Category: Educational

Beavers from Space

Bob Kobres Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver ecological impact, Beaver News, Beavers, Citizen science, Educational, Festival, Video April 5, 2023

Become a dam detective by searching satellite imagery for signs of beavers on the landscape!

Beavers from Space launched April 4th on the Zooniverse. The citizens science project uses satellite imagery to uncover beaver habitat in Canada. Read on below to learn more about how you can help out.

Beavers from Space

Become a dam detective by searching satellite imagery for signs of beavers on the landscape!

Despite the cultural and ecological importance of ksisskstaki (beaver) little is known about their presence in Alberta’s streams and rivers. By searching through satellite imagery for beaver dams and lodges in the waterways of the Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe) in southern Alberta, Beavers from Space seeks to determine where beavers are present on the landscape and where they are not. Volunteers will search through imagery of over 7,000 kilometres (4,300 miles) of streams within the study area, a task that would be overwhelming and expensive to undertake with field work alone. This information, in combination with field work data, will inform riparian (river ecosystem) restoration locations, which may include the installation of beaver dam analogues. Beaver dam analogues are a proven riparian restoration technique that improves watershed health and function by mimicking the work of beavers.

The project team includes the Miistakis Institute, Blood Tribe Land Management, and Cows and Fish – Alberta Riparian Habitat Management Society.

Become a dam detective today – visit: www.zooniverse.org/projects/ab-beavers/beavers-from-space

. . .

Our study area is focused on the 3 watersheds (outlined in black below) that the Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe) reservation and timber limit are located in (outlined in red below). Generally, this area stretches west from Lethbridge, Alberta, to the British Columbia border, and includes Waterton Lakes National Park. The study area is just north of the Canadian-American border in the State of Montana.

By reviewing satellite imagery for beaver dams, you can help us understand where beavers are present in our watershed or where beaver-mediated restoration could occur where beavers are absent. We anticipate a relatively low density of beavers on this landscape, which is why we need your help to search every stream in the study area.

Dam neat project if you ask me! Click this link for a lot more information.
There was a bit of news from The First Annual SLO County Beaver Festival. It went well with around a thousand attendees over the day. A good time was had by all and especially the kids who got to build dams out of mud and sticks! There is also a fun video of Cooper Lienhart joining The Loving Mosh to sing Go Little Beaver Go at the Festival on April 1st, 2023.

Oh! One more thing. The Cambridge Filmworks people got rid of the darn nutria photo that I told them about! They found an image of a handsome European cousin to head the article like I hoped they would. Yeah!

Bob

Learning from Beaver

Bob Kobres Attitudes towards beavers, Beavers, Educational, Environmental, History March 20, 2023

Introduction to Ecology: Draw a Beaver Pond Inquiry **Activity + STEM project**

LOCAL COLUMN: Beavers are the original stormwater engineers

By Joe Carter, DVM | For The Transcript

Are you looking for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education, storm water management and a role model?

I offer you the beaver!

Within sight of the lights of Owen Field lies a beaver’s dam. What a learning opportunity for Norman’s children.

You want more engineers? I can’t think of a better teacher than a beaver. They are one of the smartest animals we know. Construction management is no problem for them. They are the original “design and build” construction company.

You want a role model?

Beavers mate for life and are fiercely loyal to their families along with being very protective. “Tail slapping” against the water’s surface is an indication to their family that danger is approaching.

You want a hard worker?

“Busy as a beaver” as the old saying goes. A harder worker hasn’t been made. They start early and finish late.

A grand park along the Canadian River with a nature center and an outdoor classroom would give students a unique learning environment.

So how does a beaver build a dam?

Phase 1: They drop trees in a stream resulting in the water slowing down.

Phase 2: Then they gather branches, sticks and rocks in their mouths and swim out to the felled trees. Using their front paws, they start plugging holes constructing a dam that slows the flow of the stream. It creates a pond behind the dam.

They build their houses, called lodges, in the water. The dams create ponds that slow the water down (this is the central theme of todays column #payattention) so it doesn’t wash away their house. Good idea, eager beaver.

Here’s another good idea of the beaver. They build their lodges with underwater entrances. Predators have a tougher time getting to them this way i.e., they have to hold their breath and swim underwater. There aren’t many beaver predators that are snorkelers. I can only think of one. Us!

Beavers are always thinking ahead.

They manipulate their environment in order to survive. Again, very cleaver eager beaver.

Beavers love willow branches and will store them at the bottom of their pond for winter eating. Beavers don’t want to venture far in the winter to gather food since they are targets for all those hungry predators.

Beavers are herbivores, meaning they only eat plants.

Beavers are the original stormwater engineers. Shawn O’Leary, Norman’s public works director, gave a lecture once about stormwater. He said, “the number one principle to remember about stormwater/rain runoff management is — SLOW IT DOWN.” Fast water erodes the land, floods our streets and muddies our drinking water.

