THE BEAVER IN THE HOLE MEETS HIS ACE-IN-THE-HOLE

As of last night the Kincaid fire had burned through nearly 75,000 acres. It has destroyed nearly 150 structures and was 15 percent contained. Almost 5000 firefighters are on the case and as of last evening Safari West was still holding against an unbelievable wall of fire. Today the wind is picking up again and hopes are slim that the line will hold.

There just isn’t enough good news to go around lately, but this story of B.C. family on Canadian Thanksgiving weekend will help.

B.C. family rescues beaver trapped in a hole

A Nanaimo-area beaver had a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving weekend after a Shawnigan Lake family rescued it from being trapped in a hole.

“We were camping up in Cassidy at the Mountainaire Campground and we decided to go for a walk,” Jennifer Buck explained. “The guys were looking for a place to go fishing and we were on the beach and looked across the water and there was a group of people sticking logs down into this hole.”

The Buck family was curious, so they ventured over.

Other hikers had been offering sticks to the beaver in an attempt to coax it out of the six-foot-deep crevasse in which it was stuck. It was to no avail.

“They thought he would maybe walk up the sticks,” she said.

The beaver didn’t budge.

In life or death situations like this one, you ask yourself: ‘what would I do if I were there?” A hole big and deep enough to trap a beaver. No fire department on hand to make the rescue. Just a frightened, lost beaver that happens to be weilding some teeth sharp enough to cut down a cottonwood that could easily take off a forearm without meaning too. Well what would you do?

A few test pokes to see if the beaver would attack if touched, and Dustin made the decision to hop into the hole himself.

“He just went down there and pulled him out,” Jennifer said.

The beaver did not struggle.

“We figure he’d been there a few days,” she said. “He probably hadn’t eaten in a few days. He was too weak to even fight back. As soon as we brought him out, he was a little bit out of it. We stayed because he seemed to be heading back toward the hole, or over the edge of the rocks.”

DUSTIN! You are our hero. And thank goodness that looks to have been a weakened juvenile beaver. I’m not sure I would even jump down a hole to get a stray dog. But this was clearly the right move. He needed help and you were the help.

Once he did find his way to the edge of the forest, Jennifer said the little critter right away started eating a maple leaf and other branches.

It was a new experience for her family, and for the Lewis family, who she said was helpful in the rescue as well. It’s something they weren’t expecting to do on Thanksgiving Sunday, but were happy to be a part of regardless.

“You don’t necessarily ever plan to run into a beaver,” Jennifer said with a laugh.

Unless you’re me. Or anyone who has ever met me or happens to be reading this web site. But thank goodness you were crazy brave Dustin and jumped into that hole. It’s true that beaver is little but the man to bled to death in belarus was trying to pick up a little beaver also. I think your good intentions must have saved you.

The beaver in the hole met his Ace-in-the-hole it seems.
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Now tell me you filled up that hole with mud and sticks so that nothing else is ever going to get trapped in it and we’ll have a new best friend! I’m so glad Dustin and his family were on hand to rescue this little guy. Little beavers sure do get themselves into some dangerous situations, don’t they?

SMOKE AND THE SUN ALSO RISES

heidi08 Beavers October 28, 2019

Smoky skies this morning. My bedroom smells like it’s been camping. But we are safe, There were unbelievable spot fires yesterday, Crockett and 24 on fire and even parts of Martinez were evacuated but we’re fine, my sister and Leslie are safe, and 5 hours ago Safari West posted this:

We’re pleased to report that at this time Safari West has experienced no ill effects from the Kincade Fire. While it is active nearby, we are keeping a diligent watch on the situation. We have crews patrolling the preserve and are taking every precaution to protect ourselves and the property. At this time, all is well and everyone, human and animal alike, is safe and healthy.

The terrible wind should die down this morning leaving the path clear for firefighters to keep barreling away at the monstrous kincaid fire. The wind shouldn’t come back again until TUESDAY which is unbelievable because folks may not get power back at all. In the meantime, we all need this. Don’t ask me how I know.

I just know.

