June is beaver month, and don’t let anyone tell you any different. It’s when we would start seeing kits for the first time, it’s when the mornings and evenings provide great dawn and dusk beaver watching, and this year it will be month for the largest beaver festival ever. EVER! Not the largest in the the county, or the state, or country, or the hemisphere. But EVER.
Jon picked up a proof copy of the brochure yesterday and it was stunning, I actually love the new shape, it looks more like a program and less like a children’s keepsake. Supposedly today is the day the banners go up in the park. Fingers crossed I will post pictures of their debut tomorrow.
June is also the month that Brock and Kate from OAEC will be presenting on beavers for RCD at the Napa library. Let’s hope they mention a certain FESTIVE celebration! Of course RCD decided to advertise the event with a photo from our own Cheryl Reynolds, because let’s face it. Martinez beavers are Worth A Dam.
6 pm – Special Tour – Meet behind old Napa Firefighters’ Museum
7 pm – Lecture – Napa Library
Yearling grooming 2010: Photo by Cheryl Reynolds Worth A Dam
Come learn about the fascinating history and ecology of beavers, and how they are helping both urban and rural communities across California restore watersheds, recover endangered species, and Increase climate change resiliency. Brock Dolman and Kate Lundquist, Co-Directors of the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center WATER Institute, will share research done on the historic range of beaver in California and how you can contribute to the Bring Back the Beaver campaign.
When: 2nd Wednesdays, 7 pm; NOTE: On June 13, special beaver tour will be held starting at 6 pm behind Napa Firefighters’ Museum
I’m sure they would welcome some out-of-towners if you want to go hear. Of course they should do the tour after the lecture so folks might get to see some actual beavers! As if this wasn’t exciting enough Rusty’s photos ran a spring series in the Napa register this morning.
The Tulocay Creek beaver pond is located next to the Hawthorne Suites Hotel, 314 Soscol Ave., Napa. At the creek, you’ll find river otters, mink, muskrats and herons as well as beavers. Here are some photos of the critters taken by local photographer Rusty Cohn.
“Since Beavers are nocturnal, the heat doesn’t seem to bother them,” Cohn said. “They come out a little before sunset and are mainly in the water. During the day they are sleeping either in a bank den in the side of the creek bank under a fair amount of dirt, or inside a lodge which is made of mud and sticks mainly.”
Beaver lifts stone onto dam: Photo by Rusty Cohn
Isn’t that an amazing photo? Go to the article to see them all. Such a nice flat stone. Do you think he’s looking for a skipping rock?
Has there ever, in ALL of history, been a beaver day like August 31, 2017? There are literally 7 positive stories to cover about beavers today, each more wonderful than the last. You dream of a day like this, when you’re just starting out telling folks that beavers matter, but you never think it will happen to you! Obviously I can’t cover them all today, so I will focus on our friends, because if this website is nothing else, it’s an old boys beavers’ club. And beaver friends lives matter.
Let’s start with our good friends at the Blue Heron Nature Preserve in Atlanta Georgia. Founder Nancy Jones trekked to Martinez to visit our beavers and hear the story years ago, and even made it to the festival one year. New Executive Director Kevin Jones came out as well and brought us a beaver chew from Georgia! Nothing could make us happier than to start with this story from WABE in Atlanta. I’m told it was on the radio this morning, and a link the the audio is coming later.
When you think of the wildlife in a city, beavers may not be the first animal that comes to mind, but they’re all over the place in Atlanta. And while the big, goofy-toothed swimming rodents can be a nuisance, it appears beavers may also help our environment.
“What I see is just the potential for all kinds of biological processes to be happening,” says Sudduth. “Cleaning the water. The wetland hosts a huge diversity of bird life that you wouldn’t see otherwise.”
Amphibians and fish thrive in Emma Wetlands, too.
What Sudduth is especially interested in is water quality. She’s studying if this creek is cleaner because of the beavers. She’s not quite finished with that work yet, but it has been done in other places.
“There’s more and more research coming out about that,” says Greg Lewallen, a Ph.D. student at the University of Saskatchewan, who studies beavers. He co-wrote a handbook on using beavers in river restoration for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and recently wrote a new chapfocusing on urban beavers. [Eds. note: with a little help. Sheesh]
Lewallen says beaver dams trap pollutants, and wetland plants help clean the water. Out West, in states including Oregon, Idaho and Colorado, there have been some projects that actively try to attract beavers. That can save money on river restoration work that would otherwise require things like backhoes.
Beavers do it for free, with their teeth.
