All Roads Lead to Rome….

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions October 2, 2012

Way back when I was just starting to worry about saving our beavers (during the Punic Wars) there was available, on the entirity of the internet(s) three websites on solving beaver problems. One of them was the very helpful Beaver Solutions website, the purveyor of which I made sure to pester for a great deal for advice. Another was a short section on beavers from the Haw River Assembly in North Carolina, which talked about Michael Leclair and Limitors. And the third was the very informative, but somewhat unweildy website for Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife, which at that time looked like this (only pale yellow like a really good book that was written a long time ago but you just couldn’t do without).

BWW is the legacy of Dorothy Richards, who did remarkable work for beavers and inspired countless disciples, two of which were Owen and Sharon Brown who became the descendants of her effort and now do the teaching, land care, advocacy and writing which her legacy requires. You can review their role by listening to my interview with Sharon here. Back in the day I must have stared at that website a million times, remembering names and faces and looking for clues about what to do in our city. I called them in the early days, and I know they fielded other inquiries from other Martinez-ites as well. They included the Martinez Beaver story several times in their newsletter, and brought us fans from around the world (including one loyal beaver advocate from New Zealand). When Mom died and I was terrified about the fate of our three kits, I called Sharon who was most helpful and assured me they were old enough to make it without her.

Suffice it to say that Sharon and Owen are as close to ‘royalty’ as any beaver people ever get to be. They are the first folks contacted for a quote when the New York Times or the Smithsonian runs an article. And their newsletter is read across the world. In 2010 they updated their yellowed website into a swanky new colorful platform with permanent features that outline beaver benefits and solutions and a ticker column for latest news. Information is clear and easy to locate.Beaver answers have never been simpler to find. (Heck, some wild observers have even commented that there is a strange familiarity in layout – but that’s just crazy talk.) The truly important fact is that now their newly attired information reaches even more people and teaches more solutions.

All of which preceeds the very exciting introduction that Sharon and Owen are coming to California for a vacation next week, and are making the customary pilgrimage to “you-know-where” to see our beavers. Worth A Dam and friends will meet them for dinner and a beaver viewing, and we expect the evening to be a truly beavery delight. I can’t wait!

I just have to pause to crow about the way that beaver fame seems to attract important characters to our fair city. Hmm lets review the list of those who’ve come already:

Skip Lisle Beaver Deceivers Int’l (Vermont)
Michael Pollock NOAA Fisheries (Washington)
Amanda Parish & Joe Cannon The Lands Council (Washington)
Leonard and Lois Houston of the Beaver Advocacy Committee (Oregon)
Mary O’brien Grand Canyon Trust (Utah)
Ian Timothy and his parents Beaver Creek Film Series (Kentucky)
Sharon and Owen Brown Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife (New York)

Not bad for a small town! We’ll make sure to take pictures and tell you all about the visit. Rumor is they’re also going to Yosemite and plan a visit to meet our beaver-saving cousins in the Sierras, so it should be a very full vacation!

Oh and speaking of Ian Timothy, HSUS sent a helper out recently and they worked on protecting the trees at Draught Park. Here’s a photo of the pair had at work.

Future Wildlife Technicians of Palo Alto?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions October 1, 2012

This arrived as one of an envelope full of thank you notes from the school of gifted children we toured and taught last week. Obviously the design of the Castor Master (and additional rhyme!) appealed, which means a bus full of 7 year olds already know more than most city managers and council members in the nation.

Makes sense to me.

Where Credit’s Due…

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, History September 30, 2012

Remember how I wrote about the McLeod Report last sunday? Well, he decided to write about us in return! Check out the Martinez beaver story being discussed in Canada:

Even if we don’t, someone likes the beaver

Londoners owe the beaver much more than a bit of space along some neglected creek. This industrious rodent is a good part of the reason there’s a country called Canada here at all. Which makes it all the more shameful that the city which really knows how to pay homage to the beaver isn’t even in Canada; it’s in California.

Martinez, a community of 36,000, is just east of San Francisco. According to a Wikipedia entry, in 2007 a group of beavers settled in a section of Alhambra Creek that flows through the city and built a six-foot-high dam. Worried the dam created flood hazard, city officials proposed moving the group. Instead a committee was formed to consider alternatives.

The end result was installation of a flow device that could reduce the level of water behind the dam and mitigate the flood risk.

And then, well, they became a huge tourist attraction. Their engineering has transformed Alhambra Creek, attracting steelhead trout, river otters and mink. The Martinez beavers also have a website where, would you believe it, news about the fight faced by London’s beavers was top news on Sunday.

Wow that story sounds familiar! (Although it reads a little nicer than the dog fight I remember). I was surprised to come upon this article but happy that our happy ending was nudging the story in London. Not to mention that thousands of Canadians had to read the words FLOW DEVICES several times!

That should be enough good news for us on a sunday, but I’m very spoiled and I received more this morning. Our Wikipedia editing friend Rick Lanman received his copy of the spring issue of Fish and Game journal yesterday, and we are officially publiished: California Fish and Game 98(2) 65-80 2012

Let the official re-education of every ranger and warden for Fish and Game and California State Parks begin!

