CAL-BEAVER SUMMIT NEEDS YOU

Yesterday I had the most mind-blowing conversation with Jackie Van Der Hout, the education and outreach director of CUSP (California Urban Streams Partnership). They are a wildly successful organization that is very interested in beavers, and wanted to take on my crazy idea. Jackie had great ideas for the beaver conference and took notes about my ramblings in a way that made it seem like I had great ideas too. I staggered away from the consult feeling excited, energized and more than a little overwhelmed.

Then I played around with Survey Money looking for the best way to get input from possible attendees without spending any actual money. This is what I came up with so far. The California Beaver Summit needs YOU. Click the image at the left to give feedback about your interest in the project. It will help a great deal to hear from you about the idea.

Part of planning something like this is thinking about who its for and what the goals area. I mean do we want biologists, stream-keepers, engineers or teachers to attend? Or all of the above? And what is the best way to package a conference like that? All in one fell swoop or in little chunks like brown bag meeting? Knowing who to speak and how to get them involved is the easy part for me, everything else is new territory.

Something tells me things are about to get very interesting.

BEAVER MORTALITY CONFOUNDS RESEARCHERS

heidi08 Beaver relocation, Dispersal October 23, 2020

Everyone has been thinking more about the desert beavers, as we get ready for the NM Summit. Apparently it grew out of advocates wish for Game and Fish to adopt a beaver management plan like Utah’s. Of course not ALL of Utah gets the idea. Some of the regions are still chugging along without a single beaverclue.

Beavers in the Desert? The Potential for Translocated Beavers to Serve as Restoration Tools in Desert Rivers

The USGS Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Utah State University (USU) is partnering with the Ecology Center (USU), the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Wildlife Research Center to evaluate the efficacy of beaver translocation for desert river restoration by comparing the fates, space use, and dam building activity of naturally occurring and translocated beavers in the Price and San Rafael Rivers in eastern Utah.

Beaver translocation is an alternative solution to lethal control that is gaining popularity. Beavers are taken from a conflict situation and translocated to a targeted area with the goal of harnessing their dams as a passive, cost-effective, and natural method of restoration. The challenge of translocation is getting beavers to stay, survive, and build dams in a specific area. Success of beaver translocation projects varies widely and lacks standardized best practices; failures are typically undocumented, and the cause of failure is often unknown.

Well it’s known by the beaver I dare say, but I guess that’s not what you mean.

So far, nine naturally occurring beavers have been captured and monitored, seven adult residents and two subadults, while 31 nuisance beavers have been translocated to the rivers, 18 adults and 13 subadults. All individuals were fitted with a tail-mounted radio-transmitter and a PIT- (passive integrated transponder) tag for post-release monitoring. Most (65%) of the translocated beavers have unknown fate, from radio-transmitter failure or individuals leaving the targeted restoration areas, while only 33% of resident beavers had unknown fate. Translocated beavers also experienced proportionally higher mortality (19% vs. 11%), primarily due to predation or exposure during drought. The only mortality of a naturally occurring beaver was a dispersing subadult, preyed upon by a mountain lion.

The researchers calculated the farthest straight-line distance an individual was detected from its release location to compare space use between resident and translocated beavers. Resident adult beavers exhibited an average maximum displacement of 0.58 km²and dispersing subadult beavers had an average of 42.76 km². Translocated adult beavers had an average maximum displacement of 79.13 km²and translocated subadult beavers had an average of 67.74 km².

Hmm I guess that means the relocaters got their release sight an average of 25 km wrong?

In this study, it appears that translocated beavers have not directly contributed to restoration efforts by building dams, likely due to their higher mortality rates and larger space use, spending more time traveling and exploring than remaining in an area and using their energy to construct a dam. This is similar to the behavior of dispersing subadults as they search for a new territory to establish. However, given the behavior of the translocated beavers and the wood-limited systems they were translocated into, the outcome likely would have been different if translocations were accompanied by the construction of structural features such as beaver dam analogues.

Yes it is very hard to build a maintain a dam when you’re dead. New research has shed light on the confounding effect of mortality. The researchers will remember not to overlook that fact next time? That’s encouraging.

This study also highlights the importance of post-release monitoring. If no monitoring of individual movements and behaviors were taking place, it may be falsely assumed that translocated beavers built the newly observed dams. Other studies have had varying success with translocation, but perhaps the initial results are an indicator that harsher, arid systems are more difficult for translocated beavers to establish. This could be due to poorer habitat quality, with the best habitat already occupied by naturally occurring beavers.

Those pesky beavers. We sprinkle them like table salt into dry areas and they either crawl to water or die outright. Sheesh who do they think they are?

THE LIVING BEAVER RESTORATION GUIDEBOOK

heidi08 Beavers October 22, 2020

Yesterday I read in the Montana beaver newsletter that the Beaver Coalition has taken on responsibility for the beaver restoration guide book and will be making and releasing updates as needed.

That’s pretty exciting and I am only modestly wounded that they didn’t ask us. But I guess an ex NOAA fisheries guy is a better man for the job. They probably think I would say too many outrageously nice things about beavers. Which I would.

So, just shut up and keep letting us have those nice photos, Heidi. I think that’s what they said.

Any way its good news that the guidebook can continue to reflect updated conditions and that it will stay a vital source for our times. And it’s great that Jakob and Rob are getting the respect they deserve. They do, after all, have the finest logo.

We are proud to be the new stewards of “The Beaver Restoration Guidebook,” a free, open-source guide to the best available science, restoration techniques, and management practices for partnering with beavers. Originally published in June 2015 with funding from the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative and housed since its publishing with the Oregon office of US Fish and Wildlife, this is a living document that has, and will continue to be revised, as our collective knowledge advances.

