Tag: Flow Devices

Bad Solutions

Human-Wildlife Conflict: An Interview with Dr. Michael Hutchins

Jordan Carlton Schaul of Wildlife SOS on March 9, 2013

Michael: Simply put, a conflict may arise when the interests of humans and wildlife—real or perceived—do not coincide. Chief among these is competition between wildlife and humans for food. Taxa as diverse as elephants, gorillas, deer, waterfowl, passerine birds, such as starlings and blackbirds, rodents and insects can have devastating impacts on agricultural products and thus economies, both on the ground and in storage facilities.

An excellent example is the flooding damage to homes, municipal water systems and timber production that occurs when beaver dams impede drainage (http://icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/beavers.asp).

No mention of flow devices, no mention that sometimes we need the wildlife we’re eliminating, no mention of unintended consequences to lethal methods. Forget all that, and allow me just to say that this is National-something-Geographic and they should bloody well know how to post a link properly. Every single link in the entire article is just pasted in direct html. It even transformed my comment from a link to straight code. I suppose there’s some etiquette-based explanation for it, like it allows you to see where you’re going before you click, but it is SO annoying it’s almost impossible to read. Which honestly, considering the subject matter, may not be a bad thing.

New technologies may revolutionize our ability to manage human-wildlife conflict non-lethally, at least for some species. For example, Taser has now developed a wildlife product, which can be used as a powerful form of aversive conditioning (Lewis, L., Dawes, D., Hinz, A., and Mooney, P. 2011. Tasers for wildlife. The Wildlife Professional 5(1): 44-46). The devise has been used in Alaska on habituated bears and looks to be an extremely valuable new tool for wildlife management. In fact, large animals find the experience so distasteful that they appear to totally avoid the location of their experience and humans, in general, after only one application.

Tasers for Wildlife? That’s the nonlethal control you’re decide to mention? The mind reels. The jaw drops. The subscription waivers. You should know, that years of graduate school have forever made it impossible for me to read the words “aversive conditioning” without substituting the word “pointless sadism” and flashing on helpless Scottie dogs whining on electrocuted panels. I suppose I can understand the hypothetical theory behind it being better to tase a wayward tiger than to shoot it, but you KNOW that’s not how it will work. Tasers don’t really ever replace guns. All kinds of human activity gets responded to with tasers that would never justify getting shot by the police. If you market wildlife tasers for 5 minutes I can easily imagine ardent neighbors on the front porch tasing raccoons, or possums or cats.

Jordan: Road ecology is an emerging field, but few people are familiar with this applied scientific discipline. Can you explain what it is and discuss some of what we have learned about managing wildlife in regard to our expanding network of roads here in North America and around the globe.

Michael: Yes, road ecology is a fascinating topic and one that has important implications for wildlife conservation. The construction of a system of roads that allow us to drive from place to place or transport goods can have a number of direct and indirect effects on wildlife. For animals, roads can present significant obstacles. Depending on the type of animal and amount of vehicular traffic present, roads can be risky to cross or completely impenetrable. As barriers to movement, roads disrupt natural migration and fragment habitats. Individual animals attempting to cross roads in order to migrate, find food or mates, or return to their breeding grounds are not always successful as evidenced by the vast number of dead animals found on or near roads. One clever author has published a field guide to identifying wildlife killed on or near roads: Flattened Fauna: A Field Guide to Common Animals of Roads, Streets and Highways.

No, road ecology is not a fascinating topic and the author of flattened fauna is not ‘clever’. Honestly Dr. Michael Hutchins used to be the director of The Wildlife Society which was responsible for the beaver conference in Oregon that Igor attended in 2007. He can NOT be this stupid. Maybe it’s the author. I commented yesterday and it’s still ‘awaiting moderation’. Maybe I should post how wonderful I think this interview is instead and see if that gets moderated faster, for comparison

For the record, this is the only part of road ecology that interests me.

I’m pretty sure that elephants trampling crops and leopards eating children is not really the same as beavers flooding culverts, and putting them together in the same field makes the problem seem so insurmountable that any response is justified. What the article never mentions is unintended consequences. What happens to the rodent population when you kill all the coyotes, what happens to gazelle health when you poach all the lions, and what happens to fish when you trap all the beavers.

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offence.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.

Robert Frost

People Deceivers

heidi08 City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational May 18, 2013

I thought I’d dedicate today to the spectacularly bad attempts made around the country to ‘deceive’ beavers without actually reading any instructions or talking to an expert. Let’s be charitable and assume that at least some of these attempts are truly efforts by well-meaning folks who just don’t know any better, but I am certain that others are purposeful fails: so that DOT or DPW can throw up their hands at those awful ‘compassionistas’ and say ‘see we tried your way, but it doesn’t work. Now we have no choice but to kill them.’

