Good news for beavers in Wales! They’re getting closer to reintroduction. Count this as great news for dragonflies and salmon and otters and waterfowl too. Well here, I’ll let our good friend Peter Smith tell you. In addition to having the very best job on the planet, he’s an excellent spokesman!
Plans to reintroduce beavers to the Welsh countryside after hundreds of years without them have moved a step closer.
The Afon Rheidol river in Ceredigion has been chosen as the location for their return next year. Should the move go ahead it could see beavers brought in from the UK and around Europe.
Of course there are the usual grumblings from farmers and fishermen but they seem to be facing a losing battle. The players have done everything right and the advocates have made the right friends. Fingers crossed, but it looks like after being missing for 400 years, beavers coming back to Wales! Can a Welsh beaver festival be far behind?
Any news closer to home? I received this paper from Leonard Houston this morning. Its by Dr. Wayne Hoffman and the midcoast Watershed council. Hoffman is a name we’ve read over and over again this year, but we still haven’t connected. After I sip some coffee and read through this treasure I’m definitely introducing myself! In case you want to read this yourself, I’ve put a permanent link on the right hand margin under solutions. UPDATE from the small world files. Just heard from his colleague and co-author Fran Recht that she attended my presentation at the beaver conference this year and was inspired by the Martinez Beaver story!
Beavers and Conservation in Oregon Coastal WatershedsA background paper byDr. Wayne Hoffman, MidCoast Watersheds CouncilFran Recht, Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission
Those interested in salmon and habitat restoration are express ing renewed interest in reestablishing beaver populations as inexpensive “watershed engineers”. In many places the type of work that beavers do improves conditions favorable to cohosalmon, cutthroat troutand other animals. Their dams also store water that help increase nutrient levels for other organisms in the stream, build up eroded streambeds, release water during the dry seasons, and improve water quality by slowing waters to allow sediment to settle, among other things. However, in Oregon, beavers have been considered a pest as well as a game animal so their protections are limited and their numbers have fluctuated dramatically over time due to a variety of factors.In the central Coast major declines in beaver ponds and dams have been documented in the past 2 decades. This background aper provides a summary of the benefits of beavers, their conflicts with humans, and the policies and conditions that affect their survival. It also provides examples of ways to reduce conflict with humans, and suggests needed legislative actions
COQUILLE — A visiting conservationist will give a free presentation about beavers Feb. 25.Wayne Hoffman, coordinator of the MidCoast Watersheds Council, shares his presentation up and down the Oregon Coast to build support for beaver conservation. In smaller streams where beavers build dams, they can help stream ecology and watershed processes by improving the quality of habitat for juvenile salmon and for a variety of other wildlife.
Wayne Hoffman again to the rescue! It’s nice to read that this is happening in another city. After the last article I tried to write and introduce myself, but have heard nothing yet. I even wrote Mike and Skip about his idea of installing starter dams away from the culvert, which they both thought was interesting, and I passed their feedback along to him, – still as yet there has been no response.
Never mind. If folks are already preaching the beaver gospel….there’s no need for a ‘connect with the home office’!
Beavers also can be pests by plugging culverts, flooding agricultural lands and eating valued trees and plants. This presentation will include techniques for avoiding these problems and fostering peaceful coexistence between beavers and humans. A short Q & A follows the presentation.
Peaceful coexistence with humans. I like the way that sounds! Great work Wayne in teaching folks how and why to live with beavers! Let’s talk soon about teaching a JOYFUL coexistence with beavers…
Sadly the ‘making of the beaver whisperer’ mentioned here yesterday is visible in Canada only. It is dark in America and Europe. Believe me when I say I tried to figure the whole thing out, and received a slew of bi-continental emails from folks eager to help. The wisest was the startled response that “The Nature of things” episode on beavers airs in March and Canada, and not on PBS until November. Argh. They aren’t letting the cat out of the bag, and the video is not downloadable.
I’m told a producer will send me one, but I’m sure they’re very busy with gay soirees and launch parties so I’m not holding my breath. So close and yet so far!
Midday Friday afternoon the beaver newsroom started buzzing. Phone lines ringing and reporters hopping into vehicles to catch rapidly emerging stories. Well, in reality it was just me alone with a google alert, but it was still pretty exciting. Three – count them – THREE unrelated articles on the good things beavers do. Seeing a cluster of articles isn’t that unusual since the media loves to copy, but these stories are all about different projects in different areas and only related by the theme – and the commenter. Let’s start with my favorite:
ALEX PAJUNAS — The Daily Astorian A beaver holds up a blackberry branch to chew on near near Stanley Marsh in Seaside’s Thompson Falls Estates subdivision March 22, 2010. The site has most recently been used as pastureland but historically has been the site of a Sitka spruce forest.Call them the ‘beaver believers’
By NANCY McCARTHY The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — They call themselves the “beaver believers.”
