Tag: Ralph Maughan

FIREPROOF BEAVERS

As California continues to set itself on fire like a Hindi widow faithful, it might be useful to think specifically of one thing in particular that beavers do. They happen to do it better than anyone else in the world. And its all they do, every day, everywhere, 24/7 with minimal tools, for free.

Can you guess where I’m going with this? All the way to Alberta and this great article by Brenda Schoepp.

What do you want your fresh water used for?

It all began with industrious engineers who understood hydrology and the importance of water. They built dams and created wetlands throughout Canada, and in doing so had a system in place for water preservation and purification.

The harvest of the beaver had an impact on wetlands and our current-day contribution to climatic change. Wetlands are multifunctional systems that purify water and encourage a system of regeneration. It is estimated that 70 per cent of wetlands in Canada (65 per cent in Alberta) have been lost as part of this disruption in the natural order of things.

How do we protect the quality of the water when we don’t know what beavers know? How do we use less water when the economy is exploding? Do we fully appreciate and understand the profound relationship between action and consequence? And is there a political will to invest in science and technology to ensure water for all?

Good questions every one. And there probably isn’t a single answer, but one of them surely is furry. This is as good a time as any to revisit this wonderful chestnut by Ralph Maughan for Wildlife News.

Beaver restoration would reduce wildfires

After almost every large wildfire or fires that do significant damage to structures, people ask for proactive measures. The desire for this is rational. It needs no explanation.

The most common plausible sounding solution used in the Western United States is large scale fuel reduction — little fuel; little fire. A big problem with fuels reduction is that you have to pay to have it done. Potential fuel covers hundreds of millions of acres. We say “potential” fuel because what will burn varies greatly. Some years are too wet. Every year hundreds of fires burn out, but a wind, not drought could make them quickly into great conflagrations. Politicians often use the words “logging” and “fuel reduction” in the same breath, but commercial logging, where the land owner gets paid, only works for good timber. That’s mostly not what is burning. Dry brush, droughty green trees, dying or dead trees, cheatgrass, and annual weeds — that’s what is usually burning. It is difficult and far too expensive to eliminate these.

One idea that is rarely mentioned is to keep the stream bottoms green and raise the humidity. How could this be done? Let’s restore beaver to the creeks of the Western United States. This is much less expensive than cutting out or clearing potential fuels. It also has significant fish and wildlife benefits. We can often add flood control too, plus the recharge of aquifers.

A string of beaver ponds up a drainage is like a permanent fire break. The ponds not only enlarge the area covered with water, more importantly, they increase the portion of the creek or streamside area (the riparian zone) that stays green all summer. They raise the ground water level. Beaver ponds also increase the humidity of air in the drainage. The result is fewer hours in a day when wildfires can burn hot and hard.

Beaver could be a powerful tool to tame the effects of climate change.

Can we talk about those spongy marshlands that beavers make now? Can California look up from the raging torrents in Redding and Clearlake and think, gosh maybe I should be using a different method to clean my culverts besides killing the water-savers.

Anyone who puts two and two together will come up with this.

The Gem State’s real gem

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Festival, Who's saving beavers now? June 18, 2014

The next big beaver struggle won’t happen in Whistler or the Adirondacks – it is starting right now in Idaho. The issue is trapping on public land, and the playing field is constantly growing. Monday I chatted with Mike Settel in Pocatello who is planning the first ever Idaho beaver festival to teach folk about how and why to live with beavers!

He’s working for a 2-day event in September on USFS land that is focused around music. A beaver dam jam! It will have exhibits and booths and hikes to various beaver sites. Of course the location used to be the site of actual beavers, but they were killed by trapping. I told him he needs signs saying “this is where the beavers aren’t.” and “this is where there are no big fish because the beavers aren’t here to maintain their dams anymore.” You get the idea. He is planning to have folks take a pledge not to harm the beavers if they go on a hike to an active lodge.

We talked about sponsors and crowds and restrooms and event insuranc; about art projects, jam contests, adult quizzes, raffles and maps. We talked about allies and helpers and I made sure to give him the most valuable tool of all that has sustained me lo, these many years.

Remember that Mike isn’t a lone voice in the wilderness. He got a 5000 dollar grant last year from Audubon for doing a beaver cont, and found 75 volunteers to help him make it happen. There’s the Lorax and his merry men, Ralph Maughan who wrote about how the Idaho fires would have been lessened if there were enough beavers on the land. And don’t forget this columnist from the Idaho Statesman:

Ask Zimo: Beavers are common in Idaho, but seeing them is rare

Q: My mom and I were at the family cabin in Garden Valley this weekend when she noticed an unusual rock that turned out to be a beaver. We were very surprised by the sighting and wanted to share the photos. Wondering if this is a rare sighting; we’ve never seen wild beavers anywhere.

TAYLOR TODD, via-email

A: Beavers are not rare in Idaho, but seeing them is rare. That’s because they are nocturnal. Consider yourself lucky to get photos of one during the day. That’s great.

What a critter. Beavers are considered one of the most important animals for the ecosystem.

The neat thing about this busy animal is its work in rehabilitating streams, the brushy areas along waterways and for creating wetlands that are important for fish, waterfowl, reptiles and other wildlife. Their work in building dams helps slow down runoff and preventing erosion.

I love fishing a creek where there are beaver dams and pools hiding brook trout. That’s some of the best fishing around.

