Category: Urban beavers

URBAN BEAVER WISDOM

heidi08 Urban beavers September 16, 2018

When we start feeling proud of our little bit of beaver paradise here in Martinez, a glance or two northwards puts humility back in our step. Take Seattle for instance. – which is so full of beaver intelligence it boasts soccer parks like these.

Take a timeout for nature at Seattle’s Magnuson Park

Seattle families are familiar with the park’s soccer and youth-ultimate fields, but fall is a great time to enjoy the wetlands and look for beaver, listen for frogs and watch for 200 different birds.

From sports fields to art sales to its immense lakefront off-leash dog area, Magnuson Park is a lot of things to a lot of people. But to Seattle’s nature fanciers, it’s a special place.

Just ask Emily Bishton, otherwise known as Teacher Emily, who spent 13 years as an environmental educator, showing people around the park.

“It has such a diversity of ecosystems. The wetlands are very unique. There is a milelong lakeshore, acres and acres of grassland ecosystem.”

There is forest too, but it comes in small chunks, so there is lots of the kind of edge habitat — part forest, part meadow — that attracts a lot of wildlife. For example, around 200 species of birds will spend time in the park over the year.

Because the fields are nestled up against the wild part of the park, they are easily accessible if you want to go for quick stroll during warm-up. At times the wild comes onto the field. For example, when my son was in seventh grade, play at his ultimate game came to a halt when a teammate found an owl pellet on the sidelines.

Engineers installed the most spectacular section, a 30-acre network of wetlands and ponds, in 2008 and 2010. They are just east and south of the playing fields. They are still changing year to year.

Not those kinds of engineers, but still….

Right as it turns dark, there’s a good chance you can see adult beavers and young beavers also.”

Even if you don’t see beavers around, or it’s the wrong time of day, you can find a lot of evidence of where they have been at work. It doesn’t take long to find stumps or logs with chewed ends.

Beavers are relentless in the pace of their activity, taking down trees, building dams and lodges, and even digging canals. They are as busy as a … as a mother with three kids and a full-time job. And their work isn’t always convenient for humans. They have flooded the trails from time to time, so that parks staff have had to install devices called “beaver deceivers” to keep the water flowing. But Bishton says the beavers also do the city a service, by chewing down young trees.

“The beavers have definitely helped clear some open space for some trees to get as big as they should and so people to be able to see,” she says.

That’s not all those beavers are doing for your park-a-topia, Emily, They are affecting the invertebrate population which is increasing the density and diversity of fish and birds. They are causing coppicing on all those branches they chew and making safe new homes for all kinds of migratory and songbirds. By changing the fish population they are attracting river otters to the wetlands. And their filtering toxins out of the waters with their dams.

Heck, and if you hadn’t installed those beaver deceivers they would have made those expensive wetlands themselves for free.

BEAVERS IN MICHIGAN

It’s good to see that mlive picked up Nancy May’s story and did a profile of it. The more people that know this story the better chance that the next beavers will stick around longer.

Mackinac Island’s beloved beaver family has disappeared one by one

Beaver in snowy waters: Nancy May, Mackinac

Vanishing Act:

MACKINAC ISLAND, MI – A beaver family that had become social media darlings to locals and tourists alike on Mackinac Island began disappearing one by one earlier this year, with the family’s last kit vanishing this month.

Some believe the animals fell victim to illegal trapping. A few believe someone on the island must know something about what happened to them, prompting a GoFundMe effort to raise reward money for information.

As their absence from “the Cove” continues to be felt, we’re taking a look back at their antics which captured so much attention in recent years. It comes courtesy of Nancy May, an island resident whose photos of the beaver parents and their kits drew avid followers on Facebook.

May has shared some of her pictures with MLive readers, and her story of how she became one of their biggest fans.

Nancy’s touching article (which we printed a week ago) appears with her great photos that I was happy to see. It is followed with some comments from the furbearer specialist of the Michigan Department of natural resources, which seem less likely.

Adam Bump, a furbearer specialist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resource’s Wildlife Division, said while he can’t speak to this particular beaver family on Mackinac Island, he does know that some animals like their privacy. And they don’t necessarily need all the help that people think they might to survive Michigan’s harsh winters.

He wondered in this case if perhaps there were too many people coming too close to the lodge.

“Some beavers can get used to people and have no issues,” Bump said of the species, clever little wetland engineers which can be found throughout Michigan’s watersheds. “But the repeated, constant presence of people could be a potential reason” for their disappearance, he said.

“Maybe something happened there and they moved on their own?” He would recommend that people enjoy and watch wild animals from a distance, knowing that they “do OK on their own.”

Okay, Adam. I’ll agree it’s better when people keep their distance. But that doesn’t explain why the beavers lived their happily with their fan base for 6 years and then decided to leave? I’d be more likely to think that after the big freeze and damage to their lodge they assumed they needed to find a safer home in deeper water to raise this family, but that doesn’t really explain why didn’t the kits leave earlier?