“They’re an incredible species,” says Lewallen. “We can relate to them in a lot of ways as humans in my opinion. They’re incredibly industrious and hard-working, and for a rodent species, they are extremely family-oriented.”
Lewallen says almost all major cities now have beaver populations. We don’t see them much because they’re nocturnal.
Hurray for Greg and BHNP. I am so happy to see urban beavers discussed on NPR, you can’t imagine. Kevin wrote me this morning and was really excited about the news. BHNP is a success story like no other, and I’m so proud of everything they achieved. I’m thrilled that this report included our chapter in the restoration handbook and talked to Greg too. If folks are going to see urban beavers differently success stories need to come from all around them. Congratulations Greg, Kevin and Nancy!
More great news about our beaver buddy in Napa, Rusty Cohn who’s fabulous photos appeared in an Essay on the beavers of Tulocay Creek. I’m not going to post every photo here, just a few favorites, but GO LOOK AT THE ARTICLE it’s well worth your time.
The Tulocay Creek beaver pond is located next to the Hawthorne Suites Hotel, 314 Soscol Ave., Napa. At the creek, you’ll find river otters, mink, muskrats and herons as well as beavers. Here are some photos of the critters taken by local photographer Rusty Cohn.
“Since Beavers are nocturnal, the heat doesn’t seem to bother them,” Cohn said. “They come out a little before sunset and are mainly in the water. During the day they are sleeping either in a bank den in the side of the creek bank under a fair amount of dirt, or inside a lodge which is made of mud and sticks mainly.”
P
Go look at the whole thing and I PROMISE you won’t regret it. Wonderful work Rusty, Napa beavers are so lucky to have you.
And wait, there’s more, this from the big glossy magazine of the center for biological diversity. Guess who finally got the memo that beaver help salmon?
Manmade “dam analogues” could help beavers recolonize former habitats — and help fish in the process.
In one project landowners and public-land managers have started building structures called “beaver dam analogues,” which are essentially starter kits designed help beavers recolonize rivers.
The premise is simple: Drive a row of narrow logs into a streambed and then weave the pilings together with cuttings sourced from nearby trees. The structure slows the pace of the water and traps sedimentation, allowing a small pond to form and creating favorable conditions for nearby beavers (Castor canadenis) to move in. Then the beavers can build their own homes and continue to modify streams to meet their needs.
Their use has spread. In California Brock Dolman and Kate Lundquist, co-directors of the WATER Institute at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, facilitate the effort to introduce beavers to watersheds. Because the animals provide ecosystem services, Dolman and Lundquist see them as underutilized allies in watershed recovery efforts. Their handiwork transforms the landscape, creating a mosaic of habitats. First, beaver dams modify streamflow, creating slow and fast-moving bodies of water. This leads to an increase in the types of streamside habitats available to a variety of wildlife, boosting biodiversity in the process.
Lundquist says the North American beaver is the continent’s original water manager, renowned for storing and caching water for future use. Since beaver dams are temporary and permeable, she explains, the structures allow water to flow, thereby reconnecting mountain streams with the floodplains below.
As California looks for ways to become more resilient in the face of climate change and the prospect of prolonged droughts, the construction of these dams may prove to be advantageous. They could even buy more time for stressed aquatic species such as oceangoing salmon and steelhead trout, which have been left high and dry by California’s prolonged droughts, deforestation and water-diversion projects meant to help farmers.
What remains unchanged is the beaver itself. “They are highly adaptable animals and able to persist,” Lundquist says. “What limits beaver are water and wood — period.” And that combination may be a damned good way to restore streams and solve water woes in California and other parched states.
Hurray for Brock and Kate and writer Enrique Gili[s for the wonderful article. It is great to see the benefits of beavers get discussed specifically in California. We all need to start having more serious conversations about water storage and beavers in our state, so I’m grateful for this push. It is great to have this issue noticed at the upper levels.
One thing that’s not clear in the article is that actual beaver relocation in California is still illegal. Unlike many other states who understand that value of sending in beaver to work their magic, our state still thinks of them as a pest and you aren’t allowed to relocate pests. Unless you’re on tribal lands, and then you can do anything you want. I’m happy the center for biological diversity came to the party, but wish they had clarified that one nagging detail! It’s hard to organize a campaign to change the law if the folk think the law already allows it!
Hey guess what? The Martinez beavers saved themselves and the city throws them a yearly beaver festival!
I freely admit I complain far too much. We know its true. I’d better go on vacation right now and improve my attitude. Thank god Mendocino will get me just in time. I’m not happy when we’re NOT mentioned as a ‘beaver success story’ – but ahem, this isn’t really a lot better.
