Category: Flow Device Installed

“TRICKING IS BETTER THAN TRAPPING”

What a great headline! This article by Leila Hawken does an excellent job of stating its case. Beavers have been having a whole bunch of lucky days in a row. Good for them. They might not have gotten their festival this year but they got a whole bunch of positive attention anyway. As it should be.

Tricking better than trapping for town’s beavers

SHARON — Beavers are unquestionably cute and great for ecosystems, but they are also pesky. Their dams interfere with the town’s drainage culverts and flood roads in some instances. They contribute to erosion and washouts in other places, particularly on gravel roads.

The problem seems to have been solved in June through ingenious trickery, thanks to the Beaver Institute of Massachusetts and grants from the Wiederhold Foundation of Connecticut to fund work by Beaver Solutions, LLC of Southampton, Mass. Grant funds to support the work totaled $750 for two locations (one was $500, the other $250), said Sharon First Selectman Brent Colley, who was reached for comment on Thursday, July 2.

The Wiederhold Foundation is active in support of the Connecticut Beaver Initiative, which assists landowners with beaver problems and raises awareness of the beavers’ ecological contributions as a “keystone” species, creating natural wetlands.

Hurray for the trickle down philanthropy of the Beaver Institute! And beaver themselves for that matter! We all win when beaver win and the beavers got lucky this time!

The two problem locations were West Cornwall Road near Roy Swamp and West Woods Road #2, where erosion and flooding were a constant threat to the roadbed and motorists. Fences paired with pipes were the answer.

Because the highway is paved going past the Roy Swamp site, the problem was not pavement erosion, but rather that the beavers installed their blockage in mid-pipe, causing water to back up and cause erosion around the drainage pipe.

The “Beaver Deceivers” as they are called were invented in Maine by Skip Lisle, in partnership with the Penobscot Indian Nation. Beavers are attracted to the siren song and the feel of running water, such as is found in a culvert for example.

Hurray for the other beaver philanthropist Skip Lisle! And all the good work he’s made possible over his many years! Of course only the culvert fence is a beaver deceiver if you want to get all namey and technical and IT doens’t so much deceive beavers as prevent them, But hey. Ports in storms. Am I right?

Installing a flow device to silence the sound does the trick. Fencing to further protect the culvert makes it a cost-effective, long-term humane solution.

“It would cost more to trap them than to do this,” Colley added.

From a beaver’s perspective, the presence of the fencing is a deterrent to any construction project because it would just be too much work. Besides, there is no sound of water flowing. So, the beavers pass the culvert by and the roadway remains safe.

Maintenance is minimal, Colley said, requiring only intermittent cleaning of leafy debris from the fencing. “I hope more towns get into this,” Colley said. “It works — so far, so good.” He said the town will budget to continue the effort at other local beaver problem sites.

BEAVER CHAMPIONS ON THE PACIFIC COAST

heidi08 Beavers and Fire Prevention, Beavers and salmon, Flow Device Installed April 29, 2020

I’m not sure this has ever happened before. There are THREE very important beaver stories this morning meaning very good things about beavers and I cannot pick between the three. I’m going to have to profile each thing and you have to promise to come back and read the whole thing. I’m sorry to assign homework, but it’s necessary. They’re that good.

The first and most startling news is a profile piece about Emily Fairfax in the UC agriculture and natural resources blog.

From being an engineer to researching nature’s engineers

“When I came face to face with beaver dams for the first time, I had what can only be described as a transformative experience,” says Emily Fairfax, an assistant professor of environmental science and resource management at California State University, Channel Islands. While leading a canoe trip through the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota, she encountered what she describes as “just these enormous, impressive features” – created by beavers. “You truly realize how sturdy beaver dams are while dragging your canoe over them,” she adds, laughing. “They are incredible from an engineering perspective.”

Despite being taken by the handiwork of beavers in that initial encounter, Fairfax says “I just put that experience in my back pocket for a long time.” After majoring in chemistry and physics in college, she went on to work as an engineer. “But, I kept going fishing, visiting wetlands and creeks, and realized I wanted to be out in these places in my day to day life.”

