It’s time to start thinking of the next hurdle. And start getting my video together for the upcoming Valentine’s presentation at Oakmont Syposiumwith Bob Boucher. I am happy about the timing because it’s a great opportunity to plug the Summit which is coming soon thereafter, In the meantime he sent me some awesome photos for the website that I thought you’d want to peruse.
Feb 14, 2021– 10:30 am on Zoom Bob Boucher and Heidi Perryman
Beavers: Conservationists Who Mate for Life
Happy Valentine’s Day! And the perfect animals to celebrate are beavers. Why? They mate happily for life. And not only is that kind of cool, but they are also a “keystone” animal. When these resilient critters aren’t around, the ecology doesn’t work right; when they are around, life thrives. Beavers are unsung heroes that shaped our country in more ways than one. Bob Boucher and Heidi Perryman, an “accidental beaver advocate” and will charm us with their fascination for these amazing animals.
It was very gratifying to see the Martinez Beaver story published on City Creatures blog yesterday. The nice part was that feedback trickled in all day with a generally positive reception. I thought I’d share a little with you today so that you’ll at least know you’re not alone in being forced to read it. (Which if you haven’t yet, go now!)
From the artist at the festival Amy Gallaher Hall
Wonderful story! You’re such a great writer You encapsulate the whole story so well (you lived it). xo a
From Michael Pollock of NOAA
A nice story Heidi, and congratulations on getting into the Congressional record! M
From Donna Dubreuil, director Ottawa Carlton wildlife Center Ontario
I never tire of hearing the story and end up tearing up every time. It is such an inspiration, Heidi, Donna
Barbara Patchins (recently retired coordinator of Martinez parks and recreation dept)
Heidi great article well done!
Maren Smith, MDAS Audubon newsletter
Awesome article and wonderful photos. Have forwarded to the board and our newsletter folks Thanks! Maren
Judy Atkinson Port Moody B.C.
This is a wonderful story and the experience in Martinez happened 10 before our similar experierence up here in Port Moody, British Columbia. The Martinez legacy is helping communities like mine get past the awkward introduction phase of the tolerance and acceptance and then realization that these hard working animals are a benefit to the waterways they live in!
Robin Ellison, Napa
Wonderful article on these vitally important creatures to the planet and the importance of coexistence. Thanks very much for printing!
Donna Beth Weilenman (Martinez News Gazette)
What a fabulous account of how things got started! I’d like to give it a little plug in the paper so that folks read it!
I also heard from Ben Goldfarb but I don’t have his email his which is at home. He said congratulations and that his favorite part was community milestone paragraph at the end, Probably me too,
To this day, the beavers remain the best-known thing that ever happened in my town. Two documentaries and three books have told the story, and we were entered into the national Congressional Record. When I walk to the creek, I still meet people asking about the beavers. There are several high school graduates who remember getting signatures to save them as children. You might run into a mother who says, “Oh right, I was pregnant with Jason the night of that big meeting, and he just turned eleven on Thursday!” The beavers are now part of communal history. We are a better community because of them.
Several very wonderful things happened this year, starting first and foremost with the fact that OUR BEAVERS CAME BACK!!! 2017 was quite a year for beavers. January 2017
What a helluva a year. In April the beloved partner of our Artist died as well, and for the first time in a decade she was so overwhelmed by the loss that she couldn’t create wonders with children at the beaver festival. Rest and recover.
As you can see, there are plenty of bright headlines to review, but honestly, looking back through the highlights (and lowlights) of the year it was startling how to remember how many awful things happened in sequence. Through no fault of our own or (our beloved beavers) there were deaths, fires, website crashes and grim tidings on so many fronts. (And that’s not even addressing politics or hurricanes!). In a way it was actually relieving to see what a horrid mix of days his Annus horribles had contained, because it explains how weary, drained and braced we’ve all been feeling.
Here’s looking for brighter days and more beaver kits in 2018!
This month’s moon is called the beaver moon, and it was full Saturday.
It is called the beaver moon because now is when beaver dens are snug and stocked with food in preparation for the winter. All fall, beavers have been cutting branches and taking them to their dens so that they can dine on the bark and wood. Sounds like a tasty winter meal.
