Category: History

SEA BEAVER!

heidi08 History May 20, 2012

As if the world of beaver research wasn’t confusing enough! What with beaver photos actually being nutria photos, and nutria being the spanish word for otter, and now the discovery of the very, very desirable SEA BEAVER. The illustration is from AUDUBON. (I guess there just so far an interest in birds can take you!)Just look at how happy Captain Cook was to find sea beaver in his third voyage along the pacific which dealt a blow to the Russians.

The object of this excitement was a playful marine mammal with a lustrous coat–the sea beaver. Its pelt was first encountered by Cook at Nootka Sound. The Nootkas also swapped fish, whale oil, venison, and even wild garlic.But the Englishmen preferred furs. Midshipman Edward Riou of the Discovery wrote: “The Natives continue their Visits bringing with them apparently every thing they are in possession of, but nothing is so well received by us as skins,particularly those of the sea beaver, the fur of which is very soft and delicate…The Englishmen literally bought the Nootkas’ clothing off their backs! Ledyard summarized the trading:We purchased while here about 1500 beaver.

1500 beaver. Meaning otter. Meaning modern man just taught the natives the disgusting value of taking far, far, more than you can use. And incidentally meaning if you were trying to establish for your dissertation that the Nootkas used beaver skins as part of their clothing you would be stitch out of luck, because to the fur crazy minds of the time, (with dollar signs where their eyes should be), BEAVER didn’t mean beaver with a flat tail, building dams and chopping trees with its teeth. It meant “Wow, that’s nice looking fur that could make me a lot of money, lets kill it.” So there was River beaver, Sea beaver, and heck in the 1930’s they even referred to Space beaver!

Which is why, if you are finished with the papers firmly establishing beavers in the sierras and starting to work on the paper that shows beavers in California’s coastal streams, you’d be so happy with this find from Kate Lundquist of the OAEC who has been painstakingly hobnobbing with scholars to learn about the history of the Russian River:

The juiciest find I have gotten thus far is from archaeologist Glenn Farris. In 2006, he translated, annotated and published Cyrille Laplace’s account of his visit to Bodega Bay and Ft. Ross in 1839. Laplace was a French rear admiral who circumnavigated the globe from 1837-1840. On his tour of the Russian Ranchos, he states: “It was thus that we came at last, after several hours en route, to the second farm that we were to see, but not before we had stopped a moment by a little river on the banks of which my traveling companion pointed out to me the former habitations of beaver, probably destroyed by the Indians in order to catch the rich prize that lay within.

You see, young Jedi, beavers make lodges but otters don’t. So if Mr. Laplace saw a lodge that had been ripped apart by indians, that means it was a real BEAVER lodge on the Russian River about 150 years ago. Castor Canadensis in the wine country like we always knew was true.

Paper three here we come!

Wishpoosh-Jessie

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, History May 10, 2012

Blog tracks ‘sightings’ of Jessie, a mysterious monster beneath Jamaica Pond

Now this is fun! A blog and twitter account recently appeared on the Boston landscape reporting sighting of a lurking behemoth beneath the largest fresh water in the area. Get it? ‘Jessie’ like ‘Nessie’?

“We are quite certain that Jessie is a giant beaver, Castoroides ohioensis. It’s the only thing that scientifically makes sense, and it fits a lot of the observational data,” said an e-mail from Harden, an office worker and artist, and Roche, a doctoral student in computer science at Northeastern. “He’s about eight feet long, covered in brown fur, and has a large, paddle-like tail.”

The grad student-reporters on this fantastical discovery even have a good reason why he hasn’t been photographed! Seems they set up night observation cameras and got amazing footage but a silly intern deleted them all!

Releasing information about Jessie via the Internet has “definitely created a bit of a buzz on Twitter, and there were an originally increased number of reports of Jessie sightings,” the e-mail said. “I think more people are out looking, and I think it may have made Jessie a bit more shy.”

Oh, that’s rich! They are having a lot of fun with this idea! I almost think castoroides might want to come to Martinez but I can’t even IMAGINE what the city council would do with that particular rumor!

