Tag: Mary O’Brien

HOW YOU KNOW YOU’VE ARRIVED

So yesterday we received a donation from Mary O’brien, which happened when she asked about our Ecosystem poster and I said we’d send some right away. There are VERY few things more affirming than receiving a donation from the woman that pretty much single-handedly inspired me to do this work in the first place. It was 2009 that I read what I still consider the most important beaver article ever written in High Country News and it was SO long ago that it wasn’t even by Ben Goldfarb. (Sorry Ben.)

Voyage of the Dammed

Even with a tall wooden cross mounted on the wall behind her, Mary O’Brien doesn’t look like a typical preacher. In her blue cardigan and jeans, a single heavy braid falling like a gray rope down her back, she paces slowly from side to side, telling her listeners that we are worshipping a false landscape.

I was so star struck by the article that when I went to my first beaver conference I remember busily SCANNING the crowd for that thick grey braid to see which one was her. It turned out there were far too many grey braids to count – (some of them on the men). Plus it turned out she had cut hers off by then. But she was genuinely happy to strike up a conversation anyway, and that’s how we first met. Here she is at one of our early festivals photographing the children’s tiles on the bridge.

Mary’s an amazing and powerful woman, who is very patient with the many competing and stubborn voices in Utah. She’s also not afraid to tell people what to do or ask for help when its useful. I agree with her that this is a really cool poster. My favorite part is that it makes people smarter when all they do have to look at it. Coyote studios did a wonderful job with my idea and the quote from Alex Riley. It was a joint effort.

Well there many be more sources of beaver wisdom that there used to, but there’s still plenty of beaver stupid to go around. Here’s a little slice from North Carolina.

Mayor says beavers may be to blame for damage to Cary road

Cary, N.C. — Beavers may be behind a dip that has recently developed on Green Level Church Road in Cary, according to Mayor Harold Weinbrecht.

IWeinbrecht said it appears as though a group of beavers has built a dam inside two 72-inch storm pipes that run beneath the road, which likely led to issues with the pavement.

Beavers are SO useful to mayors! Think about it. Whether you’re blamed for a pothole or a power outage or a warehouse fire beavers offer the handy excuse and get-out-of-jail-free that card city officials need most. Surely it wasn’t due to Cary’s shoddy workmanship or anything like that.

Just like it wasn’t Martinez fault when the creek bank started eroding because all they did was put in topsoil near a flood plain.

Blaming the beavers is a civic treasure, Politicians should love beavers. There should probably be a national holiday.

The case of the missing beaver dams!

I saw this yesterday and right away wanted to author a film noir children’s book beaver dam detective series. Can’t you see it now?

Investigation continues into loss of Mill Creek beaver dams

If you ask Sara Melnicoff of Moab Solutions, part of the Mill Creek Partnership, Mill Creek had 11 or more beaver dams this spring. Then in July every dam was gone.

Melnicoff first noticed the damage mid-July, before the heavy rains of July 24 and 25 caused flooding in the creek. She contacted Mary O’Brien of the Grand Canyon Trust, who had previously participated in writing Utah’s beaver management plan. O’Brien took photographs of the dams, some of which had been notched or had sticks pulled out of them.

“The dams had been compromised a few days before the flooding,” O’Brien said. “I have a whole series of photos that I documented for BLM of all 11 dams and each one has a notch cut out of the center. That’s all that it takes [to compromise the dam].”

11 dams suddenly gone! This sounds like a job for inspector beaver! (sorry, couldn’t resist.) Are there any suspects?

Eyewitness accounts support the claim that vandalism was involved. Maria Roberts, a Forest Service employee, was hiking with friends in mid-July when she saw a man pulling sticks out of the dams.

“I saw a guy, looked like he was pulling branches apart from the beaver dam. I figured he was supposed to be there, like he was working,” Roberts said. Another witness took photos of the man.

The day before the dams were compromised, Melnicoff said, she received an email from an unknown address concerned that the beavers were causing E. coli bacteria in town. O’Brien said that in her experience, beavers are not known to cause E. coli but do benefit the ecosystems they inhabit.