Those who are restoring the Thompson Falls wetland west of Nygaard Road near Stanley Marsh believe beavers are the key to the future that will unlock the past. And, after only a few weeks, the “believers” are being proven right.
“I saw the first sign of beavers two weeks ago,” said Austin Tomlinson, who does soil and water conservation and restoration. “Come spring, I’m hoping they will take off” and colonize the site. Developer Casey Corkrey took on the project to restore four acres of the Thompson Falls wetland to compensate for a project he plans to build on a wetland at the junction of U.S. Highways 101 and 26 between Seaside and Cannon Beach. The project at the junction will include storage units, warehouses and some retail space, Corkrey said.
To obtain a permit to fill in a wetland area for development, the Oregon Department of State Lands requires that developers find ways to avoid or reduce the impact on wetlands. If that isn’t possible, the state will allow restoration of a substitute wetland, stream or other water resource that is comparable to the impacted wetland.
But after three years of seeking permission from the state and from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and receiving advice from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Corkrey finally was able to begin work on what some call the “cutting edge” in sustainable mitigation projects.
Anyone wanna guess what that “cutting edge” project might be? I bet you all have some idea. Raise your hands high so I can see them. You in the front row. “Might it have a flat tail and a habit of buildling dams by any chance?”
Sitka spruce trees depend on water – lots of water – to survive. That’s where the beavers come in. The dams they build create pools and force water to flood the pasture, providing a habitat for the 400 spruce trees that were gathered from land owned by Longview Timber.
So beavers save water and water saves spruce and conservationists save beavers. Makes sense to me!
By using beavers to do most of the work instead of using the usual excavation and restoration techniques for wetlands mitigation, Ray estimated that the project cost was reduced by $60,000 to $80,000.
Without financial support from Corkrey, who is paying for the project, and the help of volunteers from the land conservancy and Tualatin Valley Trout Unlimited who have planted thousands of willow seedlings on the site and cleared invasive reed canary grass, the project would have taken much longer, said Celeste Lebo, stewardship director for the North Coast Land Conservancy.
“Without Casey’s generosity and Doug’s amazing creativity, it might have cost maybe $200,000,” Lebo said. “We would have had to apply for grants, which are very competitive, and it would have taken a lot more time.” The beavers, she added, will do what they normally do: create water places for animals to exist. “We’re all beaver believers, of course,” Lebo said. “They can restore the land a lot better than we do.”
Yes, they can. Fun fact on this article. My comment existed in the world for about 12 minutes before I got an email from “Doug”. Turns out he was at the State of the Beaver conference in 2011 and attended my presentation and thought it was awesome. He was dynamically influenced by all the good information he received there and inspired to try this on his own turf. Pretty small world if you ask me.
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Beaver ponds on Susie Creek during the last, dry summer.
Maggie and Susie Creeks flow south, entering the Humboldt River near Carlin. Much of their lengths are private lands, owned by ranches and mines, along with BLM-administered public lands.
The riparian zones along these streams are looking good these days. A lot of work has been done over the last 20 years to recover the riparian conditions along these streams. Ranchers, agencies, mines, and non-profit groups have partnered to do this work. Much of the improvement has come from changes in grazing techniques and specific projects.
All this work is getting a boost by beavers. As the stream habitat has improved, especially increasing woody material like willows, beavers have moved in and accomplished even more work. A remote sensing project found 107 beaver dams along 20 miles of Maggie Creek in 2006, which rose to 271 dams in 2010.
Elko is in eastern Nevada where they need water a lot. You would think that this wisdom had reached across the state, but I’ve had more than one argument with an old ranger who insists that beavers aren’t native on the west side and don’t belong in the area. This is a nice article though, and I couldn’t be happier that a large government agency like the Bureau of Land Management, is behind it.
Beaver dams slow the water and collect sediment that used to be lost downstream. In five years, ponds have increased the amount of impounded water on Maggie Creek from nine miles of stream to 16 miles. In spots, the ponds are forming marshy meadows.
These ponds mean a wider riparian zone along the creeks, bringing in more water tolerant plants and killing brush. Wider riparian zones create fuel breaks for future wildfires. The impounded water is seeping into the ground and raising the water table. Newmont’s shallow groundwater monitoring wells have shown about a two foot rise over the past 17 years along Maggie Creek.
