Category: Beavers

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: COLORADO BEAVER SUMMIT

heidi08 Beaver Conference, Beaver ecological impact, Beavers August 23, 2021

Mark your Fall Calendars. The Colorado beaver Summit is coming October 21st and you will be very interested in how it unfolds. New Mexico, California, Colorado have all had beaver summits. What state is coming next? (And I’m looking at you, Idaho!)

Colorado Beaver Summit fosters climate, drought solutions

Colorado and the West face unprecedented drought conditions and water scarcity driven by climate change. The cumulative effects of natural resource exploitation and misguided land management policies have made matters worse. The removal of beavers from the landscape two centuries ago by the fur trade was one of our earliest and most costly mistakes because it dramatically altered critical ecosystems that naturally conserved water in wetlands and alluvial aquifers, which in turn sustained streams and rivers during drought years.

Without beavers maintaining the dams they’d built for millions of years, rivers began to flow faster, carving channels below their floodplains, and water drained out of the landscape, including the aquifers.

The resulting ecosystem is drier, less resilient to drought and more prone to catastrophic wildfire. A 2006 study conducted in Rocky Mountain National Park found that aquifer recharge “may be the most important beaver-related factor in mitigating effects from climate change.”

Re-establishing beavers in key areas of their traditional range will begin to restore the resilience of western landscapes. Beavers are a keystone species that likely numbered in the hundreds of millions in North America. Once nearly extinct, beavers now number around 10 million, far less than their natural population prior to the arrival of European pioneers and settlers.

Well that certainly sounds convincing! Where do I sign up?

Organized by Colorado Headwaters, the inaugural Colorado Beaver Summit will feature two days of online seminars bringing together scientists, policymakers, activists and concerned citizens. The Summit will foster collaboration, education, and the advancement of science-based policies that facilitate beaver re-establishment and other nature-based restoration initiatives to improve resilience to drought and wildfires.

On Thursday, October 21, the Summit will feature presentations that demonstrate the importance of beavers in creating long-term solutions to western water challenges. Thursday sessions will emphasize the scientific studies that are documenting the importance of beavers to healthy ecosystems and ecosystem services such as flood and sediment attenuation, temperature moderation and improved water quality.

Dr. Emily Fairfax will discuss how beaver complexes improve resilience to wildfire and drought. Sarah Marshall with the Colorado Natural Heritage program will provide a statewide perspective on beavers in Colorado. Tom Cardamone, also with CNHP, will discuss the challenges and opportunities of beaver restoration in the context of a biodiversity and wetland study of the 9-million-acre Roaring Fork Watershed. Additionally, speakers from each Western state will address regulations for beaver hunting, nuisance situations, and relocation, as well as the biggest challenges they are working to address.

On Friday, October 22, the Summit will feature leaders from various agencies discussing policies and legislation needed to ensure beaver management programs are implemented in a positive and proactive manner. Most state and federal land agencies struggle with addressing beaver management due to lack of staff capacity and budget, and federal legislation relating to forest management is remiss in failing to promote practices to strengthen strong watershed and wetlands resources.

First the why and then the how. I like it. But since we can’t even get people to take a vaccine that might save their own lives, I have a hard time imagining they’ll allow beavers to save the planet. But good luck trying.

Fires in close succession and habitat destruction in general are significantly altering our rich biodiversity, and drought is a persistent concern. Efforts and funding to reduce forest fuel loads is certainly required for mitigating fire risk, but just as important is the need to address the health of our natural water infrastructure (streams and wetlands in our forests) which provides about 80 percent of Colorado’s drinking water.

Public lands agencies need to address water resources policy to emphasize the importance of wetlands and the role of beavers in resilient ecosystems to improve water resources for people and nature.

Understanding beaver management can transform this industrious animal from an uninvited guest to an untapped resource. Beaver stewardship of streams can make the West more robust, more resilient and less susceptible to climate change, drought and wildfire.

As climate change accelerates, Western states are experiencing drought conditions with greater frequency, intensity and duration. These changes threaten our water supplies, our food supply, our forests and our way of life. Please join us on ZOOM Thursday and Friday, October 21 and 22, to learn how beavers can help us avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Colorado Headwaters is a 501(c)(3) environmental nonprofit working to sustain, conserve and enhance Colorado’s freshwater resources (www.coloradobeaversummit.org).

Wow that looks amazing! I’ll be presenting in a roundup of western state beaver policy. I’ll be talking about all the good ideas in California, which will take half a minute. But I definitely want to see how this unfolds. You should to.

