Tag: Beavers and trout

Wisconsin gets attention

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water July 6, 2015

Looks like Wisconsin’s unique trout protection strategy is getting noticed. Yesterday I was sent this great article from the TU president who invited me to speak this year in Coloma. It’s from a beautiful outdoorsy website called “Cutter Light” in Alaska.

Wisconsin Wildlife Services Removes 100’s of Beaver Dams Each Year, Many by Explosives

This video showing a beaver dam being blasted sky high by Wisconsin Wildlife Services in the name of “improving habitat for trout” left us speechless. We’re interested to know what readers think of this strategy for managing wildlife and natural resources.

Barbra and I watched this video and listened to these comments with our jaws hanging open. Speechless. After about two minutes, the video came to an end.

“Wow,” was all we could manage to articulate at first. And then again, “Wow.”

For the past day, we’ve been researching this issue as thoroughly as we’re able to, reaching out to Trout Unlimited groups in Wisconsin (at least one of which appears to support this management strategy) and kicking our own thoughts around between each other. We haven’t reached any conclusions. But we do have a few observations.

Beaver ponds represent biologically rich, exceptionally diverse, constantly changing micro-habitats within the larger forest.The many snags (dead trees) in this pond represent feeding opportunities for woodpeckers as well as potential cavity nesting sites for many species of birds and mammals. Eventually, this pond will become silted in, the beavers will leave, and a beaver meadow will replace the pond. These meadows, free from the shade of the forest canopy and with a bed of thick, fertile soil create places where unique species of flowers and other plants thrive. Black bears are among the many animals that visit these meadows to graze on the grasses and berries that may not exist elsewhere in the forest. The meadow itself will eventually be replaced by mature hardwood forest. So it has been in North America for thousands and thousands of years, with trout, beavers, bears and berries co-evolving.

Ohhh, I think this is going to get amazing. Pull up a chair and get comfortable. I practically excerpted the whole thing. Feel free to go read it yourself. I’m sure Wisconsin is.

Beaver ponds represent dynamic, ever-changing micro-habitats that foster some of the greatest species diversity in the forests where they are found. We’re for biodiversity. As much as we enjoy trout fishing, we would never wish that our desire to catch a particular species of fish be placed above the overall health of an ecosystem.

During the life of the beaver pond, it can provide vital habitat for all kinds of animals. As trees are drowned, they become snags. (One Wisconsin DNR report stated simply and that “beaver dams kill trees” – an example of how a statement can be both completely true and completely misleading. Dead trees are part of every healthy forest.) Pileated woodpeckers and other woodpeckers utilize these snags as forage bases and nesting sites. The cavities woodpeckers create in turn become nesting sites for flying squirrels, owls, wood ducks, and host of other mammals and birds. Meanwhile, these ponds become important stop-over or seasonal habitat for a variety of waterfowl and often attract shore nesting species. Tree swallows, flycatchers and similar passerines thrive in the edge habitat created by the beavers’ activity. Again, the snags provide nesting sites, and the cleared airspace above the insect-rich pond creates excellent feeding opportunities for insect eating birds as well as for bats.

The pond itself becomes one the most biologically rich systems in the forest – perhaps the most biologically rich. Everything from burrowing mayflies to dragonflies and damselflies to a variety of aquatic beetles inhabit these waters. Amphibians such as newts, salamanders, toads and frogs inhabit these ponds as well, which provide vital nurseries for their young. Aquatic and semi-aquatic snakes take advantage of the smorgasbord, and in turn may provide a meal for a hawk. Deer, moose, turkeys and grouse are among the frequent visitors to the edge habitat found along the shores of these ponds.

Silt prevented by the dam from moving downstream eventually creates a rich bed of mud which in turn fosters the growth of aquatic vegetation. This vegetation may provide a meal for a moose or a migrating duck, a nursery for the young of certain fish species, a place for a tiger salamander to attach its eggs, or an ambush post for a predacious diving beetle. What’s best for trout is not necessarily best for the countless other species that depend on the habitat created by beaver ponds.

Moreover, because these dams cause water to pool, some of that water percolates down into subterranean aquifers. This should be an important consideration in a state that is rapidly pumping its aquifers dry.

It’s important to keep one other fact in mind. Salvalinus fontinalis, the native char most fishermen refer to as the brook trout, has been co-evolving with beavers and beaver dams for longer than humans have been on the North American continent. This sudden need to “manage” wildlife is an outcome of an ongoing series of humankind’s mismanagement of this planet.

Let’s be clear hear, this wasn’t written by ME or Michael Pollock’s mother. Barbara and Jack Donarchy are fairly well known wilderness-living writers, fishermen and photographers. Their blogs gets way more traffic than this old thing, and is followed by countless others. All of whom will now turn in shock to Wisconsin DNR and say in chorus, WTF?