Carol Evans is a fisheries biologist with the BLM and has worked on these streams for many years. “Beavers are radically changing the landscape. I really don’t know where this is going,” she said.
Ooh I know! I know! Call on me!
Carol brought up an interesting idea. We blame much of today’s stream damage on past grazing practices and higher livestock stocking rates, especially during the late 1800s. But how much stream damage was done during the 1800s as beavers were removed by fur trappers?
It is estimated we lost 90 percent of the beaver population across the west during the 1800s. As untended dams gave out, streams were damaged from increased sediment flows and eroded channels. Riparian zones shrank, water tables dropped, plant species were lost and brush moved in. Cattle then removed willows, slowing the return of beavers.
Beavers definitely proved their worth during this past, dry summer. In spots, beaver ponds held the only water along miles of stream, making it available for wildlife and livestock and protecting populations of native trout.
Carol feels a strong beaver presence may help reduce future damage due to climate change.
Well said! Your discussion of hydrological effects of beavers is spot ON. And the inference to climate change. Heidi feels that Carol is an unmet friend who should be invited to the beaver conference. So Heidi looked up her address and wrote her yesterday. All in all, its pretty great news from a pretty unlikely place.
MidCoast Watersheds Council Executive Director Wayne Hoffman told his member agencies Thursday night that beavers have been getting a bad rap lately and that their dams and ponds have been disappearing from Oregon woods for a long time. Hoffman said it’s time for Oregonians to re-examine the beavers’ contribution to the environment and to the salmon spawning especially.
Hoffman said although beavers are disliked because they sometimes cause road washouts, ruin fruit trees and generally can be a first class nuisance, they none-the-less contribute a great deal to Oregon fisheries and the health of Oregon’s creeks and streams. Hoffman says that beaver ponds and dams help to balance out creek and river flows by holding back water surges during storms while always letting a steady stream of water through their dams. Hoffman says their dams and ponds regulate water flows very efficiently, especially in the summer, when rivers would otherwise be down to a trickle in some areas. In so doing they keep the average groundwater table higher which keeps creek and riverside vegetation healthy, which is good for wildlife and for salmon. And by better regulating stream flows downstream, waters stay cooler which is also good for salmon. Beaver dams also trap and hold nutrients in the water longer for better distribution down stream which also benefits all wildlife.
You’ll understand my confusion yesterday. I was sure I had died and gone to heaven. I have never heard so much beaver gospel in one day and it made me a little weepy. Sometimes you feel like a voice alone, shouting into the wilderness, with barely anyone listening.
And sometimes you realize your part of a growing environmental militia.
And finally, Hoffman strongly endorsed a strong public information campaign aimed at rural property owners who, he said, should appreciate beavers rather than hate them – that living cooperatively with beavers and smartly managing them is in the best interest of the environment and for healthier salmon runs. Hoffman says young salmon that have been raised in and around beaver ponds grow bigger, in greater numbers and are better able to survive as they make their way down stream to the ocean. And because of their larger size and strength they’re better equipped to survive predation at sea.
Hoffman’s presentation in Newport Thursday evening was but one in a number of “beaver status” lectures he’s giving up and down the Oregon Coast to watershed management and environmental protection groups.
What a day! Great, great work comes in threes. Looks likeyou guys got this covered. I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ll just be over working at the day job if you need me.
“They’re very industrious and build wonderful things” said Wayne Hoffman, MidCoast Watersheds Council coordinator, in a presentation, “Beavers: Engineering Healthy Watersheds” at the Seaside Public Library Wednesday night. The Necanicum Watershed Council, with the North Coast Land Conservancy, a land trust that owns properties from the Columbia River Estuary to Lincoln City, hosted Hoffman as a part of the “Listening to the Land” series. Humans and beavers can coexist, maintain Hoffman and the NCLC. It just sometimes takes creative solutions.
This article was passed on the AP with various headlines suggesting a delightful beaver-affirming read, but it starts out more like the compliment from a very difficult grandmother: you have to scour through the insults and read between the lines to find the good stuff.
” It’s easy to see they’re rodents.” Some beavers are just not master architect material, and he’s witnessed beaver activity that’s made him shake his head. “I haven’t had a lot of success in understanding the minds of beavers,” he said. These large rodents can be big pests, making water flow where it shouldn’t (onto roads, across property) and gnawing on valuable trees.
I’m not sure why one’s own failure to understand something makes that thing inscrutable…(it’s not like our doctors get away with saying, I have no idea why you feel sick, that’s weird!”) But I’ll give Wayne the benefit of the doubt because Len says he knows him and he’s a good guy and a beaver believer. Of course I promptly wrote to invite him to the State of the Beaver Conference but apparently the River Restoration Conference is at the same time.