Beavers were designed for stormwater management. They are nature’s stormwater mitigator. Beaver dams are like speed bumps in creeks. They improve water quality by allowing pollutants to settle purifying dirty runoff water.

Beaver ponds also lessen the damage from droughts. They hold water for thirsty animals to drink. They are a natural filtration system, slowing down the water as it moves down stream.

Beaver dams create wetlands that are critical habitats for thousands of other species of animals. Birds, amphibians, fish and aquatic insects all benefit from the hard-working beaver.

Read the whole piece.

Some more building history:

LaVO: Historic dam builders on the comeback trail

Carl LaVO Special to Bucks County Courier Times

My youngest sister, Deb, and I were hiking remote trails in the Dolly Sods region of West Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains when we happened upon something we’d never seen before. A massive wooden dam the length of a football field and intricately laced with twigs and small logs. It was so sturdy we explored it. It was the work of nature’s busiest mammals. Beavers.

Nature’s engineers are no strangers to Bucks County. They helped define its early history until hunted to extinction. Lenape Indians named streams for them — “amochkhannes”. That’s “amoch” for beaver and “khannes” for creeks. Tongue-tangled English settlers figured out the meaning. “Oh, beaver . . . beaver creek!” they declared. The translation endured for the longest at 11 miles in Nockamixon and Tinicum townships.

Amochkhannes were just about everywhere. On tributaries draining the Great Swamp below Quakertown, the plateau between Ottsville and the Delaware River in Upper Bucks and lowland streams of Central and Lower Bucks. Beaver ponds provided drinking water for livestock, places to fish and a natural means of flood control. It seemed the perfect symbiosis between humans and beavers. What’s more, the critters love working the dreadful night shift.

By the 1700s, a beaver holocaust was underway. European tailors couldn’t keep up with demand for the soft, furry pelts to make top hats and felt-trimmed haute couture.

Photo taken in 1886 of beaver fur top hats in North Dakota (public domain)

Discovery of “castoreum” from beaver sex glands also became a key ingredient in perfume.

An 1811 beaver derived French perfume (public domain)

When the source of beavers dried up in Russia, furriers turned to an endless supply in North America. Indians and immigrant trappers raced to feed the market. Slaughter of beavers was relentless.

Hunters earned $4 a pelt. In today’s currency, that would be $80. A hunter could earn $4,000 for the typical 50-pelt haul.

Uncontrolled harvesting exterminated beavers from Pennsylvania and most Eastern states. A miracle saved those left in North America when beaver fur fell out of fashion. The hunts subsided. The hunts subsided. By the 20th century, citizens began realizing the animals’ environmental benefits. “Today this aquatic fur bearer is back,” declared the Pennsylvania Game Commission last year.

I’d say “Hurray! The best dam engineers are back! Don’t damn them for their fur ever again!”

Read the whole piece.

Bob

JEN VANDERHOOF: UNCOMMON SENSE ABOUT BEAVERS

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Educational February 28, 2022

The only beaver news today is that the stupid article from HCN ran on Wired and Verve so that everyone can have the chance to blame beavers for climate change. Nice. People often feel so helpless to stop it but just about anyone can kill a beaver, so that must offer hope to the situation.

Grr.

All is not lost though, because this excellent talk by Jen Vanderhoof, senior ecologist of Kings County and president of Beavers Northwest just appeared on and it’s a wondeful walk through beaver wonders with a true expert. If you have an extra ten minutes I would stay to hear the questions from the audience. It’s Washington and they are already SO SMART and ecologically savvy. I know you will enjoy this. She also says she is working on a beaver handbook which will come out this summer. Stay tuned!

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BEAVERS AS “SUPER-RESTORERS”

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and climate change, Educational November 22, 2021

Now this is the kind of article that doesn’t come along every day. It’s written about England but is really talking to every single community that unexpectedly rediscovers beavers in their midst. Not to be way more self-focused than usual, but it could have been written each word for magical word about Martinez. But I guess you knew that, right?

Potential psychological benefits of nature enrichment through the reintroduction of the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) to Britain: A narrative literature review

(Okay replace the word “reintroduction” with the word “discovery” and replace castor fiber with castor canadensis and replace to Britain with to Martinez and you get the point.)

It starts by noting that biodiversity is decreasing in the UK (and everywhere else) and that people are feeling more and more stressed out and hopeless about the environment (in England and everywhere else) and that reintroducing beavers is a way to show that we CAN take action that makes things better on a grand scale.

Beavers could act as a ‘super restorer’, facilitating psychological as well as ecological restoration through a beneficial synergy of effects. Through their eco-engineering activities, beavers increase biodiversity at the landscape scale and facilitate habitat restoration and creation (creating a mosaic of green and blue space, and a sense of wilderness) all of which can increase the psychological well-being of visitors. (more…)

THIS IS HOW YOU SAVE BEAVERS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Educational, Urban beavers, Who's saving beavers now? August 16, 2021

Well. just because our Martinez beavers have left the stage, doesn’t mean there isn’t fine urban beaver work afoot. Check out this FANTASTIC story from Fairfield about the Laurel creek beavers, and their champion, Virgina Holsworth.

