MAKE WAY FOR BEAVERS!

The good news is that yesterday I found out how I will remotely present at beaverCon 2020 and I will be able to use video and audio, which means I could start pull together tools for both, I’m happy to say that the very old laptop still functions and I myself functionenough to put everything on the new laptop – so things are looking hopeful.

While I was searching through what to share I came across this national treasure of our beavers in 2017 from Moses Silva and thought you’d want to see. Turn your sound WAY up to hear my favorite part.

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Aren’t beavers the most lovely and wonderful thing you can ever hope to see? This video just about puts my entire life in prospective. And we’re not the only one who knows this. Apparently the director of Wildlife guardians, John Horning, is a big fan too.

Beckoning the Beavers — Wild Earth Guardians

I love beavers. Ever since I was a kid and watched them slap their tails defiantly, and loudly, to warn their clan of the threatening presence of large animals, I’ve thought beavers were worthy of my admiration. Then I realized they build dams too! As an aspiring dam builder myself, I figured beavers had more than a few things to teach me.

In fact, when the question of what is my favorite spirit animal arises, my response is almost always: beavers. They bring joy and gusto to their daily work and are quite content in mud and water. What’s not to admire?

Preaching to the choir here, sir.

So, when the opportunity came up in late September to be a beaver for a day with WildEarth Guardians’ restoration crew, I jumped at it—especially since I could bring along my energetic, six-year-old twin boys.

The job of building these beaver dam analogues, or BDAs as they are known, was made easier by the placement of two dozen wooden posts that had been driven into the ground in a cross-crossed pattern across the stream. These posts, placed days earlier by Reid and his crew, provided the necessary foundation for each dam to rise

And so a beaver clan, a crew of five or six people, was deployed to each of the six dam sites. For my boys—as it seemed for everyone—the excitement of the reality of dam-building overrode the hesitation that often comes with trying something new. In partnership with the other adults, the boys wove the willow back and forth between the poles and watched as others did the same.

Without it really being emphasized we had already embodied one of the critical qualities of beavers: collaboration amongst a family unit to accomplish a grand task.

Oh my goodness. I love his enthusiasm. And I love the idea of children weaving branches in a BDA. Hmm beaver festival idea? It gets even better.

Absent cows, there would be willows along the stream. And almost everywhere there are willows, beavers thrive. And where beavers thrive there is ecological dynamism, and the land sings, with the literal songs of flycatchers and frogs and with the slithering of snakes and the pattering of shrews and mice. And in the stream itself, native trout grow fatter and more abundant in the cooler, deeper waters that beaver dams create.

Here in New Mexico, there is a long list of endangered species that have been imperiled in the absence of beavers and that would benefit from their return. The New Mexico meadow jumping mouse, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, the Southwest willow flycatcher are just a few.

Ahhh that does a heart good to read. You know WildEarth Guardians has the right idea.

The next morning after packing up, we were about to get in the car when my boys proclaimed that we could not leave without one more inspection of “our” beaver dam. Much to their satisfaction, not only was the dam still intact, but the water level had risen noticeably since the previous afternoon. As their energy lingered, the boys hummed, gently sang, and chattered to themselves and to each other in contemplative satisfaction with their work. One walked back and forth across the dam while the other waded in and out of the now waist-deep water. Without further words, we headed back up stream and up the hill to our car. But before moving on, one of my boys said, “Dad, we need to come back and build more beaver dams!”

“Yes, we do,” I said. “Yes, we do.”

Yes. And you need to MAKE WAY FOR BEAVERS so they can build and maintain their own dams without your help. Step aside and let the experts take over. This work is more tricky than it looks. Just check out this video Robin of Napa shared on facebook. Experts are really picky about getting just the right materials.

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Old thinking in New Mexico

heidi08 Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, What's killing beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? January 18, 2016

Guess how much fun I had yesterday? This much.

And from the Department of False Dichotomies in New Mexico:

Beavers: Nuisance or necessary?

For at least the past decade, residents angry about beaver-related property damage have been at odds with conservation advocates who claim the animals are an essential drought management tool in arid New Mexico. The issue prompted an ongoing conflict between the Santa Fe Girls’ School and La Cieneguilla resident Ed Sceery that recently escalated into a court fight. The private middle school has been conducting a 10-year restoration project on land bordering Sceery’s property, and he says the work has drawn beavers that are damaging his trees and causing erosion.

Capture — A beaver dam on the Santa Fe River near Paseo Real and Calle Debra in the Santa Fe Airport. Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican

At the edge of a road in La Cieneguilla that borders the Santa Fe River, just up the bank from a beaver dam, a crack in the asphalt — likely due to erosion — has grown to a man-sized hole. The area is demarcated by two orange hazard barrels. Trees are toppled over, split in half by jagged teeth.

Sceery, who calls himself a conservationist, wants the animals removed from the land.

Peggy Johnson, a hydrogeologist for the state who studied the La Cieneguilla area in 2010, said the dilemma that beavers pose is a fundamental conflict between man and nature, especially in places like La Cieneguilla, which was a wetlands area more than a century ago but has since been altered by managed water systems. The Santa Fe River that runs through the community, once a free-flowing waterway, now feeds two municipal reservoirs far upstream that help keep city taps flowing.

