Category: History

Unibeaver!

heidi08 Beavers, History December 15, 2013

West Side Wildlife: Canadian Beaver, Castor Canadensis

The greatest problem today with beaver on the Jordan, is that they no longer have either their historic, longtime predators like wolves and cougar, nor fur trappers to help control their numbers. Beaver skins have long since been replaced by the likes of other natural insulations like wool, or by newer synthetic materials like Dacron to help keep us warm, and fur trapping is now mostly practiced by the few folk still practicing mountain man techniques. Therefore, while populations of both beaver and humans have continued to increase, the encroachment of human development towards the river has resulted in conflicts between these two mammals.

There are areas where beaver have cut down large sections of trees along the river. Efforts to plant trees along the Parkway for shade, beautification, and wildlife restoration projects are hindered by this animal that has historically provided so many benefits to Americans. Some solutions include, protecting the trunk of every tree with chain link fencing, but that could be unsightly. Beaver can be live-trapped and transplanted to areas that would benefit from their works, or they could be merely trapped and killed to control their overpopulation in specific areas where they have become a problem.

No predators, no mountain lions or coyotes. Well, there’s nothing really surprising here. Another author complaining about these ‘water savers’ in Utah, not a bad start right? I mean we’ve seen worse?

In researching this article, I was unable to find any reference by trappers, explorers or even early settlers of beaver being present on the Jordan River, although they referred to most other wildlife. Today, however, we do find an abundance of beaver here. They do not build beaver dams on the Jordan River as they do in more forested areas. Here they generally build their homes in burrows in the riverbank, although they occasionally build a wooden lodge on top of the bank. Entrances to these homes are usually underwater with fresh air available only through a breathing hole dug above the water level.

Such a historian! Doing research for his detail-laden article! Who is this thoughtful genius? The column bio says “Dan Potts is a Poplar Grove resident, local naturalist and President of Salt Lake County Fish and Game Association.” So he must know what he’s talking about. It’s weird, Dan that you couldn’t find a single historical mention of beavers in the Jordan river! I wonder if they just showed up? No wonder we’re having so many problems with them! They’re probably not even native!

Oh wait, you did remember that Heber C. Kimball, only named the Jordan river until 1847 right? (Because it reminded him of the one from the bible that flows through the fertile valley. ) Before that it was called the Proveau River after Etienne Provost, the french canadian trapper who was the first white man to see the great salt lake around 1825. A year before, he and his men were attacked by Snake Indians for trapping beaver on that very river. Eight (white) men were killed. In the 23 years before it was renamed, the Rocky Mountain fur company, the Hudson Bay Fur Company, and the John Jacob Astor fur company all were eager to enjoy the Proveau’s bounty. I’m pretty sure you could have found some reference to that.

Well sure, not everyone knows that rivers change names or knows how to use the google. Heidi, you’re being too hard on the man. Have some compassion and let the fellow make his point already. There are too many beavers in Jordan river!.And he should know!

They are now considered the largest rodents on our continent, but at one time (around a million years ago) grew as large as oxen, and possessed unicorn-like horns to help protect themselves from the larger predators that roamed their territory. After humans arrived, however, most of these large megafauna (a scientific term for large animals) disappeared, and today’s beaver are much smaller and largely defenseless.

Beavercorns! The unibeaver! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the very best beaver myth you are ever likely to read on this or any website in the entire history of the world. Turns out the author of this fine article did know how to use the Google – he read about Paleaocastor, but didn’t realize that the description he was stealing was actually a wiki of the animated movie “ICE AGE”.

In all fairness there was a very small burrowing beaver that dug excavations scientists didn’t understand for a long time and this kinda looked like a unicorn’s horn. There were lots of arguments in the early 1900’s about whether this was a plant or fossil or result of beaver claws, but in the end one was found with a palaeocastor allowing the mystery to be settled that the tunnel had actually been dug with it’s TEETH.

Palaeocastor and burrow in National Museum of Natural History.

Remember, Mr. Potts is the president of the Salt Lake County Fish and Game Association. He must know what he’s talking about. You’d think a wildlife association would want to keep beavers around to encourage more wildlife to associate with. Never mind. He’s the president and his wife is on the board of directors.

