Category: History

Castorology

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, History October 1, 2016

I mentioned earlier how Rickipedia included me in this online group regarding that Riparian book on the Santa Cruz river right? Just before I left for vacation it inspired a burst of research from me when they showed me a chapter outline saying that there wasn’t consensus that there even WERE beaver in the Santa Cruz.

Deja Vu all over again!

Mind you the Santa Cruz is a tributary of the Gila river where James Ohio Pattie trapped so many beaver with his daddy that he changed the landscape for ever. He even wrote a book about it. And why wouldn’t the beavers, who were thick and crowded in the Gila, look for additional habitat upstream in the Santa Cruz and Riollito at its head? Besides, guess what’s just on the other side of the mountains of the riollito? The head waters of the Sonora river in Mexico where Frontador Mearns famously documented beaver in the 1700’s. He went on to name the subspecies of beaver after himself as a reward because why not (our state has three subspecies of beaver: the Golden, the Shastensis, and the Frontador.) If you believe in subspecies, which I don’t.

So the author of the new book was trying to connect with Rick about how to find out whether beavers were native to the Tuscon Basin (think Phoenix) when there wasn’t a good record of bones in the area. What were some ways to go about it? And of course I piped in with the suggestion that he look up the tribal info of the ancient peoples who lived there, the Hohokam and the Anasazi.

Of course we have all heard of the Anasazi and their cliff villages, but I had never heard about the Hohokam and spent the day reading about them. Turns out their early settlements date from 500 a.d. and they are recognized for the unmatched canal system they built that allowed crops of squash, and corn to be grown and sustain literally thousands of people in

the desert. Apparently the canals were more extensive than anywhere in the northern hemisphere, and you’d have to go as far south as Peru to find anything similar. One researcher even noted that they were the first settlement in the country to grow and export cotton, long before the south got involved. When the Mormons moved in years later they were only too happy to finish off the indians and adopt their complex canals as their own.

No one knows how they learned to build and maintain such a complex canal system. But I have a pretty good idea, and you should too.

So I gave them my thoughts and the bits of research that had been found showing muskrat and marshland in the area. And this sparked a full discussion of whether beavers were good news or bad news in a desert. One researcher even bemoaned the loss of cottonwoods and referred to beavers as “Tree Predators” which made me giggle imagining a stealthy beaver creeping up on the unsuspecting tree.

So now there’s a full discussing of beavers and drought and climate change and its fun to read folks getting to similar places in their thinking even though beavers are always controversial, whether its among researchers or farmers. The main author who started this discussion is now suggeting that there be a new field of research about beavers and their effects, maybe calling it “Castorology” and forming an international group to study it!

Just think! We could all be founding members of the American society of Castorologists!

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Rendevous with Destiny Indeed

heidi08 History September 7, 2016

It’s always said that the folks who really made money in the California Gold Rush weren’t the lucky prospectors or the miners that followed, but the merchants who established a way to sell goods to both. This was true for the Fur Trade as well. The first rendezvous was held at Henry’s Fork Wyoming, which is on the very bottom of the state and the very top of Utah below it. It was the brain-child of William H. Ashley, who operated the first supply train to Henry’s Fork on the Green River to supply the trappers so they could remain in the mountains and keep sending him a steady supply of pelts.

The first rendezvous in 1825

The location here at Henry’s Fork was well advertised from mouth to mouth between the trappers of the area. Ashley states that 120 mountain men and Indians were at the rendezvous, with famous names such as Etienne Provost, Jedediah Smith, John Weber, William Sublette, Thomas Fitzpatrick, James Beckworth, David Jackson and a young Jim Bridger. For months or more, most of the trappers had not seen groceries such as sugar, coffee, tobacco or salt, not to mention gun powder or fish hooks.

Ashley usually paid $3.00 per pelt and sold tobacco for $3.00 per pound. Other goods that he brought were priced accordingly because it was a trade, not cash, transaction. Ashley sent most of the furs up to the Big Horn River, with 80 to 100 packs of beaver pelts arriving in St. Louis valued at $40,000 to $50,000. The average number of pelts in a pack was 32, so a lot of beaver started their way to someone’s hat that year.

