Tag: Beavers

More Burlington Beavers

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere December 21, 2012

700 miles away from Burlington VT, the beavers of Burlington Ontario are also making headlines. Apparently they consider themselves too humane to trap, but the regulations say no relocation more than a kilometre away, so that doesn’t leave a whole lot of options.

Busy beavers in Burlington

As winter approaches, Burlington residents may see increased activity around beaver lodges near creeks and waterways within the city, according to a press release sent by the City of Burlington.

Beavers are nocturnal creatures that do not hibernate. They are most active during the fall, working to store enough food, piled outside the lodge, to sustain them throughout the winter.

Hunted to the brink of extinction in the early 1970s, the North American beaver has made a comeback and is now found all over Ontario, most commonly in forests, and are protected and regulated by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR).

Beavers have also expanded into non-forested areas, where waterways are bordered by trees or shrubs. This can bring beavers into parks or green spaces created by people. Consistent with the Ontario Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act and the recommendations of the MNR, the city accepts that beavers are part of the natural environment and as such does not engage in lethal trapping.

I’m guessing this means they engage in live trapping and then kill the beavers with a gunshot or a trip to the gas chamber because I can’t imagine relocating a beaver down the block is any body’s idea of a good investment. I know that our old friend Donna DuBreuil of the Ottawa-Carlton wildlife Centre was hopping mad when the “mile-limit” rule was passed, because it means if an animal is rescued from the freeway it has to basically be returned to the freeway.

Beaver diets include the bark of trees, water plants (pond lilies and cattail roots), shrubs, saplings, grasses, herbs, leaves and fruits. Their eating habits change with the seasons according to what food sources are plentiful at that time of year.

They favour poplar, willow, cottonwood, aspen, beech, alder, hickory, and birch trees. A family of five or six beavers may require in excess of one half hectare of dense poplar trees for its winter food supply.

In some beaver habitats, the city wraps selected trees with a wire fabric to protect them. For more information on beavers, visit the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources website.

I just had to go look for myself, and was surprised to see advice about wrapping trees, flow devices and culvert protection! I have to assume that’s a newer addition and thank our friends in Ontario and Ottawa for forcing its inclusion! Do you wanna bet there is nothing like this on the CDFG website? Well, 11 more days and it will turn into CDFW which will be the first step in the right direction!

Child’s Play

heidi08 Beavers September 18, 2012

A field trip tomorrow will trek all the way from Palo Alto in a bus full of 5 grades of students from Helios. They’ve been studying beavers and ecology, (and in particular the beaver drama in Martinez) for 3 months now and are coming to see for themselves. The instructor of the entire unit talked to me months ago, and one of the teachers attended the beaver festival in preparation, but tomorrow’s the big day. They asked for someone from city staff to meet with them to answer questions about what the city’s worries were about the beavers, but I’ve yet to hear whether there were any offers. The children will be conducting a survey at Starbucks and learning about the creek and the beavers during their visit. If anyone asks you a question, make sure to say “HI!”

Instructor John McCleoud (who created this project) sent the summary he is using to teach the kids and the parents what to expect. You’ll enjoy this. If the story sounds familiar – it should!

Dam It: The Martinez Beavers

by john mcleod

The year was 2006 when Ma and Pa beaver made their way down Alhambra creek into downtown Martinez. They were looking for a new home to raise a family and Martinez looked like a pretty good place. They saw plenty of willow and other tasty plants along the banks of the river. The more they explored their new surroundings, the better it looked. Although it was a little noisy for their liking, the urge to build became overwhelming. And so night after night, Ma and Pa beavers went to work constructing their new dam. It was a beautiful dam made from freshly chopped trees, branches, mud and stone. They were remarkable engineers, for as everyone knows, damming a river is one of the most difficult feats. Four months later, Ma gave birth to three baby kits.

Harold was the County Flood Control engineer and he was not happy. Almost 7 years ago Harold and his engineer teams had worked hard to protect the city of Martine from flooding. They had planted trees, willows and other bank holding plants to hold the river back from ripping away the dirt and heading into town. Some say it had cost the city ten million dollars for all the construction and planting. You should know that Martinez is a small city, with about 33,000 people living there, and ten million dollars was a lot of money. Harold the Engineer got really excited and agitated when the dam was 30 feet wide and six feet tall and the beaver family had chewed through almost half of the town’s newly planted trees.

