Apparently, we can wear ‘Nutria’ now…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, In the News, New Species September 14, 2010

A fur that’s politically correct and even ecology-friendly to wear? Is such a thing possible?

Nutria is the animal most often mistaken for beaver. They are aquatic mammals who eat grasses and dig holes and produce large litters several times a year. They were ostensibly brought in from South America, where they were native, intended to feed a hungry fur trade industry that mostly petered out. Nutria means ‘otter’ in spanish,so it was a smart way to sell the fur – but they are very different creatures. Now people hate nutria. I have even heard them classified as a ‘negative keystone species’ because of their impact on the watershed. Lucky for us since environmentalists tell us they are bad, t his article brings the good news that we are welcome to kill them and use their fur!

Oscar de la Renta, Michael Kors, Patrik Ervell and Gilles Mendel are among the designers who might be described as nuts for nutria fur. … the Coastwide Nutria Control Program was introduced in 2002. Managed by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and funded with federal dollars, the program is currently paying $5 for each nutria tail turned in to the program, enabling coastal trappers — many of them survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — to make a living.

Isn’t that nice? Hurricane victims (and gulf coast survivors) can make money trapping rodents and you can wear them! Apparently nutria are all the rage in China. And, since synthetic fur is a petroleum product, this is better for the planet!

Lots of coastal trappers are earning money through the Coastwide Nutria Control Program,” Edmond Mouton, biologist and program manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, told TODAYshow.com. “We took in about 300,000 tails in the years before Katrina and Rita. Post Katrina and Rita, it dropped a bit because of the impact of the storms, but this is a fairly resilient group of people. In the past year, they set a record of 445,963 tails.After the state takes the tail, the trappers can then sell the pelts for additional income. “A lot of the fur is shipped to China and used in the Russian and Eastern European markets to make hats and coats — medium-price type garments,” Mouton explained. “They get $1 to $1.50, sometimes $2 per pelt, depending on the quality.”

Just in case all that didn’t make you feel good enough about wearing fur, there’s Keith Kaplan (newly appointed head of the we-love-fur club) (FICA) to tell us that wearing nutria is good for the environment. Trapping helps animals! Just look at Maryland! Ever since those darned bunny-huggers outlawed trapping beaver the evil critters have eaten all their trees. Now people want trees back and want trapping back! One can only rejoice that this evil menace will soon be off the waterways for good. Look at this horrific footage if you dare!

On the local (non-sarcastic) front, Worth A Dam’s artists FRO and Randy presented at the school board last night and were well received. The mural looks excellent on display and FRO sends the following summary;

Randy and I took turns talking about the “slides” and had a good – enthusiastic presentation. We expressed our knowledge of the keystone and the importance of the Beaver as a Keystone species. We also expressed the importance of educating our children; who now seem to be educating the Martinez mucky mucks and have changed the hearts and minds of some important city figures. Strange what we can learn from the younger generation. F

Beavers in Buffalo?

heidi08 Environmental, In the News, Recent Sightings August 16, 2010

Vermette pointed out where beavers had built a dam across one of the waterways, thus raising the water level behind it significantly. In many areas beavers can be problem animals, but here their dam slows the water flow still more, thus enhancing the marsh’s role in improving water quality.

Considering the bitter smack much of New York has been happy to talk about beavers, this article is a breath of fresh air. It describes two graduate students charged with monitoring, testing and studying the area, and who have been particularly enthusiastic about the effect of the resident beaver dam. The article goes on to describe how beavers often cause problems and dams are routinely destroyed by the transportation department, but how these students petitioned to let these particular beaver stay and help the polluted waters. Guess how well its working? The bemused article makes it sound like this healing dam is something unique or special, and sadly doesn’t mention that beavers could be bestowing the same gifts everywhere if they were just allowed to live. I wrote them the following:

Gerry Riser’s charming piece about the beaver dam improving water quality in Woodlawn wetlands seems to suggest that the good work done by this helpful dam is the exception rather than the rule. The truth is that once the transportation department stops wasting taxpayer dollars on futile dam removal and invests instead in real solutions like flow devices and culvert fences, every waterway, stream and creekside can be significantly improved by the addition of beavers. The secret wetlands of Woodlawn are only rare in their appreciative scholars: beavers benefit any waterway that is lucky enough to have them.

I heard from Sharon of Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife that they did a consult for a flow device in the area as well, so Buffalo should know better than to think ripping out dams is the solution.

Photo: Berryessa US DEPT of Interior

On a entirely different note I saw amazing footage taken by Moses yesterday morning of a MASSIVE otter in the area between the dams. His long whiskers and huge size let us know this is an otter that has seen many, many summers. Moses wasn’t willing to share the footage with the website, but keep your eyes peeled. We didn’t see sign of him last night, or the beavers either for a good long time and I was starting to get nervous. The kits eventually emerged as cheerful as you please, GQ crossed delightfully over the dam, a muskrat swam by and three green herons flew in for a squabble on the filter. All in all, it’s a pretty healthy habitat. Hear that Buffalo?

lie lie lie

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, In the News, Who's Killing Beavers Now? September 10, 2010

Anne of Green Gables’ homeland is back on the beaver warpath again. They announced a few months back that they planned to kill 150 beavers because moving them wasn’t working. (New ones just moved in. You know, kinda like they’ll do after you kill some.) They got a fair amount of public pushback and now say that they won’t kill quite that many. Of course, the environmentally sound P.E.I loves beavers and recognizes that they do good for the watershed, but they have to kill them, and guess why? Say it with me now.