One great example of this win-win approach comes from Martinez, a town that learned to embrace the beavers that moved into Alhambra Creek and threatened to flood an area of town and a major transportation hub. Citizens joined forces with the city to install a simple flow-control device that allows the water to be maintained at an acceptable level without destroying the beaver dams or removing the animals.
What might have been a liability has now been turned into an asset. The city now hosts the Martinez Beaver Festival and promotes these creatures as watchable wildlife, bringing thousands of visitors and supporting the local economy.
What a relief! I thought Worth A Dam hosted that event for the last nine years. How silly I was spending literally months planning and worrying, days with supplies in my living room, and weeks on the phone arranging things, when the city was handling all the details by itself. Whew! Maybe I’ll take a seaside vacation next August and read about it in the Press Democrat since they have made it clear Worth A Dam services aren’t required at all.
Other than these fairly irksome paragraphs its a nice article about the beaver blitz being organized by OAEC to count beaver populations in Sonoma county. I’ll share the good bits and you should think about helping out with their beaver count if you can.
Over the next several decades, conservationists began to recognize the benefits of beavers and began advocating for an end to over-trapping, even supporting efforts to reintroduce beavers to degraded stream channels. The science began trickling in to substantiate the claim that beaver dams conserve water because, as Brock Dolman explains, they “slow it, spread it and sink it.”
“It turns out that as water backs up behind small temporary dams, it flows out across the floodplain of a stream, giving it an opportunity to water riparian forests, trap sediment and slow the water so that it has time to sink into the gravel and replenish the groundwater,” said Dolman, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center WATER Institute director. And this is only the first of many benefits.
In an effort to promote beaver stewardship, Dolman and Kate Lundquist, also of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center WATER Institute, have been leading a statewide effort to promote beaver stewardship. They work with farmers, vineyard owners, municipalities and resource agencies across the state to share emerging techniques for receiving the watershed benefits that beavers provide while preventing property damage.
“Here in Sonoma County, we see Sonoma County Regional Parks as one of the beavers’ best hopes,” says Lundquist. “Most of the recent observations have been in or near county parks, with the most consistent cluster showing up between Maxwell Farms and Sonoma Valley Regional Parks.”
With that in mind, Lundquist is working with Regional Parks and the Sonoma Ecology Center to host a one day “blitz” of the county to look for beaver signs. On Oct. 8, observers will join teams throughout the county in the first ever “Beaver Blitz.” Register at inaturalist.org/projects/sonoma-county-beaver-blitz.
I’ve heard that our own Cheryl Reynolds will be joining the efforts, which is lucky for them because she is very experienced at tracking beaver sigh. It’s fun to think of what they might find. I’m not exactly sure what system they’ll use to ‘count’ beavers, since they’ll be looking for signs, dams, chews, tracks etc and that requires someones system to convert into population estimates but I wish them all the best. Good luck Brock and Kate! I hope your count generates interest and raises awareness too.
There are a couple good beaver articles this morning. The other worth mentioning comes from Wildlife Defenders in Colorado.
Beavers don’t often go exploring. Perhaps only once a lifetime, when they disperse as juveniles and search for a new home and mate, do they really explore the boundaries of their world. But one beaver family recently went on quite the adventure. That family of nine beavers was captured earlier that week in the north part of Denver. Their final destination, and their new family home, was a crystal clear mountain stream about an hour south of Denver.
Beaver are nature’s ecosystem engineers, felling trees and building dams, and changing waterways for their own benefit. But they also benefit other species in the process, including humans as well as many species that are now in jeopardy at least in part due to the historic loss of beavers. Their dams help to control the quantity and quality of water downstream, which both humans and animals use. Their ponds and flooded areas create habitat for many plants and animals, such as fish, birds, insects, and amphibians. In fact, some species only live near beaver ponds. Beavers dramatically change their environment, and those changes can last for hundreds of years, even after the beaver have moved on.
This specific beaver family’s former home, a stream on the north of Denver, is slated for re-alignment this winter. The stream engineering will destroy the beaver’s home and habitat. But officials knew it would be a shame to lose the natural engineering benefits that these beavers can provide. So, Denver’s Department of Parks and Recreation contacted Wildlife2000, a local non-profit organization focused exclusively on beaver relocation, and Defenders to live-trap and relocate the beavers to a place where they would be safe and could help create important habitat for other species.
