A FEW MORE RIPPLES

heidi08 Beaver Book, Beavers, Massachusetts Trapping Law August 23, 2018

This interview aired on tuesday and somehow slipped by me, but I might like it the best of all of them since they get to places others never touch. If you aren’t sure whether these discussions are worth your time, this one from Benjamin Bombard of KUER in Utah definitely IS. Pour another cup of coffee and listen to the whole thing. Really.

The Secret Life Of Beavers

You would think this was validation week. My kit-working-with-parents video on facebook has 6k views and 220 shares at the moment. And this arrived in the mail yesterday from the winner of our “After quiz” drawing at the beaver festival. Since I’m usually trying to convince kids to take the post-test, (which helps us with our grant requirements,) I lure them with the promise that the correct answer I draw at random wins a Folkmanis beaver kit puppet.

This year our winner was a true believer.

Based on the note on the back from Mom, I’m guessing this might be Michael. That was the only time we had a woman dressed up in a beaver costume (Greg Kerekes’ wife of the Urban Wildlife Research Project).

Which would make this Dad shown on the bridge in the Ranger Rick Issue. I can’t believe the random winner turned out to be such a great representative of our whole mission! Apparently the entire family are believers.

Congratulations Michael. You did a great job on the post-test and your letter brightens my whole heart.

RIPPLES IN THE WATER

heidi08 Beavers, Educational, Friends of Martinez Beavers August 22, 2018

Sometimes its hard to know if what we do here makes a difference. And sometimes we’re reminded in wonderful ways that it all matters very much. This has been a week for remembering that our actions cast ripples in the water that ring outwards for miles without us knowing.

Take Kris Shoemake for example.

Kris is a kindergarten teacher at the Clairborn school in Pasadena who recently recently reached out to Martinez’ own Cassy Campbell the director of the Martinez Early Childhood Center (where I worked for a decade while I was in school). Cassy has great ideas for getting kids personally involved – like letting them “SLAP” their tails by painting with flyswatters, or letting them makes bread sticks so they could “Chew sticks” like a beaver. Cassy is also the fearless spirit who coordinates our children’s parade at the festival each year.

Seems Kris is working on STEM project about beavers and dam building and reached out to Cassy for ideas. Cassy sent told her about the flyswatters and sent her to me. So this weekend I wrote Kris about the paper bag puppets and other things we do. Here is her email back.

Oh Thank you so much for emailing me back! I love the puppets and telling about beavers build a neighborhood and I had no idea there were beavers in Temecula! HOW AWESOME!!! I am excited to get this together and hopefully do it in a way that will really enrich our learning! Your ideas are great and I will get back to you if I have any questions! Thank You SO MUCH!!!

Kris

Which is wonderful in a warming kind of way, but it ain’t over yet.

Remember Carmen of Texas who was trying to save the beavers on the lake where she lives in Tyler? Seems she was on vacation last week in New Mexico and got talking beavers to the rangers at the US COE (thats the army core of engineers) up that way, and they loved beaverstoo and were excited about their coming back. Carmen wrote me about it last night.

“There is an effort on the part of COE and local Cochiti tribespeople to plant Cottonwood trees around the lands since most have disappeared for a variety of reasons including erosion and fire. The beavers are continually chewing down the small trees and the tribespeople are starting to shoot the beavers. The COE have talked to them about ways to protect the trees and will continue efforts to get them “to see the bigger picture.” One of the COEs asked me to look a website that has a lot of information on the positive impact of beavers across arid lands…it was the Worth a Dam website! I was happy to say I know you.”

Imagine that! A COE from NEW MEXICO praising our website to a visitor from TEXAS. I think I need to sit down. This is the kind of impact I always dreamed of making. Lead from the bench indeed…

Then I got an email from Carol Evans in Nevada, seems she and Jon Griggs have been working with a director on program about using beavers in arid regions to restore water. The producer is in Las Angeles but I think the director is in Japan. Anyway, they asked Carol for footage of beavers building dams which she doesn’t have. But she had just finished Ben’s book and read that I had “Two terbytes of beaver footage” and sent them my way. (HA!)

