Leave It to Beavers

Can they help us adapt to climate change?

Now, nearly two centuries later [after the fur trade], beavers are valued not just for their pelts, but for the environmental benefits of their gnawing and nesting. A growing community of “beaver believers” is reintroducing the animal to regional water systems throughout the American West in the hopes of reducing the incidence of floods and the damage from forest fires, alleviating drought, helping fish thrive, and conserving fresh water—in the process, helping to combat some of the effects of climate change.

Well, did you see the release of the long-awaited beaver article from the Atlantic Monthly yesterday? The author David Ferry contacted me way back before Christmas and we talked beavers and the beavers’ impact on our little stream. He had gotten my name from Brock Dolman who had filled him with lots of great quotes and beaver information. Since he was just around the corner in Oakland I invited him out for a viewing, although as it was winter and I wasn’t sure what he would see.

On December 7th, 2011 we bundled up in warm clothes and met at the beaver dam. David was a journalism grad student at UCB and we discovered a friend in common, Richie Parks the former editor of the Martinez Gazette who ironically prides himself to this day on having ‘broke’ the beaver story. We showed David the dams and then stood at the Escobar bridge to see what might transpire.

I remember that night not only because I knew Martinez would be in the Atlantic Monthly but because the beavers were acting very, very differently. The two larger beavers that sleep up by the primary were vocalizing loudly — more loudly than I had ever heard them before. Not in distress, just emphatic. They were swimming around each other in circles, and calling to each other. They came one after another right under the bridge, and we used our light to show David a lovely glimpse of them under clear water – every lovely detail visible right down to their flapping webbed feet. I remember he gasped.

What was the vocalizing about? We never found out. We haven’t heard such noises since they were babies and never that loud. Maybe it was just clever marketing! Since it was winter we wondered whether it might have something to do with mating rights, but who could know? David was just happy to see beavers up close, and we made sure he left with a hat, brochures and photos. Since the California working beaver meeting was coming up the following month, I suggested Brock invite him to attend, which Brock thought was a great idea.

David wasn’t able to come to the meeting, but several months later I was contacted by the Atlantic monthly for a ‘fact checking’ interview. Where was Martinez? Did David really come that night? Did we really see two beavers? Were they really called ‘yearlings’? If you were ever concerned that fact-checking has disappeared from modern media you should be comforted at least that it still happens on the staff of the Atlantic. At the time I asked if it might be possible for us to get a few extra copies for the City Council, and was assured they would be mailed. All 5 copies just arrived!

Since national magazines are finite spaces with multiple demands for content and legions of red-penned editors lurking at every corner, very little of that visit made it into the article. I am very sorry that there was no mention of the flow device, the struggle to keep the beavers, or most importantly WORTH A DAM but still grateful to show a national audience that Martinez is one place you can reliably see beavers. This is all that remains of that cold December night

To see a beaver today, I drove some 30 miles from Oakland, where I live, to suburban Martinez, California, where a beaver family has moved into the creek that cuts through town. There, a delightful beaver-believer couple showed me around the colony, pointing out the subtleties of beaver construction and anatomy, as a pair of yearlings swam below us.

Well, the article is the beginning of a great discussion about the benefits of beavers that should turn into a national dialogue and eventually a policy shift – certainly in California! And even though the name of WORTH A DAM is lost on some editing room floor somewhere, I doubt the name of MARTINEZ has ever been in the Atlantic before and that is definitely something to celebrate. If people google ‘Martinez’ and ‘Beavers’ they are sure to wind up here eventually! Just one comment about something they missed with all the careful fact-checking: No one ever even asked me this….

Are the two of you, in fact, ‘Delightful’?

Beaver-Nature’s Engineer

OUTDOORS Dave Sartwell

There is no doubt that the beaver (castor canadensis, for you Latin fans) is the master mechanical engineer of the animal kingdom. He is a nonstop builder that can create some of the most elaborate and strong dams that are able to hold back vast quantities of water. I have seen in Canada dams that are a quarter of a mile wide that have created back-ups a mile long.

Oh! Settling down to read this article was like sitting down with a nice letter from a friend and a cup of tea on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I was deliciously excited. He describes the importance of the fur trade, the softness of the pelt, the dispersal of youngsters, the building of habitat, the care of families, the defending of territories. It was all so exciting to read from beaver-war-torn Massachusetts of all places that I couldn’t wait to turn to page two and read about all the benefits that their engineering does for the entire ecosystem.

Page two….

Page two?

There is no Page Two.

No discussion of birds or fish or water tables or climate change. No reference to otter or mink or Atlantic salmon. No mention of sediment or meadows or coppicing or riparian extension. Sigh. This is clearly HALF a beaver article. Maybe the other half was cut by a space-seeking editor. But maybe it was never written.

I wrote Mr Sartwell to encourage him to work on the more important part next. You know I would provide all the ideas and references he could possibly need. Let’s hope the paper is at least curious about what all these benefits do? Does Massachusetts care about genuine trickle down benefits?

Don’t worry. A better article is on the way. I just got a phone call from a “fact checker” for the Atlantic Monthly. (Are there still such things?) Remember when the reporter came for a tour of the beaver habitat and a talk about the importance of beaver in our Urban Creek? (Um, maybe I was being discrete and didn’t post about that. I sometimes manage it. Well, it happened in early December and as it happens there were unbelievable amounts of beaver activity that night.) So the fact checker is going through the article and says dubiously, “It says he came to a town that’s a suburb of San Francisco is that right? And beavers moved right into the middle of your creek in town is that right? And he saw two yearlings from a street bridge is that right? Reallllllllllly???”

Ahh that was a fun conversation!

Well its getting ready to go to press. Including the prominent name of OUR CITY where this remarkable sighting was made possible. I asked for copies to give the city council.

Fingers crossed.