Great video from Joe Wheaton and the beaver smarties in Utah. This came out in July but I must have been buried under a pile of festival preparations and I missed it. Don’t make the same mistake! It’s worth your time.
Any ideas how we can get the governor of California to watch this every night before bed? Come on Jerry, do we really want to be behind Utah in water management skills?
Our good friend Deidre sent this to me yesterday and I was happy to see good beaver news out of the Dakotas again. I mean almost entirely good news. They still have some work to do. See for yourself.
A Pond to Call Home: How Beavers Pick the Best Dam Water
Beaver ponds are a good indicator of beaver activity as well as beaver colony density, according to recent findings. Carol Johnston, lead author of a new study published in the Journal of Wildlife Management and professor at South Dakota State University, first examined how shallow marsh helps predict declining beaver numbers in Minnesota’s Voyageurs National Park in the late 1980s. More recently, she set out with her co-author Steve Windels to see if this is still the case.
What? I’m sorry. What? Could you say that again? Beaver ponds are good indicators of beaver population? Are you kidding me? Like spider webs are a good indication of spiders? Or gopher holes are a good indication of gophers? And someone published this in a journal? Seriously?
It gets better. (Worse).
how shallow marsh helps predict declining beaver numbers
Am I reading this wrong? Shallow water predicts fewer beavers? You mean like less money in your 401K predicts a ‘decrease’ in the stock market? Or hiring fewer policemen predicts an ‘decrease’ in crime?
Are you maybe confusing cause and effect here? Should you maybe replace the word “predicts” with the word “reflects”?
“Now, it looks like pond water is more of a predictor of active beaver colonies,” Johnston said. “When beavers create dams, they impound water. It’s intuitive that beaver ponds are related to the number of beavers.”
Ohh good. Whew. It’s intuitive for some of us apparently. Not the Journal of Wildlife Management or The Wilderness Society I guess. Maybe the reporter misunderstood. Carol Johnston is a beaver believer from way back and a name we’ve talked about before. I’m guessing the whole thing is a misunderstanding and what she’s basically saying is if you want more water you need more beavers. Or something like that.
I hope.
I had to play with my toy again yesterday, although this was WAY more work that it seems because I had to splice up the audio first before I even approached the visuals. I hope you feel inclined to share it with some concrete thinkers who need very clear beaver education.
There was a exciting beaver drama yesterday. Kelly Davidson Chou of Mt. View Sanitation contacted me saying she had a tiny beaver kit at the visitor’s center looking unwell. She didn’t even know there was a family on sight (although they’ve had beavers historically and probably were the parents of our original beavers.)
She brought it to Lindsay wildlife hospital and it weighted in and just under 3.5 lbs. (Which makes it too small to be our 4th kit who disappeared, although there was a brief moment of crazy hope.) We’re trying to locate his family at the moment, but I thought you’d want to see his adorable tiny self, that fit so easily into a 5 gallon bucket. The photos are from Kelly, who I’m SO JEALOUS OF at the moment that she got to retrieve and transport this little heart-breaker. We’ll keep you updated when we learn more.
