CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION IN PROGRESS

Good news from our friends at Wyoming Untrapped which had permission to run this ad on the last page of the Local Headwaters Magazine. The Headline reads “Climate Change Mitigation in Progress”.

I’m not able to embed the ad here but this is the excellent copy:

Beavers are born to build wetlands. Fight wildfire flooding and drought by ensuring water is available on our public landscapes. Prevent extinction of critical species by ensuring a complete ecosystem. Support a wide range of wildlife habitats including amphibians,fish and songbirds.

You may, and I think you do, recognize the photo as one taken in a certain Martinez California by our own Suzi Eszterhas. I believe that is Junior hauling off a willow branch generously provided by our own Jon Ridler. It’s pretty remarkable when you think about it all the places where the Martinez beavers have turned up. Including NOAA, USDA, and FWS. Considering all of these have photographers they pay for images, you would think people would notice the remarkable photos you are able to get when you allow beavers to live amoung you.

I’d like very much for it to catch on please.

EMILY AND THE 360 VIEW BEAVER POND

One of the continually interesting perks about maintaining a beaver website is that fascinating people from around the world seem to filter like manna onto your doorstep. Not too long ago I was contacted by Emily Fairfax, a graduate student in geological sciences at University of Colorado at Boulder who happens have a special interest in beaver dams and the water they hold. She has been following this website and even sent her mother-in-law to check out our beaver festival last year. (!) When she made contact she said

“The vast majority of my work has been on how beaver dams change arid/semi-arid landscapes from a hydrologic perspective.’

Her research website says:

My current research focuses on the ecohydrology of riparian areas, particularly those that have been impacted by beaver damming. I use a combination of remote sensing, modeling, and field to work understand how beaver damming changes these landscapes and on what timescales those changes operate.

She especially was looking for stories or anecdotes about how beaver ponds help in fire situations, so I introduced her to some folks and showed her what I had come up with over the years. Which lead me to pay special attention when a recent discussion came up with Lisa Robertson on the Wyoming Untrapped FB page, which brought me to this amazing photo and story by Jeff Hogan.

Jeff is an extraordinary wildlife cinematographer. If you’ve ever watched a wildlife film by National Geographic or the BBC, you have probably seen his work.

This is the kind of thing he captures every day.

jeffhoganfilmsI’ve been filming beavers for 20 years now illustrating the benefits of an active beaver colony and pond. Live beavers are very important to our wild forest lands and watersheds. Far more important than whatever benefit humans may enjoy from trapping these beavers. I believe that a wildlife management plan that allows trapping of beavers is highly irresponsible and reckless! This image illustrates the benefit of a beaver pond in fighting forest fires. Filmed in 2001. Beaver pond is located in Granite Creek.

Now Jeff just happened to be at the wednesday night reading in Teton Wyoming of Eager with Ben Goldfarb and Wyoming Untrapped’s director Lisa Robertson. So Jeff made sure Ben had this photo and I made sure Emily had it too. You can see that the helicopter is scooping water to fight the fire out of the only place it’s available: a lovely beaver pond. You can even see the lodge in the middle.

Beavers make a difference in firefighting, as they do in so many other ways. I’m excited to see Emily’s finished work so we can document just how much. In case all this feels too much like school, take a moment to enjoy some of Emily’s delightful offerings on her website.

You don’t want to miss this. Follow the link to her amazing 360 view of a beaver pond. Go look, I’m serious. It’s so frickin’ cool.

“Visit” a Beaver Pond!

Think beaver dams are cool? Visit one of my favorite ponds via a 360 degree photo I took. It’s the main beaver pond up at Schwabacher’s Landing in Grand Teton National Park! The link can be viewed on your computer in the web browser, in the Google Street View app on your phone, or in a Google Cardboard virtual reality headset!

Beaver Pond at Schwabacher’s Landing

Beaver in a Box!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and trout, Who's saving beavers now? July 25, 2017

Fun post yesterday from our beaver friends at Wyoming Untrapped

Our goal is to educate the public about coexisting with beavers as well as their benefits to any ecosystem. Over 80% of all Wyoming wildlife species use wetlands. Beavers construct new, and enhance already existing, wetlands. Beavers were nearly trapped to extinction in Northwest Wyoming and are struggling to rebound due to pressure from continued trapping, conflicts with landowners, and habitat degradation. The Beaver Awareness and Restoration Project will include an educational component in which area students will work alongside Bridger-Teton National Forest hydrologists, wildlife biologists and land managers to learn about forest management, ecology, wildlife-human conflict, environmental science, and appreciation for beavers.

The program also received a 10,000 dollar grant allowing it to relocate beavers from areas where they were causing problems to higher up stream in uninhabited areas. No other Wyoming organization is advocating for the small, but mighty, beaver which brings numerous beneficial components to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. WU believes that beavers, and all wildlife, should be valued for their contribution to our wild world!

Yesterday the post had more info about the relocation program, but I commented that it will be wonderful when beavers get to stay where they like and people learn new tools for managing them, and now it’s changed to what I’ve posted here.

I guess I cast kind of a beaver-shaped long shadow. Go figure.

Wyoming Wonders

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? July 22, 2017

Whew! Things are back to normal. The solar unit needs insurance, I woke up at 4 and my email has completely stopped working. That seems more like it. While I try and manage radio silence if you need to reach me try this. Mean while there’s still plenty to talk about.

Starting with our friends Wyominguntrapped. They have some pretty heavy hitters as partners, including the Forest Service. The beaver awareness project website was launched yesterday and looks awesome. The program director said yesterday that her dream was to have their own beaver festival one day.:-)

Following several meetings between the Forest Service and Wyoming Untrapped in which the benefits that beavers have to the forest were a topic, an idea was formed that would bring together many community partners and would help to reestablish populations of beavers on National Forest Service land.

There is a lack of tolerance for beavers as well as a lack of public awareness of the benefits that beavers provide ecologically. Beavers are an integral keystone species that gets little attention by wildlife managers but have substantial, positive impacts to the ecosystem. Increasing knowledge and a love of beavers in children will increase the understanding of this unique species which will lead to a growth in tolerance and co-existence with this valuable, beneficial species. Students will gain scientific knowledge about hydrology, ecology, biology, and engineering using hands-on solutions to real-world problems. Students will gain knowledge of careers by meeting members of the community to whom they are rarely exposed.

Go to their website and check it out, but there are a few special treasures I want to focus on today. In addition to our lovely poster and links to this site they have some fantastic footage by Filmmaker Jeff Hogan. If his name sounds familiar it should because every single PBS or BBC documentary you have seen of the region uses his work. And with good reason. This footage complete took me by surprise.

I’ve been doing this every morning since Bush was president. I’ve watched 25 beavers grow up and 5 beavers die and seen things I never expected time and time again. But this blew me away. Seriously. Watch it.