Our council got off Easy!

How common were urban beaver issues in 2015?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? January 1, 2016

This common:

I updated the tallies this morning to reflect activity since November. We added New Mexico, Louisiana and Kentucky. Bringing our state total to 39. This means only 11 states in the country managed to avoid having beaver issues in urban areas last year. And one of them was Hawaii.

That makes our urban beaver chapter pretty relevant. Don’t you think?

I have a beautiful gift to start the new year right, a quirky treat from the ages, and a lovely welcome to the annum from Napa. I’ll start with the schadenfreude because that’s just the kind of woman I am. This stories so good it needed a soundtrack.

Damaging dams nets fines

Three North Bay men have been fined a total of $3,000 for damaging beaver dams in the North RBay, Powassan and Mattawa areas using all-terrain vehicles (ATVs).

Court heard that ministry conservation officers received information about online videos and photographs showing individuals using their ATVs to damage beaver dams. With the assistance of the ministry’s intelligence unit, the videos were located and the ATV riders were identified. The videos showed the ATV riders driving on the beaver dams and spinning their tires. This caused the dams to open up, which allowed large volumes of fast-flowing water to flood and wash out the trails and surrounding area.

Each man was fined $1,000.

Did you get that? A three thousand dollar fine for riding those horrible atv’s over a beaver dam, which caused a washout and flooded some homes. I’m sure this maple leaf of justice couldn’t happen to a nicer trio. Honestly, that photo really did appear with the article. (I just added a few finishing touches.)

The public is reminded that it is an offence to damage or destroy a beaver dam without the ministry’s authorization. Destroying a beaver dam can cause flooding, property damage, public safety concerns and fish and wildlife habitat damage. The ministry encourages the public to use public lands respectfully and responsibly so that they are preserved for future generations.

Oh Canada!

Now for some follow-up to the beaver flinging story, which you will remember because every single person you ever met probably sent you the article. Seems a man who consigned one of those beavers to his fate heard the article and wanted to reminisce.

One Man Remembers Meeting Some Of Idaho’s Parachuting Beavers

Finally some Napa goodness that won’t impair your judgment or lighten your wallet. Robin Ellison filmed this last night at the Tulocay Beaver pond when she was payed a visit by one of their six month old kits. Remember the most adorable birth defect ever? Check out that curling tail.

Urban beavers

heidi08 Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? December 2, 2015

I invited a new team member onto the urban beaver chapter because they told me I could. I felt we needed more water weight in our cluster, and first thought of good friend Ann Riley who is too busy with her third book to help. That of course meant I needed to ask Dr. Ellen Wohl who was surprisingly interested and willing to assist. In case you’ve forgotten who she is, shes a professor of geo sciences at Warner College in Colorado who has written a great deal on beaver, rivers, and climate change. This audio is a great introduction. It’s taken from a few moments of her interview on Santa Fe Radio, and happens to be the smartest most tightly packed summary of beaver benefits I’ve ever heard.

Ellen suggested we consider using a tool for analyzing the likely role of a beaver dam risk and contribution of woody debris. Her paper on the topic is coming out soon and she attached a copy for review, with sections about the value of woody debris to invertebrates and fish that immediately translate to beaver dams. I thought for sure it would interest Michael Pollock and sent it along to him. He got very excited and thought it was a great idea to inform our paper.

Which just goes to emphasize that they are all super smart in their relative fields. And I just make connections. Because its what I do.

building the dam — Beaver building urban dam: Cheryl Reynolds

The importance of counting beavers

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver News, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? November 22, 2015

First a sorry follow up to the Sparks NV beaver story, I heard from Sherry of the Sierra Wildlife Coalition that 5 beavers were reportedly trapped over the weekend. And just for added insult the news station chose to STEAL Cheryl’s lovely photo of happy urban beaver to discuss why urban beavers couldn’t possibly be tolerated. Letters were written.

Speaking of the bumpy path of urban beavers, I was realizing that our chapter would have more weight if we could say something about how common this issue is in the country. There isn’t any data base that would possibly tell us that, but one special place that I happen to know of and have access to. I went through and did a spread sheet of all the beaver stories in or near cities I reported this year on the website. Now mind you, I don’t cover EVERY SINGLE story, but consider this a minimum. Cities all across the country, from Bakersfield CA to Ackron OH, San Marcos TX and Cumberland RI. There have been 107 so far in 38 states, with various complaints including flooding and chewing trees. The vast majority end in depredation, but it was heartening to see that a fair number ended this year in mitigation.

California and Massachusetts are apparently numbers 1 & 2 on the list, although assume some observer bias because one is the state I live in and one is the state Beaver solutions lives in. I’d love to have this data for the past 5 years, so we could spot trends and changes, but I don’t think I’m that patient. Even the states missing this year I know I’ve reported on in the past.

Well, except Hawaii.

This was a lot of work, so now a treat from the Cheyenne Zoo via LK. Heartening to see Ginger doing what she can do, regardless of the odds.

