Let’s start the weekend off right with a fantastic letter to the editor from Moscow. Idaho that is! Where I know there happens to be some fine support for beavers and a recent effort to bring Ben Goldfarb out for a discussion of his book.
Looks like his reputation and information precedes him.
An important rodent
In spite of all the snow this past winter, dry conditions and little moisture are predicted for spring and summer in the Pacific Northwest. One way to slow runoff and conserve water is to reintroduce beaver, North America’s largest rodent. Beaver dams, comprised of willows, brush, mud and gravel, are so closely interwoven that little water escapes from the upstream pond. Weight of the water is sometimes pressed deep in the ground, recharging aquifers for use by farms and homes downstream. More water is often channeled to the water table below the surface than above it.
Isn’t that an amazing start to a letter to the editor? I mean no “stop sign needed on geary street” or “too many potholes” for Moscow. Just straight in for one of the BEST beaver letters ever written. Shhh, there’s more.
1. Beaver are identified as a keystone species, an animal on which other species largely depend, such that if it were removed the ecosystem would drastically change. Beaver shape the landscape, create wetlands and alter the physical, chemical and biological condition of running water. This rodent enables the existence of many other species to include aquatic plants and invertebrates, amphibians and wetland-dependent birds and mammals. Remove this keystone and the ecosystem collapses.
Wow, what a paragraph. Something tells me the author has a book of his own that needs writing. Idaho isn’t exactly the ecological capital of the world either, so it means something to read these words coming from one of its citizens.
Beaver also provide habitat for fish. In a study of beaver ponds in southwest Colorado, large numbers of small brook trout occurred in ponds having a stream inlet where gravel beds enabled the fish to successfully spawn and reproduce. In time, overpopulation of these fish reduced available food items so the individual trout grew poorly. In a few older, seepage ponds, abandoned by the beaver, gravel beds became silted over. Unable to spawn under these conditions, ample food existed for a few larger fish. Based on this research, the Colorado Game and Fish Department set a liberal bag limit of 50 brook trout for headwater stream beaver ponds containing this species.
The beaver deserves respect for its role in slowing runoff and conserving water, creating habitat for a multitude of other species and providing a site used by recreational fishermen.
Fred W. Rabe
Great letter Fred! Enos Mills himself would be impressed by this letter! The author Fred W Rabe is such a succinct advocate I had to look him up. Turns out he’s a retired biology professor from the University of Idaho, and after retiring wrote a few books of his own.
Retired UI prof still teaching through photos, books
While Fred Rabe has been retired for more than a decade, his work ethic as a University of Idaho professor in ecology, invertebrate zoology and biology has remained.
“After I retired I thought I was sort of bored, and I had done my Ph.D. work on high mountain lakes, so I thought why not just start off in northern Idaho and go all the way to New Mexico and do some work on the ecology of high lakes,” Rabe said.
So Fred went from teaching biology to preaching beaver benefits. Makes perfect sense to me. He’s a natural naturalist and destined to become a friend of ours. I’m sure Ben Goldfarb will want to meet you and share a beer when he comes to Moscow. Like minds deserve companions.
I admit the headline of this letter made me snork a bit. An important rodent. It doesn’t exactly raise expectations of grandeur. That might not be Fred’s title, but I suppose the editor knows his readers.
And the beaver is, in fact, an important – no, THE most important – rodent.
Oh and guess what was spotted yesterday morning headed up the creek below the arch bridge at the Marina?