Good point! I can’t think of many better selling points in trap-happy Idaho than mentioning that living beavers make conditions that sustain more fish, duck, otter, mink and moose. I’m not a fan of trapping because I generally think it’s easier to take a life than to make one, but if folks will respect the voice of a trapper who became a dedicated beaver believer, I suggest they read this:

He started with two beavers, a dry, over-trapped landscape, and a whispered directive from a crazy native grandma. If you never read this book, you really should. Buy a used copy or read it online here.

Backdrafts and Beavers

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers October 29, 2013

You’ll be happy to know there was lots of follow-up to yesterday’s post about Dr. Maughan’s article proposing beaver re-introduction as a partial solution to reduce wildfires. He wrote me himself and thanked me for the comments on his article, and I’m hoping to get him invited to the next beaver conference. Meanwhile I got these comments from Amy Chadwick who was less than rosy about the idea. Remember she’s the one who is working with Skip Lisle installing flow devices in Montana. She did eventually agree that we need an intermountain area beaver conference soon where everyone can talk over these ideas.

I’m not sure there’s a lot of merit to what he’s saying, at least for western landscapes, especially in mountainous terrain. I could see in some wide valleys where beaver have been removed, conifers are encroaching, and the area hasn’t already been cleared for development, that beavers could make a difference, but any effects from more beaver would probably be pretty localized, and in large fires that isn’t enough. A burning ember can travel up to a mile, they say. One could even make the case that increased humidity may increase growth of trees near the stream corridor, increasing fuels.

My point is, it’s probably over-simplified and definitely optimistic.
In my work this summer I have been looking at the other end of this issue, and seeing where fire suppression has been allowing too dense tree growth, conifer encroachment, and eventual drying up of headwaters, as well as shading out willows and aspen, so beaver don’t have the food they need to move back in even if there still were adequate flow. I have seen lots of areas with signs of historic beaver activity where there’s no longer any water, and some struggling or dead aspen or willows left under a conifer canopy. A lot of our headwaters are drying up. I have also seen a case where aspen re-sprouted everywhere and the stream started flowing again within 3 years of a big burn. We need more fire on our forests, in a big way. Most of the forest management budget goes toward fighting fire in the urban interface where people build homes. According to one model we need to thin and burn 20% of the forest for the next 10 years to restore balance. So stopping fires is the wrong goal.

Massive fires are the new norm due to a century of fire suppression and poor forest management. What beaver ponds CAN do is improve habitat and critter population resiliency under fire, and trap the increased sediment and mitigate flood flows after forest fires. The huge floods in Boulder after the fires the previous year probably would not have been nearly as severe if the wetlands in the headwaters had been intact. They probably still would have flooded where they built within the greater floodplain, but you know… that’s another issue.

Well, that’s certainly another perspective on the issue. More fires not less? I daresay that’s an opinion that would get even less public approval than beavers! Especially right now after the recent Yosemite and Idaho fires. Thanks Amy for your thought-provoking remarks, and don’t ever say we’re a monotheistic society here at beaver central.

Now onto a nice, (if somewhat invasive) look at the free beavers of the river Tay. I bet these beavers keep telling themselves it’s [slightly] better than being dead.

Beaver Creek Fire

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental October 28, 2013

Beaver restoration would reduce wildfires

By Ralph Maughan

More effective and less expensive than logging, beaver also provide fish, wildlife and flood control benefits.

After almost every large wildfire or fires that do significant damage to structures, people ask for proactive measures. One idea that is rarely mentioned is to keep the stream bottoms green and raise the humidity. How could this be done? Let’s restore beaver to the creeks of the Western United States. This is much less expensive than cutting out or clearing potential fuels. It also has significant fish and wildlife benefits. We can often add flood control too, plus the recharge of aquifers.

Well said, professor Maughan. We reviewed a column of his not too long ago, and I approached our Idaho beaver friend to see if they were acquainted. Not yet – was the answer. Dr. Maughan seems to be a new voice on the beaver stage. Road to Damascus moment? Or movement from active to emeritus professor changed the list of topics he could address? I’m going to guess the latter and keep pestering him with invitations to come to the State of the Beaver conference next year. You know the raging fires in Idaho burned through the famous Sun Valley and BEAVER CREEK right?

Idaho’s general attitude towards beavers is a ‘shoot first ask questions later’ policy. Not unlike the one reflected in this comic strip: Mark Trail by Jack Elrod. His lovely wildlife drawings have captured attention of readers for many years and his plots unfold over days or weeks. I encountered in the Sacramento Bee and my father would call me to make sure I read when an issue featured you-know-whats. In one chapter it followed the adventure of a young dispersing beaver, through danger, past crocodiles, back out of a trap, and into the whiskers of a new mate where they started their homestead. They thought their future was bright until the land owner reacted predictably:

It’s a comic strip remember so there are no hats or perfume are made on the pages. As it happens, a raging fire breaks out near the remote land and several adjacent structures go up in flames. The crew on hand is working valiantly to put out the blaze but it’s hard work with no water lines and a limited supply of pumping stations. Alert readers could guess what followed next.

Beaver ponds save the day again! Maybe Dr. Maughan reads this comic strip too?

Additional fire related benefits of beaver are that their ponds offer remote, dispersed water storage reservoirs that could be used by firefighters during fires. Areas with beaver may serve as refuges for all animals during a fire.

Go read the whole article and tell Dr. Maughan that beavers are a good subject to write about! Idaho has a lot of homework to catch up on, but he’s making a great deal of headway. There are a whole bunch of people in Idaho that are scratching their heads this morning, and that’s definitely a start. (And thanks to B.K. in Georgia who gave me the heads up on this article in the first place or I might have missed it.)