A few weeks ago, an eager beaver began gnawing at a tree along the side of the Derby Pond in Whatcom Falls Park. The parks department removed a bench in the tree’s way, and posted a notice that they were going to let the beaver finish its work — something our family appreciated so much.
Over the following weeks, many trips were made to watch the progress, always amazed at the dif-ference and wondering when the tree might fall. Trips to the library and Internet searches were made to learn more about beavers — the “Beaver Tree” was the buzz of the park and neighborhood kids.
This past Wednesday, shouts of glee were heard on the trail as three of our kids discovered the tree was down. Sadly, the finishing touch was made by a chain saw, but we were excited nonethe-less! The gentlemen handling the tree told us it would be moved to a place where the beaver could harvest the branches, and we could continue to witness the final stages of the process.
We are so thankful to the parks department for allowing us this invaluable experience. The tree was in a place where they could have easily chopped it down as soon as the beaver had started the “damage.” Instead, they left it, giving our community the opportunity to watch the wonders of our natural world in our own backyard.
When I read an idyllic beaver letter like this I am always transfixed with a mixture of admiration and envy. Here’s a city that knows how and why to live with beavers. It doesn’t require 200 people at a meeting, or massive media shaming, or a popular website or Heidi flinging herself at the stubborn officials like a salmon beating against the rocks for six friggin’ years. There are no lawyers or CEQA violations. No committee meetings or civil disobedience.
It just happens because it’s the right thing to do.
Instinct demanded I check to see where this utopian paradise is and of course I needn’t have bothered: Washington State.
And while we’re on the subject of humane pragmatism, isn’t this the most glorious beaver painting you’ve seen this decade? Its talented and whimsical artist, Cori Lee Marvin is in Port Hope Canada and has generously agreed to donate a watercolor to the silent auction. I am so excited to see the work up close. It reminds me of the end of the Grey Owl movie! Thanks very much Cori!
t’s a busy time on the mountain for us, but you might not expect beavers to be just as active this time of year. Surprise! They are busier than you’d think right around now because between January and February, it’s mating time for our furry friends. Beavers are a monogamous species, meaning they mate with one partner for life. They start reproducing around age 2 or 3, at which point they build a very impressive lodge with their mate and start their family.
A pleasant article about beavers from Kayla at the Vail Daily. (Not that it says anything about why beavers are actually useful. Instead it alarmingly opines that beavers cut down 1700 trees a year and live until 20!) But never mind, compared to all the horrible things we usually have to review about beavers it’s not too bad.
Not like Peter Fimrite’s article in the SFGate this morning that says salmon may go extinct with California’s new drought pattern. And doesn’t mention what? Say it with me now.
The lack of rain this winter could eventually be disastrous for thirsty California, but the drought may have already ravaged some of the most storied salmon runs on the West Coast.
The coho salmon of Central California, which swim up the rivers and creeks during the first winter rains, are stranded in the ocean waiting for the surge of water that signals the beginning of their annual migration, but it may never come.
You know, way back in 2008 when NOAA first reported on a regional level that said the way to fix our salmon population had four paws and a tail, I thought for sure the tide would turn. I imagined a three month period when everyone came to grips with the fact followed by an explosion of legislation with a burdensome salmon tax for cities that still trapped beavers.
Six years later I realize that things may be moving a bit slower than I had planned.
Yesterday a donation came from the local artist behind Bird versus Bird in Oakland. Bess Petty works with recycled materials and uses urban nature in all her designs. When I asked for a donation she told me that she and her husband had been out to see the Martinez Beavers but hadn’t found them. I assured her of an easier summer viewing and said she should let us know then she wants a tour. In addition to the pouch she sent lots of other goodies so thank her if you see her at the festival!
This nifty waterproof coin purse is sewn from salvaged vinyl banner material with a sturdy Velcro closure and features my original beaver drawing on a pale cream background.
This new toy was sent to me by Bruce Thompson of Ecotracs in Wyoming. I am having so much fun playing with it I just had to share. Go try your own!
Siberia has just announced that it will kill 5500 beavers to “prevent the spread of disease”. No word yet on what disease exactly they’re stopping, or why a disease that beavers caught in their water system wouldn’t be a problem already without the beavers.
MOSCOW, January 24 (RIA Novosti) – Several thousand beavers in western Siberia are facing a cull by the summer in a drive to avoid an outbreak of disease, local media reported Friday.
Gazeta Kemerova news website cited a statement by the Kemerovo Region’s environmental protection department as saying as many as 5,500 beavers could be killed to thin out the ranks of the animal.
