Category: Why We Care

Revelations

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, Why We Care November 14, 2009

So here I am, a beaver advocate, who has resisted reading the most famous beaver story of all time; Hope Ryden’s Lily Pond. Everyone said it was sad and beautiful, and I had enough sad and beautiful right here in my own backyard thank you very much. I will say my curiosity was peaked when I learned that our German beaver friend and foreign correspondent Alex, had sent her a few of my columns. I later learned that Alex had spent a summer working with her and later Sherri Tippie in Colorado. Recently a beaver supporter sat me down with an original signed copy and insisted I read a little.

I’m so glad she did!

I am slowly savoring the earliest chapters, but I had no idea it was so science-thoughtful. It’s like reading Gorilla’s in the Mist or Never Cry Wolf. As the story opens she has obtained a permit from the Ranger to study a local colony in New York. She is waiting silently for a glimpse of a beaver, patient for hours, days, longer. Then sees a large beaver she calls the “Inspector General” who comes out at the same time every night to check the dams. At first he is the only beaver than can tolerate her approach and allow her to get closer.

It’s wonderful to watch her learn things that we have learned by accident, but I was most excited by her use of night photography. She was trying to take pictures without disruption and painstakingly used red lights and strobe lights so the beavers wouldn’t be upset by the light. (!) Then an accident happened and she turned light upon them, and lo! the beavers were unphased! and she learned that beavers have no Eye Shine!

In this moment she realized what we’ve long realized. When you shine a light in a beavers eyes there is no reflection. Nocturnal animals like raccoon, bobcat, deer and possum have light gathering crystals called tapetum lucidum. They evolved this ability to help them manage life at night. Hope wondered why beavers didn’t have it? Could it be that the species is too newly adapted to night life to have evolved the trait?

She did the work I admire and went searching through historic records. Early trappers often mention beavers out during the daytime, and even “Sunning themselves on their lodges“. She writes

If these descriptions can be believed, they raise another question: what would cause a diurnal species to become a nocturnal one? Could such a change have come about as a result of the extraordinary trappping pressure exerted on the beaver over three centuries?

Hope Ryden, The Lily Pond pg 45

She goes on to convincingly describe the horrific “beaver ethic cleansing” that was perpetrated by the Dutch, the Canadians, the French, and the Native Americans in service for all of the above. The market was already hurting because the European Beaver had been trapped to extinction in the 1600’s. So it was wonderful to find a new source for pelts and castoreum. There were no restrictions at all placed on the number of beaver. At the end of the 18th century there were so many beaver pelts on the market that 75% of the pelts taken were burned to hold the price of fur at a profitable margin. In fact, in 1811 John Jacob Astor’s fur trading post had taken all the beaver from Oregon and systematically removed every them from every last tributary in the Columbia River. By the time of the invention of the steel-jawed leg hold trap in the 1840’s, there weren’t many beaver left to trap.

In 1895, fourteen states announced they had no beavers at all. Not one. These included Massachusetts (where Beaver Solutions is located) Vermont (where Skip Lisle is located!), New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, delaware, Maryland, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Florida.

One can speculate that the few animals that escaped this continent-wide decimation must have been the wariest of their kind, deviants, disinclined to build conspicuous lodges. And inded, the late ninteeth-century reports of sightings describe the beaver as a reclusive bank-dweller. One can also speculate that these survivors escaped the notice of trappers by turning night into day, for by the end of the last century, no further mention is made of beavers “sunning themselves on their lodges”.

Hope Ryden: The Lily Pond pg 48

Okay, I know I’m a huge beaver nerd, but that’s FASCINATING. It makes so much sense to think of bank lodges as an adaption to hunting, and beavers being nocturnal out of necessity and not out of genetics. The book was written in 1989 and I haven’t yet heard what beaver-ologists like Muller-Swarze or Baker think about it, but you can be I’ll be asking them.

In the meantime, you can pick up your own used copy of Lily Pond from Amazon, and follow along at home. I am sure I’ll have more revelations soon.

Never Cry Beaver

heidi08 Environmental, Video, Why We Care July 16, 2009

In the end, there were no simple answers,

no heroes, no villians.

only silence.

