It’s nice to see that beavers have gotten so popular even British Columbia is trying out the BRAT tool.

BCIT student applied research project advances beaver habitat restoration

Beavers are industrious engineers in the animal kingdom and play a vital role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. Beaver dams create wetlands, which serve as crucial habitats for a diverse range of species and help to regulate water flow and mitigate the effects of floods and droughts. Understanding where to focus beaver-based restoration for habitat and climate change mitigation is critical, and that’s precisely what a recent project undertaken by Alessandro Freeman, BCIT student in the Masters of Ecological Restoration program, aimed to do. 

Under the supervision of BCIT School of Construction and the Environment researcher Doug Ransome and in collaboration with Ducks Unlimited Canada, Alessandro Freeman set out to assess the effectiveness of a Graphical Information System (GIS) habitat model in identifying suitable locations for beaver-dam construction. The project, funded by the Mitacs Accelerate program and the Al Martin Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation (HCTF) fellowship, focused on using the Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT) to pinpoint watercourses with high beaver habitat potential in the Cariboo Region of British Columbia.

Gee I wonder where beaver dams could be used to improve habitat for ducks. Could it be EVERYWHERE?

Using beavers to create and maintain wetlands, restore water flows, and restoring some of the most ecologically diverse habitats is an excellent example of nature-based processes.  Mimicking how beavers build extensive wetlands saves money, restores critical ecological function to flood plains, creates important habitat for fish, amphibians, waterfowl, and for large species like moose. It is a perfect marriage between natural processes and ecological restoration. 

BRAT summer

The BRAT, originally developed by Utah State University, evaluates various factors such as riverbank and wetland area vegetation, stream physical characteristics, and stream hydrology to estimate a stream’s dam capacity. Alessandro’s work involved testing the accuracy of this tool by comparing its outputs with field measurements taken at the streams in the Cariboo region. Additionally, he employed climate data with the BRAT’s hydrological outputs to model changes in stream flow, crucial for understanding the long-term viability of beaver habitats in the face of climate change.

It’s funny how once things get really really bad they are willing to try an unpopular solution. Like a huge company in dire trouble hiring a woman CEO.

Or bring on beavers to face climate change.

The results of Alessandro’s research sheds light on the BRAT’s capabilities and limitations for use in BC. “Overall, the BRAT was able to estimate the availability of preferred vegetation for beaver and accurately separated dam capacity based on vegetation,” says Alessandro. “It also identified streams with physical restrictions such as high gradient. However, the BRAT often overestimated water availability, with several streams being dry at time of assessment. Several streams with high dam capacity also scored poorly in overall habitat quality compared to other streams with low dam capacity.” These findings suggest that dam capacity alone is insufficient in finding sites with the highest chance of successful beaver occupation.  

“Alessandro’s research is very timely,” says Doug Ransome. “Using and refining the BRAT tool, among others, are at the forefront of initiating field research trials in western Canada. Working with Ducks Unlimited and restoration practitioners and leaders, including Indigenous communities, BC Wildlife Federation, government, and NGOs, provides an excellent opportunity to study how well mimicking beavers will enhance our restoration goals in riparian and wetland environments.”

I’m starting to think that GIS is kind of like bluetooth. Even a lawn chair advertised having bluetooth will sell better to certain buyers. We don’t live building fake beaver dams in the creek or letting actual beavers do it, but tell us it can be paired with GIS and we’re all in!

I hope beavers follow in your footsteps. Alessandro.

Good Lord! Is that woman talking about beavers aGAIN? Doesn’t she ever shut up? Apparently the good folks at the Contra Costa Watershed Commion just can’t get enough. Or somebody better than I cancelled. Either way I’m off next week to spread the beaver gospel.

If you are similarly afflicted you can register here:

After we had saved the beavers, installed a flow device, had our first festival and basically felt like winners the city had a secret meeting in September with attorneys. The public was not allowed. My phone rang twice that night. Once from the pro city council member with whom I was most closely aligned saying mysteriously, “I’m really sorry about this” and the second phone call from one of the allegedly pro-beaver  subcommittee members who had been invited to the secret meeting.

Apparently the small town property mogul next to the beavers had sent letters though his attorney that his building was sinking and cracking because of the beavers digging in the soil in the bank and if the city did not do something they were going to sue.

