer community and non-profit organizations working to provide meaningful, nature-based experiences in Tillamook County.

Movie night: ‘Leave it to Beavers’

Join the watershed council at Alder Creek Farm 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, for movie night in the barn featuring the PBS documentary “Leave it to Beavers.”

The hour-long documentary examines beavers in a new light, revealing ways in which “the presence of the industrious rodents can transform and revive landscapes,” organizers wrote. “Bring a comfy camp chair and settle in to learn about these fascinating builders and brilliant hydro-engineers.”

Sometimes my jaw literally drops and hangs open to see how many good things come can come together with the right collection of people pulling the strings. Hats OFF to the wonders of this Beaver Tails exhibit, which has been like a band of firecrackers going off at regular intervals for nearly a year now. The Wetlands Conservancy really created something astounding when they undertook this massive art show. You know it got folks around the state talking and thinking about beavers in a new way.

An speaking of beavers and wetlands, here’s something to celebrate. Our own watershed wizard Igor Skaredoff gave the Stanislaus rescue crews something to do this sunday and after a misplaced night was very politely found the following morning. Igor has all the skills and insights of a lifetime of mountain climbing, so I can’t think of anyone more suited to the task. He was also the first member of the beaver subcommittee to see that I might actually be saying something worth listening to so, God bless him. And hurray for safe homecomings!

Did someone say you were throwing a party for me?

heidi08 Beaver Art, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? August 11, 2017

You know how things sometimes happen when you least expect them? Well, yesterday we saw the city workers in Susanna street parking checking out something in the creek so we wondered what it was and went to have a look. We’d been noticing that the water seemed to be backing up a bit and meant to investigate but with the Festival and all we never got around to it. Guess what we saw yesterday? Go ahead, guess.

It is right in the bend in the creek and impossible to easily see either from the Susanna Street bridge or from the Henrietta Street end. But if you climb on something tall and crane your neck around the corner you will see an overgrown incised stream with a tiny little dam being started. And some of the wood appears to have beaver chews on it. The beaver itself is obviously a little loner or a poor planner because if he had any friends at all he would take out that leaning tree and let it fall on the dam to get things started in a big way!

sbdam — *Little dam behind Susanna street park: Susan Berg photo*

The funny thing is someone at the festival said they saw a beaver the morning of the festival near Starbucks, but we chalked it up to the crazy things you hear from people that you shouldn’t get excited about. Now we wonder if it might have been true. Jon looked several times last night and saw no beaver, and Susan and her grandkids came down to check it out with no luck either. But who knows? It certainly is a beaver dam, whether the builder is still around remains to be seen. Here’s a little map if you want to do your own snooping.

And in case you wondered, it’s about a block from my house, which is just neat.

Susan and her granddaughters originally came to get journal making supplies because they missed the festival because of a family reunion. I asked them to earn their journals by recording the audio for the film I might make about the project. If you want to hear bright cheerful girls talking about how beavers benefit the ecosystem, take a listen to these three minutes. They gave me lots to work with so hopefully I will be able to clip it together and make some great audio for the film.

Meanwhile, I was working on this yesterday form the idea Steve Murschel from West Linn Oregon gave me about playing ‘pin the beaver on the keystone‘ with children at our forest service event next month. I’m thinking it will be a nice way to teach kids about the idea of a keystone species and how beavers help the ecosystem. What do you think?

Beaver festival and beyond

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Festival, What's killing beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? August 8, 2017

The bulk of auction items found there way home yesterday, on the Monday after the festival which is unhead of. I have a few stragglers to complete today, but I’m thinking the whole thing will be done by Wednesday. I can’t tell you how delightful that feels! I guess one of the advantages of having no Peddler’s faire to share foot traffic with is that everyone stayed at the festival and claimed their prizes. Hurray!

To my great delight yesterday I finally had time to open the filming that some friendly moms did of their children doing the jjournal activity. I had asked a few to shoot video because I might think about making a film later on of the process itself. It was wonderful to have a moles-eye view (do moles have eyes? Maybe a gopher’s- eye) of what went on at each booth. But I was especially delighted with this moment, which I had to share. That’s Dave Kwinter on the bag pipe btw.

Outside the festival bubble, in the larger beaver world there was a nice report of community upset by the loss of water caused partially by removing a beaver dam that caught my attention. I just love it when people point out that draining a pond will rapidly reduce property value.

Fayette’s David Pond losing water, alarming property owners who want action

Shorefront property owners are working with owners of the pond’s impoundment to seek a solution amid concern that reduced water level could affect wildlife, recreation and ecology and depress property values.

FAYETTE — The lower water level of David Pond this year has spurred those with waterfront property and waterfront access there to organize in search of a solution.

They say recent damage to a rock pile impoundment at the north end of the pond caused the water level to take a significant drop, and they cite concerns about the effect on “wildlife, recreation, ecology, and declining property values and the resulting losses to the town tax base,” in a website posting by Elizabeth Hicks.

Hicks is one of eight people on a steering committee looking for a solution. “We don’t know how stable the current situation is,” she said. “We would like to move on it very quickly.”

When Hicks and others brought their concerns to the Fayette Board of Selectmen, she said, they received sympathy but were told the board could do little because the impoundment was in neighboring Chesterville, which is in Franklin County.

“It’s been a little, ongoing dam war,” Cayer said. “What happens is the landowners are responsible, so we have to do some kind of remediation out there, but we’re not sure yet what that’s going to be.”

She said some people built up the dam to raise the water level and someone else came out and dismantled it, as well as part of a beaver dam, to lower the water.

This article is a wonderful reminder that removal of a beaver dam has consequences for the entire community, including the wildlife using the water behind it. It sounds like some of the residents want their pond back and some of them don’t. I’m curious what will happen. Obviously the beaver dam wasn’t the only thing dismantled, but I’m sure there was also some trapping involved. It’s certainly the wrong time of year to be ripping out ponds. It will take a long time to get that water back now.

Speaking of ponds and times of year, Rusty Cohn of Napa has been enjoying the golden time of year at Tulocay Creek by visiting several times a week. This is the precious look at Mom and the new kit he got last night. Double click on any photo for a larger view and get ready to say it with me now.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww