Tag: Patti Smith

THE TALE OF NO TAIL

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy November 18, 2022

I had a saying for 15 years that I might decide to replace. The saying was that “Beavers change things” which is still true today and no less relevant but I’m approaching full embrace of a new saying. “Beavers get over things“. This is based on their remarkable and increasingly emerging ability to adapt. Habituate. ADAPT. To whatever seems to happen in their lives. Captured and stored in a fish pond before relocation? They adapt. Rehabbed in somebodies living room for a year? They adapt. Beavers seem to make a considerable effort to change things to their liking, They try and try over and over again. With their friends and without getting irritated or annoyed.

And then, with very little ceremony or fanfare, if they can’t beat it, join it.

Patti Smith | View from Heifer Hill: A strange beaver tale

I wrote of the possible existence of this beaver kit in June when I found that his mother, Dew, a beaver who had been living in isolation for a year, was about to give birth. The only other beaver in I had seen in this watershed was Dew’s half-sister, Gentian, so the most likely explanation for her pregnancy was, I told myself, immaculate conception

I was not surprised that Dew would be so chosen. Those of you who have read this column before will not need to be told why Dew is an extraordinary beaver. You will know that she has survived numerous trials, including the wounds inflicted by the bear that killed her mother.

Because I had been busy with other beavers over the summer, I couldn’t return to visit Dew and meet her holy child until late September. There was no sign of them in the pond where I had last seen her. No worries. Beavers move often. For a week, I searched along the rest of the brook and then along the tributaries. I found no beavers anywhere and feared the worst.

Patti does her best to locate Dew and then she gives up. Thinking that maybe something happened to her and focusing her attention on her sister Gentian. Did she ever mate? Why don’t they live closer together? In looking for Dew she notices something very very surprising.

Since then, I have been heading down to the brook most nights. I most often see Gentian at work in a new pond in the downstream section. Dew inhabits the upstream portion. One night, in the upstream region, I saw a beaver swimming underwater, the biggest beaver I had ever seen in this brook. I checked and then checked again. This beaver had no tail. He swam under a submerged log to hide. Beavers can hold their breath for 15 minutes in a pinch. I had no wish to cause a pinch for this fellow, so I set out to look for the other beavers.

A beaver with NO TAIL! Is such a thing possible? Of course it is. Beavers get over it. This beaver knew when to be cautious. And probably had to adapt some muscles to master swimming and diving without the equipment. But he had found a life and a mate.

Two actually.

As this puzzle piece clicked into place, a very curious picture was beginning to emerge: a beaver that suffered such a traumatic injury might well become extremely wary. Such a beaver might be invisible to a distracted beaver watcher for months. He was probably the beaver I had seen in Gentian’s territory, too. This fellow was the likely father of Dew’s kit. I think that when the puzzle is completed, the picture will reveal the sisters living next door to each other and sharing a mate. There are still enough pieces missing that I could be very wrong.

Downstream I found Gentian deftly cleaving the bark from a birch branch. Upstream, Dew swam over to say hello and enjoy an apple. Tendrils of mist flowed across the pond as the night cooled. I saw the tiny beaver near the spot where I had first seen the beaver with no tail. The small creature seemed preternaturally calm. As he climbed ashore to groom, I contemplated his parentage. His father might not be a deity, but he surely has superpowers. How else would a beaver survive the loss of such a major appendage? How else could he adapt to life without it? This little beaver has no halo, but he has some stellar genes.

A beaver with two wives and no tail! Now this is Patti talking here so we can only believe her. If such a thing were true and possible she would be the one to see it. People survive all kinds of amputations but they have prosthetics to help them out. Not beavers. No one will ever get warned by him again.

But still. A tail eaten by a bear is better than a beaver eaten by a bear. And beavers get over it.

