Tag: Damion Ciotti

THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE CONIBEAR

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers June 7, 2023

Well that’s it. This is the big one. What we’ve been waiting for. I think I know what film clip this calls for.

New CDFW Policy Recognizes Ecological Value of Beavers in California

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has implemented a new policy recognizing the ecological benefits of beavers while mitigating conflict over damage to land and property (depredation). CDFW’s new policy builds upon its existing beaver management policies and lays the groundwork for projects that harness beavers’ natural ability to help protect biodiversity, restore habitat and build wildfire-resilient landscapes. This includes a process that enables beaver relocation as a restoration tool and a new non-lethal option. The policy also outlines a process to mitigate beaver depredation conflict, prioritizes the use of nonlethal deterrents whenever possible and ensures that lethal removal of depredation beavers is done in a humane manner.

You got that Timmy in public works and Susie in the field office? Those beavers you are worried will flood your drain system belong to the people of California and have a job to do. You are going to need to solve that problem non lethally and show us that you tried in a reasonable way to do so before we talk about any depredation.. And that doesn’t mean writing “Hazing” on your permit application. Because that’s not reasonable.

The new policy, signed by CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham on June 5, is available on CDFW’s beaver web page. Here are a few key take-aways related to depredation permits:

- CDFW shall document all nonlethal measures taken by the landowner to prevent damage prior to requesting a depredation permit.
- CDFW shall require implementation of feasible nonlethal corrective actions by the landowner to prevent future beaver damage.
- CDFW shall determine whether a property is located within the range of listed species and add permit terms and conditions to protect native wildlife.
- CDFW shall continue to prioritize issuance of depredation permits if it determines that an imminent threat to public safety exists, such as flooding or catastrophic infrastructure damage.

“Beavers help improve habitat restoration and water quality, restore ecosystem processes and bolster wildfire resiliency,” said Director Bonham. “This new policy formally recognizes beavers as a keystone species and ecosystem engineers in California. They are truly the Swiss army knife of native species due to their ability to provide so many nature-based ecosystem services.”

Beavers, the animal that doubles as an ecosystem, are ecological and hydrological Swiss Army knives, capable, in the right circumstances, of tackling just about any landscape-scale problem you might confront. Trying to mitigate floods or improve water quality? There’s a beaver for that. Hoping to capture more water for agriculture in the face of climate change? Add a beaver. Concerned about sedimentation, salmon populations, wildfire? Take two families of beaver and check back in a year.

Ben Goldfarb

The swiss army knife of native species. Who was it that used that phrase again? Oh right, that would be a direct quote from Ben Goldfarb Penn award winner in Eager: the secret surprising lives of beavers. Ben-with-his-pen created a metaphor that changed California policy.

Not just any old metaphor could have done it, either. He didn’t say they were the hydrological silly puddy, or corkscrews or duct tape that could fix every problem. He specifically chose a metaphor that conjured up treasured boyhood memories that every single member of CDFW holds dear. (Even and especially the girls). Holding a new swiss army knife, opening a shiny red swiss army knife, even having one hidden in your pocket after returning from a camping trip connected their younger selves with everything that was possible in their world. When you have a swiss army knife to rely on you do just about anything.

Ben handed CDFW a ‘sense memory’ of potential accomplishment. And with it they accomplished something huge.

CDFW is committed to ensuring that humans and beavers can safely coexist when and where possible, and continues to prioritize communication, staff training, public education and outreach to reduce human/beaver conflict. CDFW staff will provide technical assistance to landowners to prevent future occurrence of beaver damage. In 2020, the CDFW Human-Wildlife Conflict Program created a comprehensive online Human-Wildlife Conflict Toolkit that includes accessible resources with logistically and economically feasible options to help property owners prevent damage due to beaver activity.

The other key word is NATIVE SPECIES. Which was only able to happen because of OUR historic California beaver articles. Thank you Chuck James for laying the foundation for them and Rick Lanman for making them spring to publishable life. This whole day is a reminder that the Pen is mightier than the Conibear!

On May 24, a consortium of advocates representing the Beaver Policy Working Group and the Placer Land Trust hosted a field trip for legislators and agency representatives including CDFW to Doty Ravine in Placer County to see beaver restoration at work. The field trip served to highlight the state’s Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy (Executive Order N-82-20) in action.

The California Natural Resources Agency’s YouTube page features an interview from the field trip (Video)(opens in new tab) with CDFW Beaver Restoration Program Manager Valerie Cook.

Doty restoration project would never exist without the mindblowing effort of Damion Ciotti from USFS who had the dogged and gentle persistence to make it happen in the county that was least inclined to cooperate with beavers in the entire state, And its possible that our consistent review of depredation permits pointing out that Placer was NUMBER ONE in beaver killing that got me eventually invited to the fish and game commission in Placer which was VERY ANNOYING but which Damion actually attended and spoke up afterwards planted the seeds that grew into Doty in the second place.

