Category: mistaken identities

Don’t be fooled! Today is the Day of the FIRST ANNUAL SLO COUNTY BEAVER FESTIVAL!

Bob Kobres Attitudes towards beavers, Beavers, Beavers and climate change, beavers and community, Beavers and Flooding, Festival, mistaken identities, Video April 2, 2023

And don’t fall for this impersonator either!

It’s a photo of one of those darn nutria that stick their noses where they don’t belong and do bad things that we would never do! I reported the culprit to Cambridge Filmworks so hopefully they’ll find a beautiful shot of one our European cousins to replace the sneaky varmint’s mugshot. Cambridge Filmworks did do a nice job of documenting a flood mitigation project that our kind is very skilled at! Check out the video.

Beavers to Help Protect Villages from Flooding from Cambridge Filmworks on Vimeo.

Two new “dam” good beaver enclosures to be built thanks to funding from Environmental partnership.

A Eurasian beaver family will be getting new neighbours to help protect an additional stretch of Finchingfield Brook. The Essex project is to build two, new, 50-acre enclosures in preparation for more beaver families. The new arrivals will extend the amazing work of their cousins, introduced to the Estate in 2019, who have already transformed a woodland into a thriving wetland. The unprecedented £350,000 scale-up is jointly supported by Anglian Water, the Environment Agency, the Anglian Eastern Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (RFCC), Essex County Council and Essex and Suffolk Water in an innovative partnership funding approach.

The two new enclosures, along the Finchingfield Brook, will measure 1.9km long cover 40 hectares (100 acres), 10 times the size of the original enclosure, which was built in 2019. Preparations for the project are already underway with two new beaver families expected to be re-introduced in Spring 2023.

Archie Ruggles-Brise, Spains Hall Estate manager said:

“The chance to bring more natural engineering skills to the estate is beyond exciting. Since 2019 we’ve seen what beavers can do to reduce flood risk, increase drought resilience, clean water and create year-round habitat for wildlife. Now, thanks to the incredible support of our partners, we can supersize these benefits.

“With a massive new area to work in the beavers will help make the Finchingfield area more able to weather the changes climate change will bring, and all the while providing inspiration and experience that others can use elsewhere. For the estate this means we can keep pushing the boundaries of what can be done on private land, if you are willing to be open about working with others and offer a compelling vision.”

Acting as nature’s engineers, the beavers have helped to completely transform the landscape around them. The dams have played a crucial role in reducing flood risk in the area by slowing down the river flow and channelling it through new channels and wetlands.

Throughout this year’s drought, the dams also helped the river flows by slowly releasing retained water, helping to protect local wildlife. We hope these new beavers settle in and breed as successfully as the original pair, who produced three sets of kits.”

Environment Agency lead on the project Matt Butcher said:
“It’s great to see this project go from strength to strength providing real benefits to the local environment and community.

“The beavers have shown what effective flood engineers they are in the past few years and it’ll be great to extend this to a wider area.”

Dr Robin Price, Director of Quality and Environment for Anglian Water said:
“The effects of climate change including the risk of drought and flooding are felt more keenly in the East of England more than anywhere else in the UK. We need to find new and better ways of dealing with the challenges they bring while continuing to protect homes and businesses– and what better way to approach the problem of flooding here in Finchingfield than this wonderful, nature-based solution.

“Restoring natural habitat in such a purposeful way is also at the heart of Anglian Water’s Get River Positive commitment and we are proud to be supporting the next stage of Archie’s vision for Spains Hall Estate.”

Cllr Peter Schwier, Climate Czar at Essex County Council said:
“Essex County Council has been involved in the Essex Beaver project from the very beginning, providing administrative assistance and advice on water courses, so we are very pleased this project is proving so successful.

“Our work with all partners involved in this project means we are improving space and habitat for wildlife, while at the same time the work of the beavers is mitigating flooding, two of the key priorities contained in the Everyone’s Essex Green Infrastructure Strategy.

“Beavers are productive and useful and an honour to have in the beautiful Essex countryside.”