Kill the beaver! Exterminate them! Get rid of those pests once and for all! The cries for solving the problem rose from many corners of the city. Frederico, who owned the Eat and Bleat Mutton Shop in downtown Martinez, got a few other business men and women to send angry letters and make many phone calls to the mayor’s office demanding that the beavers go. A flood from their dam into downtown could ruin their business. Hector had been the lead gardener and had personally overseen the planting of all those beautiful trees and shrubs and was heartbroken to see them cut down. Melissa’s home was not far downstream from the beaver dam and she started having nightmares of the dam breaking and flooding her house so she got a bunch of her neighbors riled up and they stomped right in to the Mayor’s office to demand to know what he was going to do to get rid of them stinkin’ beavers.

Well, the Mayor had to figure out something real quick. There had not been such a fuss in his town since as long as he could remember. It was the fall of 2007 and the Mayor made sure that the city council would talk about this and figure out what to do at their next meeting. The Beaver Problem was put on the agenda for the City Council meeting.

The beavers were not seen as a problem by everyone in Martinez. In fact quite a few people loved that they had chosen to move in. Many knew of the beaver as a ‘keystone species’ because their hard work slwed and expanded the water and created habitat for a host of other animals, plants, insects and water creatures.

As time went on, more and more people started to gather at the bridge above the dam at sunset to watch that hard-working family. Erica was one of the watchers and she thought that the ghost of John Muir had perhaps sent the beaver to remind everyone in Martinez about ‘wild things’. John Muir had lived the last 25 years of his life in the town and died back in 1904. He was one of the most famous early nature writers and wilderness activists this country had ever seen. Because of his writings, our country protected millions of acres of wilderness so that we would not lose such precious habitats. Some even said they thought they had seen his form walking across the dam late at night.

When Erica and the others heard that City Councilwre going to talk about the ‘beaver problem’ she started making phone calls to others she had seen at the bridg. She urged them to show up at the meeting. And show up they did.

The council meeting hall was packed. There was Melissa and her neighbors who were scared of flooding. Frederico had brought along a lot of business owners and they were going to make sure something was done to protect their livelihoods. There were all sorts of people who had shown up at the meeting and they were all waiting for the Beaver Problem to be talked about.

To make a long meeting short, people got pretty excited and agitated. Some were even yelling at each other to try to make their point. The Mayor quieted everyone down and suggested that perhaps the beaver could be caught and sent to another river, away from downtown, to make their home. That plan was called Relocation. That got Erica to jump up and down and she even yelled, “What would Muir do?”

The meeting got late and finally one of the councilwomen suggested that a Beaver Subcommittee be created to study the problem. The committee would have two council people on it, the County Flood Control engineer (who actually was pretty impressed with the engineering of those darn beavers), a property owner who was also a lawyer, a Creek expert and two of the ‘don’t you dare move the beavers’ people.

The Beaver Subcommittee brought in a man all the way from Vermont who was a beaver specialist. He told them about an innovative way to engineer the beaver dam to keep the level from getting too high. You see, when beavers hear any unusual leaks they work nonstop to keep the water from escaping their pond. So to keep the water level low and to sneak it without the beaver hearing it leaving, the Vermonter suggested putting in a long flexible wide pipe into the dam pond, snaking it over the dam wall and releasing it in the stream below the dam. This device was called a Castor Mastor. Everyone in the committee liked that and so they managed to install the device during the day when the beaver were sleeping.

The Castor Master seemed like a good compromise for the short term. The dam would not get too high, the beaver could still stay in downtown Martinez, and the beaver watchers could still watch their piece of ‘wild’. There were still problems though and the committee studied all sorts of scientific areas. They studied the way water works, which is hydrology. They made an environmental impact study to understand how the dam might affect the surrounding area. They conducted a beaver behavior study so they could know what to expect as time went on. They studied soil saturation to know what happens when land gets really wet. They studied riparian sciences that are the study of the life along the banks of rivers. When they finished with their study, the report was 108 pages long!

The beavers were unaware of all the fuss. As far as they knew, they had found a pretty good home to raise their kits (not kids). Ma beaver had birthed more young ones. They needed more food for the growing family and Pa set about making a smaller dam downstream to store food for his growing family.

In April of 2008, the Report was brought to the council meeting. It was one of the biggest reports the members had ever seen. It was impressive and 6 out of the 7 council members recommended that the city choose to support the beavers staying in Martinez. Before they voted, the Mayor stepped in and asked if they could first hear from an Expert who did not like the Castor Mastor. Some thought that she didn’t even like beavers. She said that every Castor Master she had ever seen used had failed. It was under her ‘expertise’ in nearby Elk Grove that had led to the extermination of 51 beavers. She said that because the beavers were making a secondary dam it proved that their device was not working. The Vermonter Expert contradicted her statements. He had seen many castor mastors work and argued that the beavers were just expanding their pantry by creating more pond area. It caused many a tongue to wiggle and waggle about which expert to listen to.

