Category: Environmental

News of the environment or beavers impact on their ecology

Send Review Copy Here, please.

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Fire Prevention, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? October 6, 2017

I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about this new text book, which was slated for release in August of this year. Dr. Carol Johnston is the professor from South Dakota who recently used those historic maps from Morgan to show that beavers build in the same areas for 150 years. The book looks very interesting. Minnesota Ag just reviewed their copy but where is mine?

Beavers Shape Northern Minnesota Ecosystem.

Beavers have probably been more influential than humans in altering the Kabetogama Peninsula ecosystem in northern Minnesota, writes South Dakota State University Professor Carol Johnston. She examined how beavers have impacted the peninsula which is home to Voyageurs National Park near International Falls, Minn., in her newly released book, “Beavers: Boreal Ecosystem Engineers.”

“This book is about a place and the science of how beavers shaped it,” said Johnston, who has been conducting research on beavers for 30 years. She wrote eight of the book’s 10 chapters based on her National Science Foundation-funded beaver research.

The text book is listed as a pricey 137.00 at Amazon, but shows the following drool-worthy pages of contents. It takes a second to load but trust me it’s worth it. There isn’t a single chapter I’m not eager to read. It’s maddening to think of all the text books I shelled out major cash for and never really read more than I needed to, (or frankly, even that) and this one that is sooo delightful-looking now that I’m not a student!

Beavers_Boreal-Ecosystem-Engineers_Table-of-Contents

“Changing the watershed one stick at a time.”

heidi08 Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? October 5, 2017

The Methow Beaver Project is an enormously successful beaver reintroduction project in the Northwest of Washington. It was the brain child of beaver friend Dr. Kent Woodruff of the USFS and has literally convinced thousands of people to think differently about beaver benefits. They asked me yesterday if I would share this for their fundraiser and I said I’d be happy to. All beaver defenders owe a tremendous amount to Methow who were the first to learn how reintroduction could be successful on a larger scale and have advanced understandingin pairing beavers successfully and getting them to stay put in their new home so they can start changing the landscape. Kent also provided the lovely quote for our newsletter you see at the right. (Because beaver people stick together – get it?)

The Methow Beaver Project has been working to relocate beavers in the Methow Valley for the past decade as a natural way to restore riparian habitat and address climate change. Although we are affiliated with numerous agencies we are independent and totally grant supported by individual contributors like you and private foundations. Your support during the Give Methow campaign will enable the Methow Beaver Project to continue our restoration efforts to the benefit of flora, fauna, fish, and you. We’ll be using your donation to purchase beaver food, educational and outreach materials, volunteer training materials, and to support our ongoing scientific investigations.

Give Methow

The Give Methow campaign, put on by the Community Foundation of North Central Washington, makes every cent of your donation go to your favorite organization (they cover the CC fees) and based on the amount each organization raises, additional funds from their “stretch pool” is allotted. Finally, every Monday someone who donates will be drawn and receive $500 to go to the Methow group of their choosing.

Meanwhile we’re getting ready for Saturday’s Wild Birds Unlimited event in pleasant hill. I thought I might as well start promoting our new and improved beaver festival so I put this together. What do you think?

“Beaverland”

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? November 12, 2017

Taos is a historic and artist mecca in the upper middle of New Mexico. With an elevation of nearly 7000 feet, you will definitely feel the visit all the way down to your lungs. There’s plenty to keep you busy whether your hiking, painting or meditating. But save some free time tomorrow evening because Ben Goldfarb will be talking at the Harwood Museum about beavers and his new book.

Talk targets beavers and ecosystems

Environmental writer Ben Goldfarb will spend his October residency at the Aldo & Estella Leopold Cabin putting the final touches on a manuscript about the importance of beavers in restoring ecosystems.

Goldfarb holds a master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies – the same school that Aldo Leopold attended and was among its first graduates. And the Leopold Cabin sits across the valley from the historic seat of the beaver pelt trade in the early 1800s at Taos Pueblo.

