Napa kits wrestle in Tulocay Beaver pond: Rusty Cohn
I know what you’re thinking. Napatopia gets all the breaks. Cute kits growing up and wrestling for photographs. A beautiful photographic lodge anchored to a tree so it won’t wash away. Support from RCD, Flood control AND the county supervisors. A well-attended beaver talk at a local bookstore with ample community support. Yes Napa has it easy in lots of ways.
But here’s one thing Martinez won’t envy.
Freshwater leeches hitch a ride: Hank Miller
These are freshwater leeches in Tulocay creek riding on the back of a pond turtle. Leeches feel the vibration of whatever swims by and float up to catch a meal or a lift. And the hot weather has sent an explosion of them into the streams and lakes of California.
So I guess it’s okay having a little salt water once in a while. Because EWWW.
Personal update. The monster fire burned some firefighters and 86 people’s homes yesterday, but not my parents’. It is has now burned 65,215 acres and is a whopping 20% contained. Still wishing for rain.
I would give them a harder time for using VERY old tools and acting like they’re flying to the moon, but it’s NB and they never, never, never have done anything except trapping. So Hurray for them! (And god I hope it works…)
The system makes it possible to alter the water level so it’s not high enough to flood out the roads that allow access into the lot and not low enough that the beavers would need to build their dams higher. (CBC News)
A system installed in the University of New Brunswick’s woodlot in Fredericton to maintain water levels is expected to ease tensions between humans and beavers.
The area has a long history of beaver-built structures impacting human-built ones with the flood waters that result from the construction of beaver dams.
“This area has been a problem area for quite some time, for the last six years I’ve been here,” said Jason Golding, the university’s director of forest land.
“We’ve finally taken measures to do something here.”
The system — dubbed the “Beaver Leveling System” — works to allow Golding control over water levels in a given area rather than the beavers.
“It’s perforated pipes surrounded by a cage so it doesn’t fill up with sludge and debris,” said Golding.
“On the opposite side of the road is a pipe that I can manually manage the level of the water on the other side of the road.”
Golding said having control over the water levels allows him to keep the road from being washed out by waters raised by beaver activity.
“If I want the water low, I take the pipe out at ground level, and the water will spill out,” said Golding.
“If I want the wetland higher I just have to add more pipe.”
Golding said the project wasn’t cheap, costing around $5,000. But included in the cost was a back-up system in case the rodents ever managed to somehow block the leveler.
Wow. 5000 dollars for a pre-built unit that wasn’t even designed for the site. Plus your labor to install it. I’m feeling more than a little worried about this. Especially since when it inevitably fails everyone is going to say, “well we tried it your way, beaver-huggers, but it didn’t work – guess we have to trap.”
“As a precaution, we’ve also built a spill-way,” said Golding.
Oh and that. That worries me a LOT.
Apparently it’s so unheard of to use a flow device in New Brunswick that folks have been showing up terrified that it’s a trap. Which tells you something about the community pressure that got them interested in this process in the first place. I wish they had just done an ounce more research.
Editor: At one time beavers were emblazoned on our currency, given to the queen as a gift and revered as a founding economy of our country. But today, beavers are considered a nuisance.
As a secondary school student in Walnut Grove, I studied and wrote an article about the beaver dam on Anderson Creek (Langley). From our own history, I could see the significant role of the beavers in forming and starting the nation.
Today, Canada is well represented by preserving many Aboriginal cultures and arts used in its tourism economy.
But will the beaver also be respected and preserved regarding its new role in the community?
The beaver dam on Anderson Creek could become a concern for the property owners living in the area if rising flooding interfered with roads and houses.
However, from the biologist’s perspective, beavers are actually conserving water to prepare themselves and the whole community to deal with the problems of hotter and drier weather.
As beavers work hard to make a new wetland and provide healthier environments in B.C. shouldn’t they be highly appreciated, especially, since not many people are conserving water?
Recently developed flow devices are also helping beavers become successful co-habitants with the community.
Therefore, shouldn’t we urge people to not only look at beavers as part of the past but also as a vital part of the future?
Seeone Kim,Walnut Grove Secondary
How much do you love this letter? Smart ecology tailored to our own inescapable self-interests. I went hunting for Seeone online who is starting 11th grade this year at one of the biggest high schools in Vancouver. (One that looks rosy enough to make it into the Canadian Disney hit 16 Wishes). Obviously Seeone has much bigger goals than that heroine. I found the article about her project which was overlooked on this website by the strange coincidence of slipping into the black hole of festival week. You will want to go read it yourself, but here’s a highlight.
