The MacDuff’ing

heidi08 Environmental, kits, Who's Killing Beavers Now? July 10, 2015

All my pretty ones?

Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?

Macbeth IV: iii

There’s a scene at the end of Macbeth that has always bothered me. The rising hero and supposed good guy Macduff is visited by Ross who tells him that Scotland is in pretty dire straits, but not to worry about it too much and concentrate on the battle at hand. Macduff eventually gets him to admit he’s trying to avoid giving him bad news, and Ross blurts that back home his castle has been beseighed and his wife and children slaughtered.

Macduff is visibly shaken and repeats several times, “All? Did you say all?” Which is the part that always bothered me. Like his children were interchangeable and if one survived (any one – no one in particular) it would be okay. The girls or the boy might die but as long as ONE lives everything is alright. Because for him his children are like a bouquet, pretty and ornamental but no single flower matters more than any other.

But yesterday, I kind of started to understand.

Jon found a third kit dead around noon, this one had been dead a while. No signs of injury. Just floating near the new dam. We assume it was from whatever killed the others. UCD was slightly more interested that a third had died thought they might expedite the necropsy. I spoke to the city, county, Regional Water Board, and East Bay Regional Parks, but since no other animals or fish had died they felt it probably wasn’t the water. .

Last night the somber Worth A Dam members gathered watch. They saw Jr. and two 2 year olds and maybe Mom. No kits. But also no dead kit. One very important thing they saw was a muskrat, at the old dam. Very definitely. This is important because it means that we can probably assume it wasn’t a water-caused incident. Since muskrats are small like kits and most likely would have died too. Which means we should not be speculating about water but about disease…Moses said he’d keep watch last night and let Cheryl know if he saw anything, but since there’s no word this morning I’m guessing there was no dead kit last night either.

So not “All.” Not yet anyway.

I received this yesterday from Dr. Suilin at Edinburgh University I found it so comforting I thought we all should read it. Have a hankie at the ready; word to the wise.

Dear Heidi,

I just wanted to tell you that I was distraught when I logged into the blog this afternoon. And I wanted you to know that however this turns out, Worth a Dam and the Martinez beavers have done more than anyone to put beavers and their importance right back on the ecological agenda.

My one reassurance is that they are probably the most well-cared for and supported urban beavers, and that everything you and your team will do will be in their best interests.You have supporters worldwide with their fingers crossed for your beaver colony, and wishing them all the best.

-Suilin—

Dr. J. Suilin Lavelle

Lecturer, Philosophy

School of PPLS

Dugald Stewart Building

3 Charles St.

Edinburgh, EH8 9AD

www.philosophy.ed.ac.uk

www.suilinlavelle.co.uk

Thank you so much for your kind words. They warmed me in the coldest moment and made me feel like what we have done matters even if our ‘pretty ones’ didn’t make it.

In Beaver Wake

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, kits July 9, 2015

UPDATE: 10:30 – Napatopia’s fish and Wildlife spoke with the CDFW lab investgations unit who does want a necropsy but wants the experts at UCD to do it. She told me to get water samples with the creek. And they would cover costs. So Jean’s picking up the kit now, jon got samples and we’ll leave move things to UCD capable hands. More later.

___________________________________________________________________

Nae man can tether time nor tide

Robert Burns

The critical tide that ravaged the beaver habitat last night in Alhambra Creek came with awful word that another kit was sick. This one was picked up in beaver park a little after five, where he climbed up staggering. An unknown kindly soul took the beaver to Lindsay which was standing by since we had gotten a tip earlier. The kit was so weak he was easily picked up and handled as you can see in the photos here from an onlooker’s cell phone.

This morning Lindsay will find out if Fish and Game wants a necropsy, which they would handle themselves, or if we need to bring it to UC Davis and pay for it. Jean has nobly offered to drive the sad miles and take care of it if she can. Last night we had an unexpected beaver wake at the water’s edge, Cheryl, Lory, Jon and myself watching to see what others survived. Moses came down for a while. We saw healthy two year olds and Junior, and maybe dad, but no sign of kits or mom. Meanwhile the tide covered the old dam, the bank, the walls, making our familiar pond seem suddely strange and menacing.

We were a somber group.

Later that night I thought of how happy we were to have four kits such a short time ago, and what a freakish blessing it had seemed. I thought of the distance we had traveled from giddy delight to grim realism to panic. And I thought of our lovely beavers and how much hope and joy they had given us over the years.

I have written everyone I can think of asking for help. Maybe you can think of some others.

