Category: Festival

Beavers in San Diego?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Environmental, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? June 7, 2017

Right now in San Diego they are having a megalith of an international conference on urban wildlife that is gigantic by ordinary human measurements. It is hosted by San Diego State and the SD urban wildlife working group of the Wildlife Society. Lots of our friends are there including Travis Longcore, Beth Pratt and Glynnis Hood. Glynnis is the author of the ‘beaver manifesto’ and the researcher behind all the major beaver research.

Guess what Glynnis is presenting on? Go ahead, guess.

What’s old is new again: Cost-effective management of human-beaver conflicts

Glynnis A. Hood, and Varghese Manaloo

Human-wildlife conflicts result in ongoing and costly management by all levels of government. We installed and evaluated 12 pond-levelers to counter flooding by beavers and developed a cost-benefit analysis for these sites in a protected area in Alberta, Canada. We also documented beaver management approaches in municipalities throughout Alberta. Over three years, one pond-leveler site required regular maintenance until we designed a modified pond-leveler; another required minor modifications, and the remaining 10 sites required little to no maintenance.

Installing 12 pondlevelers resulted in a present value (PV) net benefit of $2,680,640 after only three years. A sensitivity analysis, without the contingent valuation included, still resulted in an $81,519 PV net benefit. Municipalities employed up to seven methods to control beavers: with the most common being lethal control and dam removal. Total annual costs for beaver management provided by 48 municipalities and four provincial park districts was $3,139,223; however, cost-accounting was sometimes incomplete which makes this a conservative estimate.

This research has led to further installations and research in a nearby rural municipality (14 pond-levelers) and the city of Camrose, Alberta (2 pond-levelers), where we have seen similar results. Alternative management approaches can provide cost-effective and long-term solutions to human-beaver conflicts in rural and urban areas.

What? Cities save money by installing flow devices rather than constantly trapping? You’re kidding! Of course we’ve been saying this for years but it’s wonderful to have the hard data to back it up.I knew Glynnis was working on research about the success of flow devices in urban areas, but I’m so glad the numbers are in!

Just in case you’re wondering, Glynnis did hear the Martinez Beaver story at the very first state of the beaver conference I presented at in 20011. She was so famous already then I was afraid to talk to her at the meeting, but as fate would have it we were stuck at the airport together in a log jam and chatted away for an hour before her plane came. She was wonderful of course, and very supportive of our work. I’m so very interested in the presentation she did, and how the topic of ‘urban beavers’ has become so ubiquitous! Their great logo was missing something. So I fixed it.

You probably never listened to our interview, but you really should.

Interview with Glynnis Hood

My only regret is that this conference is taking place in a region hasn’t had urban beavers for more than a century, why couldn’t they hold this conference at the Sierra College in Placer county instead?

How did it get to be June 5th already?

heidi08 Festival, Who's saving beavers now? June 5, 2017

The wonderful favors of friends! I know you didn’t watch this before. So watch it now. It’s short and really excellent!

Last nights meeting was small and successful thanks to some amazing helpers. Let’s call it a Churchill meeting:

“Never in the field of beaver celebration was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Extra, Extra! Read all about the beaver good news!

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, 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 elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, featured, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? June 4, 2017

There’s great news from three nations today just in time for our Suday funnies. First there’s the fantastic announcement that Frances Backhouse (author of Once they were Hats) will be doing a lecture in 2 weeks for idea city (which is the canadian equivalent of TED talks). If you live near Toronto and have a spare 300 you might consider being in the audience. Us poor California folks will have to wait for the vide0,

Award-winning Canadian author Frances Backhouse is a former biologist whose curiosity about the world enticed her into a writing career. Her 2015 book Once They Were Hats: In Search of the Mighty Beaver, was heralded by The Globe and Mail as one of the “20 books you’ll be reading – and talking about – for the rest of the year.”

Speaking the morning of Friday, June 16th – buy your tickets now!

Frances was kind enough to donate another copy of her beloved book for our silent auction, and we are eager to see how the dynamic ideacity event success. Hopefully it will remind folks, like Glynnis talk back in the day, that beavers really matter.

Lots of good work in this country too, where beaver friend and Geology Student Erin Poor just posted about the project she’s working on in tualatin. Remind me again, how many people were talking about the Pros and Cons of Urban beaver before Martinez and Worth A Dam? Oh that’s right. Zero!

