BBC CALLS BEAVERS A ‘CORNERSTONE’ SPECIES!

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers April 18, 2019

The beaver news world yesterday was abuzz with reports of release of 2 beavers into an enclosed park in Yorkshire so that their effects on flooding and biodiversity can be studied. It’s a very calculated 5-year project that will be carefully researched. It’s a giant step forward for beavers, but I can’t help but feel a little cynical.

It’s like ‘letting cinderella’ work tirelessly for you for free and then checking to see how much she got accomplished!

Beavers released in Yorkshire anti-flooding trial

Two beavers have been introduced into a Yorkshire forest in an effort to naturally manage water flows. The pair of Eurasian beavers will be monitored to see how they affect the landscape and whether their actions can help prevent flooding.

The five-year Forestry England project will check if the creatures maintain dams and boost biodiversity.The beavers, called “natural habitat engineers” by ecologists, will live in a large secured area.

Sure they’re “called” engineers. But just because someone calls you something doesn’t me you are that. My mom calls me good looking. What can these rodents actually DO for us?

During their time in Yorkshire, the beavers will be monitored in their 10-hectare enclosure to see how they interact with artificial dams in place in Cropton Forest on the North York Moors. Scientists say this project, which will see beavers eventually released in other locations, is the first time the effect the species has on artificial dams has been studied.

“We are looking forward to seeing the beavers settle into their new home and are very interested to watch how they impact on the water flow and surrounding ecology.”

Forestry England’s Alan Eves said: “Today’s landmark occasion sees the introduction of a cornerstone species that has been absent from our landscape for over 300 years.

They did NOT say that.

You got the quote wrong. Beavers aren’t a CORNERSTONE species. What does that even mean? There are no cornerstone species. Sheesh. I expect more from the BBC. Robert Paine is rolling in his grave right about now. In fact if you GOOGLE cornerstone species this very moment the only thing that comes up on the entire internet is this article and the phrase KEYSTONE species.

Which is what you meant. And what a good editor would have corrected if they were paying attention. Hrmph.

They were close enough right? There was some kind of STONE involved, and it had to do with architecture. Besides these rats have been extinct for 400 years. How are we supposed to know what kind of stone they are?

Keystone, cornerstone, beaver, nutria. It’s all the same thing, right?

I’d never even seen that newsreel before. English raising nutria on purpose! I guess that went very well. Especially when you realized their fur was worthless and they destroyed your farm. But if you watch further they talk about beaver release in Idaho, and not even in parachutes! People used to know better.

This video was posted yesterday by Breanna Angel of Vermont Wildlife Now. Turn your sound up an get ready for an adventure. because this should be where every hike ends up.

SPECIAL BEAVER TREATS

heidi08 Beavers April 17, 2019

Thank you to Martinez Kiwanis who just let me know we get grant money this year for the festival! Hurray! Still waiting to hear from fish and wildlife, the community fund, and the city. Fingers crossed. I continue to believe that ALL the nicest people in Martinez are in Kiwanis, (and all the rest are in Rotary).

Also thank you to our brilliant artist Amy G. Hall who has been busy at work on the design she will create in chalk at this year’s beaver festival. It still needs a few tweaks before its shipshape and ready for prime-time, but here’s the basic idea.To quote Ophelia, “O, how wheel becomes it!”

Here’s what she had to say about the design:

This is a love story from all the creatures great and small who thrive thanks to beaver’s hard work. It’s the wheel of life, that keeps on turnin’ thanks to beavers.

Yes it is, you wonderful and gifted creator, you. I for one CANNOT WAIT to see you create this in person. It’s crazy good luck that we ever got you to come even ONCE! Last year was so wonderful that I made myself swear to just thank her and not mention possibly joining us again for an entire MONTH after it was over and she had time to rest.

Three weeks after the festival Amy wrote anxiously, “Didn’t you like it? Don’t you want me back next year?” And I had to laugh and laugh, because obviously

YES and YES and that’s proof that there’s no use trying to be patient for things!

Thanks again for being willing to join us Amy and graciously donating two entire days of your life to sitting in the hot sun and letting us watch you work. , you were the very most magical part out of a totally vibrant day.

And now for an even MORE special treat. This was on the FB feed of Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife last night and I just had to share. It is from all the way north in Montana – Lincoln county – and obviously represents the finest 10 minutes of police work we are ever likely to see.