The family will probably move a little bit upstream or down, but eventually they will find the ideal spot. They will start to build a dam, creating a deeper pool for themselves where they can build a lodge, and creating habitat for other plants and animals as well. Within a year, the area around their home will be quite different; within five years, even more changed. New plants and animals will move in and take advantage of the beavers and all their hard work. Defenders will return regularly to monitor the results and learn lessons for future beaver restoration efforts. Relocating this family was a definitive win-win, for them and for all wildlife where they are making their new home.
I love this discussion of the valuable role beavers play in creeks and streams. But, as you know, I’m never entirely comfortable with the “yeah let’s move beavers and solve all our problems” article as a solution. I remarked accordingly in a comment that they decided not to print, but you know by now what it said anyway. Solve problems with flow devices and wrap trees and let the beavers stay were they are. Because the beaver population is going to keep rebounding and we’re going to run out of remote places to move them to eventually. Better to let them reintroduce themselves and use their own naturally territorial behaviors to keep others away.
Both the city and county of Merced has a fairly lethal history with beavers. In our last review of depredation permits they were among the highest tally – even though they are listed as having 0 square miles of water. Apparently old habits die hard.
Many travelers of the bike paths that run along Merced’s creeks may not be aware of the vibrant ecosystem at their feet, but experts say it’s there.
Aaron Pulver, 54, of Merced said he mostly never thought about the critters that call Black Rascal Creek home until the day he noticed what was clearly a tree that had been gnawed at by beavers. Now, to hear him explain it, he’s got “beaver fever.”
Pulver said he’s never actually seen any beavers in the creek – the mostly nocturnal rodents steer clear of humans during the day. But, now that he’s aware of their presence, he can’t help but see the teeth marks on trees and the dams that stop water from rushing through the creek.
“I’m worried about the flooding,” he said.
Cynthia Pulver, his sister, said she’s worried about loss of trees on the bank. One larger tree, which may have been growing for a couple of decades, fell sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning. The tree had clearly been chewed up by one or more beavers.
“I’m more concerned with the aesthetics of the creek and the health of the trees,” the 55-year-old said.
The dams are also habitats for other wildlife. In fact, a couple of scientists at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in Sonoma County started a campaign called Bring Back the Beaver.
The campaign argues that beavers are a “keystone species” that not only helps other animals, but are beneficial to a thirsty California. Their dams help water to seep into underground aquifers, according to beaver advocates.
Hooray for Brock and Kate! And hooray for even discussing the benefits of beaver in an area that’s ground level is actually receeding because of the shrinking aquifer.
But I’m not holding my breath on the outcome. There’s a lot of resistance to beavers in the area, not the least of which is discussed in this article. Check out the outraged letter to the editor a few days later.
Re “Beavers are nuisance and benefit” (Page 1A, Jan. 7): It is time for the city, county and Merced Irrigation District to develop a written policy on preventing beaver damage along Black Rascal Creek. It is a safety issue for those who enjoy the area. Regardless of our local agency’s assurances, here are the facts:
▪ Black Rascal Creek flowing through the city (and portions of the county) is actually a canal. The real creek is diverted into Bear Creek, just east of Kibby Road at Fairfield Canal.
▪ Water flows into the city portion of the creek through irrigation pipes during the summer and from street drainage in winter.
▪ Entrances to culverts along the creek are often dammed by beavers.
▪ Large beaver dams create ponds of stagnant water each spring and, if there was no significant irrigation season, into the summer.
▪ High water from beaver ponds causes erosion damage to creek banks.
▪ Trees partially chewed are a hazard to walkers and especially to kids playing in the area.
▪ For flood control, the city removes a dam or clears a culvert. However, the beaver remains to rebuild.
▪ Within city limits, beavers are not beneficial to Black Rascal Creek.
▪ In the city, responsibility for beaver control is not clearly communicated.
▪ The city, county, MID and MCAG have not provided the public with any written information on their procedures or policies related to dam or beaver damage.
Let’s hope that our local governments can work together to devise a plan, communicated to the public, to solve the problem. It would be appropriate to request public input.
Joe Brucia, Merced
Nicely defended Joe. Obviously no time was wasted before sitting down at the computer to defend your freedom from beavers. I tried to look him up and found that ten of his letters have been published fairly recently, including one that says lawns shouldn’t be allowed between the sidewalk and the street – because of the drought. And if we’re wondering how reasonable Joe is we have to ask ourselves, “who would take the time to write a letter about meridian strips?” (And before you answer YOU, remember I have a fairly narrow focus these days.)
So Joe’s that guy why rambles at every council meeting whether he cares about the issue or not and once in a great while makes sense. We can discard that letter, but you should really read the comments after it. One of them is just brilliant!
