Category: Beavers or Social Ambasadors

‘Milling About’

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Earth Day, Educational, Environmental April 13, 2011

Enos A. Mills on a beaver walk with National Library Association librarians.

Beaver works are of economical and educational value besides adding a charm to the wilds. The beaver is a persistent practicer of conservation and should not perish from the hills and mountains of our land. Altogether, the beaver has so many interesting ways, is so useful, skillful, practical, and picturesque that his life and his deeds deserve a larger place in literature and in our hearts.

I know the site has been a little Mills-heavy for the past few days, but I truly can’t help it. Look at this photo of him taking the national librarians association for a beaver walk. He’s even carrying a chewed branch! Now yesterday I found out that he wrote John Muir in summer of 1907 and said he’d been lecturing in 25 states (Roosevelt had appointed him chief lecturer for the Department of Forestry) and mentioned he was planning a trip to California in October and could he visit him? Muir wrote back in August to invite him to the house. (Which, by the way, you’re all invited to on Saturday to celebrate Muir’s birthday and Earth day!)

Did Mills come? Did he stay at the house and walk around the orchards with Wanda or play hide and seek in the attic with Helen? I haven’t found any record of it yet, but John Muir was his Enos’ grand hero and inspiration and I can’t imagine Mills turning down an offer like that. I will keep snuffling along until I find a photo of Mills and Muir under the giant sequoia or in front of the carriage house. It could happen.

In the meantime,we should all stay keenly interested in the beaver activities of our very own wunderkits, who have just about finished rebuiding a very reed-heavy primary. It’s rather beautiful and basket-like (just in time for Easter!), and hopefully cheryl will get us some photos soon, but we haven’t been able to visit at a photographable hour these past few days. I actually don’t have a clear idea why they’re rebuilding the primary, since there’s no longer any lodge to keep under water. But they are. So there. Maybe its habit. Maybe its the shortest distance between two banks and as good a place to start as any. You’d better go see for yourself.

Oh, and if you happen to have trimmed your non-toxic trees for spring cleaning, you might consider dropping off the cuttings as building materials. It’s hard work being a beaver.

Sonoma Bound!

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions February 24, 2011

Ready or not! Here we come! A cast of Worth A Dam characters journeys to Sonoma tonight to talk about beavers in Martinez, flow devices, protecting grapevines and letting beavers make homes for juvenile salmonid. The weather is not being polite and will likely rain very soon, keeping many potential attendees by their cozy firesides. Ahh well, it can’t be helped. We’ll have fun talking to each other anyway! And remember that ecology center in Ohio that advertised a beaver talk with a trapper? I am confident that this will be WAY better than that! (Sorry Josh!)

In the mean time, if you’re looking for a new way to see the world, may I suggest the winners of the beautiful Science Competition presented by the BBC. These fantastic microscopic images offer a breath-taking reminder that nature is awesome to behold at every scale. Click on the photo to go to the audio slideshow of the winners.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour

(from Auguries of Innocence by William Blake)

All’s Well that Begins Well…

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions November 9, 2010

One of the beavers is seen recently at Griff Creek munching on a branch.

North Tahoe officials: Human beings, beavers can peacefully co-exist

Matt Renda Sierra Sun

KINGS BEACH, Calif. — Human beings and beavers can peacefully co-exist, Tahoe wildlife advocates said during a recent community forum, and Placer County officials agreed, vowing to explore alternatives to hunting and killing the animals. Co-existence is especially practical since the recent advent of many Tahoe-based water flow control devices and techniques which successfully manage flooding hazards and damage to property associated with beavers and their dam building.

Now isn’t that a great beginning to an article? The news out of Kings Beach affirms the report of our own Lory Bruno who attended the meeting in person. Apparently there is broad support for humanely maintaining the beavers the ‘next time’ they come to town. Honestly if we keep having success stories like this I pledge to start a new section on the website called “Who’s saving beavers now?”.

The primary solution for the specific problem at Griff Creek consists of installing a Flexible Pond Leveler, Millham said, a water flow control device designed to ensure the water of the beaver-created pond will not reach flood levels that could potentially create a driving hazard on a nearby section of Highway 28.

The Flexible Pond Leveler — invented by Mike Callahan, owner of the Southampton, Mass.-based company Beaver Solutions — makes use of a pipe, with the outflow portion installed in the middle of a beaver dam allowing water to flow through the dam instead of over it. The intake portion of the pipe is protected by wire fence, to prevent beavers from clogging the pipe.

Okay now THAT’s some good press. Good for beavers, good for beaver friends, good for Kings Beach. A very interesting conversation is brewing in the community about how to respond to the new plan to deal with the situation humanely next time. There are some who are so upset about the shooting of those four beavers that they want to ask for the director of public works’ head on a plate. And then there are the more conciliatory ‘lets wait and see’ voices. My favorite was from a smart childcare worker who said ‘lets hope for the best and not burn bridges’ and ‘btw I’m having every child in the day care personally make a card for the director and the supervisor thanking them for keeping their promise’.

Ahhh now that’s a woman after my own heart! Miss Manners meets Machiavelli!

Representatives from Wylie Animal Rescue Foundation and Worth A Dam — a beaver advocacy organization — pledged $500 each to the project during the forum.

