MAKING ROOM FOR BEAVERS IN URBAN SPACES

heidi08 Flow Device Installed, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Mike Callahan October 15, 2019

Oooh if Martinez had beavers they surely would have felt that! 4,7 Earthquake last night centered practically under my mother’s apartment in pleasant hill. Things rolled and fell off the shelves and just in time for something we’ve ALL been waiting for.

Can’t We All Just Get A-Log? More In Mass. Seek Coexistence With Beavers

Mike Callahan begins to move the pipe into position to during the installation of the flow device on Causeway St. in Millis. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Mike Callahan is thigh-deep in scummy pond water, yanking loads of mud-covered sticks, mossy rocks and leaves from a blocked pipe in Millis.

“Welcome to the glamorous world of beaver control,” he says, holding up a branch that’s been gnawed to a sharp point. After pulling out a few more armloads of muck, he picks up a rake and begins dragging away bigger loads of debris.

We knew this was coming since the instagram photo a while back, but I didn’t expect it to be THIS good or this long! Ben even gets a short statement! It’s funny because I’ve just been working on my urban beaver benefits quote page so I’m wishing he had mentioned microclimates and impermeable surface but this is plenty to enjoy.

Beaver control is big business. Since starting Beaver Solutions in 2000, Callahan says he’s installed close to 1,600 of these devices — almost all in Massachusetts — and still, the calls from prospective clients keep coming in. That’s because beavers are a constant headache for many Massachusetts homeowners, chewing down trees and building dams that flood basements and roadways. But beavers also do a lot of good things for the environment, like creating habitats and purifying water. So instead of the traditional method of dealing with beavers — trapping and killing them — a growing number of people are trying for peaceful coexistence.

“There are a lot of people out there who don’t necessarily view beavers as being beneficial. They think of them as pests and nuisances and destructive animals,” says Ben Goldfarb, author of “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.”

But as more people recognize the benefits of having beavers around, he says, “The idea of nonlethal control is catching on across the country.”

Whooo hoo! Big business! It’s a beaver pallooza!

Mike Callahan, owner of Beaver Solutions, LLC, pulls out debris from a culvert beavers dammed up on Causeway St in Millis. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Beavers are what biologists call a “keystone species.” The term comes from architecture, where the keystone is the apex piece of an arch. It’s what gives the structure strength and holds it together. Remove it, and the arch crumbles.

In nature, keystone species are essential to ecosystem health. And when it comes to beavers, their contribution begins with what they’re most famous for: chewing wood. After they gnaw logs and branches with their self-sharpening front teeth, they use the material to build their homes — called lodges — and dams, to create wetlands.

Mike Callahan and Edward Beattie submerge the pipe as John Egan watchers as the cage sinks to the bottom of the marsh during the installation of the flow device on Causeway St. in Millis. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

On land, beavers are slow, clumsy and vulnerable to predators. But they’re fast swimmers, so in the water, they’re much safer from coyotes, bears or anything else trying to eat them. (Fun facts: Beavers can hold their breath underwater for up to 15 minutes. They also have a second pair of lips that they can close behind their teeth, allowing them to chew or carry wood underwater without drowning.)

Beavers engineer wetlands for their own protection, but these watery landscapes have big benefits for everything else living nearby, even humans.

Go look at the site an enjoy this great work for your very own. It even mentions the upcoming beaverCon 2020! Great job Mike Callahan and host Miriam Wasser! Beavers are happy to hear it!

NEVER SAY NEVER

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation, Mike Callahan, Who's saving beavers now? March 29, 2019

Regular readers of this website might remember the story of Nevers park in Connecticut, where there was a plan trap the beavers once the freeze unfroze. There was ample outcry on the ground and I thought there might be enough public support to change the outcome. This morning I read this from Steve of Ct.

Some local success in South Windsor, CT. After promising not to, our head of parks had traps set for our beavers in a local park. Someone posted that on Facebook, I snagged a town council member on the way to their meeting, after which the mayor called me at home and we talked. This morning he called again to say the traps were being removed and he was calling Mike Callahan to schedule an assessment. Not a bad way to start the day!!!