Beaver, Urban Settings & You (B.U.S.Y.)

heidi08 Beavers November 19, 2015

Yesterday was the first official conference call for the urban beaver chapter of Pollock’s next restoration guide. While I was eagerly waiting for the call I made this very fun graphic and fielded dates for the followup meeting of the art committee of the PRMCC. Then I met my coauthors, Greg Lewallen and Kaegan Scully Engelmeyer. Greg is a Master’s of Environmental Management student at Portland college one of the four authors of the initial guidebook. Kaegen is the Urban Land steward for The Wetlands Conservation, which is partially funding the paper.

I should have known the conversation was going to be weirdly ideal when it started out with an alarmed discussion of two beavers that were mysteriously killed on conservancy land, and how upsetting and confusing it was. It would be Kaegen’s job that day to go find out what he could, and we discussed bringing our kits for necropsy at UCDavis and whether there was an equivalent facility in Portland.

As the conversation proceeded, I found out what was expected of our 20 page segment and when the important deadlines were coming. We went over a rough timeline and I mentally marked those places where I would disagree or have something to add. I didn’t say them aloud of course because my coauthors were so new to me I wanted to get a read on them before I leaped into the fray. I always struggle with myself to sound science-y and not too beaver-huggy, even when I’m conferring with people I regard as friends. I needn’t have bothered. Every single contribution I offered was listened to and regarded as important.

I was regarded as important.

The work we had done in Martinez, all nine grueling years of it, was regarded as groundbreaking. All the ways we had focused public support and educated about beavers. I was an expert – THE expert – on urban beavers. If I had been anyone else I’m sure I would have been suffused with satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.

Instead I felt like this:

Jon had zero idea how to reassure me afterwards, because he was enormously excited and thought I should be. I tried to explain that I had cultivated my beaver acumen entirely in opposition. Raiding information stores and firing blasts of information at slow-moving establishment tanks like a rebel on the run. It’s a vast, vast understatement to say I’m unused to being a welcomed voice among brilliant beaver colleagues.

By the end of the two hour conversation, I had signed up for the introduction and lit review, the segment on outreach and education, and the segment on beaver challenges, and obviously any beaver photos that might be needed. We are supposed to have a rough version by the first of the year. We set up another call and they wondered what financial arrangement I would need to be willing to come to Portland next year to present our work in person because there would be so much interest in the work we had done.

So I guess it was a good day for urban beavers.

Beaver tails in the city!

heidi08 Urban beavers November 16, 2015

I’ve been snooping around a bit on the subject of urban beavers, and came across this fun report from the city of Akron Ohio. True, the emphasis of the article is that you can hire us because beavers move into urban spaces and we’ll remove them – but the pictures are fun. And so familiar to us in Martinez that I thought you’d smile.

Beavers Adapt to Urban and Suburban Environments

Do you think beavers only inhabit pristine wilderness areas? If so, we offer these pictures and blog entry to shine some light on the very adaptable nature of beavers. All it really takes to have beavers move into your neighborhood is a waterway and some trees.

The following series of pictures documents a beaver colony living (and thriving) in an urban area of Akron, Ohio. Industrial sounds and smells…littered plastic bags and styrofoam cups…the rumble of freight trains…all just par for the course for this beaver colony.

Taking a walk toward the beavers’ hut, one of the urban beavers is spotted. With a water intake for a chemical processor on one side and an industrial complex on the other side, an adult beaver swims down the waterway to get a bite to eat.

Closer towards the hut, there happened to be a tree which took root precariously between two railroad trestle foundations. In spite of the graffiti (included for realism, not offense) and train traffic, the beavers apparently like to hang out under the bridge and get their gnaw on.

Yes, beavers have adapted to urban environments. What’s your point? So have foxes and crows and raccoons, to name a few. If they hadn’t all adapted they’d be in a mess of trouble. Because our environments are overwhelming urban in this day and age. 81% of humans live in these urban spaces. So I’m sure the stats for beavers are similarly high.

Just a little further up the canal and the main hut is visible. As you can see, this is a large and active hut. There is an ample feed bed (all the sticks in the water in front of the hut) as the beaver family has made preparations for ice cover. A smoke stack and large industrial site are close by in the background.

On the walk back to the car, the beaver that was out for a swim is found perched on a log having a meal of some underwater vegetation. This beaver was not very skittish of human presence: we were within twenty feet of it. It kept its eye on us, but we never got the tail slap we were expecting. To us it seemed as conditioned to human gawkers as it does to its gritty urban environment.

We get it. Beavers in urban settings with plastic cups and trains. Smoke stacks and pavement in the background. Understood. Did you know the beavers of Martinez once used a golf club in making their lodge? And because of our unique homeless population, we pulled not one but TWO prosthetic legs off the dam? When a city lives along side beavers it benefits by having increased wildlife, better birds and cleaner water. Do you know any cities that wouldn’t like that?

And I hate to tell tales out of school, but that beaver in your photo is kind of ugly. Ours are much prettier next to their plastic cups.

Another enjoyable urban find is this video of someone who was surprised to see beavers in their city. Listen to the narration, her companion is positively terrified. She writes of the incident thusly: Just 5 blocks down the street on my way to Starbucks I noticed damage on the trees apparently from beaver activity… yes, I believed to be crazy at the time, but today, coming back from Starbucks with Patrick we found this one that you can see and a second one we couldn’t catch on camera, but it’s real, we have beavers! and I guess that is fantastic! regards.

Urban beavers from Aubrey Scully on Vimeo.