“To protect the salmon”

The chairman of the wildlife conservation fund, Bruce Smith, reports that dams will interfere with salmon passage.

“(Beavers) do create wetlands but the problem is at the same time they can obstruct salmon migration,” Smith said. “The colony is removed from the problem areas only after a thorough investigation into how destructive the beavers’ presence is in the area and active dams are never touched until the beavers are removed, Smith said. “

Lets just pause to consider that remarkable sentence, shall we? Under the weight of the massive literature which I personally can attest Bruce has been sent he grudgingly admits that beaver dams do some modest good. Then insists the more pressing issue is that they prevent salmon from passing. (lie lie lie) Then quickly assures people that these roadblocks which do ‘some good’ will be preserved anyway until the beavers are killed. A beaver-friend exchanged emails and articles with the powers behind the decision and was told all that compelling research about beavers and salmon didn’t pertain to P.E.I. because Atlantic salmon were different and beavers weren’t native to the island. After a few historical trapping records were noted he conceeded that they might be a “little bit native”, but it didn’t matter because their salmon were still different. Ahh, disabled?

A vocal advocate, Peggy Ruge, has worked with our friends at Fur-bearer Defenders and is advocating those whacky humane methods the kids are all trying these days.

“The methods Ruge is referring to mostly involve treating the trees with either a type of paint or solution that discourages the beavers from chopping them down or a metal type of shield on the base of the tree. Smith said the problem with painting the trees is there are too many and it would take up a great deal of time and money. “In a lot of the sites they are eating alders. You’d have a hard time painting all the alders”

Once again, Bruce provides some remarkable language and truly circular reasoning.

Bruce:”The beavers must be killed because they will eat all the trees
Peggy: “There are a lot of trees.”
Bruce: “There aren’t enough trees.”
Peggy: “Then paint the trees you want to protect”
Bruce: “There are too many trees to paint”
Heidi: “Help me out here, Bruce. Is the problem that there are too many trees? Or too few?”
Bruce: Waaaaaaaaaaaaa. Shut up. Shut up. SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Prince Edward Island will destroy the winter pools for juvenile salmon and pay taxpayer dollars for a solution they will have to repeat in three years all because they listened to a man whose initials are BS.

Anne of Green Gables Trapping Beavers

(BTW, if you didn’t click on the video, take a moment to marvel at the new skill I just learned of cueing it up to play right where you want. Ahhh the internet!)

Baby Sightings

heidi08 Creative Solutions, In the News, kits June 12, 2010

Our newest family member was seen by the Worth A Dam gang last night at 8:30, swimming about near the primary dam and doing exactly what a beaver should. We received lots of well-wishes yesterday from people who’d seen the chronicle article. Skip Lisle wrote his congratulations and Lenard Houston of SURCP said he’s still trying to get photos of his new beaver twins to share. No sightings again this morning so I’m thinking he’s already found his rhythm and its ‘wake up early and go to bed early’. Our own LB was very excited to see him last night and posted this in the sightings page.

June 11th – Baby beaver seen swimming near the main dam around 8:30 PM and finding some willow twigs to eat and then taking some back to the lodge. He/she is so cute and small. Soon after a very large beaver (not Mom) came over the dam from down stream bringing back some willow branches and going towards the lodge.

There was a little flurry of news reports about the beavers yesterday. By far the most amusing one is this, a fortuitous byproduct of the massive media monopolies where everything is owned by everyone else. Clearly the best news ever printed in the Wall Street Journal and I’ll wager the only time Martinez has been discussed therein.

This week a copy of Mike Callahan’s Beaver Solutions DVD was donated to the Martinez Library which means it will be available for borrowing in all of Contra Costa and inter-library loans. If you’re curious about how to install flow device or culvert fence, or just want to see it done up close, stop by and check it out. The device used by Mike is called the “Flexible Leveler”. The one used by Skip Lisle is called the “Castor Master” (that’s what we have in Martinez) — different names and some different properties, but the same basic elements. Oh and Mike’s DVD stars the Martinez Beavers in all their swimmy glory so it’s definitely worth seeing!

The Clara Barton of Pelicans

heidi08 In the News, New Species January 25, 2010

Our VP Cheryl has been hard at (lovingly unpaid) work at IBRRC this weekend taking care of a peck of pelicans who have been adversely affected by all the runoff pollution in their water. It is hard, unforgiving work. These birds are nearly as tall as she is, and their beak can function as prodigious bayonet. Still the white pelican is one of Cheryl’s favorite birds in all the world, so she was happy to send this photo of a recovering patient: