Tag: Skip Lisle

IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL BORROW

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? May 9, 2019

You know how it is, you rack your brain thinking up some bright idea and if you’re lucky by the time the clock hits 3 in the morning you get an inspiration. And you think, hey that might work. It might work really well. You get up your courage and tentatively launch it to the world and immediately everybody wants to borrow it.

Yesterday we got our beaver ‘yard signs’ back from GLT for the festival and were loving how they looked. I shared one photo and the incoming director of The Methow project already asked if she can use them.

My goal this year was to expand beaver education to the adult audience. I think this does it. Those are going to look so cool in the grass around the stage!

Then Fur-bearers launched their latest awesome podcast whose title you just know was a brain child of our own very original name.

Defender Radio host Michael Howie spent four days in Belleville, Ontario, where a nearly year-long process to protect beavers after one was found in a trapped reached its conclusion. The interviews included in this episode were recorded in the field with local residents, political leaders, and the inventor of the Beaver Deceiver himself, Skip Lisle. Read more and see photos by clicking here.

It’s a great interview with Doug, Skip and some other locals. My favorite part remains the shocked horror with which Doug and his neighbors greet the discovery that in this modern day and age that beavers are still brutally trapped.

I just love hearing the shock in his voice.

Oh and I’m not worried that ideas are borrowed or appropriated. The more people talking about the neat things beavers do the better, They can use, alter or window dress my ideas however they like.

Something tells me I’ll make more.

BACK TOGETHER AGAIN

heidi08 Beaver Book, Friends of Martinez Beavers April 23, 2019

Just look at this beautiful website! Oh how i’ve missed you! I swear my journey back has taken three days, seven techs, two specialists and a new modem. It got so bad and i was on the phone with comcast so much that everyone knew and was talking about my problem. Apparently it had never happened before, and the specialist they sent out monday had spend hours searching for possible clues on the internet because he’d never encountered it. His hail mary pass was to install a new modem because he said sometimes there were tiny switches that got reset.

And what do you know, it worked!

The punchline? When we finally got this website back up, he looked at the page of flat-tailed heroes and said, “there used to be some beavers in martinez on the news that were causing trouble and people saved them, did you have anything to do with that?”

Oh, a little, I smiled.

And just in time for the momentous restoration, there is a wonderful review of Ben’s book this morning AND a great article about Skip Lisle. Since I’m no longer on the ipad you can have both!

Review: “Eager: the Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter

Goldfarb is an environmental journalist who has trekked with “beaver believers” around the U.S., covering much of the North American Beaver’s (Castor canadensis) modern range. He also reports on three Eurasian Beaver (Castor fiber) reintroduction sites in Scotland and England.

“Eager” is this year’s winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award Literary Science Writing Award. This honor goes to writing of literary excellence, which also communicates complex scientific concepts to a lay audience.

Goldfarb meets a couple of enterprising beaver advocates who have developed various flow devices to allow beavers and humans to better co-exist. They go by catchy names like beaver baffle, misery multiplier and beaver deceiver. Skeptics and frustrated municipalities have been won over by their success.

On the list of beaver blessings, water storage may be most beneficial to those requiring a purely practical reason to believe. In the chapter titled “California Streaming,” we meet an authority-activist who even created the beaver pledge: “One river, underground, irreplaceable, with habitat and wetlands for all.”

Sniff. That’s me! I’m so proud!

Aside from the gratuitous validation, this is an excellent review that really deals with the substance of why beavers matter. And being that it’s from beavers’ favorite state, I’m not at all surprised.

When beavers are allowed to set up housekeeping, streams spread out of their degraded, incised path to include side channels and ponds, holding precious water. And a stream in the desert, which includes beavers slowing it down, recharges low water tables, too.

Another benefit is the improved fish habitat resulting from beaver dams. In contrast to nearly impenetrable and enormous concrete dams, semi-permeable stick dams allow juvenile fish to meander through; slower flows and eddies provide resting areas and protection from predators. Fish evolved to co-exist and benefit from beaver meadows. Goldfarb delights in this truth found on a beaver believer’s bumper sticker: “BEAVERS TAUGHT SALMON TO JUMP.”

Yes they did, and we’re pretty happy Ben’s book is reminding folks of that fact. We also appreciate this well-written review by Amy Halvorson Miller who works for Inklings Bookshop. She definitely paid attention to all the right things.