I showed them some youtube clips and they asked me what I would charge per second of footage. (!) So who the hell knows. The Martinez beavers might be in a film about Nevada shown in Japan and the funds will go to Worth A Dam.

Not bad for a days work.

Oh, and here is one of the clips I showed them. I’m sure they’ll edit out the train noises.

WYOMING WONDERS IF BEAVERS MIGHT BE ALRIGHT?

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beavers and Flooding, Beavers and water August 21, 2018

One of my favorite parts about reading Ben Goldfarb’s book was coming across delightful and unknown characters I hadn’t ever met before. Think about that. I write about beavers every day – 365 days a year – for the last decade and still these were not names I was familiar with. And of all those wiley wonderful new characters, Dr. Rebekah Levine of Wyoming was one of my very favorites.

Now you get to meet her too.

Once considered the scourge of agriculture in the West, ranchers are now building beaver dams, and welcoming the creatures home

John Coffman learned the value of beaver dams the hard way.

When a beaver was plugging a head gate on a ditch on the scenic Red Canyon Ranch near Lander, he had a ranch hand shoot the animal, as

But the next two years brought heavy flood waters. Banks along the creek with no beavers eroded and the stream bed washed away until the head gate was several feet in the air and could no longer be used for irrigation.

A twin creek on the property that had about 40 beaver dams in one mile stayed together.

“We were talking and thought, maybe these guys weren’t only important for the ecosystem, but also the ag operation,” said Coffman, the land steward for Red Canyon Ranch, a property owned and operated by The Nature Conservancy.

Hey how about that! Beavers do useful things besides just causing problems! That must come as a shock to the frickin NATURE CONSERVANCY. What do you know?

“Beaver activities are not really welcome where humans live because beavers make rivers really messy,” said Rebekah Levine, assistant professor of environmental sciences at the University of Montana Western who has spent her career studying streams and beavers.

“We want them to be very stable, so stable, in fact we use them as borders. But that dynamism in rivers maintains the riparian forest and riparian vegetation that are so crucial to wildlife and critters in the western U.S. where riparian forests make up about 3 to 4 percent of the landscape, and at least 70 percent of wildlife depends on riparian habitat for some portion of their life history.”

Levine provides the science behind thinking about using beaver-like structures in areas where either beavers had been eliminated or where they were no longer desired for restoration. Her main idea was to improve wetlands for natural water connectivity and storage.

Instead of runoff and snowmelt rushing down a stream to its ultimate end in a river or field, the water seeps into the ground and then slowly seeps back out as summer seasons dry.

“We don’t have a lot of control over weather or climate, but can we increase the resiliency of watersheds that have some water now? How can we help watersheds make it through this tough little time?” she said. “Beaver dams are one way that you can naturally store some water.”

Beaver dams can also help maintain cooler water temperatures during warmer months – a necessity for cold-water fish species like trout.

While the work is still relatively new, results are beginning to support the hypothesis that beavers dams, and beaver-like dams, could be a critical part of maintaining tiny pockets of water an arid landscape.

What an article to come across. It wasn’t even tagged as a beaver article so my alert didn’t pick it up. I saw it by chance on Facebook, which is a perfectly fine way to share beaver news. The Ranch on Nature Conservancy land has started installing BDA’s.

In mid-August, Coffman hosted about 40 people on Red Canyon Ranch to finish building five dams on one ranch creek. The dams will be close to a road to allow anyone interested quick access to see the effects of the structures.

They are created to be impermanent, made of untreated fence posts, willow branches, sticks and mud. Water can then trickle through, working to slow down flows instead of stop them completely.

Another creek, the one that blew out a couple years ago, already has two beaver dam-like structures and another three on the way.

Coffman is quick to say that beaver dams aren’t necessarily always the answer, nor are live beavers tending those structures, but they definitely have their benefits.