I don’t know. I’ve been around beavers a long time, and I have seen kits make crazy decisions without their family. So to be honest, my minds not exactly made up on this story. It wouldn’t surprise me to know they were killed, because there are always villians in the beaver drama, but it also wouldn’t totally surprise me to learn they found a new home somewhere else, and that the kits just stuck around for a while and then made their way there eventually.

If harm came to these beavers from human hands, you would think the story would travel. These beavers were so visible that someone knows what happened and beaver rumors have a way of getting spread. If, on the other hand, the beavers just decided on their own to throw in the towel and start over somewhere else, they wouldn’t talk about it.

For now I’m going to a hope that there’s a chance they’re doing okay.

What I know for sure is that the world is a better place when people gather together to protect and observe beavers, and that learning about the wild neighbors of your community is always worth doing. I know that children who are given the chance to witness beaver families are smarter and stronger than children who don’t. And that any woman who photographs beavers through many seasons will be forever transformed by the experience.

Thank you again, Nancy.

“NATURE ALWAYS GIVES YOU ONE MORE BEAVER THAN YOU CAN HANDLE”

heidi08 Urban beavers May 17, 2018

Their are urban beaver woes showing up all across the hemisphere – reminding city planners everywhere that just because they put in sewer pipes and high rises, it doesn’t mean that nature has been tamed.

Let’s start in Caledon Ontario which is just a north of Ohio.

Dam it! Busy beavers build lodge in Caledon storm pond

Louis Liu was walking near the storm water management pond in Southfields Village when he spotted three beavers hard at work.

“It seems they are building a lodge in the middle of the pond, they need all the trees around it to be utilized,” he said.

Around the pond, which is located on the northwest corner of Kennedy Road and Abbotside Way, Liu noticed damage to the trees.

Parm Chohan, from the Town of Caledon said residents can report any dams or beaver activity either through:

I admit from this vague article I cannot discern what exactly the beaver was building, a dam or a lodge – or really what the problem is – but it doesn’t really matter. That photo appeals to me. It’s just so urban. That beaver is doing his job and in a hurray and just doesn’t care what anyone thinks about it and whether people are watching, It should be an inspiration to people everywhere.

Onto Prince Edward Island where beavers have built a dam in a culvert which is NOT a surprise. The people don’t want their yard flooded and think beavers bring mosquitoes which is not a surprise either. What IS a surprise is that they brought in a watershed trust to fix the problem and they actually WANT to keep beavers on the land. They are installing a pipe to control the problem instead of trapping them.

That’s a first for P.E.I.

Beavers busy in Bedeque Bay watershed

A homeowner in Freetown, P.E.I., says a beaver dam recently blocked the Dunk River behind his property, causing water to rise in his back yard — and staff at the local watershed organization say he isn’t alone.

“Over the past three years, we’ve noticed a major uptick in beaver activity,” said Chris Newell with the Bedeque Bay Environmental Management Association.

Barlow’s rural home backs onto a tributary of the Dunk River. The normally placid stream passes through a steel culvert under the road but late Tuesday, the inlet of the culvert was completely submerged and blocked with water continuing to rise — and pooling in Barlow’s back yard.

“We’ve targeted a lot of beaver dams for this year to remove,” said Newell, “But we’re actually looking for some land owners that don’t want the beaver completely gone.”

Newell said watershed staff planned to install a device to help stop flooding, while allowing beavers to keep their dams. It’s basically a long pipe that runs under the dam, and siphons off just enough water to the beaver pond at a reasonable level.

“They’re called ‘beaver bafflers’ or ‘beaver deceivers’,” explained Newell.

“We’re going to take it slow, make sure we’re not doing damage — but we’re eager to get out there and do some.”

Hurray Hurray! Never mind that you obviously don’t know what they’re called yet or the history – you’ll learn, The mere fact that PEI is actually installing one is pretty epic. Notoriously beaver-intolerant a senior official once got into an long argument with our own Rickipedia over whether they were even native to the island. Their many trapping stories prompted one of my favorite and earliest graphics, which I will cheerfully retire as we learn that there are folk installing flow devices on the island!

Congratulations Bedeque Bay Environmental Management Association. We wish you luck and can get you helpful advice from experts if things go wrong!

Oh and back to Maine where they brought in those huge ‘shark cages’ to discourage their pesky beavers. Apparently the fact that the article mentioned the trust might want some of the beavers trapped hasn’t gone over so well.

Cumberland Land Trust does not support using beaver traps

A May 10-16 article about beaver issues in town inaccurately reflects the Cumberland Land Trust’s experience in working with the beavers. The Land Trust, which was not contacted for the story, wants to correct two points:

1. The two “beaver deceivers” we placed one year ago are working as designed. They require routine oversight to make sure they are functioning. Due to this year’s snow melt and spring rains we have determined additional larger diameter piping is required to handle the increase in seasonal water levels.