The bloggers admit to having fabricated Jessie’s existence. “Everyone wants a little magic and mystery in life,” their e-mail said. “In this day and age, we are asked to believe so many improbable tales – that Elvis is dead, that ke$ha can sing, that we are not ruled by a race of alien lizard overlords – why NOT believe in a giant, prehistoric pond-dwelling beaver?!?”

Why not indeed? If you want a fantastical tale about the REAL castoroides, you can read all about his exploits and legendary battle with Coyote here. Come to think of it, it makes sense that there would be giant beavers in Massachusetts. Given the unbelievable amount of panic and outrage the arrival of an ordinary beaver causes – the trips to the health department for a kill permit, the claim that they are going to ruin the environment, the woeful kvetching to the media, the failure to problem-solve or think in any capacity about reasonable solutions – those beavers MUST be giant.

Certainly they couldn’t possibly be the same size as the beavers for which hundreds of other cities manage their challenges while recognizing their enormous value, right? (Like Martinez for instance?) I mean obviously Boston has got to be dealing with a problem no city has successfully faced in 150 years right?

Well check out the Jessie blog and in the mean time, keep your eye peeled for something like this.

Beavers and Heroes

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, History, In the News April 11, 2012

UPDATE:

Ian Timothy makes beaver waves in Kentucky. Out of state voices rattle the council and leave a lasting impression. Go read the whole article, you will love every syllable!

The Great Beaver Massacre occurred in the city of St. Matthews sometime in early March. That’s really the only fact everybody agrees upon. (OK, so even that isn’t an agreed-upon fact by all parties involved.) Like so many government-sponsored atrocities before it, the alleged savagery is shrouded in secrecy and official denials of knowledge. In fact, Robert Tonini, a member of the St. Matthews City Council, claims he didn’t know anything about it until mid-March when emails started pouring in. St. Matthews officials have received missives from as far away as California, Maine and New Zealand. All of them with the same claim: Someone had embarked on the demolition of beaver dams in Arthur K. Draut Park.

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Then check out the other good beaver tidings! My article as published in the spring newsletter of the John Muir Association. Click on the image for a fun read linking the city’s famous conservationist to a famous beaver advocate!

And stay tuned for some very good news for beavers in California!

At the annual conference we have an award ceremony to recognize and honor leaders in the watershed restoration community. The Golden Pipe award is an annual award presented by the Salmonid Restoration Federation for innovators in the fisheries restoration field. Usually this award is bestowed upon a pioneer in the habitat restoration field who has been a leader or unique thinker in fish passage design or innovative restoration techniques.

On March 7th, 2012 in Davis, CA the Salmonid Restoration Federation presented this award to Brock Dolman, the Director of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center’s WATER Institute for his leading role as a proponent of “working with beavers” to restore native habitat. Brock helped co-found the ad hoc California Beaver Working Group, networked with groups utilizing beavers from all over the country, and made strategic contacts with state and federal agencies that oversee wildlife and fisheries conservation and recovery efforts.

Brock has been a Paul Revere for the Beaver, shouting its virtues and mobilizing communities to consider working hand and paw with these creatures who naturally know how to restore habitat and protect instream flows.

This pushes beavers a long way into the forefront on the salmon campaign and moves us all closer to the inevitable day when any city ripping out a beaver dam will need to pay a fish – fine – and I couldn’t be happier! Congratulations Brock and keep up the good work!

Beaver Harvest and Everyone’s Invited!

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, History March 29, 2012

That’s been the motto of America since day one apparently. Look at today’s headline from the Sun Chronicle in Maine this morning:

The Pilgrims and the beaver trade

That’s right, the Pilgrims apparently paid for their journey to religious freedom with money they borrowed from the Company of the Merchant Adventurers of London. And guess what was the fastest way to pay them back after those first hard winters? I’ll give you a hint, it starts with a ‘B’.

By 1625, the Pilgrims concluded that the fur trade would offer the most viable means to retire their debt. They were able to obtain a charter from the King granting them rights on the Kennebec River in what is today the state of Maine.

So the Pilgrims built a shallop, a sailing vessel designed for coastal navigation, and set out for Merrymeeting Bay, 200 miles to the north, then up into the Kennebec River. Twenty five miles upriver, at the head of the tide where current and tides mark the extreme of navigable water, they established a trading post at Cushnoc, the site of modern-day Augusta.

