Category: History

Subspecies Subplot

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, History October 18, 2010

C. c. acadicus Bailey	c. frondator Mearns Sonora beaver	C. c. pallidus
C. c. baileyi Nelson	C. c. idoneus	C. c. phaeus Heller Admiralty beaver
C. c. belugae Taylor\Cook Inlet beaver	C. c. labradorensis	C. c. rostralis
C. c. caecator Bangs Newfoundland beaver	C. c. leucodonta Gray Pacific beaver	C. c. repentinus Goldman Sonora beaver
C. c. canadensis Kuhl Canadian beaver	C. c. mexicanus Bailey Rio Grande beaver	C. c. sagittatus
C. c. concisor	C. c. michiganensis Bailey Woods beaver	C. c. shastensis Taylor Shasta beaver
C. c. carolinensis Rhoads Carolina beaver	C. c. missouriensis Bailey Missouri River beaver	C. c. subauratus California Golden beaver
C. c. duchesnei	C. c. pacificus Rhoads Washington beaver	C. c. taylori Davis

So theoretically there are 25 subspecies of beaver in the united states. The three in yellow are native to California. These subspecies are supposed to have slightly different skull morphology and slightly different ‘habits’. When subspecies don’t look noticeably different, or act noticeably different, they are defined as a variety of the species that is separated by some geological feature but generally could, if it weren’t for circumstances, breed comfortably with others outside its subspecies. Different races of humans are not called ‘subspecies’ for obvious reasons, but different types of dog are. There is some early description of golden beaver only knowing how to make ‘bank lodges’ instead of island lodges. In his famous chapter that is often cited, Grinnell noted that these beavers have lost their skill at making canals, somewhat at damming, and even that they are less likely to leave footprints!

Grinnell speculated that the golden beaver wasn’t ideally suited to the higher elevations, and even though they were eventually reintroduced and did fine (thank you very much) there are some who have argued that is because of their cross breeding with other beavers from heartier strains. Importantly, Grinnell did much of his research at a time when there weren’t many beaver left in california to get an adequate sample. Remember that way back in Morgan’s writing there was discussion of “slave beavers” based on the observation that some skins had dented heads, and were obviously the ones that did the damming work by breaking boards with their skulls.

Nowhere does he mention that regional and terrain differences might have more to do with varied behavior than genetics. For example, beavers on wide bodies of water like the colorado river build bank lodges and do not build dams, regardless of subspecies. When Rick saw our ‘bank lodge’ with built up wood atop he was confused. Was this a ‘bank lodge’ or an ‘Island lodge’? His work on the Shasta subspecies in the lassen area occurred very soon after the last volcanic eruption, and probably isn’t a good read of what is ‘typical’ either.

So one discussed goal of the “Historic Range of Beaver in California work group” (still working on the acronym) is proposing a “Lets Investigate Early Subspecies’ (LIES) paper as well. An interesting conversation is taking place with several genetic experts to see what testing would involve. A very important caution is that most historic beaver skins were preserved using arsenic, so care must be taken when collecting samples. Interestingly, we just had word that beavers were also ‘reintroduced’ in other states, some of the very states that supposedly were used to ‘reintroduce’ heartier california beavers. What this means is that whose beavers are whose might be anyones guess!

Dickens Beavers

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions, History October 18, 2010

One of the signature characteristics of a Charles Dickens novel, (beside the rich characters, accessible dialogue, and fearless portrayal of class), is the number of coincidences that occur over the course of any story. He is famous for reintroducing the lost child to the searching mother; reconnecting young lovers severed through circumstance at a wealthy dinner party, (with one as a guest and one in service) and so on. While some have speculated that his use of coincidence was a plot convenience, or a lazy way to wrap things up, it more reflected his belief in the world. His friend John Forester said;

On the coincidences, resemblances, and surprises of life, Dickens liked especially to dwell, and few things moved his fancy so pleasantly. The world, he would say, was so much smaller than we thought; we were all so connected by fate without knowing it; people supposed to be far apart were so constantly elbowing each other; and to-morrow bore so close a resemblance to nothing half so much as yesterday.

I offer this by way of introduction to the surprising connections beaver supporters have made. For those following along at home, let’s review; last summer we held our largest and most successful beaver festival. it was attended by the coordinator of the girl scout extravaganza for northern california, and she invited Worth A Dam to participate. At the Flyway Fiesta we offered a charm bracelet activity that was enormously popular, and that lead to Worth A Dam being invited to two-day Flyway Festival.

At the Flyway festival we met the hydrologist from USFS who introduced us to the archeologist from the Bureau of Indian Affairs who had carbon-dated a paleo beaver dam at 750 years old. The dam was in Red Clover creek, at 5400 feet in plumas county. He had wanted to publish a paper challenging Tappe’s assertion that there “were no beaver in caiformia over 1000 feet” but he wanted a co-author.