“I can’t think of a better venue at which to complete my present project, ‘Song of the Dammed,’ a book about the ecological and hydrological benefits of North American beaver restoration,” said Goldfarb, who spent last summer surveying ranchers, scientists and public land managers about beaver restoration. “Northern New Mexico plays in integral part of the story I want to tell. And I’m happy to be invited to U.S. Forest Service property, as that is an agency that gets the importance of beavers the most.”

Ooh that’s so exciting! I wrote Ben yesterday to see if someone will be filming or taping the talk so the poor souls not in Taos could see it. He said he wasn’t sure and corrected that the books title is now “Beaverland”.

Goldfarb will present elements of his book, including a history of beavers in North America, the ways beavers influence restoration, and several case studies that support his findings at a presentation planned Wednesday (Oct. 4), 7 p.m., at the Harwood Museum of Art, 238 Ledoux Street in Taos. The presentation is free and open to the public.

The Aldo and Estella Leopold Residency began in 2012 as “an inspiring retreat for writers to reflect and create in the home where Aldo and Estella Leopold first lived as newlyweds from 1911-12,” a press release states. “Now in its 6th year, the Leopold Writing Program selects one to two writers for one-month-long residencies, depending upon funding. Participants receive a $500 stipend to help defray travel and living expenses. In exchange, residents give a public presentation of their work in Taos.”

Past residents include Courtney White, John Hausdoerffer, Bonnie Harper-Lore, Leanna Torres, Gavin Van Horn, Tovar Cerulli, Priscilla Solis Ybarra, Andrew Gulliford, Maya Kapoor, Andrea Clearfield, and Ariana Kramer.

Could Ben be in better company than the spirit of these great writers? I don’t think so. He asked me what I thought of “Beaverland” as a title and I said it was nice maybe kind of similar to “Beaver World” and Enos Mills territory? My personal inclination would be more to something about the way they are an extremely unappreciated resource that gets ignored. Like “Untapped” or “Unsung” or more specifically focused as to their function, “Water-Savers”.

I also tossed out the notion I had been toying about thinking of beavers as “Stream-catchers” (playing off the idea of dream catchers being the Ojibwe belief of the woven hoop you place near the infants crib to keep out the bad dreams) Maybe the beaver dam itself is the web? Keeping out flooding and drought, and the stream that it brings are the ‘good dreams’ vibrant with fish and full of life?

Ben liked that idea and thought it might become a chapter, so we’ll see what happens. In the mean time I’m excited that beavers get a book and Ben gets to talk about it tomorrow night.

Unhealthy Medicine Hat

heidi08 Beaver Chewing, Environmental, stupid solutions, Who's Killing Beavers Now? October 2, 2017

Here at beaver central we don’t ask for much. A little appreciation for the ecosystem engineers and a little creativity by officials who encounter problems. Medicine Hat comes almost close to meeting our very reasonable demands. Solve problems FIRST before you kill beavers, is that so difficult?

Parks and rec tackles beaver issue

Beavers are felling large trees in several areas of the city this year, and Medicine Hat Parks and Recreation staff are now actively engaged in a trapping program to prevent more damage, says David Genio, superintendent of parks maintenance at Medicine Hat parks and recreation.

“In some places we have had to use these control measures but we only use them as a last-resort option,” states Genio. “What parks and recreation normally does is try to protect the trees before it gets to a control-type of situation.

“We try to make them less appealing to the beavers. We are going out and actually putting metal wire around the trees to deter the beavers. And then anytime we plant new trees in the river valley, we attempt to plant less desirable trees for beavers, such as evergreens, oak, elm and ash, to reduce the beaver activity in that area.

“When there is significant damage like we are seeing now, once all other options to prevent this damage have been exhausted, then we will proceed with permissible control methods for beavers as outlined in the Wildlife Act.”