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FIRE AGAIN AND OUR FRIENDS IN TROUBLE

heidi08 Beavers October 27, 2019

It is unimaginable that Safari West was added to the mandatory evacuation list again, this morning. My heart is beyond horrified at all the people and all our dear wildlife friends who have to go through this horrific event again. My own sister was evacuated last night, and our lovely Leslie Mills whose home was just recovering from the floods of last year. Hopefully the cruel wind will be kinder than expected and the ones we love will be safe.

If you want to get the latest info on the radio KSRO has excellent nonstop coverage and is co-broadcasting with all the other local stations. You can Stream online.

Most of Martinez and the Bay Are has zero power today, and I am too worried about friends to brighten your day with beavers. I offer by way of compensation this lovely recent video of the beaver relocation efforts in Wyoming.

Busy beavers located in prime time

LANDER, Wyo. — Wyoming Game and Fish recently relocated a family of beavers that were building dams in a ditch.

The dams posed a risk of flooding a campground near Lander. But this beaver family is the perfect age for such a move. Game & Fish says fall is the best time to trap and relocate beavers because young kids are old enough to move around and enter traps, and families are more likely to stay where they are released in order to prepare for winter.

IS BEAVER FICTION NEXT?

heidi08 Beaver Book October 26, 2019

Now we all know Ben Goldfarb is a great writer. But did we know he writes fiction? Apparently it’s his second love and we can all look forward to new offerings soon! A tail of two beavers. Great Beaver Expectations. The Brother’s Beavermozov. The case of the tail that never slapped. I could go on.

The Wild Writing of Ben Goldfarb

For Ben Goldfarb, a map of North America looks very different depending on where the beavers are allowed to live. The nature journalist’s 2018 nonfiction book Eager: The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter charts the rise, fall, and other rise of this engineering animal, which helped shape the continent — both by its presence and its absence.

The story of the beaver isn’t the only one Goldfarb is adept at telling. He’s a featured author at this year’s Bedtime Stories Spokane, with novelists Sharma Shields and Jess Walter, reading new fiction. His next book project is more wildlife journalism, though — about the effect of human-made roads on the natural world.

Bedtime for beaver stories! I honestly can’t wait. I can see Ben as kind of a Norman Mailer of fiction. Ruggedly standing to one side and watching the story unfold. Even if it’s one of his own making.

Humanities Washington: Did essays and nonfiction come first for you, or fiction?

Ben Goldfarb: Before I became a journalist, my dream was really to be a professional conservationist. After college, I had a number of fieldwork jobs — I worked for the National Park Service in Yellowstone doing invasive trout control, I worked for the New York City Parks Department, I tagged sea turtles in North Carolina. I really envisioned going to work for some large conservation nonprofit. But the whole time I was doing those jobs, I was blogging, doing a little bit of freelancing, and always loved to write. While I was in graduate school I started writing for campus publications, and realized I really loved writing more than anything else. And going into nonfiction was a way to tackle those issues that were really close to my heart.

Okay. You can write about road ecology if you must. But I’m going to imagine you penning a fine tail about a brave city deciding to live with beavers against incredible odds and the wonderful cast of wildlife characters it grew because of it. Ahh.

Humanities Washington: You’ve moved into studying the effects of roads on ecosystems. What have you found?

Ben Goldfarb: I think the thing that’s been striking for me, and the reason the next book is going to be a really rich, interesting and maybe challenging one to write, is the diversity of the impacts that roads have. We drive around and everybody sees the roadkill deer or possum by the side of the highway, but what you don’t see is that road acting as a barrier to movement for wildlife. Our vast road network really fragments landscapes and cuts off migration, and cuts off animals from accessing the habitat they need to find food and mates and rearing ground for juveniles. You can’t see that, but it’s very real, and in its own way more destructive than roadkill. We also tend to build roads along riverways, and we’ve cut off a lot of rivers from their floodplain. You’ve got stormwater runoff from all this impervious surface we’ve created. You’ve got roads functioning as corridors for invasive species introduction and movement. For me, the story of beavers is the story of this animal that shaped North America in ways that we fail to recognize, and the elimination of beavers profoundly changed North American landscapes as well. I think that roads are similar.

