Day 1 of the flyway festival was amazing in almost every way, with fantastic connections between beavers, birds, salmon, and natural history. If you can’t remember what birds and beavers have in common look here. Details of the day will follow, but I thought I’d get you in the mood with some adorable footage of mom and dad trying to keep the young’ins in the lodge.
I started the day off with a note from Leonard Houston of the State of the Beaver Conference. He said the event was an incredible success, and thought that it seemed a good idea to announce our next beaver festival to everyone in the room! Which he did.
Meet Martin Salter, member of Parliament for the labor party in England. He’s the angling (fishing) spokesman who made headlines this week by saying that the very idea of reintroducing beavers to England is “ludicrous!” Like his spiritual brothers in Scotland he is holding onto the mistaken idea that beavers dams block fish passage.His point: If Natural England is going to force the Hydro-eletric companies to remove their dams to let the fish pass, it is unthinkable that they should reintroduce beavers.
“The current situation is ludicrous,” Salter told a Commons debate on fisheries. “On the one hand, we are seeking to ensure that migratory fish can run the rivers and reach the spawning grounds. On the other, Natural England talks of reintroducing the beaver, which by creating dams will ensure that all our legislative efforts on fish passes become absolutely worthless.” He added: “If we really have to introduce endangered species, why do we not take the DNA of tyrannosaurus rex or the wolf and bring them back to Britain? There must come a point at which reality impinges on what Natural England seeks to do.”
Ahh sagely put. Fortunately I have heard the group “Citizen Advocacy for New Tyranosaurus” (CAN’T) has had internal staffing problems and lost their grant for 2010. I don’t think we should talk about the wolf while you are obviously in this fragile state.
Maybe we could talk fish instead for a moment. You like fish, right? Your website has a photo of you holding a very large and gloriously dead one, so you must be an outdoorsman. Wikipedia tells me that while you are opposed to hunting with dogs, you have been a very strong advocate for keeping fishing regulation under environmental juristiction. I actually agree with that. Tracking what people take out of the water is a great way to monitor what is going in the water. I assume you want healthy streams, healthy populations of juvenile salmonids, and a high BMI content to the water so that all those fish will have lots to feed on.
Guess what’s really good at that? It’s kind of ironic really. Are you sitting down? Beavers! Beaver dams trap silt and organic material, which gets eaten by microbugs we can’t see, which get eaten in turns by bigger bugs…here, let her do it instead….
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Alright. Are you with me so far? Beaver dams trap mud that bring insects that get eaten by little fish that get eaten by bigger fish. The kind you like to angle for. Wait, don’t beaver dams block passage? Well lets think about that. We used to have millions and millions more beavers. Gosh. There must have been terrible salmon shortages in early England because of all that blocking. What’s that? Salmon and trout were once enormously plentiful? Fisherman used to make their living on that dirty old Thames? Hmmm.
Maybe science can help solve this mystery. Meet Michael Pollock, researcher for North West Fisheries which is part of NOAA. He has been researching the effect of beaver dams on salmon and other fish. It turns out that they are actually essental in providing ponds for young salmon to live before their ready to go to the sea. In fact, if there are no or nearly no beaver dams, you get almost no Salmon, and no salmon season, like California and Oregon had this year.
Don’t believe me? Michael will be presenting his research at the 44th Annual Salmon Restoration Conference in Redding, CA in February. You could come if you liked. I would be happy to introduce you to some smart water advocates.
Look, Martin. I know you are afraid of these flat-tailed furry dinosaurs, but the truth is, the more you learn about beavers, the more you find out they take care of the water which in turn takes care of the things you like to catch in the water. This is why Natural England wants to re-introduce them. Not just because you used to have them and now you don’t, but because having them takes care of your watershed and the myriad of creatures who depend on it. Come away from the Dark Side. We can help.
And anyway, I’m pretty sure the Tyrannosaurus Rex was never considered a Keystone species. You can write Mr. Salter here.
Yesterday’s chronicle had an alarming article about our unfortunate salmon whose dwindling numbers got the year off from fishing on the California Coast. Turns out that even though the governor took the fishermen away, mother nature took away their water too, so while we’re waiting for their numbers to recover their wondering where the streams went.
California’s drought has increased wildfires, caused an economic crisis in the state’s agriculture industry and a shrinking water supply. But experts say three years of arid weather may also be the final blow for coho, already reeling from pollution and population growth.
Federal fisheries regulators say the disappearance of coho salmon in Marin County is not an isolated incident, and that studies find they are vanishing along the state’s central and northern coast. Coho live in coastal streams where they mature before moving to the ocean, and then back to freshwater to reproduce.
