THE CASE OF THE MISSING SALMON

heidi08 Beaver Art, Festival August 29, 2019

It all started with a picture,

This picture in particular done by graphic artist and continual inspiration Catrin Welz-Stein 0f Germany.

Something about its whimsical impossibility made me think about our next beaver festival way before I should and wonder about the idea of creating a mystery for children to solve as the activity. What if the mystery used the collection of “suspects” at a beaver pond that represented all the wildlife? What if children were asked to find out what happened to the missing salmon?

I imagined children getting a top secret dossier containing 6 cards showing the foot prints of 6 different species. Then having to find what animal left what footprint and solve the crime. Participating exhibits would have a matching card showing the species, like an otter, and its alibi. “It wasn’t me. I was saving it for my birthday”. Or the beaver, saying “Not me, I don’t eat fish!” And so on until the mystery is solved.

By eliminating all the ‘suspects’ kids can solve the mystery and find the solution: (maybe the answer is that salmon swam to sea?) When kids know they come back to me and collect their reward for solving the case!

Mulling about looking for the reward I stumbled upon this miniature magnifying glass made by Solid Oak Inc in Rhode Island for their Steam Punk Collection. It sells for 10 dollars on Amazon, which is way outside our budget. It sells for 7 at their website which is better but still outside our budget.

So I started researching the owners and learning what I might about them. Turns out the VP of marketing is also a passionate supporter of the humane society and against animal cruelty. I thought maybe there was a chance he’d take mercy on beavers but I knew Rhode Island tends to be a tough sell on our flat tailed friends.

It was a tough sell. When I talked about our work to the woman running the store she pointed out how beaver dams block everything from getting by including water and fish. I gamely persevered. And tried to make our story irresistible.

It is hard work sounding irresistible from 3000 miles away, But I kept hoping. Yesterday the VP wrote that he could get me 100 magnifying glasses shipped directly from the supplier for a price we can afford and just like that we have ourselves a festival! HURRAYYYYYYYYYYYY!

I could see it all coming together in my mind! All respect to Amelia Hunter and Catrin Welz-Stein, but I always like to imagine ideas to encourage our artist to be intrigued so she can create something way better than anything I can do.

So now its just a matter of creating the clue cards and inserting details. Excellent. I like to leave myself plenty of time so I can know the details of that I’m asking for when I start the grant writing process, which believe it or not is due at the end of December. Bruce Thompson of Ecotracs in Wyoming says he’ll help me with footprints, and I’m thinking 2 inch square business cards for the footprints to match together with the suspects, with kids putting the entire mystery together to reveal the solution.

The activity teaches: whose at a beaver pond, what footprints go with that animal, and reminds everyone about SALMON and why they show up in beaver ponds in the first place. Which is a great way to show that beaver ponds matter.

Oooh how exciting!

URBAN BEAVER GET A BOOKLET

heidi08 Urban beavers August 28, 2019

The urban beaver booklet project is gathering momentum. So far I have received willingness to contribute from Mike Callahan, Skip Lisle, Esteban Murshel of beaver ambassadors, Ben Goldfarb and lots of our friends on the beaver front. I also got this awesome photo from Christopher Mueller in the Delaware River in Philadelphia. Isn’t that lovely?

Anyway the biggest complaint so far is not having enough room to write more, so I think that’s going to be a great problem to have. Now if I can just pull this off.

Stirling University released a nice video yesterday to go with the great biodiversity study. Feel free to share far and wide if you like!

Stirling is going to wind up as the European beaver alma mater if they aren’t careful! Hurray! Also Gretta and her team landed safely in Coney Island after traveling 3000 miles and steering clear of three tropical storms with only wind and solar power. She’s in America this morning and are just waiting to clear customs before they set foot on terra firma.

Welcome brave seafarers all!

BEAVERS ARE TOO GOOD FOR US. WE DON’T DESERVE THEM.

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact August 27, 2019

You know how I like to say the science site Phys,org should actually be called Beaver Phys.org because they get mentioned so often? Well check out today’s headline.

Beaver reintroduction key to solving freshwater biodiversity crisis

Reintroducing beavers to their native habitat is an important step towards solving the freshwater biodiversity crisis, according to experts at the University of Stirling.