“Then, I watched the documentary Leave it to Beavers. It was about how beavers fundamentally alter landscapes. I was reminded of the beavers I’d seen in Minnesota and was like, I want to study this. On a bit of a whim, I applied to graduate school, and haven’t looked back. Now it’s all beavers, all day, and they make me so happy. It turns out rather than being an engineer, I was called to study nature’s engineers.”

I had NO idea that Emily was inspired by Jari’s documentary! WOW! The world might have been stuck with another engineer if it weren’t for that! I’m so touched and my mind is a little bit blown. I had just assumed she got involved because her thesis chair was interested or something. The article goes on to talk about her viral video and ends in her interest in California.

Working in California, Fairfax’s biggest task now is locating beavers. She notes that before beaver trapping there were likely upwards of 400 million beavers in North America, meaning they were everywhere. “Trapping took them down to 100,000, and now estimates put them back up to 10 or 20 million. They are prevalent in certain areas like the Colorado Rockies and the Sierra Nevada, but we still don’t see them often in many downstream areas that provide great habitat.”

For now, she says, “I’ve got students hiking streams just looking for signs of them, and when I give public talks, people will sometimes tell me about how they used to see them on a creek in the 70’s. That might not seem relevant, but that kind of information is so valuable. So now I’m basically saying to people, if you see a beaver dam anywhere in California, please tell me about it!”

I’ll make sure we all tell you when we see them! Ohh you are the hope of a new beaver generation Dr. Emily Fairfax. Make sure you read the Work to protect Sonoma beaver lodge begins

To prevent flooding and manage water levels in a Sonoma creek, a pond leveler will be installed where a family of beavers is living, Sonoma County Water Agency officials said.

The pond leveler will help water transfer through the beaver dam so that the pond doesn’t cause flooding. It will also assist with maintaining the habitat for the beavers, said David Cook, senior environmental specialist at Sonoma County Water Agency.

There was even an insert about my timing concerns, because the reporter was included in the email thread where I learned of it.

Heidi Perryman, of urban-beaver protection group Martinez Beavers, asked the agency to wait until kit — or, baby beaver — season is over, which is mid-to-late May. But Brock Dolman, program director of Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, which is partnering with the water agency and Swift Water Designs in the project, said they also would prefer to do the work outside of kit season and were prepared to do the install in March, but then COVID-19 got in the way.

Isn’t that just like Heidi, always poking her nose in and mucking around. Well I also heard from a neighbor that the beavers were busy that night trying to plug the outflow of the pipe so you may not have heard the last of this story. It’s good that a flow device was used. Hopefully the beavers can make it work. Fingers crossed.

The last piece of really OUTSTANDING news comes from Port Moody, B.C. See a lot of the challenges to the beavers have come from the fish hatchery folk which are saying that beaver dams stop chum. Jim and Judy have been doing their home work AND the city’s homework and heard from famous Fisheries Biologist Dr. Marvin Rosenau. that their stream supported coho salmon. The real kind not the hatchery frankensteins. And there’s all this data saying beavers are good for coho and no data at all saying they’re good for chum. Which stinks.

But they got a go pro camera and have been using it to shoot underwater and GUESS WHAT THEY FILMED and Dr. Marvin Rosenau. identified right away in the beaver pond???

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It’s hard to see but unmistakable. Around the 55 second mark you can see it best on the upper left hand corner. Look for the while glint of its eye and then the wiggle of its tail as it moves forward. That would be coho fry. As in the real deal. As in proof of a beaver pond doing what it should. As in pass the coho birthday cake and lets have a party!

THIS LADY OF THE LAKE ISN’T WELCOME

heidi08 Flow Device Installed, What's killing beavers now? March 23, 2020

When should you stop ‘trying’ to live with your neighbor and commit to violence instead. The first time his cat defecates on your lawn? The tenth? When his teenage sun drives the truck over your marigolds? When his son brings your daughter home drunk?

I mean there’s a time for reasonable people to meet and hash things out. And there’s a time for war. And who knows when one becomes the other?

Walter Scott: Tired of undoing springtime beaver activity

Spring is supposed to be the season of change, not just cold and snowy. The wildlife in the area are also showing signs of spring.

Geese on the lake are swimming around in pairs, looking for a good place to nest. Bluebirds are checking hollow trees and the houses we have put out for them. In the evening, we can hear the call of the wood ducks in the timber near the far end of the lake. We have also noticed an increase activity from our resident beavers.