Check out the full page of very supportive comments whose minds were equally blown by the practice. One of this is from John Sikora who was the chapter president that invited me to Trout Unlimited this year. I think if we listen very closely we can hear the rusted shut DNR wheels of change grinding into motion. Maybe they’ll take my advice and experiment with ONE SMALL STREAM this year and see what happens if they let the dams and beavers remain.

Fishing beaver ponds

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere August 19, 2014

Ed Engle: Beaver pond cutthroats in the high country

I arrived at the trailhead into the Buffalo Peaks Wilderness Area as early as I could because I knew it was about a three-mile hike to the beaver ponds that I wanted to fish.

Cutthroat trout themselves are always a draw. I knew most of them would be small, probably 6 inches long or less, but you never know, and besides big trout aren’t the reason I hike into the high country to fish. If I wanted to catch big fish, I’d head to a tailwater or one of Colorado’s trophy trout lakes.

Along the way, I remembered other dry fly tips for fishing beaver ponds such as, “Just leave the fly sit and let the trout find it, and if that doesn’t get their attention, give the fly a little twitch.” Or better yet, if nothing happens when you twitch the fly, try retrieving it very slowly so that it causes a rippling wake on the water’s surface.

That’s the way I caught my largest cutthroat of the day — a chunky 10-incher.at the trailhead into the Buffalo Peaks Wilderness Area as early as I could because I knew it was about a three-mile hike to the beaver ponds that I wanted to fish.

That was the first of many cutthroats.

But wait – I thought that beaver dams raised the temperatures and ruined things for trout? And that recent master’s thesis got published saying beavers destroy conditions for native fish and bring invasives? And in PEI watershed folk were ripping dams out to protect cuttthroat? How could this crazy outdoor reporter ever get things so wrong? Doesn’t he realize how much damage beavers do to fish? What does he know about fishing the high country anyway?

Ed Engle Fly Fishing

FLY FISHING PRESENTATIONS

Ed has a wide variety of fly fishing PowerPoint programs designed especially to meet the needs of your fly fishing club, organization, corporate group or fly shop. Programs range from technical fly fishing topics to more general interest themes suitable for banquets and fund raising events. See the descriptions of Ed’s programs below.

OFFBEAT TACTICS THAT CATCH TROUT
CATCHING DIFFICULT TROUT
NYMPHING FUNDAMENTALS
FLY FISHING WESTERN TAILWATERS
A WESTERN FLY FISHER’S LIFE

Oh.

Beavers and Fishermen

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Why We Care October 23, 2013

Beavers and trout

I recently watched an interesting show on CBC’s the Nature of Things about beavers and the important role they play in maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems.

Most people are familiar with beavers, and beaver dams. They are often a nuisance when they dam bridges and culverts and many anglers feel their dams also serve as a barrier to fish migration in small streams. This may be the case during low flows but usually in the fall, when fish are moving upstream to spawn, water flows are higher and most fish manage to get over or through them.

Beaver dams actually benefit the environment by stabilizing stream flows, reducing silt and providing habitat for fish and other wildlife. Beaver populations are currently high throughout Eastern Canada. This means we have a lot of beavers, and beaver dams. The small ponds created by beaver dams have always been one of my favourite areas to fish and I know many anglers who share my enjoyment of fishing them. While most do not produce large trout many of the ones I fish have good populations of pan-sized trout. Ponds created by the dams are often deep. This depth provides protection for fish as well as a refuge from warm stream temperatures. In my experience many of these ponds also tend to have good populations of aquatic insects and leeches, all great sources of food for fish.

Well looky looky looky at the good news from Canada! Jari Osborne’s documentary reaps another beaver benefit with this smart article aimed at wistful fisherman by Don Mclean for The News. The whole article sounds like a beaver ad campaign and you should definitely go read it all the way through. I can’t wait until we get the program on PBS and our own media has a little run of beaver gospel for the US. I thought the article needed a graphic so I snagged a cuttthroat photo from the internet and borrowed one of Ron Bruno’s alaska photos. Thanks guys!

If you are not familiar with beaver ponds in your area a chat with local trappers should point you in the right direction. If you haven’t fished beaver ponds give them a try next season, you won’t be disappointed.

Um, just a thought, if you want to fish an active beaver pond you might not ask a TRAPPER where one is. He’ll most likely point the way to a ghost town. Ask a beaver defender. There are more of us than you think.

Children can’t learn what adults don’t teach them.

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental October 21, 2013

Worth A Dam was the first stop yesterday in the garden wildlife display of the Nature and optics fair at Cornerstone, Sonoma. We met people who had attended my talk at Madrone Audubon, or Valley of the Moon and knew all about why beavers were good for creeks, people who had followed the story on the news, or even come to Martinez to see them, and people who were on vacation from their water-side property in Idaho, Colorado, New York and Maine that couldn’t wait to get home and try installing a flow device on their land to manage beaver activity! Let’s just say it was a good day and well spent. Cheryl, Jon, Lory and Ron were all on hand to make things run smoothly and we invited many new folks to this years beaver festival.

