Well, even though Wisconsin eliminated ALL air quality regulations Friday, there are things to enjoy about the return of beaver in the state. Starting with this article.

Something to chew on: Beavers regain toehold as popularity of the Milwaukee River grows

The American beaver is discovering that the lower Milwaukee River is once again becoming desirable real estate.

There are increasing signs of the beaver’s presence: Gnawed trees for miles up and down the shoreline; a ramshackle dam that sticks out of the ice in Lincoln Park; and the most tale-tell sign of all — a beaver lodge near W. Hampton Ave.

The inroads by the largest rodent in North America have been unmistakable, says Cheryl Nenn of Milwaukee Riverkeeper, who has worked for the advocacy organization for 15 years.

“They’re definitely becoming more prevalent,” Nenn said.

Beavers were a fixture in the lower Milwaukee in presettlement times. They are still common in the far upper reaches. But they are making a return to the river on the city’s east side.

“The corridor has become a better place,” Nenn said. “There is improving tree diversity — that’s important — and the water is improving. It’s all of those factors.”

 

Isn’t that a wonderful temporary house they built Chip? So smart. I’m glad Milwaukee is being visited by more beavers. and that there are  new cleaner rivers for them to inhabit. They can help maintain those streams, you know. If folks stop being so trap-happy and let them do their job.

A nice look at the job they can do comes from this month’s permaculture magazine, which is available online now. You will recognize some of the names in it and I dare say ALL of the photos. (Because apparently everyone wants to borrow from us). The article starts with a short piece I wrote with Mike Callahan years ago, and then goes into a nicely detailed description of flow devices, beaver management, and why beavers matter. When author Timothy Sexauer contacted us in the summer, Cheryl agreed that this was exactly the kind of article where her photos belonged.

Go read the whole thing, it’s worth your time.

Beavers: The Ecological Restoration Agents

For many millions of years, in what we now call the Applegate watershed of southern Oregon, beaver have been the senior landscape engineers. At least 12,000 years ago, humans arrived and established permanent culture alongside the beaver. In the language of the Takelma, the Applegate is called “sbink,” meaning Beaver Place.

By the time the Takelma were violently displaced by the gold rush settlers, fur trappers had already nearly exterminated the beaver. As a result, rivers and creeks flowed faster and wetlands had become meadows, drastically changing the landscape and ecosystems.

That’s a pretty nice way to start an article.  It goes on to talk about how when the beaver population recovered they found that the land had been settled, culverted and  laid with concrete. Conflict often arise. But there are MANY ways to solve them. The author talks about working with Jakob Shockley to keep a basement from flooding. And the story ends by thanking Mike Callahan for his work and celebrating the launch of the Beaver Institute.

Jakob Shockey says the key is mitigating human-beaver conflicts so we can retain beaver where they choose to reside. When they are secure in their chosen spot they will naturally disperse their children further up tributaries where we most need to restore water retention. It is up to us to educate ourselves and others about the many benefits of beaver to the land and, importantly, the ways that we can non-lethally deal with these conflicts.

It is an honor to announce that Mike Callahan recently launched The Beaver InstituteTM as a means to catalyze public awareness at a continent-wide scale. The Institute’s mission is “to be a catalyst for advancing beaver management by providing technical and financial assistance to public and private landowners experiencing beaver conflicts, supporting scientific research, training mitigation professionals, and increasing public appreciation of the beaver’s critical role in creating wetland ecosystems.” The vision is to have “all beaver-human conflicts resolved in a science-based manner to maximize the many benefits that beavers contribute to the environment.”