In developed areas with managed water systems, beavers can act as a force of chaos, Johnson said. “[Beavers] have minds of their own. They are very active and dynamic and have a big impact on the system.”

For watershed restoration work in a natural setting, which includes maintaining wildlife habitats, preventing erosion and raising groundwater levels, Johnson said, beavers are a “very effective” tool. Whether a beaver’s impact is viewed as hurtful or helpful, she said, “depends on who is affected.”

However, Bryan Bird, a program director for WildEarth Guardians, said his organization’s requests for nuisance permits to relocate beavers have been denied, with the department saying relocation “could just be creating another problem somewhere else,” and it would only be “moving the problem rather than getting rid of it.”

Bird said WildEarth Guardians has done extensive research on where beavers would most benefit the environment, “but that hasn’t been good enough.”

I’m happy to see Mr. Sceery still isn’t getting his way. And happy this article is hostile enough to say honestly that he’s the one that “calls himself” a conservationist. (I suppose if you want to keep things your own way and preserve your selfish interests above everyone else’s that’s a kind of ‘conservation’.) But Bryan needs to push harder about beaver benefits and that they ought to be left to their own devices so that they can use their ecosystem services to improve the landscape wherever they see fit. Still, it’s nice to have this argument in the limelight – even if its only about permission to relocate.

At least the coauthor of the states beaver relocation legislation, has the right idea.

Keller, now the state auditor, said he first learned about the importance of beavers when he was 19 and working as a Boy Scout at the Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron.

“Nature’s solution is far more effective and cheaper than anything you can contrive in this regard,” he said, citing beavers’ role in mitigating drought and forest fires.

He said he still believes the beaver plan should be a Game and Fish priority. “And as state auditor, I know they have the budget.” He pointed to $10 million that has yet to be spent in the department’s budget.

Keller said recent studies have cited beavers as a climate change-resilient species. “This is a low-cost, potentially high-return idea.”

Amen to that. Not sure how I got on Mr. Keller’s radar back when all this was getting passed but his chief of staff called me when he was running for auditor. I explained that I didn’t live in the state and probably couldn’t be much help. But it’s nice to see he’s still a believer.

I know I am.

A cautionary tail [sic]

heidi08 Creative Solutions April 24, 2014

Yesterday I got a sneak peak at an upcoming something I’m not allowed to talk about yet, but believe me when I say you will be very, very interested. I sure was. Then it was time to dash off to virtual school with the Bren masters students who had put together a model for beaver dams in the Jemez watershed in New Mexico using Joe Wheaton’s BRAT tool.

IMPACT ON WATER RESOURCES IN THE JEMEZ WATERSHED, NEW MEXICO

The Bren School is the environmental division of UC Santa Barbara, so within walking distance of the salmonid restoration conference, where they could have heard all about beavers restoring watershed if they were interested. The project was a discussion of theoretical beavers in the Jemez, which is a tributary of the Rio Grande in New Mexico where there aren’t too many beavers to spare. They did not talk about actual beavers. They built the 40 dams themselves based on a model of where beaver dams should be expected to go. Using a tool from the Army Corp of Engineers they measured how much water they preserved with the dams. Then calculated the effect on two species of special concern, a rare native trout and a aquatic mouse. The idea being that you have to prove that beavers are a good idea before any will actually sponsor them. There aren’t too many beavers in New Mexico but there are some. I had to wonder what would happen if any slipped into the Jemez study area by mistake?

I honestly tried very hard to not think like a crazy beaver lover and follow the science behind their presentation without getting annoyed that there were no ACTUAL BEAVERS in their BEAVER thesis. But then they showed this slide and I really couldn’t help myself.

How could they know what a beaver looks like if there’s not any in their beaver research? They’d have no way of knowing that photo actually wasn’t one. And it’s not like Dr. Tim Robinson of the Cachuma Conservation Release Board counted 300+ actual beaver dams on the lower Santa Ynez River a half hour drive from their school. There are certainly no resources on the internet that would help them learn the esoteric difference.

Let’s not suggest that WildEarth Guardians whose writing them grants to fund this project should know any better. I mean just because they have an audited statement from 2012 with a end of year balance of six digits doesn’t mean they should know what an animal they’re funding looks like, right? Stop being so picky, Heidi.

There were questions and answers after the presentation and some nice discussion about native fish versus non natives getting around beaver dams. Byran from Earth Guardians talked about the recent legislation in New Mexico about climate change and beaver management, which was largely the work of Wild Earth Guardians and their legal struggle to make the state take beavers seriously.

Since I know what its like to be a graduate student presenting your work, I politely didn’t ask anyone about the nutria or the decision to study hypothetical beavers (rather than the actual ones USDA says they killed in New Mexico), but I did write them privately that they might want to change that photo before putting the presentation on line.

For whatever reason that didn’t happen. So let this be a cautionary tale (tail).