WHAT TO WATCH AND WHAT TO BUY

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver Anatomy, castoroides May 25, 2021

Sometimes in order to get folks to really pay attention you have to talk like a scientist. Good thing for beavers Zane Eddy’s thesis defense is now available online to tell the story of the Martinez Beavers from an academic’s point of view. This is so well done with lots of explanation on the expanding nature of “Cultural Carrying Capacity” and even has video from the actual November 7th meeting I hope you’ll watch and share.

Thank you Zane for all your hard work and congratulations!

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Afterwards if you have change burning a hole in your pocket this morning I know just what you should spend it on, as a very rare castoroides skull is up for auction at Bonham’s today. Thanks Rickipedia for the tip. I can imagine him with something like this on his wall. How about you, are you tempted?

Giant Beaver Skull

US$ 25,000 – 30,000

£ 18,000 – 21,000Natural History

25 May 2021, 10:00 PDT

Los Angeles

Castoroides ohioensis
Pleistocene
Florida

One of the main anatomical differences between the Giant Beaver and modern beaver species, besides its massive size, is tooth structure. Modern beavers have chisel-like incisor teeth for gnawing on wood. The teeth of the Giant Beaver were bigger and broader, growing to about six 3 inches in length. Also, proportionate to its size, the tail of the Giant Beaver was longer and narrower, and its hind legs shorter. The first Giant Beaver fossils were discovered in 1837 in a peat bog in Ohio, hence the species name ohioensis. The present specimen displays excellent preservation and expert preparation. The upper incisors are original. Specimens of this size and quality are very rare. Offered on a custom base. Measuring 14 x 11 x 9 in

Now I can remember when I thought I was insane for buying the copy for 350 way back in 2008. It just struck me as hilarious to show up at a city council meeting with this on my lap. But the real thing would have been wayyyy more funny.

THE KILLING FIELDS FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 What's killing beavers now? December 20, 2020

Zane Eddy is the Master’s student at Humboldt State doing his thesis on the Martinez Beaver conundrum. Every now and then I am reminded he is hard at work and it officially blows my mind to be part of the subject of anyone’s thesis. He needed to do a GIS project for one class and wanted to use the depredation data we put together over the years. This is just one block in his final thesis but it’s pretty amazing to see.

Abstract

Beavers can cause disruptions and damage to human dominated areas, but they also provide many ecological benefits that are causing researchers and regulators to reexamine the existing lethal management paradigm. We examined and mapped the issuance of depredation permits to better understand the geographic patterns within the data. We found that beaver depredations were not evenly distributed, with a single county accounting for 20% of allowed depredations while 10 other counties had none. There was a drop in the issuance of Unlimited depredation permits in 2015 and counties in California Department of Fish and Wildlife Management Region 2 account for a disproportionate amount of the total allowed take. More geographically precise data would improve this study and further qualitative research could further aid efforts to further beaver coexistence.

Now that is something to see in person. Look at that GIF closer. Even if you never even saw a map of the Sacramento delta you could probably guess where it was by that dark blue region from which all beavers seem to spring. He didn’t include 2018 because they gave us weird data without numbers that year.

Results

We found that over six years studied, CDFW issued a total of 934 beaver depredation permits. Of these permits, 225 allowed for an unlimited take of beaver (Figure 1) and the remaining 701 allowed for 12,331 beavers to be depredated (Figure 2). There were 10 counties that issued no permits during the period and Yolo County issued the most permits with a total of 103 permits. Excluding unlimited depredation permits, Yuba County allowed the most depredations with an allowable take of 2,541, accounting for more than 20% of all allowed depredations.

Ugh. Now let’s be absolutely honest. It’s all an unlimited take of beaver really. You just have to ask for. If you’re a teenager that’s allowed to do everything you want as long as you ask for it first, there really are no rules.

Just once I would like to see a request for depredation where CDFW said, no. You can’t kill beavers here. Sorry

.When we looked at the depredation permits and CDFW Management regions (Figure 2), we found that counties in region 2 sought significantly more depredations than counties in other management regions.igure 1 Shows the distribution of the 225 permits which allowed for unlimited beaver beaver depredations for

There was a drop in the number of depredation permits being issued during 2015, which was because in 2015 WAD used depredation data from previous years to convince CDFW to reduce the issuance of unlimited permits. The decline in unlimited permits resulted in an uptick in the allowable take by permit as unlimited permits turned into permits allowing for 99 beavers to be trapped. This shows that it is important not only to change the base policy, but to instill an understanding of why a policy is changing, otherwise people will find workarounds to return to familiar practices.