“We had a handful of ranchers from here get together, and for the most part people were on board with beavers as long as they weren’t getting in the way,” Coffman said. “There were 10 folks here and they all saw the benefits of beaver for water reasons, but didn’t have good solutions for dealing with them when they caused trouble for irrigation.”

That’s why, in some areas, the structures will be maintained by humans instead of beavers. In other areas, where the creatures don’t interfere with irrigation practices, they could be welcomed back.

Researchers from Syracuse University will be following the progress on the ranch. They took measurements of water levels and channel shapes and used drones to create high resolution topographic maps before the structures went in, and will track them over time, said Laura Lautz, an earth sciences professor at Syracuse University.

There are definitely still issues to iron out, Coffman cautioned. Permits can be tricky, and research needs to continue. But he hopes to build on successes that agencies like Game and Fish have had on other properties to restore riparian areas to an otherwise dry land.

Hmm. I guess that’s progress. “I’m fine with those rodents as long as they give me exactly what I want and nothing whatever that I don’t want”. Baby steps I guess. Looks like Dr. Levine still has her work to do. Good luck!

BEAVER: HELP WANTED

heidi08 Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? August 20, 2018

Mike Callahan’s first professional training is going to be bigger than expected. And that means he needs your help. PLEASE?

Beaver Corps Professional Training and Fundraiser Update

Nearly 2 weeks ago the Beaver Institute launched a new Beaver Corps training program with a corresponding fundraiser. I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that we have already far exceeded our goal of attracting 10 students by the end of 2018. We have received 22 requests from people who want professional training to promote coexistence with beavers. These trainees are from CA, ID, ME, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NY, OR, TN, WA, Nova Scotia, B.C.and Scotland.

This amount of interest is exciting, yet a bit overwhelming for our new program.
Many thanks to the kind people who have already made generous donations to our fundraiser. However, the bad news is that we are still over $4,000 short of our goal of raising $5000 for student training, and now we have even more students than we planned. So our need for some financial support is real.

We and our students would be very grateful for any contribution, no matter how modest. If you act in the next 48 hours before our fundraiser ends (Tuesday, August 21), your donation will be doubled by a generous benefactor.

Thank you for your consideration and support. Please click here to help us promote beaver coexistence.

Your tax deductible gift by check can also be sent to the address below. Thank you.
Gratefully yours,
Mike Callahan, President
Beaver Institute, Inc.
14 Mountain Road
Southampton, MA 01073

Having a donor who will match funds for two more days is pretty motivating. Think of the beavers all over you can help. You know what they say. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. But teach a man to save beavers and they will improve the fish population so he can eat for a lifetime.

An additional photo by Nancy May of Mackinac will signal the end of this plea.

A TALE OF TWO TAILS
Nancy May of Mackinac

ASTOR’S GHOST MEETS WORTH A DAM

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers August 19, 2018

This morning’s special treat comes from Nancy May of Mackinac Island in Michigan. If the place sounds familiar it should. It was the location of John Jacob Astor’s beaver fur industry and ran the market for a hundred years.. When beavers reappeared on the island no one had seen them for 200 years. Nancy contacted me a while ago about the local beavers she had been observing and protecting.. She put together and account and some photos of the story and I knew you’d be interested

Here with her permission is her story.

About 7 years ago, a young beaver couple came to the shores of Mackinac Island and built a lodge just feet from land in what is called “the Cove”- which was in the shape of a “C”. The opening (to Lake Huron) had only about 2 feet of water covering the barrier which made it seem more like a pond. Even so, it was an unlikely place for beavers to establish a home, so close to shore and in a populated area at the edge of town- but they did and I, for one, was delighted.

In 1701, a fur trading post was established on Mackinac Island. The famous John Jacob Astor established his company on the Island in 1809. By the mid-1800’s, these industrious animals had been trapped to near extinction. They have started to “come back” in recent years and so many felt lucky that this beaver couple had chosen Mackinac for it’s home.