Scouts clean stretch of Laurel Creek, learn about beaver habitat

*Virginia Holsworth leads Boy Scouts Troop 482 on a tour of beaver habitats along Laurel Creek in Fairfield, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021. (Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic)*

FAIRFIELD — Dusk had settled onto Laurel Creek when the excitement level rose among the nine members of Scouts BSA Troop 482 who on Wednesday had walked and cleaned up a mile or so of the stream’s banks.

Popping a head out of the dark, breeze-rippled water, not far from its lodge, a beaver could be seen.

Moments earlier, a pair of whiskered river otters were spotted in the creek as well.

The appearance of the two aquatic mammals was the climax to the tour the scouts were guided on by Virginia Holsworth, who has made protecting the beavers and their self-constructed habitat on the creek one of her life’s missions.

Her Facebook page has more than 200 followers, and she maintains a website to provide information about Laurel Creek and other waterways in which beavers make their homes in the Fairfield area.

“It’s amazing. I really like beavers and otters,” said Taran Flowers, 11, the newest member of the troop, which is trying to rebuild after the Covid-19 pandemic prevented them from meeting in person and participating in their usual group activities.

Flowers sketched many of the dam sites along the creek. Art is just one of his many interests. Ultimately, he would like to be a baker.

I love every single thing about this story. Every photo, every adjective. As a woman who spent a decade wishing our story would replicate itself like an unfurling strand of bDNA this makes me as happy as I can remember being vicariously.

Virginia Holsworth, far left, leads Boy Scouts Troop 482 on a tour of beaver habitats along Laurel Creek in Fairfield, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021. (Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic)

“My mom was looking through stuff on the internet and she thought it might be a good thing to do,” the younger deRosier said.

He said he enjoys the outdoor activities that have been lost to scouting during the pandemic, and particularly camping, his favorite activity.

“And we are absolutely worried about the beavers,” he said.

While Holsworth spent most of the tour teaching about the beavers and the creek environment, she also told the troop members about how the city comes in each year and tears down the largest of the dams.

The city contends that the dams contribute to flooding issues, and materials from the structures, when they break up, have contributed to millions of dollars in damages to city infrastructure.

Holsworth said the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed her campaign for the city to use other alternatives than simply tearing down the dams, but she said she has stayed in touch with city officials, and specifically Councilman Chuck Timm.

Go Virginia GO. Tell those children AND THAT REPORTER all about how the city cuts down the dam year. And one of the kids was sketching the dams? Jesus get that drawing, scan it, send it to the mayor and make sure it airs on the evening news. This is all falling into place. Well done!

Trevor deRosier, left, and Logan Brooks, center, of Boy Scouts Troop 482 check a map for locations of beaver dams along Laurel Creek in Fairfield, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021. (Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic)

“I’ll just say I haven’t received a response in my favor; I’ll just say that,” Holsworth said.

But that has not stopped her from trying to keep the public educated, including conducting tours to anyone who wants to come out and learn about the beavers.

“We did a creek cleanup; that was in June. And I have adopted the area of Laurel Creek where they (razed) the dam,” she said.

The creek adoption actually took place through the city’s road adoption program, and includes a signed two-year commitment to keep the creek clean and to “represent the creek well.”

Prior to the tour beginning, Holsworth had “salted” the area with four stuffed beaver toys for the scouts to find, which they did with little difficulty, once they realized what they were looking for among the natural sites.

So so smart. So so smart. Sniff, they grow up so young.

Holsworth has gone so far as to name each of the dams along that stretch of creek, such as the skunk dam due to the unexpected visitor arriving while they were there. In some cases, a cluster of dams fall under a single moniker, such as the Dickson Hill Complex – named for the nearby street.

“They build so many dams close together to slow the water down,” Holsworth said.

But she also told them that she knew very little about beavers and their environment until she took up the cause to try to preserve their habitat on Laurel Creek.

Some dams, as she pointed out, are made of tree material and mud, but in areas where trees are not abundant, they are built with cattails and fennels. She was able to show the scouts where the beavers had gnawed on trees, and an area referred to as an “otter latrine,” on one of the banks.

She also told the scouts that some beavers live in burrows built into the creek banks, while others live in open water lodges. The news that the city tears down the dams each fall did not sit all that well with the scouts.

Siddharth Kishan, 12, also described the tour as “amazing.”

Ohhhh you clever girl. Nicely done Ms. Virginia. Get them to care and them tell them why the dams are in danger. Now it’s up to the troop leader to hand them some paper and ask them to write the mayor.

As others walking along the creek came across the scouts, several noted they, too, had been in scouts in their younger days, recalling their exciting adventures.

“This is really fun,” said Logan Brooks, 13. “You can really see all of nature.”

Yes it is. And yes you do. Now go track down Taran Flowers and send him this. picture of the famous Jack laws sketching at the Martinez beaver dam. for Bay Nature in 2010.