Ahhh memories. Remember when we met with the head of Placer CDFW and talked to him about how they issued the most unlimiteds and then we found out that they had magically been told to stop but just started mysteriously handing out permits good for “99 beavers”. That was so funny. It’s nice to see that Zane pointed out that there actually was no actually policy change.

Conclusions:

The change in issuance of unlimited permits was a result of those advocating for beavers and shows that agencies will react to public input, however the increase in high take permits shows the difficulties of attempting to implement policy change without also change perceptions and attitudes of those that institute policy. It is important that there is public oversight to ensure that agencies continue to work in the best interests of those that they serve.

Well sure. All we wanted to know was where were they being killed. Was Martinez unique? Was it the only city where beavers showed up and tempted fate? But of course it wasn’t. It was and is happening all over. And will continue to happen until people get the idea that the problems beavers bring with them are slightly less bothersome than the problems they solve.

We’re working on it.

Oh speaking of the unexpected effects of saving beavers in Martinez in 2007, here’s an interesting new downtown venue that’s about to open at the old Bank of America building. They are issuing a call to help name the mascot for the intended indoor market.I don’t know. Do those toes look webbed to you?

WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS MEANS MOSTLY HEARTS

heidi08 Beavers May 29, 2020

That was a fairly bizarre day. I started it with a 2 hour interview with grad student Zane Eddy about the beavers in Martinez and I finished it with a live viewing of Beaver Believers hosted by BeaverWorks in Oregon.

Did I ever do anything else with my life? I can’t remember,

Anyway there interview with Zane was fun, just a little PTSD inducing. Mostly interesting to think about why Martinez turned out differently than most beaver tales. He wonders whether its something to do with John Muir’s influence on all our emerging spirits. I don’t know. I guess its as good a theory as any. This is what the “Human Dimension’ page has to say about the project at Humboldt State.

Zane Eddy

Project: On the management of urban beavers in Martinez, CA

Beavers provide a myriad of ecosystem benefits that can help to mitigate the damaging effects of climate change, but when they come into contact with humans, they are often viewed as a nuisance. In California, the most common management solution is lethal management, but in 2007, Martinez, CA, decided to coexist with a family of beavers that had moved into the Alhambra Creek that runs through town. My research examines the various management decisions considered by city managers and how these management decisions relate to statewide policy.

Nice to talk to someone who had watched the meetings and could comment “Public comment just kept coming like a wave!”. And also agree that Mary Tappel’s cardboard presentation at the april meeting was kind of bizarre. Anyway, he’s off to talk to others now, Fro and Igor and Cassy Campbell. Let the beaver story be told. He had a phrase for what I was in the story. I was struck by it and immediately forgot it after we talked. Something that means I was a key mover of information and the story. It’s a little overwhelming to think about it,, which is why it probably fell right out of my hear.

Speaking of key movers, this clip is from Jim and Judy Atkinson of Port Moody BC. I had told her that one thing I had never seen was a flow device doing its job underwater. And she braved lots and lots of cottonwood fluff to give it a try with the go pro.

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Isn’t that cool? Don’t you just expect to see a mermaid swimming by?

At the end of the day I got to go to the movies on my couch and attend the zoom Beaver Works meeting meeting folks involved in beaver restoration in East Oregon and watching Sarah’s great film: The Beaver Believers, I had forgotten how soon after the stark fire it was filmed in Washington and Kent Woodruff comes across much more alarmed and heartbroken than I’ve seen him. There is a wonderful healing clip though of him watching beavers emerge in their beautiful pond that survived the fire and it is just so beautiful to watch him watching them. Been there done that, you know?

Mary Obrien and Suzanne were awesome in their roles and of course Sherri stole the show. Martinez was a tiny admirable segment at the end, and I didn’t suck, so that was a relief. All in all I was really happy that its making the film festival rounds and getting itself seen far and wide.

Now I have three days left to finish four more slides and get ready for the meeting monday, Hearts and minds baby. Lets hope we win some over.