Tag: Mike Callahan

New Kits in Argyll!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers August 13, 2013

The official Scottish Beaver trial has been very happy to announce that this year they have observed 5 new beavers in their pond! If the trial is “can beavers thrive in Scotland” I’d say they have their answer. If the trial is “can humans possibly tolerate how well they thrive?” the answer is more iffy.

New born beavers pictured at trial site aimed at bringing the animal back to the UK

NEWLY born beavers have been spotted at the site of a five-year trial aiming to reintroduce the mammal into the UK. The five youngsters or “kits” have been spotted at the Scottish beaver trial site at Knapdale in Argyll, the only licensed reintroduction scheme for beavers – and the first attempt to reintroduce an extinct mammal – in the UK.

Their appearance means beavers have bred every year since the trial started with the arrival of animals from Norway to Knapdale in 2009, the managers of the scheme said. Eurasian beavers were once native to the UK but were wiped out by hunting by the 16th century.

Roisin Campbell-Palmer, field operations manager for the trial, said: “The arrival of new kits means that the beavers have bred every year of the Scottish beaver trial.

“We are now attempting to establish how many there are in total – but five have been observed so far.”

The appearance of the beaver kits was welcomed as a boost for tourism as well as for the trial. Visitors to Knapdale can go on evening guided tours for a chance to spot the mammals on Dubh Loch, home to one of the project’s four beaver families.

The trial’s project manager, Simon Jones, said the sighting of the kits was “great news for the Scottish beaver trial – and for local tourism as more people will want to travel to Argyll to come on our guided walks for a chance to see the new arrivals”.

Five blessed events so far! I’m so jealous. We never got five. (Except an uncomfirmed 5th kit that was found dead in 2007. Never was sure if the report was accurate or not, but she swore she saw the tail and I counted four kits that night, so who knows?) The good news is that Argyll is going in the right direction. This formal trial is acting like a kind of cow-pusher on a the beaver-train and clearing out all the fears and objections that would be hurled at the much larger free beaver population along the Tay and beyond. Good!

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I heard from Michael Callahan that he was heading to Sonomish WA (home of retired watershed steward Jake Jacobsen who is practically a founding father of beavers and helped tremendously with our early questions in Martinez) to install some special flow device adaptions for fish passage. I passed this news along to our Beaver Believer documentary friends and they were excited about the idea of connecting with Mike and including him in the film, which I’m very happy about because even if beavers help climate change, or save salmon, or rotate your tires, no one will ever let them stick around unless human interests can be protected. We want solutions to be visible and obvious. On an even better note, a little bird told me that one of the good folk at OAEC will be heading out to Massachusetts in October to learn installation, which going to be excellent news for California!

Before you ask why, I will just say that I got an email yesterday from Canada from a farmer who had been trapping the beavers on his land and recently saw the documentary “The Beaver Whisperers” and was stunned to learn that beavers could be effectively managed by Michel LeClair and how could he go about doing that on his land? Of course I sent him info on Mike’s DVD and Sherri’s book and forwarded his email to Jari Osborne, the filmmaker, who had what I imagine is the best day ever thinking that she had made such a dramatic difference in peoples thinking.

What can I say, I’m have no actual skills or training, but I have had the strange fortune of becoming a kind of beaver hub. Which beavers apparently need.

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Now for some very good news. The grown-up in charge of these excellent workers is Kimberly Robertson, who lives on site at Safari West in Santa Rosa and is the official animal registrar and manages the Jr. Keeper program. She was very excited about our festival and has already made plans to attend next year. We got to talking about the beavers and getting kids interested in wildlife and she said she would like to be involved with Worth A Dam. Of course we would like that very much. So welcome to our new board member! I just know that our two organizations will benefit each other. Teaching kids to love what’s wild and free around them requires many voices, from the exotic to what’s right in their own back yard. Welcome aboard!

History Lesson

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions August 9, 2013

Unsettled waters Fitzgerald Lake stewards say vandalism mars shared use of water body

NORTHAMPTON — A small number of visitors to Fitzgerald Lake in Northampton are causing big problems, including interfering with beaver habitat, ripping down posted warnings and inadvertently causing the lake level to rise, swamping its dock.

The most apparent and consequential damage is to a metal fence surrounding a drain near the dam on the lake’s east side designed to keep the water level in check.

