Tag: Beavers

The Squeaky Wheel…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere July 16, 2010

So yesterday’s post about the uppity dogpark beavers in Alberta prompted me to write a couple letters to the media and powers that be. I actually got a response back from a local paper, which seemed like a good sign that protest to the decision to kill the beavers was brewing. They even visited our website and snagged a photo or two. Lo and behold, look at the lovely headline this morning!

Pet owners defend killer beavers

People in Red Deer, Alta., want the city to move, rather than kill, beavers that have attacked at least six dogs in an off-leash park.Media attention has led to offers from private property owners to allow the beavers to live on their land, Poth told CBC News on Thursday. Parks staff are exploring those options, but killing the beavers has not been ruled out as a worst-case scenario.

Ahhh now that’s worthy of a big beaver grin! Not to mention the delightful footage of the muskrat pretending to be a beaver for some lazy cameramen who think beavers are the size of puppies. Go CBC! (Maybe its a baby beaver?) (By itself! In broad daylight?)

On Thursday, two landowners offered space on their properties for the beavers, after reports of beaver attacking dogs at the off-leash dog park last week. “What we’re really working on right now is ensuring that the sites where we’d be relocating the beavers to are appropriate for the long-term health of the beaver and its family,” said city parks superintendent Trevor Poth.

Long term health? Your concerns shifted from ‘crushed to death’ to ‘long term health’ in an afternoon? Well I’m pretty sure that wherever you stick those beavers they’ll be better off than they would be if you killed them. But it would help to know how many you have, this ‘six to twelve’ vagueness isn’t promising. You mean your facts could be off base by 50 percent? Is that typical for your city? Just checking, but you do have actual beavers, right? Because I’m pretty sure those little swimmers on the video aren’t beavers…Come to think of it has someone actually seen a dog getting bitten by a beaver? I mean you know for a fact that we’re not talking about a coyote attack or some feral dog that got left in the park years ago whose a great swimmer and attacks in the water because its where he’s stronger? Someone’s actually seen the teethmarks and noticed their flat sharp cuts? not pointy?

“We’re a little unclear whether it’s one or more. Beaver identification is pretty challenging,” Poth said.

I really, really believe that, Mr. Poth. Here’s my guess. Assuming they’ve indeed happened, the attacks have been a yearling, that is just ‘feeling his oats’. Mom and Dad know other ways to stay out of doggie paths and if they wanted your pooches dead they’d just grab on and dive down to start holding their breath. Chasing off a big dog is full of ‘flourish’ and more like a teenager than a parent. The kits are probably not out much yet, certainly when dogs are around, since your summer is later than ours, but yearlings are protective of them. So you probably have somewhere in the vicinity of 6-8 beavers. (Mom, Dad, two yearlings, two-four new kits). Make sure you get all the kits and you don’t leave some babies orphaned. Imagine how many news stories that would get?

Beyond the misleading muskrats, the worrisome part of the video is the comment that “fencing would reduce the beavers territory”. Aside from the obvious existential observation that death would also reduce vastly their territory, there doesn’t appear to be much effort to think about the differing skill sets of the different species here. A waterline fence would keep out dogs, but not beavers, who swim just as well underneath the water. Your beavers have to deal with “natural fencing” every winter when they swim under the ice and make their way out of their lodge and to their food cache. They would be just fine with a fence, thank you very much, and it could protect their young until their large enough to do it on their own.

I’m thrilled that the city has had the sense to realize that any story with 300 media reports in 2 days is not a good place to display your stubbornness or lack of compassion. But live trapping beavers isn’t a mindless guarantee of their survival. Sherri Tippie is about 1500 miles directly south of you, but she knows more about relocating beavers than anyone on the planet. At least pick up the phone and have a conversation with her. Also you might want to figure out how many you have there, first. Beaver stake-out, anyone?

“Defending your life”

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now? September 10, 2010

Obviously that was the beaver’s first mistake. It should never have protected itself or its young from the approaching dog. Now officials in Red Deer Calgary have no choice but to kill it and its entire family so that the off leash park can be left in its slathering, ruthless peace. You understand: dogs are more important than beavers, and every dog needs the liberty to chase an aquatic rodent that won’t defend itself.

City spokesman Trevor Poth says a dog was swimming in the water and chasing the beaver when the large rodent turned to defend itself. Because of the severity of the attacks, Poth says it’s necessary to trap and kill the beavers to keep park users safe.