Pausing again, to appreciate having this website back again. Ahhh

Now onto our second wonderful story of the day. This time about this city’s first very first beaver hero,Skip Lisle.

Beaver Deceivers: System protects animals, prevents flooding

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Skip Lisle has a spent a lifetime trying to outwit beavers in an attempt to keep them alive, protect their habitats and save people millions of dollars.

His Graftton, Vt.-based business, Beaver Deceivers, employs a clever system he designed that allows the animals to build dams without causing flooding, which triggers expensive property damage.

“It’s essentially a way to control the problem non-lethally,” Lisle said. “There’s still a lot of beavers being killed out there, mostly because of clogged road culverts. This eliminates the need to do that.”“All kinds of plants and animals can live here because of these few families of beaver,” he said.

If beavers are killed off, their dams eventually decay and give way, which causes wetlands to drain and eliminate habitat for many different kinds of insects, birds, reptiles and mammals.

“Thousands of species depend on these wetlands,” Lisle said.

Yes, they do, and thanks to you Skip all these wildlife tenants have a shot. And the wildlife in martinez had a shot. You gave our beavers the chance they needed to make a difference and survive long enough to become chapter 6 of ben’s book and this website. There needs to be a million more Skip Lisles in every state in North America. So far we have 5,

It’s a long way to go, but we’re well on our way.

ANDOVER BEAVER SENSE

heidi08 Beavers and Culvert Protection November 12, 2018

Time for some good news, this time from our friends in Andover, New Hampshire who have worked hard to solve beaver problems the same way Martinez did: bringing in Skip Lisle.

SMALL TOWN, COSTLY PROBLEM

Andover sits at the base of Ragged Mountain in central New Hampshire. The town’s 2,500 residents value its rich network of streams, ponds, and lakes. So does a healthy population of beavers. Dams built by beavers in eight of the town’s road culverts were a perpetual problem. When dams plugged culverts, waters rose and flooded roadways. The heavy equipment required to remove the dams cost $125 hour. Clearing a single culvert often took several hours. Exhorbitant costs were also incurred to repair degraded roads.

This lovely handout was made by the good folks of “Voices of wildlife in New Hampshire.” It’s so well done that I’m just cutting and pasting to give you the idea. I will link to it at the end so that you can distribute if you wish. Remember New Hampshire is the home of our friend Art Wolinsky who has been persuading folks on the ground and helping VWNH when he can. It’s starting to look like a great place to be a beaver.

Hey I know that fellow! So do you! That’s Skip Lisle of Beaver Deceivers Int’l installing a beaver deceiver to protect those culverts. Nice to see a city that solves beaver problems the smart way.

CONCEPT PROVEN, CONFLICT SOLVED

With its roads and culverts safe from beaver damming and damage, the town will save a lot of money in coming decades. By choosing flow devices over traditional management, Andover expects to save approximately $130,000 over a ten-year period, and nearly $500,000 over a thirty-year period. Extrapolated across a given county or state, the potential savings represented by the use of properly designed, high-quality flow devices could be breathtaking. In addition, there are many nearby wetlands worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in ecological and hydrological services that would drain if beavers were killed and their dams not maintained.

I always thought that making culverts permanently ‘beaver proof’ was a no-brainer. Heck why not even build them that way in the first place? I really love the handout. I just have a few criticisms. First off their name doesn’t appear on it, which is a mistake for something this sharp which is going to get shared why not brag? And secondly their prices estimates are woefully low. When you do the math, that graph only estimates about 100 bucks a year to clean those 8 culverts without Skips help. I seriously doubt that’s accurate. Do they never have to rent heavy equipment? Do they never have to pay overtime? Does it never require more than one visit or one employee? 100 bucks a year hardly pays for waders.

Glynnis Hood’s study of the costs save was much more convincing even though we know it was a very cautious estimate.. “Mitigating Infastructure Loss from Beaver Flooding”.

I guess our friends at VWNH were trying to be as conservative as possible, but even so the case if pretty clear. Fixing the problem for the long hall saves valuable funds, time and effort. Cities are busy. They have better things to do than clean culverts. Beavers are with us everywhere, and you won’t get rid of problems by getting rid of a few. Better to solve the problem for the long term.

YOU CAN’T ‘SKIP’ VERMONT

heidi08 Beaver Book July 26, 2018

If you had to pick a single paper in the nation that features the most accurate beaver stories, you would be hard pressed to find one more engaging and reliable than the Brattleboro Reformer in Vermont. They were the first ones to cover the lovely, intimate field notes of Patti Smith who went on to author the Beavers of Popples pond, and they are always quick on the draw to follow the important work of Skip Lisle.

Now they are fielding Ben Goldfarb’s book which talks about their 0wn homegrown hero.

Nature’s Carpenters

Resourceful rodents create entire ecosystems

Grafton resident Skip Lisle, a beaver expert, shows off a newer version of his beaver deceiver.

GRAFTON — In the 1960s, if you lived in Vermont, you had to go to a zoo to see a beaver.

Not any more.

Author Ben Goldfarb, whose book “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter” was published last month by Chelsea Green Press of White River Junction, was in Grafton Friday afternoon to meet up with one of the subjects of his book: Skip Lisle of Grafton and Beaver Deceivers International.

“We want beavers to keep creating wetlands,” said Lisle, who Goldfarb describes in his book as “the world’s foremost castorid conflict mediator.”

Translation: Lisle knows a lot about helping beavers co-exist with humans and avoiding fatal wildlife conflicts.

Lisle earned his place in Goldfarb’s book by inventing the anti-trap: a wire and wood device that he calls the ‘beaver deceiver’ that keeps road culverts free and flowing.

Lisle said when he was a kid, his parents took him to a New Hampshire wildlife zoo to see a beaver.

That certainly isn’t the case in 2018, as Lisle’s corner of Grafton has a thriving beaver community, and according to Lisle, all forms of wildlife are thriving thanks to the beavers.

The wetland was full of vibrant wildflowers, birds flitted from touch-me-not to touch-me-not, the concentric circles from rising fish dotted the wetland, and countless songbirds flitted constantly. Wood ducks, Canada geese and hooded mergansers also made the large pond home. Before the beavers, Lisle said, it was a field.

“Now it’s just teeming with life,” he said, to the plunking of wood frogs and a chorus of birdsong.

It’s Martinez hero and our old friend Skip Lisle! Hi Skip! And hey look Ben Goldfarb is right beside him! Wasnt he just here at the beaver festival? It’s amazing when you think about it how many beaver paths go through Martinez.

Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb visits Grafton resident Skip Lisle, a beaver expert, during a book tour for Goldfarb’s book “Eager” on Friday, July 20, 2018.

Lisle, a wildlife biologist by training, said he wishes flow devices would be accepted and put into use to save more beavers.

He said he built his first deceiver out of his father’s garden fencing.

He travels all over New England installing the ‘deceivers,” which are wire contraptions built around culverts or other drainage pipes and which prevent the beavers from damming the culverts. In essence, the ‘deceivers’ create permanent leaks in a beaver’s dam, allowing water to drain at a slow rate and thus avoid the ire of highway engineers and public works directors.

“He’s a pretty big figure in the beaver community,” Goldfarb said of Lisle.

Goldfarb, an environmental writer whose work has appeared in Mother Jones and Audubon Magazine, as well as High Country News, recently moved from Northhampton, Mass., to Spokane, Wash. He and Lisle acted like old friends. They share a devotion to the sleek, nocturnal mammal and its pivotal role in the environment. Goldfarb, like Lisle, is a ‘beaver believer.’

To Lisle and Goldfarb, it is nothing short of murder the practice in which some state highway departments and road foremen trap and kill beavers rather than find a way to co-exist and prevent damage to roads and other infrastructure.

Beavers have played an even more important role out West in creating wetlands and restoring some of the ecological balance, and co-existing with cattle grazing.

Goldfarb was on his way to Manchester for a book signing event at the Northshire Bookstore. He has traveled all over the United States and even to Scotland to research and write his book, which was commissioned by Chelsea Green.

Do you think a beaver book has ever made a bigger splash? Even though there was a flurry of press around Glynnis Hood’s book debut and Francis Backhouse still gets good coverage, I never saw anything like this sustained, cross country beaver benefits tour. I don’t even want to think about how depressed I’m going to be when this is over. Carpe Diem!

Beaver dams do pose flood risks, he said, but they are also “forces of flood mitigation.”

“I’ve been battling this for 25 years,” said Lisle, who said he has hopes that Goldfarb’s book will open people’s eyes to the importance of the beaver.