Enjoy.

Isn’t that the very sweetest thing you ever did see? I imagine the vehicle is some big la enforcement SUV but that sure looks like a little beaver to be hauling that long tree. Remember it’s Montana and he just survived a of fasting so maybe he’s older than he looks to us flat landers?

At this time of year I have to think he’s doing some lodge repairs? Lincoln County is just over the border from Canada and this morning’s temperature is just above freezing? Maybe the food cache ran out? Whatever the cause of his risky behavior, I’m sure glad to see Montana’s finest helping him out.

SCARED STRAIGHT: (BEAVER VERSION)

When I lay dying, probably sooner than I’d like, surrounded by strangers and IV drips, I’m likely going to remember four important things: That I helped a few special children make a path through horrific pain, that I picked the right husband and was lucky he picked me, that I helped convince our city to let 27 kits be born in Alhambra Creek and that in my own tiny way I encouraged men and women across the continent to try this also.

Like Steve Straight in Connecticut who closed his comments to the South Windsor city council last night with these incredible remarks:

Instead of wasting more money and time killing beavers nearly every year going forward, I would like to suggest that we follow the expert’s recommendations. I call on the Town Council to stop any trapping of beavers now, and to work instead toward coexistence with the next beavers, and to let the citizens of South Windsor enjoy these fascinating creatures as they go about their work creating a tremendous ecosystem that harms no one.

Let’s be clear: The beavers are not going away. And by the way, neither am I.

Powerful, awesome last line, Steve. You are, without a doubt, the single best thing that will ever happen to beavers in South Windsor. You can’t imagine how much this matters, to the community, to the council, to the next hopeful person who will try to follow in your footsteps. I’m so grateful our paths crossed and that you were ready to take up the beaver gauntlet.

Great victory after great pain.

Meanwhile there are plenty other things to be proud of in our beaver hall of fame. Like the beaver ambassadors stellar work in their promotional video for friday night’s premier of Sarah Koenisberg’s film on beavers and climate change.

The teen group is organized and inspired by Esteban Murschel who has been hard at work for two years trying to build a community interest around beavers in West Linn Oregon. He drove down for our festival in 2015 and would have come last year but for the very timely birth of his first son!

Something tells me that this friday the performance auditorium is going to be packed.

Fantastic performance! It is so fun to see you celebrate beavers and use all these talents on their behalf. I especially love your matching ‘portland weather uniforms’ (rain jacket and jeans). You couldn’t have picked a better song.

Although I’m not sure I could have avoided tinkering with the lyrics a little.

A watershed, a watershed
A watershed, a watershed
A watershed, a watershed
A watershed, a watershed

In the river
the peaceful river
the beaver swims tonight

With the fishes
And frogs and heron
the beaver swims tonight

We-e-e-e we’re the engineers
We-e-e-e we’re the engineers

THE TRUE DEFINITION OF ‘SWIMMING UPSTREAM’

heidi08 Beavers and salmon April 15, 2019

For reasons I don’t understand I received notice of this video yesterday, which was apparently posted originally in 2015. I assure you that if I had ever known about it I would have shared it right away and of course sent it wrapped in a big red bow to Ted Williams, but I just found out about it. I can’t imagine what rock I was hiding under that I missed it, (although 2015 was a spectacularly bad year, what with all the kits dying and all.) Not to mention it was originally published three weeks before I was retiring my entire clinical practice and closing out 30 years of files, so I might have been a little busy.

Anyway its a remarkable short film, well worth 5 minutes of your time. Patient filmmaker and Associate Professor Andrew Hendry did an amazing job of capturing the salmon experience, although he can’t help but stick a hand in to rescue a fish or two. Dr. Hendry is a fisheries biologist who teaches at McGill University in Montreal, but was actually born in nearby Woodland California!

His specialty is ‘eco-evolution’. Here’s what it says on his faculty page.

Andrew Hendry

Darwin suggested that evolution proceeds very slowly, and this view was almost universally accepted until the later part of the 20th century. Over the past few decades, however, a dramatic shift has taken place toward the idea that ongoing evolution is occurring all around us; so-called “rapid” or “contemporary” evolution.

