BEAVER BURKE WHODUNNIT

heidi08 Beavers April 13, 2024

It’s Saturday morning and since we can’t watch cartoons and eat cereal on the floor anymore, I thought you’d enjoy my second favorite story a great community interest beaver whodunit.

Who were the busy beaver dam demolishers?

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. – What began as a routine walk for one community member turned into a neighborhood effort to save a beaver.

While on this walk, one community member found what they described as a destroyed beaver dam near the Tahoe Beach Club and bare dirt and tire tracks near an adjacent creek in post, which has since been deleted, on Nextdoor.com. The photo accompanying the post showed a tangle of branches divided by a path of water moving through it.

Just north of the Tahoe Beach Club, between U.S. Highway 50 and Nevada Beach, is a U.S. Forest Service owned parcel on which a slew of restoration projects are planned. Rabe Meadow, Burke Creek and Jennings Pond are on this site. Beaver activity is often spotted there. The community has dubbed one of these inhabitants, Beaver Burke, complete with his own Facebook fan page. Douglas County Lake Tahoe Sewer Authority also operates a pump station on this land with an access road from the Tahoe Beach Club.

Ohh a missing photo and nextdoor entry! I’ve been there. Do you know in the first early days of Martinez Beaver Bruhaha I noticed that someone was changing the Wikipedia entry on our beavers sometimes twice a day? They were either environmental heroes restoring the creek or maurading bandits destroying the city infrastructure. And usually both twice a day.

Within the post, the individual claims after a phone call to Nevada Wildlife, likely the Nevada Department of Wildlife, they learned the sewer authority asked if they could remove the dam and kill the beavers to stop flooding.

Prior to the post being deleted, it garnered many comments from concerned residents and was shared to a Facebook page called Beaver Burke Fan Club with over 650 friends. On this fan page, posts further allege the Douglas County Lake Tahoe Sewer Authority of requesting a depredation permit to kill Beaver Burke and his family. Some beaver fans posted notices of the sewer authority’s board meeting on March 20, rallying members to provide public comment.

The fan page and neighborhood app has gotten many talking and speculating about who was busy destroying the beaver dam and potentially wanting to kill the beavers.

It’s funny because facebook invited me to join the Burke Beaver fan club just yesterday. Obvious the crack algorithym has somehow discerned the subtle interest focus I have for beavers. Amazing technology.

Meghan Kelly with the Nevada Tahoe Conservation District, one of the restoration project partners tells the Tribune, “I do know that the Sewer District had reached out to the Nevada Division of Wildlife inquiring at least about pulling out the dams.”

The Nevada Department of Wildlife could not confirm whether they were contacted by the sewer authority to pull out the dams, but as of April 10, have received no depredation permit applications to remove beavers in that area.

The conservancy district also believes the beaver dams were destroyed by the sewer authority around March 8 to alleviate flooding of the pump station access road; although, the conservation district doesn’t believe this would solve the flood problem.

The Tribune has made multiple attempts to contact the sewer authority and received no response. There was one minor mention of beavers in their Board Meeting Minutes from Feb. 21 while discussing sewer pump access road relocation with the restoration project managers.

The minutes say, “After a brief discussion regarding beaver dams in the area and how they impact drainage and flooding…,” but the sentence then goes on to detail the Tahoe Beach Club’s concerns with the access road relocation, without elaborating on the beaver discussion.

Hmmmm…so beavers were discussed but there was no actual plan to deal with them. Or none WRITTEN DOWN. This is sounding more familiar every moment.

Both the conservation district and the forest service say in this case, they would not be supportive of removing the dams. Its possible the dams may be breached during their restoration work, but they’ve specifically timed that work outside of beaver kit rearing season after Aug. 15.

The forest service adds, watershed restoration, infrastructure or public safety threats occasionally require partial or complete removal of beaver dams, but that’s usually a temporary fix as beavers tend to build the dams back up quickly. Their preferred method of mitigation is to use beaver deceiver pipes or infrastructure upgrades to keep infrastructure from flooding, as is the case at Taylor Creek near the Stream Profile Chamber.