Beavers are known as environmental engineers because of their ability to change the landscape to fit their needs. Beaver activity, such as dam building, can increase stream and floodplain complexity, which may create a more diverse habitat for wildlife in the area.

Many scientists are curious to discover how beavers affect impaired urban streams. The USGS recently began studying the effect of beaver populations on urban streams in Tualatin River basin, located in the Portland, OR, metropolitan area. Scientists are studying whether beaver activity can improve the health of city streams. Insights from this study will provide a good foundation of the “pros and cons” of beavers in urban areas, thereby allowing local agencies to make management decisions based on science. This research is a collaboration between the USGS Oregon Water Science Center and Clean Water Services of Washington County, Oregon.

Tualatin_beaver_study_WithinOurReachPoster_2016

Bring back beavers to fight flooding and pollution, expert claims

Further proof that one person can make a difference? Here’s a slapdash beaver article from one of the silly English rags that will steal any story and photo off the internet and call it ‘news’. Case in point? How about my photo that I mocked up before Brexit? This was on USA news today along with an assortment of dimly related beaver images from around the globe, including the shop lifting beaver at Christmas in Maryland. Never mind, at least folks are talking about it.

We have some wonderful new auction items to mention this fine sunday morning, and I’m thinking we should start with Jennifer Lovett’s smart book for teens and tweens “Beavers away“. It’s a great way to look at the issue and she does an excellent job talking about the importance of beaver to biodiversity. I especially like this graphic. I met Jennifer on the beaver management forum on Facebook set up by Mike Callahan in Massachusetts. (It’s a good place to hear about beaver work and if you aren’t a member you should be.) She is a big supporter of all things beaver and became a good beaver buddy.

Thanks Jennifer!

Beavers-Away

Finally we have a much anticipated donation from Marcella Henkles in Corvalis Oregon. You will remember she was the amazing raku tile artist who featured two lovely beaver tiles to the Beaver tales art exhibit both of which sold almost immediately. I’m sure she was surprised to hear from me begging at her door but she generously agreed to send me one of the works she had recently fired. The complex technique demands carving the image on wet clay then glazing it into color. You really have to see it in person to understand how the colors, textures and rough barn wood all work together. It’s gorgeous. Doesn’t this need to be on your wall immediately?

best henkle — Beaver with Aspen Raku Tile: Marcella Henkles

And just because beavers like to look their Sunday best, here’s a fun video from Robin of Napa showing some excellent back footed grooming.

A tail in two cities

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Festival May 28, 2017

It’s sunday and we have only good news to share with you today here at beaver central. Our beaver-buddy from New Hampshire took a video this week of on of his beavers tail-slapping again and again in the middle of the afternoon. He was wondering why it happened at all and I suggested there might have been a threat we never saw, like an otter sniffing in the lodge opening or something.

I remembered one morning a million years ago when I saw an otter on our old beaver lodge an then saw a beaver react by tail slapping NINETEEN times. (I happened to count because I kept thinking, wow, I should try and film that, but I guess I missed it and am too late. But he generously kept slapping ONE more time, which I finally managed to film.)

Art was interested in my thoughts, and did a lovely job slowing the video down so you could see what is actually involved in a tail slap. This was just filmed with his phone but is great quality, check it out.

There are all kinds of donations to the silent auction today and for the first time I am nearly all caught up writing the bid sheets for display. There are fun things to share and surprising ones that we never saw in the past, like two tickets for Napa Valley Wine Trains gourmet dinner seating. Who knows, if you play your cards right I might be able to get Rusty to show you around the Napatopia beaver habitat on the way!

Jon and I did this years ago and were so impressed. The ride through the vineywards up and back is glorious and the meal was delicious. It’s a great way to identify places you might like to go tasting later. But my favorite winery to pass is always the hillside retreat at Far Niente, which isn’t open to the public for tasting. I have always asked for a donation before but never been granted tickets in the past. We were lucky this time. I can’t help thinking that this time has something to do with my reading up on some local history and reminding them how Martinez was once the home of the Christian Brother’s (1879-1930) which moved to Napa and whose huge castle-like grounds eventually became the Culinary Institute. Martinez and Napa are practically cousins! Anyway, the pitch worked. Go watch the welcome promo which for some reason I can’t embed here and try and tell me that you aren’t dying to see for yourself.

