Farming Friends and Beavers

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, In the News July 19, 2016

Oh the farmer and the beaver should be friends,
Oh the farmer and the beaver should be friends,
The beaver likes to build his dams
The farmer plants his corn and yams
But that’s no reason why they can’t be friends.

You know I already did a complete rendition of this song for the salmon in 2011, but I guess the beavers have lots of friends, (and don’t it’s not my fault if dam just naturally rhymes with yam, okay?)

Pond and Slower Streams created by Beaver Serve as Nitrogen Sinks

Beavers, once valued for their fur, may soon have more appreciation in the Northeastern United States. There they are helping prevent harmful levels of nitrogen from reaching the area’s vulnerable estuaries. By creating ponds that slow down the movement of water, they aid in removing nitrogen from the water.

Arthur Gold at the University of Rhode Island, along with his colleagues, studies how the presence of beavers affects nitrogen levels in these waters. “What motivated us initially to study this process was that we were aware of the fact that beaver ponds were increasing across the Northeast,” he said. “We observed in our other studies on nitrogen movement that when a beaver pond was upstream, it would confound our results.“

Those darn confounding beavers, ruining Suzanne Fouty’s drought research and Glynnis Hood’s nine year study with their crafty, research ruining ways. Just look at our beavers in Martinez! Confounding their memorial by continuing to exist!

The researchers realized the water retention time and organic matter build up within beavers’ ponds lead to the creation of ideal conditions for nitrogen removal. They then wanted to see how effectively they can do this. The researchers tested the transformative power of the soil by taking sample cores and adding nitrogen to them. These samples, about the size of a large soda bottle, were large enough to incorporate the factors that generate chemical and biological processes that take place in the much larger pond. They were also small enough to be replicated, manageable and measured for numerous changes. Researchers then added a special type of nitrogen to the samples that allowed them to be able to tell if the nitrogen was transformed and how.

Bacteria in the organic matter and soil were able to transform nitrogen, specifically as nitrate, into nitrogen gas, removing it from the system. Thanks to the conditions brought about by the beaver ponds, this process can remove approximately 5-45% of the nitrogen in the water, depending on the pond and amount of nitrogen present.

“I think what was impressive to us was that the rates were so high,” Gold explained. “They were high enough and beavers are becoming common enough, so that when we started to scale up we realized that the ponds can make a notable difference in the amount of nitrate that flows from our streams to our estuaries.“

Ahh those rascally beavers, fixing our nitrogen problems and saving our salmon. I’m sure farmers will be rushing to lay down their dynamite and welcome these flat-tailed eco-heroes, right? I won’t hold my breath. It takes a lot of effort on all sides to change hearts and minds about beavers – which we learned first hand in Martinez.

Speaking of which, the drama was apparently a big enough deal (even in Washington) that I’m allowed officially to say it will be recognized by our Congressman at the beaver festival with an award and visit, and some discussing of the slim possibility of adding the Martinez Beavers to the congressional record.

No really.

New Spokesman for Smokey the Bear?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and water, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? October 24, 2015

And on that fateful and long-awaited day that the weary world saw the very best beaver headline in the history of newsprint, you can probably guess whose photo it ran.

The beautiful image that accompanied the seminal article had been taken in this sleepy city in northern California, and featured one of our many yearlings grooming himself on the primary dam. It was placed on wikipedia in 2009 by our good friend and champion editor Rickipedia to better tell the beaver story.

And when the photo appeared in the widely read and internationally acclaimed Gizmodo more than 6 years later it was by-lined: Cheryl Reynolds of Worth A Dam.

We’ve already seen how beavers can save California from its seemingly endless drought. Now it looks like they can save the world from industrial farming by changing the chemistry of the water, making them natural biochemists.

Nitrogen fertilizers on farm land get washed into streams, where they fuel an algae population boom. The algae use up the oxygen in the streams, the rivers, and eventually parts of the ocean, leaving nothing for the fish and leading to large “dead zones.”

Biologists at the University of Rhode Island were studying the nitrogen content of streams and noticed something odd: whenever there were beaver ponds upstream, nitrogen levels dropped. Beaver ponds slow down river water, and they mix it with organic matter, which must have an effect on river chemistry, but scientists didn’t know exactly what was happening in that murky water.

So they made soda-bottle-sized “ponds” that let them study variations on the conditions the beavers set up in their real-life ponds. And they found a kind of reverse nitrogen fixation process was occurring — call it “denitrification.” Bacteria in the dirt and the plant debris turned nitrates into nitrogen gas. The gas bubbled up to the surface and mixed with the atmosphere once more. In some cases, the level of nitrogen in the water dropped 45%.

The effect was most pronounced in small streams, which lead to bigger rivers and eventually to the ocean. Beavers often set up their homes in these tiny streams—or they did before they were trapped or driven away. Re-introducing them might completely change downstream chemistry, make these environments more livable not just for the beavers, but for their fellow creatures, too.

Could there be a better headline? I especially appreciate the use of the phrase “more reasons”. As if we already knew there were SO MANY REASONS which (of course) we do. And I’m wild-crazy about the word only too. Only beavers can save the world – not nuclear power, solar energy or mechanical bees. But BEAVERS. Yeah!

Will nitrogen be the seismic force that shakes up the old “nuisance” ideas about beaver? It has certainly shown up many many times on my google alerts. When this story broke I was alternately hopeful and wary, prompting our librarian friend BK from Georgia to write that he thought we were closer to the beaver-tipping point than I understood, and adding,

“don’t despair that people in general will never properly respect beaver. I think we’re getting pretty close and your persistent blogging has no doubt served as a major catalyst for generating interest and continues to be inspirational!”

