Category: Earth Day

Just in time for Earth day!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Earth Day, Educational, Environmental April 18, 2013

I’m not talking about John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Howard Zanhiser or Teddy Roosevelt. The greatest conservationist is the beaver (Castor canadensis), the largest rodent in North America.

Nice column from Paul Andersen of the Aspen Times. I am always thrilled when new believers preach the beaver gospel. Do you think he’s a friend of Sherri Tippie? Or do you think he’s just enormously observant?

Ethically, we owe the beaver his due as a co-inhabitant. Practically, we need the beaver to restore river systems and retain storage. This is particularly critical as climate change and weather modification threaten streamflows and all the life that depends on healthy rivers.

As for the efficacy of the beaver as an engineer, there is nothing like it. Its dams are resilient, its lodges are impregnable, and its uncanny phonetic trigger to the sound of running water keeps it perpetually motivated to plug holes and slow the flow.

He goes on to cite wikipedia about Glynnis’ Alberta study and the importance of beavers to water storage. Honestly, I could make a cup of tea and sit and read this column all day. Preferably with a class photo of all our beaver friends he’s quoting. Obviously he’s been influenced by own own wikipedia Rick!

Regarded as a “keystone” species, beavers are known to increase biodiversity by forming wetlands and riparian habitats, which are the foundation of most other ecosystems.

Even their gnawing of trees has been linked to riparian health as more diverse and healthier foliage replaces woods and shrubs cut by beavers. Here is the ultimate, renewable, sustainable life cycle.

I like Patrick’s idea of low dams. I would like it even better if we let the beavers build them.

Great work Paul! You obviously know beavers are Worth A Dam. Don’t hesitate to look us up if you need anything in the futher! Oh, and one more thing:

“The greatest conservationist is the beaver (Castor canadensis), the largest rodent in North America.”

You do realize your quoting here, right? Check out the title of the last chapter of Enos Mills “In beaver World”. It was published 100 years ago and may have something to say on the subject. If you’ve never read it I would suggest you check it out!

It never rains, but it pours!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Dispersal, Earth Day, Festival March 27, 2013

Do you remember being a kid and running home so excited to tell a story that you could barely find the breath to carry your announcement? Maybe you wanted to get home before your brother so that you could tell it FIRST! This is how I feel this morning, but I will exercise a modicum of self control and tell you the most exciting news LAST because that’s the kind of girl I am.

Yesterday I received my April-June copy of Bay Nature and guess what I found on page 11? Very nice colors and eye-catching location. The undeniably first of its kind advertisement for a beaver festival they have ever had. Indeed, probably the first ad for a wildlife festival of any kind. Nice.

I know what you’re thinking. How can you possibly top that? Well, how about a positive beaver article from Texas? Yes, Texas.

Walls: Beavers have value in conservation

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, beavers were hunted extensively for the value of their pelts. By 1910, their populations became dramatically low in many parts of the United States. So low that strict regulation of their harvest was implemented. Their value as soil and water conservationists is well known by many educated land owners and sportsmen.

Mind you, its no High Country News or Canadian National Geographic, but its definitely note worthy from a state that is generally known for beaver badness. All good things have to start somewhere, and I hope we see more and more beaver ecology coming from the Lone Star State.

Which leads me to our third good news of the day, and the most exciting piece yet. First some context. Back in 2010 I was invited to speak about our beavers at the Santa Clara Creeks Coalition Conference, which was a delightful day that introduced me to some fantastic advocates. One of the folks who attended my talk and got excited about beavers was the executive director of the Guadalupe River Conservancy in San Jose. She introduced me to some folks who introduced me to some folks who got me invited to the California State Parks conference that year. She donated handsomely to us in 2011 and also really, really wanted to build a network of support for beavers in the Guadalupe, just in case she could get permission to introduce some down the road.

Um.

Guess what was just spotted beside the river near a certain aquatic-predator named team’s silicon valley stadium?

Oh and it looks like the world might be changing today.

Beavers and Willow and Wolves, oh my!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Earth Day, Educational, Environmental February 7, 2013

Yellowstone Wolves

Need Help From Beavers

To find out whether wolves could rescue the willows, Marshall and her colleagues charted willow growth at four sites in the northern range. At each site, the researchers fenced some plots to provide total protection from browsing elk and other animals. They also built dams—hauling in logs by helicopter—in streams near some plots to mimic the effect of beavers. Some plots were dammed and fenced; control plots were neither dammed nor fenced, making wild wolves their only possible protection from elk.

After 10 years, the fenced willows that weren’t close to dams, though they’d suffered no browsing at all, on average were far shorter than 2 meters, the team reports online today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. That’s the threshold height that makes willows tall enough to reproduce despite voracious elk. Unfenced willows along dammed streams didn’t make the threshold either. Only a combination of dams and fences provided the right conditions for the willows to grow to a self-sustaining height.

Another fine study shows [basically] that man cannot reinvent the wheel without beavers in the mix. Who would have thought? So wolves are important to the recovery of yellowstone but can’t do their magic unless beavers do theirs. Hmm. And pretend dams are interesting opportunities to carry logs by helicopter but beavers make the ones that really matter. Are you shocked?

If beavers need willows, willows also need beavers. Beaver dams help create mud flats where new willows can sprout; they also raise the water table, supplying more water to willow roots. When wolves vanished, the willows of the northern range faced a double whammy: too many elk, too few beaver. The result was a scarcity of the thick, lush willow patches needed for a healthy riparian zone.