THE SCIENCE OF WATCHING WITH PATTI SMITH

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver ecological impact July 15, 2022

I have learned in my travels that there are people who study beavers – their impacts, their benefits and their management, and people who observe beavers – their lives, their habits and their families. Long ago when I was first struggling to catch up to everything going on in Martinez I was told by my inspiration Bob Arnebeck not to worry about all the science I didn’t know yet, because actually watching and spending time with beavers was a very important way to understand them. Maybe even a better way.

Now with 15 years under my belt I understand that there are people who study beavers, people who observe beavers, and then there is Patti Smith.

Patti Smith | The View from Heifer Hill: An Unconventional Beaver

When I became an observer of the beavers in my wild backyard, I already had a list in my brain entitled “Beaver Facts.” Fourteen years into the project, many entries have been scratched out or amended. “Facts” has been replaced with “Observations.” Among my teachers is Dew, a beaver I have known since she was born 11 years ago. I saw a lot of her for the first four years of her life when she lived with her parents, Willow and Bunchberry. Scratch “Beaver kits live with their parents for two years and then disperse

When she was five, I found Dew living at a remote pond. I visited her throughout the winter and spring and saw no sign of another beaver. When I returned in September, I found a beaver kit swimming behind her, along with a shy mate I named Ilex. Since Dew had been living alone during the late-winter mating season, I was baffled by the presence of the kit. I later found that Ilex had been maintaining separate quarters at another pond upstream. Sometimes the couple lived together and sometimes they didn’t. They must have gotten together for a “date” in February. So much for “Beavers live in nuclear family units — a mated pair and their offspring.”

Take this as proof that beavers DO NOT READ THEIR OWN RESEARCH. They make decisions based on a secret data log known only to themselves. They disperse, or don’t disperse, they marry or don’t marry, they raise a family, or don’t raise a family, they build a dam or do not build a dam. They are free to decide their fate and they exercise that freedom.

• Dew arrived, alone, in mid-December, at a new site below my house. I do not know what calamity led to such a desperate act. According to the list of Beaver Observations, by December beavers have finished their preparations for a season under the ice and snow. Because Dew is of heroic stock, she succeeded in establishing a homestead and finding food in the heart of winter.

I have heard biologists sniff disdainfully that it is never a good idea to “name” an animal you are studying. You can see the steady dedication of this in the field as they refer to their tracked targets as “P-22 or B-51”. At first blush this appears so much more rational and distant. Like the behavior of real scientists.

But after a while you start to notice that these appellations are just NAMES – (albeit particularly charmless ones). When my naturalist buddies on facebook are discussing a wolf or puma that got hit by a car they all use the proper title – but with just as much affection as if it had been named Dewdrop or Willow after all. “P-17 was killed crossing the 405” they mourn numerically. And you can still feel the sorrow.

• Dew survived an attack by a bear, almost certainly the same bear that killed her mother, Willow, the previous fall. Once Dew recovered, she moved in with Henry, Willow’s widower, and since I’m using definitions applied to human families, we’ll call him her step-father.

I now resume the untold chapters. Early the next winter, Henry disappeared, probably victim of a predator. Dew remained alone through the next year and prepared for winter at a new site. When I skied upstream during a frigid spell in January, I discovered her tracks by a hole in the ice upstream from her lodge and food supply. I couldn’t find any openings in the ice that would allow her to return home. Because she is of heroic stock, I assumed she would find a way back.

Back when I myself was a beaver observer, I saw a few things that even I didn’t believe. Take “Reed” for instance. S/he was one of the three orphans left behind when our first female died. I always thought of him as a male but I’ve come to understand him as female now. Reed had the unique habit of only building dams with reeds – (hence the name). Her tightly woven dams were packed with tulles and looked like baskets. One morning not too long after the father returned from his time away I saw him swim up to the secondary dam where she was working – weaving. He was floating a big tree trunk beside him and earnestly suggesting this should be on the dam.

The observer in me saw him lift that trunk onto the dam. And just as clearly watched Reed push it back down off the dam. The psychologist in my head filled in the lines “Son, we use logs when we build:” But the young architect ignored this advice. “I have to do it my own way father”.

