Tag: Beaver Solutions

Showtime!

heidi08 Creative Solutions April 26, 2010

I received word this morning that the final edits from Pinehurst Pictures & Sound on the beaver solutions DVD have been completed and Mike Callahan is on his way to pick up the very first copy for review. This means that we are weeks away from having the finished product be printed and available for people everywhere who are looking for a way to manage beaver behavior without killing. I can’t think of a better way to help Taryn in Wisconsin, Randall in Chicago, or Darren in Georgia. This is going to make a difference for beavers everywhere, which will make a difference in turn for the animals that depend on them for habitat; salmon, songbirds, turtles, woodduck, otters…you name it.

As I am fond of saying: it’s the trickle-down economy that actually works.

We are excited about the possibilities and wish Mike the best. We can’t wait to get our own copy and maybe one to offer at the silent auction for the Beaver festival. I bet the department of public works can use it to help the filter on the flow device which saw some cruel mistreatment this winter. Hmm maybe a copy for Fairfied just in case that perforated pipe stops working. And Sonoma if they get another vine-thief in their vineyards this spring…Antioch if it turns out the picture from Marsh Creek was accurate….Heather Farms if the rumors are true…Danville if the creek behind that man’s house is still dammed…One for Brock so he can add it to the OAEC watershed tool box…and don’t forget Los Gatos in case Rick gets really lucky….

Looks like we need a few of copies! Congratulations Mike! We wish you a big dam success!

Beaver Tales

heidi08 Creative Solutions, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Massachusetts Trapping Law October 24, 2010

Every tale has its heroes and villains right? Well click on the above photo for a slide show of this particular beaver hero at work. Mike Callahan left a career as a physician’s assistant when he got interested in saving beavers near his home. He and his wife started a volunteer association and invited Skip Lisle out for a conference to train advocates in beaver management. The rest, as they say, is history. More than a decade ago, Mike left his PA work behind him, and started the business of “Beaver Solutions” in Massachusetts. He has since installed more than 700 flow devices, and is committed to sharing what he’s learned

Last year, Mike was awarded a grant from AWI to produce an instructional DVD teaching beaver management. He is about four weeks away from its final launch, and I thought today was a good day to remind you. My ‘sent’ file tells me that I first wrote Mike on November 17, 2007 after i learned that I had been appointed to the Beaver Subcommittee. I had about a hundred questions about flow devices, materials cost and beaver behavior. I am very pleased to say that 2.5 years later he has answered those 100 questions, I have about 10,000 more, and consider him a friend. I agreed to help him spread the word about the upcoming DVD because making these tools readily available means that beavers around the nation can avoid threat from the people they inconvenience. The funny thing is, I ended up writing him and not Skip because I couldn’t find an email address for Skip, only a phone number. (In those days I was shy about talking to strangers about beavers). (Wow.) Of course, Skip was eventually hired by the city and went on to become a friend too. Small beaver world.

Water flow control: Some fairly famous urban beavers

I am a resident of Martinez, CA and a member of the subcommittee on keeping our urban creek beavers. I have been in contact with BWW & Sherri Tippie. Our downtown beavers have gotten a lot of press, and may be included in a documentary on urban wildlife, but just to summarize: the state of CA does not allow relocation, our beavers were going to be exterminated, there was a huge public outcry and CFG stepped in to say they would grant a one time relocation permit and hire Ms. Tippie. Residents weren’t satisfied and wanted the city to consider allowing the beavers to stay, which eventually happened after an electric town hall meeting. Now the city will form a subcommittee to consider allowing them to stay and I’m on that subcommittee. I want to make sure the city has all the information it needs to take positive action. I wanted to approach you specifically on the relative drawbacks/benefits of the flexible leveler vs the clemson.

Our creek is small (20-25 feet wide in most places) and normally a trickle by late summer. However it has two flow exceptions that will present unique challenges. It serves as the flood drainage for the town so in hard rains it can get a sudden increase. Also we sit on the upper bay so can have an occasional high tides. When hard rain happens with the high tide we’ve historically had flooding (long before the beavers) and this makes the city very anxious about the dam.

A hydrology report issued by the city raises concern about the increased water behind the dam, and obviously lowering the level is paramount, as is reducing the dam so that when the next rain comes the surge can flow away. I wonder if you can help me identify where to start with this and what device seems most appropriate. It occurs to me this may even be useful to do in steps, with one device to start and another to maintain. Certainly the city does not lack for volunteer labor or financial contributions. I also wonder whether you are ever available for intra-state consultation/visits or can recommend someone who is.

Again, thank you for the fantastic resource and I hope my questions are clear.