Overpopulation of beavers is also reportedly responsible for numerous road-flooding incidents caused by their dams. No up-to-date information on the beaver population of Kemerovo Region is available.
Ohhhhhh. The dangerous FLOODING DISEASE! Gosh, people were really scared of that contagion in Martinez. (I hear it’s catching.) And please re-read that last line. We have no idea how many beavers there are in Siberia we just know there are too many!
Wikipedia tells me that Siberia is 5.1 million square miles, and most of Russia. Not sure how they’ll even keep track of the numbers with all those dead beavers.
The rodent is a bigger hazard than it looks.
Last April, an irritated beaver killed a man in western Belarus. The animal bit through a major artery while the man was taking a selfie with the rodent, causing fatal wounds to the photographer.
That’s right, we will justify our bad decision by referencing his. The man in Belarus should never have tried to pick up that beaver and his friends should have completed the second grade and learned how to apply a tourniquet, but that’s what happens when men make mistakes: beavers get killed. 5500 or however many we feel like. Never mind that the population will likely rebound and we will have solved nothing. Never mind that there are hundreds of Europeans who could teach us how to install flow devices. Never mind that Russia needs clean water as much as any other country.
Our minds (such as they are) are made up.
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Now Lithuania is just a little east of Siberia, and I received a nice note this morning on a donation from an artist there. Giedrė Karramba creates a miniature animal zoo from sterling silver. I asked for these earrings and she has kindly wrote back offering a pair of earrings and a pendant.
Just remember when you wear them, they were made in Lithuania so this adorable pair is castor fiber.
Did you read the very nice article about the Martinez Beavers on KQED science blog yesterday? I’ll give you a taste and then you must go read it yourself so they know exactly how many people are interested in this story. Promise?
I talked with Mark Ross from the Martinez City Council. “The beaver turmoil calmed down long ago. Where else can you see beavers within fifteen yards of parking meters?” Ross relayed that, “Flow devices to control the height of the beaver pond are vital to their success, allowing beavers to flourish in an urban area while helping to keep the dam at manageable levels.” He went on, “Beavers are the best ambassadors for Martinez since John Muir, who also made his home here. People come to look for them.”
Ahh, isn’t that nice? Go read the rest where the flow device, Worth A Dam, and Beaver Festival are mentioned. And if you, like me, are having flashbacks reading this quote to a certain childhood story of a petite crimson barnyard fowl – just stop it. What’s good for beavers is good. Period.
More good things from the Trout Unlimited Blog where John Zablocki takes on the beaver dam – trout conundrum. He doesn’t actually come out and say that the controversy is bunk and beavers are good news for trout, but he comes pretty dam close!
Should these dams be considered barriers and removed in order to reconnect streams? Strong opinions can be found on either side, but the question remains open. Nevertheless, there is a growing awareness among fisheries scientists and restoration ecologists that beavers and their dams may be allies in the effort to restore North America’s streams and armor them against climate change. Beavers can help regenerate floodplains, enhance water storage, and create refugia for trout threatened by wildfire. On the other hand, they accomplish this by creating dams, which have the potential to act as barriers.But do beaver dams really function as barriers to trout?
A group of researchers from the U.S. Forest Service and Utah State University decided to bring science to bear on this question. They studied two Northern Utah streams containing native Bonneville Cutthroat Trout populations along with non-native Brook Trout and Brown Trout. The researchers captured 1,357 trout over several years and implanted them with Passive Integrated Transponder tags. They then tracked the movements of the fish at different times of the year to determine the extent that fish were migrating past beaver dams. Their findings, recently published in the Transactions of the American Fisheries Society show that trout are quite capable of passing beaver dams, at least in the systems they studied. In fact, they observed 481 passes through the 21 beaver dams they monitored.
Go read the rest of this smart article and like it on facebook so they are rewarded for their good thinking! Remember that fish voices are very much louder than beaver voices, so any vote of faith from them counts double.
Let’s pretend (and why not?) that you are a parent of energetic 7 year-old twins that you have to leave inside the house while you go mow the lawn. You tried to get them to come with you – talking them into raking big piles of leaves which they could leap in or pretend were monsters, but they are immersed in a mind-deadening cartoon about talking mason jars and hardly looked up when you opened the door. You are quite prepared to spend 20 minutes in the garden and come back to a chaotic pillow war where marsh mellows are used as ammunition. This isn’t your first rodeo. You know what to expect – lots of whining and name calling and ‘he started it’. But the lawn must be mowed or the neighbors will invite you for another miserable vegetarian BBQ to politely remind you, so you somberly slip out the door.