Some weaker minded folk might feel sorry for the beaver, given that it was just protecting itself and its family, given that its summer and it has new kits to look after (well not anymore –), given that the dog was an intruder and the beaver was in its home. Ahh, but there are no second amendment rights for beavers. Like uppity slaves with pitchforks they can’t possibly be allowed to defend themselves. They’re second-class non-citizens that don’t matter. The only reason they were allowed to remain in that park in the first place is because it’s a dogpark and nobody cares about it. Now that the dog owners have been offended, their time is up. A beaver’s only option when being pursued by a dangerous attacker is to go quietly and make the sacrifice as peaceful, or as “sporty” as possible, depending on the mood of the attacker. End of story.

So some lucky trapper gets the job to take out the twelve beavers in the park, although they kindly won’t kill any newbies that replace them, at least not until they make the same egregious mistake of trying to save their own wretched lives.

That seems fair.

Assorted Goodness

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Environmental July 7, 2010

:Yesterday beaver-friend Joe Eaton published a column in the Berkeley Daily Planet that was the very best memorial article yet written about mom beaver. (And I say that as somewhat of a connoisseur.) Go read the entire, painfully comforting piece.. A small taste of what awaits you follows,

Mom, as she was generally known, was thought to be about six years old. (The longevity record for a North American beaver, according to the Animal Ageing and Longevity Database genomics.senescence.info/species, is just over 23 years.) Recognizable by a distinctive notch in the side of her tail, she had been observed in the Alhambra watershed before she paired with her mate and got down to the business of dam construction in the fall of 2006.

I first connected with Joe when he was writing an article on the Martinez Beavers for the San Francisco Estuary Partnership Newsletter. That article has always been one of my favorites as he is the only reporter who included my oft-repeated quote ‘Any city that’s smarter than a beaver can keep a beaver’. We met at the Creek Seeker’s Express last year. I am heartened by his thoughtful attention to wildlife, but even more by his knowledge base and effort to connect with experts and references. His article on the mink last year was a thing of beauty. He concluded yesterday with,

In her short but prolific span, the female beaver was an effective good-will ambassador for her species. The Martinez family, just by being beavers, did a lot to enhance consciousness of the beaver’s role as an ecosystem engineer. Public support forced city officials to back off from an initial plan for lethal control and to work out a modus vivendi with the rodents. What happens now? Will the two-year-old sibling stay on as a parent-surrogate? Will the widowed male mate again? Will one of the dispersers return? Stay tuned.

More good news? The Director of the Montana Zoo wrote me back yesterday and is excited about taking the opportunity presented by the orphan baby beavers to teach about the value of beavers in the watershed and educate the public about effective and humane beaver management. I put her in touch with Mike Callahan who offered to help in any long-distance way he could and showed her the successes we have had using art projects to educate children about beavers. I also offered my children’s beaver powerpoint and several helpful articles. Looks like Montana is going to have a little beaver-teachable moment.

And the final piece of good news? Ahh I’ve been saving the best for last. A while back I wrote about NOAA’s March draft of the 2010 “Recovery Plan for the Evolutionary Unit Of Central California Coast Coho Salmon“. The document outlines policies and procedures for helping the suffering salmon population. Guess what it doesn’t mention? At all? I’ll wait. Honestly, beavers are such an unpopular solution that saying they can help the fish population is like discovering you can cure impotence with feminism. “Really? Isn’t there another way?” The unwanted answer hardly recruits followers.

Still, the document is a ‘draft’ so they are still accepting comments, and a host of very smart minds have written back about the missing piece of the puzzle. Last night I read the comments of a certain prominent beaver-salmon researcher who can remain nameless. The whole thing was an exhaustively sourced thesis that makes my meager endorsement seem silly. I don’t have permission to quote but my favorite part is something like “Given that salmon depend on beaver ponds for two stages of their development, we will need the beaver population to recover before the salmon can.“

Swear to God.

Be still my heart. Wow! We are inching towards the promised land where salmon people and beaver people have actual conversations and listen to each other and where commenting aloud that ‘beaver dams hurt salmon populations’ is a punchline that makes everyone in the room burst out laughing. I’m waiting for the day where every time a city or property-owner decides to kill some beavers they have to pay a salmon-tax and face the consequences of their destruction of habitat.

Fingers crossed. I’ll keep you posted.

Still watchful…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Friends of Martinez Beavers June 29, 2010

UPDATE:

Mom seen on dam tonight, swimming and feeding. Went to her private nook but had taken off somewhere by 9:30. Two kits seen, and mother duck with 8 babies. Yearling in residence and keeping an eye on kits.