The streams froze in the winter and made trapping difficult, so many of the mountain men wintered in warmer areas such as the Cache Valley of Utah. Jim Beckworth estimated that 600-700 men, including Indians, were at these winter quarters. When spring began, it was back to the trapping and the next rendezvous, which were carried on at various locations until the last one in 1840.

Because in just 15 years they had eliminated the beaver population in the west. I can only assume it took a little longer in the East just because there were fewer trappers in those days. The rendezvous eventually added whiskey to the mix and became huge social gatherings of not very social men with guns. While civilized folk didn’t cherish the tradition or want it too near their town, its lucrative practice would never have gone if the beaver hadn’t. 3 dollar pelt by pelt, up the Green River and down the Colorado River and over the Santa Fe River and finally through the Sacramento delta and then they were gone.

I try to imagine that last gathering, in 1840, when the bottom had already fallen out of the fur trade. The demand for beaver hats was gradually being replaced by a preference for silk, and this was happening at around the same time that the rivers were starting to be drained of beaver. The fur business must have gotten slimmer and slimmer in those last months. I’m guessing that whatever pelts were purchased weren’t sold up the river in St. Louis or anywhere else for that matter.

I wonder which came first. Did people stop buying beaver or was their no beaver left to buy?

The two events must have happened almost simultaneously. And no one stopped to think about the coincidence because there were new lands to explore and territories to grow into, once you got rid of those pesky redskins. And then gold was discovered and everyone forgot about the last gold they had eliminated and they moved west and complained about the drought.

End of chapter one.

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I present tonight to the city council, so they can vote to approve the mural. It seems ancient history to me but they tell me it’s not official until they have voted to accept it. So here’s hoping they do tonight and I can move along to the next hurdle this weekend when the wildlife photographer wants to get some shots of Martinez children planting willow trees for Ranger Rick.

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Paleocastor

heidi08 History August 28, 2016

Paleocastor is the a beaver from around 35 million years ago. It was about the size of a muskrat and is believed to have lived in family groups. They were a member of the once very large “Castorid” family of which now only two survive (canadensis and fiber). Like many of their relatives they started as a burrowing terrestrial mammal – instead of a water based one. In fact it was these burrows that lead to their fame.

The Daimonhelix, confused researchers for years until it was understood that it was dug by the incisors of this early beaver making a burrow for its family, which like today’s beavers was based on a K-structure rather than an R-structure. (Meaning rather than have as many off spring as possible in the hopes that some survived, paleocastor had a few youngsters and spent time making sure they knew how to dig their own burrows, find food etc before sending them off in the world.)

Well in honor of our national parks 100 birthday, a paleocastor fossil is coming home.

A fossil returns home

A unique fossil came home to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument Saturday as part of the 100th anniversary celebrations of the National Park Service. The return of the Palaeocastor fossil, which was excavated in 2015, brought a close to a unique chapter in the history of palaeocastor fossils and Daemonelix burrows at Agate.

Palaeocastor homes and Daemonelix burrows were some part of what drew paleontologists to the area in the late 1800s. Fossilized mammals from the Miocene Epoch, 23 million to 5.3 million years ago led to the creation of Agate in 1965.

A cranium and part of the lower jaw of the palaeocastor was first documented in 2003. When erosion had destroyed part of the cranium, paleontologists knew the rest needed to be saved. However, this palaeocastor was different. Other burrows have bones in the lodge, Welsh said.
I’m glad it’s someone one else’s job to recognize that pile of scraps as paleocastor because I never would! Some readers might remember back an era ago when we discussed the confusion of these burrows with the little corkscrew horn in the iceage animation. What’s funny to me is to think how different these beavers were in so many ways, and then to realize that just like their modern flat tail cousins, it was their work products that got them noticed.

Apparently even 35,000.000 years ago beavers were never slackers.

Saving the water-savers

heidi08 Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, History July 25, 2016

Off to the big sky country where beavers are getting some help from the Nature Conservancy.

Volunteers spruce up Tupper’s Lake trail, install beaver deceiver

SEELEY LAKE – A rough trail skirting Tupper’s Lake is becoming a beaten path. The second annual Revive and Thrive event on Sunday drew 40 volunteers and about 200 people celebrating the Clearwater-Blackfoot Project. It’s part of The Nature Conservancy’s $85 million purchase of more than 117,000 acres around Placid Lake and the Gold Creek drainage last year.