Many of the beaver lovers had decided to get stronger by making an organization called Worth a Dam. They were going to do whatever they could to see that the beavers had a chance to live in Martinez. They created a web site called martinezbeavers.org/wordpress and put on it all kinds of interesting stories and facts about beavers. Newspaper people and television people started to take an interest in the story. Lots of people joined Worth a Dam and by 2008 they had enough organizers to create the first annual Beaver Festival . The first festival was not huge by beaver standards, but certainly caught the eyes of some of the downtown merchants. Perhaps John Muir’s ghost was not only interested in having some of his beloved ‘wild’ return to Martinez, but to help the economy of a town that he had loved so dearly.

It was not always easy for Ma and Pa Beavers and their kits. Sometimes food was hard to come by. One night a nasty storm came with so much water rushing down the Alhambra Creek that two of their dams and the Castor Mastor were partially damaged. It took a great amount of work to make the repairs, but the beaver engineers were able to get their dam back in order.

In late spring of 2010, a sad event occurred for the Martinez Beaver family. It turns out that Ma Beaver had come across a most difficult root that she was trying to bite through. There might have been a metal piece attached to the root, for when she bit down, she broke off a tip of one of her incisors. Beaver’s teeth are designed to continue to grow and grow and grow, which is one reason they have such an instinct to chew, and chew and chew. But the broken tooth did something it was not supposed to do. It cut into the roof of her mouth. The cut got infected. Ma Beaver was having trouble fighting the infection. Pa and two of her kits could only look on as Ma got sicker and sicker. Ma died in June of 2010. Over the four years that Ma had been in Martinez she had given birth to 15 live kits.

Over time, the beavers became famous. Their pictures were being seen around the world. T-shirts were being made and sold with the new celebrities photos on them. Tourists started to show up into a town that was not known for tourism. Coffee drinkers at the local pay -lots-of –money-for-coffee-café sipped their beverages and watched the early morning (or late night) beavers as they continued to work on their dam. Even the County Flood Control engineer was seen wearing a beaver pin.

For the most part, the beavers seem to be staying in the heart and landscape of Martinez community. Still the beavers still challenge the idea fof waht a river should act like. They challenge the idea that wild should not be in a city. A local artist included an image of a beaver on a mural for the town but was forced to exclude beaver from the picture. There are still grumblings about extermination and removal, but because of the growing appreciation of the beavers, the education that has gone on in the community, and the developing tourism around the beaver, the Martinez beaver are more welcome than ever before.

It is now 2012. Many were unsure of what would happen to the family after ma Beaver’s death. In spite of all the challenges and obstacles, Pa Beaver has somehow found a new Ma beaver. And as recently as July 1st, a baby kit was seen swimming with his parents in July in downtown Martinez.

This is not the end of the story, but perhaps the beginning.

Get ready for inquisitive visitors! and wish us luck!

Wildcare visits Beavers

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Educational, Environmental June 7, 2012

Wildcare is a rehabilitation and education nonprofit located in San Rafael. If a hawk ran into your office building in San Francisco or a shivering raccoon turned up in the parking lot in Corte Madera, odds are they’d bring it to Wildcare in Marin. Their newsletter is published every month and goes to some 10,000 addresses. So I was fairly excited when our new otter friends talked them into including beavers in their June issue. Check out the lovely photos, courtesy of Cheryl Reynolds as usual!

beaver dads – worth a dam!

by Heidi Perryman, Ph.D., President & Founder, Worth A Dam

The animal kingdom often provides us with a fairly bleak view of fatherhood – especially in mammals! Defending territory and mating rites seem to take up most of dad’s time – but when it comes to beavers we see a whole new side to paternity!

Since beavers select a single partner and mate for life, dad has much more time for hands-on childcare, parenting moments, everyday repairs and helping around the house.

Beavers and father’s day! This is an exciting inclusion on the paternal theme! I have learned amazing things about beaver fathers since I’ve been watching our family. Go read the whole thing yourself which I worked hard to finish back before festival details were all-consuming.

When mom is getting ready to give birth dad will often move into a nearby “bachelor pad” to give her space, but once the kits are on the scene, he is in close attendance. It is dad who brings tender new shoots to the nursing kits to entice them to try solid food and dad with whom they spend much of their time. He gives them beaver-back rides and practices swimming and diving to teach them how to make their way in the water.

If you’re looking to be (or find) a better father, we’d recommend spending some time with beavers!

Having an editor who asked me questions, nudged me to say more and prompted me to clarify my more oblique points made me realize that I’ve been very, very spoiled on this website – writing without supervision whatever misspelled non sequiturs I might want to employ. JoLynn (who does the newsletters) reminded me to include a natural history section (what I would call ‘beaver basics’) and I was happy to feature dad’s remarkable parenting and talk about him as a single parent. We disagreed about how much of the beaver ;controversy’ to include, but ended up with a fairly harmonious compromise. I made sure to conclude with a plug for the beaver festival.

The Martinez Beavers have earned international recognition, local, state and national media, a popular website, a community of followers and a yearly beaver festival. This year’s (celebrated August 4th) will mark the 5th anniversary of their arrival.

While the first festival sought just to apply pressure to an ambivalent city council that had not yet decided to welcome the beavers, the event has turned into a celebration of all beavers, drawing wildlife supporters from around California. The entire crew of Worth A Dam is committed to helping cities learn about inexpensive solutions to beaver problems and teaching that these remarkable aquatic engineers “really ARE Worth A Dam!”

As of 2012, three other states have adopted beaver festivals of their own, and cities from Ontario to Maine are considering future trials.

Gosh that makes us sound impressive. Go read the whole thing and while you’re there check out what else wildcare has to offer. I love the idea that Northern California readers will read the article and think about beavers in a whole new light.

A.M. photo from Cheryl of ‘Reed’ carrying mud.

Late-Breaking Update: Beavers Still Chew Trees

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions May 9, 2012

0508-beaver-1[1] — Press Photo by Betsy Simon Dickinson resident Bradley Robertson surveys a tree in Jaycee Park on Friday, where beavers are blamed for damage to some of the trees.

“I was walking along the river two weeks ago when I noticed the trees and reported it to the person at the front desk at parks and recreation,” said Dickinson resident Bradley Robertson. “They said someone else had called before and that fencing would go up, but fencing isn’t going to be enough. They need to trap the beavers and set them loose somewhere else.

Clearly one of the limiting factors of maintaining a beaver website is plot variation. There isn’t any. Beavers build dams and cities get upset. Let’s call that Example A. Beavers block culverts and cities get upset. Let’s call that Example B. Beavers Chew trees and cities get upset.

Let’s call that example ‘C‘ – for CHEW.

Residents and users of the area along Heart River near Jaycee Park are concerned that beavers may chew down all of the park’s trees if the Dickinson Parks and Recreation doesn’t step in.

“There’s not much I can do about it. They won’t let me shoot in the city limits,” he said. “And that it’s not my responsibility anyway. It’s the park board’s responsibility.”

“I’ve reported it to our staff operation manager, who will check it out and wrap with chain link, and we’ll contact the city forester to see if they will be salvageable,” he said.

Chain link? To give it that prison-yard look? I don’t suppose you’ll leave any space for the tree to grow? With their chain link tourniquets those trees should all be dead in NO time!

Maybe I should keep form letters for the three predictable solutions. I’ve been writing them all individually but why bother? They all require exactly the same advice. Get that man who wants to help but can’t “use his gun in the city” and put a paintbrush in his hand. Take some latex paint that matches the color of the bark and toss in some mason sand – (about 5 oz per quart of paint). Stir it up right before painting about three feet up the trunk on all sides. Voila! The gritty texture will discourage chewing and your trees will be safe. You’ll need to repeat it in about two years but visually it will look much less ‘penal’ than chain link.

If the trees are not salvageable, Kramer said they would be taken down but didn’t know how soon the issue would be resolved. He said it has been two or three years since a trapper was called to the area around Jaycee’s Park and the baseball field.

“The thing is we can’t chain link or wire mesh around every tree,” he said. “Obviously, one of these trees is probably past the point of being salvageable, but we have some years where we go without any issues. It’s not like it is a problem we see coming. Typically, we don’t see activity until after the damage is done.”