Ahhh, memories! You will recognize the center photo as being the lovely image of our own Cheryl Reynolds, who has never been unwilling to share her hard work when beavers benefit! Thanks Cheryl, and thanks Mike! We’re looking forward to the finished product!

Loaves and Fishes

heidi08 Uncategorized March 4, 2010

Martinez Beaver friend Mike Callahan is launching a beaver management facebook forum for questions and issues that arise in dealing with beavers. A million years ago when our beavers were on death row, it was hard work tracking anyone down to get questions answered. Ahh those were the days. Now he’s hoping for a simple point and click. Stop by, meet a few friends, show some support, and give him some more practice at answering the really tricky ones.

In news a little closer to home, Washington state columnist Nancy Bartlett wrote a lovely article discussing the beaver issues on Whidby island. Her basic theme was that we open-minded outdoorsy types proclaim to “love nature” until it gets in our way and causes interference in our plans, of which the beaver was an excellent example.

This was the quote that made me spurt coffee onto the keyboard and write her in admiration:

In yoga class one day, I heard a couple discussing which one of them would stop by Cenex on the way home to buy poison for the raccoons. Ohhmmm.

So we started chatting about beavers and flow devices, about the role beavers play with birds and salmon, and I mentioned was she aware of the researcher, Michael Pollock, in her neck of the woods and what he had to say about their relationship? She was not, but she was intrigued and said she would follow up. I was greeted yesterday morning with this column on her blog;

One thing I’m especially looking forward to is hearing from Michael Pollock. I first heard of him from Heidi Perryman, who wrote to me after reading a recent Tidal Life column. Heidi is the founder of Worth A Dam an organization formed to save the beavers of Alhambra Creek in Martinez, California. The group has done wonders, coming up with creative ways for humans and beavers to coexist. The town has embraced the effort and now has an annual Beaver Festival.

Ahhh well. It makes our city sound slightly more noble than its scaly underbelly would indicate, but still, it’s spreading the beaver gospel and we’re happy about that! Thanks Nancy, and stop by Worth A Dam any time for friendly beaver information!

“Go with the Flow Device!”

heidi08 City Reports, Creative Solutions February 9, 2010

This week our wikipedia friend launched the first ever entry on effective tools for beaver management. It talks about flow devices and culvert protection, and emphasizes that trapping is a short term solution. It still needs photos to give it that “stop killing beavers and read me” touch, but its well on its way to being a permanent resource.

Beaver Dam Pipes

Beavers diligently plug leaks in their dams, because their survival depends upon the cover provided by the water in their pond. If a beaver can detect the flow of pond water into a pipe, it will plug the pipe with mud and sticks.

To be successful, a beaver dam pipe must eliminate the sound and feel of water flowing into the pipe. Successful pipe designs (e.g. Flexible Pond Leveler™, Castor Master™, Clemson Pond Leveler) achieve this by protecting the intake end of the pipe with a cylindrical fence enclosure. A beaver swimming along the outside of the fence enclosure is unable to hear or feel the flow of water into the pipe and cannot reach it to block it.

Photo: Mike Callahan, Beaver Solutions Flow device filter ready to be lowered into water

The pond level is controlled by the height of the pipe in the dam. Since beavers depend on water for their survival, the more a beaver pond is lowered with a pipe, the more likely it is that the beavers will try to build a new dam to return the water to its previous high level. In addition, the more a beaver pond is lowered, the more valuable wetland acreage is lost. Therefore, it is important to lower a beaver pond only enough to resolve the threat to human health, safety or property.

I like being able to see the roundfence up close. Ours suffered a bit in the last rain, and Mike says its essential that whatever happens the shape of the fence isn’t changed. Once beavers are able to feel the suction to the pipe they will find a way to dam it. They are also smart enough to learn that round fencing means leaks, and will dam any round-fence in the future too! Yikes!

Culvert Protective Fences

The ‘’’Beaver Deceiver™’’’ (a trapezoidal shaped culvert fence) was invented by Skip Lisle in the 1990s while working for the Penobscot Nation in Maine. It is very effective at completely eliminating beaver damming of a culvert. It works in three ways. First, the perimeter of the trapezoidal fence is typically 40 – 50 feet long, making it difficult for a beaver to dam the entire fence. Second, as beavers try to dam the culvert, the fence forces them to dam in a direction away from the culvert, which is not their nature. Third, as they dam further out on the fence, the opening the stream is flowing into is getting wider. Therefore, the damming stimuli of the sound and feel of moving water decrease the further they dam on the fence. If the sides of the fence are at least 12 feet long the beavers will generally leave the fence alone.