They’ve agreed for the future to pick different dates so as not to force folks to choose (would you rather save beavers or creeks?). Looking at some of the negative messages my guess is that Wayne (or the author) is just doing that thing where you pretend to dislike something that’s unpopular so that you can win more trust from the crowd when you later tell them its a good idea. (What a cynical friend would call the “Obama hippie-punch that sometimes precedes bad news for the GOP.’)
So after he talks a bit of smack about beavers he gets to the good stuff.
Humans and beavers can coexist, maintain Hoffman and the NCLC. It just sometimes takes creative solutions. If a culvert is consistently getting clogged because of beaver activities, a bigger culvert or a bridge can be installed. There are ways to fund these projects if a landowner can’t personally afford to do it, said Hoffman and Celeste Coulter, stewardship director for NCLC. The NCLC, as a nonprofit, has access to all sorts of grants, Coulter said. “We’re always willing to work with landowners,” she said.
Well that’s better. No mention of beaver deceivers’/trapazoidal culvert fencing but its a good start. Len tells me that Celeste is a member of the beaver advocacy committee and will be at the conference in February. That’s promising.
“Beavers can be pests,” Hoffman admitted, but having them around can provide both an ecological and a public benefit. “In my opinion, it’s worth the investment,” he said. Beavers encourage other plant and animal life in and around the ponds they make when they dam streams; they can change the hydrology of stream systems across land in positive ways; and, more importantly for this region, they create excellent salmon habitat good news for conservationists and fishers alike, Hoffman said.
Impressive. We’re only on the second page of the article before we actually get to the point. I’m inclined to blame Ms. Wilson, but who knows what happened to the story she originally wrote? Wayne, though, is a little cautious for my beaver-bold tastes. How about rather than “In my opinion” you say “The research shows us again and again that it’s worth the investment.” Hmm, maybe its not a very scientific-minded crowd. Then how about “I’ve seen countless landowners come to realize that its worth the investment”?
The dams create calm pond areas where juvenile salmon can feed and grow large and strong. These fish have a better chance of later surviving in the ocean. But beaver populations have been on the decline. There had been anecdotal information coming in for years: landowners who said, “Well, we used to have beavers, but we haven’t seen them for a while.” There were old dams that hadn’t been tended in a long time and evidence of places where ponds used to be. In 2006 and 2007, a series of studies Hoffman took part in, showed a decline in dams across the region. Between 1992 and 1997, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Aquatic Habitat Inventory recorded 71 dams in one area. However, in 2007, “We walked the same dams and found three,” Hoffman said. The story was similar almost everywhere they went, at the Tillamook Basin, at the Upper Five Rivers and at the Yaquina Basin.
A landscape without as many beavers, Hoffman said, is a landscape that’s not as good for fish and other ecosystems. When beavers build dams, they help distribute nutrients up and down water systems. Take away the dam, and nutrients tend to collect farther away from the headwaters, leaving the headwaters thin on nutrients while other places are glutted.
Not enough beavers! There’s the real story! The headline of KATU got it right. Talk about ‘burying your lead’! This is what the article SHOULD be about. Numbers dropped drastically? Gosh I can’t help but wonder if it had anything to do with ORS 610.002 which moved beavers to the “Predator status” so that they could be lethally hunted on private lands without any permit or cumbersome counting.
The funny thing is that beavers on public land are classified as a protected fur-bearer. Are there signs posts? I sure hope Oregon’s beavers can tell the difference. The article meanders through a host of possible explanations without mentioning the status issue, possibly blaming cougars or reed-canary grass. (It’s always good to blame the loss of one species on the encroachment of another provided that the encroaching species isn’t human). And then Wayne offers some possible solutions:
What’s the solution? Hoffman isn’t sure. He has some ideas, though: reduce trapping, make habitats safer for beavers, restore food supplies, get rid of Reed canary grass, and reduce the beaver-human conflicts by replacing small culverts with bigger ones. Maybe even provide compensation for landowners who are willing to let beavers stay on the land.
I like that last one the best. It’s easy enough to provide a property tax reduction for landowners who can demonstrate active colonies on site. I still like the idea of a salmon tax where you charge people to get RID of beavers and the funds go into watershed restoration and beaver management. Still, none of these ideas is possible until Oregon takes the dreaded step and withdraws beavers from 610.002. As long as private landowners can do what they please to colonies with no report and no paperwork you have no way to control the trapping that occurs.
Maybe its time to classify beaver as something OTHER than a predator?