“There are definitely alarmingly low numbers of adult returns and spawning decreases,” National Marine Fisheries Service fishery biologist Jeffrey Jahn said. “And the fish that are produced by the few coho who do make it back have to deal with these drought conditions, which is affecting the status of the species.”
I don’t mean to sound like a broken record or anything, but hey you know what’s good at trapping water to control for drought conditions? Um, beaver dams! And guess what gives fantastic habitat for juvenile salmon to winter? Um, beaver dams! And guess what NOAA says is the number one factor that determines whether you have enough salmon in your creek? Um, beaver dams!
And guess how many times beavers are mentioned in this article? (I’ll give you a hint: its a round number).
Mind you this is an AP writer, so maybe our local reporters would be more educated. I promptly wrote the biologist Chris Pincetich who works with the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) (now that’s a smart name…I can respect that name!) I suggested maybe he check out Pollock’s research on beavers and salmon and consider using our high-profile vegetarians to help salmon around the state.
Oh, look what’s in the paper at Bakersfield.com! More stories about the River walk beavers terrorizing trees and earning extermination.
The trees or the beaver? The beaver or the trees? It’s a question to bedevil even the most ardent of nature lovers and one being debated yet again after a weekend bender by the infamous bike path beaver made toothpicks of a pair of good-size cottonwoods at the Park at River Walk.
What a confounding riddle for environmentalists everywhere! Clearly there is no possible way to take care of both the beavers AND the trees. The article goes on to describe the never-before-faced insurmountable conflict where the city is forced to spend hard earned dollars removing tree stumps after the ruthless rodent attacks. It poignantly illustrates city staff’s good hearted plight in their noble effort to wrap trees with this telling photograph.
The mind reels. The jaw drops…The fingers type:
Monogamous Herbivore threatens to Improve Habitat!
If Bakersfield doesn’t act now, its quiet River walk runs the risk of having recklessly improved water quality[1], increased wildlife[2], greater bird density[3], and returning salmon[4]. Important drought conditions may be mitigated[5]. Obviously something has to be done to prevent this neglected little stretch of scrubby trees from becoming an actual habitat.
Fortunately the department of public works knows just how to uselessly apply non-solutions that assure the appearance of unstoppable damage and will ultimately mean the beavers merit a final solution. Bravely ignoring countless prescriptions to wire wrap trees for protection or paint the trunks with a sandy coating, dedicated staff were clever enough not only to use orange construction plastic, but to garner media attention for doing so! “We tried saving the beavers humanely by wrapping the trees in cellophane and hello kitty dolls, but it just didn’t work!”
Diane Hoover, the director of public works, notes that it can cost up to 500 dollars to remove the stump and replace the trees. Clearly she is well aware that if these stumps of Populus fremontiiwere left in the ground they would continue to prevent erosion and coppice to sprout future growth. This new growth would run the risk of producing dense bushy cover that would be a haven for ghettos of nesting migratory birds. Much better to chop out every remaining stick!
Thank goodness there are heroes like Eric Covington of the USDA to come to the rescue and protect Bakersfield from these furry eco-terrorists. This large governmental body is every bit as committed to the environment as Chevron or Walmart, and more importantly understands the important role that beavers play in employing trappers.
Yes, Bakersfield seems to have all the tools necessary for not at all solving this problem. If, however, there is a single person in the entire city that would like to consider actual humane alternatives that work, they can contact Worth A Dam at www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress, and we can easily show them how its done.
Heidi Perryman, Ph.D.
President & Founder
Worth A Dam
[1] Brenneman, K. (2007) The effect of beaver dam removal on total phosphorous concentration of Taylor Creek and wetland South Lake Tahoe.
[2] Dietland, M. (2005) Beavers: Natural History of a Wetlands Engineer.
[3] Wildlife Conservation Society (2008) Beavers: Dam good for Songbirds
[4] Pollack, M. (2009) NOAA Relation between Beavers and Salmon
[5] University of Alberta (2008) Busy Beavers can Ease drought.
Chipper, an 8-year-old American beaver, has a history of dental issues. His teeth have been closely watched since 2007. National Zoo veterinarian Carlos Sanchez and veterinary dentist and zoo consultant Barron Hall recently determined that three of Chipper’s teeth should be extracted.
Three teeth? Hopefully not three from the front. Beavers do have 20 normally, the famous orange ones in the front used to gnaw down trees, and some little molar-like munchers in the back used to chew up leaves. Still, I feel sorry for any creature at the dentist. This picture is heartbreaking.
