“Before I will see the worst of you all
To come into danger of death or a thrall,
This hand and this life I will venture so free”:
Was not this a brave bonny lass, Mary Ambree?

Well, sure I didn’t exactly storm the castle but I did okay and told the story well enough to earn some praise.It’s odd presenting remotely because I couldn’t hear the audience, although I am told there was one. Usually I hear laughter or ‘ahs’ in the right places and know how things are going, but with this I heard nothing until the questions at the end!

The fun part was being on the phone with Michael Pollock who, in addition to being friendly and brilliant, is also at GROUND ZERO for Covid-19 and dealing with a pretty unbelievable work environment at the moment. I guess if you work for the federal government right now your job is to NOT get the disease and also, ironically, not appear to be concerned about it either.

His presentation started on the evolving history of rivers and how much beavers were a part of that and how plants/trees depended on their work for nutrient regeneration etc – and had basically ‘trained them‘ with evolution to do what they do. (What an interesting thought!) Then he transitioned to talk about the work they are currently doing in the Scott’s Valley with BDA’s.

He also talked about how he hears over and over and over and over about beaver dams blocking salmon (which he knows they don’t) and they constructed a study to address this directly using a pit tags to track the moments of salmon they released specifically in a controlled dam to monitor the movements. They repeated it for steelhead and the paper found everyone could negotiate the dam. It is still in review but is going to be published soon and everyone was happy about that.

Anyway, he also said, alarmingly, that the California salmon population is “Tanking” and that the numbers are down to a few thousands. This was really shocking to hear, and made me think about all the obstacles we are giving them and all the beavers we are taking away. It also means it’s as good a time as any to talk about this which was published recently in Earth Island.

How Much Longer Will Wild Coho Hang on in the Golden State?

“Usually between here and the road there’s a half dozen redds or more,” says Todd Steiner, pointing 100 feet or so downstream to where Sir Francis Drake Boulevard passes over the confluence of Lagunitas Creek and San Geronimo Creek, near the town of Lagunitas. But only two ribbons hang from the trees. That’s been the typical story for this year’s coho salmon run throughout the Lagunitas Creek Watershed. Even for a wild salmon population that’s been listed as endangered since 1996, this year’s spawning survey came up with significantly low numbers.

“This current year is one of the lowest numbers we’ve seen,” says Steiner, who is the executive director of the conservation group Turtle Island Restoration Network.

Marin has been talking about this issue for a while and arguing among itself about whether to reintroduce beavers. Are we going to keep arguing until the entire salmon population is gone?

Historically, anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 adult coho created more than 2,600 redds in this watershed each year. According to NOAA’s recovery plan for the federally endangered Central California Coast population of coho salmon, Lagunitas Creek and its tributaries now have the capacity to hold 1,300 redds. This takes into account that half of the salmon habitat in this river system has been blocked or submerged by reservoirs that hold the water supply for the quarter-million people who live in Marin.

On average, Steiner and his team count 250 redds annually, but that number has been steadily decreasing. This year, there were less than 50 redds.

Fewer salmon eggs mean fewer salmon period. Or no salmon. Has California even considered that? We are still planning on a salmon season this year. But our time is running out. Its long past time for drastic measures.

For the past few years, SPAWN has worked closely with the National Park Service to rewild these two communities on federal land. In what was once Tocaloma, where SPAWN has made its headquarters, Brown points out where creekside retaining walls and structures have been replaced by restored floodplain. With help from volunteers, SPAWN placed fallen logs in the creek and built overhanging banks with straw logs to encourage logjams and side channels with slower water. Native grasses and willows from an onsite plant nursery have taken root in the riparian area, their shoots poking through a biodegradable erosion control fabric.

“It’s like a beaver pond,” Brown says. “It’s backwater habitat that’s quiet, complex, and deep.”

Of course, emulating beavers on just a few sections of the watershed goes only so far and, as Steiner says, won’t be enough to restore endangered salmon to NOAA’s goal of 1,300 redds. “At the same time that we’re repairing the land-use mistakes of the past, we’re repeating them,” he says.

Hey you know what ELSE IS LIKE A BEAVER POND????? A frickin’ BEAVER POND!!!

What on earth are we doing allowing any beavers in California to be killed when we know full well what an important role they play for salmon and how dire the situation is? Our salmon population is beyond dwindled and its like we’re killing off the few heroes that can help it.

Imagine if we were preventing firemen from moving in to a community because they took up too much space and blocked development. Do we need them any less? Our bad decisions are going to make us go up in flames and the only ones who could have helped we made sure were gone.

Hmm, that’s depressing. Have a nice beaver video as comfort, Courtesy of the Norwegian Beaver Project.