And she did. Dad never interfered again, and Reed never used trees. She dispersed a few months later and when I saw the first woven dam in Napa I wondered if it was hers.

I returned to search for Dew in late spring. Her half-sibling, Gentian, had spent the winter just below my house. I checked in with her first, and then worked my way upstream looking for signs of beaver activity. At Dew’s winter home, I found her intact food cache. As I continued on, I found beaver activity from the past few months, but not the past few days. I arrived at Popple’s Pond, a mile from my starting point, and decided it was time to turn back. First, I would walk across the dam to see if there was any sign of life in the little pond just below. In the middle of the dam someone had deposited a fresh armload of mud. “Dew?” I asked, hopefully. Sure enough, a beaver appeared from the ruins of a lodge and swam toward me. I headed for the shore and a reunion. The beaver who climbed up to join me was the skinniest beaver I have ever seen. I suspect she had, indeed, survived the winter cut off from her food supply.

EEK! A skinny beaver!

In the ensuing weeks, she has put some weight back on. We have shared the golden light of many evenings. This week, as she raised herself to eat an apple, I noticed that her belly was exceptionally large and that she had visible nipples. Dew is going to have kits! How is this possible? The only local beaver I know of is Gentian. You know, the half-sibling who lives a mile downstream. I have assumed the two are sisters since even closely related beavers will form a pair bond if there is no other choice. Maybe Gentian is a male and they decided to mate during a spring thaw, but not live together? Could there be another beaver I haven’t found who is living in his own lodge upstream? Perhaps the answer is immaculate conception? I’ll let you know if a beaver kit with a halo appears. That will be a new one for my list of Beaver Observations.

I don’t know how Dew found herself pregnant, I don’t know why beavers build dams with reeds when there are perfectly good trees available. But you don’t either. And I have learned we are better off just watching than pointing reflexively to the science.

Thanks Patti.

IN PATTI SMITH’S WORLD

heidi08 Beaver Book, Beaver Rehabilitation April 27, 2022

I want to live in naturalist Patti Smith’s world.

I don’t care if it’s as a person, a beaver, a possum or a slug. I just want to live in a world where she notices things and describes things and fixes things and makes them better. If that means moving to Vermont, fine. You probably want to come too.

The View from Heifer Hill: The perfect place to be a beaver

Pumpkin has always had important things to do. Beavers’ lives depend upon creating and maintaining the watery world that keeps them safe. Because he is an orphan, however, his work has been stymied. How does one deepen a metal tank? How can one harvest building materials on the other side of a fence? (more…)

BEAVERS IN VERMONT ARE DAM LUCKY!

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver ecological impact, Flow Device Installed March 12, 2022

Now this is a delightful read about our old friend Skip Lisle in Halifax Vermont. Enjoy every paragraph because you don’t wake up to this every day.

Bothersome beavers bedevil Halifax

HALIFAX — Keystone species are those that have a disproportionately large effect on their habitats. “They help maintain biodiversity and there are no other species in the ecosystem that can serve their same function,” wrote Amy McKeever, for National Geographic. “Without them, their ecosystem would change dramatically or could even cease to exist.”

When a keystone species is removed from its natural habitat, the result is known as a trophic cascade, a disruption of a natural food web in a particular ecosystem.“Beavers are a keystone species that help with flood resiliency and create environments for a full range of creatures from salamanders up to moose,” said Stephan Chait, the chairman of the Halifax Conservation Commission. “They are important neighbors we need to learn to live with.” (more…)

THE HOW AND THE WHY OF LIVING WITH BEAVERS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver Art October 15, 2021

Do you ever get the feeling that people just wake up one day and start to notice beavers for the first time? Like they never thought of them before but now all of the sudden they’re sitting up and saying “Hey! That’s a big rodent!” Sometimes the dawning realization is heartening to read about and sometimes its not, but given that this is from Connecticut its not too shabby.

Nature Notes: Return of beavers a conservation success story

There are an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 beavers now living in Connecticut, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, or CT DEEP. The return of these amazing rodents is a conservation success story, much like the great comeback stories of ospreys and bald eagles. But it didn’t come easily.