There’s another reason the November moon is called the beaver moon. Hal Borland wrote in the book “Twelve Moons of the Year” that by November the beaver’s pelts are in prime condition. Back during this nation’s settlement, beaver hats were all the rage here and in Europe, and pelts were considered the same as currency. Their pelts were so desired that by the 1830s, beavers had been extirpated from Ohio, said Jim McCormac, a wildlife biologist.
But beavers are again relevant because they have returned to all 88 Ohio counties, entering the state from the north and east, McCormac said. McCormac said Ohio is home to an estimated 30,000 beavers. He also said that if beavers live in your area, its biodiversity and natural heath are profiting “big-time.”
Many plants and animals benefit from beaver dams and the ponds they create. He gave the example of the beautiful wood duck, whose population is increasing partly because of beaver dams.
“There are no better ecological engineers,” McCormac said of beavers.
But having beavers in the area is not without its negative consequences. When they dam up creeks and streams, they sometime cause the flooding of farmland and other places that humans rely on.
I’ll give you an example. Early last spring I went out to Glacier Ridge Metro Park near Dublin and the park’s wetlands and a few of the nearby bike trails and hiking paths were covered by water. Beavers had dammed up the small stream that flows through the area and, by the end of the winter, caused a small flood.
But all was not lost. The Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks placed pipes through the dam so the water level could be easily lowered mechanically. “That allows us to drop the water down and not interfere with the beavers’ activities,” said Peg Hanley, spokeswoman for the parks system.
WOW! Jim McCormac is a wildlife biologist who knows his beavers! My goodness that’s exciting to read from the state. You can tell the columnist, John Switzer of the Columbus Dispatch, is not exactly sold on the flat tailed animals yet – but this article is a formidable start. I’m terribly pleased!
I was so impressed that I had to go searching for Jim McCormac and found his nature blog, Ohio birds and biodiversity. It is a wonderful collection of photographs and information. Jim is photographer and a self-described naturalist. The website has been around since 2007!
“I am a lifelong Ohioan who has made a study of natural history since the age of eight or so – longer than I can remember! A fascination with birds has grown into an amazement with all of nature, and an insatiable curiosity to learn more. One of my major ambitions is to get more people interested in nature. The more of us who care, the more likely that our natural world will survive.”
Obviously his site has enough respect and readers to get attention, and his opinions about beavers are making a difference. Thanks Jim! You are welcome any year at our beaver festival!
I thought I’d share a little about the odds and ends that followed my last few postings. One was about the water week events in Whatcom WA. You might remember that the paper said there’d be a showing of the film “Beavers in the Ecosystem” which I wanted to find out about. Turns out the paper got it wrong, it wasn’t actually a film but an event lead by the North Sound Baykeeper for Clean Water Services, Lee First. I got in touch with Lee through our friend Ben Dittbrenner of Beavers NorthWest. Seems Lee contacted Ben looking for properties with beavers on them that might allow a tour for his guided event and talk.
Lee impressed me right away with this response to my letter:
Hi Heidi, it’s not a film, it’s a site tour. I’ll take photos during the tour, and I’ll probably write a little story about the tour. I love beavers!
As far as I know there are two people in all the world who collect a city salary and love beavers. And now I know both of them! There surely aren’t any such people in Martinez.
Thank you Heidi, that means a lot. I was so annoyed when I read the original article, beavers being blamed without any evidence! Someone has to stick up for them! I love the graphic!! That’s brilliant! Would it be OK for me to use that graphic in our talks or on our website? I also love the beaver cushion that has been sent to you from the Ukraine. I am going to have to buy one for myself!
I told her of course she could use it, and showed her the photo of our kit where it’s from. Graphic Designer Libby Corliss didn’t work with us long, but the silhouettes she made that summer from Cheryl’s photos have been a lasting treasure I rely on again and again.
Onto the treats of the day, this time Parks and Recreation Department of Calgary, which is about 400 miles north of Montana across the Canadian border. Seems they just updated their beaver webpage and WOW they did an amazing job. Even when I read it the third time this morning, I was still surprised and impressed.
