NAPA’S BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT

heidi08 Beavers June 9, 2020

Do people still put in birth announcements? “Gloria and Stephan Escobar are proud to announce the birth of their first grandchild, Emily Susan Escobar?” Well they should. And there definitely should be birth announcements for beavers.

Meet Napa’s Newest Resident: Photo Of The Day

NAPA, CA — This little guy — or gal — was spotted by Roland Dumas last week in downtown Napa. It wasn’t the only recent beaver sighting in town. Rusty Cohn shared photos last week of a baby beaver and a larger one, both swimming in Napa Creek.

“It’s a great time of year to watch beavers because the beginning of summer means kits,” according to Heidi Perryman of Worth A Dam, a Martinez-based nonprofit focused on beavers.

Beavers breed once a year, and both parents and the older yearlings — teens — help raise the babies, which are called kits. Beavers are born ready to swim but take a while to learn to dive, she said.

The kits seen recently in Napa are probably about a month old, according to Perryman, who says people should not try to interact with kits. Watch from a distance, she says, and keep dogs away.

“In Martinez we had 27 kits born over 10 years from the same family,” Perryman said. “There appears to be a couple families in Napa.”

Well sure, doesn’t ever retired football player become a sports commentator if they’re lucky? Those who can’t do, etc, if I can’t watch beavers someone else can, and if Roland and Rusty (bless their hearts) are going to play dueling cameras and try to see who can get the best photo, I’m going to sit on my porch and be very very happy.

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ONLY THE BEAVER BEST

heidi08 Beavers June 8, 2020

This is the very best photo Rusty has ever taken. It may well be the best photo I have ever seen. I honestly like it better than any of Suzi’s. And it is more endearing than Cheryl’s. You will never need to buy another valentine’s card in your life. Beavers are awesome.

Which brings me to a feverish impulse yesterday. You may or may not remember this old Simon and Garfunkel tune. It was never famous. But It spoke to me.

Paul Simon

Just in case you want to sing along…

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FRIENDS TO THE WILD

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Why We Care June 7, 2020

It’s a dire time. With dire things happening everywhere you are unfortunate enough to look. In addition to the police horrors and the recent spike in infections there was a fire Wednesday night in Suisun that burned the home of our friends at the Wildlife Center, Several residents didn’t survive that fire, although others were freed by volunteers and the firemen.

Fire that killed wildlife, devastated homes in Suisun was arson, officials said

Blackened debris and soot-covered marshland defined the Suisun Wildlife Center Thursday, where a massive wildfire the day before had damaged outbuildings and taken the lives of three resident raptors and four gray squirrels being readied for release.

Thanks to the actions of amazing volunteers and firefighters, Executive Director Monique Liguori said, the center’s other animals and the main building were saved.

“We’re hurt but we’re grateful,” she said. “It could have been so much worse.”

Maybe its the stress of everything else, but the thought to me of a captured owl dying in a fireand unable to get away to protect itself was just heartbreaking.I wanted to help if there was any way I could. Monique Liguori is the director and lifeblood of the center. She bravely was one of our first ‘legitimate’ displays at the beaver festival and has joined us ever year since 2009 I think. When I reached out to convey my horror and support she said that lots of the center had been saved and that they would rebuild. The mayor of Suisun even started a Go Fund me page for the effort.

Just three volunteers were at the wildlife center when danger presented itself, and they swiftly worked to evacuate the animals. Many went home with the volunteers, while firefighters opened the outdoor cages and encouraged the creatures to leave.

Kaiu the one-eyed coyote hid in his house, where he was later found safe and sound.

But Griffin and Gwen the Great Horned Owls perished, the flames boring holes into their enclosures. Four gray squirrels also died, their enclosure a pile of rubble behind the owl house.

“I raised them from babies,” Liguori said of the squirrels, who were in the pre-release stage.

I know you’d want to contribute. Click here to go to the GOFUNDME started by the mayor.

Oh and here’s your reward for kindness. Photographed last night by Rusty Cohn of Napa. Two kits, one much larger but both siblings starting their explorations together.

AETATIS SUAE CASTOR

heidi08 Beavers and Flooding June 6, 2020

That beaver death rate wasn’t just shocking to us. It caught the attention of many conservationists in the UK. This time from the Spectator which. since the 1800’s has written about politics and happenings giving it the odd distinction of making it is the oldest weekly magazine in the world.

After the flood: The age of the beaver

Restoring biodiversity and protecting our bucolic woodlands will be a focus for farmers and those who dictate how subsidies are spent over the coming decades.

The greatest of these is the Eurasian Beaver. Ecologists unanimously assert that temperate river ecosystems can only be considered whole and healthy if they have beavers living throughout their length. Great efforts are being made by an enlightened few to reintroduce this noble and ingenious rodent back into our waterways. Even so, last year 87 beavers were killed on the River Tay by local farmers who were protecting subsidy motivated crops on low lying flood-plains. This equates to 20 per cent of Scotland’s total beaver population.