I’m really torn about this strategy. I certainly like when parks departments say trapping beavers is a “last resort”. And I like when they say they protect trees with wire instead of trapping. But I’m not really happy about planting new kinds of trees beavers won’t like. Oak and Elm won’t be very hardy when waters rise which obviously will happen. And why, oh why, are you “trying” to protect trees with wire? Why isn’t it succeeding?

Either the beavers of Alberta have learned how to use wire cutters or you’re doing it WRONG.

According to Genio, most of the beaver damage to date has occurred in the Harlow area, the Northwest Riverside trail area and around Strathcona Island and Lions Park. Genio says he hasn’t heard any reports of significant structural damage or personal injury as a result of the heightened beaver activity. He also says some beaver activity is normal and expected in the river valley area, but this year the beaver population has boomed, leading to the destruction seen in some areas of the city.

“Medicine Hat is an inviting destination for beavers with the South Saskatchewan River and its tributaries,” confirms Genio. “We have seen some more beaver activity this year than in recent years. It’s a very delicate balance between saving our urban forest and considering the well-being of the beavers.”

Okay that officially bugs me. No one is asking for you to “consider the well being of the beavers”, you condescending little pratt. What we’re asking you to do is weigh the considerable value that beavers add to your watershed and biodiversity and make reasonable responsible adjustments when you can. Not pretend you tried and it didn’t work just to pacify the protestors. Back in 2014 some very smart beaver advocates scared the spit out of Mr. Genio and he has learned to sound like he’s doing the right things. I would call this a necessary, but not sufficient step.

Apparently MH learned to wrap trees just enough to protect themselves from protestors. They still have zero idea how to keep beavers out.

Anyway, you’re going to plant trees that beavers don’t like so they stay away? You do realize that medicine Hat is surrounded by a long beaver highway, right? You are ALWAYS going to have them passing through.

Even if you surround your parks with only cactus.

Martinez Remembers

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beavers, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, History, In the News, Who's saving beavers now? October 1, 2017

original dam 2007 — Original Martinez Beaver Dam 2007

Am I supposed to believe it’s October? The weather certainly does because we had soup last night and were actually cold on the back deck. But I seem to remember the beaver festival happened what seems like a minute ago. Good lord. With moving the next one to the end of June that leaves only 9 months until it all happens again. Whose crazy idea was that?

Meanwhile, I’m working hard on my upcoming webinar for Fur Bearer Defenders. The technology requires that I must use a simple PPT with no video so that means I have to put everything together from scratch. In doing so I came across a few wonderful photos I thought I’d share. They were stored in an archaic segment of the website I didn’t even know existed, so it’s wonderful to see them again. Above is our original dam, shot looking upstream from the Marina Vista Bridge in January 2007 – before the flow device, before the controversy and before kits were ever born.

city installing — City helping Skip Lisle Install the flow device – 1-2008

I also found this nice one from when public works decided to be helpful and assist in the beaver pipe installation. I had to work that day so I have no idea who this photo belongs to. And all these were stored for safe keeping on a computer that as it happened became very unsafe so they were lost to the ages. Apparently the website used to load things to something called Apache?

skip installing lg — Skip Lisle removes dam to install flow device

I’m sure the fluttering pulses of Martinez secretaries are very happy that I found this one. It shows Skip hard at work. I believe the appreciative fans at the Gazette took a million photos of these warmer shirtless moments, such that I was privately told later that the gay editor suggested that Skip should do a calendar. But those photos too were all lost on the photographers hard drive explosion so they are gone forever. Thanks to “Apache” and the printed version, a sample remains.

Quite a walk through memory lane isn’t it? Usually when I present video I have some nice shots of beavers doing their thing around admiring humans, so I was looking for something like that among my stills. I found this wonderful photo from Suzi Eszterhas which for some reason I hadn’t seen before. I know the faces are cute, but look to the left and see what they’re watching below the dam. Can you believe how lucky Martinez used to be?