Kelly with the conservation district says the restoration project at Burke Creek and Rabe Meadow has set phasing and protection measures designed to limit disturbance to the beavers and hopes the beavers will continue to inhabit the site, “The Conservation District feels the beavers are integral to the success of the stream restoration project.”

The district has written a memo on the beavers, published in August. The memo identifies two beaver colonies in the project area. One is centered at Jennings Pond, and the other near where Burke Creek and the Kahle Ditch meet adjacent to the Tahoe Beach Club.

Well well well. The plot is getting plenty thick. I can’t tell you the number of times I have read about some eager public works brute ripping out a dam and then, when caught on camera, stammers with the mayor into saying how MUCH the city likes the beavers and wants them to stay.

According to NDOW, a depredation permit would allow the landowner or manager to hire someone to lethally remove beavers. Ashley Zeme with the department says, “People typically only reach out when there is an imminent risk of damage to infrastructure or landscaping,” adding, “The situation has already become a problem by the time they request a permit.”

NDOW encourages property owners to take measures to prevent beavers before they become an issue, saying the permit is a last resort.

Regarding whether beavers can be relocated as opposed to killed, NDOW says that is extremely difficult to do successfully. “There is only a small timeframe in the year– late fall– when relocating them is feasible, and even then” Zeme says, “it’s not always successful.”

Zeme explains beavers are smart and territorial. “If they are moved before the late fall, they will try to make their way back to where they came from. This typically ends up in them becoming prey to other animals as they search for their former home.”

On the flipside, if they try to relocate them too late in the year, they don’t have time to build a den and prepare for winter. Other factors that make relocation difficult are risk of disease transmission, limited available habitat not already occupied by other beavers, and potential to create infrastructure issues elsewhere.

Relocation ain’t the answer. Solving yer problem by installing a flow device is. Just to clarify: Ripping out the dam won’t get rid of your beavers. Your beavers do not live IN the dam. You knew that right?

KUOW SEATTLE REMEMEMBERS BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers April 12, 2024

Seattle NPR station with Ben Dittbrenner and beavers, I think this was recorded a few years ago but its one of their most popular recordings so they ran it again.

WISHPOOSH WORKING GROUP

heidi08 Beavers April 11, 2024

Wishpoosh is the name of the giant beaver who in creation myths was responsible for making the cascades in Washington. As far as we know his name is proof that once upon a time 10.000 years ago, all 350 lbs of Castorides existed along side tribal man.

So I loved to see this story.

Beaver Believers: Wishpush Working Group aims to restore and educate on beaver complexes

THE GORGE — Since 2018, a small group of individuals from different agencies and organizations have joined together to discuss one particular aquatic rodent: the beaver. Together, they’ve created Wishpush Working Group, an organization that focuses on retaining, restoring and rehoming beavers and the wetlands they create.

Their core steering committee includes Yakama Nation Fisheries, Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group, Underwood Conservation District and Mount Adams Resource Stewards.

“[Wishpush Working Group] grew organically out of some conversations that were being had between these different parties,” said Jeanette Burkhardt, Southern Territories Habitat Project at the Yakama Nation Fisheries. “Beavers benefit from the resources that we are all working to conserve and enhance and protect.”

Isn’t that just lovely? Well to paraphase a president, ask not what you can do to benefit beavers, ask what beavers will do to benefit you. Your job is to stop killing them and tell your neighbors to do the same. They’ll do the rest.

The geographic scope for Wishpush Working Group is defined as the southern territories of the Yakama Nation in Washington State — the North Bank Tributaries to the middle Columbia River.

Burkhardt noted that the name Wishpush is the English written approximation name for the beaver name in Yakama creation stories; this is to recognize the importance of beavers in the tribal culture of this region and that they are an integral piece of the landscape.

“There’s a growing recognition that they are a keystone species — many other wildlife, plants and species use or require the wetlands that beavers create,” Burkhardt said. “It’s a number upwards of 70% of the species in Washington state use beaver complexes or beaver-created wetlands.”

She explained that beaver dams create wetland ecosystems which offer ideal conditions for vegetation and shrubs to grow. This then attracts various types of wildlife to the area for breeding, protection, and foraging, creating a biologically diverse wetland ecosystem.

