Category: Urban beavers

BEAVERS AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

heidi08 Urban beavers January 18, 2019

Every now and then it’s fun when the right worlds collide. Like when your friends from the Astronomy department have fun hanging out with your friends from Mod Lit at your Christmas Party. The two seemed worlds apart and you never expected them to get along. But suddenly Marcus and Jasmine are laughing together and sipping eggnog from the same coffee cup.

Well, welcome to the christmas party.

DESIGN, BUILD—AND LET BUILD

BY LISA OWENS VIANI

As public support for trapping has waned, beavers are making a comeback in urban waterways around the country. In Seattle, they are now said to be found in every suitable stream and water body, and some project designers now see them as partners in wetland restoration rather than nuisances. They say the benefits beavers bring to an ecosystem outweigh the challenges, and point out that working with them is far less expensive—and more humane—than trapping.

“Beavers construct wetlands that hold back and store water, allowing for groundwater recharge and pollution sequestration, and increasing biodiversity,” says Ben Dittbrenner, the aquatic ecologist and executive director of Beavers Northwest. “We do the same thing for hundreds of thousands of dollars, but they do it for free.” This past October, Dittbrenner, the biologist David Bailey, and Ken Yocom, ASLA, an associate professor and chair of the department of landscape architecture at the University of Washington, published a study that examines the influence of beavers on three wetland projects in Seattle and makes recommendations for managing them adaptively.

Call this the paragraphs I never thought I’d see. All about the benefits of urban beavers from landscape architecture magazine. These are the things that happen when the right worlds collide and Heidi sends Ben’s article excitedly around to all her friends.

Dittbrenner says that as urban beaver populations increase, designers should assume that beavers will colonize their project, especially if the animals are already in the vicinity. “It makes sense to stop and think about how these animals might affect these urban designs before we spend all this money to build them.”

A beaver carries new dam material. Image courtesy Cheryl Reynolds, Worth a Dam.

Now obviously we know the photographer behind that lovely beaver photo, but how on earth did a landscape magazine get it? And who is this Lisa Owens Viani person who wrote this article?

That would be the woman in the right front corner of this photo of our ravioli feast in 2017. Lisa is the founder of RATS (Raptors are the solution) who I met a decade ago when she worked for the SF Estuary Project and who at the time was wise enough to realize that the Martinez beaver story was a story of restoration, not just a quirky news item. Directly to my left is the woman behind this photo.

Small world.

They also installed in-stream wood structures, knowing that beavers would put them to use. “What beavers do to create landscapes is phenomenal,” Yocom says. “Your design is just the beginning. We have to let go and be willing to work with ecological processes instead of being invested in a strict aesthetic.”

WONDERFUL! Now Ben wasn’t at the Ravioli feed but goodness knows if he was in a 25 mile radius he would have been! Of course I sent this right away to the mayor and the city engineer. It’s great to see this paper get top billing and have the tools discussed in a public forum.

And it’s thrilling to imagine that someday when beavers show up in a city park some well-read person might – even just for a moment – not think its a catastrophe.

WHERE BEAVERS DON’T FEAR TO TREAD

heidi08 Urban beavers January 4, 2019

It’s time for some more urban beaver stories and one cautionary tale. This story comes from Michigan. Of course its not news to us because one of the best illustrated beaver books in the country already tells the tale of these heroic tails.

After 180 years, beavers return ‘home’ to Milwaukee River in heart of downtown

The beavers are back. For the first time in nearly two centuries, the buck-toothed rodents have been gnawing away at trees in the very heart of downtown Milwaukee. What better way to start the new year than by cheering the return of these ancient natives to their ancestral home?

I first noticed their presence on a boat trip down the Milwaukee River last summer. On the west bank, just south of St. Paul Ave., several small trees had fallen into the water, and a larger one was leaning precariously in the same direction. I went back on foot a few days later, and it was beavers, all right. They had been munching away on the white poplar and green ash that line the riverbank, and there were piles of wood chips among the plastic bags and empty bottles that littered the scruffy little grove. I had to look around to remind myself that I was just east of the

Pritzlaff Building and directly across the river from some of the trendiest nightspots in the Third Ward.

Ahh I love a good ‘beavers in the city story’. Almost nothing makes me happier than for beavers to remind people that all this used to belong to them and they’re coming back for it.

There was a time when beaver wouldn’t have seemed wildly out of place in the center of Milwaukee. They were once among the most ubiquitous mammals in North America, damming streams and gnawing bark from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Prized for their meat as well as their fur, beaver were a staple of both diet and dress for countless generations of native Americans.

After emptying the beaver streams on their own continent, Europeans turned to the apparently inexhaustible lodges of North America. It was beaver that brought the first French traders to Wisconsin in the 1600s. It was beaver that put Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, and numerous other settlements on the map. And it was beaver, or more precisely European demand for it, that fundamentally altered the Native American way of life.

Millions of hides crossed the Atlantic in the holds of sailing ships, and the same vessels brought trade goods west on their return voyages: muskets, kettles, traps, beads, blankets … and alcohol. French rum, English brandy, and then American whiskey were all solvents that effectively dissolved ancient native traditions.

Interestingly, the center was in the process of establishing an arboretum on the same bank, using funds from the Milwaukee Rotary Club and a federal restoration initiative. Nearly 14,000 trees have gone into the ground so far, representing more than 70 species native to Wisconsin. Having beaver in an arboretum seems a lot like putting pyromaniacs in a fireworks factory. Some stout trees have been dropped and others are on the way down, but the Urban Ecology Center, true to its mission, is determined to let nature take its course. Caitlin Reinartz, the center’s forester, put it succinctly: “We can’t be mad about a species coming back when the whole goal was to create a place animals would want to come back to. The beaver are here, and we’re going to find a way to coexist.”

It’s likely, but by no means certain, that the beaver whose work is on display downtown are “dispersers” from the arboretum colony, adolescents trying to establish their own territories. Unless they can be trapped and fitted with GPS devices, their whereabouts, including where they sleep or even if they’re still present, will remain one of downtown’s more intriguing mysteries.

You have to love the irony. Conservationists save the detroit river and install an arboretum of native trees and then some beavers move in and – um – appreciate them. I guess they were planted there just in time. At least the folks were great sports about the process and understand that beavers eating your native trees is like serving christmas dinner and ending up with only clean plates.

It’s a compliment!

I promised an urban beaver story and a cautionary tale. So here’s the second part. I want to be sensitive to the loss for his family’s sake but I dare say the date had more to do with this tragedy than the rodent in question.

Missouri Man Drowns In Inches Of Water While Clearing Beaver Dam

A Missouri man drowned in a shallow pond on New Year’s Day after he slipped and fell while trying to clear a beaver dam. Police found 29-year-old Caleb James Bruno face down in eight-inches of water and attempted to resuscitate him but were unsuccessful.

Investigators said there were no signs of trauma and believe that Bruno may have suffered from a medical incident before falling into the shallow pond.

I’m saying nothing. I’m pretty sure this story speaks entirely for itself.

YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT

heidi08 Urban beavers December 14, 2018

No you aren’t dreaming. This is really happening. Ben’s latest article is all about beavers in urban spaces. The headline couldn’t be more unbelievable if it was “Some cancers are good you” or “being left-handed makes life more convenient“. It’s NOT what we expected, but it’s written just the way we wish it would be.

IN PRAISE OF URBAN BEAVERS

As many a municipal engineer can attest, all those urban As many a municipal engineer can attest, all those urban beavers present a decidedly mixed blessing. The relentless architects gnaw down ornamental trees, jam road culverts full of woody debris, and inundate roads and yards. Even in Seattle, idyllic land of mandatory composting and ambitious climate targets, residents tend to reject meddlesome wildlife. After beavers felled some trees in Ballard, the Seattle Times responded with an unneighborly headline: “Locals to Golden Gardens Beavers: Please Leave.” present a decidedly mixed blessing. The relentless architects gnaw down ornamental trees, jam road culverts full of woody debris, and inundate roads and yards. Even in Seattle, idyllic land of mandatory composting and ambitious climate targets, residents tend to reject meddlesome wildlife. After beavers felled some trees in Ballard, the Seattle Times responded with an unneighborly headline: “Locals to Golden Gardens Beavers: Please Leave.”

Yup. This should surprise us not at all. Par for the course. Don’t you have anything nice to say?

Yet Castor canadensis is worth the trouble, and then some. In my book, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Lives of Beavers and Why They Matter, I describe the animals as “ecological and hydrological Swiss Army knives, capable, in the right circumstances, of tackling just about any landscape-scale problem you might confront.” A full accounting of their virtues would take paragraphs—or chapters—but here are a few highlights. Beavers, by capturing surface water and elevating groundwater tables, keep our waterways hydrated in the face of climate change-fueled drought. Their wetlands dissipate floods and slow the onslaught of wildfires. They filter pollution. They store carbon. They reverse erosion. And, whereas our infrastructure is generally inimical to life, they terraform watery cradles for creatures from salmon to sawflies to salamanders. They heal the wounds we inflict.

Oh, that is SO much better! We sure picked the write guy for the story. Ben is doing such a wonderful job at talking about the subject most near and dear to my heart.

Many of my favorite beaver stories, though, are set in urban spaces, where rebounding colonies collide with dense human settlements. I met beavers in a concrete-lined ditch behind a budget hotel in Napa; beavers in a wetland adjacent to a Walmart parking lot; beavers in downtown Martinez, California, that have become a beloved fixture of civic life. And no accounting of urban beavers would be complete without extolling the legendary beavers of the Bronx River, whose saga demonstrates that, for all the ecological value these extraordinary creatures provide, their most powerful service may be the way they enrich our lives.

Ooh la la! A shout-out for us and praise for urban beavers in general! Did Christmas come early this year? Yes, I believe it did. What a perfect way to welcome in the new year. Thank you so much Ben, for making this all possible.

And let me just stop a moment and mention in passing how many reporters, researchers and authors were using the term “urban beavers” In 2006 and 2007.

That would be zero.

Look it up. Use an ngram to see the listings on google. There are none. Because I would argue that the phrase urban beaver began right here in the home of John Muir and in the nearly 1000 talks I’ve given over the decade on this topic in Martinez, Oregon, Utah, Santa Barbara, Portland, Piedmont, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Sonoma, Santa Rosa etc.

These are words I am so happy to find in common use that I don’t even mind not getting credit for them. Urban beavers. Urban beavers. Say it with me now. It’s a thing. If not yet, it will be your thing soon.

There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all.

Hamlet 5:2

BEAVER BENEFITS IN THE SUBURBS

heidi08 Urban beavers November 28, 2018

There are precious few things I enjoy more than the trickle down from a fine beaver story. Ben Goldfarb’s book has stolen the show entirely (and even made it’s way into a Raging Grannies Christmas Carol – sharing soon) but the other Ben (Dittbrenner) and his colleagues published a splash with their urban restoration paper, Reintegrating the North American beaver (Castor canadensis) in the urban landscape. Even wires thinks so.

Who Gives A Dam About Beavers?

North American beaver (Castor canadensis) populations are on the rise as they continue to recover from the historic pelt-trapping era, which left many areas devoid of beavers by the 20^th century. Their recolonization of historical habitats is increasing in urban streams and green spaces, which can often bring benefits to these areas. Dam building creates ponds and wetlands that store water, improves fish and wildlife habitats, and can provide ecosystem services, such as erosion reduction, sediment removal, and water filtration. Beavers also provoke controversy, however, due to their ability to cut down trees and flood areas, which can conflict with human activities and infrastructure.

Yup. It’s true. All those things are true.

Previously, the field of landscape architecture primarily focused on design elements aimed at aesthetic purposes and human values. Only recently has design begun to consider ecological restoration, habitat corridors, and ecological processes to improve local ecosystem functions. Some of the design principles that have recently shifted to incorporating and optimizing water-related ecosystem services and ecological benefits, such as constructed wetlands, are outlined in a WIREs Water article Reintegrating the North American Beaver in the Urban Landscape. A pivotal point to note is that some ecological and hydrological processes cannot be reproduced solely by intentional design actions, and require integration of keystone species and ecosystem engineers, such as beavers, to better mimic natural systems.

Are you with me? Some things you want in an urban stream can’t be made by human engineers. They can only be made by BEAVERS. Be still my heart.

The outcome of this study is to encourage designers to minimize site constraints, anticipate and manage beaver impacts, and utilize ecosystem engineers for ecosystem services. Features such as pinch points and variable elevation terrains in riparian zones could be created to achieve this. If these urban beaver management strategies and design action recommendations are followed, the ways that designers can leverage beavers when designing future urban and suburban green spaces could be improved.

Did I swoon? I think I just swooned. “Minimize sight constraints and let beavers bring their ecosystem services to the water table.” Is there a more perfectly tailored argument to make me happy? No, there is not. That is ALL I’ve wanted to see for the past decade.

Sure it would be nice to be mentioned as a test case, but hey, I’m not looking this gift horse in the mouth any time soon.

Since we’re all in holiday spirits now, I’ll share long time reader Gail’s expert lyrics to “Oh hear we come a’Wassailing”all You may remember 2009 when Gail and her fellow ‘raging grannies’ came to sing at the beaver festival. Ahh good times.

Here come all the beaver dams to help to deal with climate change
Mend the water tables all in their historic range
Love and joy come to you
Managed water levels too
Read the book by ben go-old farb
You’ll see that it is true
You may laugh but you’ll find that it is true.

YOU’RE WELCOME

heidi08 Beavers, Urban beavers October 14, 2018

Time for another chapter of our popular serial “This week in Urban beavers”. When we last tuned in beavers that showed up in cities were routinely exterminated, except those crazy lucky beavers in that Bay Area town. Mar-something I think its called.

Too bad there’s not a research paper or something talking about how valuable they can be.

Reintegrating the North American beaver (Castor canadensis) in
the urban landscape

David R. Bailey | Benjamin J. Dittbrenner | Ken P. Yocom

In recent decades, ecological restoration and landscape architecture have focused on reintegrating ecological processes in the urban environment to support greater habitat complexity and increase biodiversity. As these values are more broadly recognized, new approaches are being investigated to increase ecosystem services and ecological benefits in urban areas. Ecosystem engineers, such as the North American beaver (Castor canadensis), can create complex habitat and influence ecological processes in natural environments. Through dam building and wetland formation, beaver can create fish habitat, diversify vegetation in riparian zones, and aggrade sediment to increase stream productivity. As beaver populations have increased in urban areas across North America, their presence presents challenges and opportunities. Beaver can be integrated into the design of new and established urban green spaces to improve ecosystem functions. If managed properly, the conflicts that beaver sometimes create can be minimized. In this paper, we examine how landscape architects and restoration ecologists are anticipating the geomorphic and hydrological implications of beaver reintroduction in the design of wetlands and urban natural areas at regional and site levels. We present an urban beaver map and three case studies in Seattle, WA, USA, to identify various approaches, successes, and management strategies for integrating the actions of beaver into project designs. We make recommendations for how designers can capitalize on the benefits of beaver by identifying sites with increased likelihood of colonization, leveraging ecosystem engineers in design conception, designing site features to reduce constraints for the reintroduction and establishment of beaver, and anticipating and managing impacts.

My goodness. Will you look at that abstract, It’s almost like research proving that beaver can be valuable in urban settings. Who would say something crazy like that? I mean sure they can trap the false leg or two before it finds its way to sea, but how can beaver dams really help any city?

Whoa. You know what’s really funny? Is that I know this crazy woman who has been flogging these same points for 11 years! But she knows nothing about beavers. She’s a child psychologist so no one listens to her. Funny coincidence. When she was published professionally it was in a Wiley Journal too, go figure. But that’s neither here nor there.

It’s not like that beaver study has any graphs or anything that prove in some settings beavers make things better.

Wow. You know what’s really interesting? I remember reading something like this in the urban beaver chapter in Pollock’s restoration guidebook 2.0. I think it was written by Ellen Wohl, Greg LeWallen and Perry-something. I wonder if he mentions that version in the references?

Dam. Well he if Mr. Bailey never even read that part he missed out. Because it was extremely tight writing by one of the top hydro-geological professors in the country.

“dams in urban settings can provide benefits similar to those in rural areas including: storing surface and groundwater , regulating flow, improving stream complexity, Modifying nutrient cycling, storing sediment, and increasing biodiversity while also restoring stream resilience”

Okay, its true, every major work builds on the work of those gone before, and we’re all standing on each other’s shoulders, but don’t you think one should mention those shoulders? At least in passing?

Ahem.

Well urban beaver benefits are published officially now. And that’s a great thing for folks on the ground trying to find ways to prove they shouldn’t be killed.

You’re welcome!