The Salt Lake County Fish and Game Association (SLCF&GA) is a private non-profit foundation whose primary mission is the preservation and protection of Utah’s wildlife and natural resources.

I think I will treasure this article more than any I’ve ever read. I’m been told I’m a very fanciful person. I think about beavers a lot and have a good imagination. But I don’t think,even I, could ever in my wildest dreams have come up with anything as delightful as this. Thank you, Dan!

Beavers: Past, Present & Future

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, History September 17, 2013

Do you remember that game you’d play at school where someone whispers something into the ear of the child sitting next to them and the message goes on around the circle until the last child says what she heard aloud? There’s usually a l0t of giggling and no repeats so that by time it gets to the end the message transforms from “Every day I ride my bike to the store” to “Emma’s mom looks like a whore” or some such nonsense. Well that’s what I thought yesterday when I saw this headline in the New York Post.

Beaver waste can be used in baked goods, sweets

Beavers anal secretions smell similar to vanilla and can be used in baked goods and sweets, according to the Swedish National Food Agency.

These secretions are “WASTE” in about the same way as if you were a human organ harvester and found you had some teeth and extra bits left over. They certainly aren’t WASTE to the beaver. They are essential for his daily survival and something he would never part with willingly. The term WASTE refers to the industry who has already killed the beaver and sold the fur and has extra bits left over. It is coy to use this term and just wait for it to get misunderstood.

Just as expected, I saw these headlines later in the day:

Beaver dung can be key ingredient for vanilla flavor in baked goods

An adding insult to injury from the Complex city guide:

This is what happens when you let Rick put Cheryl’s lovely photo on Wikipedia. It means AACUI. For the record, this is what beaver dung really looks like, and I don’t think anyone will be flavoring anything with it any time soon unless of course they’re making sawdust sandwiches.

Now for some good beaver news from the Economist of all places.

All creatures great and small

Biodiversity, once the preoccupation of scientists and greens, has become a mainstream concern. Liberal helpings of growth and technology are the best way of preserving it, says Emma Duncan.

Part of the reason is pragmatic: as man has come to understand ecology better, he has realised that environmental destruction in pursuit of growth may be self-defeating. Rivers need to be healthy to provide people with clean water and fish; natural beauty fosters tourism; genes from other species provide the raw material for many drugs. But man also finds it troubling to think that as the only species able to marvel at the diversity of creation, he should be responsible for killing it off.

Well, okay it doesn’t mention beavers AS SUCH but it’s exactly the kind of article you hand to the frowning politician to get his attention before you give him the article that says beavers create biodiversity. Go read the whole thing, and make a beaver comment. Maybe we can sway the Economist into sniffing out this report for example.

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Now credit Cheryl for finding this great film of reintroducing beavers in 1938 in Idaho. Allow me to remark wistfully that not only did America used to know that beaver dams prevent erosion and silt buildup, we used to help them by making starter dams! It starts out with a nutria farm but trust me, it gets better.

Speaking of Nutria, yesterday a friend of the Scottish free beavers saw my picture from the beaver mistaken identity post and wrote me a helpful note on facebook explaining that the photo was actually a nutria not a beaver.

Sigh.

Gosh, someone should probably write something about that sometime.

Proteus Castor

heidi08 Beavers, History September 8, 2013

Here is what I have learned from beavers.
There is no God of Resilience.
We have gods for war and love and forgiveness and rebirth.
We are reminded to bear sorrows like Job or forgive wrongs like Budda.
But no church preaches that the greatest gift is redefinition.
To make something new out of something ruined.
Even Proteus had his limits.
He could not change shape if you held him tightly.

Beavers can

Here is the other thing I learned from beavers.
You did not listen to Dr. Wolh’s interview yesterday.
And I wanted to make sure you heard this.

The Beaver Word on the Street

heidi08 Beavers, History August 2, 2013

We’ve had some great interest in this year’s festival. A lovely article by our friend Dana Guzzetti ran yesterday in the Pleasant Hill Record part of the Contra Costa Times. Just look,

Kits show up for Beaver Festival VI in Martinez

Wildlife experts, artists, entertainers, teachers and scientists will be at the sixth annual Martinez Beaver Festival in Beaver Park with guided creek tours, games, hands-on projects, 41 display booths, music and information on the beavers, fish, otters, birds and vegetation surrounding beaver construction sites.

