Wyoming Wetlands Society

Apparently because yesterday was my birthday the universe decided to send me a couple presents. First the very petty and schadenfreud laden, “you were-right-all-along-award” came my way from Wyoming. Readers might remember earlier in August the Wetlands Society there installed a flow device with enough self-importance and flourish to be picked up by the AP and run around the country for a bit.

I was worried at the time that there didn’t appear to be much of a filter, and wrote the Wetlands Society with info on Mike’s DVD and Sherri’s book. They very politely declined to write me back and obviously were doing just fine on their own “thank-you-very-much’. Hmm.

On the upstream side of the dam, Reed extends the pipe about 10 feet so the outlet isn’t obvious. He also drills a bunch of holes into the pipe. “Even if the beaver figures out the pipe, water still flows through the hundreds of holes,” Reed said. “They really can’t block the pipe.”

Which takes the wind outta my beaver-savin’ sails a little since it deserves only one response, “huh?” but hey, saving beavers in Wyoming. That’s pretty cool. I’ll write Drew and make sure he knows about the filter around the end of the pipe to keep the beavers out and that the holes the base of the pipe are to keep it submerged.The article goes on to talk about the dangers of relocation, which I appreciated.

Well look what September 20th produced!

The beaver family recently built a dam in a wetlands area along the road. The resulting pond now threatens to flood the road. Last month, park workers installed a system of perforated pipes to try to slightly lower the level of the beaver pond. But the beavers were crafty. They plugged the pipes with mud.

Shocking! Plugged the pipe? That almost never always happens! I’m still not sure whether they ever even installed a filter on the pipe, but now they are convinced the problem can be solved by using a longer pipe. Good luck with that fellows. Maybe I’ll write again. It’s hard work saving beavers.

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Shhh. This will be a very oblique bit of good news that I am not authorized to announce, but I got an email yesterday about those “beaver-savin’ pipes-n’-fences” from an agency you’d probably never think was interested in those “beaver-savin’ pipes-n’-fences” . And the author of the email was writing a paper on said “beaver-savin’ pipes-n’-fences” and wondered if I would review it for them before they submit it to publication!

O wonderful, wonderful, most wonderful wonderful, and yet again wonderful, and after that, out of all whooping!

Celia: As you like it – Act III Scene 2

Suffice it to say that it’s potentially a VERY BIG DEAL and when the squealing stopped I wrote and said of course I’d help however I can. Happy Birthday to Heidi and Beavers!

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One more birthday present from the heavens, the results of the Royal Observatory Astronomical Photography Contest were announced yesterday. Every image is jaw dropping, and the winner is amazing, but it was this winner of the earth and sky catagory that got my full attention.

Starry night: Japanese photographer Masahiro Miyasaka's image - entitled Star Icefall - shows Orion, Taurus and the Pleiades forming the backdrop to an eerie frozen landscape, and was chosen as the winner of the Earth and Space category Read more:

Do yourself a Friday-favor and go see the rest here:

From left, Woodbury Preserve caretaker Jared Genzer, Dave Dunlap and Drew Reed of the Wyoming Wetlands Society work to place a 12-inch-wide pipe into an opening in the beaver dam on Cache Creek in Jackson Hole, Wyo. The pipe will allow water to flow through the dam and out of the fields that have been flooded on the Woodbury Preserve.

Er, well not really a beaver deceiver per se, more of a flexible leveler or castor master, without a round fence, but hey the story was picked up by the AP and is now running everywhere so I guess the point is ‘Beavers can be controlled without trapping” and that’s a pretty good point to make. Yeah!

Even if it doesn’t mention Skip’s name with his invention

The “beaver deceiver” is exactly what it sounds like. Reed’s contraption, pioneered in Maine in the 1990s, regulates flow out of beaver ponds via a 12-inch-wide pipe that penetrates the dam.

There, there. Regular readers of this website will know of course that a BEAVER DECEIVER actually protects culverts and this pipe ain’t it. But that’s okay I guess. A TYPE 1 ERROR (See this article for a reminder of the error types.) I wish there was filter. Then again, maybe there is a filter and the reporter just didn’t understand.

…a 2002 study from the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit analyzed just that. The findings were grim. Only 23 of the 234 Wyoming beavers transplanted eventually built dams in the drainages where they were released. Without lodges to use for escape, many died quickly, whether from grizzly bears, coyotes or humans. The mortality rate for beavers younger than 2 years old was 100 percent within six months. Beavers, it seems, just have it tough.

Yes they do. They really do. Repeat that in every AP feed around the country a few times. In the meantime, congratulations to the Wyoming Wetlands Society whose web page has a section specifically on beavers! Give us a shout anytime you have questions!

Oh and I found this yesterday and like very much the idea that one might stumble upon beavers and find they become a huge hidden influence over much of your life. The painting is by someone named Gabe Wong and he posted it on his website for Canada Day. Enjoy!