Meanwhile my work with the beavers had lead to an invitation to be on the board for the john Muir Association. I’m in charge of entertainment for earthday this year and needed to secure a keynote speaker. Our wikipedia historian friend (who found us through the website) suggested Brock Dolman, so i tracked him down and we started a conversation. His very broad connections include a group of what I will call ‘beaver-curious’ folk who across the state who are interested in the restorative effect they have on the watershed. Brock was especially interested in the beaver-salmon connections and was able to convince the salmon conference people to add Michael Pollock to their line up this March.

Are you still with me? So Pollock gives his talk to a packed group who are very, very interested and he meets up with this Plumas county biologist from DFG who has a remarkable story to tell. Turns out he was the protege of the F&G old timer who was responsible for putting beavers in the the shasta region in the 1930’s. He of course, having read Tappe many times, thinks he was introducing them, and of course they thrived and did wonders for the watershed just as he expected they would. Touchingly, he said it was the ‘best thing he ever did’.

So the protege spent time looking at the hydrology and the terrain and began to get the sneaking suspicion that beaver had been there before; a reintroduction, not an introduction, but he didn’t want to argue with his mentor so he kept his suspicious to himself. Then he attends Pollock’s talk and afterwards an informal lunch discussion and learns about the archeologist and the carbon-dating and he announces that one of the creeks his old mentor had placed beavers was:

Red Clover Creek. The very place where the carbondated structure had been found!

Not enough coincidences for you? How about this little added tidbit. Way back when Martinez was talking about relocating our beavers to live on a reservation, guess where that offered asylum land was?

Plumas county.

The Way Forward

heidi08 Environmental, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, History October 18, 2010

Last night there was a meeting of minds with Worth A Dam regulars and some new supporters who wanted to understand the group better. Plans were made for Earth Day, the Dow wetlands event, and early thoughts about the Festival. The clear-headed mother of our tree-planting eagle scout was interested in having another “jewelry making party” to create more beaver key chains, necklaces and bracelets to benefit our silent auction. We thought that would be an excellent idea! Our artist Fro, mentioned that she had learned how to make an amazing rooting compound using willow leaves in a blender, which she swore worked a charm and wasn’t a recipe for beaver margaritas. There was a discussion of the tiles and recent changes to the habitat, with a sneak preview of the adorable temporary tattoo we are going to make available for kids at our upcoming events.

Scott Artis, of JournOwl, who has been advocating so tirelessly for his burrowing owls, came and told his impassioned and all too familiar story: city lies, developer manipulations, and inverted priorities by Fish & Game (protect the permit, not the species). As some of you might know, Scott is a very tall fellow with an exceedingly gentle spirit; (he must have left 6 feet behind him somewhere in middle school). It was amazing, then, to see him grow even taller before our very eyes as he spoke fiercely about his struggle. Scott’s broad understanding of the issues, dedicated research, eloquent writing and passionate advocacy have pushed the burrowing owl story solidly to the conservation forefront. He recently connected with a writer from the Smithsonian magazine who will be following up with a story this year.

Our third new guest was Rick the wikipedia historian who has been doing such stellar work updating beaver entries and researching the prevalence of beaver in California. He had offered to pick me up from my conference in San Jose and come to the meeting, and of course we had lots to talk about on the way. We stopped off to view the dams and the tiles, which he found very impressive. Rick got involved originally because the 85 year-old man he had bought his house from had told him that he could “fly fish in the stream that ran there” all year long. Of course the stream now is dry for the summer and fall, and Rick wondered if there might be an inexpensive remedy. This got him thinking about beavers and when he approached the ranger he was told “there were no beavers here” which got him interested in the history. Turns out Captain Sutter bought 1500 beaver pelts in 1841 from mission San Jose, so that didn’t make much sense. This naturally brought him to us!

Rick was a veritable font of knowledge, describing the competing trapping influences in California and the different routes they followed into the state. He knew the particulars of what beavers were “(re)introduced” and where by fish and game, and even knew what subspecies. He is a solidly respectable researcher and physician who had the bemused air of a man had been completely ambushed by his overwhelming enthusiasm for this new and compelling beaver mystery story. It was clear he wished there were more hours in a day, more days in a week, more time for beaver pdfs, and more money to spend on endless historical volumes that might hold the elusive answer. Rick said several times that he wished there was a clinical term for this hopeless “beaver addiction”. but I assured him there wasn’t one.

It seemed perfectly normal to me.

The American Way

heidi08 Beavers, History October 18, 2010

“There is, perhaps, no class of men on the face of the earth, … who lead a life of more continued exertion, peril and excitement, and who are more enamoured of their occupations, than the free trappers of the West. No toil, no danger, no privation can turn the trapper from his pursuit. His passionate excitement at times resembles a mania. In vain may the most vigilant and cruel savages beset his path ; in vain may rocks, and precipices, and wintry torrents oppose his progress; but let a single track of beaver meet his eye, and he forgets all dangers and defies all difficulties. At times he may be seen with his traps on his shoulder, buffeting his way across rapid streams, amidst floating blocks of ice: at other times, he is to be found with his traps swung on his back clambering the most rugged mountains, scaling or descending the most frightful precipices, searching, by routes inaccessible to the horse, and never before trodden by white man, for springs and lakes unknown to his comrades, and where he may meet withhis favorite game. Such is the mountaineer, the hardy trapper of the West.