The indigenous tribe, the Abenaki, were anxious to trade. They had abundant furs to offer in exchange for corn, of which the Pilgrims were producing a surplus, and other goods. As Governor Bradford put it, “not only with corn, but also with such other commodities as the fishermen had traded with them, as coats, shirts, rugs and blankets, biscuit, pease [sic], prunes, etc.” In exchange for a shallop-load of corn sailed up the river, 700 pounds of beaver pelts came back down. With beaver fur in great demand in London, the Pilgrims were able to satisfy their debts by 1636.

700 lbs of beaver skins. Wow, since the specified weight for an adult beaver pelt was 1.25 lbs that means that the pilgrims paid off their credit card with about 600 beavers on a single stream, plus of course killing all the kits and incidental young that weren’t good for anything. Let’s see, that’s like 56 beavers a year in a 170 mile stretch of river…let’s say 3 a mile….yup that seems about right.

Religious freedom, thrift, hardwork and beaver killing! Now I know just how to decorate for thanksgiving this year! And just to show that beaver intolerance spans the centuries fully from our founding to the modern day, there is apparently a new episode of ‘Duck Dynasty‘ out this week that shows the hardworking Bayou entrepreneurs blowing up a beaver dam. A smart man would think to himself, hey since they make their money selling decoys for duck hunting maybe they would want more to keep the animal that builds conditions that make more ducks – but a smart man would be nowhere near this ambivalent hickfest. Apparently they think the beavers live in the dam! If you want to see the explosion go here but I’m sure you have better things to do.

(Tell me again what A&E stands for because I must have forgotten.)

If you need some good cheer after this beaver killing extravaganza go read this op ed by Karen Levenson of Guelph Canada. She’s the Director of the Animal Alliance in Canada that wrote me last week about starting a beaver festival in Ontario. Enjoy!

Beavers are an environmental asset

Throughout North America, cities such as Guelph are recognizing the critical role beavers play in protecting our environment. Beavers are a keystone species that help maintain healthy aquatic habitat, which supports a wide variety of animal and plant life, thus ensuring biodiversity.

Let’s be proud that Mayor Karen Farbridge and forestry supervisor Randy Drewery are taking a progressive, science-based approach by wrapping vulnerable trees to discourage beavers from chewing. The city can also plant trees that beavers prefer, fast-growing species, such as poplar, willow, birch and trembling aspen, close to the water’s edge to discourage beavers from removing more valuable trees further up the bank and to help stabilize the slope and prevent erosion. An added benefit is when these trees grow back they are fuller, with lots of new growth, providing nesting sites for a variety of bird species.

Beavers Rule – Dinosaurs Drool

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, History March 15, 2012

A love of flowers allowed the group of mammals to blossom during the dinosaur era, research has shown. Multituberculates flourished during the last 20 million years of the dinosaur's reign Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2114978/The-secret-peaceful-beaver-like-mammals-lived-alongside-dinosaurs-20-million-years.html#ixzz1pCLmnwbw

Or something. A recent article in Mail online tells us that beaver-like creatures lived along side dinosaurs, adapted to their menacing ways by nibbling flowers and even outlived the cataclysmic event that killed them off.

Revealed: the secret of the peaceful beaver-like mammals which lived alongside the dinosaurs for 20 million years

When the dinosaurs ruled the earth, some mammals actually flourished – living alongside the lizards for 20 million years.

And the secret of the creatures’ survival was not huge fighting prowess – the rodent-like creatures adapted to eating flowering plants.

They even survived the ‘mass extinction event’ which wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago – thought to have been caused by an asteroid or volcanic activity.

See while everyone else was being big and terrifying (or little and fast) the mutituberculates decided that rather than chase down a meal every day they would consume a renewable resource that would be there again for them tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. In fact, since they were pruning these flowers and dropping their bits in all over the countryside, the flowers actually increased meaning that even when things got scarce for everyone else they weren’t scarce for our flower eating beaver-like heroes.

And the moral of this story? Use renewable resources or go extinct. Makes sense to me.