Beavers were extirpated from Connecticut and much of their eastern range by the mid-1800s. Their velvety soft, durable pelts were shipped by the thousands to Europe, where they were turned into coats or felt top hats, becoming the rage from the late 16th to mid-19th centuries.

But thanks to trapping regulations and decades of restoration work by dedicated wildlife managers, these unique animals have made a stunning comeback. In fact, there are now more beavers in Connecticut than at any time during the past three centuries, CT DEEP officials claim.

Bill I generally like any story that frames the return of beavers as good news, A conservation success story. Now lets see what else this reporter has to say about them.

Finally, one must talk about the impacts of beavers on our lives. Some are good and some are bad.

The positives are beaver activity often creates vital wetland habitat for fish and waterfowl. Others include pollution filtration, chemical and nutrient absorption, flood control, and aquatic productivity, to name a few.

Negatives include tree cutting, flooding of private and public lands, damage to man-made structures, and water quality and public health issues, to name a few.bout t

The good news is there are methods to protect trees from beaver damage, using so-called exclusion fencing, and clever water level control devices that wildlife management professionals can install to prevent flooding of private lands.o go

In other words, where there’s a will, there’s a way. And let’s not forget something else: “The beavers are simply doing what is natural, and tolerating their activity is part of coexisting with wildlife,” Wilson sensibly writes.

Not bad, Bill Hobbs wrote this column and was willing to say a few nice things about beavers. But still if I lived in on of those east coast postage stamp states and could choose where to learn about beavers, I’d chose Vermont. Especially this upcoming talk by Skip Lisle and Patti Smith.

Green River Watershed Alliance offers beaver education programs

GUILFORD—On the weekend of Oct. 16 and 17, the Green River Watershed Alliance will host two programs on beavers.

The ponds and wetlands created by these industrious animals help mitigate drought and the impact of floods. They increase the richness and diversity of wildlife habitat. They can also cause headaches for road crews and property owners.

The first program will take place in Marlboro on Oct. 16. Participants will meet at the post office at 4 p.m. and will drive from there to visit a couple of beaver ponds at the headwaters of the Green River.

Patti Smith, naturalist at the Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center and longtime watcher of beavers, will interpret the signs of autumnal beaver activity. Fall is the best season for beaver watching; the beavers are busy preparing for winter, there are no more mosquitoes, and the colors of autumn are reflected in the waters of the pond.

Ahhh Patti! Sharing her great love with the good people of Guilford, If you haven’t yet picked up a copy of her book you really owe it to yourself to read her lovely tales in The Beavers of Popples Pond.

These sites are both on quiet back roads and provide “wonderful opportunities for wildlife watching year-round,” the GRWA notes in a news release. “They exist, in part, because of the flow devices installed to keep the beavers from plugging culverts.”

Biologist Skip Lisle has developed these systems for resolving beaver conflicts and will co-lead this outing. Lisle will talk about how the devices work and why he has dedicated his life to helping beavers to do their work.

On Sunday, Oct. 17, the second program, a problem-solving event, will take place in Guilford at the Soszynski Farm, 1136 Guilford Center Rd., at 1 p.m. The pond there is a beaver magnet and previous owners have had a zero-tolerance policy.

Do you get that? Patti will talk about the why of beavers and Skip will talk about the HOW. What a perfect PERFECT combination.

When the Soszynskis moved in, they hoped to have a different relationship with the beavers. Can it be done?

The session will begin with a half-hour presentation in the barn. (Bring a folding chair if you’d like to sit.) Lisle will talk about the solutions he uses to prevent culvert blocking, regulate water levels, and safeguard prized trees. The group will then tour the farm’s beaver wetlands with an eye toward conflict resolution and letting beavers do their work.

How great is that? The new owners are looking for solutions so Skip will present them in the barn to all interested attendees. I couldn’t be any happier with this beaver curriculum if I’d planned it myself.