Swimming Upstream to Trout Unlimited

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere April 12, 2015

We left bright and early for Coloma yesterday with lots of time to spare thank goodness because google’s infinite wisdom directed us to a private road and dead end. Luckily there was an actual map in the car to guide us although I wouldn’t swear it was printed before 1975. As it was we had to ask a ranger at Coloma state park for the last turn, and would never have seen the tiny lane heading off to the American River Resort. We had literally minutes to spare when I set up, threw the equipment together and tried to make sure that everything was working.

The rustic event center where it was held was marked with a huge stone fireplace and scattered with round tables where the (mostly male) presidents gathered after lunch outside to hear the strange beaver-lady. Some parts of the room were a tough sell, but I did my dammedest [sic], and there were many good questions and much appreciation when I was done. My host, John Sikora of El Dorado Trout Unlimited was very grateful and presented Worth A Dam with a 15o.oo dollar check for the service. I met Cindy Noble, the president of TU from the Feather River who had recently asked to link her project to the website. And Brian Hines the man whose presentation I had followed the SRF workshop on urban stream restoration. And Jerry Bender, the president of Santa Rosa’s TU who was eager for beaver in Santa Rosa and wanted me to think about talking to his chapter or to his Kiwanis group at 7 on the morning! (Ahem.) And the we loaded up our equipment and made the long winding way back home.

These photos should give you an idea of the day. The tiny brown dot at the back is me talking beavers. Some of the crowd were very appreciative and into the topic but there were a few scowling men who were less appreciative. A few untreated cases of ‘mansplaining’ posed as questions at the end, which always irks me greatly. I left with the feeling that I would love to get alone them in a room and lecture them privately about beavers for hours. One of the surprising parts to me is how eager many of them were for Fish and Wildlife to change its rules about beaver location. They all felt it should happen imminently – which my channels tell me unlikely. The more pressure the better! And their impatience will only help.

A good day, a hard day, and useful inroads were made. I was exhausted by the time we made it home. Now we have to shift our focus to Earth Day next week!

Here’s the sorry update on ~~Choppa~~ Chappa. Apparently I’ve been spelling his name wrong. Although I’m not sure he can spell anyway. Looks like it’s only a matter of time.

Call the WAAmbulance! More beavers hurting fish.

heidi08 Beavers and salmon, Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now? July 11, 2014

Hermosa Creek restoration to help native cutthroat trout

The Five Rivers chapter of Trout Unlimited is soliciting volunteers to help with a cutthroat trout restoration project Saturday on Hermosa Creek behind Purgatory.

The work involves restoring disturbed areas around the fish barrier built last fall on the East Fork of Hermosa Creek. Volunteers also will breach beaver dams and perhaps install “beaver deceiver” devices to stabilize flows.

While cutthroat thrive on the upper end of the East Fork, non-native species have taken hold in the lower end and in other Hermosa Creek tributaries.

Beaver dams harbor refuges for non-native species.

Let’s pretend, for the sake of argument, that you’re actually right. And that beaver dams make big hidey holes for non-native species. Let’s pretend we could go INSIDE those holes, under the water, and look around to see the bad bass and wrong kind of trout lurking next to all that woody debris. Terrible.

What’s that? Right beside them? Oh that would be the NATIVE SPECIES which also are sheltered in a beaver pond. In fact they are MORE adapted to the area because they evolved with beaver for millions of years and understand conditions and passages. One might even say the ponds are a REFUGE for them. Certainly during the dry summers. And the frozen winters. And all the days in between.

But why use logic. Just rip out the beaver dams. I’m sure that will make everything better. Well it will make everything drier. That’s good for cutthroat trout, right?

Christmas Cheer for Beavers

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions December 21, 2013

Did you read the very nice article about the Martinez Beavers on KQED science blog yesterday? I’ll give you a taste and then you must go read it yourself so they know exactly how many people are interested in this story. Promise?

I talked with Mark Ross from the Martinez City Council. “The beaver turmoil calmed down long ago. Where else can you see beavers within fifteen yards of parking meters?” Ross relayed that, “Flow devices to control the height of the beaver pond are vital to their success, allowing beavers to flourish in an urban area while helping to keep the dam at manageable levels.” He went on, “Beavers are the best ambassadors for Martinez since John Muir, who also made his home here. People come to look for them.”

Ahh, isn’t that nice? Go read the rest where the flow device, Worth A Dam, and Beaver Festival are mentioned. And if you, like me, are having flashbacks reading this quote to a certain childhood story of a petite crimson barnyard fowl – just stop it. What’s good for beavers is good. Period.

More good things from the Trout Unlimited Blog where John Zablocki takes on the beaver dam – trout conundrum. He doesn’t actually come out and say that the controversy is bunk and beavers are good news for trout, but he comes pretty dam close!

Beaver Ponds… Does a River Really Flow Through It?

Should these dams be considered barriers and removed in order to reconnect streams? Strong opinions can be found on either side, but the question remains open. Nevertheless, there is a growing awareness among fisheries scientists and restoration ecologists that beavers and their dams may be allies in the effort to restore North America’s streams and armor them against climate change. Beavers can help regenerate floodplains, enhance water storage, and create refugia for trout threatened by wildfire. On the other hand, they accomplish this by creating dams, which have the potential to act as barriers.But do beaver dams really function as barriers to trout?

A group of researchers from the U.S. Forest Service and Utah State University decided to bring science to bear on this question. They studied two Northern Utah streams containing native Bonneville Cutthroat Trout populations along with non-native Brook Trout and Brown Trout. The researchers captured 1,357 trout over several years and implanted them with Passive Integrated Transponder tags. They then tracked the movements of the fish at different times of the year to determine the extent that fish were migrating past beaver dams. Their findings, recently published in the Transactions of the American Fisheries Society show that trout are quite capable of passing beaver dams, at least in the systems they studied. In fact, they observed 481 passes through the 21 beaver dams they monitored.

Go read the rest of this smart article and like it on facebook so they are rewarded for their good thinking! Remember that fish voices are very much louder than beaver voices, so any vote of faith from them counts double.

At least.