Evan Stoll – Worth A Dam

I thought today I would catch up on the back stories that trickled in as a response to this week’s news. Maybe Friday should always be a behind the scenes look at what happened after the post aired, but it’s definitely necessary today. We’ll start at the end and work our way backwards, okay?

Regarding the volunteer-built beaver deceiver in yesterday’s post, I heard first from Jake that he does not know Mr. Stoll but he has passed on a lot of his information and materials to neighboring public works crews. Then I wrote the North Kitsap trails Association and they forwarded my letter to Evan. He very gratefully wrote me back and said that he had been looking all over for beaver information and had to figure out how to build a beaver deceiver on his own! And he would pass our information along to his friend who was thinking about installing a Clemson Pond Leveler!

_______________________________________________________________

The day before that post, you will remember I talked about meeting the couple from Barcelona at the beaver dam and wrote about the complicated history of beavers in Spain. I sent that post to Duncan Halley since I had linked to his dispersal research and he wrote back that he was very involved with the beavers in Spain and had been following them closely.

I’ve been involved with the beavers on the Ebro watershed in Spain now and then since 2005. I was sent photos by ecologists working on European mink at that time, asking if these were beaver signs. The photos showed a group poplars clearly felled by beavers. I visited the area (the confluence of the Aragon and Ebro) later that year, and concluded that beavers were well established and that the river system was mainly fringed by good to first rate habitat throughout. The natural carrying capacity would be measured in thousands.

He went on to explain that the introduction had NOT been through the proper channels even though Spain was generally good about that process and had reintroduced BEAR for goodness sake. As a result they were officially illegal and they were trapping beavers. He thought it really wouldn’t get rid of the population which had such a good start. He also said people’s concerns with the ‘subspecies’ issue was very unimportant and that it wouldn’t make a functional difference whether you had a beaver from Bavaria or Norway.

_________________________________________________

Since our promotion of the Beaver Whisperers documentary there have been 132 plays of the clip and a ton of forwards and shares. And if you personally haven’t watched the clip yet, what on EARTH are you waiting for? Our friends with family members in Canada are already setting up their DVDs to record when it airs in 20 days. Fingers crossed.

_________________________________________________________

Now my post monday which asked folks to recommend beaver for a Surrogate Species produced some amazing responses. I received many copies of comments submitted, from locations ranging from Maine to Michigan to Oregon and everywhere in between. I will wait to gather more and then put some together in a post as we get closer to the deadline. If you haven’t submitted your comments yet there’s still time, they still matter, and you can send a copy to me too if you like. Folks tell me the form itself is confusing, but you can send your remarks directly here.

____________________________________________________

Good news from our beaver friends in American Canyon, who recently met with Fish and Wildlife and got the go-ahead to install a flow device of their very own. Thanks to everyone from Worth A Dam who helped out, including Jon, Cheryl and Igor who assessed the site. Mike Callahan who reviewed the plan from afar and donated the DVD we gave to them. And watershed contacts that helped us find good people to approach in the rank and file. Yeah, team beaver!

__________________________________________________________

And finally, a follow-up for my personal post February 25th.This happens to have been written by another Perryman. My mother.

Back when I was at a brain-storm session at the State of the Beaver conference (well, a brain-storm session with beer) folks were chatting about how good Washington was at handling beavers, Snohomish County in particular. A man I didn’t recognize said it was because of “that guy who used to be a great installer at public works” . He snapped his fingers but couldn’t remember his name. The table of 30 couldn’t think of it either, but I of course knew.

“Jake Jacobsen?” I asked helpfully and everyone was relieved to finally remember.

Michael Pollock, who was at the center of the table and the dominate brain storming at the minute, turned my way appreciatively saying with surprise “Heidiiiiiiiii!” in a long tone that seemed to mean “It always surprises me what she remembers”…which felt like a compliment at the time but truthfully none was needed because I could never forget Jake’s name. He was one of three voices that I wrote practically every week during our beaver crisis. At the time he was the Watershed Steward for Snohomish County, then Stillaquamish County, and he frequently installed flow devices.

I talked to him about our dam, about beaver digging, about population worries, about city council meetings, about how to get along with public works. I remember reading his answers over and over again and trying to memorize his advice. I wondered at the legislation that had made the position of “Watershed Steward” a reality and assigned someone to watch over every stream in the state.

Jake retired a couple years ago, but he still agreed to be listed on our consultants page. This year at the conference I met one of the two men who were assigned to replace him, and we had a very friendly lunch with Mike Callahan on the day of our presentations. Suffice to say Jake’s work will definitely be carried on.

Which means it came as a surprise to read this article:

‘Deceiver’ is a safe way to prevent beaver dams | Port Gamble Gazette

It’s called the Beaver Deceiver, and it has nothing to do with any trick plays that Oregon might run against Oregon State during football season. Instead, it’s an in-water flow device made of wire and wood that prevents beavers from building dams that block culverts and potentially damage property.

Kitsap County’s newest Beaver Deceiver was installed recently in the Grovers Creek watershed in north Kitsap County after some industrious resident beavers continually blocked a culvert and created a nearly two-acre pond that threatened to wash out trails and a logging road that is heavily used by hikers, bikers and by Olympic Property Group.

Now there used to be money for Jake to do this work, but it looks like that dried up or wisdom was slow getting to Kitsap County three doors away. Kitsappians made every effort to be stupid first before volunteers set them straight.

The situation was expensive as well as destructive and dangerous. The cost to replace the original culvert with the larger pipe was $10,500. Additionally, the new culvert had to be unplugged three times at a cost of $500.

OPG contracted with Absolute Nuisance Wildlife to trap and relocate the persistent critters, but to no avail. The state’s Department of Fish & Wildlife has restricted the release of beavers in alternate sites at this time due to high beaver populations in the state. So relocation of the beavers wasn’t an option.

Enter the Beaver Deceiver. After crews removed a 10-foot plug from the culvert, a group of community volunteers led by Evan Stoll quickly stepped in to install the Beaver Deceiver. The trapezoid-shaped fence structure prevents the beavers from building a dam directly in the culvert.

Evan! Nice work! I went trolling for background and came across this Evan Stoll who is a board member of the North Kitsap Trails Association. Call me crazy, but this sounds like a man who would know how to help install a beaver deceiver, and maybe was a friend of Jake’s along the way. I’ll see if I can send word.