Wow this new film from Terra Mater is almost perfect. I was pleased to see our famous photo featured but stunned to hear my own language clarifying that beavers don’t live in the dam, the dam is where they WORK.
I’m sure I’m not the only human to come up with that particular phrase but you would be startled to learn how RARE it is to hear.
I can’t find single thing to disagree with except for the sentence at the end that says now we know better and reintroduce beavers by horseback. Actually horses are notoriously spooked by beavers. That’s why the parachutes were used in the first place.
If you, like me, spent any time at all (or rather a lot of time over a decade) agog staring at the magical transformations of a beaver pond this is the book for you.
Al Cornell is a retired Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Technician who spent said year photographing behind a blind at the beaver pond near his home and documenting the many species that relied on its waters. A stunning look at the trickle-down economy that a beaver sustains.
Here he is describing the book in a talk at the local Kickapoo Valley Nature Reserve, The incredible photographs will dazzle you, the intelligent writing will susstain you and the smart questions from the audience at the end will soothe your soul.
Al kindly donated a copy to the silent auction but if you aren’t lucky enough to cast the winning bid you can pick up your copy on Amazon.
The journey that someone takes from the starting position of “KILL BEAVERS” to “PROTECT BEAVERS” is one of my very favorite “Rags-to-Riches story“. When ever I hear it I get misty eyed. Don’t you?
The body grip trap was invented in the 20th century, and for decades, trappers used devices like these to catch and kill beavers. But in 1996, Colorado outlawed lethal and harmful traps.
Beavers and humans have a history of not getting along well, and that’s partly because of our similarities. Like humans, beavers terraform the landscape to create an ideal habitat for their preferred way of life. But unlike humans, these mammals have evolved to live around water.
Well if folks insist on finding trappers interesting and doing romantic stories about them I prefer THIS kind of story. The newly converted and reformed.
“They’re just fascinating animals,” says Dan. “When they hear water running, they can’t help themselves. They’ve got to do everything they can to stop (the water) or slow it down.”
Beavers cut down trees with sharp front teeth, dragging trunks, branches, and sticks into place to dams waterways. Once they have a pond in place, they build an island of sticks, lumber, and mud that protrudes above the surface with a hollowed-out interior only accessible through tunnels that run beneath the water line. By slowing down creeks and streams, beavers allow water to seep into the ground, nourishing habitat for other animals and replenishing the water table.
It’s this unique biology that puts beavers at odds with human beings. Left to their own devices, beavers will plug up culverts, flood roads, and destroy irrigation systems.
Yeah it’s pretty amazing. Every now and then I get a moment of true awe at how enormously cool beavers are to do this.
As a young trapper, Dan learned the secret lives of beavers: how and where to find the animals, how to outwit them, and even how to track them in the middle of winter below frozen lakes and streams by tracing the air bubbles that beavers leave behind when they swim under the ice.
“You can scrape the snow off the ice and see these paths of bubbles, so you know that’s where that beaver is swimming,” he said.
Okay that’s slightly interesting but I’m more interested in your conversion story. Did you have a road to Damascus moment?
Now, Dan Zadra uses all of this trapping know-how to save beavers rather than kill them. When local ranchers have problems with a beaver disrupting an irrigation system, they call Dan.
“People aren’t near as quick to kill them or get rid of them as they used to,” said Zadra.
This is starting to get good. Why do they call you, Dan, What do you do to help?
Eventually, humans (or at least some humans) realized that beavers are virtuous. The presence of beavers means more water in the ground and better habitat for other animals.
“These animals provide all kinds of crucial ecological benefits and services, from drought mitigation to flood control to carbon sequestration, to the creation of habitat for endangered species,” said Goldfarb. “We’re starting to recognize that these are animals we want back on the landscape.”
Dan Zadra: Beaver Believ
Well it’s about bloody time, Dan. Welcome to the home team.
It may seem unlikely that a man who spent a good part of his childhood trapping and killing beavers would have genuine affection for them. But just an afternoon with Dan Zadra reveals his compassionate side. When he’s relocating a beaver, he lines the transport container with material to make sure the animals are comfortable.
“I don’t want them walking on hard stuff,” he said. “So I put….a bunch of vegetation, wet grass, and willows in there because they’re soft-footed.”
Well that’s nice. I’d sure like you to spend a little time with the good folks at the beaver institute because it would be great for you to learn to install a flow device.
“I was ahead of the game. I was a big beaver fan before it became a thing,” he said.
Dan Zadra learned how to trap and kill from the last of the Colorado mountain men. Now he’s a beaver conservationist, which is good for the wildlands of Colorado. Especially for the beaver.
“I think I always appreciated them,” he said. “But now I think I appreciate them living more than dead. They not a dollar sign to me anymore, or something that I feel I need to conquer.”