Speaking of great ideas, our friend Ray Cirino of Ojai California proudly created a ‘beaver game’ for children to play at the three day Manadala Event near the library. Check out his explanation of how it works.

Isn’t that a cool idea? Can you imagine how easily you could incorporate some beaver ecology into that meadow? Say the children following the different paths of the species who come to the pond? I sent it to Amy and am hoping she gets inspired.

BEAVER BEGINNINGS BEGUN

heidi08 Beavers October 21, 2020

Do you know the story of the little red hen? How she found some grain and asked all her barnyard friends who among them would help her plant it, tend it. water it, harvest it? And one by one they all answer that they were too busy, “Not I,” said the cow moo moo….”Not I” said the sheep, baa baa….So she ends up doing it all by herself.

Until it comes time to take the delicious smelling bread out of the oven and she asks “Who will help me eat the bread?” And then EVERYONE has time for that and wants a thick slice. But the little red hen wisely points out that she found the wheat and tended it and harvested it, and made the bread by herself, so she will EAT it herself.

And she did.

The story was on my mind this week as I approached beaver friends about my Cal-Beaver summit idea this week. Everyone said it was a good idea, and they’d love to present at it. They’d love to attend it. But as for taking a lead role or approaching their institutions for help they’re schedules were too busy to help in that regard. They had too much going on to help make it happen, but they liked the idea and I should let them know when it came to pass.

Frustrating but not surprising. Remember this has never happened in California before so even a tiny half-assed attempt would be a very big deal and the exciting news. This is how I comforted myself about the first beaver festival – even if it was horribly attendeded and a complete flop it would still be the biggest beaver festival Martinez had ever had. And what does it hurt to ask over and over? I’m talking today with wildlife defenders about what was involved in their production, to see what I can learn from them and I might have found an institution to help… So stay tuned. Because obviously I can’t eat the bread myself. Even if I can find helpers along the way yet. It’s a colloquy.

All the barnyard animals will need to be involved at some point.

This is one of the contenders for the UK Natural History Museum wildlife photo of the year. It didn’t win, but it’s pretty lovely.

Oliver Richter’s Image

Oliver has observed the European beavers near his home in Grimma, Saxony, Germany, for many years, watching as they redesign the landscape to create valuable habitats for many species of wildlife including kingfishers and dragonflies.

This family portrait is at the beavers’ favourite feeding place and, for Oliver, the image reflects the care and love the adult beavers show towards their young.

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BIRTHDAY BEAVERS FROM BORIS

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and climate change October 20, 2020

Christmas is just around the corner. Maybe you’re wondering what to get that special person in your life? Wonder no more.

A dam good gift: Boris Johnson gives his father Stanley BEAVERS as a present for his 80th birthday

Most men are happy receiving a good book or a nice bottle of whisky for their birthday. But rather than an ordinary present, Boris Johnson gifted his father, Stanley, a group of beavers on his 80th birthday.

According to the Telegraph, the Prime Minister and his siblings clubbed together to get a licence to allow their father to have beavers in the river of his Exmoor estate

The Prime Minister met with the UK’s top rewilder, Derek Gow, to ensure the paperwork was arranged and the land suitably converted into a good beaver habitat.

Stanley Johnson was said to be ‘delighted’ at the gift.

Now there is precious little I like about Boris but goodness gracious this does go into the plus column. Why don’t I have an estate with beavers on it? One with a boardwalk and a nice viewing platform across from the dam?

Ben Goldsmith, brother of cabinet minister Zac Goldsmith and a friend of the Johnsons, is an investor in Derek Gow’s rewilding project.

Mr Gow told The Telegraph he is ‘deeply grateful’ to Boris Johnson for his ‘help in returning beavers to England’. Mr Gow said that he has been flooded with requests from people who want to introduce beavers to their estates.

Well sure. Everyone wants a beaver on their estate. I mean everyone who has an estate. A beaver in every creek. A chicken in every pot. You know the saying.

Meanwhile in America the Beaver Believers film has been making the rounds and received a very glowing review in Santa Barbara the other day. Mind you this is a town that could use more beavers to keep it from drying out and burning up.

Film Review: The Beaver Believers

The award-winning feature documentary directed by Sarah Koenigsberg follows the work and passion of five scientists and one quirky hairdresser turned beaver rescuer. Independently they’re all working to restore the North American Beaver, nature’s most hard-working engineer, to watersheds of the American West.

Beavers are a keystone species, meaning they have a disproportionately large effect on their natural environment relative to its abundance. They enrich their ecosystems, creating the biodiversity, complexity, and resiliency our watersheds need to absorb the impacts of climate change.

Ahh it’s nice to see the little ripples Sarah’s film is casting about the pond as it moves from state to state. Covid prevented her from having the film festival debut she deserved but it’s impressing anyway.

The film creatively used an unassuming animal to share the reality of how Earth is changing, how everything is interconnected, and how we need to make changes now before it’s too late.

Audiences have agreed by honoring “The Beaver Believers” with the 2019 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, winner of the Green Spark Award at the American Conservation Film Festival, winner of the Eco-Hero Award at the Portland Eco-Film Festival, and a finalist at both the London Eco-Film Festival and the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.

You can see the success its generating. I am not at all surprised it was the audience favorite. It’s certainly my favorite. Sarah recently started selling the DVD’s for individual viewing. If you’d like your very own copy click here:

Meanwhile it’s getting plenty cold for our friends and Mike Digout in Saskatchewan. How cold you ask? Well I can’t imagine this much ice at the end of October. But something tells me beavers can handle it.