For a long time, there were issues with beavers plugging the old culvert, causing water to jump the creek channel and wash out nearby roads. So a new, extended culvert was installed, this one with a water control structure and multiple holes in the culvert.

On Sunday, the volunteers used metal fencing, called calf panels, T-posts and wire to construct a triangle-shaped beaver deceiver surrounding the culvert. Each side is about 14 feet long.

“The idea (with the holes) is the beavers can’t hear the water flowing,” Kloetzel said. “The sound attracts them.”

The hope is that pulling one over on the beavers will raise the lake three feet by this time next year, making it healthier for the cutthroat trout stocked by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

“The idea is to let the beavers live in the lake, but they won’t hurt the roads and the culvert,” Kloetzel said. “It’s an extra security measure. Then if they want to dam, they have to go around the entire surface of the cage.”

The beaver deceiver construction also lent itself to jokes, with one volunteer asking if the beavers had been notified and channeling their response:”Well, I’ll be ‘dam’ed …”

No photos of this ‘beaver deceiver’ though, one has to wonder what it looks like since the reporter can’t tell the difference between a triangle and a trapazoid. Hmm. Or thinks her readers can’t. No discussion of beaver benefits or how this whole project will save wildlife and habitat in the long run. Never mind. It’s Montana for chrissake. We are DELIGHTED they are trying out some coexistence!

I am reposting this because I just realized you can zoom in by double clicking on the image. This is the perfect tool to showcase our heartstopping brochure from generous artist Amelia Hunter.

And this article took my breath away this morning, and I’m going to share it even though its not about beavers. It is about perseverance and tenacity though. Go read it and feel truly inspired.

Why California’s northern coast doesn’t look like Atlantic City

Let me set the scene first.

In the early 1960s, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. planned and began building a power plant at Bodega Head, one of the most jaw-dropping stretches of coast on the planet.

Meanwhile, developers were mapping plans for a monster residential project just north of Jenner at Sea Ranch, where sheep grazed between coastal bluffs and stunning pebble beaches.

“It began with Bodega Head,” Lucy said of the site of the proposed power plant. But it was Sea Ranch “that really got Bill stirred up.”

The Kortum posse set up ironing boards outside grocery stores, spread out their materials and made their case.

I’m not kidding. Go read this and realize how awesome a battle this was/is. Beavers are child’s play by comparison.

Hooves and Happenings

heidi08 Beavers, History, Who's saving beavers now? April 10, 2016

Self-castrating beaver BL MS Sloane 4016, c.1440, Italian herbal Courtesy of British Library

That’s right. That hooved creature gnawing off its own testicles was supposed to be a beaver. Should we be surprised? The Italians probably hadn’t seen a live beaver in a century or more when this was painted.

How accurate would our rendition of a Dodo be in comaparison?

I’m a collector of particularly egregious beaver mistakes – somewhat of a connoisseur you could say. But this takes the proverbial cake. I think it’s the hooves that do it. How does a beaver swim with hooves?

Might the hunters have believed they could hear them clattering along the path and thus know where to search?

From the ridiculous to the sublime. I’ve been very impressed with Mountain House. Who is not only entering a full Martinez-like community education phase, reading and watching everything they can, but also meeting with eagle scouts and hosting a library learning event (“Tales and Tails”) where they will read beaver stories and be crafting you-know-whats next week. This quote on their facebook page particularly impressed me.

Given the recent, very nice words of our council and especially with the timing of the mural approval, this struck me as impressive. Somethings DO change I guess.

Rodney D. Bilovsky

I am new to this group (as of last week) thanks to that wonderful local article about our beavers which I seem to always miss on my walks. Happened to meet a fellow from Martinez today and I mentioned how I recently came to know that his city faced a similar issue and it opened up a lengthy conversation. Mostly good things but def said the issue was so very political for quite some time. I hope we do everything to protect these helpful and adorable creatures.

Can I get an Amen? I guess saving beavers is contagious. I hope it becomes an epidemic.