Richard Powell, Chair of the Regional Flood and Coastal Committee said:

“We are once again delighted to be part of the estate’s work, using flood risk funding to deliver nature based solutions is in all our interests. This project will deliver so much more than reduced flooding, creating invaluable wetland habitat as an oasis in the East Anglian landscape.”

Tom Harris, Catchment Advisor at Essex & Suffolk Water said:

“We’re delighted to be able to support the next phase of this exciting project, expanding significantly on the good work that the beavers have already carried out, turning their areas of the Estate into wild wetlands – providing huge benefits for biodiversity as well as slowing the flow in the catchment.

“Having the Spain’s Hall estate situated in one of our key raw water catchments has given us a fantastic opportunity to develop our ongoing work with catchment landowners, bringing multiple benefits for water quality, the local environment and their businesses. We are truly looking forward to the continuation of our partnership with the fantastic team at Spains Hall.”

To find out more about this fantastic project, please visit: Anglian Water

Again, April Fools’ Day IS the day for the FIRST ANNUAL SLO COUNTY BEAVER FESTIVAL! So be there if you can! Here’s a PDF of the flyer below if you want to print it out.

Bob

THE OLD NATURE VS. NUTRIA CONUNDRUM

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, mistaken identities February 1, 2023

I was rooting about looking for beaver photos the other day, the way I’m wont to do, and was surprised to stumble on the pbs “FACT” page for beavers, released in 2021. It talks about their diet and their life span and all the scientific names associated with their genus, The source is the Smithsonian. And what else do you suppose they had on their FACT page? Alongside the nice sleek photos of beavers?

After my years of psychological training, I of course recognized at once we were back in the age old NATURE vs NUTRIA debate again.

The very notion that this is the FACT sheet for beavers from the revered public broadcasting network that informed so many of us over the years and yet cannot tell the difference between two entirely different species breaks my heart into pieces. I loved Jari Osborne’s documentary that taught so many so much and really jump started the entire conversation. This post is released 9 years later and is not anything to do with the series but still is linked to the website and the whole thing greatly depresses me.

Is this an “Alternative facts” sheet?

PBS sustained me as a child, and growing up. Long before there was an internet to search from my home for answers I had to go to the actual library and look things up. The encylopedias could only get you so far… In the Library there were card catalogs and round stools that rolled and lots of whispering. I can actually remember how the room smelled. But libraries aren’t always open and you can’t always go and check facts in the middle of the night or whenever you want like we do now on our phones.

In fact one of the worst things I ever did as a young child was lie to my older sister that my mom had given me permission to come with her to the library when in fact I was told the exact opposite the moment before. It was a fine summer evening and after her refusal I promptly sneaked outside ostensibly to “walk the puppy” whereupon the poor confused yellow pup was swiftly dumped it in the garage and I the young criminal ran off after my sister telling her gaily that mom said I could come too. And since the teen didn’t know I had been forbidden, and thought she had once again been burdened with me, off we went.

To the LIBRARY. The destination of my first real crime. Where giddy with freedom I stayed and poured through pages until it was dark and closing so that when we came home after streetlights my mother was crazy with worry on the streets calling my name and wondering where her 5 year old was.

And I say now all of that could ugliness have been avoided, officer, if the internet had just been invented and I would have been able to surf through it and find stories or misleading incorrect information on a public broadcasting blog that showed me pretend photos of beavers from the privacy of my own home.

Was I just in fact a bad seed? Or was my environment lacking something essential?

Honestly. I was very sad to find the photographic error but honestly, the pun sustained me in my hour of need. I may have paid for my library crime like Max did with his wild things, apologized to my mother and my sister and eventually received a Ph.D. in child psychology but here it was once again:

The old Nature Vs. Nutria conundrum.

PLEASE REMIND REPORTERS THAT BEAVERS DON’T EAT FISH

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, beavers and otters, mistaken identities August 30, 2020

It’s time to RELEASE THE CRACKEN as they say. All the snark you’ve been saving up in those long conversations with elderly relatives may officially be unfurled now, Ridicule is called for and fully sanctioned.

The author of this fine vehicle for pointing fingers is Rita Rowand from Virginia.