Oh ho! So we have a suspect AND a motive! Call in the expert witness…

“When they come up streams and have to build dams to get two and a half feet [of water to build their lodges], there is then a whole cascade of effects that happen,” O’Brien said. “Streams are often incised from grazing, from long-ago blow-outs of cattle ponds, from floods and so on and really the only thing that can restore that stream is basically woody debris … beaver are the chief engineers that do that.”

O’Brien said that beaver dams create habitat for other animals as well.

“When a beaver comes in and starts making a pond, that opens that up and now ducks come and shorebirds come and they drown the trees, which makes them perfect for cavity nesting birds, which makes it perfect for secondary cavity nesters who use the holes of cavity nesters,” O’Brien said. “[The] water behind the pond is a great nursery for fish. And then of course otter can come into the system because there’s fish. And muskrats are there. And water voles are there, so one thing that the beavers do is make the system far more complex. Without beaver, in a lot of, say, your mountains here, it’s a just strip of water coming through and there’s trees on either side.”

Thank you, Dr. Obrien. Excellent and relevant testimony. Call the next witness!

Arne Hultquist, director of the Moab Area Watershed Partnership, agreed that beavers are not the cause of E. coli in Mill Creek. “If I was having problems with beavers and E. coli, I would be seeing it at that site [above the Power Dam] and I don’t see it at that site. I see it down in town,” said Hulquist, who conducts water quality tests at various points around Moab.

Ah HA! So the beavers were blamed for something they didn’t even do! Their dams were destroyed and then all the wildlife they supported suffered the results. Thank goodness our crack team is on the case!

The DWR is still actively investigating the incident, according to Wolford. The DWR is looking into the incident based on the legal definition of wildlife crime, Wolford told The Times-Independent.

“We are still investigating [and] we have one final loose end to tie up, but it does not look as if charges will be filed,” Wolford said.

“There’s not really a crime for breaching a dam,” Wolford said. “The crime comes after, if it’s either displaced beaver or killed beaver. If there’s an actual beaver that’s dead in the area, that’s where the actual crime starts to come into play.”

Wolford added that the dams might have already been abandoned. “It’s possible that they were [abandoned to start with] because if the beaver were there, those dams would be built back up really fast,” Wolford said. “[It] usually only takes them a night to do it, especially the ones that tend to look like they were more man-made breached. They were small enough breaches that the beaver would have been back in immediately. The ones that are bigger breaches, those ones definitely look like flooding issues. As wildlife, we like beaver. They do a lot of good to the ecosystem and help out things quite a bit.”

The jewels might have stolen themselves, officer. It happens all the time in the real world. No fingers to point, nobody to blame, nothing to see here. Besides they’re just BEAVERS for god sake. How much should we really care?

I don’t know about you but that does not sound like they’re actively looking into it to me.

It’s nice to see beaver dramas happen in other towns. This so reminds me of the early days in Martinez. There was one day when someone left oleander branches on the dam and people were worried it was a plot to poison the beavers and the whole town was in an uproar. It turned out it was a well meaning ET who loved them and just thought she was doing something nice.

Ahh memories.

The clincher on this case is that the actual date on this story from Moab is 2013. I don’t know why it’s running again, but I guess they aren’t still ‘working on it’? Maybe they’re doing this instead.

Beaver Fan Club still has Openings

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, featured, Who's saving beavers now? January 19, 2017

Ooh how nice to see the upcoming beaver conference get some positive press! I hope that gets many more curious people in the door.

Seven Feathers to host conference on beaver restoration

CANYONVILLE — Oregon’s official state animal, the beaver, plays an important role in the state’s wetland ecosystems. Those advocating for the beaver plan to convene next month for a series of presentations focusing on beaver ecology as a crucial part of threatened species recovery.

The fifth State of the Beaver Conference, slated for Feb. 22-24 at the Seven Feathers Convention Center in Canyonville, is meant “to provide an international venue for academia, agency and stakeholders together to disseminate information pertinent to beaver ecology,” according to Leonard Houston, conference coordinator and co-chair of the Beaver Advocacy Committee (BAC) of the South Umpqua Rural Community Partnership.

