Tag: Mike Callahan

Nothing Succeeds like Success – (Beaver Edition)

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Environmental October 16, 2013

I’m guessing you recognize the hardworking smile on the left, which belongs to Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions in Massachusetts. The one with the shovel is Kevin Swift, of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center who is working with Mike to learn the trade and eventually apply it in California. Kevin came to this year’s beaver festival with Kate Lundquist of the OAEC and we couldn’t be happier that solutions will be closer to home. Great start, men! Apparently yesterday’s job was ripping out a Clemson and replacing it with a Flex pipe. How symbolic is that? Here’s Mike’s rundown:

Good news. Kevin Swift arrived here in Massachusetts today to learn how to start his own business installing effective flow devices in his home state of California. Here he is performing maintenance on a Flexible Pond Leveler pipe. This is the site of my first flow device installation in 1998. The original Clemson Pond Leveler was eventually replaced with a Flexible Pond Leveler, and the fencing on that pipe was replaced last week. Beavers are still there and continue to maintain the dam. We’re doing three new flow device installations the next three days. We’ll keep you posted!

But wait, Heidi, maybe you’re saying. That’s not enough good news of people living with beavers. California and Massachusetts are crazy liberal states with campuses full of tree-huggers and tofu! Who cares what they do? This just isn’t enough to float my beaver boat, so to speak.

Well, then, how about Idaho?This is Mike Settell who you might recognize as the man from Pocatello who got the local chapter of Audubon to fund his beaver count a few years back because the animals affect bird population so significantly. He came to the state of the beaver conference last year, met the gang, and presented on his hard work in the granite state. Like all the attendees he was graciously given a copy of Mike’s DVD, and after reading and watching and learning went on to do his first install this weekend. I am very happy that Idaho is willing in this instance to apply a long-term solution instead of a short term (trapping) bandaid. Congratulations Mike!

There was a bundle of good news yesterday, I can barely keep up. We’re off to the Boys and Girls club today to talk beavers, which should be fun. And I just got an email from Jari Osborne of the Beaver Whispers that her excellent documentary (which you will see on PBS next year) is up for a digi award for Best in cross-platform nonfiction. GO VOTE RIGHT NOW. I know you haven’t seen it yet, but trust me, it should win. It will save the planet. You can help. GO VOTE

And my all-time favorite news I can’t share just yet but I just found out last night and it has to do with a a topic that rhymes with “weavers in postal quivers.”

Beam.

Does this look like ‘Havoc’ to you?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Environmental August 31, 2013

Beavers have built dams in the Roy Swamp Wildlife Management Area on West Cornwall Road in Sharon causing water to spill out onto the roadway during heavy storms. The selectmen plan to invoke the statute that allows the town to order landowners to keep their waterways free of debris. Ruth Epstein Republican-American

Me either, but Sharon, CT clearly has their own definition of ‘havoc’.

Sharon to tackle beaver damage

SHARON — Officials refuse to leave it to the beavers to wreak havoc, so they’re seeking ways to combat the effects of those industrious, highly energized creatures.

During the last meeting of the Board of Selectmen, First Selectman Robert Loucks said two large dams had broken, one on West Cornwall Road and the other on West Woods Road 2. The breakthroughs caused water to inundate the adjacent roadways, leading to severe damage.

You know what works real good at keeping the dam stable and preventing the pond from getting too high? A flow device! Lucky for you your in Connecticut the state with its own Beaver Expert (Skip Hiliker) or if you wanna shop around, Skip Lisle is 3 hours away in VT and Mike Callahan is 75 miles away in MA. You can think of better solutions than trapping, right?

Our beaver friend Malcolm Kenton sent this recording this am from his beaver watching adventure last night at Huntley Meadow. He writes

Here’s an audio recording I took of the 3-year-old beaver underneath the boardwalk by the bench lodge, uttering some whines as she nibbled on some of her food cache. The voices you hear are the four other people who were at that spot also watching and listening to wildlife.

To which I would say after listening several times, there are at least two beavers in that audio and you have kits!

And as sun sets on our beaver heroes on the West Coast, a third salmon friendly beaver-device is left in their path, this one a Flexible leveler with a special salmon swirl in the center. It’s been a job well done!

From Mike Callahan

Third WA Salmon-Beaver Site –

Here are pictures of the modified intake fence for Flexible Pond Levelers. We installed this fish-friendly flow device yesterday also. When the salmon exit the intake end of the pipe the chain-link fence cylinder guides them directly to a One-Way door on the side of the exclusion fence. See pics. We did not extend the pipe to the side wall of the intake fence because we need the water to enter the pipe near the center of the cylinder to prevent detection by beavers. The chain-link tube prevents the fish from needing to search for the exit and prevents them from bumping into or getting stuck in the fence. The surfaces are all smooth with no sharp edges. The One-Way door PVC pipes are weighted to keep them in a closed position but can be easily nudged open by fish when underwater. Again many thanks are due to the other team members Mike Rustay, Ben Dittbrenner, Dale, and Jake Jacobson. None of this would have been possible without them. If only we didn’t have to wait a couple of months for the salmon to return!