New research from the Faculty of Natural Sciences has provided further support to previous work that has shown beavers have an important impact on the variety of plant and animal life.

Recently you may have been seeing articles about the state of our freshwater species. Something like 88 percent of large freshwater mammals have seen a reduction, and many – like the matee – are facing extinction.

Leave it to our English friends to point that did the beaver repopulate itself so well it is off that list, but it could bring along countless companions and neighbors with it in its recovery.

Dr. Law, Lecturer in Biological and Environmental Sciences, said: “Beavers make ponds that, at first glance, are not much different from any other pond. However, we found that the biodiversity—predominantly water plants and beetles—in beaver ponds was greater than and surprisingly different from that found in other wetlands in the same region.

“Our results also emphasise the importance of natural disturbance by big herbivores—in this case, tree felling, grazing and digging of canals by beavers—in creating habitat for species which otherwise tend to be lost.

“Reintroducing beavers where they were once native should benefit wider biodiversity and should be seen as an important and bold step towards solving the freshwater biodiversity crisis.”

How much do we love Dr. Law? Very very much. Even if he is a cautious science-y type so he hedges his language a bit by saying reintroducing beavers SHOULD benefit biodiversity, instead of embracing the obvious truth that it obviously WILL.

Beavers are one of the only animals that can profoundly engineer the environment that they live in—using sticks to build dams across small rivers, behind which ponds form. Beavers do this to raise water levels to avoid predators, such as wolves and bears: however, numerous other plants and animals also benefit from their work.

The research team surveyed water plants and beetles in 20 wetlands in a small area of southern Sweden—10 created by beavers and 10 that were not—to understand whether beavers might provide a solution to the current biodiversity crisis by creating novel habitats.

Professor Willby added: “The loss of large mammals from modern landscapes is a global conservation concern. These animals are important in their own right, but our research emphasises the added biodiversity benefits that go with them.

We are best reminded of this effect when large herbivores, such as beavers, are reintroduced to places where they have been lost.”

Honestly, don’t you sometimes feel that beavers are SO good, and make such a great difference with so little help and against such MASSIVE odds that we don’t even DESERVE them? I mean when they show up, instead of saying HI and WELCOME and THANKYOU we kill them or trap them or move them or rip out their dams.

Beavers are too good for us. Shh, don’t tell them that.

This research follows the team’s 2018 study that found that 33 percent more plant species and 26 percent more beetles were living in wetlands created by beavers, compared to those that were not. Another previous study, from 2017, showed that—over a period of 12 years—local plant richness in a Tayside wetland rose by 46 percent following the introduction of beavers. They created 195 metres of dams, 500 metres of canals and a hectare of ponds.

WE KNEW IT WOULD HAPPEN SOONER [STATE] OR LATER

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver Book August 26, 2019

Give it up for Oklahoma, where a nature writer David John enjoyed the beavers on his property for a record thirty days notes. Noting, without any touch of shame, ”

“I tried doing the right thing, But it was hard. So I stopped”

Move over Thomas Aquinas!

Nature Note: Bye, bye beavers

In early June, a dam was built at the outlet to the pond, next to a little bridge, probably with the help of an older female that appeared on the pond. Flowing water is a magnet for beavers to build a dam, to keep the water as deep as possible. The dam raised the water level nearly 2 feet, a good thing, but it also flooded trails around the north end of the pond.

In July I decided I needed to relocate the beavers, so I live-trapped both and released them on Bird Creek, the stream from which they came. My hope was to be able to live with them, but they caused too much damage; chewed down trees and produced flooding. Not their fault, that’s what beavers do. They need a large area in which to work. We just didn’t have enough room for them.

Although beaver dams can cause flooding, they are amazing engineers at flood control. No high tech stuff for them, just sticks and mud.

A whole month? You tried to do the right thing for an entire month? My god. By sooner state standards you’re practically a saint. Nice of you to let the kits be born before you stuffed them in a cage, or more likely, made them orphans.

That’s the classic pro-life position isn’t it? Make the kids be born and then forget about them.

Pardon me if I’m feeling a song coming on.

Oklahoma where a beaver cannot be sustained
And the drought deserved must be preserved
so the dustbowl state’s again regained!

Oklahoma, where the birds and fish will never rest
In ponds deep and cool, they’re no one’s fool
So the frogs and turtles travel west.

We know climate change is a scheme
And fondly of dry creeks we dream

So when we say…YA!
I’ll try my best todayyyy….HA!
I’m only saying I’ll live with beavers a whole month
For a whole month, O-k-l-a-h-o-m-a
Oklahoma!

Gosh that was fun. I feel better now.

Time for the second fun start to your day, Ben Golfarb was on Montana public radio yesterday with a great interview and a very nice interview-er. They both do a great job. Enjoy!

‘The Surprising, Secret Lives Of Beavers’ With Ben GoldFarb

By Sarah Aronson • Aug 22, 2019

RELOCATING BEAVERS WITH THE BEST

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beaver relocation August 25, 2019

I am pretty particular when it comes to a beaver relocation story. In order for me to feel truly positive about a moving-beaver article it has to have a few key points. First off, it has to make clear why beavers matter. Next, it has to mention that there are easy solutions that might have been done to keep those beavers where they were in the first place. And lastly and most importantly, it has to involve Sherri Tippie.

This one meets all the criteria.

Nature’s Engineers Help Defenders Prevent, Protect and Restore

Beaver are natures engineers, changing the world around them. They are safest from predators when swimming in water, so they build dams to make ponds that they can swim in. These ponds allow them to safely enter their lodge from underwater, and access more trees and herbaceous plants without leaving the water. They modify their habitat for themselves, but their actions have huge impacts on other species. Fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, aquatic insects, trees and plants all benefit from the changes that beaver create on the landscape.

Sometimes, beaver cause trouble for landowners because they change their habitat so much. There are simple solutions which often allow landowners to live with beaver, such as fencing trees to protect them, but on some occasions, this is not possible. In those instances, Defenders tries to relocate the entire beaver family to lands where they are wanted.

Two down, one to go.

This August, Defenders, along with local live-trapper Sherri Tippie from Wildlife2000, relocated a beaver family north of Denver, Colorado. Relocating a beaver family is a lot of work. Beavers live in extended families, often with four generations living in the same lodge. A mated pair, this year’s kits, and juveniles from the past one or two summers all live together. We set live-traps in the evening and check them first thing in the morning. The traps work like a giant suitcase, folding up when a beaver steps in the middle. We moved nine individuals, including five kits born this spring, to new habitat in the mountains. Their new home used to have beaver, but they have been absent for several years. The old beaver ponds are still there but have not been maintained. The new family will likely repair these ponds, and hopefully create new ones of their own, creating and improving habitat for at-risk native species such as cutthroat trout, leopard frogs, and boreal toads.

Huzzah! We have a trifecta! Nothing but good news in this beaver relocation. Wonderful to read about, Well, except for the line about beavers living in the lodge with four generations. i know what they mean but that’s not accurately phrased. That would be like kits living with their great grandparents, right? Technically there are two generations (parents and children) and two batches (kits and yearlings).

In light of the new Endangered Species Act regulations released last week, it’s as important as ever that we prevent species from needing to be listed. The habitat that we allow beaver to create on the landscape are critical for some of these imperiled species, and the presence of indicator species like amphibians help to show that the habitats are healthy. Defenders works to prevent, protect, and restore: prevent species from becoming endangered, protect already imperiled species, and restore species to the landscape. Beaver are one of the many natural tools that fit in our arsenal for wildlife conservation!

Lovely to see. Thanks Aaron Hall for this excellent article. I had cued it up for yesterday’s post but the local headline of “otters teaching beavers” pushed it back a day. It’s great to see Sherri at work, doing what she does better than anyone in all the world.

Speaking of sticking with what you know, I got an inspiration yesterday to do a booklet specifically about urban beavers and have it available for Beaver Con 202o. I wrote folks asking for their contributions and I’m going to need your help too. If you were lucky enough to watch beavers in your city, maybe you could send me a line or two about what it was like? Send it to mtzbeavers@gmail.com. I’d love to put together something that captures not only how to manage beavers without trapping and why its good for wildlife, but how it enriches communities of humans too.

Here’s the possible first page. What do you think?