Beavers are fascinating creatures. When we first built our lake, I thought it would be fun to have a pair of beavers to watch. At the time, Iowa State University had a pair of beavers move into a small pond in the center of campus. They were becoming destructive by removing the ornamental trees in the area, so the Department of Natural Resources was asked to re-locate them.

I contacted the DNR and offered a home for them, but never heard back. They must have found a home closer to Ames. A few years passed and one day I noticed some trees near the lake being felled by beavers. I excitedly told my wife we had new residents. A week or two later, I noticed the lake level had increased by more than a foot.

This starts out so promising. Walter actually WANTED beavers on his lake. He volunteered for the job. And he likes watching the birds and wildlife they bring. What could possibly go wrong? Oh. you know. The usual.

Our lake is fed by three creeks and the outflow is through a 36-inch concrete tube through the dam. I checked the tube to find dozens of pieces of wood neatly arranged and packed with mud almost totally blocking the outflow of water.

It is no small job to dislodge the carefully constructed plug in the tube. When all their building materials are freed up and sent through the tube and downstream, the beavers must cut all new building materials and start over. This takes them about a week.

After several times of fighting to remove their plug in my tube, I decided beavers were not as interesting as I first thought. They were cutting down every oak and hickory tree near the lake, leaving behind any Osage orange or thorny locusts. I finally gave up and had them trapped and removed.

When is it time to commit violence against your neighbor? When they chop down your hickory tree I guess, Then its time to bring in the big guns. Er traps. Problem is sometimes violence doesn’t work.

Things went along smoothly, even when I noticed new beavers moved in last fall. They were mostly cutting down willow trees, which was fine with me. They built a den at one end of the island and moved tons of willow trees to their site to use for winter food and building materials. They left the outlet tube alone and all was well.

You are a very foolish man if you think it will stay well. They didn’t bother plugging the tube in the winter because there was plenty of water. Now that we are seeing some sunny days they are going to want to keep all that flow. I predict they will start plugging that pipe. But hey, what do I know?

After a week or so, the water had not gone down and may have even risen more than when the snow first melted. I stopped by and checked the tube one day on our journeys and discovered the tube was plugged. Many small logs, sharpened on both ends, were lodged in the tube and the neat framework was sealed with mud.

I realize it is spring and the beavers are afraid all their water is going to go out of that tube if they do not plug it up, but I am getting tired of undoing their work. They need to get about their other springtime activities and leave the lake level where it is, or they will be forced to find a new home.

Or they will be killed. Isn’t that what you mean? I spent an hour looking for how to contact Walter and came up empty. He is a free lance columnist so the paper doesn’t provide contact info. He lives in the very bottom right hand of the state of Iowa, but I couldn’t find his name in any city records or Gun club. I posted it on the facebook management page in desperation and Mike Callahan wrote Chris Sorflaten who lives in Iowa and just did a beaver institute training in flow devices saying he should contact him and Beaver Institute might pay materials.

Fingers crossed good neighbors can get this right.

BEAVER ADVICE FALLS ON THE OPPOSITE OF DEAF EARS

heidi08 Beaver Book, Flow Device Installed January 5, 2020

Good morning! I’m late today because we were kind of busy yesterday. Cookies made. House completely rearranged. Shouting occurred. Let’s just say the chocolate wasn’t the only thing that was “tempered”. ba-dum-dum. But now its beautiful and we have the whole morning together. Let’s share and tell our way to victory, shall we?

This one from Portland, Maine.

Letter to the editor: Trapping not the only way to manage beavers

I’m writing in response to the Dec. 27 letter about wildlife populations and self-regulation, specifically beavers. The letter caught my attention because I’ve been reading “Eager: The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter” by Ben Goldfarb.

Hey we know him! What did you learn when you read our friends manifesto?

The book also discusses the idea of cultural carrying capacity, which is the number of animals that humans can tolerate. The level of tolerance comes from how much conflict arises between people and the animal, in this case beavers.

No one wants their property flooded or water contaminated, but is trapping the only answer?

I’m sure hoping you say it isn’t.