Beavers, like tides, come and go

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, kits, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now? July 8, 2015

This is a much better headline than it is an article. A more accurate title would be “Doing nothing and complaining about it anyway”. Or maybe “Learning nothing and blaming others for your ignorance”.

5596a2e758003.image — **Stick-built Home**
(Photo by Clara MacCarald): A beaver lodge stands near where beaver activity has flooded the trail around Teeter Pond in the Finger Lakes National Forest.

Engineering A Balance Between Beavers And People

Sixteen years ago, when Cherie Ackerson and her wife moved out to their country home in Pompey, they were thrilled by the creek flowing through their new property. They found evidence of beaver activity, which struck them as interesting and wonderful. They built a wooden boardwalk along their creek to enjoy it better.

Then the beavers multiplied. Females can have one to nine pups and young stay with their parents for up to two years. The large rodents, which weigh 45 to 60 pounds, or even more, took out more saplings, enlarged nearby ponds, and changed the course of the creek. Eventually the boardwalk was affected by the changing water levels. “We had a plan and they had a plan,” said Ackerson.

Could your plan possibly be to look up information on the internet and learn that a flow device could control your water issues once and for all?

Wherever water enters an area, beavers can start damming it up, explained Matt Sacco, director of programs at Cayuga Nature Center. Valleys, small drainage creeks, wooded ponds – all these places, he said, have the potential for a colony. Sacco hears about flooding a lot. One farmer who called him had lost five acres of corn. Tree loss is another problem, either because the trees are desirable or because the trees cause damage or block roads when they come down.

In general, “The beaver population is pretty steady,” said Tiffany Toukatly, a fish and wildlife technician with the DEC. She didn’t know for sure because the population size in the region is not being tracked and the numbers of permits vary every year. The beaver has to be present and causing damage for a permit to be issued. Toukatly said sometimes people with recurring problems will try to call to get a permit before a new family moves in, or people will call when they see a beaver on their land even though there is no evidence of damage.

Last summer three adult beavers were trapped out of the pond, but young beavers were left behind. Even if managers wanted to, “we can’t trap them all out,” said Widowski. Where there is beaver habitat, there will be more beavers. Like other rodents, beaver populations can grow quickly, Sacco pointed out, and two-year old beavers who have left home are always on the lookout for vacant territory.

We like beavers so much we only kill the parents. How thoughtful. In case you couldn’t tell already, this article bugs me.

_______________________________________________________

And finally, a memorial for the kit that Cheryl found last night, dead on the shore. We retrieved it and were ready to bring it for necropsy but found it had been long dead, and would offer little information. Since we saw four on July 1st, and not since, its reasonable to assume it was the fourth. Although it could just has easily been a fifth that no one knew about. We will have to watch and see. And hope our other kits fair better. It has been so long since we had four, I had completely forgotten what its like to have one die. I remembered soon enough.

For comfort I offer this beautiful healthy kit footage from Robin Ellison of Tulocay kit in Napa.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Festival, In the News, Shameless Self-promotion July 7, 2015

Just learned that our tree-planting Watershed Steward Interns will be helping with the festival by distributing our buttons to exhibitors, explaining the activity, and generally helping kids to make sure they all know what to do. I’m so excited! California Conservation Core at the Beaver Festival! The city may have pulled up their trees, but they’ve done nothing to remove their support!
The Bay Area Family Calendar is the hot spot for finding schools, camps and what to do events in the summer. I registered our beaver festival and the director wrote me back offering to feature the event if we hosted a link on our website. Even though this site doesn’t host any ads, or get any funds from promotion, that seemed like a great trade for a time limited event, so check it out. We’re listed on the main page, third one down!

The trade is they get a logo and link on our festival page, and maybe you can click on it here and show that we’re worth trading with. This along with our Bay Nature Ad and our Watchable wildlife listing should help get the non-locals curious. Then I’m hoping for a nice article in the Gazette and the Contra Costa Times again….fingers crossed our event will be elbow room only!

Wisconsin gets attention

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water July 6, 2015

Looks like Wisconsin’s unique trout protection strategy is getting noticed. Yesterday I was sent this great article from the TU president who invited me to speak this year in Coloma. It’s from a beautiful outdoorsy website called “Cutter Light” in Alaska.

Wisconsin Wildlife Services Removes 100’s of Beaver Dams Each Year, Many by Explosives

This video showing a beaver dam being blasted sky high by Wisconsin Wildlife Services in the name of “improving habitat for trout” left us speechless. We’re interested to know what readers think of this strategy for managing wildlife and natural resources.