It’s a crisp fall day and the job is quickly done. Only when you come back inside, the house is immaculate. The TV is off. And the smell of waffles drifts from the kitchen where the children have a lovely brunch with unspilled juice and blueberries laid for you on the corner table. They are smiling and one of them even hugged you.
Now you know just how I felt when I read these stories.
Dear Johnnie: “I’m back, and I am hungry. As I fell each tree, the house value falls along the Oligarchy greenway west of Harvard.”
Yes, it is the beaver. How can we get rid of it? Do we take matters into our own hands (bang! bang!) or should the city fix it or the animals rights people get called in?
Anyway it looks very messy in our city to have just 2-foot-high stumps as a greenway. — Concerned
Dear Concerned: The city has a plan for beavers, and getting rid of them is not at the top of the list.
According to the city’s Standing Operating Procedure, “Longmont … maintains a wildlife management plan that strives to co-exist with urban wildlife whenever possible.”
The city’s primary concern when it comes to beavers is their ability to obstruct irrigation canals in town. When their dams threaten to lead to an overflow — which could lead to the flooding of homes — then the city will act to remove the obstruction.
The city also Longmont also has a concern for trees, as you do. According to Land Program administrator Dan Wolford, “the city, in the past has either wire wrapped or painted trees in this area to protect them from beaver, in particular those larger caliper native trees, worthy of saving.”
Removing a beaver would be a last resort, and is addressed in the SOP document.
Good lord, have I died and gone to heaven? Is this the newspaper of the angels? Where is this magical place called Longmont? Turns out its 28 miles from Sherri Tippie’s front door, so I’m guessing they have had LOTS of help getting this smart. In the meantime we should just pause and appreciate that this is the very first historic moment where I have EVER read about a city “painting trees” in response to chewing. I’m sure they mean ‘painting mixed with sand’ and I couldn’t be happier. Sherri invented that technique and was the first to publish it. Thanks Sherri!
Concerned, I’m sure you know that “bang! bang!” is not found in the city’s wildlife management plan. Even mention of “removal” comes with a reminder that “trapping and removal of an animal typically creates a ‘vacuum’ at the capture site, which in most cases is quickly filled by another animal of the same species.”
Did you just get goosebumps? I sure did. There’s more where that came from…
Score one for Whistler’s beaver population. A willow tree at Alpha Lake Park is now on its side, chewed over by one or more beavers living in the area.
The tree near the lake edge had a sign on it informing park visitors the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) decided to let the beavers do with the tree as they see fit, as it was beyond repair. Sometime next year another tree will be planted in the area to replace the felled willow.
According to biologist Bob Brett with the Whistler Naturalists, beavers are a native species to the region. He considers them the symbol of Whistler’s valley bottom.
“I think beavers are fantastic,” said Brett after learning about the slow destruction of the lakeside willow at Alpha Lake.
A city biologist excited about beavers? Public works crews wrapping trees with wire? Hand me my smelling salts. I feel an attack of the vapors coming on! 1500 miles away from Sherri Tippie but not that far from Vancouver and our friends at Fur-bearer defenders.
The RMOW communications department also said “beaver deceivers” — defined as anything that prevents beavers from blocking culverts — were also installed in culverts at Hillcrest Drive and in Alta Vista to prevent beavers from damming the culverts.
And you thought you were thankful yesterday! Now let’s overdose on more good news from Mike Callahan about his salmon adapted flow devices in Sonomish, Washington.
Sonomish Salmon Passage Success!
I have great news! I recently returned from Snohomish County, WA and observed that our prototype Flexible Pond Levelers Fishways (now called Snohomish Pond Levelers) were successful at passing adult coho salmon upstream. I think this is very exciting!
This means that when road culverts, etc. on salmon producing streams require protection from beaver damming we can opt to utilize flow devices rather than traditional beaver trapping and dam removal. This experiment is an extremely promising beginning and great news for salmon, beavers and us all! With a single, relatively inexpensive flow device we can increase the populations of two keystone species! The implications are tremendous.
I hope to share this research at the 32nd Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference in Santa Barbara, CA in March. In the meantime please spread the word. We need to get the word out that adult salmon migration can now be facilitated rather than impeded by using flow devices.
Thanks and congratulations to my Team Snohomish partners without whom this research project would not have been possible, especially Jake Jacobson, Michael Rustay, Ben Dittbrenner, and Ted Parker. A big thank you also to the Animal Welfare Institute whose grant largely funded this research project.
Sometimes you really get the feeling that we are on a team of smart, ecologically minded beaver believers scattered across the northern hemisphere. And sometimes it even seems like we’re winning!
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Score one for Whistler’s beaver population. A willow tree at Alpha Lake Park is now on its side, chewed over by one or more beavers living in the area.