And thus begins another urban beaver success story, only this time they only had to call in the expert from 30 miles away not 3000. The joys of living on the east coast eh? I sense great things for the beavers in Nevers Park. Good luck team, you are in great hands.

I also received a worried message message from our beaver-watching buddies in North Carolina in Pokeberry Creek, Apparently one of the yearlings hasn’t been using his right front paw and they are wondering whether to involve a rehabber.

Yup it definitely looks like its hurting. I’m asking some rehab friends for advice. But it’s a big deal to trap and take it to be treated, and my friend Lisa reminds me that casting is really hard with an aquatic animal. Since its a front paw on a beaver – and not all that important – I’d be inclined to make sure it has plenty of food within swimming distance and wait. But what do I know so we’re asking the experts.

Meanwhile there’s strangely beautiful story out of Utah.

School Board approves wetland, bike trail project near Jeremy Ranch Elementary

The land around Jeremy Ranch Elementary School will be getting a makeover in a few months as Summit County plans for a major construction project.

To accompany two roundabouts the county plans to construct in the spring, it will be restoring the wetlands around the elementary school and building a bike path for students. The Park City Board of Education approved the county’s Wetland Mitigation Plan and easements to create a new trail at its meeting last week.

Wonderful! Wetlands, elementary school, bike path, sounds perfect. What’s the weird part?

According to the county’s mitigation plans, it intends to reroute Toll Creek east of the culvert into a new channel. The county will then install beaver dams and berms and plant willow cuttings to slow down the stream so the wetlands can re-form. The idea is that flora and fauna that left the area when the wetlands dried up will return, Hauber said at the meeting.

“For the school, it gives an opportunity for outdoor science because they can go out and actually see a wetland,” Hauber said.

Bay-State Madness

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Massachusetts Trapping Law, Mike Callahan, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now? October 15, 2017

Winds picked up again last night and there were more evacuations in Santa Rosa. The death toll now is 40. Things slowed a little in Napa and the Atlas fire, where it all started, is now 50% contained. Here in Martinez the air was actually pleasant enough to risk going outside for a bit. Allowing us to see the fine layer of ash all over our deck furniture. The red flag warning for fire conditions in Napa will continue until the afternoon.

In the meantime I am happy to be catching up on some actual beaver news. The next installment will be an old favorite as poor Massachusetts struggles to eliminate the will of those pesky voters once again.

Massachusetts May Centralize Beaver Population Control

A slew of hunting and wildlife-related bills are under consideration this legislative session in Massachusetts, including one that would transfer control of the state’s beaver population to the state division of fisheries and wildlife.

Last month, the state’s environmental committee, which is chaired by Rep. Smitty Pignatelli from Berkshire and Sen. Anne Gobi from Worcester, took a look at close to two dozen acts addressing everything from crossbows to beaver traps. Dave Wattles, the black bear and furbearer biologist with the Massachusetts division of fisheries and wildlife, says wildlife-related bills tend to come up in the legislature on a somewhat annual basis.

Currently, local governments have the authority to regulate beaver trapping and determine if an emergency permit should be issued to eliminate an animal. But Wattles says the data on how many beavers are trapped through the permits is inconsistent, which makes gauging the population size difficult.

“Right now, we are handicapped in terms of our ability to [manage the population],” he says. “So giving us, at a minimum, that reporting, or giving us regulatory authority over it would enable us to manage the population to the best of our ability.”

The terrifying thing is that I actually recognize Ann Gobi’s name because she’s been hurling herself at this legislation for so many years. There are parts of this that actually make sense. It would be helpful to know some actual data about the beaver population rather than just make wild accusations saying that it has exploded. But I don’t understand why you’re saying this is going to come by counting the number of beavers killed? How would you possibly infer the number of living beavers from the number of dead beavers statistic? I mean we don’t say there were 365 deaths by gunshot in America this year so our population must be around 323,000,000 right?