But it began the moment that I first saw the wolf

By the act of watching, with the eyes of man,

I had pointed the way for those who followed.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=Izb0ScZSBpk]

This movie came out the year I graduated from High School—(that’s Alhambra High School right here in Martinez California. Coincidentally the superintendent of the school then was John Searles, who invited me last month to talk about beavers for the Rotary Club, small beaver world, but you knew that already.) I was enrolled in a film class at DVC when Carroll Ballard’s remarkable animal photography was pointed out to me. My mind’s eye remembered the scene where he falls through the ice and we watch the hare’s face to follow the story. When I used the barn owl’s tilting head in the “high hopes” video that was what i was thinking of. (Not that you could tell.)

From the first five minutes of this remarkable movie I knew it was about epic challenges, personal courage, government bureaucracy and awesome, life-changing closeness to nature. For an unexplained while, before each big hurdle of my student life, (internship interviews, comprehensive exams, licensing exam, dissertation defense) I watched this movie and tried to put my nervous self in order.

I had no idea, then, that it was preparing me for beavers.

If you haven’t watched Never Cry Wolf in 26 years, (or if you sadly never watched it at all) give yourself a monumental treat. The movie is a slow, introspective look at the wilderness. Even today I’m not sure I understand how seeing the natural world in such staggering splendor can focus your vision inward in the most minute and compassionate detail. If you aren’t feeling introspective maybe you could invite your friends over to play the special Martinez Version where you do a shot each time you identify a similarity with our beaver story (faulty understanding, unreliable officials, greedy developers, exaggerated fears, lost wisdom, and wavering bassoon.) (Well, okay, there’s no bassoon in Martinez, but the rest is a direct hit!)

As a reward for struggling to keep up on a remarkable journey, you are treated at the end to the amazing footage of the main character teaching his inuit friend how to juggle. Very possibly the best movie ever made for helping you to see the world, value its beauty and wildness, unlearn all the bogus scientific mythology you’ve been taught, try remarkable new ways to test out developing theories, and advocate humane understanding of the creatures you encounter.

Hmm.

Woodpecker Guantanamo

heidi08 Why We Care July 7, 2009

I excitedly opened my July issue of Mt Diablo Audubon Society Newsletter: The Quail to check on whether the beaver article I had written had been included. I wanted to spend the morning talking about the delightful connections I had made with audubon since speaking there, but I found that the same issue is plastered with horrific woodpecker headlines that I simply can’t avoid discussing this morning. The beaver story is a bright spot on a very dark horizon, and one that deserves our attention.

When we last visited the story I had told you that the mutuals in question had seen the end of days on their 50 bird-killing permit, and had decided to seek an additional permit, this one from the Department of Agriculture. This allowed the “trapping for scientific research” of 20 additional birds. I had thought this meant they would just be quietly killed off sight, but I had not truly considered the terrifying options in depth.

Audubon pursued the issue with USDA and received back two responses weighed down by their own great respect for their own very high ethical standards. One was from the US Department of Agriculture National Wildlife Services Research Center (NWRC). The other was from the Washington DC and the head of the Ornothological Council who wanted to further defend the very respectable credentials of NWRC scientists. Apparently the very highest ethical standards were applied to the pointless but ethical capture, ethical interstate transport, ethical detention and ethical interference of our acorn woodpeckers. After which time they will be ethically euthanized, or, if they’re lucky, spared to participate in other highly ethical experiments for years to come.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=BbgyppGqBgg]

The fate of a score of cheerful acorn woodpeckers from Rossmoor reads like this:

NWRC scientists, with the help of WS Operations field specialists, live-captured 20 acorn woodpeckers from the Rossmoor community in late May. Capture was delayed until after documented egg laying dates by acorn woodpeckers in this region. Care was also taken to not remove birds observed feeding young or sitting on eggs. The birds arrived at the NWRC in Fort Collins, Colorado, on May 27.

“Care was taken not to remove birds observed feeding young or sitting on eggs.” Hey, I feel better already. I understand, science couldn’t possibly have waited until after nesting season was over, because that would have been after the May 31st permit period ran out and then those Rossmoor victims would be left alone with those vicious animals. Surely any ornithologist worth his Sibleys can tell two identical woodpeckers apart once they’ve moved off the nest to feed? Anyway, I’m sure in the midst of the complex nesting structure of polyandrous acorn woodpeckers where several females care for the young at once a highly ethical scientist would know instantly who was the mommy. You didn’t say how they were actually trapped, but I’m sure you used ethical silk netting or painless blow dart sedatives or something like that. After their capture they won an all expense paid trip to Colorado! What lucky birds.

The birds will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of several deterrent calls for use in a nonlethal electronic deterrent device. The device is meant to prevent damage to utility poles and other structures. The birds are housed in both indoor and outdoor aviaries and are under the care of our Attending Veterinarian. Our research is conducted under strict scientific protocols and quality assurance standards. Results from this study, as well as others conducted by NWRC scientists, are published in peer-reviewed journals, usually within 1-2 years of a study’s completion.

Anyone feel like a biscuit? Not the stodgy kind mind you, I’m talking about the crisp horrific guantanamo acronymn Behavioral Science Consultation Team (BSCT) referring to the team of top military ethical physicians and ethical psychologists on hand to assist and guide the ethical interrogations. I know intimately how much controversy psychologists participating in these teams caused within the APA, so I can only imagine there are a few ornithologists out there that don’t feel cozy with the NWRC either. At any rate, we are told that supporters of these noble birds should be comforted by the fact that they will play an important role in key research. Like this study which has demonstrated that these electrical devices don’t work to deter pileated woodpeckers. It concludes that more research is needed, and any ethiclal scientist can tell you that in order to make sure the method is a complete failure in every way it must be painstakingly applied to all species of woodpecker.

Under provisions of our 2009 California Scientific Collecting Permit (#SCP-10561), we will euthanize the birds upon the completion of the study. Since these woodpeckers are housed in outdoor aviaries, we cannot ensure their isolation from other species or pathogens during the course of back into the wild is not allowed under our permit. If possible, we will use these birds in additional studies, thus alleviating capture of additional birds from the wild.

Of course the captured birds cannot be released into the wild after we finished tampering with them. They might carry pathogens from all the diseases they picked up during our ethical care. Never mind that we spent government money to fly them 1000 miles when we could have studied the woodpeckers in our own backyard. We cannot possibly return them to their native lands because Rossmoor doesn’t want them. Much better to just kill them, but look on the bright side, we might use them again before their deaths!

The Department of Agriculture has as little interest in (or respect for) wildlife as the older gentleman I watched this week trying to use his walking stick to club golden native trout while they spawned in an alpine stream. They both lack the pragmatic understanding of a sportsman, and are miles away from the complex inter-relations of a naturalist. When the man saw me watching in horror he explained “The damn things won’t bite!” Obviously failing to take the bait made them a prime candidate for clubbing. Through gritted teeth it was explained that the fish weren’t eating because they were busy making more fish for him to catch next year, and he grumbled off into the woods, deeply affronted at the inconvenience.

This is the USDA, whose first instinct is to destroy, and whose response to enforced inhibition of any kind is to grumble off into the woods and complain about the obstruction. They’ve shown equal sensitivity to beavers in Elk Grove, the woodpeckers in Rossmoor, the coyotes in Nevada, and waterfowl in Wisconsin. At their worst they are bullies and at their best they are ill-informed rhinoceroses trying to pick wildflowers. Take this example, where an APHIS coyote hunter, Gary Strader, was recently fired for reporting the illegal shooting of mountain lions by his buddies from a helicopter. Mind you, not fired for participating in the shooting, but fired for caring about it. These are the people taking care of those acorn woodpeckers.

Do I sound bitter?

Nesting Season

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, Why We Care September 27, 2009

April is the cruelest month

TS.Eliot

In case you’ve been too busy to notice, it’s spring out there and birds are pairing off. Nests, long since crafted or discovered or reclaimed, are now natural Easter baskets full of eggs, and parents are trapped by their biological inheritance into sitting on them, waiting for precious cracking noises. ‘Tis the season for Nest cam watching, and from New York to Singapore devoted fans check in on feathered families from eagles to owlets.

A famous local webcam follows the peregrine falcons who nest in the PGE building in downtown San Francisco. The word “peregrine” means “wanderer” and peregrines have one of the largest migrations of any bird. Tundra-nesting birds winter in South America, with a yearly range of 15,000 miles. Now peregrines are medium sized falcons that eat smaller birds and catch their prey in flight. Falcons can dive at about 200 miles an hour. They are a species of bird we almost completely eliminated in the 60’s by our use of the pesticide DDT.

In case you haven’t heard this story, DDT was a cheap efficient pesticide used for years to control mosquitoes and other disease-spreading insects around the world. In the 60’s, naturalist-author Rachel Carlson drew attention to its harmful effect on wildlife with her famous book Silent Spring. She described how birds in particular were harmed because DDT affected the thickness of the eggshell, so loving parents trying to hatch their young were crushing their offspring to death. Her book was a best seller, compelled the issue to the forefront and by the 1970’s we had stopped using DDT in the united states.

Fast forward to 2009 and there are still only 45 breeding pairs of Peregrines in the state of California, so interested parties like the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group tend to keep a close eye on them. In fact, a couple years back the PGE peregrines thought maybe they’d find new real estate and took up shop in another very expensive building in down town San Francisco. The birds pull so much weight that the new million dollar renter couldn’t even move in until nature had taken its course.

I got interested in the SF Peregrines after reading about them in the paper. Local businessman Glenn Nevill began photographing their escapades on his lunch hours or before and after work. George and Gracie were the lovely pair in residence at the time, and in 2005 they launched four beautiful offspring. It may seem odd to think of Peregrines in big cities, but remember they are used to steep cliffs, narrow canyons and vast buffet tables of pigeon. One of the most amazing parts of Peregrine courtship was when George would bring food to Gracie on the nest: he’d drop it for her from the sky, and she would catch it on the wing.

Some have asked why my youtube name was “Bigonegeorgegrace” and its actually for them. (Its supposed to be Bygone not Big One)…and my first movie was an attempt to record their interaction using the webcam. At that time I saw a huge community grow around interest in these birds, people who would show up every week to watch in person or just keep track on line. As they got closer to first flight, volunteers were all over the city to spot if their were problems. One bird jumped before his time and fell into traffic in front of a Fed Ex truck. The quick-thinking driver wisely stopped, put the squawking fellow in a box, and brought him up the corporate elevator back to his nest.

He was nicknamed “Otis”.

Through Glenn’s amazing photographs, or in person with binoculars and scopes, we watched those birds learn to fly, joining their parents, practicing diving, catching a pigeon of their very own. One of those four fledges hit a clear windowed building and was instantly killed. People were heartbroken, and I was much sadder than I expected to be. I realized that care for these birds had made a community which stretched from Marin to Santa Cruz and the wide world beyond. Now the big faceless city of San Francisco was this intimate little peregrine feeding ground and the home of thousands who cared about them.

Perhaps you can see some similarities.

Why would Eliot call April, bursting with life, the cruelest month? Well anyone who watches it closely knows it’s also bursting with death: eggs that don’t survive or nests that are raided and failed launches that end in instant loss or slow suffering. I can’t say whether that’s what he meant, but its what I think when I read it. The more species you care about in the world, the more risky April becomes.

This year’s peregrines are Dapper Dan and Diamond Lil. She has laid four eggs in the scrape (peregrines nest on gravel) and you can watch their progress here.

New Study: Beaver Dams Good For Songbirds.

heidi08 Beaver News, Why We Care January 15, 2010

Corollary: Sheet Piling bad for Songbirds.

The October issue of the Western North American Naturalist has published a new article by lead author Hilary Cooke who is finishing her dissertation at the Unversity of Alberta. The study was conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society and estabilished that beaver dams provide critical habitat for declining migratory bird populations.

“We found that increasing density of beaver dams was associated with abundant bird community and the wetland and streamside habitat these species depend on.” Translation: more dams mean more birds. Four dams mean 4xs more birds.”This habitat is critical to birds in semi-arid regions (CA) yet has been severly degraded or has been lost through much of the West. Our results suggest that management of beavers may be an important tool for restoring habitat and reversing bird declines.”

Yes in addition to helping frogs, salmon and drought, beavers help birds. No one who has stood at the dam and seen last winter’s scaup or this fall’s returning common yellow throats can be surprised. Although beaver populations have returned to the country overall, the article emphasizes how beaver influence is still missing from much of the watersheds of the west and are “very important to wildlife and reviving the natural function of streams.”

Beavers help birds. A timely reminder. This weekend Birds will return the favor as Worth A Dam will be providing information and education at the Wildbirds Unlimited 17 anniversary event. Beaver friends at Native Bird Connections will be there with an eagle and the audobon society will host its own build a nest contest for children. Stop by, and get the latest information about beavers and birds.

Oh and beavers are good for these guys too.