Which was a very nice and undeservedly gratifying thing for him to say, but I freely admit that I’m more pessimistic by nature than Bob. (I’d like to blame the fact that I live in a city like Marmeenest, but it probably goes deeper than that.) In the meantime I am going to see the glass half full and appreciate that our Martinez beavers produced what has become the [second most] recognized beaver photo in the world.

Not to mention that glorious fact that the name “Worth A Dam” appeared on Gizmodo during a day in which it received over 75,000,000 views.

Beavers and nitrogen removal

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and water, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? October 22, 2015

Some people are excited about beaver because of their role in water storage. Some because they protect frog populations. Some because of salmon/steelhead habitat, water fowl range or sediment removal. There are A LOT of reasons to get excited about beaver.

Looks like we just added another to a very long list.

Beavers take a chunk out of nitrogen in Northeast rivers

Nitrogen levels have been increasing in Northeast waters for years. The use of nitrogen fertilizers has risen and urbanization has brought in influences such as septic systems. This nitrogen is released into small streams and ponds and eventually travels to estuaries, where rivers meet the sea.

High levels of nitrogen in these areas stimulate algal blooms. As these organisms die and decompose, oxygen is consumed from bottom waters, creating low oxygen levels that can generate fish kills. While many know of these dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, they are also becoming a problem for the plentiful estuaries that comprise the coastline of the Northeast U.S.

Arthur Gold at the University of Rhode Island, along with his colleagues, studies how the presence of beavers affects nitrogen levels in these waters.

“What motivated us initially to study this process was that we were aware of the fact that beaver ponds were increasing across the Northeast,” he said. “We observed in our other studies on nitrogen movement that when a beaver pond was upstream, it would confound our results.”

Oh those darned confounding beavers! It was their sneaky tricks that ‘ruined’ Dr. Glynnis Hood’s dissertation by saving water on the driest year on record in Alberta. She had to completely change her whole paradigm. Remember that? And Dr. Suzanne Fouty’s dissertation too! They were planning one thing and found another, and look at what failures those slacker-researchers turned out to be!

(Sometimes the confusion that comes from finding what you don’t expect IS the dissertation, Julia.)

The researchers tested the transformative power of the soil by taking sample cores and adding nitrogen to them. These samples, about the size of a large soda bottle, were large enough to incorporate the factors that generate chemical and biological processes that take place in the much larger pond. They were also small enough to be replicated, manageable and measured for numerous changes. Researchers then added a special type of nitrogen to the samples that allowed them to be able to tell if the nitrogen was transformed and how.

Bacteria in the organic matter and soil were able to transform nitrogen, specifically a form called nitrate, into nitrogen gas, removing it from the system. This is denitrification. Thanks to the conditions brought about by the beaver ponds, this process can remove approximately 5-45% of the nitrogen in the water, depending on the pond and amount of nitrogen present.

Nitrogen is one of those things, like carbon for instance, which is totally necessary for life. In certain amounts it helps make everything grow – but when you have too much of it messes everything up in horrible ways. Its heavily used in fertilizers so that crops produce the maximum bang for the minimal buck. Ideally nitrogen gets removed by bacteria thru a process called denitrification. But lately the bacteria can’t keep up. Then nitrogen from farmer Joe’s fertilizer washes down stream and mixes with farmer Ted’s and on down river with everyone else’s – until it gets to the ocean causing huge dead zones near river mouths. You’ve read about this, right?

Well, it turns out the nitrogen problem might have an interesting furry solution.

The research has some interesting implications. Julia Lazar, who conducted the work as part of her doctoral dissertation and is now working as an environmental consultant, said it might change the way people think about beavers and their ponds.

“Most of these beavers are in areas with smaller streams, not big rivers,” Lazar said. “These smaller streams are usually the first to be developed, causing a decrease in beaver populations. So, it may be important to keep these areas from being developed so they can have effects on nitrogen levels downstream.”

Smaller streams like Alhambra Creek in Martinez?

Gold hopes to study the ponds over a longer period and to study abandoned ponds to see if the nitrogen retaining qualities remain after the beavers are gone.

“It’s noteworthy that the beavers have such an impact on improving nitrogen downstream,” Gold said. “We have a species whose population crashed from wide-spread trapping 150 years ago. With their return they help solve one of the major problems of the 21st century. I don’t want to minimize that. We have to remember that those ponds wouldn’t be there without the beavers.”

GO BEAVERS!

In a rational world, one that was capable of using new information to actually change behavior, farmers would LEAP at the chance to have beaver on their land and control their nitrogen runoff. Everyone would welcome these nitrogen-removing heroes and the world would be one step closer to recognizing that beavers do very important things for us and should be protected as more American than bald eagles.

Yesterday I and much of the beaver world, were really excited about this research.

But today I have come back down to earth and remembered that for nine years now I’ve been thinking THIS is the thing that will tip the scales in favor of beavers: salmon, water, frogs, nitrogen. And it never is. Whatever magic property beavers are found to have next, they will STILL be beavers and people will still see them as pests. Beaver benefits have been a cover story in Phys.org two times in the last 5 days. But it really doesn’t matter. It could be every day, or twice a day. Researchers who depend on industrial dollars will keep saying “Oh, yes they can do good things in some regions, but not here in special-circumstance-land. More research must be done.”

I don’t mean to sound hopeless. But people are VERY robust in their prejudices, whatever they are. They are sure what they believe is entirely justified, and aren’t really interested in having their beliefs challenged.

I guess sometimes, sometimes there are still surprises.