On May 25, CDFW hosted its first virtual informational meeting (webinar) to celebrate the formal launch of the new Beaver Restoration Program. More than 250 people including media outlets attended this webinar to learn more about this historic program. Program staff will collaborate with diverse partners to translocate beavers into watersheds where their dams can help restore hydrologic connectivity, ecological processes and natural habitat. A recording of the webinar is available on CDFW’s beaver web page under the “Beaver-assisted Restoration” tab.

Well, at the time I wasn’t overly impressed with the meeting and thought the very best part of it was the fact that Bonham’s right hand man called beavers swiss army knives. Which implied that he actually read Ben’s book and learned something in the process.

And, what do you know, it turns out I wasn’t wrong.

A TALE OF TWO RIVER RESTORATION PAPERS

heidi08 Beavers July 14, 2021

Well look what the end of June sent our way. Just in time for the debut article about Doty Ravine in in the Sacramento Bee we get a fine scientific paper published all about it. From the people who know it best.

Design Criteria for Process-Based Restoration of Fluvial Systems

Damion C Ciotti, Jared Mckee, Karen L Pope, G Mathias Kondolf, Michael M Pollock

Abstract

Process-based restoration of fluvial systems removes human constraints on nature to promote ecological recovery. By freeing natural processes, a resilient ecosystem may be restored with minimal corrective intervention. However, there is a lack of meaningful design criteria to allow designers to evaluate whether a project is likely to achieve process-based restoration objectives. We describe four design criteria to evaluate a project’s potential: the expansion of fluvial process space and connectivity lost because of human alterations, the use of intrinsic natural energy to do the work of restoration, the use of native materials that do not overstabilize project elements, and the explicit incorporation of time and adaptive management into project design to place sites on recovery trajectories as opposed to attempts to “restore” sites via a single intervention. Applications include stream and infrastructure design and low-carbon construction. An example is presented in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills.

That would be Doty Ravine in Placer county. But you knew that already didn’t you? Aside from featuring the brilliant minds of THREE helpers at the California Beaver Summit it also has some very solid advice about how to evaluate constructions and source materials. It also has some amazing artwork to explain its thesis.

Beautifully done isn’t it? The entire article is available online and you can access it here. Just in time because people after the summit were asking about the science of PBR and what the data showed. On the VERY SAME DAY a similar paper was published by Ellen Wohl and a host of friends, including Brian Cluer who is the helpful NOAA scientist who assisted in finding the right summit lineup.

River-wetland corridors form where a high degree of connectivity between the surface (rheic) and subsurface (hyporheic) components of streamflow creates an interconnected system of channels, wetlands, ponds, and lakes. River-wetland corridors occur where the valley floor is sufficiently wide to accommodate a laterally unconfined river planform that may feature morphologically complex, multi-threaded channels with vegetated bars, islands, and floodplains. River-wetland corridors can develop anywhere there is valley expansion along a drainage network, from the headwaters to estuaries or deltas, and they are found across all latitudes and within all biomes and hydroclimates. River-wetland corridors may be longitudinally continuous but are commonly interspersed with single-thread reaches in narrower portions of the valley. The development and persistence of river-wetland corridors is driven by combinations of geologic, biotic, and geomorphic processes that create a river environment that is diverse, heterogeneous, patchy, and dynamically stable, and within which patterns of flow, sediment features, and habitats shift continually. Hence, we describe these polydimensional river corridors as “kaleidoscope rivers.” Historically, river-wetland corridors were pervasive in wide, alluvial valley reaches, but their presence has been so diminished worldwide (due to a diverse range of anthropogenic activities and impacts) that the general public and even most river managers are unaware of their former pervasiveness. Here, we define river-wetland corridors as a river type; review paleoenvironmental and historical records to establish their past ubiquity; describe the geologic, biotic, and geomorphic processes responsible for their formation and persistence; and provide examples of river-wetland corridor remnants that still survive. We close by highlighting the significance of the diverse river functions supported by river-wetland corridors, the consequences of diminution and neglect of this river type, and the implications for river restoration.

You can bet both papers generously mention our friend Mr Beaver. And you can bet both will be used as fire power for some pretty high value targets. You can access Ellen’s paper here.

Lots to talk and read about. I would write more but I have a lot of catching up to do.

HERE ENDETH THE LESSON

heidi08 BDA's, Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and Fire Prevention April 20, 2021

Anyone who occasionally reads this website knows the name and shame of Placer county. It is the county in California that issued 7 times more depredation permits for beaver om 2013 even when we had a statistician look at the numbers and control for things like water acreage and population density. Well, a few years back Damion Ciotti of US Fish and Wildlife service suggested that the Placer land trust get the rancher to stop killing beavers on Doty preserve and use some BDAs to give them a kick start instead,

And look what happened.