About 4 years ago, I began to photograph them. They quickly became accustomed to my presence and tolerated my photographic efforts. It was absolutely fascinating to watch them, especially with their kits, and over the years, they became famous; an attraction, really. Some times, 20 to 30 tourists would gather at the site in the evenings, hoping for a glimpse of them. If they were “out”, they would swim a circle in the cove, taking in their admirers . I only witnessed tail-slapping when people let their dogs get too close. Otherwise, they would swim about the cove, curious as to why all these people were looking at them.

Last summer, Mom and Dad Beaver had 4 kits that appeared to the world at about 6 weeks old. It was early July and I was totally involved with them at this point. I photographed them 2-3 times a week and got to know the difference between the kits. A friend, who often visited them with me, named them all one night: Poppy, Willow, Maple and Birch. From that day on, we watched them grow, observed behavior, and delighted in their antics; their personalities became clearer and clearer! People came daily to view them: some left carrots, apples or branches for them; some came to torment them and others to teach their children about wildlife. People from all over the country viewed posts about them on our local blog.

Autumn came and with it, a terrible storm that took out half of their lodge in late October. We were all devastated. Winter was coming…… Our Mayor sent down a dray-load of fresh tree cuttings and in two days, the lodge was restored, complete with a long “pantry” that extended out from the lodge about 15 feet. Normal activity resumed.

The winter of ’17-‘18 was brutal. Not much snow but extreme cold and wind. Ice made in the cove, broke up, moved out then froze again. The process repeated itself until there was ice as far as one could see, both in the cove and into the Straits. Then, in mid-winter, gale-force winds blew for 3 days. The ice broke up and the east wind drove 3’ thick icebergs into the cove and piled them on end up against the lodge. They were on the bottom. The beavers couldn’t get out ofthe lodge! I called friends for help and 6 of us attacked the ice with assorted tools and succeeded in clearing an opening next to the lodge. Later in the day, fresh branches were delivered along with apples, and at about 5 pm they popped up. We were overjoyed; they probably would have perished had we not helped. EVERYONE needs a “hand up” at times!!! The remainder of the winter was just bitter…I had to spud out the hole each morning for them (new ice daily) and often delivered branches, carrots or apples. Their “pantry” was long gone and still, winter persisted.

Finally, spring arrived. The family was again free to roam the shoreline and I was pleased to note that all 4 kits survived the winter. But the euphoria didn’t last long for those of us who loved the beavers. In May, a very pregnant Mom, disappeared. At first I thought she was just having her kits…but then realized that Dad wasn’t around either and he should have been visible taking branches to her. Then, one-by-one, the kits began to disappear. Lots of people commented that they had just probably moved on- but at this point, I knew enough about their behavior to know that one-year-olds don’t leave the colony; and that a pregnant Mom doesn’t just decide to leave and start a new lodge elsewhere, especially without taking her family along! Worry set in. They were all gone by early August and I am sure that they have been trapped and killed illegally. (Trapping and using firearms is prohibited at all times on the Island except by special permits.) None applied for.

Finally, I must add that I am aware that all people don’t feel as I do. To many, they are a nuisance. But a simple solution here is to wrap your trees with chicken wire if you live on the shoreline. It’s cheap and a few minutes of your time. My posts years ago suggested this solution if people were having a problem on their property. I am saddened, as are so many here, by their absence. The community has been robbed of this family, stolen without permission; a family who taught many so much about particular behavior of an animal most have never seen up-close, and about wildlife in general. Because of the high water, the cove has become “open water” and another family is unlikely to make it home. A pair of muskrats has taken over the lodge ( they often roomed with the beavers on cold nights) but they will miss the warmth of the beavers come winter!

And so will I.

Oh Nancy what a lovely story. We share your heartbreak about your missing beavers. But we are not without hope. Our decade with beavers has taught us to take the long view. Beavers stories don’t have ends. They have chapters. Thank you so much for sharing yours with us.