Wait a minute. Maybe its not just wolves that need beavers to plant the trees that feed the elk that they harvest. Maybe its all of us! Didja think of that?

All agree, however, that beavers might help the willows and riparian zones make a comeback. But until willows are vigorous, beavers could starve. It’s hard to see a way out of this “chicken-and-egg” problem, Marshall says. Perhaps if Yellowstone got a very wet year, encouraging willow growth, combined with a year that saw a low level of elk browsing, beavers could establish a foothold in the small streams of the northern range, as they have in other parts of the park. “It’s feasible that it could happen on its own,” she says. “It’s just not likely in the next few years.”

I’ll tell you what. Instead of using those tax and grant dollars to carry logs and measure trees, why don’t you sponsor a pizza party for every boyscout in the state and involve them in planting stakes of willow as far along the waterline as you and the wolves can see. Then when the sprouts burst along the riverside beavers will settle in and have enough to eat and your problem will be solved.

Unexpected Wisdom

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Earth Day, Friends of Martinez Beavers February 6, 2013

Busy, Busy Beavers – Haddonfield Patch

Two beavers enjoying an early morning swim in Crows Woods in Haddonfield. Credit Vinny & Sal Calla

“They’ve raised the water level near Evans Pond by 18 inches,” Brees told the borough’s Board of Commissioners during a meeting Monday.

The solution: a 15-foot plastic tube to filter water past the dam and back into the pond. Materials cost about $700 and Summerville said it would make an ideal project for a local Eagle Scout. Jacobs said Tavistock is willing to pay for the materials in what he described as a win-win situation.

The Unexpected Wildlife Refuge began as the home of Cavit and Hope Buyukmihci of Beaversprite fame. It is now a licensed non-profit under the deft administration of Sarah Summerville who has been keeping a close eye on neighboring beavers in New Jersey. Case in point: The Tavistock Golf course described in this article.

In this instance, the exclusive club is Tavistock Country Club and the municipal entity it’s appealing to for help is the borough of Haddonfield. Greg Jacobs, the assistant superintendent at Tavistock, urged borough officials this week to help him take action to illeviate flooding on his 16th green because of water backing up from up to five dams the busy beavers have made since recently reappearing in the waterways near Haddonfield’s Crows Woods.

It’s nice to come across a beaver story that has a local advocate offering solutions and education already. We don’t need to worry about the beavers in Tavistock. Sarah’s got this one covered!

Summerville, an official from the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge, Home of the Beaver Defenders in Newfield, explained the system would bypass the dam that is closest to the golf course and not injure the beavers. She said state law prohibits relocating beavers and they can only be trapped if a municipality plans to euthanize them. She also stressed that beavers may appear to be a nuisance, but they actually play an important role in maintaining waterways.

Go Sarah!

Oh and just learned from facebook that our own Greta Mart who gave the beavers generous coverage at the Gazette was just accepted at the UCB graduate school of journalism, which also enrolled Richard Parks which used to give the beavers generous Coverage at the Gazette. Coincidence? David Ferry who wrote the beaver article for the Atlantic was also in the program. Just sayin’.

Two truths and a lie…

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Earth Day, Educational January 12, 2013

Did you ever play this game at a party or on a road trip? You say three inscrutable things about your life, like ‘I played bass in high school, My first paid job was as a peanut, and I never smoked marijuana’. And your companions have to spot the lie. It’s a fairly fun way to pass the time. (Word of advice – always think of the lie first, or your delivery will give the whole thing away.)

Well this morning we have two lovely things about beavers, and one that’s fairly dismal and packed with lies, so I’ll let you pick which one is which. The first comes with an email I received this morning from Bob and Jean of Canada who did a lovely photo essay on some beavers along the Oxtongue river in Algonquin park in Ontario. You will have to go check them out themselves because the photos don’t allow shares, but consider this an appetizer:

Promise me you’ll go look and maybe leave a BEAVERS RULE comment on the site?

More alarm from Montana Audubon Conservation Education Center. Seems the wire fencing they were forced to install (against their will when folks didn’t want them to kill beavers) hasn’t worked because those selfish beavers really, really want to eat. Oh and Apropos of nothing, the temperature today is -19.

Bucky beaver, friends gnaw down 50 trees near Billings

The large rodent stirred up a fuss in October by gnawing down about 50 trees surrounding ponds at the Audubon Conservation Education Center, south of Billings close to Riverfront Park.

It’s a popular natural area. There was talk of trapping and killing the beaver to save the trees, but that idea was rejected after a public outcry.

The trees were fenced off from the busy beaver, using heavy wire and posts pounded into the ground. That worked for some trees but not for others. Bucky has tunneled under fences to reach the trees and has gone over the top of other wires, or pulled them down. Bucky is a fairly big beaver. One estimate by the center’s staff put him at close to 80 pounds.

“I’ll tell you, they are tenacious,” said Darcie Vallant, Audubon Center director.

Very tenacious, Darcie. Almost as if they’re very lives depended on it!

Sigh.

And last but never least our own Bob Rust sends this photo of one small beaver taken last night around 10 at the location of the third dam, which has been getting a lot of attention lately. A lot of building with reeds too. Reed! Is that you? (In fact, more than the secondary, which could mean that we’ll have to swap the names soon!)