2. The Cumberland Land Trust does not support the trapping of beavers since state law requires trapped beavers to be euthanized.

Randy Tuomisto president of the Cumberland Land Trust.

Ohhh ho ho! Take that beaver nay-sayers everywhere! I got an email yesterday from a wildlife-saving friend about the cage article so I guess that must have raised some alarms. I’m always happy when LAND TRUSTs behave in a way that benefits actual nature instead of the way they assume nature should be. Hurray for Cumberland Trust and installing a functioning beaver deceiver.

Skip Lisle was out there last year, so you’ve learned from the best.

ATTENTION SHOPPERS

heidi08 Urban beavers May 4, 2018

If I didn’t know better I would be asking myself “Why Walmart?” Beavers in Utah have been found at walmart, in Michigan, in Maine, it’s almost as if they prefer the store which can’t possibly be true, because no one really does.

Cortland is in the lower third of New York and recently had it’s own walmart beaver encounter. Of course it’s just because – acre per acre – there are more walmarts across the country than any other chain so randomly these encounters happen there. Not that beavers were a fan of the Waltons.

Still. I have to say that’s one tiny beaver in the film below.. Not a disperser. A kit that got lost?

Sheriff’s deputy rescues beaver from Walmart parking lot in Cortland

CORTLAND, N.Y. – Law enforcement officers never know what they may encounter on their shift. That was true recently for Cortland County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Kemp who responded to a report of a beaver in the Walmart parking lot near the store entrance.

Kemp’s rescue of the beaver was announced today on the office’s Facebook page. “…no matter what you face, you come up with a plan and solve the problem with whatever you can find,” the Facebook post stated.

Kemp used a shopping cart tipped on its side to scoop up the beaver and was able to turn the cart upright with beaver safely inside, according to the post.

The deputy transported the beaver and released it to a nearby pond.

Note that the brave New York policeman picked up the beaver with a metal cart. For comparison, here is how one unarmed woman from Colorado does it:

Sherri Tippie with kit: Wearing Worth A Dam shirt

“EVERYTHING’S COMING UP BEAVERS”

heidi08 Urban beavers April 17, 2018

Wow what a day. Tonight is the PREMIERE of the beaver believer film at the wildlife film festival in Missoula Montana. I heard from Sarah Koenisberg yesterday confirming how I wanted my name in the credits. She was so excited it was all finished and 71 minutes long. I can’t wait to hear about it, and hope I’ll eventually be able to share it here.

Also tonight is the Parks Recreation Marina and Cultural Commission meeting where we seek approval for the beaver festival. Whoohoo! Because this has been so new with finding out if we could move it and deciding how to manage it I am completely discombobulated and can’t remember what I checked off the list and what still needs doing.

Now this morning there is a fairly incredible article out of Pittsburg PA about some urban beavers in the Ohio River. Brace yourself – they’re ate all the trees they planted but they’re not upset really about it.

Urban beavers making home in Pittsburgh

A minor ecological setback took a bite out of Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s plans to plant thousands of native-species trees throughout Pittsburgh. Another native species, beavers, felled a row of recently planted trees at North Shore Riverfront Park in the shadow of Heinz Field.

Pedestrians walking the Three Rivers Heritage Trail noticed the missing trees Tuesday and Wednesday. On the bank of the Ohio River, between the Fred Rogers Memorial statue and Carnegie Science Center, 16 pointed stumps are what’s left of a row of young 4-inch diameter redbud trees planted by Conservancy staff last fall. No tree trunks, no branches. Just distinctive gnaw marks about 16 inches above the ground, a handful of wood chips surrounding each stump and one pair of beaver footprints pressed into the mud near the riverbank.

Jeffrey Bergman, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy director of community forestry, hadn’t heard about the tree loss until he picked up the phone Wednesday afternoon. He was onsite in a half hour.

“In this location we removed invasive nonnative plant species like bush honeysuckle and Japanese knotweed. We planted native species. Part of the project is beautification, but also to introduce native species to improve the habitat for animals. I didn’t think we’d be quite this successful in improving the habitat for beavers.”

“It’s nice there is this comeback,” said Henry Kacprzyk, a biologist at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. “It means the rivers are clean enough to support them, even in the center of the city. But they’re not returning to a natural environment.” Beavers are considered a “keystone species,” said Mr. Kacprzyk, because they are one of the few animals that impact every plant and animal around them.

“Their dams back up water creating new aquatic environments and plants, insects, birds and other animals have to adapt,” he said. “Over many years the slow-moving ponds collect silt, which fills in and creates meadows and again everything has to adapt. … It will be interesting to see how beavers do here.”

Yes this is Pennsylvania, celebrating the return of beavers. I was shocked too. But certainly they have a few calm and ecologically minded heads to inform them about what’s happening and what it means. I’m so impressed with the calm and knowledgeable reaction. Almost nothing could make me happier.

Almost nothing. If you haven’t seen this yet you should really treat yourself.