A death rate like 1/5 gets attention. And it should. When Scotland announced it’s original plan to catch ALL the tay beavers years ago they were hampered by an extremely faulty count. I’m hoping this statistic used the same math and there are way more beavers than they realize. I’m so happy it’s getting noticed that I won’t even complain that they used castor canadensis instead of fiber for this photo. The European beaver just isn’t as beautiful with it’s piggish snout. Our beaver of course boasts the nose shot as the most perfect.

We need a nation that is built to withstand the flood of future pandemics and the strain of climate change. Beaver dams provide towns and villages with robust safety from flooding and from the strain of droughts. They are far more effective than the concrete culverts we erect. These ecosystem engineers manage water flow in a way councils could only dream of.

It all comes down to this. Beavers could make things better if we could just stop killing them long enough to notice. Ain’t that always the kicker? Shh this is my favorite part.

Perhaps the beaver could be the symbol of an invigorated United Kingdom that emerges from the deluge of coronavirus to stem the flood of threats that the 2020s hold for us all. We have all come to appreciate nature more during the lockdown so now is the time to begin rewilding our gardens, our lives and even our economy. Not only will beavers help farmers across our island to manage their rivers but they inspire the kind of creative and proactive risk management that our politicians will need to embody in order to survive the coming storm.

The age of the beaver is upon us.

Good lord, let’s hope so.

SCOTTISH FARMERS THINK KILLING IS WORKING SPLENDIDLY

heidi08 Beavers and water June 5, 2020

New photo from Roland this morning, I would recognize this as Napa from a million miles away. Look at all that duckweed surrounding that adorable little face,

Keep looking back at that photo as you read this fairly upsetting article from the Scottish Farmer noting that there has been ‘JUST ENOUGH KILLING’ to keep everything ship shape.

Beaver management proving fit for purpose

Scottish Natural Heritage has released a new report revealing its beaver licensing statistics – in the eight months following the species being given formal protection on May 1, 2019, the agency issued 45 licences which permitted either lethal control or dam removal.

Licenses were granted when there was no other effective solution to prevent serious agricultural damage. Five of the licences permitted dam removal or manipulation only. All licences were issued for the purpose of preventing serious damage to agriculture and all but one of these (97.5%) were issued on land classified by Scottish Government as prime agricultural land, which makes up 13% of Scotland’s land cover. Evidence of serious damage included waterlogged fields and crops, as well as erosion on riverbanks and embankments.

Under these licences, 15 beavers were trapped and moved to either Knapdale or a trial reintroduction project and fenced sites in England, 83 beaver dams were removed, and 87 beavers were shot by trained and accredited controllers.

Licenses were granted when there was no other effective solution to prevent serious agricultural damage.

Mind you, I’m not Scotish, but I think I have a VERY VERY GOOD idea of exactly what kind of exhaustive nonlethal measures were tried to prevent damage. I’m going to guess it involved ripping out the dam, and when the beavers built it back, well then lethal means were needed.

GRR.

So basically like a quarter of the population? That’s all? Who knew that beaver killing would be a side effect of Brexit. Well, besides us that is.

“It’s always been clear to both us and our partners that lethal control of beavers will sometimes be necessary under licence as a last resort when other mitigation is unlikely to be effective,” said SNH director of sustainable growth, Robbie Kernahan. “Some of the well documented and most serious issues have occurred on the most productive areas of agricultural land in Scotland. Due to their generally being well-drained, low-lying and flat, these areas are often vulnerable to beaver burrowing and dam building,” he explained.

I want a list. I want a list with photographs explaining each issue caused and the brilliant steps taken to resolve it before beavers were killed. You have one, right?

Welcoming the report, NFU Scotland president Andrew McCornick said: “In its first year of operation, the accreditation, management and licensing framework for managing beavers…is proving effective and fit for purpose.

“It has allowed the management of beavers in those areas of productive farmland where the species has had a clear impact,” he continued. “The report notes that more than 90% of beaver territories have been unaffected by the licensing system.

We were might suspicious at the onset, but after careful consideration and examination the killing appears to work just fine. What a relief. Will someone much wiser than me please explain the ridiculous final paragraph?

“While that may involve lethal control, we note from the report that three-quarters of licence holders have proactively engaged with the role of trapping. NFUS is encouraged to see that where mitigation was proven to have worked, there was no longer a need for licensing.” he concluded.

I’m pretty sure it means farmers are so good at killing beavers they should just be allowed to get on with it themselves? You know like in Oregon where any private landowner can kill any beaver on his land without interference.

Please ask the farmers union if they would still like the water?