BEAVERS GET A BIGGER JOB. CAN THEY DO IT?

heidi08 Beavers and water January 24, 2020

I’m sure you’ve read something about the EPA’s new rule rolling back restrictions of the clean water act. Millions of streams, headwaters and wetlands that were once protected from pollution will now be accessible to all forms of devastation. It’s part of Mr. Trump’s fervent campaign to undo everything Obama did. And boy is he dedicated to his cause.

EPA final rule unravels Clean Water Act protections

The Environmental Protection Agency announced today it is finalizing a rule that will drop protections for millions of miles of streams and millions of acres of wetlands, putting watersheds at risk for countless Americans.

The revised rule announced Thursday states that ephemeral bodies of water — those that form only after rainfall or that flow only part of the year and dry up at other times — are among those that are not subject to federal control. This exception also applies to waste treatment systems, groundwater, prior converted cropland and farm watering ponds.

It also identifies four categories that are federally regulated under the Clean Water Act: large navigable waters such as the Mississippi River, tributaries, lakes and ponds, and major wetlands.

Hear that? The only water we need to protect is water we can SAIL on. I.E. that people might see. Shipping water. Not drinking water. And if you think Trump is especially evil think again because this is EXACTLY what the Bush administration did before Obama came along.

Despite prior reports, there are no data or tools that can accurately map or quantify the scope of “waters of the United States.” This is the case today, and it was the case in 2014 when the Obama Administration issued its blog titled “Mapping the Truth.” Therefore, any assertions attempting to quantify changes in the scope of waters based on these data sets are far too inaccurate and speculative to be meaningful. While this Administration agrees that the current data and tools are insufficient, we are committed to supporting the development and improvement of the technology needed to map the nation’s aquatic resources.

Water can go EVERYWHERE if it floods right? So there’s no real way to say where a stream should be. I mean your house could be in the middle of a stream if we keep releasing carbon. So lets not quibble about “Is it a stream” or “Isn’t it a stream“. Lets just say once it gets navigable it matters.

You can thank Justice Scalia for pointing us towards this dark place before his death. Well, Scalia and Trump.

On February 28, 2017, the President signed the “Executive Order on Restoring the Rule of Law, Federalism, and Economic Growth by Reviewing the ‘Waters of the United States’ Rule.” The E.O. calls on the EPA Administrator and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works to review the final 2015 Rule and “publish for notice and comment a proposed rule rescinding or revising the rule….” The E.O. directs that the EPA and the Department of Army “shall consider interpreting the term ‘navigable waters’” in a manner “consistent with Justice Scalia’s opinion” in Rapanos v. United States (2006).

Rapano?

The Supreme Court split 4-1-4 on Rapanos, a case brought by a Michigan landowner who was blocked from developing a property that had been designated a wetland. Writing for the four conservative justices, Scalia said only waterways and wetlands with “relatively permanent” surface water connections to larger waterways should be regulated under the Clean Water Act.

But Kennedy — then the court’s swing vote — drew up his own regulatory test, arguing that streams and wetlands should be protected if they have chemical, biological or hydrological connections to waterways. That test — which he called a “significant nexus” — became the defining characteristic of his opinion.

Kennedy was right. But Kennedy is gone, sipping whiskey on the back porch of his grandaughter’s birthday party. And the criminals have taken over the grocery store and the bank and the police station. Now officially ZERO waterways are connected to any other waterways. And we can dump pollution anywhere we want except a handful of rivers. Beginnings are unimportant and it doesn’t matter until you get to the end.

America voted for this.

DO-OVER BEAVERS ARE SETTLING IN

heidi08 Beavers and Flooding January 23, 2020

Have you ever noticed how people complain about beavers until they want something from them? Yes, we noticed that too. It’s like that annoying roommate you had in college who always talked smack about you and hung out with her other buds until she needed help with her latin paper and ooh then she was your BEST friend ever.

England is doing that with beavers and flooding lately.

Beavers in Gloucestershire’s Forest of Dean ‘settling in well’

A second pair of beavers released in the Forest of Dean as part of a scheme to tackle flood risk are said to be settling in well – and building dams.

The beavers replaced a pair introduced in 2018, the first in Gloucestershire for 400 years, as part of a wider plan to return the animal to the UK’s wild.

But they had to to be trapped and moved after seven months when one was found to have tapeworm, a parasitic disease.

The new pair took their place at the same site near Lydbrook in the autumn.

Beavers were hunted to extinction in the UK in the 16th Century. But efforts have been made to reintroduce them to the wild in areas including Somerset, Yorkshire and Cumbria, while they have also been living wild in areas around the River Tay in Scotland for some years since escaping or being illegally released some years ago.

