BEAVERS BRIGHTEN DAYS

Besides all the great things you know about beavers – that they help salmon, that they store water, that they recharge the aquifer, that they remove nitrogen and save frogs and fight fires, well besides all THAT they are also just cool.

Don’t take my word for it.

Beaver lodges with satellite dishes on top of them dot the Canadian landscape

Brian Edwards was driving to work along Onion Lake Road in Thunder Bay, Ont., one morning in May when he saw something that made him question if he’d had enough coffee before leaving the house.

“It’s a beaver pond,” he explained, “so kind of a swampy area, [a] beaver house, so mud, sticks — and a grey satellite dish sitting on top.”

After a moment’s thought, Edwards decided it made perfect sense: The NHL was planning its comeback after a lengthy pause brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Clearly this beaver was a hockey fan. It needed a solid sports TV package to see all the games, Edwards said.

Now I love beavers a lot, but you can’t convince me that they’re hockey fans, No I suspect the usual culprits. Human pranksters that think it’s funny to imagine beavers needing entertainment. Our past 6 months of quarantine have given us a TINY taste of what beaver life is like every winter in colder climbs. They aren’t whiners. They take it in stride.

In northwestern Ontario, satellite dishes have been spotted atop beaver lodges near Red Lake and Rainy River First Nation.

The question is: how, and why?

“I could not locate this beaver lodge in our customer database — but sometimes satellite TV customers will move their service between their homes and vacation properties,” a Bell Canada spokesperson told CBC in an email.

Oh I can tell you why. And you could too. People are bored out of their freaking minds and need something to amuse themselves.

Beavers are technically capable of installing their own satellite dishes, said Glynnis Hood, a professor of environmental science at the University of Alberta who has been studying beavers for more than 20 years. They will build a lodge with just about anything, she said.

But while they have the construction skills, the animals are lacking in the technical department.

“I’m not sure if they could directionally install it in a way that they’d get a good shot of Downton Abbey,” she said. “But otherwise, they could install it, but it would probably be covered in mud.”

Thankfully, they have a Glynnis on hand to set them straight.

It seems, Hood said, that in places like Thunder Bay, along the outskirts of the Canadian wilderness, placing items such as satellite dishes and Canadian flags on beaver lodges has become the quintessential prank for Canadian humans.

“I think that Canadians have this profound connection to beavers,” she said.

“It’s our national symbol. And beaver lodges are just such a great obvious structure on the landscape that installing satellite dishes on the top or Canada flags on the top just seems to go well with the Canadian identity.”

Isn’t that funny? A beaver lodge with a satellite dish? Imagine what great reception they get in there. And from the beavers point of view its probably not like they’re littering. You just watch because that dish is going to show up in a dam someday soon.

CBC attempted to locate the alleged pranksters responsible for the Thunder Bay installation on social media.For two days, people responded with little more than jokes.

“Dam! Those beavers have better TV than me,” one said.
“I bet they’re watching Leave it to Beaver,” said another.
“They got their building materials at Beaver Lumber,” yet another chimed in.

But then there was a breakthrough in the search.

HILARIOUS! Those whacky canadians.

Grant Carlson, a resident of Onion Lake Damn Road reported that, on May 25, he took a kayak and chest waders out into the pond and screwed the satellite dish onto the beaver lodge.

“I run a wedding centre, and you know, I was getting pretty depressed with all my weddings being cancelled,” Carlson explained.

“I just thought that maybe I could help somebody else out, and we decided to help the beavers. You know self-isolation isn’t so bad with Netflix.”

You always knew it. Wedding planners were up to no good. Think of all the mischief they can get into when they have nothing to keep them busy!

MILWAUKEE GETS BEAVER MURAL, TOO!

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver ecological impact August 9, 2020

Summertime is when a man’s heart turns to beaver murals – er – something like that. This story from Milwaukee got me thinking about our own Muraled history, we’ve come so far on the subject! And of course chatting with the artist about teeth, ahem.

Justin Suarez worked with scientists at the UWM Freshwater Institute to identify which specific species to paint. The mural will include a beaver, otter, and a Belted Kingfisher.

“Even though the city is on the river the ecology and animals that live here are a really important part of the ecosystem…more important than we are in a lot of ways,” said Suarez.

I had to write Justin and let him know the mural was awesome, tell him the truth about teeth and let him know something about our own bizarre history of beaver murals in Martinez. Like all stories in our town its one with many chapters. This one from the SF Chronicle.

Martinez mural artist forced to remove beaver

In the latest chapter of the city’s conflicted relationship with its resident beaver family, officials last week ordered the muralist to paint over the depiction of a beaver he had included in his panorama.

It’s the only time I talked to reporters and heard them laughing themselves to tears over the depths to which one city would sink over rodents. The story got so much attention we were even on the radio in Chicago. Remember?