THE PRINCESS WHO WANTED TO SAVE WETLANDS

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beavers August 22, 2021

It’s Sunday and time for a story. It will surely be the familiar kind because you’ve heard this story before many times. It’s a David and Goliath tale, where David wants to save beavers and Goliath has taken the form of the terrible development monster that is terrorizing the village. You know how it goes. They want to tear down paradise to build a parking lot sort of thing.

I can’t tell you the ending because it hasn’t been written yet. I’m hoping it ends well.

Once upon a time in a not-s0-far-away land named Rocklin there lived a beautiful and shy princess who was keeper of a magical wetland near her home. Every day she and her neighbors would walk along the many winding paths and follow the stream to see the homes of the wild creatures that lived there. The wetlands were made and maintained by two creatures that were the most magical of all because they turned a lazy urban backwater into a wilderness where herons, turtles. frogs and otters all found their way.

They were called “BE-avers” Because with their determined effort they willed wild things into BEING.

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Very near this magical wetland was the gilded campus of Sierra College who wanted to build more housing for its many, many lords and ladies who were studying kingdom administration and graphic design. They sent foot soldiers every so often to tear out the beaver dams so that the magical wetland would be drained and it would be easier to reach all the things they wanted to develop.

This worried the princess because it was summer and getting drier and even when the magical BE-avers rebuilt their dams (Because BE-avers are very hardworking and never give up or get discouraged) the precious water they once held was lost and did not return and could not be expected to come back until winter.

Gradually the magical wetland grew more and more shallow. Until the moat around their lodge-castle receded and they had to walk the corridors instead of swim to get around. All the wildlife that relied on the pond, the dragonflies, the frogs, the turtles, the herons, and the otters all dwindled into a smaller and smaller space, or left the area entirely, or were eaten, with less food and protection to keep them safe. Soon when you walked the area you could see almost nothing except dry channels, choked streams and muddy pools where water used to be.

Now the great Sierra College needed permission from the city of Rocklin to unleash their beloved monster, and the city, like all cities, was eager for DEVELOPMENT dollars and said, go right ahead, don’t mind us and don’t worry about all those neighbors who like the wetlands just make certain you follow the gossamer rules from Great Wizard of CDFW who in its terrible wisdom requires that certain endangered species not be messed with. Or at least not APPEAR to be messed with.

(Not the BE-avers of course. It was perfectly fine to mess with them. in fact the lords of CDFW handed out permits for messing with them like confetti. And everyone in the county of Placer where this occurred messed with them as often as they possibly could. But I digress. Back to our story.)

The short list of creatures that couldn’t be messed with included a shelled fresh-water nymph called the “Western Pond Turtle” and the rules said that if this rare specimen was observed in the ‘not so very wet any more land’ they had to halt work and wait for it to crawl away on its own.

Which was very annoying. Because turtles crawl very slowly, as you know.

It was nesting season and the turtle would be laying its eggs soon and could not be encroached upon. That was the rule. And they HAD to follow it. Or at least give the appearance of following it. So they crossed their fingers and squeezed their eyes shut tightly and hope they wouldn’t find any WPTs.

Earlier this week the princess took her magical Nikon, went to the pond, and waited. She was a little afraid, because she didn’t want to make people angry, And a little soggy because she had to walk into the mud to do it. And a little bitten because there were less and less fish left to eat the mosquitoes. But she did it anyway because that is what princesses do when they need to save wetlands.

The Western Pond Turtle! And several of them!

So she sent her photo to the college and to the lords of CDFW and the city and waited for them to leap to the wetlands defense. She imagined the screeching train of development grinding to a halt, or at least losing steam. And she waited for her phone to ring in alarm as they sputtered and changed course.

And they of course put their hands up over their eyes and spilled coffee on her emails because all they could see were the dollar bills even the great Lords of CDFW hesitate before they get in the way of those.

Stay tuned.

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PLACER NEVER MISSES A CHANCE TO RUIN A GOOD THING

heidi08 Beavers August 19, 2021

This is what happens when beautiful beaver habitat is built in Rocklin and some greedy developers rip out the dams in the summer. The beavers will try to rebuild, but the water is long gone.

More on this soon…Beavers have a Rotary meeting in Sonoma this morning.

OVERESTIMATING BEAVER POPULATIONS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver population, Beavers, Who's blaming beavers now? August 10, 2021

Well this jaunty column will hold your attention. The writing is clever even if the beaver management is…er…not.

Robert Ducharme: Mr. Busy and Peter Rabbit

If you live or have lived in a condominium association, nothing gets the dander of owners to rise faster than fights over pets. Some love them; some hate them. Everyone has an opinion.

