Four lovely beavers this frosty morning,. I was so happy to see them again. It’s definitely turned into a morning show, and they were all in bed by 7:00. It looks like everyone is sleeping above the primary dam – at least for the moment. I was particularly thrilled to see our stunning hooded merganser is back again with his bride.
Male Hooded Merganser in Winter plumage at Alhambra Creek Photo by Ron Bruno
Reporter Claudine Wong from KTVU stopped by with a camera man to visit the beavers and talk about how they cope with and mitigate the effects of drought. She wondered how Martinez has been affected by the beavers and how the creek was fairing, so check out the evening news and see if we get a mention. Oh and the website server is getting overhauled tonight some time between 8 and 6 am, so if it’s down that’s why.
Washington D.C. beaver friend Malcolm Kenton sent this beaver mention my way from last night’s Daily Show. Enjoy!
Not only did Peter Sorrell of Coin Creativity in New York agree to donate from remarkable designs to our festival, he hand crafted more necklaces especially for our event! Peter wishes us an awesome festival, and says he can make more to order if needed but he needs time to get together the materials. Thank you so much, Peter!
A Eurasian beaver from Sweden, the same species as the one discovered in Devon. Credit: Janos Jurka.
This is just about the only wonderful photo of a beaver we don’t have! (Cheryl, get on that, will you?) It is featured on this morning’s story here, discussing the beaver in Devon with a fine report on why beavers matter.
Countries across Europe have been reintroducing the beaver since the 1920s. Britain is one of the last regions to begin reintroduction, but there are now several controlled trial projects around Britain, including in Devon, Kent and Gloucestershire.
It’s a mystery, however, where the beaver caught on amateur video appeared from. The Devon Wildlife Trust is nearing the end of its three-year project to introduce a pair of beavers into an enclosed wetland area. The pair had a baby, known as a kit, in August 2013, but none of the three is reported missing.
‘The beaver in Britain was, and still is, considered to be an important part of the ecosystem, and was certainly responsible for significant modifications to local and wider environments, through the damming of rivers since the end of the last ice age,’ said Sabin.
It’s always nice to have physicists on your side! This article reminded me that the Scottish beaver trial will be over this spring and the project will either be continued, considered a success with the animals released or considered a failure with the animals removed. (Back to Bavaria?) The Devon trial will also conclude by removing the beavers while the data is analyzed. What a rotten fate for those beavers! Shuffled around to do Britain’s dirty work and then hauled out after everything looks nice.
Well, I’m practically ready to ship OUR beavers to Bavaria after three nights of not seeing them! I know winter is harder for beaver watching but we have been there at three different shifts and seen nothing. They’re obviously there though because the dam is looking worked on every day – in its crazy ‘Lazy S Ranch’ way! Jon sees them in the morning walking the dog before work, but we see nary a whisker at night. The big amusement of last night was a family of 5 young raccoons swimming downstream in a straight line up to the footbridge before they climbed out on the other bank. With the light you could see their little paws under the water, working so hard with their fingers cupped, which was adorable. They almost swam into the beaver lodge, and were clearly sniffing all around it. I wished an annoyed beaver would pop out and tell them to buzz off like they did in this video, but it was not to be. Looking at this again I see the old lodge and realize I made this video a lifetime ago.
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Yesterday I had a surprising response from this donation by Peter at CoinCreativity in NY. He kindly wrote back
I would be very glad to donate a couple of items with a beaver motif for your great cause. Although I am an avid Etsy craft person, my college degree is in Environmental Science and Forestry, so I too know the importance of beavers and causes such as yours. Please forward the address to me and I will send you some great beaver jewelry for your event! Take care. Pete
Thank you so much! And I agree Pete, beavers are dam important!
From Malcolm Kenton in his D.C. comics section today!
Maybe you were one of those kids that told your friends you never believed in Santa Claus. Maybe you always doubted the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny. You were the first with a sarcastic comment on the field trip and the last one to say “awwww” when they showed your class the baby bunnies or new chicks at the farm. Maybe you’ve never watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” or smelled the fuzzy head of a sleeping baby, but you’re going to like this post. Trust me.
Beavers are active in the Taylor Wetland, located off the Woodland Trail. Olympia city crews installed sheet piling around a culvert to prevent blockage from beaver activity. ANDY HOBBS/STAFF WRITER
By ANDY HOBBS Beaver dams cause flooding on roads and properties across Thurston County, but cities like Olympia are learning to co-exist with the buck-toothed critters by controlling their habitats. Beavers have built dams up and down the Woodard Creek corridor, which stretches north to Henderson Inlet. The dams raise the surrounding water levels several feet and often block culverts.
But in 2014, the city plans to install a device that prevents blockage in the culvert. Known colloquially as a “beaver deceiver,” the wire mesh fencing helps maintain water flow and allows migrating fish to pass through. The device costs from $700 to more than $1,000, depending on size.
Cities refrain from trapping or relocating the beavers because the practice is ineffective. Beavers rarely survive relocation, and there are enough beavers to replace the ones who leave.
Thurston County manages 68 locations affected by beavers, with most activity in the southwest part of the county. The “beaver deceiver” devices have helped reduce the workload for field operations staff, said Mike Clark, construction engineer with Thurston County Public Works.
That’s right. The city of Olympia in Washington is installing another beaver deceiver because they know trapping doesn’t work. This is why I maintain that the Evergreen State has the highest beaver IQ in the nation. Oh and if you aren’t impressed yet, how about this for extra credit?
Clark said the county builds its own beaver deceivers by recycling materials such as sign posts.
More good cheer? One of Cheryl’s photos is apparently in the Patch archives so it was just posted in Virginia, where an article is remarking with surprise that a beaver reached 50 lbs. Ahem. I don’t understand. If they used a ‘stock photo’ to show how freakishly huge the beaver was, wouldn’t that mean he wasn’t huge at all? I helpfully pointed out both mistakes. So I’m apparently very popular in Alexandria.
Drew Hansen (Editor) December 21, 2013 at 04:13 PM Heidi, I pulled the photo from the Martinez Patch story. What’s the proper credit I should give? It looked like a Patch file photo to me.
Ahh and a final present that is so lovely none of us deserve it. But really, this isn’t indulgent at all. I’m educating you so that you can tell beavers and other rodents apart. And besides. It’s almost Christmas.
Hooray for the Jon, Lory, Jean and me who saw two beaver kits and a muskrat last night! (We haven’t seen a muskrat for a year and were starting to get a little worried.) Hurray for the author I talked about yesterday who wrote me back, loved our story, and wants to use our story on his website! (Go buy his book, really.) And hurray for the people at Bay Nature who were kind enough to print this. Apparently my letters to the editor require footnotes! Who knew?
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