The additional benefits of beaver complexes include assisting with absorbing floodwater runoff and water filtration, though Burkhardt also cited Emily Fairfax’s research on how beaver wetlands help create drought and wildland fire resilience patches in a landscape.

There you go, I’m so old I can remeber when Yakima meant a roofrack for my subaru to hold our canoe. But I like the Wishpush working group better,

Wishpush Working Group is working to mimic these beaver-created wetlands in a technique known as low-tech process-based restoration of riverscapes. The goal is to deepen the water and allow riparian plants to grow over time, which would be able to sustain and restore the beaver population. Areas for prioritization are chosen using the Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool, which helps identify locations that are likely to, and historically have, been able to support beaver populations.

Yakama Nation Fisheries has selected 11 locations in total for low-tech process based restoration projects, three of which were completed in 2023.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has a pilot beaver relocation program to train individuals how to trap and relocate beavers into portions of watersheds that are out of harm’s way from humans and man-made infrastructure.

All hail Wishpoosh.

BEAVERS ARE BETTER THAN BDAS

heidi08 Beavers April 10, 2024

Long before California celebrated beavers or Oregon took them off the predator list, Utah was showing off with the first of its kind beaver restoration program recommended by the forestry department. Seriously. That was mostly because of the crazy dedicated work of Mary Obrien at the Grand Canyon Trust that started the drumbeat for beavers long before Ben Goldfarb even went to Highschool. She’s retired now and volunteering on a bee pollinator project but it’s awesome to see the changes she left in her wake.

Dam it, and they will come: The beaver’s role in Utah’s environmental health

How could beavers be better at building dams than human beings? That was among the surprising takeaways from biologist Marshall Wolf’s 152-page dissertation, published in December 2023. Wolf, who completed his Ph.D. at Utah State University, built artificial beaver dams in Park City’s Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter and compared them to the real beaver-made deal between 2019 and 2021.

Why a researcher would do this is a story about our local “living laboratory,” as Rhea Cone, director of conservation at Swaner, calls the 1,200 acres of protected wetland. It is also a story about why if we build it, they will come—only instead of dead baseball legends and Kevin Costner, it’s 60-pound rodents and scientists.

For nearly 200 years, a beaver in Utah was either a felt hat-to-be or a pest to be dislodged. Today, scientists consider the beaver crucial to preserving, restoring, and maintaining wetlands that clean our water, sequester carbon, and absorb snow runoff before it floods our home—all free of charge.

The cool thing is that wonderkind Marshall Wolf might never have even met Mary. Or read an article about her. But he is following in her footsteps as sure as if he was piggy back.

Castor canadensis, the American beaver, is an ecosystem engineer. Its dams trap water in ponds, forming habitats for wildlife and minimizing erosion. Beaver infrastructure also raises the water table, nourishing willows and cottonwoods.

When Wolf first visited Swaner in 2018, he observed beaver activity around Swaner but not in it. “The thing that jumped out right away was the lack of building material or woody riparian vegetation to support beavers,” Wolf says.

Bringing beavers back to a wetland like Swaner is a chicken-and-the-egg problem. Without “woody riparian” species like willows and cottonwoods, beavers lack the food and building materials to sustain themselves. And, without beavers maintaining the water table, there aren’t enough willows and cottonwoods to entice beaver colonizers.

I think that’s the clearest way I’ve ever seen this explained. Good writing Rich Ellis. Nicely done.

The combination of eradicating beavers and urbanizing Park City altered the wetlands. Without dam-made pools, aquatic habitats vanished. Water moved faster, cutting the streams increasingly deeper, while human beings diverted more and more water for their use. The willow and cottonwood roots could no longer reach the water table, so they mostly died off by the 1990s. The surrounding floodplains dried out, leaving the grassy expanses seen today.

The drier, treeless, beaver-less Swaner offered a natural experiment. If Wolf built beaver dam analogs, known as BDAs, could they revive the Swaner ecosystem enough to make beavers return? Could BDAs be a “restoration prescription,” as Wolf puts it? Cone, who manages research at Swaner, was keen to help Wolf find out.