More than one way to catch a fish in Fauquier County

Riverside Preserve in Northern Fauquier County offers a great place to put a line in the Rappahannock River. Nestled off Leeds Manor Road near Orlean, the preserve is donated land now managed by Fauquier Parks and Recreation and is the only county park with access to the Rappahannock.

The Rappahannock offers many species for the freshwater angler to enjoy, including blue catfish, largemouth bass, striped bass and more.

Okay, so it’s a good fishing spot in Virginia. Check. She hops onto a crag and throws in her line and guess what happens next? You’ll never guess.

Soon, movement caught my eye. Something was approaching in the water: a large beaver swimming toward me. His legs paddled quietly upriver while his tail swung back and forth under the water. No sooner had he passed when a second beaver glided past, presumably searching for fish.

Good Lord. Who lets you write a column in the paper? Does everyone in Virginia think that beavers eat fish or are you just uniquely wrong?

Equally sizable, this one was possibly the mate. Beavers live 90% of their lives in the water, and I was lucky to observe these two, as they can be reclusive.

I was feeling pretty horrified until I read those lines more closely, the part about the beaver swimming by with his “tail swinging back and forth” and realized she was actually talking about on otter. Beaver tails never go back and fourth.

So maybe it was looking for fish.

But it wasn’t a beaver. And it wasn’t with its mate. Otters do not hang with their partners like beavers. It’s strictly get some get gone with otters. Oh and, as Robin of Napa pointed out. Since both species sleep on land, neither species spends 90% of their life in the water.

Without disclosing our location (sorry, folks!), I can report we recently pulled a few bass, with David landing a whopping 22-inch largemouth weighing nearly 5 pounds, while I only landed a smaller version of bass.

As I walked back to the car, the frogs were singing their summer song, and the fireflies twinkled. There was no place else I’d rather be.

We can only assume those were actual frogs and fireflies and not crickets and streetlights. But okay. I get it. You had a nice morning fishing. Next time watch this video, okay?

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JUST REMEMBER WE ALL SAW IT COMING, SONOMA.

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, mistaken identities, Who's blaming beavers now? December 24, 2019

There was a very funny set Wanda Sykes did when she guest hosted the Ellen Show where she read the headlines from certain kinds of very predictable stories and shook her head knowingly saying “Oh White people“,

Well imagine I’m doing that right now. Only saying things like “Oh water people” and “Ohhh otter people”. Sometimes when you can just tell how a stories going to end, it shouldn’t even be allowed to start. We wrote about this story three days ago, and we predicted this would happen.

Sonoma Water Agency cuts notch in beaver dam in Sonoma

Armed with a chainsaw, workers with the Sonoma Water Agency caused a stir among beaver fans last week when they used the equipment to cut a “bypass hole” in the beaver dam near a trail in Sonoma.

Sonoma resident Robert Burkhart, who said he often walks his dog on that path, saw the workers and tried to get them to at least cut the bypass on the sides rather than in the center of the dam. But they wouldn’t listen, they were just following orders, he said.

“I know there are other ways this can be done,” Burkhart said.

Burkhart took photos and video of the workers, which shows one man slicing through the branches that create the beaver dam.

Now you just KNOW he was not happy to be photographed chainsawing the beaver dam. But he did it anyway. Because it was noisy and fun. And involved some kind of risk and destruction. What could go wrong? Do you remember the grinning face of that worker lowering the turkey into the machine over the shoulder of Sarah Palin? Yeah, sure you do. I’m pretty sure it was the exact same face.

“They cut a notch in the dam. Tonight the beaver will fix that. Beaver don’t stop building,” said Caitlin Cornwall, planning and partnerships advisor at Sonoma Ecology Center.

Cornwall said the notch was cut for flood control, but beaver will always fix an area where they hear water running.

“They are stimulated to build when they hear water trickling through the dam,” she said.

There is an alternative to cutting into the dam, she said. Called a “beaver deceiver” or pond leveler, it connects the two sides of the stream that are bisected by the beaver dam.

“It reduces the lateral width of the pond without stimulating the beaver,” Cornwall said.