Fortunate Fish

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions August 30, 2013

From Mike Callahan:

New Coho Salmon Fishway Installed – Here is the new box fishway we installed today that should make it much easier for adult to move upstream through the Flexible Pond Leveler pipe. It has just one chamber because we only needed to raise the water level in the pipe by 7 inches. High pipe velocities can be a barrier to fish migration. So we did water velocity measurements before and after the installation of the box fishway and the velocity in the pipe following installation of the fishway was decreased by 50%! This will make it much easier for adult salmon to travel through the pipe. We are all very excited about today’s results. Can’t wait for late fall when the adult coho salmon return to see if it works as well as we expect!

Salmon Cam – Here is a video of the fish eye view of the box fishway and discharging Pond Leveler pipe we installed today in WA. Kudos to the beaver-salmon team which included Jake Jacobson, Mike Rustay, and Ben Dittbrenner (who I first met at the OR State of the Beaver SURCP Conference in Feb. this year!)

Gosh I love that salmon-eye view! Can we get one for the beavers? Imagine how cool it would look to follow along underwater as their damming or swimming! Great work team beaver!

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Here’s some rare canadian beaver pride. (even though it’s not exactly true)! From Ontario’s Orangeville Citizen

From the Global Classroom

Driving a foreign visitor through the Ontario countryside, we passed a body of water held back by a natural dam. A ‘house’ of woven sticks in the middle of the lake was an introduction to beavers, quite unusual for someone from abroad. Native animals are a drawing card in any country, but one living in and under water with unique creative ability is entirely a Canadian feature. The beaver is an animal which changes the ecology of its habitat to form its own living conditions.

Well I suppose it depends on your definition of the word “entirely”. If you mean its ubiquitously part of Canada, yes I agree. But if you mean its uniquely Canadian then I know seven beavers in Martinez that might take issue with that sentence.

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Oh and here’s what all those fish bring to the beaver dam. This photo came last night from our beaver friends in American Canyon.

Not sure what you’re looking at? Here’s a closeup

So simple even a child could learn it…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions August 26, 2013

And in case you want to sing along…(Verse 6 is my favorite!)

Now for some follow up to the week’s news, Mike Callahan is in Washington having his first meeting with Ben, Mike and Jake this morning about installing flow devices that allow salmon passage. Doug and Brien wrote me back this morning from Indiana to say thank you for the helpful information about managing beavers in DePauw Nature Park. And Bonnie from Texas who convinced a developer to pay for installation of a “beaver deceiver” that would drain the pond and make the beavers leave has thoughtfully pointed out that my article on the effort was sarcastic.

Who knew?

Good things come in threes

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions August 15, 2013

Beavergate in Cornwall Ontario One Year Later – It was a Success! Clear Guindon Park Waters with no Flooding!

CFN – What a difference a year makes. When we started the Beavergate Protest we never expected that the devices placed in the Guindon Nature Park in Cornwall Ontario would have such dramatic results.

Funded fully by Lesley Fox and her Fur Bearer Defenders organization the road to clearer waters and healthier habitat were started by Wyatt Walsh pictured above.

Beavergate in Cornwall Ontario One Year Later – It was a Success! Clear Guindon Park Waters with no Flooding! Saved under Community, Cornwall, Cornwall Area Politics, GREEN News, Headlines, News, Ontario, Politics

Instead of signs that dogs and small children can’t read there is lush green. Mr. Walsh had one abortive attempt after contacting the Standard Freeholder go on deaf ears before CFN became active in trying to find a solution.

Our request for a 90 day moratorium on trapping to the City last year resulted in the traps being moved next to the lodge and wiping out the family of beavers lived.

That’s when local activist and musician Rebecca Sorrell entered and then with some media momentum and help from Lesley Fox and her organization oiula!

Congratulations Cornwall on moving your powers that be into a better beaver management strategy. It is hard, hard work changing hearts and minds, and we know that in Martinez. You might remember that Mike Callahan went and did an on site training with FBD Adrian Nelson to get the job done. If you listen to the video you can hear Donna Dubreuil in the background because she was there for the installation. This was a triumph for beaver friends in Canada, and it nice to remember their victory a year (and a month) later.

Mike Callahan & Adrian Nelson at the Guidon Nature Park Installation

Congratulations everyone!

On to this lovely beaver birth announcement from Devon, England where some fenced-in beavers are welcoming some new family members. Click here for an excellent BBC description & video of the event.

Devon wetland beavers have baby

Two beavers in a secure fenced-off area in west Devon have had a baby.

The animals are part of a three-year experiment by the Devon Wildlife Trust at a secret location to see if the animals can help restore wetland areas.

The baby beaver – or kit – is believed to be only a few weeks old, but it is not known if it is a male of female, project staff said.

Mark Elliot, from the trust, said staff were “thrilled”

Congratulations Devon! Mark is the coordinator for a group called “Working Wetlands” and I can see he’s headed for great beaver things.

Finally a nice reprisal in the Record yesterday of our beaver-extravaganza. Looks like mostly the same article with some tenses changed, but very nice to see again. Enjoy!

Kits show up for Beaver Festival VI in Martinez

New beaver kits appeared in Alhambra Creek recently, just in time for the Aug. 3 Martinez Beaver Festival. It was a time for family fun and an easy way to discover some secrets of urban wildlife.

The festival, in its sixth year, has grown appreciably. This year’s event, near the Amtrak station, featured wildlife experts, artists, entertainers, teachers and scientists, plus guided creek tours, games, hands-on projects, 41 display booths, music and information on the beavers, fish, otters, birds and vegetation surrounding beaver construction sites.

Which obviously begs the question: When will Cornwall & Devon be planning their first beaver festival? The world is waiting.