As the City of Langley and the Township move to Stage 3 water restrictions during the hot and dry summer weather, one group of residents have successfully mastered the art of conserving water.
A newly constructed beaver dam on Anderson Creek in Surrey is helping maintain healthy water levels in local streams, creeks and rivers.
As a summer writing project, co-ordinated by English tutor Joan Gibson of Langley, two students from Walnut Grove Secondary School — Seeone Kim, Grade 11, and Cormick Campbell, Grade 9 — are studying and writing about the new dam construction and its effects on nearby habitat.
The beavers began building last January and today, have created a beautiful dam that spans the creek from bank to bank.
Stage 3 water restrictions. That sounds serious. We wouldn’t know anything about that her in CA right? I’m really starting to think water is going to be the unavoidable issue that helps people see beavers differently. In fact I spent a good part of yesterday on this 30 second PSA which I’m pretty happy with.
Welcome to the beaver defender club, Seeone. We’re thrilled to have you as a member!
Merest coincidence? I’m thinking not. Google how many accusations there are of plagiary against the WSJ, the prominence Worth A Dam has in the recent New York Times articles and interview and the fact that you can’t swing a dead trapper without hitting one of our references on the internet – and I’m going to boldly accuse them of kidnapping. I suppose they could argue that the fact that they added a question mark slightly alters the meaning – thus protecting the use. But sheesh. When people steal from this website why don’t they steal the GOOD stuff?
Yet the Otter’s beavers are multiplying, and the mystery of how the rotund rodents came to Coleridge’s “wild streamlet of the West” has fanned the flames of a national beaver conflict.
That decadelong fight has pitted biodiversity advocates against anglers and landowners, leaving at least a dozen beavers dead and countless willow trees chewed.
Things are looking up for the beavers. Their population has grown to an estimated 212 in the U.K. wild.
And while the government last year decreed that the River Otter’s beavers should be removed, early this year it ruled they could stay, though it didn’t bar landowners from killing them.
Beaver believers say the species could help restore England’s countryside to something like before medieval policies encouraged exterminating animals that competed with people for land or food. Advocates say beavers fell trees that choke streams and build dams that improve wetlands for fish and other animals.
Hardly, says angler advocate Mr. Owen. Beaver dams may block trout from spawning in streams like the River Otter, where fish already struggle with river otters, he says. And chewed trees are “a health-and-safety risk for anglers.”
Oh puleeze. The country shouldn’t have beavers because a tree might fall on my friends is not an argument any one older 12 should ever have. Here’s an idea. If WSJ is looking to steal something from this website why not steal the many papers quoted where it says that BEAVERS HELP SALMON AND TROUT. And the part where it says over and over that British anglers are big whiny babies who have their eyes and ears covered when it comes to the actual research and say “lalala don’t tell me I don’t want to hear it!”
Or you know. Do an ounce of research through your OWN WSJ archives and be reminded of that great article about the Land’s Council written a few years back. You know the one that by Joel Millman about how Ranchers are on a waiting list to get beavers on their property because they’re so important for water?
Just so you know. I plan of having new ideas every week. Make sure you keep checking the website to see if there are more useful things to steal.
Yesterday our friends at fur-bearer defenders released this, which impressed and delighted me very much.
Way to teach about flow devices! This lays everything out. My only initial complaint was that it didn’t say enough about WHY to do this, more fish more birds more water etc. But then I listened more closely and realized the narration says beavers live IN the dam and that’s what causes problem. I realized the they should have run the script past a certain beaver editor I know. (ahem)… It’s still a great tool for teaching about beaver management and it had the added benefit of introducing me a new skill.
Surely I thought there must be free animation software available, right?
Ohh my my my….heidi could spend hours at this…you can upload your own photos or even soundtrack. You can audio directly and insert it…you can chose so many of your own effects. There should be a warning label on something this fun.
Okay, of course the free version has limitations. There are a lot of things you can’t do unless you pay for the premium version, but there are workarounds. For example you can’t download the clip without paying BUT you can put it on youtube, where you can later download it – so its doable. And you can string use a film editing program to string several short clips together so that’s pretty exciting.
A pretty nice way to do some long distance beaver education. Hmm. Very corporate-friendly. I can see a city manager watching this and actually learning something. Well, maybe.