Now that contemporary evolution is widely accepted as a commonplace occurrence, a number of researchers have become interested in its consequences for ecological dynamics; i.e., changes in populations, communities, and ecosystems. This idea has been incorporated into the developing field of “eco-evolutionary dynamics,” broadly considers ongoing interactions between ecology and evolution. Most of our work to date has focused on one direction of causality in these dynamics – how ecological changes influence evolutionary dynamics (eco-to-evo). More recently, we have started to explore the reciprocal arrow of causality: how evolutionary changes influence ecological dynamics (evo-to-eco). We conduct work on both arrows of causality in multiple natural systems, most frequently in lake versus stream stickleback, high-predation versus low-predation guppies, and Darwin’s finches.

Pretty darn interesting to see a fisheries biologist who films salmon jumping over a beaver dam. Just GUESS here he got his Ph.D..

Go ahead, guess!

Aren’t you exhausted just watching those fish? Me too! That’s an incredible amount of effort to spend knowing they’re just going to die at the end! Come to think of it, maybe that’s one of the greatest parts about being a salmon. The complete lack of self-awareness so that they have zero idea of the futility of their mission.

I’m sure once humans figured out that they were going to die when they reached their original stream and spawned NO ONE w0uld ever go through with it. Even if the possibility of sex was guaranteed.

Self-awareness is an obstacle to evolution. Who knew?

SALMON SEZ “WE NEED BEAVER”

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and salmon April 14, 2019

If you happen to see a beautiful article that emphasizes the vital relationship between beaver and salmon, and its centered around some unrecognizable, unpronounceable river, that you never even heard of set in a region of the country you actually know zero about – it’s a safe bet that you’ll find the river on a map of Washington state.

I’d bet Washington, every time.

Where to Discover Spring Chinook Salmon Around the Nooksack

Imagine the life of a local salmon emerging from the protected shield of its egg into the fast-moving currents of the gorgeous, green Nooksack River. You evade predators, like adult fish, and your body is so small that you filter through wood and debris in the river for a year. Then you drift all the way down to Bellingham Bay. There, your gills adapt to saltwater and you remain in the ocean for several years.

You know how Felix the housecat has only ever known the love and warmth of your home and understands nothing of the dangers outside? That’s what hatchery fish are like. Unprepared for the wild.

If you are looking for that rare article that calls out hatchery fish for the monstrosity they truly are, look no farther. The amount of money Americans spend on fish hatcheries so that lazy fisherman can get lucky twice in their life is a reminder that we are a vastly stupid country.

Not to mention the amount of money we spend every year getting rid of the rodent that otherwise would be that salmon’s best friend.

“Dams block the passage of fish. Fry (baby fish) must swim above them in the reservoir and expend exorbitant amounts of energy,” explains Chris. “In a stream, they could just go with the current. Fry also have to go through the spillway of a dam, which is stressful on their bodies. Salmon need clean, cold water. Anything above 65 degrees Fahrenheit is lethal.” Concrete dams do not keep the river clean or cold.

But What About Beaver Dams?

Beavers are quite integral to natural ecosystems, as they create complex habitats. Since their dams are not made of concrete, many organisms – including fry – thrive in their structures. Beaver dams filter water keeping it clean, they encourage vegetation growth, vegetation keeps the water temperature cool, and all this creates an ideal salmon habitat. Beaver dams even conserve water because they slow down the current without stopping it like a concrete dam does. This recharges the aquifer and gives us all more water.

How did they get so VERY VERY smart about beavers in Washington? It can’t be the Canadian border influence because our friends in Port Moody are surrounded by hatchery-driven beaver stupid. Is it Michael Pollock and NOAA fisheries? If he were based say in Arizona would that be the smart state we all envied?

I don’t know but it’s sure wonderful to read. Thank you Washington for showing us what to strive for.

And since we’re heading into Earth day and John Muir’s birthday, I thought I’d let you read something wonderful that just celebrated it’s permanent home at UOP yesterday. Try and imagine what it felt like for an oldish man in with Orchards in Martinez to receive this letter.

“I don’t want anyone with me but you.” That must have been the very best letter a man like Muir could receive, knowing that it meant he would have the powerful man’s full attention and the nearly assured future preservation of the place he loved most in the world. It probably was second only to this letter which was sent two highly successful months later.