So mom made it into the lodge yesterday morning and seemed to be swimming okay last night. She curled up in her favorite private nook and was clearly not feeling well, but she wasn’t there this morning so we can only guess that she made it back in the lodge again. There was fresh mud along the length of the dam and clearly the rest of the family spent the night hard at work. Obviously beaver response to death and dying is more advanced than our own, because I was pretty useless yesterday.

Yesterday was hard for all of our beaver supporters and friends. The idea of losing mom, (while its been around since her original eye condition was seen during the sheetpile installation), is especially hard. We thought the fact that she had just produced three healthy kits was a sign that she might be getting better, but it was more likely her last gift to the colony and to Martinez. Seeing her curl up weakly and struggle to eat is heartbreaking for the people who care for her, but caring doesn’t always mean it’s easy to decide what should be done.

Just as with humans, end of life decisions with beavers are very complex. Do we attempt to capture mom and bring her to Lindsay Wildlife for possible treatment or painless euthanization? Or do we let mom stay in her familiar pond with the family she knows and “die at home” so to speak. Beaver Hospice. Very good people can have very different ideas and the emotions of the impending loss make it a loaded discussion. What is clear is that mom has a lot of people whose hearts have been changed by her. We agree that we shouldn’t make a decision based on what feels best or easiest to the humans involved.This is clearly not about us.

It’s hard work letting go of a parent.

Mom 2006: Robert Rust

Still, it was lovely to see the kits and family acting so normal last night, swimming and diving and feeding. Almost as if the world and their family wasn’t changing forever or dying was as natural as getting born. Hmm. Sharon Brown of Beavers Wetlands & Wildlife confirms that our kits are old enough to manage on their own, especially with dad and a yearling to look out for them. We’re grateful for that and we’ll keep you posted.

Blame the Beavers: Part Infinitum

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? September 10, 2010

Poland has had massive flooding, rains, levee failure and deaths. The minister of the interior knows JUST who to blame.

Is the beaver “the greatest enemy of the flood defences”? According to Jerzy Miller, Polish minister of the interior, there is no doubt. “They live everywhere along the levees on the Wisła River and cause a lot of damage to them,” the Daily Telegraphcited. Since torrential rain caused rivers to swell beyond emergency levels in southern Poland almost two weeks ago, the surge has spread further to the regions of Wrocław and Warsaw.

Ahhh the beaver-levee conundrum! What could be more alarming than collapsed water walls because of beaver burrowing! We’re terrified of it in the Delta, so much so that in some parts of the state there is an official movement to replace the word “boo” with the word “beaver”.

By gnawing through dykes, digging tunnels in dams and thus sapping protective barriers from the inside, beavers caused further flooding. So far, the flood claimed 16 victims and around 4,000 people had to be evacuated. Overall, about 20,000 people were affected by the deluge.

Beavers gnawing through dykes? Seriously? Okay, middleschool sniggers aside, aren’t dykes made out of dirt? Are you really saying the beavers chew dirt? I’ll grant you beavers are excellent diggers, so maybe that’s what you mean. You should probably read the paper at the written by biologist Skip Lisle about the limited extent to which beavers tunnel. They aren’t coal miners. You know of course that most damage to dams is done by muskrats, right? Which far outnumber the beaver population in your country? And that muskrats are faster breeders and especially like to tunnel along levees?

Never mind. I’m sure you’ve thought this through.

During the course of the catastrophe, local governments increased the hunting quota on the apparently unconcerned beaver to mitigate the problem. Hitherto protected by the state, the Castor fiber (European beaver) seems to have lost its environmental immunity in Polish inshore waters.

Well there you have it. No reason to fix a problem by better planning or environmental management. Just kill some beavers that you’ve been protecting for a hundred years. Great solution! And nice blame shifting. I see a promotion in your future.

Yet, blaming and preying on the beaver appears, once again, to be a way of dealing with the unforeseen consequences of human actions. It is not the first time that Poland experienced such a devastating flood. In 1997, when the country was hit by the most severe deluge in recent history, 54 people died, more than 150,000 people were evacuated and the overall damages accounted for billions of euros. The question remains, what measures have been taken to prevent and deal with such emergencies?

Seven Maids Update:

Well it looks like the top kill isn’t working, although BP will tell us more when they’re good and ready thank you very much. In the mean time you should definitely read the article in today’s New York Times about what’s being found below the surface.