Apparently they could of used at the waterside at Powdermill Creek in Michigan this week. I’ll explain:

Bessemer biology class: A river runs through it

BESSEMER — Recently, biology students at the A.D. Johnston High School in Bessemer spent the morning learning about watersheds and forestry while at Powdermill Creek.

The annual event exposes students to wildlife and fisheries biology in addition to forest ecology and succession.

According to biology teacher Dave Rowe, “the partnership that has developed between the school, the U.S. Forest Service, private businesses and community members has really paid big dividends. When my students see the practical application of what we talk about in the classroom in a real world setting, they see biology from a new perspective.”

So far so good. Students going down to the creek to learn biology from the outside. US Forest service teaching how it all fits together. What’s not to like?

“Now, the area that we sample favors game species such as brook trout because of the cold, fast moving water and the ample shade and undercut banks,” he said. “Ten years ago this same area was a meadow due to the activity of beavers and the game species such as brook trout were less common and fish such as creek chubs, black nosed dace and white suckers were more common.”

Yes, another cheerful article of rangers teaching children that the fishing is better now that we got rid of all those ICKY BEAVERS. Because all brook trout really need is fast moving water. They don’t actually need rich insect communities to eat inside that water- just the water itself. And when the fast water scours all the invertibrate-sustaining sediment off the bottom of the pond and makes over cut banks they couldn’t be happier because they need the shade. Never mind that deep pools near beaver dams cool temperatures through hyporheic exchange and have very complex insect populations for fish to enjoy and fatten while they eat other fish. Its not like fishermen like to catch larger fish, right?

Well, we worked hard yesterday, but obviously we have a lot more work to do.

Too good to be true

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental September 12, 2013

No wonder no one believes us. The annals of research trying to show that beavers benefit ecosystems is just too good to be true. It’s like a new issue of Goofus and Gallant, or one of those religious stories about a good child who suffers brightly with a terrible disease because of her very strong faith. A mistrustful world is never going to believe that any single animal can do that many good things for a crippled planet. They just won’t. Here’s an example:

Do Beaver Dams Impede the Movement of Trout?

Ryan L. Lokteffab, Brett B. Roperab & Joseph M. Wheaton

Dams created by North American beavers Castor canadensis (hereafter, “beavers”) have numerous effects on stream habitat use by trout. Many of these changes to the stream are seen as positive, and many stream restoration projects seek either to reintroduce beavers or to mimic the habitat that they create. The extent to which beaver dams act as movement barriers to salmonids and whether successful dam passage differs among species are topics of frequent speculation and warrant further research. We investigated beaver dam passage by three trout species in two northern Utah streams.

So far, so good. An investigation is warranted. Let’s get to the bottom of this. Tell us the gory details. How do those rotten beaver dams ruin our streams?

Our results suggest that beaver dams are not acting as movement barriers for Bonneville Cutthroat Trout or Brook Trout but may be impeding the movements of invasive Brown Trout.

Did you get that? Not only are beaver dams NOT blocking passage of the good fish. They are also keeping out the bad ones. Who’s going to believe that, I ask you? Here’s another example.

These are the Ruby Mountains of Nevada, just outside Elko where beaver friend Brock Dolman just got back from a mountain trip and exploration. He found some fantastic beaver habitat, and a species of frog that is only doing well near beaver dams. This is the Columbia Spotted Frog that is listed as endangered everywhere else.

IMG_3370[2] — Columbia Spotted Frog – Photo Brock Dolman

Here’s a little something from Fish and Wildlife on the topic.

U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE SPECIES ASSESSMENT AND LISTING PRIORITY ASSIGNMENT FORM

Beaver Management

The reduction of beaver populations has been noted as an important feature in the reduction of suitable habitat for Columbia spotted frogs (Reaser 1997a, p. 39; NDOW 2006, p. 163; ODFW 2006, p. 288). Beaver are important in the creation of small pools with slow-moving water that function as habitat for frog reproduction and create wet meadows that provide foraging habitat and protective vegetation cover.

Honestly, it’s like beavers are the “Dudley Do-right” of the animal kingdom, another famous Canadian who was a hero of unbelievable proportions that gets everything right and makes everything better without important flaws to endear them to us. Beavers are superman without kryptonite – Rooster Cogburn without the eye patch – or in the language of modern fiction, an annoying Mary Sue character without an absent parent. They do EVERYTHING right. Of course no one can believe in them.

Except us.

There were lots of fans and believers on the bridge last night, to catch the end of summer beaver show. Three kits and JR. VERY high tide. In fact, don’t ask how high it was. Ask how LOW the dam was in comparison.

The dam was so low that both a kit and the yearling SWAM through it! Guess mom has some repairs to do this morning. Love the yearling’s little shake at the beginning.