“The festival brings together many groups that have the same mindset of education and awareness of our environment — the flora and fauna and the animals that share it,” said photographer Cheryl Reynolds, who is vice president of Worth a Dam

“We can solve problems in new ways and get a huge benefit from it,” Perryman said. “We have new species of fish and birds, all because of the beavers. It is really a nice lesson of how a city can do something different and reap a tremendous reward.”

Yes it is! Thanks Dana and Cheryl! Another story ran in the Martinez Patch, by Derek Wilson.

Beavers Get Spotlight At Festival Saturday

The festival is scheduled for Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at “Beaver Park.” A group from Whitman College will be at the festival filming a documentary entitled “Beaver Believers.” The short film is expected to make the rounds at film festivals and competitions. Another documentary, “Beaver Whisperers,” is expected to be released soon.

“Martinez has worked hard to get that good relationship with the beavers,” Peryman said. “More than 200 people were at that meeting to decide what would happen to the beavers. Our beavers are so uniquely visible, so that helped. Everyone can see them on the way to Starbucks in the morning for coffee.”

Perryman states the beavers are actually helping the health of the wetlands. Their dam creates a hospitable place for small bugs that feed fish. As fish populations grow, more birds come to the area to feed on them.

Derek does a nice job for his first time on the ‘beaver beat!’ although there is a strange passage in the article where he quotes me as saying they are “CUTE”, which I cannot believe ever came out of my mouth. Although, let’s be honest, they’re adorable!

Perryman’s idea for a festival seems to have worked beyond all expectations. This year’s fair welcomes the Marine Mammal Center and groups trying to raise awareness of coyotes, mountain lions, endangered species of frogs and other animals native to Northern California.

Perryman also notes that there have been other festivals around the country and in Canada based on the Martinez Beaver Festival. “It’s been a hard road to get here,” Perryman admits of the festival’s success, “but it’s been worth it.”

Goodness! Beaver ambassadors are spreading like communism in Asia, furry environmental Nazi’s marching their way throughout Europe. We’re coming to your town soon. The hand that saves the beaver rules the world!

A package arrived yesterday from Oregon. It was a gift from Renee and Patrick Russell. Patrick has become a devoted fan of beavers and this website. He has been doing a stalwart job of teaching his watershed friends on the Clackamas why they whould care about beavers. Renee his wife accepted his interest bemusedly – as wives will do. She decided on supporting his obsessive new beaver interest by embroidering a gift for me of a beaver dishtowel – see for yourself.

Isn’t she beautiful? As you may or may not know, Beatrice was Dante’s guide out of purgatory and into paradise, which I suppose could be considered a symbol of teaching someone something new that changes things. Like beavers, for instance. You might think that I would be nobly tempted to selflessly include this gift in the silent auction but if you thought such a foolish thing you’d be dead wrong because its mine and I love it! Thanks so much Renee. And Patrick for really taking on the beaver mantel!

Now for more news of yesterday, I had lunch with the good folk of Kiwanis yesterday and gave a talk on the Beavers in Martinez. Honestly the very best, brightest and kindest folk in Martinez are all in Kiwanis, and shhh… just between us…the other ones are in Rotary.

Then I rushed home and met Phil Brick and Sarah Koenigsberg for the Beaver Believer’s documentary. They spent some time searching about and deciding where to film, then settled on the back yard and got everything ready: A sun shade, some cameras on tripods, a big fuzzy boom microphone and some other odds and ins. Then Phil did the interview and Sarah took the video. We had to stop and restart for interruptions like church bells and icecream trucks in the background, and I stopped for water after an hour. I must have taken quite a while, because Jon was pacing about with dinner by the time we were finished.

After we enjoyed a lively dinner and conversation with some lovely beaver creek wine, of which my favorite part was when they talked about being in the bar last night in Berkeley where they mentioned they were in town for the festival and having a man say he knew all about it because he heard it on KCBS! Then we all went to see the famous animals themselves (who did not disappoint) before finishing with a last bit of audio.

