Because the beaver isn't just an animal; it's an ecosystem!

Tag: Beaver relocation

Another difference between Iowa and Washington

Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? September 11, 2014

News and Weather For The Quad Cities –

Neighbors Want Solution For Beaver Dam Flooding

Just up the creek from where the water is backing up is a beaver dam, possibly more than one. It’s just north of Interstate 80 near the Davenport Municipal Airport. A resident who lives nearby and is dealing with water on her family’s land took some pictures. The problem is that the dams aren’t on her property and it’s been a struggle to get something done.

 “It’s been going on since April. We’ve had water up to our knees almost,” said Lindsay Andrews. She says last year there was barely any water in the creek at all. Now there seems to be a bit of a beaver problem.

 “We’ve seen a couple of beavers. My mother in law seen one. We watched one swim upstream not too long ago,” said Andrews.

 Their dams are leaving stagnant water and a muddy mess in area her family mostly uses for recreation but on a regular basis.

 “We used to do cookouts, can’t do that. Kids used to ride the trails, can’t do that,” she said, “the bugs are a big concern… Safety is a big concern with the kids.”

My god the horror. Our kids haven’t been outside in 5 months because we’re terrified of the westnile-virus mosquitoes or some such nonsense those rotten beavers have brought into our bright green fertilizer-ruined stream. I have only written about beavers in Iowa once before in 8 years of coverage so that means they aren’t even enough of an issue to hit the news cycle.  I’m honestly not hopeful for these beavers, but I dutifully posted my comment just in case some landowner wants to be in touch about options.

The only other comment is about how dynamite will fix things, so I ain’t hopeful.

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A better use of our time is the youtube account of Ben Dittbrenner, who’s dissertation on beavers and climate change was mentioned a couple days ago in the news. He wrote back after my comment and said that he is thoroughly enjoying this part of his work, and his close contact with the beavers. He’s particularly struck by what a mollifying effect their adorable presence has on even the most hardened maintenance crew.

Of course Worth A Dam knows all about that. Remember the crane company that put in the sheetpile?

cooper craneYou should subscribe to Ben’s youtube account right away so you see the cool stuff he encounters during his project. I just wish data collection on MY dissertation looked like this!

Published on Sep 2, 2014

 This video is from our animal husbandry facility. Beavers are temporarily housed as part of the Skykomish Beaver Project. The goal of this research is to relocate nuisance beavers, which would otherwise be killed, into headwaters of the Skykomish River Basin to stimulate habitat improvement and climate change

Trapping v. Abandoment

Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Environmental September 24, 2013

 Ecology of Aspen, Beaver Ponds, and Trout

Fred Rabe, University of Idaho professor emeritus, will describe changes that occur in an ecosystem once a stream is dammed by beaver: more water storage and enhanced growth of native trout populations due to ample invertebrate biomass. He will also discuss the direction of plant succession after beaver abandonment, which has occurred at 49 Meadows and other wetland sites in northern Idaho.

This talks looks really interesting and I’d like to be in the front row with my hand permanently raised. I sent it to our Idaho beaver friend and he pointed out that it’s misleading to call it beaver “abandonment” if the animals were trapped, which in much of Idaho they are. It is sort of like saying the Cherokee “abandoned” their land in Georgia and North Carolina or the Jewish people “abandoned” their store fronts on Kristallnacht.

Was your beaver pond carried to full term? Or was it aborted?

This matters because if the dammed stream wasn’t able to have a natural progression over time, the effect of “abandonment” will be entirely different than if the beavers stayed a time in one area and then chose to move on because they had used up available food sources. Did the invertebrate community have time to develop? Did fish population have time to alter its density and diversity? Was there enough tree chewing to stimulate coppicing that created enough dense bushy new growth to become nesting habitat for migratory and songbirds? Or are we just talking about a sudden ghost town after all the cowboys were shot? Maybe someone would like to do their dissertation on the topic and study the difference between several ‘abandoned’  sights and several ‘beavers destroyed’ sites.

The same question could be asked of relocation. What happens to the stream after beavers are taken out of one area and forced into some other stream? I know from talking with Dr. Glynnis Hood that this was an area that interested her. Interrupting a beaver pond prevents second generation wildlife from taking hold.

