:Yesterday beaver-friend Joe Eaton published a column in the Berkeley Daily Planet that was the very best memorial article yet written about mom beaver. (And I say that as somewhat of a connoisseur.) Go read the entire, painfully comforting piece.. A small taste of what awaits you follows,
Mom, as she was generally known, was thought to be about six years old. (The longevity record for a North American beaver, according to the Animal Ageing and Longevity Database genomics.senescence.info/species, is just over 23 years.) Recognizable by a distinctive notch in the side of her tail, she had been observed in the Alhambra watershed before she paired with her mate and got down to the business of dam construction in the fall of 2006.
I first connected with Joe when he was writing an article on the Martinez Beavers for the San Francisco Estuary Partnership Newsletter. That article has always been one of my favorites as he is the only reporter who included my oft-repeated quote ‘Any city that’s smarter than a beaver can keep a beaver’. We met at the Creek Seeker’s Express last year. I am heartened by his thoughtful attention to wildlife, but even more by his knowledge base and effort to connect with experts and references. His article on the mink last year was a thing of beauty. He concluded yesterday with,
In her short but prolific span, the female beaver was an effective good-will ambassador for her species. The Martinez family, just by being beavers, did a lot to enhance consciousness of the beaver’s role as an ecosystem engineer. Public support forced city officials to back off from an initial plan for lethal control and to work out a modus vivendi with the rodents. What happens now? Will the two-year-old sibling stay on as a parent-surrogate? Will the widowed male mate again? Will one of the dispersers return? Stay tuned.
More good news? The Director of the Montana Zoo wrote me back yesterday and is excited about taking the opportunity presented by the orphan baby beavers to teach about the value of beavers in the watershed and educate the public about effective and humane beaver management. I put her in touch with Mike Callahan who offered to help in any long-distance way he could and showed her the successes we have had using art projects to educate children about beavers. I also offered my children’s beaver powerpoint and several helpful articles. Looks like Montana is going to have a little beaver-teachable moment.
And the final piece of good news? Ahh I’ve been saving the best for last. A while back I wrote about NOAA’s March draft of the 2010 “Recovery Plan for the Evolutionary Unit Of Central California Coast Coho Salmon“. The document outlines policies and procedures for helping the suffering salmon population. Guess what it doesn’t mention? At all? I’ll wait. Honestly, beavers are such an unpopular solution that saying they can help the fish population is like discovering you can cure impotence with feminism. “Really? Isn’t there another way?” The unwanted answer hardly recruits followers.
Still, the document is a ‘draft’ so they are still accepting comments, and a host of very smart minds have written back about the missing piece of the puzzle. Last night I read the comments of a certain prominent beaver-salmon researcher who can remain nameless. The whole thing was an exhaustively sourced thesis that makes my meager endorsement seem silly. I don’t have permission to quote but my favorite part is something like “Given that salmon depend on beaver ponds for two stages of their development, we will need the beaver population to recover before the salmon can.“
Swear to God.
Be still my heart. Wow! We are inching towards the promised land where salmon people and beaver people have actual conversations and listen to each other and where commenting aloud that ‘beaver dams hurt salmon populations’ is a punchline that makes everyone in the room burst out laughing. I’m waiting for the day where every time a city or property-owner decides to kill some beavers they have to pay a salmon-tax and face the consequences of their destruction of habitat.
Fingers crossed. I’ll keep you posted.