“We chose the theme of ‘agents of regeneration’ largely to highlight the role that beavers play both in natural regeneration, which is ecological succession, and designed regeneration, which is restoration ecology,” Houston said.

The nicest part about this conference, and there are many, is that the famous names you have been reading about for years here or elsewhere are walking or sitting right next to you. Or coming up to say ‘hi’ and ask

about your presentation. The truth is that it is both a blessing and unfortunate that the science of beaver ecology isn’t yet so advanced that names like Woodruff, Obrien or Pollock can send

their undergrads to do the presenting for them and report back if they find anything interesting. As renowned as they are, they have to do their reporting in person and are eager to share ideas and learn from each other. They’re even happy to hear what you have to say.

Admittedly,they are probably even happier if you invite them out for a beer to say it. (And happier still if you offer to pay for it. Government salaries being what they are.)

santa barbara dinner — Michael Pollock, Mary Obrien, Sherri Guzzi, Mike Callahan and Me!

The point is, I think this is a golden moment in time where beaver science hasn’t become dominated and controlled by lofty minds and big research institutions. You can contribute, you can interact. They need you! But already the world is starting to shift. More and more folk are interested in taking charge of the beaver meme, and it won’t be easy and collegial forever.

Beavers are getting so famous, you better come this year. Just to be on the safe side.

Illustrating Beavers

heidi08 Beavers January 16, 2017

blog_12_reasons_beaver — *Beaver by artist Heidi Snyder*

Beaver, Boreal Toads, and Grazing

These dams transform shallow, narrow streams into deep ponds–incredible resources in the arid West. The benefits of these beaver dams are many, including creation of pond and wetland habitats and food webs for native trout, muskrat, voles, shorebirds, cavity-nesting birds, deer, raptors, and more. Beaver dams also raise the streambed level by capturing sediment, which allows water to replenish the adjacent floodplains. Leaked water subirrigates the valley below the dam, and the dams are physical roadbumps that reduce flood force which could otherwise gouge the stream. And more.

And what are these miracle dams built of? Wood, often stripped by beaver of its bark, for food. Beavers’ favored food is the willow family–cottonwood, aspen, or willow—that has its own particular skill: resprouting after being eaten. It’s a great match: beaver expand wetland areas that, in turn, grow more of the willow family, and the willow family provides renewable food and construction materials for the beavers’ dams and lodges.

Those willow family sprouts, however, are also favorite foods of cattle, elk, deer, and sheep. And here the conflict arises: Riparian areas are the favored hangout of cattle, for shade, water, and…willow, cottonwood and aspen. And though these plants can sprout back after being eaten, they do require rest from being consumed in order to regrow. Aspen and cottonwood need their main stem to grow above browse height, and willow need to retain a majority of their multiple stems. Thus, cattle can eat our water-master beavers out of house and home.

Since boreal toad reproduction is so tightly linked with higher-elevation beaver ponds, and since beaver are so tightly linked with abundant willow, cottonwood, and aspen, and since cattle in particular (but also elk) spend so much time eating in willow, cottonwood, and aspen stands, we begin to sense just how indirectly, but effectively, excessive grazing can interfere with species and habitats we know and love on the Colorado Plateau.

So stop letting your cows graze the waterways. We would like our water to be ecoli free anyway, but it’s especially worth noting that they eat the shoots that would feed the beavers who would make the streams better. I believe this is the last in the series of 12 reasons enumerated by the Grand Canyon Trust with artist Heidi Snyder and hero Mary Obrien. This is the final of six reports on the topic and you can go here to see the others.

Heidi Snyder’s paintings are wonderful and we are thrilled that they were commissioned to tell this story. And speaking of commissioned we’re working with the artist at Coyote Brush Studios to do an original painting of our ecosystem poster, so that we can share it far and wide without incurring copyright wrath. Tina Curiel is also doing watercolor tattoos for our beaver activity at this years festival, and I for one can’t wait.

More Beaver Gospel from HCN

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? November 9, 2015

In the beginning there was the word.