According to Skip Lisle, the answer is no. Lisle has a master’s degree in Wildlife Management from the University of Maine, and he worked with the Penobscot Nation to find ways of peaceful co-existence with beavers.

Lisle discovered, as have many others, that killing beavers is not an effective long-term solution. It’s better to find non-lethal ways of ending conflicts with beavers, which led to his company Beaver Deceivers LLC (https://beaverdeceivers.com). He provides flow devices and has invented other tools to prevent beavers from damaging private and public property.

This is a helpful reminder that instead of trying to get rid of animals, we should be looking for ways to live peacefully with them.

Erica Bartlett

Wonderful Erica! Well said and well read, as the saying goes. Now we ourselves in Martinez hired Mr. Lisle to put in one of them there contraptions and it solved our issue for 10 years. That was ten years we didn’t have to pay trappers or think about flooding in our creek. Ten years of more wildlife and better fish in our creek. Ten years of no new beavers moving into our creek.

Hey, that sounds almost like a solution!

10 MORE STATES GET NON-LETHAL MANAGEMENT

heidi08 Flow Device Installed December 29, 2019

It’s been a rough year for wildlife. Anteaters and sloths burned in the Amazon and Koalas dying in the flaming forests of Australia. Not to mention all the wild spaces set aside by Obama and turned in to drilling fields by his successor. There are easier things to be than wildlife at the moment. But even though its been a crappy decade and some folks aren’t happy that democrats negotiated with the terrorist and made a funding bill to keep the government from shutting down, this is a sweet little tidbit that came out of the deal.

Congress Funds New Nonlethal Conflict-Prevention Positions

Congress and the President approved a spending package last week to keep the government running through the rest of the 2020 fiscal year. Contained within the legislation is a provision that NRDC and Defenders of Wildlife worked to secure: an appropriation of $1.38 million for the federal agency Wildlife Services to hire new employees dedicated to using nonlethal measures to reduce livestock-carnivore conflicts in up to 12 states.

The new employees will be modeled after three “wildlife conflict-prevention specialist” positions we’ve already worked with Wildlife Services to create—two in Montana and one in Oregon. In Montana, one of the specialists is a year-round fencing technician who works with landowners to install electric fencing around livestock pastures, bee yards, chicken coops, and other “attractants” across western and central Montana. The other is a seasonal “range rider” who has spent the last two summers protecting several herds of cattle on grazing allotments in wolf and grizzly bear country in the state’s northwestern corner.

The third specialist works in seven different counties in southwestern Oregon, using fencing, scare devices, her own human presence, and other deterrents to reduce conflicts with wolves, black bears, mountain lions, coyotes, and other wildlife.

Okay. so the article doesn’t SPECIFICALLY say that they’ll be teaching these specialists how to to install flow devices but good lord you can’t put up fences and chase grizzly bears ALL the time. I’m sure that the right pressure could be applied in the right places and make this more likely to happen.

Because of the effectiveness of these positions and the strategies they employ, over the last year NRDC and Defenders of Wildlife advocated for federal funding to create similar positions in additional states (including Washington, California, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan). After months of uncertainty, we were thrilled when, late last week, the spending bills containing our requested appropriation were signed into law.

We’re in the club! Now we just have to find out who the non-lethal officer is for our state and ply him or her with information about flow devices! Surely one of us knows someone who knows someone….hmmm…

But working together despite those disagreements is part of what makes our collaboration so compelling. Even with serious differences, we have found a way to join forces to provide meaningful, durable solutions for the landowners and rural communities most impacted by predators—while keeping carnivores out of trouble and alive on the landscape to fulfill their critical ecological roles. And perhaps as importantly, by cooperating in the face of our differences, we are also proving that even in such politically divisive times, it is still possible to find and work toward common goals—for the benefit of people, wildlife, and the country.

So beavers aren’t carnivores, I know. But non-lethal management of beavers in California could be good for salmon and steelhead and wildlife prevention. I cannot imagine that this won’t come up. All that remains is for us to find out who’s doing the actual work and slip some beaver deceivers into their calendar.

Just because its unlikely doesn’t mean it should be impossible?

Last issue released this morning. Say goodnight Gracie. When my very old house was built the gazette had already been running 40 years. It’s been a helluva run.