Good for you Dan. Just remember you are in good company. 110 years ago Enos Mills wrote this about beavers:
A live beaver is more valuable to mankind than a dead one. These remaining beaver may be exterminated; but if protected they would multiply and colonize stream-sources. Here they would practise conservation. Their presence would reduce river and harbor appropriations and make rivers more manageable, useful, and attractive. It would pay us to keep beaver colonies in the heights. Beaver would help keep America beautiful.
Isn’t that funny? It turns out that in addition to fighting fires and reducing flooding and raising the water table, beavers also provide essential habitat for the endangered Oregon spotted frog.
An adult Oregon spotted frog basking in the sun in wetland habitat in the Klamath Basin of Oregon.
Historically, the range of the Oregon spotted frog overlapped with that of the North American beaver. Beaver numbers in the Pacific Northwest declined dramatically due to the fur trade in the late 1700s and early 1800’s, as did the ecosystem services they provide. Beaver dams and associated ponds retain water in landscapes that otherwise would not hold it. Warmer water along pond edges promotes development of frog eggs and tadpoles and provides adult frogs with feeding and basking areas. Radio telemetry studies suggest Oregon spotted frogs use other beaver-created features like channels and dams as shelter during the winter. Mimicking these features, or enhancing remnant channels and dams, are possible solutions for improving water retention, increasing shelter opportunities and providing additional habitat.
Isn’t that weird. Its honestly like we are making things up that beavers save. Like we’re just pulling crazy threatened species from out of a hat and saying BEAVERS can help that!
But it’s real. So real that USGS is hoping that acting like beavers will bring them back.
The Oregon spotted frog’s scientific name is Rana pretiosa, which translates to “precious frog” in Latin. Precious things are often rare, which is the case with the Oregon spotted frog across parts of its range. It was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2014. Although several threats are responsible for the Oregon spotted frog’s decline, loss of the wetland habitat it needs to survive is at the top of the list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s national report on wetlands status and trends reveals nationwide losses. In the Klamath Basin of Oregon and California, it’s estimated that 50-90% of the Oregon spotted frog’s wetland habitat has been lost due to habitat modification and prolonged drought.
Thirteen years of annual sampling revealed that survival of adult Oregon spotted frogs was almost 20% higher at reaches with excavated remnant beaver ponds compared to reference sites. Satellite images revealed that vegetation at restored sites stayed green later into the summer- an indicator of improved water retention. One promising clue that restoration of this type can work was the fact that breeding was concentrated in two excavated beaver ponds relative to other site
That’s so weird. It’s almost like saying these annoying beavers really matter. We can hardly believe it so we have to keep researching it over and over.
This happened recently through the hard work of our friends at the Beaver Brigade.
Beaver Mural Unveiling Sat April 20 2024 at Charles Paddock Zoo Atascadero John Khus with SLO Beaver Brigade Audrey Taub California Coastal Commission WHALE TAIL® grants program &the San Luis Obispo Beaver Brigade in collaboration with the Charles Paddock Zoo & the City of Atascadero. The Coastal Commission WHALE TAIL® grants support experiential education & stewardship of the California coast and its watersheds.
Chumash artist John Khus, who created the mural, will reveals it in video below.. at the Charles Paddock Zoo at 9100 Morro Road in Atascadero This mural has been made possible through the California Coastal Commission WHALE TAIL® grants program and the San Luis Obispo Beaver Brigade in collaboration with the Charles Paddock Zoo and the City of Atascadero.
The art of John Khus has been recognized by Chumash leaders as “striking, beautiful, unique, carrying the voices of our ancestral artists with whom he has walked all his life.” He has exhibited in galleries throughout the Central Coast and taught art and cultural heritage at the 2023 inaugural Chumash Heritage and Marine Science Camp in Oceano. His original artwork resulted in the “Tomol Rides Wishtoyo” mural in Cambria, which was recently presented with a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition.
“The Beaver are my relatives, as are all the animals, plants, land, water, and air,” Khus said. “So, the importance of this mural is the same as someone might give to a family portrait or ancestral painting.”
The mural unveiling will include remarks by representatives from the SLO Beaver Brigade, and the artist. “The mural represents the beavers tending the waters from the Salinas River all the way to the ocean in Monterey Bay,” said Audrey Taub of the SLO Beaver Brigade. “I love the representation of all of the life forms that depend on the beavers. The three young beavers in the center of it all are just innocently doing their job of being beavers, unaware that all of the other critters around the ponds need them in order to live.”
Wow this new film from Terra Mater is almost perfect. I was pleased to see our famous photo featured but stunned to hear my own language clarifying that beavers don’t live in the dam, the dam is where they WORK.