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Ahh those were the days! So of course it was for more than just mere spite that we had to bring Mario back for the big mural in 2016 when our kits died. He did an excellent job of course. So good that Jon and I paid to have one outside our front door later.

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Ahh such sweet memories. Of course these were paint and brush murals, not spray paint like Justin’s. So we had to have one of those too. This from Tim Hon of Illuminaries who happened to live in the city and really like seeing the beavers.

So you see Martinez knows its beaver murals. This ain’t our first beaver mural rodeo. So believe us when we say yours is beautiful!

SKIP LISLE WORKS HIS MAGIC IN MAINE

heidi08 Flow Device Installed, Who's saving beavers now? August 8, 2020

Apparently Skip Lisle isn’t retiring quietly onto the deck with a scotch and soda sipped from the arm of his adirondack chair. He’s continuing to travel to other states and save beavers, this time in a Peat bog in Maine.

Beaver Deceiver: Device aims to mitigate Rail Trail’s dam problem

SPRINGVALE, Maine – For years, beaver dams have caused flooding after high watershed events along the Rail Trail abutting the wetlands of Deering Pond, but the installation of a new device on site is expected to help resolve the issue for decades to come.

Skip Lyle, the founder and owner of Beaver Deceiver International, traveled to the community on July 30 and worked with Kevin McKeon and Steve Mallon, both of the Sanford-Springvale Trails Committee, to install one of Lyle’s custom-designed flow-control devices at Deering Pond’s culverts within the Hall Environmental Reserve. Lyle, of Grafton, Vermont, is a conservationist, builder, biologist, inventor and entrepreneur.

“My goal is to protect any threatened property while at the same time maximizing ecological and hydrological value,” Lyle said.

No word yet on why a reporter who looked up Skip’s website still failed to get the correct spelling of his name. It’s L-i-s-l-e. We learned to spell in Martinez. Why couldn’t you in Maine?

“If they hear it, if they see it, if they feel it, they will try to stop it,” he said. “They can’t help themselves. It’s a natural thing that they do.”

Lyle said his devices are effective anywhere between 30 and 40 years and are a more practical, long-term and humane alternative to trapping and killing beavers. Trapping in the area also is risky for the trappers themselves, McKeon noted.

“This is a peat bog,” he said. “Unless you know the area pretty well, you could be walking along the shore of Deering Pond and all of a sudden you could find yourself chest-deep in muck. It’s a pretty dangerous area for trappers to be trapping.”

The entire installation of the Beaver Deceiver cost about $2,900, according to Trails Committee Chair Lee Burnett. The committee will cover the expenses, with hopes of being reimbursed through the state’s Municipal ATV Grant program, Burnett said.

Mousam Way Land Trust funded a video production of the installation as part of the organization’s goal of increasing the awareness of how people exist within their environment, McKeon said. WSSRTV, the broadcast station out of Sanford High School and Regional Technical Center, produced the video and is currently editing it for availability soon.

Good for Maine and hurray for Skip! I went searching for the video of this installation but it hasn’t been released yet, but while I was hunting I found this video of Skip’s presentation at BeaverCon in Maryland this year was just uploaded. I didn’t know this happened. How smart. What a fantastic look at the history and evolution of the beaver Deceiver. Don’t miss it.

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BLOWING UP BEAVERS TO SAVE TROUT?

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and trout, Who's Killing Beavers Now? August 7, 2020

I know what you’ve been thinking. The beaver news these past days has been so excellent and positive, beaver benefits are so well understood even around the world, that the tide has finally turned. Why would anyone need to fight for them any more? Clearly everyone’s on the same team now, playing for the good of the planet. You might be thinking “It’s finally over! The battle’s done and we really won! Lay down my sword, unbuckle my armor and rest my shield against the hearth. Let’s all have a jug of wine to celebrate. Because there’s no need to be a beaver warrior any more.”

But on that day, when every place in the nation and most in Canada understand the importance of beavers and values their presence on the landscape, when the people of the world can finally see the forest for the trees, and the water for the flooding —

There will still be Wisconsin.

How To Maintain Local Trout Streams? Often, It’s Through Explosives

Jeremy Irish, an assistant district supervisor with the USDA’s Wildlife Services program, triggered the blast, undoing some of this year’s construction by beavers in the area. In the process, he cleared another portion of one of northern Wisconsin’s best trout streams.

Hundreds of miles of northern Wisconsin’s best trout streams flow freely, providing excellent fish habitat and great fishing. But if beavers, and they dams they create, had their way, the landscape would be much different. Often, it’s humans like Irish who have to help strike the balance, doing it using fuses, detonations, and explosions.

“Beaver are a very unique animal. They can alter their habitat to suit themselves, and in the north here, they definitely need to do that to make it through the winter,” he said. “The difficulty is, in altering their habitat, they also create problems for other species. In this case, we’re talking about a cold water ecosystem to support brook trout populations and spawning habitat.”

