wrapping trees to protect from beavers

Real Solutions in Our State Parks?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Chewing, Dispersal, Who's saving beavers now? April 9, 2015

Beaver barrier build for Earth Day at Thermalito Forebay

OROVILLE >> Earth Day volunteers are needed to help clear invasive plants from around the Thermalito Forebay and protect trees from beavers.

The California State Parks Foundation will hold a massive Earth Day cleanup at 27 parks throughout the state, including the Thermalito Forebay, part of the Lake Oroville State Recreation Area, on Saturday, April 18, to celebrate Earth Day, which falls on April 22, a Wednesday.

The main objective is to remove the multiple invasive plant species and develop some new picnic areas around the water, said State Parks Maintenance Chief Shawnee Rose.

Rose said the trees around those new picnic areas will need to be protected from beavers.

“They’re not a problem, we just have to protect some of the trees, there’s a balanced environment out there,” she said.

That’s right, you heard it here first. The maintenance chief of the California State Parks actually said out loud that beaver were NOT A PROBLEM. You just need to wrap some trees! No biggy. And she’s looking for volunteer help to do it. I love Shawnee with a all my heart right now, and I’m hopeful that someone how the training we did for the state parks in Yosemite in 2012 trickled down to the right person. It’s not impossible right?

On to this baffling story from Sudbury Massachusetts just outside Boston where police were called to rescue a baby beaver stuck in a chain link fence. Never mind that it’s a frigid 35 degrees there this morning and baby beavers don’t usually wander off on their own. Mike Callahan says kits are usually born in June there, so I can’t understand why this one would be out unchaperoned in April.

Leave It to the Baby Beaver, Who Got Stuck on Easter

A baby beaver got into a pickle this week in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

Well, we wonder what this little beaver told his family when he was late for Easter dinner.

On Sunday, shortly before 5 p.m., Sudbury police responded to a call about a baby beaver that got stuck in a chain link fence on Autumn Street.

Police assisted Boardman Animal Control (the town’s animal contractor), to help free the animal from its trappings.

Authorities do not know if the beaver went straight home.

“The beaver was freed and left the area under its own volition,” said Police Chief Scott Nix.

“The toddler was rescued from the and returned back to the highway where he could find his way.” Sheesh, I just hope you’re wrong and that’s actually a freakishly small disperser. Because I cannot for the life of me understand how a kit would get there. I checked around for wildlife rescues nearby just in case there was an untoward escapee, but there’s nothing likely. A lot of water not far from Autumn street, but no beaver zoo missing an inmate.

Maybe you have a theory or explanation you can share?

Eli sent this yesterday from a sighting in Santa Barbara. I think we all know which way the wind is blowing.

Dying for Information

heidi08 Environmental June 29, 2017

254 permits to kill beavers issued from Modoc to San Joaquin counties in the last 20 months. And for what incurable crimes you ask? The vast majority weren’t for complicated levee damage or hard to protect culverts. Most were for something 2 boy scouts and a role of wire would have solved. See for yourself. Damage to vegetation is apparently the primary complaint, accounting for 36% of all permits.

Many of the permits said something like “We tried wrapping trees but it didn’t work.” Not sure why it didn’t work? But I remember the orange plastic fencing Bakersfield ‘said’ they tried over and over and can imagine.

Apparently it’s a skill that eludes most of California. Often the officer giving the permit noted that educational pamphlets were given for ‘next time’. It didn’t specify who the instructions were given too, but I don’t think the beavers read them closely enough.

Successfully wrapping a tree is less complicated than wrapping a present or a ho ho. But here are the methods.

Note that the tree needs to be protected to the height of 3 or 4 feet – more if the snow level is going to raise them up. The tree needs to be left room to grow. And don’t use chicken wire because beavers are way bigger than chickens. The second photo uses latex paint mixed with mason sand painted directly onto the trunk. The recipe is here:

Abrasive Tree Paint Protection

1. Paint: Exterior Latex (choose a color to match the bark)

2. Mason Sand (30 mil or 70 mil)

3. Formula Mix 5 oz sand per quart of paint, or

4. Mix 20 oz sand per gallon of paint, or

5. Mix 140 gm sand per liter of paint.

Make only in small batches at a time on the day you are going to apply it. Using too much sand will cause the mixture to roll off the tree. Apply paint to bottom three to four feet of tree trunk. For best results, do not paint every tree, leaving some for beaver food. This formula does not work for saplings, so protect them with wire fencing. This will need to be reapplied every couple of years, and in areas of snowfall you will need to cover for feet above the snowline.