To be effective however, a culvert fence must be surrounded by enough water that the beavers will need to dam the entire fence perimeter. In areas where the streambed is narrow rather than wide, the fence must be narrow so that it is surrounded by water. Being narrow loses one advantage of the trapezoidal shape, but it can still deter beavers from damming the culvert. Since beavers are excellent diggers, a fence floor is always generally needed to prevent beaver tunneling under the fence. The fence walls only need to be 24 inches above the water line, since beavers do not climb.

Photo: Mike Callahan, Beaver Solutions Trapezoidal Fence to prevent damming of culvert

When I think of how hard we all worked to find information about beaver management back before the fateful meeting in November, I am very very pleased with this development. At the time I had three important sources of information: An article on the Clemson pond leveler, an article from Canada about the use of “Limiters” to regulate water height in Gateau park, and an article from the HAW River Assembly in North Carolina. Think about how different the world will be for the next starry eyed woman who wants to save beavers!

Beaver Solutions: The DVD

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions October 31, 2009

Regular readers of this blog will remember our beaver friend in Massachusetts, Mike Callahan.

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.

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.

He applied and found out this summer that he was awarded a $10,000 grant for the production. He hired Pinehurst Pictures and Sound to handle the project. A videographer and good friend is shooting the footage. They’ve been filming installs with the fall colors as a backdrop. As the water gets colder and more uninviting, he’s starting to think about next steps.

Target audience, segment length, teaching emphasis, marketing, outreach, spreading the word. These are things that Worth A Dam has done fairly well, so he asked for our input on the process. Beaver people (and I assume wildlife workers in general) can sometimes be so focused on the important work they do that it’s hard to think about media or outreach. Having stalked the wisest of beaver minds persistently for the past two years, I can honestly say that these wizards are not even great about talking to each other, let alone the rest of the non-believing world. Partly its because they are modest, generally private people, who don’t spend hours bragging about what they do. (You’ll note, for instance, that there are no beaver-management bloggers.) But what good is a brilliant instructional DVD if no one sees it? If a tree falls in the forest and no one chews it, does it still taste delicious? A project that could save thousands of beavers is worth selling with some great publicity, I’m thinking.

Since Mike’s a huge Patriots fan, I’ll use football lingo. Go Long!

I’m still thinking and mulling, but I gave him two basic ideas. The first is to watch for the next local public beaver issue that hits the media. These things happen all the time, especially in “help-we-can’t-use-cruel-inhumane-traps-and-we’re-surrounded-by-beavers” Massachusetts. (Not that they actually have more beavers, mind you, but they want people to THINK they do. With all that professional hand-wringing Fish and Wildlife have made some good friends in the media, but I digress). So thank the beaver-harrassers for working so hard to create sustaining contacts with the media and then use that visibility to walk heroically on the scene, volunteer to train public works or the highway workers or whoever and do 10 hours for free provided you can film it. Then you have the media relationship already started and you can use that momentum to highlight the DVD series which will be available soon and can teach any city/utilities to handle this problem!

The second thing I’d do is make a “postcard” announcing the DVD. I’d probably do this twice, once for the “this is coming” and the second for “its here”. Send the postcard to the directors of every department of public works, parks and recreation, state park, regional park, highway management, railroad division etc in your state. Seem daunting? It’s not impossible. There are 377 municipalities in Massachusetts. 5 minutes on the web can look up contact information for any one of those cities. 10 people working on this for three hours each will generate all the addresses you need (5 x 377= 31hours). Most directors will have email addresses listed so you can do the whole postcard “virtually”, generate a spreadsheet of the contacts, mail off your postcard with a single click, and it will cost you nothing but time. Honestly I’d like it sent to every director of public works in each city in the country, but we’re going to need massive worth a dam volunteers to help look up all those addresses.

I had other suggestions…like extra footage about a variety of installs, a 15 minute segment on “why bother” discussing the benefits to the habitat, a short intro or trailer produced and released on youtube to send out with his mailing, a bullet point review at the end of each section, and of course, an outtakes reel for my personal enjoyment.

I’m thinking that my suggestions were a little overwhelming, but I’m pretty sure they’d help, and I’m even more certain its worth investing time and money in. I’m betting there’s a data base somewhere of directors of public works for the state of california…or the nation. Maybe it will just arrive mysteriously in my email one day. You never know, stranger things could happen.

Oh, one final thing Mike asked if I could help with? “Do I have any footage of beavers or creek animals that he could use for the natural history section?”

hahahahahahahaha.

Me? Beaver footage? If I can find anything else on my computer its a holy miracle.