Beavers have found an inviting home in Calgary, with its two rivers, abundant green space, and lack of predators. In recent years, their population has grown, with lodges in various locations along the Bow and Elbow rivers, in storm water ponds and wetlands.
Beavers are good for our environment
Beavers play an important ecological role in Calgary’s waterways. Their dams can create ponds that provide habitat for other wildlife and help surrounding vegetation to flourish. The ponds and wetlands are very good at storing water, and can help reduce the effects of smaller floods and hold water during droughts.
Water flowing through dammed areas is naturally purified, and after a dam has broken, fertilizer created from the decomposing material in the dam will spread downstream.
I promise I haven’t embellished this or edited to make it look better. This is the ACTUAL website for Calgary and it starts by describing how lucky we are to have them. Then it gets around to talking about problems, but in a pretty reasonable way.
Beavers also present some challenges
Because conditions are so good, Calgary’s beaver population has grown in recent years. This can cause problems for our forested areas, infrastructure and property, and the beavers themselves.
A single adult beaver can cut down about 200 trees in a year. With each lodge housing four to six beavers, wooded areas can be devastated in a short period of time. This is harmful to other wildlife that rely on the trees for habitat. Beaver dams can also cause flooding that affects property, and in some cases, can damage storm drains and weirs that can be very expensive to repair.
Okay, that’s most reasonable. People can legitimately have concerns about these animals. There’s only a single sentence I take issue with.
“Without natural predators, beaver populations can grow to be unsustainable.”
Ahh Calgary, you were doing so well up until them. Did you never read that beavers were territorial? Did you never think that when the streams were full of beavers the new ones would have to look elsewhere for a place to call their own? I would be disappointed in them, but they quickly redeemed themselves.
The City’s approach to beaver management
The City’s practice is to try and strike a balance between health of the surrounding areas and the wellbeing of the beavers.
When required, The City uses different measures to protect trees and property to make our river parks unappealing to beavers. Depending on the situation, we may use a combination of the following:
Placing metal wiring around tree trunks.
Planting varieties of trees along the shore that are less palatable.
Placing under-dam drains to control water levels.
We consider all other options before turning to trapping. However, in some cases it is required. When we do remove beavers, we use traps that are designed to kill instantly. The traps are placed under water for the protection of dogs, park users and other wildlife, and are checked daily.
There’s a final paragraph on why they can’t relocate beavers that are causing issues instead of trapping them, but honestly this is ALL I WISH from any city beaver management policy. Protect trees. Plant Willow. Install flow devices.
Consider it my version of “Eat. Pray. Love.”
If every city tried to do these things before trapping I would be over the moon with joy. Honestly, this is the best and most sensibly proactive policy I have ever read.
They even have a video teaching how to wrap trees. Be still my heart.
I expect a mass exodus of beaver supporters moving to Calgary right away. Honestly, my bags are nearly packed.
One more present for Heidi in the Odds and Ends category. This lovely website I came across in my travels is called beaverlikemammals.com, with the actual tagline “A friendly place to post sightings of beaver-like mammals” which she dubs BLM’s.
Everyone wants to make a contribution to society, to leave their own little mark on the world. This website is my mark. It provides a public space where people can post sightings of beaver-like mammals (BLMs). Did you spot a BLM at the corner of 10th Street and West Main? Does a BLM emerge from the bushes by your back porch every evening around 6pm? Did you catch a glimpse of a BLM out of your car window on the way home on Thursday night? Submit your sighting to beaverlikemammals.com!
There is a page for submitting a sighting and your observation will be listed by your state. Most of the entries she has look like woodchucks with the occasional squirrel. I don’t see any actual beavers since back in 2007. But she definitely gave me a gift.
From now on, the next photo of a nutria I see on a news article about beavers I’m calling it a BLM.
It’s time to start thinking of the next hurdle. And start getting my video together for the upcoming Valentine’s presentation at Oakmont Syposiumwith Bob Boucher. I am happy about the timing because it’s a great opportunity to plug the Summit which is coming soon thereafter, In the meantime he sent me some awesome photos for the website that I thought you’d want to peruse.
This month’s moon is called the beaver moon, and it was full Saturday.
BLM