So the city did something. They agreed to put up a sheetpile wall between the creek and the property which happened to be directly through the beaver lodge. I was carelessly assured by both parties that the beavers would be “fine”.

I was terrified. Obviously the work would happen in the daylight when beavers are asleep in the lodge. I had visions of beavers sliced in half. Or the family emerging in panic and the kits getting lost. Worth A Dam talked to our smartest friemds and scraped together enough money to hire an environmental laawyer who brought in a Fluvial geomorphologist to inspect the creek that weekend. She submitted a report on the health of the creek and the problems in the creek that might be causing damages besides the beavers.

The city council wouldn’t allow it into the record. The case was going for an emergency hearing tuesday. The judge wouldn’t review it. She only could review the complaints and pictures of cracking ceilings and walls. We showed up in court but were not allowed to speak, Our attorney asked that the work be delayed pending a safety assessment. He was denied.

The city won the right for the work to be done on an emergency basis which meant they weren’t required to do an environmental impact report. There was a meeting to announce their clever plan to pay for the project with funds they were awarded in a lawsuit over an oil spill years ago. Those particular funds  “had to be used for something environmental” So they cleverly called this conservation.

I was told at the meeting that I might be involved as an oversight member watching the work, but was instruced that I could not advise or slow the work in any way.

I declined.

That night I felt sick and terrified. My mouth was of ashes. We had worked so hard and had tried to do everything right. I had answered all the questions. Brought in the experts, Never gotten angry or raised my voice. I had played by the rules.

And it didn’t matter.

I remembered that night for obvious reasons recently. As bad as things feel now, that night was worse. I felt alone and fully responsible for the catastrophy that would happen next. It could not be stopped. I couldn’t stop it.

The next morning we got to work.

It turns out our beavers were not cut in half, and stayed on for nearly a decade after that. In the most painful way possible I learned that the city council was lying, that huge forces were helping the lie, and that sometimes even an informed sustained positive campaign when you were respectful and polite and did everything by the rules you could not stop them. They could still cheat and win.

And that changed everything for me.

We all need this right now…

The election that we thought would never get here happens today and every single person I know is exhausted by it. I suppose we should not be surprised that it has shaken weird stories out of the woodwork, but honestly when I saw this I was just glad it wasn’t a beaver.

Here’s Why Trump’s Campaign Is Posting About a Dead Squirrel

Peanut the Squirrel was a mainstay on social media — and his euthanization sparked a backlash

It’s tough to think that a squirrel might tilt the presidential election, but it’s 2024, so here we are. 

It all started last week, when an Instagram-famous rodent named Peanut was taken from a house near Elmira, New York, along with a raccoon named Fred. Peanut had lived with Mark Longo and his wife, Daniela, for the past seven years; Fred had lived there for about five months. Rescuing Peanut from near-death and bonding with him had inspired the couple to start a nonprofit animal sanctuary — P’Nut Freedom Farm — and Fred had been left at their doorstep. 

I’m sure you can see where this is going. P’nut freedom farm seems kind of like the thing you see. I guess keeping the animals in your house after you rehabbed them might be a problem in some circles.

But then, on Oct. 30, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) raided their home, and after a five-hour search, the two animals were confiscated. According to a statement given to WENY, a local TV station, by the DEC and the county health department, Peanut had bitten one of the investigators, and both animals had to be euthanized in order to test for rabies. 

In a more reasonable timeline, the animals’ caretakers and fans would mourn them, and perhaps it would spark internet discourse on the ethics of keeping wild animals indoors, effectively as pets. (All the other animals in their care live outside.) But like a 2024 Murphy’s law, if something ends up trending, it must become political. 

Ouch, Of course the only way you can test a creature for rabies is to take slices of its brain and no animal seems to live through that. It is true that sometimes when someone is bitten they just treat the human in case, but that’s when the animal gets away. And P’nut clearly did not.

So dead squirrel.

Do you think DEC might have been a little heavy handed here? Do you think they saw the videos on you tube and thought I just have to free that squirrel! Do you think they might have called first and said “you have to keep that squirrel outside or we’re coming to take him”? Well maybe they did the story doesn’t say.

But do you think they at least could have looked at the calendar and thought, hmm…maybe not a week before the election. Let’s just wait a bit on that.

I”m sure the thought is that outrage over p’nut could kind of have the similar effect of the Kristi Noem gravel pit story with her puppy. I’ll let you know how that works out for them.