It could also use beavers, according to ecologists who say the near eradication of Castor canadensis from parts of the West in the 19th century has magnified the effects of California’s worst dry spell in history.
“Beavers create shock absorption against drought,” says Brock Dolman, a scientist in Sonoma County who wants to repopulate coastal California with the big lumberjacking rodents. By gnawing down trees and building dams, beavers create small reservoirs. What follows, scientists say, is a series of trickle-down benefits: The water that might otherwise have raced downstream to the sea, tearing apart creek gullies and washing away fish, instead gets holed up for months behind the jumbles of twigs and branches. In this cool, calm water, fish — like juvenile salmon — thrive.
Meanwhile, the water percolates slowly into the ground, recharging near-surface aquifers and keeping soils hydrated through the dry season. Entire streamside meadows, Dolman says, may remain green all summer if beavers are at work nearby. Downstream of a beaver pond, some of the percolated water may eventually resurface, helping keep small streams flowing and fish alive.
A great great piece of pro-beaver writing from a big enough source to get picked up by Gizmodo and Huffpo today. (You should see the miles of beaver puns…sheesh) Perfect science from Brock and friends, and great illustrations by Rusty. I’m not sure why, if it’s using Napa photos, it doesn’t mention Napa beavers or how they’re welcomed by the city and improving habitat. Or you know that OTHER city where beavers were allowed to coexist and made a creek rich with wildlife right in the middle of town. Ahem.
But never mind, this is a GOOD piece. In fact it has been 8 amazing great days of beaver news. What’s the explanation? Utah, Idaho, Oregon and now California. That’s got to be worth a toast. Here’s my favorite part:
“Beavers impact almost every aspect of the watershed,” says Andersen. “They lower stream temperatures, retain sediment, create refuge for fish, and create groundwater percolation that reappears downstream later in the year. When beavers disappeared, streams became channelized, we lost our flows earlier in the summer, and temperatures went up.”
While rain is sorely needed throughout California, the absence of beaver infrastructure could make the landscape less able to rebound should a more generous hydrological period resume. Dolman explains that, without woody debris in the creek gullies to slow water down, the land has less opportunity to soak it up when rain does fall. The result is raging floods in the winter and, once summer comes, a watershed that rapidly goes dry again.
“Losing beavers is a double whammy for a watershed,” Dolman explains. “You get exacerbated flooding, erosion and sediment, and reduced groundwater recharge, in the winter. Then, in the summer, you have land that dries up faster because you didn’t get that winter recharge. We’ve created a landscape much less resilient to drought.”
Amen.
We finally got an article about the flow device removal, which is less wonderful. In addition to dutifully reporting every bogus thing the city has to say about their bank destabilization project, it also (after ALL THESE YEARS) demonstrates it still doesn’t understand how it worked.
MARTINEZ — The prospect of heavy El Nio-influenced rains this winter has East Bay cities stocking up on sandbags and already monitoring storm drains to keep them clear.
But in Martinez, there’s a “beaver deceiver” to remove.
City crews worked this week to remove this device, which includes a plastic pipe that channels water under the beavers’ first main dam in Alhambra Creek, between Escobar Street and Marina Vista.
With Martinez’s famous beaver community keeping a low profile lately, and vivid memories of the damage a flooded creek created downtown in January 1998, the time to remove the pipeline seems right.
The device — essentially a pipeline with large anchoring devices — was installed in 2008 to encourage the beavers to choose that location for their dam rather than build ones in other places. The idea is that the water level behind the dam would never rise too high, with creek water instead flowing through the pipe under the dam and downstream. The beavers were convinced, at least for a while, that their dam was effective and that water was not getting through.
Sigh. Where to even start? It’s not a beaver deceiver, it didn’t encourage the beavers to build in a new place, and it wasn’t necessary to remove it. The city lies and has always lied to justify their decisions. But oh well, after 8 years I have learned that the media is like a powerful flying dragon. You can’t teach or influence it in any way. You can’t make it better. Not really. But sometimes it travels big distances very quickly, and that’s incredibly useful. It has no harness that you can gently tug to guide them.
Beaver are nature’s ecosystem engineers, felling trees and building dams, and changing waterways for their own benefit. But they also benefit other species in the process, including humans as well as many species that are now in jeopardy at least in part due to the historic loss of beavers. Their dams help to control the quantity and quality of water downstream, which both humans and animals use. Their ponds and flooded areas create habitat for many plants and animals, such as fish, birds, insects, and amphibians. In fact, some species only live near beaver ponds. Beavers dramatically change their environment, and those changes can last for hundreds of years, even after the beaver have moved on.
