Never send a city worker to do a beaver expert’s job…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? August 8, 2015

Northampton will install rocks to baffle beavers at Fitzgerald Lake

Hark back to 2013, when beavers dammed the area around the outlet pipe that sends water from the lake under the dam and into the Broad Brook. The lake rose about two feet that year, forcing the city to install a wire-mesh fence around the pipe, temporarily holding the beavers at bay.

Ever industrious, the beavers eventually burrowed under the fence, clogging the system again and raising the level of the lake. Some of the trails along the shore were even submerged this year.

Wow, Northampton MA is 20 minutes away from Mike Callahan. I can’t believe he installed a fence beavers burrowed under in 2 years, can you? Let’s use the search function on the website to see if it gives any clues. Here’s one from 2013:

“Once the new fence is in by the city’s contractor I’ll be installing a Flexible Pond Leveler through their fence.”

Ahhhh so it was a “I’ll-save-some-$$-by-doing-this-myself, how-hard-can-it-be” job. Gosh and now you have to spend a grand lowering rocks into the lake to hold down the silly fence that you installed, because otherwise Mike’s excellent flow device will get plugged. Have you learned anything by this? Are you going to stick to the experts next time?

Mike said at the time that this lake was the site of the FIRST flex pipe he ever installed – in 1998. How’s that for a history lesson!

Our dinner guests last night were Bob & Jane Kobres from Georgia. Here they are at the table with our awesome chef and FRO’s beautiful beaver watercolor in the background. He’s the retired librarian from UGA that always sends us beaver research and discretely points out egregious typos so that your reading experience will be slightly less marred. He and his wife made their first trip to California (first time ever) for the beaver festival. (No, really)

Every business they visited in Martinez they made a point of telling was stunned. And they just did a beaver presentation at the children’s program in their church. How awesome is that? At dinner we realized they are truly unique folks: Jane is the daughter of a white baptist deacon from Tennessee that voted for Obama twice.

(How small is that demographic?)

They had a great time watching Bob Rust put together the wattle beaver, and Bob filmed most of it so I hope we can get it on the website soon. They shared a similar knowledgeable quirkiness that I am starting to recognize in beaver lovers. (Myself included). It’s amazing that we have had three separate visits from Georgia in the past few years, and the Blue Heron Preserve in Atlanta is now talking about possibly doing a beaver festival. (Be still my heart!) They went to Muir Beach on their visit and boldly put their bare feet in the Pacific, as well strolling around Muir Woods and the John Muir house here in Martinez.

We’re just about finished with the final exchanges for the silent auction, meeting a lot of folk wednesday at the bridge, and everything is finally put away or tallied. I sent the followup receipts and paperwork for the grants yesterday, and am finally starting to feel done with everything. I got this fun photo from our bag piper yesterday, Dave Kwinter, who said he had a great time at the festival.

Of course I warned him to use caution when saying he enjoyed it, or else we will certainly ask him again!

Did they just get the memo?

heidi08 Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? August 3, 2015

This clip would be hyperbole if the article was based anywhere else but from Michigan, which along with it’s Wisconsin neighbor has been ripping up beaver dams to save trout (!) since the dawn of time and insisting the research telling them not to doesn’t apply to them because their streams are ‘special’. Maybe doing their own research will make a difference?

Outdoors: Beaver dams deserve second look by anglers

“Angler groups are under heavy impressions that beavers are the main causes for sediment contribution into the river channel,” said Huron Pines watershed coordinator John Bailey, who gets plenty of pressure from fishermen for beaver dam removal.

Still anglers persist in the quest for beaver dam removal. Finally, in an attempt to settle the question, the University of Michigan did a study on the west branch of the Maple River — a 16-mile tributary in Emmet County. A large population of naturally reproducing brook trout and local concern about beavers made it the perfect locale.

The scientists hypothesized that if beavers were causing excess sedimentation, it would affect both water quality and macroinvertebrate (aquatic insect) abundance.

To their surprise, water quality wasn’t significantly lower above dams nor was water temperature significantly greater above dams. Rather, dissolved oxygen levels and water temperature were stable above and below dams.

Dams did affect tasty trout treats such as mayflies, stone flies and trichos, though not in ways the researchers expected. There were more of these below the dams than above.

Stable water temperatures and dissolved oxygen levels meant that trout weren’t negatively affected. The shift in macroinvertebrate communities above and below dams did result in a change in available food sources for trout.

However, since trout have a highly variable diet, and they will generally consume any available food sources, the shift in community didn’t necessarily limit feeding.

In fact, hexagenia limbata — the large, burrowing mayfly larvae — prefers to dwell in the silt bottom that results from the damming process. (The hex hatch is an annual legendary fish phenomenon. Hex hunger generates more trout titillation and tourism than any other aquatic event.)

“Look for active dams with signs of use. If a beaver dam is large and old enough to have created a substantial pool of deep water, it just might be a brook trout bonanza.”

Michigan is shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, to learn that dissolved oxygen behaves in their state exactly like it does in every other state. Next thing you know someone will be suggesting that gravity works the same way too!!! In the mean time, they’ve contented themselves with the discovery that beaver dams actually improve invertebrate conditions and that this might be good news for the fish that eat them.

Ya think?

A Day of Wonders

heidi08 Festival August 2, 2015

Yesterday was amazing, very crowded, very cheerful, very full of children and parents eager to learn. Just how eager? Mark Poulin’s adorable buttons were an astounding hit. Kids were thrilled to learn and EVEN take the post test. Here’s an idea of just how proud they were of their work. Honestly look at those faces and tell me they aren’t beaming.

The musical line-up was amazing, the solar panels beloved, and the help of sound wizard John Koss was invaluable. We had California visitors from San Francisco, Alameda, Auburn and Winters, as well as national visitors from Virginia and Georgia. I didn’t see a single impatient parent or crabby child this year. They were all remarkably helpful, appreciative, and glowing. Everyone said the activity was enormously fun and educational. FRO’s art project was a huge success, and Martinez enjoyed the work of many new painters. Jon’s tours were well attended as always and his voice was thrilled with the assistance of his brand new personal amplifier.

Everyone said the children’s parade was the best organized ever. The Watershed Steward interns were amazing handling the buttons all day and the junior keepers from Safari West were uniformly helpful down to the last tattoo and tent removal. The silent auction was a huge hit and very well staffed, and membership enjoyed the extra helpers as well. Honestly, we had our best helpers ever this year, with sometimes more hands then even WE could put to work!

And no beaver festival would ever be complete without the wildly creative inventions of Beaver devotee and Martinez resident Robert Rust, who this year, after the giant inflatable beaver of 2012, the tail slapping beaver of 2014 decided to blow our minds with a wattle and daub beaver, formed entirely on site of willow and mud – just like a real beaver would make. (If you need a science and history lesson reminder on this technique, look here:)

There were a million other surprises I am forgetting to mention, but suffice it to say it was our best festival yet, and I’m sure all our volunteers could sleep for weeks. Enjoy your quiet sunday and THANKS!