Another treasure comes from Sparkhead Kids in Ontario Canada. One look and you will immediately understand why I had to ask owner Annellie Samuel to donate. This velveteen pillow cover presents “Felix the friendly beaver” and is gloriously soft to the touch but tough enough to stand up to many, many nap times. In fact you might just want to snuggle with him yourself.

We are a small artist run husband and wife team that designs and produces all our product in Canada
We are inspired by the Great North American Wilderness, its beauty and all the magnificent animals that live in it. Our goal is to bring the outdoors to inside of your home and create a positive message of our environment.
Our animal characters are there to amuse and have you fall in love with and to stay your friend for many years to come.

Her charming website has both cushions and prints and whimsically writes about him:

“You will soon fall in love with our Felix the Friendly Beaver, Velveteen, Cushion Cover. Designed in Canada, this original art is perfect for your woodland nursery or bedroom decor.

“Hi! I’m Felix the Friendly Beaver! Have you ever seen a real beaver? I have a special, flat tail, which I use to steer when I’m swimming. When there is danger, I warn other beavers by slapping my tail on the water to make a loud noise. I also have strong, sharp teeth for cutting down trees to make my home from mud and branches in the middle of a lake. My house even has underwater tunnels! Come and be a busy beaver with me!”

Unstable Climates

heidi08 Environmental, Festival May 15, 2017

It’s almost time for “Bipolar Event Planning” again. (It seems like it gets earlier every year.) Last night I was notified that we got tickets for the Napa Wine Train for the silent auction (first time, yeah!) and I was over the moon. This morning I’ve been informed that our ad in Bay Nature is the wrong size and our artist needs to change it. Problem is she is in Indonesia until Friday – so we’ll be paying for weird padding again, unless they can wait until she gets back.

I suggested this kind of edges to make it taller but I’m doubtful it will work. I don’t have the right tools to measure 3.5626″ wide by 4.9375″ high.

In the mean time we are headed up to the mountains this week to spend time at my parents and get sticks for the nature journals. Perfect timing right? Only it’s supposed to rain tomorrow so that’s not the best conditions for stick gathering! May through August is always the best of times and the worst of times getting ready for the festival. I’m trying hard to accept that’s just the way it is.

Meanwhile I head from the steadfast beaver defender Kelly Adams in Draper Utah that the court date was postponed until June 5th, so that keeps hope alive for a while longer. I dimly remember taking the city to court back in the day, and it’s hard, hard work, so I’m glad he gets longer to relax beforehand.

On to bigger news, where beavers have appeared in the Yukon for the first time. It is being blame on the ‘shrubification’ caused by climate change, so they aren’t thrilled by the news.

Beavers reported on the Yukon tundra for the first time

Canada’s national animal has been turning up in some unexpected places lately, and while there are different theories about how exactly the beaver has managed to gain a foothold in the Arctic tundra, a recent report says climate change is likely a factor.

In 2008 and 2009, Inuvialuit hunters reported seeing beavers on two northern Yukon rivers, near the Beaufort Sea. Then, in 2015, Thomas Jung, a biologist with Environment Yukon, spotted a large dam, beaver lodge and winter food cache on the Babbage River in Ivvavik National Park. All of this suggests beavers are attempting to colonize the Beaufort coastal plain, according to an article by Jung, published in the journal Canadian Field-Naturalist.

“I was quite surprised. I had to look a couple times,” Jung says of his 2015 sighting. He asked the man he was flying with, “‘Have you ever seen a beaver dam up here? Because there’s a beaver dam.’”

Beavers have a broad range in North America, but up until now haven’t lived north of the treeline because they need wood for food and shelter.

As the Arctic warms, the tundra is undergoing ‘shrubification,’ meaning woody plants are growing in places that were once inhospitable and may be drawing herbivores like beavers further north.

Jung says how the beavers got to the Arctic coastal plain remains a mystery. A large mountain range lies between the beavers’ expected territory and their new home on the tundra and as he puts it, “I don’t think beavers are known as mountaineers.”

They may have come from the forested Mackenzie Delta, leapfrogging from river to river until they ended up far north. They also could have swum in the sea.

“The overland route is certainly challenging and the through-the-sea route is improbable,” Jung says, “but animals do improbable things quite often.”

That’s the truth alright. Beavers do lots of things we don’t expect, and the climate is certainly changing. Maybe they just came for the view?