Sigh. Example C – corollary 1. Don’t rush to take the trees out that the beavers cut down. The roots will still prevent erosion for a good long time – and depending on the species they’ll provide energy for the tree to recover its ‘root/shoot ratio’ by stimulating a natural coppicing effect when shoots grow back. Maybe you could put a little park sign to explain it to visitors. I know you’re in North Dakota but look what your next door neighbor is teaching today in Montana:

Home / News / Montana & Regional / Montana & Regional Montana tribes hold annual honoring of Flathead River Story Discussion Video Image (3) By VINCE DEVLIN of the Missoulian | Posted: Tuesday, May 8, 2012 9:30 pm | No Comments Posted Font Size: Default font size Larger font size buy this photo TOM BAUER/Missoulian Tim Ryan explains to fifth-graders from Ronan Middle School how a fish trap was made and used at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ annual River Honoring on Tuesday. The event brings hundreds of fourth- and fifth-graders to the lower Flathead River for two days of education.

When beavers take down willow trees to construct their dams and lodges, Ryan said, what is left eventually sprouts the fairly thin shoots that are the perfect material for fish traps.

Longer shoots were used to make the cone-like enclosure, while short ones were shaved into sharp points on one end and bound to the opening at an angle. Fish could enter unscathed, but would run into the sharp points if they tried to exit.

“Every time I do one, I thank the beaver for helping make my ribs for the fish trap,” Ryan said.

Well, I’m glad we had this little chat. Just remember example C – corollary 2: beaver chewed trees create ideal nesting habitat for migratory and songbirds. You like those things, right?

That’s why Kramer looks to users of and residents around the city’s parks to be additional eyes and ears for him and his staff.

Fair enough. Can we be the brains too?

This Just in: Beaver Chew Trees!

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Environmental April 29, 2012

http://www.myrecordjournal.com/meriden/article_d454d384-8fe8-11e1-8fbf-0019bb2963f4.html — A beaver swims in a pond between Beaver Pond in Meriden and Silver Lake in Berlin Wednesday afternoon, Aporil 25, 2012. Beavers have built dams in the area and caused flooding into surrounding woodland areas. The pond has risen nearly five feet. (Christopher Zajac / Record-Journal)

Beavers fell trees, ‘raise havoc’ near Meriden’s Silver Lake

The beavers are back — with a vengeance. They’ve expanded Little Silver Lake — which is on the Meriden-Berlin line, across the train tracks from Silver Lake — to about four times its previous size, and not everybody is happy about it.

City Councilor Trevor Thorpe. “Quite honestly, (beavers) are not the cuddly, nice creatures cartoons make them out to be,” Thorpe said. “They are actually quite destructive. They’ve raised havoc down here. They have been down here for well over a year now.”

Listen to Trevor! Beavers aren’t cuddly. They’re destructive. They’re like furry organic bulldozers – well not like bulldozers because bulldozers mean development and parking lots and money for the city – and beavers don’t bring money. They’re WORSE than bulldozers. They’re like wrecking balls! Forest fires! Tornadoes!

Got that?

After a walk across a large field and down a trail scarred with ATV tracks, Thorpe pointed out the beaver den, a large hut offshore made of wood and mud. A great blue heron perched atop the hut for a few minutes before flying off in the direction of Silver Lake.

Nearby, a beaver swam in and out of the small trees where the shore used to be. It slapped its tail on the water a couple of times before retreating back to the hut.

From where the train tracks split Silver Lake and Little Silver Lake, the small side appears to have a higher water level, which Thorpe said is unusual. It is unclear if beavers are clogging the culvert or if debris is in the way.

While beavers may be causing headaches for some humans, wildlife is taking full advantage of the larger pond.

A swan sat on a nest at what used to be the edge of the swamp. Huge trees near the edge of the trail stand dying, their bases completely under water.

Gosh that sounds destructive! Swans and blue herons and beavers! I bet there’s otters and turtles and frogs too! Those rotten beavers and their wicked wetland ways! Thank goodness Trevor came on the scene just in time! No telling what kind of wildlife riffraff might have moved in!

Is it me or do you get the feeling this reporter was touring the area, struggling to keep a straight face, and all the while thinking: are you insane? Destructive? Look at everything the beavers created! This pond is a Connecticut Oasis!

It’s a nice article and given last Saturdays reminder from Massachusetts that flooded trees in beaver bonds create great blue heron rookeries, it couldn’t be better timed. I think some folks get letters.

Oh and here’s a video of the not-at- all-cuddly-villain in question in case you’re looking for them on the post office wall.

(I actually hate this video because these folks apparently found the orphan, took him for a photo shoot and then dumped him about a mile from where he got lost, but it IS remarkable footage. And the not-at-all-cuddly thing is SO cute that I apparently cannot watch more than 25 seconds without bursting into protective tears!
Good luck!