The fence was designed to keep beavers, which are drawn to the sound of rushing water, away from the drain and to prevent them from packing it with branches, saplings and other debris in an attempt to dam it, said the coalition’s president, Bob Zimmermann.

Once a section of fence was cut away, Zimmermann said, beavers began trying to dam the drain, causing water to back up, raising the water level in the lake by about 15 inches.

Other spots around the lake have been damaged or interfered with in apparent attempts to land prime fishing spots, said Zimmermann, who met a reporter at the lake Friday along with coalition vice president David Herships and board member David Ruderman.

Oh drat! Beavers are fairly easy to control but fishermen are notorious! Sounds like Northampton could use a beaver festival stat! Some education and good cheer to keep all those restless fishermen in check. Maybe a display about how beaver activity changes the invertebrate community which make for more and fatter fish. Don’t worry about the ripped fence, I heard the cavalry is on its way soon.

Once the new fence is in by the city’s contractor I’ll be installing a Flexible Pond Leveler through their fence. Interestingly, the second flow device I ever installed was on this lake, back in 1998.

Mike Callahan Beaver Solutions

Alright then, good luck revisiting history! 1998, wow that was 8 years before the beavers came to Martinez. I wonder what I was doing with my life then?

Oh and I loved this photo of Greg’s wife which ran yesterday in the CC Times Record. Greg is the man who’s been photographing the beavers in San Jose and helped with mom’s rescue. His wife was a star!

A river runs through it – (now)

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports June 16, 2013

Broken beaver dam may have caused West Warren flooding

WARREN, Mass. (WWLP) – Mass DOT is repairing Route 67, Main Street, in West Warren after flood waters damaged part of the road Friday morning. Warren Police Sgt. Joe Laflower says he thinks a nearby beaver dam may have broken due to all the rain we’ve had lately. He says its expensive to continue repairing the road, and they hope the state can come up with a more permanent fix.

Quaboag is the name of the river that flows through town, and the historic plantation for which it was founded. In the 19th century it was a hard-working river with multiple dams to support industry along it. The decayed dams are still visible along its path, but it’s a beaver dam we’re interested in today. 40 miles away from Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions a beaver dam MAY have caused flooding twice this year and once in 2005 and they aren’t sure what to do to solve the problem? Really?

Obviously the answer is more concrete. And trapping. Don’t forget the trapping.

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And Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there, including the human variety.

Since it’s my first year without one I thought I’d better post this.

Massachusetts comes to Martinez

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Massachusetts Trapping Law February 12, 2013

So that tall guy in the middle is Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions in Massachusetts. He came out for some fish passage seminars and went to check out some beaver habitat near Napa and then came to Martinez for a tour and dinner. It was one of those meetings that mean so much and still seem so familiar that afterwards you are saddened to remember that he doesn’t live across the street and won’t be coming back any time soon.

I first wrote Mike in October of 2007. In case you didn’t realize that was a long, long time ago. Before Worth A Dam and before Obama and before our beaver mom died. Our contact armed me with information, made me hopeful and sometimes made me smile. It was often the thing that sustained and fortified me for the battle with the city, and gave me direction and a sense of purpose after we won.

Or, to put it another way; Mike recognized the sheetpile.

So it was entirely fitting to see him reviewing our beaver habitat. Have him scope out Skip’s installation. Spot the new lodge where our beavers are living and drive to our house for dinner. We of course handed over Alaskan Amber and a t-shirt so he would feel at home.

Lory and Cheryl and Jon enjoyed his visit and thought he was an easy-going, affable, force to be reckoned with. We swapped stories about beaver battles, massachusetts law, and flow devices. He had met Sherri and Ted Guzzi of the Sierra wildlife coalition the night before and had made good contacts at the conference.

He talked a little about his ideas for adapting flow devices to make fish passage in very low flow easier. We discussed one way gates and counters that will track the number of fish that use them. The social science side of my brain forced me to suggest that his study should include a control group so that the fish that make it over a flow device with no modifications could be counted too, and he thought that was a good idea.

And now, sitting on this side of the meeting, I notice I am wistful, and feeling like I came to the end of some chapter in my life. Mike was the first glimmer of support that I looked to for our beavers, though he certainly wasn’t the last. The story of the Martinez beavers and the teaching role they had on other communities will continue in ways I can’t even imagine today, but this part of the story is completed. The circle that I never dreamed of starting, that caused me to work harder than I ever had and do things I never had never attempted before, that took me places I could never even dream, that part of the circle has been closed.

