Flooded Railroad Tracks Posed a Hazard in Lee, MA. Fortunately someone had the good sense to hire Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions to fix the problem. He posted this yesterday on the Beaver Management Forum.
Recent Flow Device Installation Protects Railroad in Lee, MA These pictures reveal flooding that was relieved when a blocked culvert on Highway 102 in Lee, MA was opened and fitted with a Fence and Pipe flow device. BMF member and aspiring NY flow device installer Sue Hendler and Josh Rondeau helped me on this project. The water was dropped by 18 inches but the beavers and a huge wetland remain. The railroad was very concerned about unstable tracks and a possible derailment. Trains can pass safely now.
Photo Mike Callahan – Water on the tracks\Sue Hendler and Josh Rondeau help with the installation. Photo Mike Callahan
Flow device installed – Mike Callahan Photo
All better! Mike Callahan photo
Great work Mike! And we are always happy to see you passing along what you know to the next generation of beaver helpers!
Maybe you’d be thinking that beavers and trains never coexist well. You’d be wrong. And just remember that one of the most important beaver books in history was written by an early railroad man who had the good fortune of crossing the united states looking to see where track should be laid. His name was Lewis Henry Morgan and he produced drawings like this.
I got to visit my old favorite beaver habitat on the border or Nevada yesterday in the high desert, and saw sadly that they had foolishly ripped out the myriad of little dams down stream. I was relieved to see that beavers had responded to this tragedy by building the tallest dam upstream that I have ever seen in the area. It was so tall the water backed up in a majestic pool and covered the entrances to their old lodge again. In the middle of waterless sage, scrub and pinyon pine, there was a beautiful pond, which made me very happy.
Yesterday I was up at 5 getting nervous for the conference. Talking beavers to a roomful of fish-biologists? What if I forgot what to say? What if the computer goes blank? What if what if what if? Jon drove me to the memorial hall where in the span of 5 minutes I was warmly greeted by Mike Callahan, Michael Pollock, Rick Lanman, Mary O’brien, Brock Dolman, Kate Lundquist, Sherry and Ted Guzzi and I thought, oh, I know these people, I can do this.
Tim Robinson was leading the session, and what I hadn’t understood before is that he had presented at a conference some pretty uncheerful information about beavers and gotten a SLEW of heated responses and emails which made him curious to learn more. I think an old Martinez supporter (GK) had tipped me off to his presentation at the delta conference, and I had written him an eyeful. To his amazing credit he actually sought me out and invited me to this talk along with a team of the most intelligent beaver advocates on the planet.
Rick started the day and competently went through the evidence about where beaver belonged historically. Eli went next and showed where they are right now. Then it was my turn and as always, talking about the Martinez Beaver story with footage and photos was very well received. A tech woman on hand made sure every one’s talk went perfectly and it was an awesome morning, By 10:30 I felt relaxed and pleased.
After the break, Michael Pollock presented on steelhead and beavers from the bridge creek data. (Does he ever get nervous? I don’t think so.) Then Tim presented on the unique challenges he faced with beavers on the Santa Ynez river which is a controlled water management system that releases water for the lower valleys. Then Kate talked policy and Mike Callahan talked about his adaptions to flow devices to allow salmon passage.
It was an amazing morning. After lunch they all went for a beaver fieldtrip on the Santa Ynez, and Jon and I dashed home to get things ready for dinner after a well-earned picnic in the sun looking at the beach.
I had invited folks for dinner at 6:30 but at 6:15 Mary called and said the fieldtrip had run long and they just got back. I wondered honestly if anyone would show and wistfully thought about the number of enchiladas we would be forced to eat on our own, but by 7 Mary, Michael Pollock (and his very smart tribal attorney girlfriend Karen), Sherry and Ted, and Mike Callahan were all there. We sat on the deck and drank beer while the sky darkened and the air cooled and then we funneled inside to Jon’s enchiladas and guacamole where our very small table hosted the most intelligent lively cheerful beaver conversation this side of the atlantic.
Somewhere in this day, I had the feeling of heavy accomplishment. Like a massive boulder I had been cheerfully pushing up a bumpy hill for seven years had just reached the top. I felt like beaver momentum was finally turning and it felt both relieving and weirdly a little sad – almost as if I was missing something.
I think now that what I was missing was the naive me of 7 years ago that foolishly started this journey in the first place. Without any of these companions, she felt like every part of this job was up to her thinking, planning and execution. I remember her as passionate and fearless, and I learned so much from her commitment. I am so glad she was (is) a part of my life. But I’m glad she’s not alone any more and really glad that dam rock is up the hill.
I know there will be other hills and valleys. But today I will sit in the sun and rest.
Let’s pretend (and why not?) that you are a parent of energetic 7 year-old twins that you have to leave inside the house while you go mow the lawn. You tried to get them to come with you – talking them into raking big piles of leaves which they could leap in or pretend were monsters, but they are immersed in a mind-deadening cartoon about talking mason jars and hardly looked up when you opened the door. You are quite prepared to spend 20 minutes in the garden and come back to a chaotic pillow war where marsh mellows are used as ammunition. This isn’t your first rodeo. You know what to expect – lots of whining and name calling and ‘he started it’. But the lawn must be mowed or the neighbors will invite you for another miserable vegetarian BBQ to politely remind you, so you somberly slip out the door.
It’s a crisp fall day and the job is quickly done. Only when you come back inside, the house is immaculate. The TV is off. And the smell of waffles drifts from the kitchen where the children have a lovely brunch with unspilled juice and blueberries laid for you on the corner table. They are smiling and one of them even hugged you.
Now you know just how I felt when I read these stories.
Dear Johnnie: “I’m back, and I am hungry. As I fell each tree, the house value falls along the Oligarchy greenway west of Harvard.”
Yes, it is the beaver. How can we get rid of it? Do we take matters into our own hands (bang! bang!) or should the city fix it or the animals rights people get called in?
Anyway it looks very messy in our city to have just 2-foot-high stumps as a greenway. — Concerned
Dear Concerned: The city has a plan for beavers, and getting rid of them is not at the top of the list.
According to the city’s Standing Operating Procedure, “Longmont … maintains a wildlife management plan that strives to co-exist with urban wildlife whenever possible.”
The city’s primary concern when it comes to beavers is their ability to obstruct irrigation canals in town. When their dams threaten to lead to an overflow — which could lead to the flooding of homes — then the city will act to remove the obstruction.
The city also Longmont also has a concern for trees, as you do. According to Land Program administrator Dan Wolford, “the city, in the past has either wire wrapped or painted trees in this area to protect them from beaver, in particular those larger caliper native trees, worthy of saving.”
Removing a beaver would be a last resort, and is addressed in the SOP document.
Good lord, have I died and gone to heaven? Is this the newspaper of the angels? Where is this magical place called Longmont? Turns out its 28 miles from Sherri Tippie’s front door, so I’m guessing they have had LOTS of help getting this smart. In the meantime we should just pause and appreciate that this is the very first historic moment where I have EVER read about a city “painting trees” in response to chewing. I’m sure they mean ‘painting mixed with sand’ and I couldn’t be happier. Sherri invented that technique and was the first to publish it. Thanks Sherri!
Concerned, I’m sure you know that “bang! bang!” is not found in the city’s wildlife management plan. Even mention of “removal” comes with a reminder that “trapping and removal of an animal typically creates a ‘vacuum’ at the capture site, which in most cases is quickly filled by another animal of the same species.”
Did you just get goosebumps? I sure did. There’s more where that came from…
Score one for Whistler’s beaver population. A willow tree at Alpha Lake Park is now on its side, chewed over by one or more beavers living in the area.
The tree near the lake edge had a sign on it informing park visitors the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) decided to let the beavers do with the tree as they see fit, as it was beyond repair. Sometime next year another tree will be planted in the area to replace the felled willow.
According to biologist Bob Brett with the Whistler Naturalists, beavers are a native species to the region. He considers them the symbol of Whistler’s valley bottom.
“I think beavers are fantastic,” said Brett after learning about the slow destruction of the lakeside willow at Alpha Lake.
A city biologist excited about beavers? Public works crews wrapping trees with wire? Hand me my smelling salts. I feel an attack of the vapors coming on! 1500 miles away from Sherri Tippie but not that far from Vancouver and our friends at Fur-bearer defenders.
The RMOW communications department also said “beaver deceivers” — defined as anything that prevents beavers from blocking culverts — were also installed in culverts at Hillcrest Drive and in Alta Vista to prevent beavers from damming the culverts.
And you thought you were thankful yesterday! Now let’s overdose on more good news from Mike Callahan about his salmon adapted flow devices in Sonomish, Washington.
Sonomish Salmon Passage Success!
I have great news! I recently returned from Snohomish County, WA and observed that our prototype Flexible Pond Levelers Fishways (now called Snohomish Pond Levelers) were successful at passing adult coho salmon upstream. I think this is very exciting!
This means that when road culverts, etc. on salmon producing streams require protection from beaver damming we can opt to utilize flow devices rather than traditional beaver trapping and dam removal. This experiment is an extremely promising beginning and great news for salmon, beavers and us all! With a single, relatively inexpensive flow device we can increase the populations of two keystone species! The implications are tremendous.
I hope to share this research at the 32nd Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference in Santa Barbara, CA in March. In the meantime please spread the word. We need to get the word out that adult salmon migration can now be facilitated rather than impeded by using flow devices.
Thanks and congratulations to my Team Snohomish partners without whom this research project would not have been possible, especially Jake Jacobson, Michael Rustay, Ben Dittbrenner, and Ted Parker. A big thank you also to the Animal Welfare Institute whose grant largely funded this research project.
Sometimes you really get the feeling that we are on a team of smart, ecologically minded beaver believers scattered across the northern hemisphere. And sometimes it even seems like we’re winning!
Cory Cheever of Vermont Fish and Wildlife (left) works with volunteer Tom Prunier to build a beaver exclusion fence in a culvert in Putney. (Kayla Rice/Reformer)
PUTNEY — The town is trying to strike an appropriate balance with the beavers that live up in the Wilson Wetlands. Cory Cheever, a biologist with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, was in Putney Tuesday to help members of the Putney Conservation Commission control beaver activity in the wetlands.