: Beaver deceiver helps reduce flooding but preserves habitat:Seattle Public Utilities and the Adopt-A-Stream Foundation are putting the finishing touches on a “beaver deceiver” on Thornton Creek near Northgate.

Any discussion of faulty flow devices must of necessity include two categories: the first is simply an error in nomenclature – meaning someone installs a flow device and calls it a ‘beaver deceiver’ when its really more of a flexible leveler or castor master – these labels refer to a protected pipe that controls dam height. This is the most benign of offenses and much slack must be cut to those who wield this effort or the media who simply mislabels it or misquotes. If the device works what do we care if it is named correctly? Maybe I’ve been grading on too much of a curve for too long, but I say if it appears that there’s a batsqueak’s chance in hell that it will solve the problem, they can call it anything they want and we should classify this as a Type I error and give the installers a cookie anyway.

It’s likely the DPW intends to inspect the integrity of the “beaver deceiver” system once the water recedes and make repairs if needed. Thus they’re clearing the nightly dam installed by the beavers around the pipe. (Photo 2)

Which is not to say that the naming issue isn’t important and any beaver management expert is likely to get fairly hot under the collar if you call the wrong thing by the wrong label. (Trust me, I know.) Even now Jimmy Taylor of USDA in Oregon is fiercly working to write a paper that clarifies the different labels and puts definitions in print so that there will be some consistency in the terms. Still, a rose by any other name….Beaver beggars can’t be choosers.

Of course not all cases of mistaken identity are so benign. More egregious cases of deceit occur with Type II Errors, where we can only drop our jaws in a WTF homage. These are almost certainly deliberate attempts to fool the public, or harm the beavers, or sometimes both. Here are a few breath-taking examples of Type II Errors.

I believe there actually is a kind of Type III Error which I’ve seen more often recently. I would define it as ‘trying a little bit’. In a Type III error there seems to be some recognition of the tools for beaver management and some acknowledgment that these sometimes work, but a failure of commitment to the concept so that the tools are haphazardly employed. A perforated pipe through a dam might be a Type III error, or a short pipe with a tiny fence around it. These attempts are difficult to catagorize because it isn’t immedilately clear whether they are attempts to fool the public or the beavers or just the actions of very lazy installers. But they do deserve their own label for now. An example of this is very near by in Cordelia with a beaver colony we’ve been watching out for. And if our city staff doesn’t get out and put the filter back on Skip’s flow device soon, Martinez will become another one!

: Almost Clemson Pond Leveler in Cordelia: Cheryl Reynolds

Still learning? Here’s some basics: Flow devices noclemature.

Beaver Magic

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, New Species, Video October 17, 2010

Last night at the beaver dam was a fairly joyous occasion. All three kits and GQ in view, as well as some pretty spectacular fish-jumping. (I’ve already had a couple votes for ‘bass’) It’s been a week of highs and lows, with long nights of very little to see. But last night reassured us that all was right in beaverland.

Jack Laws came back with his mom, sketched some more and marveled at the aquatic display. I encouraged him to think about maybe doing a beaver field-sketching workshop at the festival next year. He thought the idea might be irresistible. He said he had lectured recently in a class room on the Eastern Sierras and noticed that the room was full of all things beaver. He stopped and showed the teacher the hat which we had given him when he came last and saw her face launch into such delight he generously had handed it over. Somewhere on the Eastern Sierras is a unknown teacher with a Worth A Dam hat. How cool is that?

Weirdly good things seem to be happening, and its been hard to catch up. I was thinking yesterday how truly synergistic it will be to present Mike’s award at the JMA night, surrounded by NPS Rangers including one from Yosemite. It would be awesome to help nudge these skills into the National Park Service. I can’t think of a single thing that could make a bigger difference to the well being of beavers from Yellowstone to the Smokey Mountains.

Speaking of education and life-changing events, will there be a “State of the Beaver Conference: 2011”? You bet there will. And I have some pretty exciting news about it. I’ll tell you tomorrow.

Now that’s a face!

heidi08 New Species, Recent Sightings February 12, 2010

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

This is a river otter. Don’t get it confused with a sea otter. (I was talking about beavers at an event and a woman said, “ohhh i love beavers! I love when they lay on their backs and crack shells on their tummy.” Sigh)…..This amazing photo was taken yesterday by our own esteemed Cheryl Reynolds at the primary dam. Shhh don’t tell the beavers but it is very nearly my favorite she has taken so far. Looking at that face it is impossible to confuse this animal with a beaver. The whiskers, the wide nose, the stubby head, and the entire lack of chin, mark it distinctly. Well that and the fact that this little powerhouse sat atop the flow device eating fish all morning.