A win-win for beavers, humans and our habitat

But when beavers and humans share a waterway, the ponds can undo much of what the humans have wrought. While much depends on the size of the stream, the average dam is about 15 feet long and 5 feet tall — but it’s not unusual for their length to exceed 300 feet. This can back up water into nearby fields and homes. Plus, there’s the impact of what they do to trees with their powerful jaws.

 To enhance the beneficial effects of beaver dams and limit their detrimental side to human activity, biologists have embarked on the Yakima Beaver Project. A collaboration of state, federal, private and tribal interests captures beavers in the populated lowlands of Yakima and Kittitas counties and moves them to higher ground — and farther away from people.

This must be my favorite sentence ever. Just move them farther away from PEOPLE and all the problems will be solved. I mean it’s not like those people need water, or wells, or fish, or birds, right? I’m more inclined to call this decision a ‘lose-lose’. The colony loses their home. And the city loses its beavers.

Oh well, they’ll get another chance next year to make this decision all over again.

Cue louder drumbeat…

Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions August 28, 2012


Courtesy photo) A young beaver feeds after being released near a stream on the Dixie National Forest in May. The Garfield County Commission is telling state biologists not to plant the animals there as part of the state's beaver recovery plan.


Southern Utah officials nix beaver transplants

Garfield County questions motives of program, tells state to take rodents elsewhere.

Beavers may be good for the land and water, but one southern Utah county is saying “thanks but no thanks” to the state’s offer of web-footed transplants.

Garfield County, stretching from Panguitch past Boulder and including the lush streams on Boulder Mountain and the Aquarius Plateau, is historic al beaver country and therefore a target area for the state’s beaver recovery plan. Environmentalists had high hopes for naturally restoring wetlands there, but this month the Garfield County Commission told state biologists to take their rodents elsewhere.

Wow, the Salt Lake Tribune is doing an excellent job on the ‘slow bleed’ of this story. First we had two gentle op-eds on the topic and now we have a fantastic hard cover of the issue from Brandon Loomis, who isn’t afraid to go into detail about the fact that they are saying ‘no’ to beavers because they are environmentalist-phobic.

It’s not that they dislike beavers, commissioners say. They’re just suspicious of the motives.

“We’re not against the beaver,” Commission Chairman Clare Ramsay said, “but we’ve been down that road before on a lot of different issues over the years. We know that it might become a tool for the environmental community to use against cattle.”

Thanks for clearing that up for us Clare. “I’m not worried about beavers, its people we can’t trust!” Hey, could that be the next bumper-sticker for Utah?  Hmm,  there might be copy right issues though, it reminds me a little bit of this

I don’t know why a county would choose to broadcast its paranoia in the press so vociferously, but they certainly did a number on themselves with this decision. The article even reviews the financial benefit of beavers put together in the economic report commissioned by the Grand Canyon Trust. And just in case the reader still wasn’t sure who the ‘white hats’ are in the article it ends with this flourish

State biologists will honor the county’s request but seek to reopen talks later in hopes of gaining permission to stock beavers in some high-elevation streams, where they can’t damage irrigation canals or other structures, said Bruce Bonebrake, southern Utah regional supervisor for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

“We’d very much like to transplant them there,” Bonebrake said. “They’re great riparian managers. You really can’t get a species that does better management as far as wildlife habitat and sediment control.”

I would say the press is playing for the beaver team and you can set a timer to see how long the commissioners are able to hold out against them. It’s obvious which side has done its homework in this debate. Congratulations! Even the comments to the article are mostly pro-beaver. Take this one for example from an ex-trapper Jim Bridger:

I did more than my share to exterminate beavers in these here parts. Now I repent! I’ve come to see that what I did was wrong. I won’t trap another beaver ever again, or a mink, bear, bobcat, coyote or wolf. And I will help return beavers to their historic homes. Now if an old curmudgeon like me can learn something new and change his ideas and his ways, why can’t those darned cow boys? Maybe I’ll take to trapping and relocating them to Antarctica.

Good work Mary O’Brien!

Reformed trappers interested in relocation! Fatted calf time! But no hamburgers for the commissioners unless they admit that they are scared of the wrong things and agree to come back to the table.

Bring your ‘kit’ to work day!

Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, kits August 26, 2012