Oooh good press for us too! There are lots of great things in the article, go read for yourself, and only a few head scratchers (protect trees with cayenne pepper?) But the very best and smartest part from the reporter, (who we already know does his research), comes from the price comparison for the cost of shooting the beavers. Check it out:

By the numbers

Costs of Placer County beaver removal operation at Griff Creek

• Direct cost to Placer County for California Conservation Corps crew: $5,700

• Indirect cost to state of California to maintain that crew: $2,800

• Cost to Placer County Department of Public Works to plan and administer project: $500

• Cost of Placer County Wildlife Agents (which carried out the hunting and killing of the beavers): $500

• Costs of refuse disposal, erosion control materials: $500

• Total: $10,000

Costs of installing water flow control device:

• Materials: $1,500

• Permitting: $500

• Annual maintenance: $150

• Total (over a 10-year period): $3,500

-Source: Tahoe Truckee Wildlife Coalition

Now that’s what I like to see! Good luck Kings Beach. You have funds, friends and a promise from the powers that be. That’s all any city with beavers can hope for.

“We need to do all the preparation work so that once the device is built — it stays,” Placer county Supervisor Jennifer Montgomery said. “We can truly be an example to the rest of the lake, and I know Peter and I are committed to making sure what happened to the Griff Creek beavers doesn’t happen again.”

The best-laid plans of men and beavers…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental November 5, 2010

Lory wrote last night that about 40 people attended the meeting at the Kings Beach Community Hall and gathered to watch Mike’s DVD and talk about humane solutions.

They got a lot of good response and it looks like after they get all the stuff they need such as permits they will proceed to to do the devices themselves. Right now, there aren’t any beavers in that spot but they know they will come back sometime. They were very appreciative of the scholarship and also of some one from Worth A Dam coming up. There were other donation also promised. I had several people after the meeting telling me ‘thank you for sharing our story’.

We got this response from Mary who invited us to the meeting

We really appreciate you coming, and everyone enjoyed hearing about the start-up of Worth a Dam. Your words were inspiring to us as we are just beginning our process. We have made huge strides from a month ago when I was told by one of the county officials present yesterday that on no uncertain terms the beavers would be killed this year and every year they returned.

Except for public officials, 4:00 in the afternoon is not the best time for a meeting in this area. The turn-out in no way reflected the tremendous support we have received from our community that is so very passionate about the wildlife. In addition to the $500.00 scholarship we received from Worth A Dam and the $500.00 from the Wylie Animal Rescue Foundation, we also received an additional $250.00 at the meeting from an anonymous donor. Sherry and I are somewhat stunned by all of the unexpected generosity.

You and Heidi are on our email list and we will keep you informed as we move forward. Thank you again for making the trip up to support us at the meeting and also for the huge donation toward our FIRST flow control device. We will make you proud,

Great work Lory! You deserve a lovely sunrise on the lake and a the best cup of coffee ever! Enjoy your weekend in the area and I hope you find beautiful signs of fall becoming winter! And ladies about to embark on a beaver-saving career, we wish you many beaver ‘happy returns’!

As for the rest of us, I hope to see lots of familiar faces at tomorrows creek’s conference. Wish us luck ‘spreading the beaver gospel”!

“Making Friends and Influencing People”

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors October 5, 2010

It’s been an interesting weekend in beaver-dom. I got a nice letter from Ontario where my letter to the editor was published last week. Turns out a single voice in the wilderness has been trying to force the issue into the media lime-light for a long time, and would love some beaver friends stateside.

Beavers create wetland habitat for wildlife

Your poignant memories enjoying the swamp and mournful commentary of the loss of wetlands is what my grandmother would call a ‘great start’. You say you don’t like beavers, but you understand their value in the habitat. Fair enough. People are often moved to advocate for these animals through mysterious paths… because of a particular duck… because of a wish to recharge the watertable… because of a wish to save the dwindling pacific salmon population. I come from the point of really enjoying the opportunity to observe these animals and their interactions. When beavers moved into downtown Martinez, our city responded by deciding to kill them, as many cities do, but the beavers were so well loved they were forced to try some of those new-fangled “humane solutions”. We hired Skip Lisle to come out from Vermont and install a flow device at the dam. This has safely maintained the dam height for three years.

Because we allowed the beavers to stay, we have reaped the benefits of their stewardship. We now regularly see otter, muskrat, steelhead wood duck, scaup, heron and kingfisher at the dam. We even had mink last year. Beavers do chew trees, but their chewing acts as a natural coppice cutting that stimulates dense bushy regrowth, ideal for migratory and songbirds whose numbers have been shown to go up as the number of beaver dams in an area increase.

Trapping beaver is a short-term solution that must be repeated again and again. Flow devices that protect dams and culverts are cheap, effective solutions that have the added advantage of preserving our shrinking wetlands. Any city smarter than a beaver can keep a beaver.

Thanks for your editorial.

Heidi Perryman, Ph.D.

President & Founder

Worth A Dam

Because the gods of the beaver universe never want to give you too much good news at once, I also got a reply to my post about the hilarious beaver-trapping lecture at the Nature Center. It was from some one calling themselves “josh’s aunt” who assured me that Ohio did have members of PETA and that they “made excellent coats”. Get it? Crazy vegetarian hippies tell us not to wear animals so we wear them instead! Gosh that’s funny! What a family affair. Maybe this was Josh’s grandma?

(Is this just a regional thing or is all of Ohio insane?)

On a final note, there are rumblings from Los Altos about a Heifer International Project encroaching Adobe Creek. Our wikipedia friend is involved and hopefully will guest blog about it soon. Its one of those attractive “VELVET BRICK” projects: Choose a hero that everyone loves, like ARF of SENIOR CITIZENS and force the in-building project down everyone’s throats in violation of every possible code, so that it will be easier to do it next time.

Sound Familiar? I told them I’d help however I’m able.