Bittersweet

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Creek Seekers Poetry Contest, Educational, Environmental February 10, 2013

We are a full service station here at beaver central. We don’t sugar coat it or report only the bad news to get better ratings. Beaver stories are like any stories, sometimes they bring good news and sometimes not. Thank goodness the good news is coming more often these days.

I was raised Catholic so we better start with the bad news first:

That’s Byram Mississippi in case you were wondering. Not exactly a font of ecological wisdom but it’s on the nightly news so they must think there’s an ounce of interest in the story. If you go to the city’s website it opens explaining what forms you need to fill out if you want to be mayor/alderman. I’m thinking I’ll pass.

Medium news? How about an update on our Bronx river beavers in New York. The first caused such a splash when he arrived, and another showed up the following year spawning tales of romance, but they haven’t been seen for a while and our friends who keep an eye on them have wondered what is happening.

The folks at the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx River Alliance had been wondering what was up with José and Justin, the beavers who first made headlines in 2007 when they turned up in the Bronx River – the first exemplars of New York’s state animal to be spotted alive in New York City in 200 years.

“We knew they were here, but they hadn’t been spotted for a while,” said Ann Rafalko, the garden’s director of online content. The garden’s Critter Cam, a motion-sensitive robot camera mounted in an undisclosed location in the garden’s 50-acre forest that flanks the river, has provided an answer.

It’s wonderful when folks realize beavers are good news and tell the media as media. Not exactly sure why these beavers have been named as if they’re a gay couple, but we’re very broad minded and don’t mind. The garden’s critter cam is going to be in for a surprise come this summer I think!

Now for some very excellent news!

Learning to coexist with beavers

The increased activity of beavers in and along streams of Northern California has gotten local landowners, public agencies and scientists talking about these large rodents. The beaver is best known for its iconic teeth, flat tail and lustrous fur. Scientific research also supports the idea that beavers are beneficial to restoring fisheries in the region.

One of the most significant benefits beavers provide to the environment are the dams they create. Unlike human-built dams, beaver dams provide critical wetland ecosystems and riparian habitats which benefit endangered and threatened species such as coho and Chinook salmon. Beaver activity also opens up the tree canopy, allowing sunlight to reach the water and support the growth of healthy algae and other aquatic plants.

So, beavers may be good for the fish, but what about humans? Private landowners have valid complaints that beavers are destroying trees on their property and causing flooding of fields.

Are you intrigued yet? What a great start to an article! Hand me some popcorn!

In order to answer these questions and more, the Five Counties Salmonid Conservation Program will host a free workshop.

in Trinity County from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday at the Volunteer Fire Hall in Douglas City, located near the Trinity River bridge on State Route 299 that intersects with State Route 3 at 100 Steiner Flat Road.

The event will include practical techniques for assessing and managing beaver dams while protecting property. The workshop is funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Fisheries Restoration Grant Program, and the guest speaker is a national expert from Massachusetts who specializes in balancing beaver activity and human interests.

That would be our old friend Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions who will be teaching the workshop on Saturday, visiting our local installer Ted Guzzi of Sierra Wildlife coalition Sunday, and coming to Martinez monday for a tour of the most famous beavers ever. If you’re wondering just how old of a friend Mike is, this is a letter from him in 2008 which ism so long ago I had not yet ‘inherited’ the website.

This is a letter from Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions to Heidi, but we really think it applies to everyone who has supported the beavers:Dear “Beaverlady”, 😉

Your efforts are Herculean. It is so difficult to promote coexistence with beavers in an urban setting, especially one that is prone to flooding without beavers. Nevertheless, your efforts have given these beavers a fighting chance at survival.

Irregardless of the City’s final decision with the M. beavers I hope you can see that your efforts have had huge positive effects for not only the Martinez beavers, but also for beavers everywhere. Along with others, you personally have raised beaver awareness in the California masses. Not an easy task, and extremely important if our society is to evolve a better culture of coexistence with the animals on this planet.

I thought you should know how impressive your efforts and results have already been, because I know when a person is in the middle of a fight it is hard to see the entire battleground. I’m glad you are involved. Thanks.

All the Best,

Mike