Oooh sure. You probably GAVE them the tape worm in the first place. But sure get rid of those beavers and start over. How’s it going so far?

Forestry England said their replacements had been captured in Scotland, from different areas of the River Tay. It said the “necessary health checks” had been carried out and the female had been released in the autumn followed by the male a few weeks later.

Rebecca Wilson, from Forestry England, said cameras at the site showed the beavers were “dam building and tree felling” and had “settled in well”.

“Nocturnal dam building is creating deep pools of water, slowing the brook’s flow,” she said. “The tree felling followed by coppicing trees will bring benefits for a variety of wildlife that depends upon more complex habitats.”

Well sure. Now that you have some do-over beavers let them get to work. I’m so old I can remember when a servant or pet got a tape worm you treated him with 9.99 worth of pills instead of killed and replaced. But what do I know?

It is hoped the animals will help prevent flooding in the area by improving biodiversity and building dams and ponds.

The authority said it would be monitoring the “hydrological and ecological changes” the beavers make.

As in, none of the kids really like Martin, and we never, ever play with him. But we invited him to Scott’s birthday party because “It was hoped he would bring his complete set of Pokeman cards” which everyone wants.

Good luck, beavers.

PUTTING BEAVERS ON THE RIVER ‘OTTER’ WASN’T THE BEST IDEA

heidi08 beavers and otters January 22, 2020

There are plenty of perfectly reasonable choices. Sides streams of the Thames, the Trent. the Severn. The Witham, the Avon, the Dee. But you had to pick the Otter. And you didn’t think that might cause a problem down the line?

The other day I was forwarded of an email from Megan at the River Otter Ecology Project. Seems a film crew had contacted her about wanting to do a segment on the beavers. She was rightly confused. So of course sent it to me thinking they had mixed up our names.

I realized right away that this email was, in fact, intended for NEITHER of us. But rather for the good folks on the River Otter working with Beavers. In Devon. They accidentally contacted the River Otter ecology Project when they wanted the beaver project on the river otter! So I contacted the producer and introduced them to Mark Elliot and the good folks at The Devon Land Trust beaver project. And they arranged with each other to set up an interview for valentine’s day.

You’re Welcome.

But if there wasn’t a Heidi who weirdly happened to know the woman saving otters in Marin and the people saving beavers in Devon, this might have never worked itself out. Think of it! The good people England might not get to watch a short segment about how beavers mate for life and prevent flooding on valentine’s day.

See what a bad idea it was to move famous beavers in to the river otter?

THE KEYSTONE STATE REJECTS ITS KEYSTONE SPECIES

heidi08 Who's Killing Beavers Now? January 21, 2020

Wanna see another episode of “Pennsylvania: not solving problems”? Here it is in all its not-quite-glory.

Beaver dam could pose problematic for Mather road

At least once a month, Dan Foster of Clarksville travels through Mather and along Stony Point Road (Township Road 855) to attend Wing Night at the Stony Point Restaurant.

For the past two months, as he drove to join others of the Jefferson Baptist Church men’s group, Foster noticed a rise in the water level at the Brown’s Run Reservoir. Turns out the reason behind the rising water is a beaver lodge built on top the overflow of the reservoir dam. Foster pegs the structure at around two feet in height.

Ooh this is a good episode. They can’t even tell the difference between a LODGE and a DAM. Get the popcorn and let’s watch.

On Friday, January 17, Bence made a site inspection and determined the dam wasn’t an immediate problem. However, he said he would monitor the water level periodically to make sure it doesn’t rise to a level that will impact traffic or threaten the road.

Because this time of year is smack in the middle of beaver trapping season, which extends from December 26 to March 31, when the fur is thickest, Bence said some trappers may come along and remove the beavers from the reservoir.

If the beavers remain after the close of the trapping season and pose problems, he said he’d catch them in line traps that don’t kill them and move them to an area where they won’t be an issue for humans.

“There’s no telling how many there might be,” Bence said. “Usually beavers don’t live in large numbers. It’s mostly a male and female with this year’s pups. After a year, the pups disperse to look around for a mate.”

Got that? Trappers “REMOVE” the beavers when the fur is valuable and just move them around when its not. Pretty darn thoughtful of them isn’t it?

According to Bence, beavers are nocturnal and crepuscular, meaning they’re more active at dusk.

“This time of year, I walk along the waterways looking for traps to see if they’re set legally,” Bence said. “For one, you can’t trap on private property or 15-feet from a beaver lodge because you can’t trap them near where they live. Trappers must also check their traps every 30 hours to make sure a trapped beaver doesn’t starve or suffer.”