Barbra and I watched this video and listened to these comments with our jaws hanging open. Speechless. After about two minutes, the video came to an end.

“Wow,” was all we could manage to articulate at first. And then again, “Wow.”

For the past day, we’ve been researching this issue as thoroughly as we’re able to, reaching out to Trout Unlimited groups in Wisconsin (at least one of which appears to support this management strategy) and kicking our own thoughts around between each other. We haven’t reached any conclusions. But we do have a few observations.

Beaver ponds represent biologically rich, exceptionally diverse, constantly changing micro-habitats within the larger forest.The many snags (dead trees) in this pond represent feeding opportunities for woodpeckers as well as potential cavity nesting sites for many species of birds and mammals. Eventually, this pond will become silted in, the beavers will leave, and a beaver meadow will replace the pond. These meadows, free from the shade of the forest canopy and with a bed of thick, fertile soil create places where unique species of flowers and other plants thrive. Black bears are among the many animals that visit these meadows to graze on the grasses and berries that may not exist elsewhere in the forest. The meadow itself will eventually be replaced by mature hardwood forest. So it has been in North America for thousands and thousands of years, with trout, beavers, bears and berries co-evolving.

Ohhh, I think this is going to get amazing. Pull up a chair and get comfortable. I practically excerpted the whole thing. Feel free to go read it yourself. I’m sure Wisconsin is.

Beaver ponds represent dynamic, ever-changing micro-habitats that foster some of the greatest species diversity in the forests where they are found. We’re for biodiversity. As much as we enjoy trout fishing, we would never wish that our desire to catch a particular species of fish be placed above the overall health of an ecosystem.

During the life of the beaver pond, it can provide vital habitat for all kinds of animals. As trees are drowned, they become snags. (One Wisconsin DNR report stated simply and that “beaver dams kill trees” – an example of how a statement can be both completely true and completely misleading. Dead trees are part of every healthy forest.) Pileated woodpeckers and other woodpeckers utilize these snags as forage bases and nesting sites. The cavities woodpeckers create in turn become nesting sites for flying squirrels, owls, wood ducks, and host of other mammals and birds. Meanwhile, these ponds become important stop-over or seasonal habitat for a variety of waterfowl and often attract shore nesting species. Tree swallows, flycatchers and similar passerines thrive in the edge habitat created by the beavers’ activity. Again, the snags provide nesting sites, and the cleared airspace above the insect-rich pond creates excellent feeding opportunities for insect eating birds as well as for bats.

The pond itself becomes one the most biologically rich systems in the forest – perhaps the most biologically rich. Everything from burrowing mayflies to dragonflies and damselflies to a variety of aquatic beetles inhabit these waters. Amphibians such as newts, salamanders, toads and frogs inhabit these ponds as well, which provide vital nurseries for their young. Aquatic and semi-aquatic snakes take advantage of the smorgasbord, and in turn may provide a meal for a hawk. Deer, moose, turkeys and grouse are among the frequent visitors to the edge habitat found along the shores of these ponds.

Silt prevented by the dam from moving downstream eventually creates a rich bed of mud which in turn fosters the growth of aquatic vegetation. This vegetation may provide a meal for a moose or a migrating duck, a nursery for the young of certain fish species, a place for a tiger salamander to attach its eggs, or an ambush post for a predacious diving beetle. What’s best for trout is not necessarily best for the countless other species that depend on the habitat created by beaver ponds.

Moreover, because these dams cause water to pool, some of that water percolates down into subterranean aquifers. This should be an important consideration in a state that is rapidly pumping its aquifers dry.

It’s important to keep one other fact in mind. Salvalinus fontinalis, the native char most fishermen refer to as the brook trout, has been co-evolving with beavers and beaver dams for longer than humans have been on the North American continent. This sudden need to “manage” wildlife is an outcome of an ongoing series of humankind’s mismanagement of this planet.

Let’s be clear hear, this wasn’t written by ME or Michael Pollock’s mother. Barbara and Jack Donarchy are fairly well known wilderness-living writers, fishermen and photographers. Their blogs gets way more traffic than this old thing, and is followed by countless others. All of whom will now turn in shock to Wisconsin DNR and say in chorus, WTF?

Check out the full page of very supportive comments whose minds were equally blown by the practice. One of this is from John Sikora who was the chapter president that invited me to Trout Unlimited this year. I think if we listen very closely we can hear the rusted shut DNR wheels of change grinding into motion. Maybe they’ll take my advice and experiment with ONE SMALL STREAM this year and see what happens if they let the dams and beavers remain.