Protect larger areas of crops or vineyards with electric wire around the area.

Or you can just get a permit to kill them. Apparently in California it’s easy.

“Too much of a good thing can be wonderful”

heidi08 Beavers, Educational, Environmental, History October 10, 2012

Thanks to Mae West for presciently foretelling this morning’s beaver news cycle. Obviously all the beaver dramas in the world know that Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife visit Martinez today and they’re trying to show off their best problem solving and thoughtfulness. Let’s start with Montana where Audubon outside Yellowstone was thinking about trapping some beaver because they were eating their trees.

(Yes, Audubon.)

Apparently lots of folks objected, wrote letters and probably sent them this article over and over again because Audubon is apparently having a change of heart. Just check out this morning’s headline from the Billings Gazette:

Beaver gets trapping reprieve

The trapping of a tree-eating beaver from a pond at the Audubon Conservation Education Center has been delayed for now.

“We’re exploring other options,” said Roger Williams, president of the Yellowstone River Parks Association, which owns the property where the center is located.

“This gives us the time to work out a solution without killing the beaver,” said Steve Hoffman, executive director of Montana Audubon.

A story in The Billings Gazette on Saturday about the planned trapping led to a public outcry that prompted the YRPA to postpone its plans. YRPA officials wanted the beaver removed because it is toppling trees valued at thousands of dollars. The trees were planted by volunteers to reclaim the area, which is an old gravel pit.

Well if any of you wrote letters telling them about fencing and sand painting, thanks! The bird folk will try a little harder to see the FOREST for the TREES, and realize that beavers are birds best friends. Brock Dolman of the water institute and I will be speaking at Madrone Audubon on monday night, and I’ll make sure to mention tree protection!

Then we have this column:

Nalcor watched the ‘V’ in the water as the nose of a beaver sliced through the mirrored stillness of the pond’s surface. The little muskrat admired the beaver.

In truth he wished he could be more like him. Beavers worked tirelessly and they accomplished a lot. Not just a lot, but they accomplished things that were good for others and not just for beavers.

This swampy pond where Nalcor had been brought up would not exist, if the beavers had not worked so hard to build a dam across the little stream that was a tributary of the Big Cigar River, the one the people wanted to dam.

The beaver dam created a large pond in the little stream that was both home and food source to creatures other than beavers. Birds lived here and the pond served as a stopping point for many different species, as they migrated north in the spring and returned south again in the autumn.

In fact, Nalcor had just spotted a pair of Greater Yellow Legs strutting along the margin of the pond just where the wake of tiny ripples that marked the beaver’s passing lapped against the marsh grass. The long beaks of the tall birds were probing the shallows for the tasty morsels they craved. They needed to bulk up for the long flight south.

Without the beaver dam the stream would be moving too fast for grass to grow; without grass and its decaying roots to eat there would be no reason for the yellow legs to stop here on their journey of migration.

The calm of the beaver pond allowed all manner of other shoots, leaves and flowers to grow and Nalcor loved the delicious salads they provided him.

The beavers were good neighbours. Their work benefitted everyone, though Nalcor sometimes found himself feeling ashamed for how little work he did compared to his industrious rodent cousins, always happy to share the benefits of their labour. The beavers destroyed nothing and their work created a windfall for so many.

Beautiful Prose right? Marystown, where the gazette is from is on the eastern side of Canada over by Newfoundland. Nice attention to detail describing the classic V in the column but it’s sneaky genius too. See NALCOR is an energy company that wants to build a hydroplant flooding out acres and acres through the town that will look like this

So the parable of the beaver building a dam that benefits everyone is offered in stark contrast to the story of the massive dam that destroys much in its path. The slick energy company has completed its EIRs and started a community blog and named its project after the wildlife it will displace and the author of the column in return has named the wildlife after the enegycompany. Awesome. I love this man.

It reminds me of the tale I heard of the proposed dam years ago that would have flooded the gold country near where my parents live. The town took massive steps to prevent themselves from being underwater, including organizing a campaign that must have embedded itself in my subconscious when i chose our name