But dogs and cats are not the only critters that have raised concerns at associations. There are others, sometimes not with the result you would think. And frequently not pets. In 2018 in rural North Carolina an association had a problem with beavers. Yes, beavers. (Mr. Busy is from Lady and the Tramp.) Seems local beaver dams were blocking Pokeberry Creek, causing water to rise and threatening the association’s boardwalks and bridges. (They have 24 miles of trails, so it’s large, rural and wildlife invested.)

Okay, we remember the beavers of Pokeberry Creek, in fact the people who cared about them still have a website. But this is the fun part.

It takes a lot of beavers to create such a problem and the association estimated it had three dozen beavers creating its perceived problem. The board of directors was stumped (no pun intended), and looked at alternatives such as raising or replacing the boardwalks and bridges, but deemed that solution more expensive than necessary, so it called the authorities. The U.S Department of Agriculture came, poked around, evaluated the site, and informed the board of directors that if the board wanted to go forward and solve the problem by removing the beavers, it could be done, but the beavers could not be trapped and relocated, but would have to be killed.

Three dozen beavers on a 7 mile creek? Why only three dozen. Why not a MILLION. If you’re going to pull random numbers out of your ass you may as well pick a bigger one.?

Of course a single family of beavers can build an awful lot of dams to cause condo-chaos. It’s not that hard. A single lilac mailbox can cause condo-chaos on most days. What I HATE about this is that some “experts” came in and cited that number. and everyone just believed it.

The truth is that BEAVERS ARE TERRITORIAL. There is zero way that 36 beavers worked together like furry mischief communists to cause you problems.

I’m sure the numbers were just inflated to make it seem like moving them was too hard.

Why killed and not moved? It seems in North Carolina beavers are, by law, considered a nuisance, and as such the law prohibits trapping and moving them. So they had to be killed; the board of directors was OK with that solution; and it so informed its fellow owners. But the board of directors did not expect the reaction of fellow homeowners and neighbors in the larger community. Outrage would be considered mild. So, two days later the board noted it was going to take a step back and consider other alternatives.

Ahh when the people lead the leaders will follow…they say. It worked in Martinez. Not sure whether it actually works in North Carolina condominiums, but it’s worth a shot.

Unfortunately, try as I might, I cannot find anything that details whether the beavers lived or died. The association’s website doesn’t mention anything about the beavers, though there is a picture of a new boardwalk. So, perhaps the unnamed solution was to pay to raise the bridges and boardwalks. If not, it would seem the board simply decided the beavers weren’t worth a dam. (No word on whether fur sales rose in the community.)

Let me guess what happened. I’m good at these.

There is one amusing side note to this story. Wikipedia tells me that Pokeberry Creek is a tributary to the Haw river. Which interests me because way back 15 years ago when I was frantically trying to find information about coexisting with beavers there were THREE helpful sites on the entire universe of google (imagine that!). One was Beavers: wetlands and wildlife, one was the old beaver solutions website, and the other was the Haw River Assembly.

I just thought you’d want to know.

DOORSTEP SAFARIS AND URBAN BEAVERS IN IDAHO

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beavers, Urban beavers August 6, 2021

This is a FANTASTIC story from Idaho of all places. I know there have been some major inroads with the work of Jay Wilde but even urban beavers are really starting to get noticed. Let’s all say it together: It’s about DAM time!

A Hidden Family Of Beavers Is Helping Dozens Of Species Thrive In East Boise

Four years after he left the Zoo, Burns has a new passion — helping people find nature and learn how to conserve it.While the scene in front of me is quite pretty, I’m not seeing a beaver.

“Now, is there a beaver in the beaver house?” I ask.

Burns assures me there really is a beaver in there.

“The other night I came out here and the beaver was sitting right there and kind of looked at me and then had this look like, ‘well time to go to work,’ and dove in and off he swam. Or her. I’m not sure which one,” Burns laughs.

In April, Burns co-founded a new nonprofit called Wildlife Conservation Enterprises with Liz Littman, who also worked at Zoo Boise. They take people on “Backyard Safaris” which are sort of super-charged nature walks.

This is a wonderful report and Backyard Safaris are doing FANTASTIC work. I’m writing Steve and Liz right now. Make sure you listen to the entire report. Urban wildlife is about more than education. It’s about community engagement and social cohesion.

I especially love this quote at the end;“And you don’t have to be Jane Goodall to be a wildlife conservationist. You have to know just enough and then pick one piece. You’re not going to save the entire world but we ask people to pick one piece”.