I got so excited about this article. A Fish and Wildlife Biologist installing a flow device instead of killing beavers! And in Vermont no less! So obviously they could hop up the road 24 minutes to Grafton and make sure Skip Lisle approves of their work, right? Maybe even get some help from the master on this! But if I was expecting the transfer or sharing of any knowledge I was sorely mistaken.
Cheever installed a series of his own dams — which looked a little like wire fencing placed in the water — in the culverts under Sand Hill Road to keep the beavers out while allowing them to live in the wetlands.
“This is a dam, from the beaver’s point of view this is a dam, but it is faulty, from a beaver’s point of view,” Kerrey said Tuesday while standing over one of the culverts. “It’s faulty because it has five holes in it, also known as culverts, so they are busy plugging those holes up.”
The Department of Fish and Wildlife has installed similar baffles all over the state.
That’s right, because BAFFLES are sooo much better than those other things that Skip or Mike install. So we had to start from scratch and re-invent the wheel to make it roll. Last year when we read about Mr. Cheever I wrote Skip and Mike to see if they had ever met, connected or exchanged a single email. I’m so innocent I was surprised when the answer came back “No.”
Well, maybe Fish and Wildlife is trying to avoid paying royalties to Skip by calling their design a baffle? Or maybe they genuinely just don’t know any better and didn’t open my copious emails the last time. In the vast scheme of things it doesn’t matter if Mr. Cheever makes up a different design or calls it a “beaver faker” as long as it works, right? I can’t get too upset about this article because look at this.
Kerrey says that when the water level dropped the Conservation Commission saw the need to bring the beavers back to dam up the flow. As challenging as the beavers are to live with, Kerrey said, it was still easier than bringing in a human specialist.
The beavers were able to bring the water level back up, but now they are damming up the culverts with their sticks.
“We would have had to figure out how to do that ourselves. We would have had to hire some engineer to figure out how to reestablish a wetland,” Kerry said. “Beavers already know how to do that. So we just decided we would wait for them. And we waited a little over year and the habitat for them is good so they showed up and they fixed everything, but they’re going a little overboard now.”
Is Fish and Wildlife paying for this? Or is it strictly something Cory convinces property owners to pay for in their spare time? I will write him again and see if we can’t possibly bring Mohamed to the mountain.
And speaking of experts I heard from Mike Callahan yesterday that he is on his way to Washington to film the salmon passing easily through his new adapted flow devices there. It seems that his auto cameras don’t pick up the passage which mostly happens at night, but Mike’s been assured the design works like a charm so he is going to spend some nights on sight with a camera at the ready!
He needs the footage of course for March when he’s coming to the Salmonid Restoration Federation along with all the OTHER beaver people!
In conjunction with Beaver Solutions, highway… (Stephanie Zollshan / Berkshire Eagle Staff)
“Everybody in the pool,” Dan Osterander yelled out, as he and other city workers stepped into the pond and installed a fence to keep out the beavers Friday morning. The crew used an excavator to remove twigs and mud that formed the dam.
They were joined by Michael Callahan of Beaver Solutions, who was contracted by the city to find a humane solution to a flooding problem city officials blame on the critters.
On Friday, Callahan took 50 paces into five-feet deep pond waters to place a cage that will connect the pipes to where the city has its own dam to control the water.
Callahan has a thriving business thanks to a Massachusetts law which prevents the lethal trapping of beavers. Any disturbance of a beaver dam requires a special permit.
Looks like our good friend Mike is busily convincing another city that beavers are Worth A Dam. (Although the reporter continues to be under the impression that we would only install a flow device because of the evil 1996 law. Apparently he has failed to notice that beavers can STILL being trapped and killed and cities routinely get permission to do so – even with grip traps if one of nine exceptions are met. Nor has he thought about the fact that if you pay a trapper $500 to take out some beavers one year, and new beavers move in the next year, you’ll pay it again and again, adding up to way more than hiring Mike.)
Never mind. We’re always happy when public works crews have to jump in the water and help someone install a flow device.
The owner of the farm has complained about high water levels at the pond, said Jim McGrath, Pittsfield’s park and open space planner. The Bousquet Ski Area needs the water for snowmaking in the winter.
Van Derkar, a Pittsfield conservation agent and former wildlife biologist, said beavers shouldn’t be negatively impacted by the city’s work.
“It shouldn’t affect them. That’s the whole goal,” Van Derkar said. “We need to be able to work with them.
Here endeth the lesson.
When’s the last time you went wine tasting in the Autumn with about 1000 other wildlife lovers? Oh wait, never? Then you should come join us at Cornerstone in Sonoma for the 2nd annual Optics and Nature fair. Worth A Dam will be there with lots of folks you know and some you’ll be very excited to meet. You can learn about lions or owls or beavers, and if you decide to pick up an extra pair of binoculars for junior the optics folks will pay the sales tax. See you there?
Score one for Whistler’s beaver population. A willow tree at Alpha Lake Park is now on its side, chewed over by one or more beavers living in the area.