Apparently the USDA has not yet released it’s ground breaking (ha) research on why trout in the state of Wisconsin would have evolved differently than the trout in every other part of the world, but apparently they have the proof. Because why else would they ever be spending all that money and time? Oh and did you know Wisconsin thinks they have more beavers now than they used to before the fur trade? And that these two species didn’t actually co-evolve because the situation got WORSE. Yup.

Maybe it’s the cheese curds.

Whatever the cause. there are clearly a few battles left to be fought in the state. There are really places that believe trout are happier with explosives in their water than with beavers. I wrote the reporter on this story yesterday and I’ll let you know i I hear anything back. But I wouldn’t put down your armor just yet.

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BEAVERS CREATE FOREST DIVERSITY

heidi08 Beavers and Forests August 6, 2020

It’s been yet another crazy beaver news day. Beavers conclude their trial in the River Otter and get to stay. Research on Castoides suggest that beaver cut down trees first to build dams and then got the idea about eating bark. And there’s an awesome new study out of Suny NY suggesting that not only do beavers create habitats and biodiversity – they also shape entire forests.

Transforming Adirondack Forests By Nature’s ‘Ecosystem Engineer’

To date, ecological studies on beavers’ impacts have mostly focused on their ponds and dams, and the effects these have on forest streams, nutrient cycling, and aquatic biodiversity. But in a new study, ESF researchers have found that beaver are just as effective in modifying the forest around their ponds, and in creating diverse habitat that benefits other wildlife in addition to themselves. Conducted by Mike Mahoney as an ESF undergraduate honors project working with Dr. John Stella, the findings are published this month in the journal Forest Ecology and Management.

So he as an intern he went around studying forests in the Adirondack for the Department of conservation and he found that the surviving forest are pretty homogenous. All about the same age. Same species. Same density. They survived on mass because the grew up without beaver during the decimation of the fur trade. When beaver are around they take out some trees and open up some spaces of light in the forest which become spaces for new growth, smaller growth to occur.

In other regions, disturbances such as fire, storms and forestry activities keep the forest ecologically diverse by making room for fast-growing, shade-averse trees like aspen and willow to persist. Due to a lack of disturbances – events needed to regenerate younger stands -Adirondack forests are “kind of in middle-age right now,” said Stella. “But also, they have not yet gotten to the old-growth stage, which means there aren’t many canopy gaps where trees die and fall, and new forest patches can regenerate.”

This leaves few patches of young trees and forage for wildlife that depends on them, such as moose, migratory birds, and bats. It also concerns the DEC, which has prioritized creating a more diverse forest structure through its Young Forest Initiative, a statewide management strategy to maintain 10 percent of the public forest lands under 10 years old.

To do well forests (and people) need diversity. And beavers bring diversity when they cut down some trees and make homes for others. And they have a favorite size of tree to harvest, the little saplings which means more little saplings get to grow after their cousins are utelized. I thought this was really interesting:

Why are beaver so important to the health of the forest? Many researchers, including previous students in Stella’s lab at ESF, have found that these young forests support a diverse variety of plants, mammals, birds, and amphibians not found in older, more homogenous forests, which have typically larger trees but little groundcover or leafy forage within reach. “If you’re a turkey or a moose, big trees are useless to you; you can’t get up there and there’s nowhere to hide,” said Stella. Areas disturbed by beaver, on the other hand, have a lot of underbrush and herbaceous plants, more canopy layers, and more light and water – all desirable qualities for supporting a diversity of other species.

I never thought of the importance of hiding places and cover. No wonder beavers are so important. Just imagine how dangerous it would be if every human was born on exactly the same day. We would all get old at the same time,and all start dying at the same time too. Beavers stagger the forests by giving other trees a chance to live it up.

This study is part of a larger program with Stella’s lab exploring the benefits of beavers in the Northeast. “You see this a lot when beavers create these massive wetland areas, which are all of a sudden, extremely productive – you’ve got a ton of amphibians,” said Stella, whose lab also documented that over 50 percent more bird species use disturbed beaver pond areas compared to intact forest nearby. “They also give some water purification benefits and create dynamic wetland areas. And then when they move on and the dams eventually blow out, the wetlands evolve into rich beaver meadows with positive benefits that remain for a very long time,” Stella said. Scientists and land managers in western states have exploited these processes to partner with beaver in restoring degraded stream for better fish habitat. “And now we’ve documented here in the east that they change the structure of the forest adjacent to their ponds and that has ongoing benefits for biodiversity in this region.”

Let the beaver do the work. You really don’t need a PhD to know why its logical. Of course the article ends with a bitter little reminder that beavers in urban areas are also a nuisance, but we’re enjoying this so much lets just leave it here shall we?