And the word was beaver.

The first truly exciting article I read about beaver was from High Country News in 2009. It described the way we had forgotten what watersheds were supposed to look like and introduced me to the dynamic character of Mary Obrien, describing her ‘long think rope of a gray braid.’ I was so excited to see her on the schedule at the first beaver conference that I peeked around looking for long gray hair, and was dissappointed that there were too many possibilities to guess. It was okay, she had cut her hair by then, but we met anyway, went to lunch and next year she came to the beaver festival. Remember?

Well this morning High Country News has done it again: celebrated beaver contribution on a grand scale with an article about the much beloved Methow Project and its guiding light Kent Woodruff. I feel obliged to say that the great headline was hijacked from the Canadian version of Jari Osborne’s game-changing documentary. But the rest of the text is golden.

The beaver whisperer

The lovers are wards of the Methow Valley Beaver Project, a partnership between the U.S. Forest Service, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Methow Salmon Recovery Foundation that, since 2008, has moved more than 300 beavers around the eastern Cascades. These beavers have damaged trees and irrigation infrastructure, and landowners want them gone. Rather than calling lethal trappers, a growing contingent notifies the Methow crew, which captures and relocates the offenders to the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest and state land.

Why would Washington invite ditch-clogging nuisances — so loathed that federal Wildlife Services killed 22,000 nationwide in 2014 — into its wildlands? To hear Methow project coordinator Kent Woodruff tell it, beavers are landscape miracle drugs. Need to enhance salmon runs? There’s a beaver for that. Want to recharge groundwater? Add a beaver. Hoping to adapt to climate change? Take two beavers and check back in a year.

Decades of research support Woodruff’s enthusiasm. Beaver wetlands filter sediments and pollutants from streams. They spread rivers across floodplains, allowing water to percolate into aquifers. They provide rearing grounds for young fish, limit flooding and keep ephemeral creeks flowing year-round.

“We want these guys everywhere,” says Woodruff, a white-stubbled Forest Service biologist with an evangelical gleam in his blue eyes. On this sweltering July morning, he watches as wildlife scientists Catherine Means and Katie Weber hoist Chomper and Sandy, now caged, into the truck that will convey them to the Okanogan-Wenatchee. “We want beavers up every stream, in all the headwaters.”

Yes we do. And mouth too. (Ahem). I’m so happy this is getting the attention of the higher-ups. Kent is a mild-mannered but passionate man who makes easy alliances across party lines. I’ve always been a little jealous of him. Compared to our hard scrabble here in Martinez, the Methow project has always lived a fairly charmed life because it has SO much agency support. Here’s the list of partners in 2014:

So you can see he’s very gifted at playing well with others. One thing I love about the article is getting the back story about Kent himself;

That’s where Woodruff came in. Since arriving in the Okanagan in 1989, he’d focused on birds, installing nesting platforms for owls. But he yearned to leave an enduring legacy, and in 2008 his opportunity -arrived. John Rohrer, Woodruff’s supervisor, had been relocating beavers on a small scale since 2001 — even digging a holding pool in his own backyard. Meanwhile, the Washington Department of Ecology wanted to improve regional water quality. Woodruff thought beavers could help. He offered to expand Rohrer’s endeavor.

I never knew he was a bird man! Cheryl will be happy to read that. Now I’m a purist and want there to be a sentence in here crediting Sherri Tippie for the realization that beaver families do better when they’re relocated as a unit. But I guess saving beavers is a bit like the story of Stone Soup if you’re lucky. Everyone contributes what they can without realizing it matters and in the end helps create something nourishing.

Anyway, its a great article. Go read the whole thing, and if you feel inclined leave a comment about the valuable role beavers can play in urban landscapes.

Here’s was my contribution yesterday, which is an timely response to the articles implication that the answer to our beaver problems is to take them out of the city and move them up country. (As you know, I believe the answer is to let them move wherever they dam well please and make adjustments accordingly.) Credit where its due, the play on words comes from our friend Tom Rusert in Sonoma. But I’m fairly happy with its application here. See if you can tell what city this is: