Category: City Reports

Beavers in the City

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions February 17, 2013

Signs along the 2500 block of Spring Creek Drive indicate the city of Laramie’s attempts to capture and relocate a beaver that has dammed off a section of Spring Creek just east of LaPrele Park. JEREMY MARTIN / Boomerang photographer

Busy beaver poses problem

“They just struck out on their own and looked for a place that was a suitable habitat,” Keith Wardlaw, interim parks manager, said. “If you were a beaver and living in the mountains, you’d have found the right place.”

But if you were a beaver, your home at 25th and Spring Creek Drive would the potential for some real-world impacts. Park and residential amenities such as cottonwood trees and other foliage could suffer thousands of dollars in damage. Trees weakened by your incisors could potentially fall and injure Laramie residents walking through LaPrele Park.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that with the amount of material that they’ve pulled into the channel there to build a dam we’re going to have to go ahead and remove that material,” Wardlaw said. “It does present a flooding situation there if we get a heavy runoff or if we get a rainstorm along the face of the mountain out here on Sherman Hills, that would potentially cause some kind of damage in that neighborhood.”

Hence the trapping signs. At least they warn humans about their intentions because there are plenty of places where it happens without warning and pets are needlessly killed. Beavers, of course, are always needfully killed. Well in this case relocated. Which is slightly less bad, but since they don’t even know how many beavers there are and its winter I’m going to assume there may be death involved.

No one’s certain exactly where the beaver, or beavers, which have made their dam just past the east end of LaPrele Park, came from, but it’s most likely they came up from the river. Wardlaw said he’s likely a young beaver who moved up the creek channel from the Laramie River in late October or early November looking for a good home after reaching maturity.

“From our best estimate at this point in time, we think it’s probably just one, but there may be two,” he said. “They probably got thrown out, so they’re looking for a new home, and that was the first spot they came to that looked good, I guess.”

But it’s likely they won’t be there for long. In order to mitigate the dangers of having a beaver in town, the City of Laramie has contracted with a local trapper to capture the castor alive and move him to a location out of town.

“He’s going to come in and over the next couple of weeks sometime, and we’ll start trapping for that beaver and try to move him out of there,” Wardlaw said. “We’re not absolutely sure the beaver is still there. We haven’t’ seen a lot of traces of evidence at this point in time, so he may have already moved off on his own. But our intention at this point is to get him trapped before we take the dam out. Otherwise, we’ll just displace him to another point either farther upstream or downstream, or wherever.”

Once trapped, the Wyoming Game and Fish will release the beaver in a suitable point away from Laramie, Wardlaw said

Quick check. The temperature in Laramie tonight is supposed to drop to 10 degrees, and its supposed to snow on wednesday. This alleged beaver or beavers will be relocated away from any food cache or family, and there could be weeks more winter to brace for. Why are you relocating now? Or better yet, why are you relocating at all?

Although the beaver will likely be relocated, Wardlaw said he understands and respects the allure nature has for many Laramie residents, but added that must be balanced with best administering the city’s parks and other amenities.

“We’re always trying to take care of these citizen-owned facilities in the best way we can,” he said. “We understand they enjoy wildlife, and we do as well, but there are certain conditions that sometimes just cause us to have to move that wildlife to another location.”

Because you know beavers can’t possibly be tolerated in cities. That never works. The problems they cause can’t be mitigated and we just have to choose sometimes between nature and people.

Cooperation & Copyright

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Creek Seekers Poetry Contest, Educational, Environmental February 16, 2013

GQ at work - Photo Cheryl Reynolds

Learn to share your stream

COQUILLE — A visiting conservationist will give a free presentation about beavers Feb. 25.Wayne Hoffman, coordinator of the MidCoast Watersheds Council, shares his presentation up and down the Oregon Coast to build support for beaver conservation. In smaller streams where beavers build dams, they can help stream ecology and watershed processes by improving the quality of habitat for juvenile salmon and for a variety of other wildlife.

Wayne Hoffman again to the rescue! It’s nice to read that this is happening in another city. After the last article I tried to write and introduce myself, but have heard nothing yet. I even wrote Mike and Skip about his idea of installing starter dams away from the culvert, which they both thought was interesting, and I passed their feedback along to him, – still as yet there has been no response.

Never mind. If folks are already preaching the beaver gospel….there’s no need for a ‘connect with the home office’!

Beavers also can be pests by plugging culverts, flooding agricultural lands and eating valued trees and plants. This presentation will include techniques for avoiding these problems and fostering peaceful coexistence between beavers and humans. A short Q & A follows the presentation.

Peaceful coexistence with humans. I like the way that sounds! Great work Wayne in teaching folks how and why to live with beavers! Let’s talk soon about teaching a JOYFUL coexistence with beavers…

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Documentary Update:

Sadly the ‘making of the beaver whisperer’ mentioned here yesterday is visible in Canada only. It is dark in America and Europe. Believe me when I say I tried to figure the whole thing out, and received a slew of bi-continental emails from folks eager to help. The wisest was the startled response that “The Nature of things” episode on beavers airs in March and Canada, and not on PBS until November. Argh. They aren’t letting the cat out of the bag, and the video is not downloadable.

I’m told a producer will send me one, but I’m sure they’re very busy with gay soirees and launch parties so I’m not holding my breath. So close and yet so far!

Massachusetts comes to Martinez

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Massachusetts Trapping Law February 12, 2013

So that tall guy in the middle is Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions in Massachusetts. He came out for some fish passage seminars and went to check out some beaver habitat near Napa and then came to Martinez for a tour and dinner. It was one of those meetings that mean so much and still seem so familiar that afterwards you are saddened to remember that he doesn’t live across the street and won’t be coming back any time soon.

I first wrote Mike in October of 2007. In case you didn’t realize that was a long, long time ago. Before Worth A Dam and before Obama and before our beaver mom died. Our contact armed me with information, made me hopeful and sometimes made me smile. It was often the thing that sustained and fortified me for the battle with the city, and gave me direction and a sense of purpose after we won.

Or, to put it another way; Mike recognized the sheetpile.

So it was entirely fitting to see him reviewing our beaver habitat. Have him scope out Skip’s installation. Spot the new lodge where our beavers are living and drive to our house for dinner. We of course handed over Alaskan Amber and a t-shirt so he would feel at home.

Lory and Cheryl and Jon enjoyed his visit and thought he was an easy-going, affable, force to be reckoned with. We swapped stories about beaver battles, massachusetts law, and flow devices. He had met Sherri and Ted Guzzi of the Sierra wildlife coalition the night before and had made good contacts at the conference.

He talked a little about his ideas for adapting flow devices to make fish passage in very low flow easier. We discussed one way gates and counters that will track the number of fish that use them. The social science side of my brain forced me to suggest that his study should include a control group so that the fish that make it over a flow device with no modifications could be counted too, and he thought that was a good idea.

And now, sitting on this side of the meeting, I notice I am wistful, and feeling like I came to the end of some chapter in my life. Mike was the first glimmer of support that I looked to for our beavers, though he certainly wasn’t the last. The story of the Martinez beavers and the teaching role they had on other communities will continue in ways I can’t even imagine today, but this part of the story is completed. The circle that I never dreamed of starting, that caused me to work harder than I ever had and do things I never had never attempted before, that took me places I could never even dream, that part of the circle has been closed.

Brace yourselves….

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's Killing Beavers Now? February 2, 2013

Orrington sues landowners over beaver dam failure that damaged roadway

10009961_H9760697-600x400[1] — The remains of a beaver dam near Swetts Pond Road in Orrington. The dam broke in March, causing flooding along the road. Buy Photo

This was the worst beaver news I ever reported on, and will remain the cautionary tale for the ages. The unfortunate land owner wanted to keep his beavers, and the dam washed out causing massive road damage a decade ago. The city asked the landowner to eliminate the beavers, but the land owner refused and hired someone to install a flow device. (Last year David Wilkins posted on the beaver management forum that Skip had been saddled with the job). But hard Maine winters had rusted out the filter, the landowner didn’t notice, and the beavers had plugged the pipe again causing the pond to get bigger and bigger. This apparently escalated until last year there was another washout.

Can you guess what happens next? Now the city is suing for damages because ‘they told the landowner to get rid of those beavers and he didn’t comply”.

The town also is claiming the Pelletiers agreed to fix the problem after the 2001 flooding and filed an additional claim on Dec. 13.

“The additional count alleges that the Pelletier defendants agreed to the installation, maintenance and monitoring of certain equipment designed to reduce or eliminate the hazard of a subsequent breach,” the motion to amend complaint states.

A device called a “beaver deceiver,” which resembles a culvert and is designed to control the water level, was installed after the flooding a decade ago, but over the years the beavers filled the device with sticks and it eventually failed, the town manager has said.

“We watched the deceiver start to fail and watched the water start to get higher,” Pelletier told selectmen shortly after the breach last year.

Ugh. Things don’t look good for our heroes. But if I was their attorney I’d demand to see records of all the phone calls or emails the city sent to the landowner saying the pond was getting bigger. And if I were Mike or Skip I’d be drafting a ‘flow device installation‘ informed consent statement right about that I had every future landowner sign. It would say in big red letters “I have been informed that flow devices require yearly inspection to assure successful operation. Extreme weather conditions may make more frequent inspection necessary.” There would be a little space for their initials and signature. And I would keep it on file for just this sort of occasion. Sigh.

Did I mention I hate this story? And hate, hate, hate the chilling effect it will have on the installation of flow devices for years to come? For once I’m glad that more folks don’t read this website. Nothing to see here, move along.

No word yet on when all those lawsuits will come for the devastated fish populations caused by too few beaver dams. You think I exaggerate?

Saving Descendents?

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions February 1, 2013

Looks like two neighboring beaver colonies will have flow devices installed to mitigate their ponding behavior. One on city land and one on private land. Since they are fairly close (as the beaver swims) I’d like to imagine they’re some of the seven yearlings we sent safely off into the world in the last 5 years, spreading beaver goodness along the Carquinez strait from Martinez. Only DNA testing would tell us for sure, but even if they’re not related, we know that their safety is directly related to the highly visible success of the home town of John Muir.

Back when our beavers were in danger, there were two pages about flow devices on the entire internet. One yellow information sheet from Beavers Wetlands and Wildlife, and one fact sheet on limitors from the Haw River Assembly in North Carolina. Now if you google flow devices, the entry on Wikipedia is the first thing to come up. It was written by our friend Rick and featuring photos from Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions.

Good fortune means that Michael Callahan will be in the area to arrange at least one sight inspection, maybe two, on his way to meet the good folks of Worth A Dam and tour our beaver ponds. Hopefully we’ll even see one of our elusive beavers, though in winter nothing is predictable.