It’s wonderful to see Skip get ‘founding father’ status. He should. And it’s great to see yet another persuasive voice for Ben’s book. Aren’t you curious how it’s doing already in sales? Well, it’s off to a bang up start, that’s for sure. Ben’s book is headed to the Washington Post this weekend and booked locally for Terra Vera KPFA radio on friday. Where, as it turns out, I will also be serving in a minor role discussing the historical California conundrum. So far I don’t get the impression the host doesn’t seem to like me very much so I’m expecting to be mostly ignored, but who knows?

Big Sky Beavers

heidi08 Beaver Conference, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? October 29, 2017

Not too long ago Rachel Hofman of the NWF magazine in Vermont contacted me about an event they were co-sponsoring with the Clark Fork Coalition in Montana about the benefits of beavers. She was working on a flyer to promote the event and wanted to use a few of Cheryl’s great photos to do so. The talk would be given on October 25th by Amy Chadwick, who is also a friend of ours.

It sounded like a fine cause, and it reminded me I hadn’t seen that particular photo in a while, so Cheryl gave consent and then we pretty much forgot about it because not long after our exchange the entire napa-sonoma valley erupted in flames and that held our attention for a while. Yesterday I was reminded of it by reader Rob Rich who sent me some great information they put out on beavers. It reminded me that I had forgotten to share it, so enjoy!

Beavers – Nuisances or Watershed Heroes?

For CFC’s inaugural Beaver Month we chatted with Andrew Jakes, Regional Wildlife Biologist for National Wildlife Federation about the unsung bucktooth heroes of the watershed – the beaver.

Why are beavers considered ecosystem engineers?

Beavers aren’t just considered ecosystem engineers…beavers are THE quintessential ecosystem engineer! They change a landscape like no other species in the world, besides humans. They change the landscape to suit their needs, and when they do that, it turns out that they change a lot of other things too.

OK, so what else changes in the landscape when beavers are present and building dams?

So much! When beavers show up, a lot starts to change. Studies have shown that beaver dams change everything in the system; from soil to vegetation to water quality to wildlife. It’s hard to sum up in only a few sentences, but I’ll do my best to give you a summary…

First of all, beaver dams slow the flow of water. This means water is on the landscape for longer. This can cause the floodplain to expand, soil structure to change, and the water table to rise. All of this also means that riparian vegetation can thrive. This means extra foraging opportunities for beavers and other creatures, so more wildlife starts to frequent the area. It’s no secret that wetlands are beneficial to the ecosystem, and beavers are little wetland creators.

The bottom line of all this is that when a beaver dam shows up, we see an increase in biodiversity, which thereby means the ecosystem becomes more resilient.

Mother and kit enjoying fennel: Cheryl Reynolds

You can read the rest of it the fine story here. The entire ‘beaver appreciation month’ concluded with the talk by Amy Chadwick at a local pub in Missoula on Thursday evening. Obviously convincing the land owners of Montana to coexist with beavers takes the best and the brightest, and Amy (who worked with Skip Lisle) is well up to the task.

Walk and Talk: Busting Beaver Myths

During the month of October, the Clark Fork Coalition is putting a spotlight on the hard-working, fur-ball hero of the watershed – the beaver. Join the Clark Fork Coalition and Ecologist Amy Chadwick for an evening of natural history and cutting-edge restoration featuring beavers and beaver mimicry. Chadwick is an Ecologist at Great West Engineering and the chair of the Montana Beaver Workgroup. Amy has been working in stream and wetland ecosystem assessment and restoration in Montana for 20 years, but in recent years her work has focused primarily on beaver habitat restoration and improving natural water storage.

Amy will share facts of about beaver ecology, review how beaver act as ‘ecosystem engineers’ in western watersheds, and share the implications lost beaver habitats on our water budget. Chadwick will be joined by Andrew Jakes, Wildlife Biologist with the National Wildlife Federation for a discussion of beaver habitat recovery work underway in the Upper Clark Fork and a Q & A session.

Don’t you wish you were there listening to Amy’s talk? I met her at the Beaver Conference in 2013 and we have kept in touch over the years when beaver issues arose over the years. She worked with Skip installing flow devices in the area for a while and now carries on the work bravely on her own. It’s wonderful to see folks like Amy and the Clark Fork Coalition working in their own backyard to make way for beavers and teaching others about their benefit to the environment. I hope the beaver night was a resounding success and I hope NWF thinks of us first when they have a beaver event to promote in the future!