To build dams, Wolf, Cone, and their collaborators pounded wooden posts into streambeds, leaving three to four feet of wood above ground. They then used onsite vegetation, rocks, sediments, and soil to weave a dam-like structure through the posts. Sturdy wooden posts aren’t naturally available at Swaner, but Wolf and Cone had access to about 10,000 cubic meters of discarded Christmas trees collected by Park City Lacrosse in its annual fundraiser.

One of the things that bugs me about BDA articles is that they tend to for get the B which is the entire point. Not this one. Thanks to Wolfs great research.

Wolf’s research illustrates that BDAs are significantly better for wetlands than the control—no dam at all—but beaver-made versions are still better at restoring wetlands. Human beings have engineered marvels ranging from the ancient pyramids and modern skyscrapers to the iPotty and dogbrella, but we can’t best a rodent using its front teeth.

“It just comes down to work hours,” says Wolf. “The beavers are putting in a lot more. And they’re also doing a couple of things that no one has been able to replicate.”

How much do I love Marshall? More than I can express at this particular moment. Please send a copy of his dissertation to ever member of the CDFW restoration team as well as all those USFS workers that got grants for BDAS last summer.

For example, beavers dig canals that channel water onto the floodplain, inundating the soil. They use the resulting mud to make their dam watertight.

Wolf’s “restoration prescription” appears to be working. Over the last five years, beavers have begun to recolonize Swaner voluntarily. There are at least four active beaver lodges, including one just off the deck at Swaner EcoCenter. Beavers have even colonized the BDAs, effectively choosing a free, semi-furnished home.

Wolf, now a postdoctoral researcher at the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission, continues to shape our ecosystem. His research secured a Park City Community Foundation grant, which funded the creation of nearly 100 BDAs in the Preserve. Every fall, volunteers with Swaner, the nonprofit Sageland Collaborative, and Basin Recreation perform maintenance on the BDAs.

What are you doing on June 29th Marshall? Something tells me you’d be a hit at the beaver festival!

STIFF UPPER LIP BEAVERS CONTRIBUTE

heidi08 Beavers April 9, 2024

In general I tend not to post UK articles about beavers in England anymore. They have their own steam engine of advocates and I am trying to focus on our waters at the moment. But this article hit all the right notes and I thought I’d share.

Beavers are saving the ‘most photographed village in England’. Here’s how

Five years after being released on an estate in Essex, beavers are reducing the risks of both drought and flooding in the nearby village of Finchingfield, suggests a new study.

In an East Anglian woodland flanked by agriculture, an engineering project is taking place for the first time in centuries. A beaver packs mud into a dam across Finchingfield Brook, and the human residents of a pretty Essex village not far downstream benefit from its behaviour.

Beavers were reintroduced to the Spains Hall Estate in 2019 under licence from Natural England as part of a natural flood management project developed between the estate and the Environment Agency.

New evidence from Spains Hall Estate suggests that this unorthodox approach to flood risk can work. The nine dams that the reintroduced beavers – now numbering 11 – have built are storing an estimated three million litres of stormwater, slowing the flow and softening sudden outbursts downstream.

I just love how there is always a team of researchers standing by to measure things after a beaver reintroduction in England. I wish we had had this in Martinez.

Apart from the potential benefits to people, wildlife as diverse as invertebrates, kingfishers and bats thrive in the new wetland habitat. Beavers open up the canopy as they fell trees, providing niches for shade-intolerant plants.

Their impact in the wider British landscape is not completely free from controversy, however; agricultural land can be flooded and anglers express concerns about trout and salmon being unable to migrate past dams. However, recent research has suggested that beaver ponds can provide important trout habitat.

Recent as in the 1970’s? Apparently research has to be conducted in their own front yard and on their own fish before it can be verified. Because you know. Fish in the UK are just different.

Archie Ruggles-Brise, Spains Hall Estate Manager, comments: “We took a chance five years ago that bringing beavers back would be beneficial, and it’s proven to be better than we could ever have imagined.

Archie Ruggles-Brise of course had to take this job because he was unanimously voted as having the most ENGLISH SOUNDING NAME EVER. I can barely top myself from drinking tea from a thermos in the gardens while I type this.

A rose by other name though. We like him.

“Locally there is widespread support for the beavers and their work, with the community really taking them to their heart.

Of course. You expected something different?