The whole process was uniquely pleasant and affirming. Often in interviews I am achingly aware of the razor thin attention-span and the need to whittle what I want to say into the smallest appetizing sound byte. This time I got to say whatever I wanted. In the order I wanted. And as precisely as I wanted. If I coughed or said a word wrong we could do it again. And if I thought of something I wanted to add that was okay too. For the first time in my life I can honestly say I got to talk about beavers ENOUGH.

In fact, when they left I was reminded of the old Paula Poundstone routine, where she’d end her night of standup with a wistful,

“I did a hour and a half last night and I would have done more, but the club had really bad security and lots of the audience got away!”

See you tomorrow! And sorry about the server crash. Big conspiracy in anti-beaver lobby to take down Blue Host this morning.

Real legends and real life

heidi08 Beavers, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, History, In the News July 27, 2013

The Oneida tribe started out in upstate New York and you can guess how well that worked out for them. They ended up getting routed into Wisconsin where they were promised some land until we wanted that back also. They are credited with complicated art and culture and amongst their many legends is the tale of turtle challenging beaver to a race.

See, the turtle was enjoying her little mucky pond and the beaver moved in one winter and when she woke up it was a HUGE pond with felled trees and a big dam. She was outraged and demanded the beaver leave at once. When he refused she challenged him to a contest, winner-take-pond.

“Who are you?” asked Turtle angrily. “What did you do to my pond?”

The stranger said, “I am Beaver. And this is my pond, not yours! I worked hard to block the stream and make the waters wide and deep! Now leave!”

Turtle was not about to leave. “Let’s have a contest,” he said. “We will fight to see who will stay and who will go!”

“Great!” said Beaver. “I’ve got just the teeth for fighting.”

Turtle did not like this answer. “I changed my mind. Let’s see who can hold their breath the longest.”

“Great!” said Beaver. “I can stay underwater one whole day!”

Turtle did not like this answer, either. “I changed my mind. Let’s see who can swim fastest from this side of the pond to the other side.”

“Great!” said Beaver. “I am the fastest swimmer of all. Let’s begin our race!”

In the legend the turtle wins, so the beaver is forced to leave the pond. Now the well-known tale is retold by a new animated movie that is currently making the film festival circuit. In the movie they compromise and share the land.

Oneida Indian Nation Modernizes Story About Living in Harmony

It’s a story about friendship, respecting Mother Earth, and learning to live in harmony. My Home was produced by Four Directions, a production company owned by Oneida Indian Nation, which owns Oneida Nation Enterprises, parent company of Indian Country Today Media Network. My Home has won numerous awards from film festivals across the country and got a warm reception at the Karl May Festival in Germany.

During the race Beaver cheats to beat her, and not wanting to lose, Turtle ends up cheating too. Turtle does arrive at the agreed upon end point first but doesn’t touch it until Beaver does, ending the race in a tie.

She suggests that the two of them should find a way to live together. And they do. Beaver lets the water back into the lake.

Beaver champion that I am I was deeply affronted by the idea that beaver moved into a pond and RUINED it for turtles. Since when does a keystone species and ecosystem engineer ruin conditions for turtles? Would she prefer no pond? Is she a tortoise in disguise? Look at our creek! Which was so full of pond turtles the other day when I checked in at lunch time I counted 11!

Aren’t Native Americans supposed to know something about NATURE?

And then I remembered this.

Did you get that? Beaver brought the fur-seeking Dutch, and the white man who used their furs as currency, who in turn drove out the Oneida from New York and ‘ruined their pond’. The beaver ‘progress’ in this story is symbolically representing the changes we made and insisted were for the better while we were cashing in on the fur trade and pretty much eliminating everything in our path. The slow pace of the turtle, who has everything she needs on her back, represents the Oneida who were content on their land until we came. The point of the story isn’t that beavers ruin ponds. It’s that we do.

Well, okay then.

Anyway the movie is getting great reviews and will be available on DVD. Which reminds me that our own beaver-friendly animator sent copies of his Beaver Creek series yesterday for the silent auction along with a little present for me.

In case you don’t recognize it it’s the instant cocoon that collapses the beaver lodge in the very first episode of Beaver Creek. An artifact for some future animators museum! Some where Nick Park is smiling. Thanks Ian.