ALL THOSE DAMS AREN’T GOING TO BUILD THEMSELVES

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beaver relocation, Beavers October 25, 2019

More good news about beavers from our friends in Wyoming which is turning out to be a very beavery state. Even if they aren’t quite ready to declare their love in public.

Problem beaver family relocated to Absaroka Mountains in hopes of improving habitat

In back was a 40-pound female beaver, taken from private property where she and her family’s work were flooding a road and farm field. They were needed elsewhere — where flooding would be welcome. This was a special individual. The matriarch for a beaver family of five, her partner and three of her young had already been moved, but she was the first to be released at their new home with a radio transmitter.

Beaver had previously lived on the stream, located in an isolated drainage on the Absaroka front, but mysteriously disappeared about a decade ago. The habitat suffered when the beaver went away.

“It’s not so much about the beaver as it is beaver dams,” Altermatt said.

Um, which repair and build themselves year after year? I think its about the beavers, buddy. You need them to do what humans can’t be relied upon to do. Sheesh!

There are many benefits having beavers doing what they do best. When water is slowed, sediment drops out, increasing the water quality. And when the water level rises, so does the water table surrounding a creek, enabling vegetation to grow. Expanding the wetland area around the creek “is the biggest benefit for terrestrial wildlife,” Altermatt said.

Fish thrive in streams with ponds created by beaver dams and waterfowl are attracted to those areas. In places void of beaver habitat, biologists are forced to do what they can to recreate dams called “beaver dam analogs.” The man-made structures “are intended to make the area more attractive for beavers and increase riparian-dependent, woody vegetation such as willow,” said Travis Cundy, aquatic habitat biologist for the Game and Fish’s Sheridan Region.

Yes they do. You got the idea. And beavers make it possible and keep it happening.

They’re monogamous. They mate for life for the most part,” he said. “They do much better if you move them as a family.”

If a male beaver is caught and relocated before the rest of the family is trapped, he may move on from the new area in search of his mate. And that’s where Altermatt’s beaver trailer comes into play: He can keep the first trapped beaver healthy and relatively happy in the trailer while trying to capture the rest of the family.

“The first beaver is always the easiest to catch. Almost every time I trap I get one the first night; I call it the dumb one,” he said. “The smart one might take a week or two to get.”

And what did sherri tippie teach us? That the first beaver is USUALLY the male and the last beaver is USUALLY the female. Because, well, you get the idea.

At the release site on Sept. 27, Game and Fish Information and Education Specialist Tara Hodges accompanied Altermatt to help negotiate the steep banks to a good release point.

As Altermatt opened the gates to freedom, it took a while before the beaver realized her luck. The pretty gal stuck her nose out, then ducked back in. Then slowly she stuck her whole head out, her eyes starting at Altermatt’s feet and moving toward the sky. As much as Altermatt had done to protect her and her colony, no human is to be trusted.

While they’re usually docile creatures, Altermatt has been rushed by an angry beaver before. They’re not quite as ferocious as a charging grizzly — which Altermatt has also experienced — but encounters with any wild animal can be dangerous.

In this case, however, the tagged beaver slowly waddled to the edge of the creek, dived in nose first and disappeared under the edge of the grassy banks.

Well of course she did. Sheesh.

Did I mention Fro was dropping off the curtains yesterday? I was hardly prepared for the glory of seeing them in person. How awesome will these look framing the stage? Jon was kind enough to give us an idea of scale.Now I just have to figure out how to hang them! Fro is such an amazing combination of talent,

patience and vision. She made sure every child’s work stayed true, and still managed to turn the whole thing into a masterpiece. Rumor is she might be joining us again for Earth day, when we start the amazing prayer flags that hopefully can hang at the festival. Something like this, only much much cooler.

The idea came from a friends visit to a Croatia Children’s festival that inspired it, but I can’t wait to see a line of beaver flags made by children at the festival! We can do some at Earth day and more at the beaver festival itself and end up with several strands which can zigzag all around the park.