Well, not exactly. The beaver is still stimulated to rebuild his protection. Because he’s not in a coma. It’s just that he can’t. And if we’re lucky he eventually stops trying. And a beaver deceiver and pond leveler are two different things. But I guess that’s neither here nor there.

“(Beaver dams) are incredibly effective at catching and holding water, which our state needs more of,” she said. “Beaver ponds create wonderful biological habitat areas. This is a much bigger issue than just in Sonoma.”

Burkhart said the area where the dam is located is a beautiful ecological area. Beaver dams are important biodiversity habitat that help prevent soil erosion and create pools where fish, birds and other wildlife can live. Their ponds also help filter pollution out of the water, recharge aquifers, and retain silt. They also act as firebreaks, and can slow down floods.

Okay, We like THIS part a lot. Robert Burkhart was the reason we even found out about this story in the first place. Thanks Robert, He alerted folks who alerted me. We LOVE that he knows and cares about beavers in the state. We’re less enamored of the photos he provided to the reporter. These were taken of the site on his many sightings.

Now if you’re thinking to yourself, , hey I don’t remember beavers climbing trees! You’d be dead right. Because these lovely photos are of river otters. No doubt enjoying the benefits the beaver dams provided. No doubt there ARE beavers somewhere nearby because otters don’t build dams that need to be chain sawed but these, as we say in the trade, ent them.

I can dimly remember a million years ago back when I first started watching our beavers seeing an otter sitting on the lodge and thinking, hey wait, that looks different, is that a beaver? Ahh memories. We all start somewhere. I’m sure there are actual beavers nearby. Who else would build a dam and upset SCWA?

“It’s exciting that we have these big smart ecosystem engineers here who are members of our Sonoma Valley community,” Cornwall said.

Calls and emails sent to the Sonoma Water Agency were not returned by press time.

Nope. I’m sure they were not. I’m sure staff nipped out the door and turned off the lights after their chainsaw massacre. Because that’s what they do. If enough people write the paper complaining theremight be an stern email from the mayor when they get back to work. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. The word ‘notching’ is a pretty sophisticated beaver coverup. And they already have the ecologists and the papers repeating it, I’d say they get a bit of heat for a day and then it all goes away.

Until next time.

But it was fun way to start Christmas Eve. Have a wonderful day. Someone shared this yesterday and I had to add one missing part before I could share it with you.

Wealthy Mistakes

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, City Reports, Environmental, mistaken identities September 25, 2017

It isn’t just any day that you wake up to find whopping beaver mistake coming out of Portland of all places, but this is a doozy. You see Westmoreland is one of the most desirable sections of Portland. It’s victorians and craftsman homes are some of the wealthiest places to live in the region. So they of COURSE have enough money to know better or at least hire someone to correct their mistakes.

Crystal Springs Creek becomes an urban salmon sanctuary; city council proclaims Sunday ‘Salmon in Our City Day’

What happens when humans build and develop without much consideration for other species. Well, sometimes it means using millions of dollars to go back and correct mistakes.

In Portland’s case, it meant spending $16 million to backtrack and widen culverts — the circular or square piping that sometimes runs through streams —at Crystal Springs Creek so that salmon could adequately pass through them.

The nine manmade culverts that support roadways and pass through the sparkling, 2.5-mile long creek, which snakes through Southeast Portland’s Westmoreland Park, until last year were too small, impacting salmon’s ability to spawn and swim through them and ultimately migrate to the ocean.

So far so good. A wealthy community spending money to fix its culverts and protect salmon. Having a festival to create awareness. That”s a good thing, right? Ahh but its when they talk about WHY salmon matter that we get interested.

But why are the salmon important at all? Turns out, for a lot of different reasons. It’s not going to be a food source for people from that creek, but it will be for other animals, including beavers and other critters. Additionally, according to Karl Lee, co-chair of the Crystal Springs Partnership and retired hydrologist for the U.S. Geological survey, they’re a “giant package of nutrients.”

The Crystal Springs Partnership is a lush coalition of agencies and advocacy groups working to protect the waterways in the fanciest way possible. (Did I mention that Portland is the city in the US with the highest density of nonprofits per square foot?) Well you’d think that ONE of them would explain that beavers don’t eat fish, wouldn’t you?