MAYBE THERE SHOULD BE BEAVER VIGILANTES?

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beaver Helpers, Beavers August 27, 2022

I was daydreaming yesterday about the horrific vigilante law in Texas that allows friends and neighbors and gossips to turn women they suspect of seeking or helping a woman seek an abortion and collect the reward in court. It’s promotes deep mistrust under the guise of being PRO LIFE. And I thought, HEY if we could turn in friends and neighbors and cities for trapping beavers off their property or even applying for a depredation permit, and then take them to environmental court and collect the reward money which can then be used to install a flow device that would be pretty PRO LIFE too. I mean we know that beaver dams create biodiversity and store water to keep things alive so anything anyone does to threaten them destroys that right? And we’re not SO far away that any act to waste water is an act against the state, right?

Suddenly the vigilante law seemed to have more promise,

Well until those dark days come lets hope to persuade folks with lots and lots of carrots.

Support for Federal Funding for Beaver Coexistence

AWI is working to develop federal legislation that would establish a national beaver conflict-mitigation grant program to help tribes, states, agencies, local governments, landowners, conservation organizations, and others pay for nonlethal beaver-conflict solutions. More than 100 small businesses, wildlife groups, and tribes representing 33 states have joined a letter in support of this idea. In addition, some organizations and tribes have drafted separate letters of support.

That’s really good to hear. You may not know this but a million years ago when Mike Callahan was just dreaming about doing his instructional video to teach people how to install flow devices, he received a grant from AWI to make it happen. They are the power player you never hear about on the beaver stage so I hope this works out. They have a long list of supporters for this idea, which includes some folks you might know at the end.

Let’s wish them every success, although I’m kinda liking my viglante idea, swooping to drop some justice on every intolerant farmer and city manager

Friends Helping Beavers

heidi08 Beaver News, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Friends of Martinez Beavers January 30, 2010

Fans of the Martinez Beavers will understand more intimately than most that the survival of our beavers ultimately depended on just one thing. Sure public outcry made a difference, and fear of political ruin quivered the hearts of at least two on the council, but if the dam had stayed at its original height and continued to pose a flooding threat, they would have been soundly dispatched. (Sent in a pickup truck to Plumas county if the god’s were kind or off to a glue factory somewhere if they were not.)

What fundamentally allowed the beavers to remain with us was the flow device, installed by Skip Lisle and often mistakenly called a “beaver deceiver”. (It’s actually a “Castor Master”.) This allowed for the water height to be lowered in such a way that the movement is disguised from the beavers. They don’t feel the suction and don’t associate the outflow with their dam, so they tolerate the water loss. Skip invented the beaver deceiver during his work with the Penobscot Nation. He went on to develop his ideas for the flow device and round fence over time. Skip is committed to showing the world that flow devices work. He traveled to Lithuania this summer to talk at the conference there, and he is headed for Oregon next week to give a four hour teaching at the State of the Beaver Conference.

Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions trained with Skip and eventually developed his own full time business around beaver management. His vision of the best use of management skills included a teaching DVD that would allow property owners, cities and transit workers to cheaply implement tools that could manage problematic beaver behavior. He is well aware that allowing this keystone species to remain takes care of so many others, but Mike is a pragmatic beaver defender who helps businesses focus on the bottom line. Installing a successful flow device, he argues, can manage the problem now and in the future. Hiring a trapper is a temporary solution that will get more expensive over time.

Mike was awarded a grant from the AWI last year to make the DVD, and has been working towards its release. Expect it in the Spring of 2010. Recently he approached me asking to pay to include three minutes of my beaver footage in the production. Since Mike’s smart website was the first place I turned with beaver questions LO these many moons ago, and we became friends over the ensuing years, I can’t think of anything more “full circle” than using that footage to help him and help beavers around the country for years to come. Whatever financial agreement we figure out will go to Worth A Dam.

In the mean time, I am helping him spread the word about the upcoming project with an announcement postcard sent to beaver supporters and interested media. You might recognize my favorite photo from Bob Armstrong of the Mendenhall Glacier Beavers. (He gave his blessing on the prospect, and arranged for Mike to come do a beaver management plan in the state park there.) The idea is to follow up with a second announcement once the project is released. I’m hopeful that by helping more people learn that there are reasonable ways to manage beaver behavior, and inexpensive tools for learning about them, we can significantly impact the well-being of beavers all around the country.

In the mean time, our wikipedia friend is supposed to be honing a “flow device” entry this weekend. It’s hard to remember so long ago, but in 2007 I definitely had to hunt to find out about options. Remember how many people talked about the Clemson Pond Leveler at the meeting? Someone from Lafayette even donated the funds for one. That was one tool that had been published and talked about, but the technology had already come a long way since then. Mike was the one who explained that to me. Let’s hope “flow device” becomes a household name – at least as common as “snare”.

Red Letter Day for Beavers!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions August 5, 2009

Back in the murky grip of winter, when Californians were waiting for the temperature to drop and East Coasters were trying to remember what the earth looked like under its white blanket, beaver friend Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions in Massachusetts was hatching a plan. He wondered about making a series of DVD’s to train willing people to do sensible beaver management. His idea was to create something accessible and hands-on enough to be used by public works crews and maintenance workers across the nation.

He thought about learning to make the video himself, and asked me if I could help. I told him my video expertise ended at the three minute mark, and I had no experience (or even computer space for!) longer projects. I suggested he talk with some of the wildlife groups in his area, who might have a videographer already as part of their own marketing. Mike talked with the Humane Society and Audubon who were very excited about the project and directed him to apply for the AWI Christine Stevens Grant. Which he did, arguing convincingly that teaching cities to take care of beavers would take care of waterfowl, take care of amphibians, take care of muskrats and minks and otters and improve water quality.

His request had a familiar personal history section that I hadn’t known before, involving his and his wife’s early days as compassionate B&B owners turned volunteers who were trying to save some beavers in their area. They brought in Skip Lisle to help and Mike spent time training with him. You know of course that beavers change things: it’s what they do. Soon Mike’s compassion became a passion, then a career and the B&B was sold and the business of Beaver Solutions was born. It’s a pretty interesting story.

Anyway, back in murky January, he composed his request and he waited.

He waited a long time. Winter is an idle time for a Massachusetts beaver man, with months that he couldn’t get in the water at all, followed by months that he just wished he couldn’t. Last night, after 8 months of waiting, Mike finally got the news.

His grant was awarded! To the tune of 10,000 dollars! Since it didn’t exactly fit the requirement for the Stevens award, the money will be taken from another source, but they said it was a very worthy project and now he can move forward. Just in time for his trip to Juneau at the end of the month when he’ll be helping the mendenhall glacier beavers (remember them?) not wear out their welcome.

This is big big beaver news. If the training series was cheaply available around the country, there would be far fewer excuses for directors of city works everywhere. We are so happy for Mike, and we really couldn’t be more pleased for beavers.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=3Bk2RF3j9fg]