^{Washington Irving: The Pathmakers}

The great and dimly understood California Fur Rush lasted from around 1820 t0 1845. In that slim quarter of a decade the beavers of an entire region were nearly completely wiped out. Beaver pelts (called “plews”) were so plentiful they were used as currency and all other furs were measured against how many skins it would take to equal a beaver (“made beaver”). They were counted not by the tens, but by the bale, like hay; one bale of beaver skins being nearly 100 pelts. Horses laden with beaver plew were trucked back across the mountains to the trading posts, literally by the hudreds. These ‘brave’ men risked frost bite, starvation, abandonment, hostile natives and plague to bring back their quarry. Extremes of hunger lead their guides to turn against them, lead them to eat their dogs, and even their horses. No matter. No hardship was too much to endure in pursuit of the increasingly-elusive beaver. It was worth any cost.

These then, were the men that made California – were in a broader sense the men that made our nation. Should we be surprised that credit default swaps and toxic assets bankrupted our economy? America was essentially founded on greed, risk and selfish exploitation of irreplaceable resources. Just as we could never have succeeded without a thriving slave trade, America could never have become wealthy and independent with out destruction of the beaver. By 1911 there were 11 known colonies of beaver in the entire state of California. The trappers were a model of exploitation that has been woefully repeated with off shore drilling, sports fishing, logging and whaling. Reading their accounts is a horrific glimpse into souls hardened by greed and a nation forged more by opportunism than courage.

Just thought you should know.

Myth-understandings

heidi08 Educational, History March 21, 2010

Okay, I woke up this morning ready to write a somber introduction to the fur trade in California with all the exciting new beaver murder mysteries I’ve been reading, but instead I got immersed in this paper sent to me this morning by our wikipedia friend. It is Grinnell’s chapter on the Beaver in the 1937 UCB zoology departement’s “Fur Bearing Mammals of California“. Grinnell is a very important author, recognized for his conservation, and an early advocate for beaver. I especially liked his illustration of the interior of a bank lodge.

The lovely conclusion of his paper says,

The beaver is one of our most popularly appealing native mammals and should be conserved and encouraged for this reason alone, when other considerations permit. It might be advisable, even, in certain districts where they are somewhat detrimental to the works of man, to condone their shortcomings on the score of their esthetic and educational value-to maintain them so·that they will be accessible for observation by the public at large, both adultsartd children. The latter, especially, find in beavers and their works a keen stimulus to wholesome enquiry.

Ahhh that pretty accurately describes our experience here in Martinez. I’d like it embroidered into the lining of the suits of our council members. Obviously the author had an affection for beavers and enjoyed watching them from time to time. He writes beautifully about kits and the experiences of folks who had the fortune to raise them. He describes what its like to see a beaver making a “V” in the water as it approaches and it is clear he’d feel right at home in Martinez.

Of course, he also notes that Golden Beaver don’t live above 300 feet elevation in California, that our beavers have lost their construction skills and don’t leave footprints, that dam building indicates no signs of intelligence in general and that beaver males fight to the death to mate with the “herd”. He added that, while females were home-loving and family oriented, males mated with everything they could score and had more injuries because of this.

Sigh. More beaver myths.

He ultimately talks about the good that beavers do in the environment and notes that some ranchers were particularly fond of their presence. When beaver dams caused damage to their crops or roads, they tried to discourage building by using a pipe to drain water. Apparently the clever creatures dammed up the pipe pronto. He writes of a particular landowner taking some rather usual measures,

Steel traps were then set in the shallow water of the irrigation canal where the beavers had a dam, and several of the animals were caught. These trapped beavers were soundly spanked by the rancher, who used a good stout board for this purpose. He had protected them on his ranch for years and still did not want to kill them. After they had been spanked and turned loose they stayed away for a while, but a few weeks later some of the same beavers, identified by the trap marks on their toes, were again caught in this canal.

For the record, beating a prone, helpless 40 lb animal with a board is called “clubbing” not “spanking”, and thank God it didn’t work…Good lord, don’t let the council read this. I can see one particular property owner right now out there with a paddle. This goes into the next article on “the history and invention of flow devices”. I’m sending it to Mike and Skip right away! Mind you, it’s all relative. Yes the beavers rebuilt the dam, but I’m sure they were really sorry about it.

Can we just say that there are flaws with the Grinnell article and leave it at that? Obviously California beavers build dams, leave footprints, eat vegetables, care for young, and lived in elevations over 300 feet. All those trappers weren’t in our rivers for the view. If you’re interested in my longer notes on the article drop me a line and I’ll send them to you.

Next?