Oh okay. I admit you have three full ounces more compassion than most trappers I read about. I’ll spare you my full onslaught.There are a few beaver friends in Pennsylvania. Not many, but a few. One is following the website and attending BeaverCon2020 as our correspondent. Let’s hope he talks to his neighbors.

What are your plans in March, Bence?

Got a note saying Vista Print 50% off sale today. I try to keep things in my portfolio ready to go and just waiting for the big ones. Got 100 of these 4 x 6 suspect cards for 16 bucks. Not bad.

So each child gets one of these at the festival in a manila envelope marked top secret to begin their hunt for clues. Seems kinda fun. They have to identify each footprint to rule out suspects and solve the mystery.

What do you think happened to the missing salmon? My money’s on the otter.

THE BENEFITS OF A BEAVER BASELINE

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

One of the things I said in my chat with James Wallace of the beaver Trust that beavers can show off best in England is ecological impact with a baseline. As in our stream looked like this for years and years, then we added some beavers, and now it looks like THIS. But with statistics, so that scientists pay attention and people take it seriously. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so. This nice writing is from Joshua Harris of the Ecologist.

Bringing back beavers

We tend to overlook the effects that living organisms have on their physical world because most of the ecosystems around us have been “downgraded” as we have removed the important species – thus, in these cases it is mainly physical processes that determine how organisms survive.

But there is now an increasing weight of evidence that the interaction works both ways: the earth shapes life, and life shapes the earth.

Beavers’ engineering work benefits many kinds of wildlife: ponds are perfect for frogs and fish larvae, riffles and gravel banks for dippers, swampy areas for water rails and moorhens, dead trees for woodpeckers and owls, and lush coppiced vegetation for songbirds.

The fact that beaver habitat is ideal for so many species should not come as a surprise: beavers were present in our ecosystems for millions of years, so many wetland species may have actually evolved to live in beaver habitats.

Oh yes the beavers make the difference. And a stream without a beaver is like a car without a steering wheel. It will probably still go places. But probably not really the places you want.

Through studying the effects that beavers have on streams, it has become clear that deeply incised river channels disconnected from their floodplain, which we perceive as the norm, are in fact a consequence of the removal of beavers, and other human impacts.

Before we deforested and farmed the land and hunted beavers to extinction for their fur and scent glands, wetlands would have filled the bottoms of valleys, with snaking channels, ponds, wet meadows, and willow scrub.

By bringing back the beaver, and allowing our rivers to freestyle through the landscape, we could revive these incredible ecosystems. Beaver engineered wetlands could fan out into every valley in an interconnected network, like arteries pumping life back into the landscape.

So many other species could flourish in the habitats that beavers create: otters, water voles, marsh tits, spotted flycatchers, lesser spotted woodpeckers, water rails, egrets, lapwings, redshanks. Incredible species which we’ve almost forgotten could return – white tailed eagles, cranes, and even white storks, which last bred in the UK in 1416 but are just starting to make a comeback.

Be still my heart. The author of this fine blog entry is a young ecolologist at Cambridge. He volunteers with the beaver Trust and we are expecting great future contributions.

A revival of beaver ecosystems would have wider environmental and economic benefits beyond increasing biodiversity and bringing wildness back into our lives. Their leaky dams hold back water in floods, and release it gradually in drought.

By retaining water in the headwaters of catchments where the land is less valuable for farming, they could protect more productive arable land further downstream. As we experience more extreme weather events due to climate change, reintroducing beavers to our river systems could make a valuable contribution to reducing the damage to villages and towns.

The lush swamps that beavers create have been shown to filter out fertiliser and pesticide runoff, and reduce the washing away of soil to the oceans – something which is currently visible from space whenever heavy rain falls.

As vegetation builds up in the ponds it forms peat, and the carbon that was sequestered by the growing plants is locked away.

We’ve spent thousands of years trashing the complex connections in our living world, and we’ve created ecosystems which are a mere shadow of their former selves.

If there is one animal which we need in Britain right now, it has to be the beaver. The bang for your buck in terms of biodiversity and wider environmental gains is huge.

Gosh I like reading about people who are finding out how awesome beavers are by watching the difference they make for the first time. I believe it was Voltaire who wrote famously “If God didn’t exist man would invent him”. Very true, but I’m going to say if, by some chance, the UK hadn’t existed for 500 years without beavers we would have had to invent them, because they are SO DARN USEFUL at proving our point about why beavers matter.

Thanks Joshua.