Ominous Politician (Hinkity Pinkity)

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports September 5, 2012

“Sinister Minister”

Ottawa has moved into the lurking stage of beaver management, and defenders of the Paul Lindsay Park Beavers are on the lookout for dastardly deeds. You will remember two adult beavers thoughtlessly moved into a storm water pond and decided to start a family. A panicked city ripped out the lodge that protected the family and the mother and kits have been exposed for several months. The father disappeared, possibly slain or looking for potential habitat in drought-stricken Ottawa and then hit by a car. A potential safe place at a nature reserve was proposed for relocation but this was denied by the local authorities as being ‘out of their jurisdiction’. Apparently there has been a official-looking white- haired stranger at the pond, and Anita has been told they are planning a imminent and clandestine relocation.

Stittsville beaver defenders brace for new fight

OTTAWA — The city is trying for a second year in a row to evict beavers from a Stittsville stormwater pond in a move that would send them to almost certain death, the rodents’ defenders say.

Life has not been good for the furry refugees in the Paul Lindsay Park pond. The city only backed off a plan to trap them last fall after their human defenders warned that “conibear” traps meant to kill the beavers relatively humanely might end up drowning them instead, or could inadvertently catch family pets. Officials were supposed to come up with a broader wildlife strategy before moving in on the beavers again, but that’s still in development.

Now beaver defenders are on the watch and trying to keep an eye on the pond in case there’s a sneak attack. They are hoping to make tshirts to identify themselves and approached us for images. We of course directed them to some fine options and will give them anything they need!

The concern for the beavers’ future is sparked by residents who’ve seen a stranger poking around the pond and asking about the beavers, according to a news release from several wildlife organizations like DuBreuil’s. Anita Utas, a vocal advocate for the beavers, said she’s heard from Christine Hartig of the city’s bylaw department (best known for her years caring for the city’s flock of Royal Swans) that the plan is to move the beavers to somewhere else “local.” There’s a sanctuary west of Algonquin Park that could probably take them safely, DuBreuil said, but that’s likely not what the city has in mind.

I remember what it was like to watch the dams anxiously for city interference and I have nothing but respect for the Ottawa defenders. Lets hope all this sunlight makes the city uncomfortable enough to do the right thing, and bring in someone who knows what they’re doing and knows what it means to move beavers without a lodge a month before winter into a strange location. In the mean time, good luck with your vigil! And keep us posted on the tshirt efforts!

Sharon Brown of Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife send this photo of husband Owen at Lily’s pond from their recent visit to Ottawa.

Cue louder drumbeat…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions August 28, 2012

Courtesy photo) A young beaver feeds after being released near a stream on the Dixie National Forest in May. The Garfield County Commission is telling state biologists not to plant the animals there as part of the state's beaver recovery plan.

Southern Utah officials nix beaver transplants

Garfield County questions motives of program, tells state to take rodents elsewhere.

Beavers may be good for the land and water, but one southern Utah county is saying “thanks but no thanks” to the state’s offer of web-footed transplants.

Garfield County, stretching from Panguitch past Boulder and including the lush streams on Boulder Mountain and the Aquarius Plateau, is historic al beaver country and therefore a target area for the state’s beaver recovery plan. Environmentalists had high hopes for naturally restoring wetlands there, but this month the Garfield County Commission told state biologists to take their rodents elsewhere.

Wow, the Salt Lake Tribune is doing an excellent job on the ‘slow bleed’ of this story. First we had two gentle op-eds on the topic and now we have a fantastic hard cover of the issue from Brandon Loomis, who isn’t afraid to go into detail about the fact that they are saying ‘no’ to beavers because they are environmentalist-phobic.

It’s not that they dislike beavers, commissioners say. They’re just suspicious of the motives.

“We’re not against the beaver,” Commission Chairman Clare Ramsay said, “but we’ve been down that road before on a lot of different issues over the years. We know that it might become a tool for the environmental community to use against cattle.”

Thanks for clearing that up for us Clare. “I’m not worried about beavers, its people we can’t trust!” Hey, could that be the next bumper-sticker for Utah? Hmm, there might be copy right issues though, it reminds me a little bit of this

I don’t know why a county would choose to broadcast its paranoia in the press so vociferously, but they certainly did a number on themselves with this decision. The article even reviews the financial benefit of beavers put together in the economic report commissioned by the Grand Canyon Trust. And just in case the reader still wasn’t sure who the ‘white hats’ are in the article it ends with this flourish

State biologists will honor the county’s request but seek to reopen talks later in hopes of gaining permission to stock beavers in some high-elevation streams, where they can’t damage irrigation canals or other structures, said Bruce Bonebrake, southern Utah regional supervisor for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

“We’d very much like to transplant them there,” Bonebrake said. “They’re great riparian managers. You really can’t get a species that does better management as far as wildlife habitat and sediment control.”

I would say the press is playing for the beaver team and you can set a timer to see how long the commissioners are able to hold out against them. It’s obvious which side has done its homework in this debate. Congratulations! Even the comments to the article are mostly pro-beaver. Take this one for example from an ex-trapper Jim Bridger:

I did more than my share to exterminate beavers in these here parts. Now I repent! I’ve come to see that what I did was wrong. I won’t trap another beaver ever again, or a mink, bear, bobcat, coyote or wolf. And I will help return beavers to their historic homes. Now if an old curmudgeon like me can learn something new and change his ideas and his ways, why can’t those darned cow boys? Maybe I’ll take to trapping and relocating them to Antarctica.

Good work Mary O’Brien!

Reformed trappers interested in relocation! Fatted calf time! But no hamburgers for the commissioners unless they admit that they are scared of the wrong things and agree to come back to the table.