He was using the flow device as a water slide yesterday, going up and down the tube, which is pretty darn sweet, and worthy of a documentary on animal adaptions. Think about it, if an otter can go through a pipe, so can a salmon. Jon says otters go through lots of pipes at the powerplant cooling station, and even play with the “echo” while they’re inside, chirping and barking to eachother to hear it sound differently.

Several beaver fans turned out to watch otter delights yesterday. For the record, they couldn’t be more different from beavers. Otters seem to me to be little furry hedonists. They live entirely for pleasure. Whatever they do they relish with abandon, and whatever they dislike they don’t do. Otters play and love and quarrel passionately, they chew loudly like a two year old eating a favorite meal, they show up at strange hours and keep their own council. Bob Arnebeck says it isn’t even reasonable to ask questions like “how many fish do otters eat a day”, because their “day” is shifting and different than ours – 26 hours one day and 22 the next.. They eat when they feel like it, and move on from an area suddenly without saying goodbye — which our little fellow will do any day now, so go see him before its too late.

Also, check out the amazing and evolving entry on Flow Devices by our wonderful wikipedia friend. This is gonna save a LOT of beavers!

“Go with the Flow Device!”

heidi08 City Reports, Creative Solutions February 9, 2010

This week our wikipedia friend launched the first ever entry on effective tools for beaver management. It talks about flow devices and culvert protection, and emphasizes that trapping is a short term solution. It still needs photos to give it that “stop killing beavers and read me” touch, but its well on its way to being a permanent resource.

Beaver Dam Pipes

Beavers diligently plug leaks in their dams, because their survival depends upon the cover provided by the water in their pond. If a beaver can detect the flow of pond water into a pipe, it will plug the pipe with mud and sticks.

To be successful, a beaver dam pipe must eliminate the sound and feel of water flowing into the pipe. Successful pipe designs (e.g. Flexible Pond Leveler™, Castor Master™, Clemson Pond Leveler) achieve this by protecting the intake end of the pipe with a cylindrical fence enclosure. A beaver swimming along the outside of the fence enclosure is unable to hear or feel the flow of water into the pipe and cannot reach it to block it.

Photo: Mike Callahan, Beaver Solutions Flow device filter ready to be lowered into water

The pond level is controlled by the height of the pipe in the dam. Since beavers depend on water for their survival, the more a beaver pond is lowered with a pipe, the more likely it is that the beavers will try to build a new dam to return the water to its previous high level. In addition, the more a beaver pond is lowered, the more valuable wetland acreage is lost. Therefore, it is important to lower a beaver pond only enough to resolve the threat to human health, safety or property.

I like being able to see the roundfence up close. Ours suffered a bit in the last rain, and Mike says its essential that whatever happens the shape of the fence isn’t changed. Once beavers are able to feel the suction to the pipe they will find a way to dam it. They are also smart enough to learn that round fencing means leaks, and will dam any round-fence in the future too! Yikes!

Culvert Protective Fences

The ‘’’Beaver Deceiver™’’’ (a trapezoidal shaped culvert fence) was invented by Skip Lisle in the 1990s while working for the Penobscot Nation in Maine. It is very effective at completely eliminating beaver damming of a culvert. It works in three ways. First, the perimeter of the trapezoidal fence is typically 40 – 50 feet long, making it difficult for a beaver to dam the entire fence. Second, as beavers try to dam the culvert, the fence forces them to dam in a direction away from the culvert, which is not their nature. Third, as they dam further out on the fence, the opening the stream is flowing into is getting wider. Therefore, the damming stimuli of the sound and feel of moving water decrease the further they dam on the fence. If the sides of the fence are at least 12 feet long the beavers will generally leave the fence alone.

To be effective however, a culvert fence must be surrounded by enough water that the beavers will need to dam the entire fence perimeter. In areas where the streambed is narrow rather than wide, the fence must be narrow so that it is surrounded by water. Being narrow loses one advantage of the trapezoidal shape, but it can still deter beavers from damming the culvert. Since beavers are excellent diggers, a fence floor is always generally needed to prevent beaver tunneling under the fence. The fence walls only need to be 24 inches above the water line, since beavers do not climb.

Photo: Mike Callahan, Beaver Solutions Trapezoidal Fence to prevent damming of culvert

When I think of how hard we all worked to find information about beaver management back before the fateful meeting in November, I am very very pleased with this development. At the time I had three important sources of information: An article on the Clemson pond leveler, an article from Canada about the use of “Limiters” to regulate water height in Gateau park, and an article from the HAW River Assembly in North Carolina. Think about how different the world will be for the next starry eyed woman who wants to save beavers!