Pop quiz for the good students. Guess which part of this picture is the least flammable?

CALIFORNIA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers March 10, 2021

Stunning new article this morning from the California Farm Bureau Federation by reporter Bob Johnson. James Haulfler of S.A.R.S.A.S. sent it my way last night and I hope you’re sitting down because it’s a doozy.

Range managers employ beavers, benefiting forage

Issue Date: March 10, 2021

By Bob Johnson

A century and a half after their ranks were decimated to make coats and hats for fashionable Europeans, beavers are making a comeback as an energetic tool for rangeland river and creek restoration.

The new appreciation of beavers comes from a shift in thinking among specialists toward believing that slowing and spreading creek water results in more diverse habitat, better drought and flood protection, a refuge during fires—and more forage production.

“We know rivers and streams are the center of the riverscape ecosystem; we’ve been too obsessed with managing them as channels,” said Joe Wheaton, Utah State University associate professor of watershed sciences.

Wheaton, a leading specialist in the low-tech approach to riparian restoration, joined the virtual California Rangeland Coalition Summit, as researchers and ranchers discussed efforts to mimic beavers in making land near creeks and rivers more diverse and productive.

Wow. In California! Thanks Joe. Wouldn’t it be amazing if people who cared about farms and ranchlands cared about beavers? And hey they stole our name. Hrmph.

“We use beaver dam analogues, which mimic and promote beaver dam restoration,” Wheaton said. “The process is wood accumulation, which makes for a healthier riverscape.”

Wheaton worked extensively with an Idaho rancher, who moved his cattle to take advantage of forage in the more marginal areas during the wet season and away from ground near Birch Creek.

The warm weather forage refuge near the creek expanded exponentially, Wheaton said, after the rancher put up a few beaver dam analogues—low-tech and low-cost, temporary structures to spread the water—and let the real beavers come in and finish the job of making the forage-producing wetland larger and more diverse.

Oh I knew it would all come down to self interest. If beavers are in California’s self interest we stand a real chance.

“Traditional stream channel movement emphasized diesel and rocks to stabilize the channel,” said Damion Ciotti, restoration biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services in Auburn. “We were not achieving our goal of increasing migratory birds and fish.”

Ciotti helped lead the Doty Ravine restoration project in Placer County, where selective grazing of invasive plants played an essential role in restoring the riparian ecosystem.

That project largely abandoned the use of heavy equipment to quickly clear the creek, in favor of the more process-oriented approach of slowing and spreading the water and letting the beavers do their work.

“The beavers are teaching us a ton about working with the stream system,” Ciotti said.

Oh and where have I seen both men’s name before? That’s right on the schedule for the California beaver summit!!!

The central lesson has been to stop thinking of the creek as a channel to move water quickly and uniformly, he said, and start thinking of it as the center of an ecosystem that spreads out to include habitat for migratory birds, fish and grazing livestock.

“We want to increase the productivity of fish and migratory birds, and the key to that is connectivity of the floodplain,” Ciotti said. “We saw an incredible increase in bird populations, and we saw salmon out there, all while grazing continued.”

When fourth-generation rancher and University of California Cooperative Extension livestock and natural resources advisor emeritus Glenn Nader took on the job of restoring the Witcher Creek Ranch property in Modoc County, he decided he would do well to rely on people with a range of expertise.

“I may think I know what I need for cows, but how does that work for other species?” Nader said. “You need a multi-discipline team.”

Wow that’s really amazing. I didn’t know any of these groups. But I saw a few of them signed up for the conference and wondered.

Part of that team came from Point Blue, a Petaluma-based group of 160 scientists who work with ranchers, farmers, fishers and other land and water managers to bring their expertise to conservation and restoration projects.

Nader was a couple decades into his project at Witcher Creek Ranch when scientists from Point Blue advised him about the role beavers could play in restoring the creek ecosystem.

“Thanks to Point Blue for coming in and enlightening us about beavers and beaver dam analogues,” Nader said.

The idea behind the dam analogues is that by putting in some simple barriers that slow the creek and spread out the water, mimicking the work of beavers, the rodents will come in and take over.

Nader built about 25 of the dam analogues at Witcher Creek, and then the beavers built another 150 of their dams.

“I think our long-term solution isn’t grandiose projects, but simple stuff,” he said.

Let the rodent do the work. That’s what Joe says. You know Joe Wheaton who went to highschool in Napa and who’s sister came to the beaver festival twice?

The simple projects begin with beaver dam analogues, placing a few pieces of wood across a creek to slow and spread the water, then waiting as beavers move in.

Wheaton’s detailed, 288-page manual on Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes is available free on the internet: lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu.

Oh be still my heart! Perfect timing. Perfect audience and perfect opportunity for beavers. I can’t wait to tell them all about it.