I can already see that you’ll go back in time before the 1996 change and say “We used to trap 50% of our beaver population at a rate of 500 beavers a year.” (Never mind that you didn’t actually have population numbers back then either. I’m sure it felt like 50%) “And now we have issued 1000 permits so that means our population has quadrupled!”

Mike Callahan says that there is a provision in this change to include an actual beaver census. Which would be a very good thing if it actually happened. In the meantime they are talking about all kinds of sporty environmental changes.

And while the state is looking to assert more oversight over the beavers, a separate bill aims to increase the freedoms afforded to hunters. Massachusetts is one of 11 states that bans or restricts hunting on Sundays, but the legislature is looking to repeal that Puritan-era “blue law.” A number of past efforts have been mounted to do so, and those backing the current rollback want the state’s division of fisheries and wildlife to regulate the practice. Advocates who support the ban, however, say it should be preserved for families looking to spend time outside.

Also on the agenda is a proposal to allow hunters to use crossbows, which are currently prohibited by the state, except for people with a disability that prohibits them from using other archery equipment. If passed, the new law would allow hunters to carry equipment complying with specific weight and design requirements.

Gobi told the Telegram she was optimistic that the crossbow bill would diversify the population of archers, which would no longer be limited to those strong enough to pull back a traditional bow.

“I don’t know of a single instance involving a bow hunter during archery season when someone was hurt in the woods,” Gobi said. “I take my dog for a walk in the woods every day…and we’ve never had a problem.”

Oh well then, I guess it’s safe. I mean if it never happened to you personally it must never happen right? And it’s not like your state is the most populated in New England or anything, or the third most densely populated in the nation, so I’m sure carrying around crossbow or shooting on Sundays won’t cause any problems for folks. Right?

Honestly, that is the stupidest thing I have read in a long time. And you think adding crossbows is going to diversify the hunting population? I can’t understand why you think that’s a persuasive argument that makes sense. I suppose handing crossbows out to terrorists or hungry children would diversify it too. Is that really the goal?

I’m not the only one who thinks this is crazy. Here’s a nice letter to the editor this morning on the subject.

Letter: Let hunters go out on Saturdays, leave Sundays to non-hunters

Managing beavers and other wildlife doesn’t mean that we need to open up the state to fur trapping and Sunday hunting (“Bills introduced would allow hunting on Sunday,” Tuesday 10/10).

Sen. Gobi contends that some sportsmen don’t get licenses because they can only hunt on weekends. As a working mother, the only time my family gets to enjoy the outdoors together is on weekends as well. If hunters are given one day during the weekend to enjoy their recreation I think it’s only fair that families also have one day to take their dogs and little ones out in nature without worrying about wearing orange, explaining gunshots, or coming across hunted or trapped animals.

We enjoy seeing animals in their natural habitats, including beavers, which are an important keystone species. As expert engineers, they create habitat for other species and help improve water quality.

For those rare situations when humans and beavers come into conflict, there are plenty of humane, non-lethal, and cost effective solutions such as trunk guards, sanded paint, and fencing around tress as well as piping systems, fencing systems, and flow devices.

Trapping beavers is a temporary solution, removing one beaver from a desirable area only opens up that habitat for the next migrating beaver to occupy. In these instances, the trapping and killing of beavers must be repeated, ad nauseam.

Rather than trapping and killing beavers over and over again, as Sen. Gobi and others advocate, let’s pursue and continue to invent creative and humane solutions.

Margaret Mulcahy

Excellently said, Margaret. You made so many excellent points in such a short space that I am happy to share your letter. And you did it all while being much more polite than I was. Of course Ms. Gobi won’t change her position, because obviously her opinions aren’t vulnerable to actual facts or the concerns of voters or anything. But I am proud of you, and beavers unanimously agree.

I question his veracity, your honor.

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, Beaver Chewing, Beavers elsewhere, Mike Callahan, Who's blaming beavers now? June 29, 2017

Because the beaver isn't just an animal; it's an ecosystem!

Category: Mike Callahan