Vermette pointed out where beavers had built a dam across one of the waterways, thus raising the water level behind it significantly. In many areas beavers can be problem animals, but here their dam slows the water flow still more, thus enhancing the marsh’s role in improving water quality.

Considering the bitter smack much of New York has been happy to talk about beavers, this article is a breath of fresh air. It describes two graduate students charged with monitoring, testing and studying the area, and who have been particularly enthusiastic about the effect of the resident beaver dam. The article goes on to describe how beavers often cause problems and dams are routinely destroyed by the transportation department, but how these students petitioned to let these particular beaver stay and help the polluted waters. Guess how well its working? The bemused article makes it sound like this healing dam is something unique or special, and sadly doesn’t mention that beavers could be bestowing the same gifts everywhere if they were just allowed to live. I wrote them the following:

Gerry Riser’s charming piece about the beaver dam improving water quality in Woodlawn wetlands seems to suggest that the good work done by this helpful dam is the exception rather than the rule. The truth is that once the transportation department stops wasting taxpayer dollars on futile dam removal and invests instead in real solutions like flow devices and culvert fences, every waterway, stream and creekside can be significantly improved by the addition of beavers. The secret wetlands of Woodlawn are only rare in their appreciative scholars: beavers benefit any waterway that is lucky enough to have them.

I heard from Sharon of Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife that they did a consult for a flow device in the area as well, so Buffalo should know better than to think ripping out dams is the solution.

Photo: Berryessa US DEPT of Interior

On a entirely different note I saw amazing footage taken by Moses yesterday morning of a MASSIVE otter in the area between the dams. His long whiskers and huge size let us know this is an otter that has seen many, many summers. Moses wasn’t willing to share the footage with the website, but keep your eyes peeled. We didn’t see sign of him last night, or the beavers either for a good long time and I was starting to get nervous. The kits eventually emerged as cheerful as you please, GQ crossed delightfully over the dam, a muskrat swam by and three green herons flew in for a squabble on the filter. All in all, it’s a pretty healthy habitat. Hear that Buffalo?

Anne of Green Gables’ homeland is back on the beaver warpath again. They announced a few months back that they planned to kill 150 beavers because moving them wasn’t working. (New ones just moved in. You know, kinda like they’ll do after you kill some.) They got a fair amount of public pushback and now say that they won’t kill quite that many. Of course, the environmentally sound P.E.I loves beavers and recognizes that they do good for the watershed, but they have to kill them, and guess why? Say it with me now.

“To protect the salmon”

The chairman of the wildlife conservation fund, Bruce Smith, reports that dams will interfere with salmon passage.

“(Beavers) do create wetlands but the problem is at the same time they can obstruct salmon migration,” Smith said. “The colony is removed from the problem areas only after a thorough investigation into how destructive the beavers’ presence is in the area and active dams are never touched until the beavers are removed, Smith said. “

Lets just pause to consider that remarkable sentence, shall we? Under the weight of the massive literature which I personally can attest Bruce has been sent he grudgingly admits that beaver dams do some modest good. Then insists the more pressing issue is that they prevent salmon from passing. (lie lie lie) Then quickly assures people that these roadblocks which do ’some good’ will be preserved anyway until the beavers are killed. A beaver-friend exchanged emails and articles with the powers behind the decision and was told all that  compelling research about beavers and salmon didn’t pertain to P.E.I. because Atlantic salmon were different and beavers weren’t native to the island. After a few historical trapping records were noted he conceeded that they might be a “little bit native”, but it didn’t matter because their salmon were still different. Ahh, disabled?

A vocal advocate, Peggy Ruge, has worked with our friends at Fur-bearer Defenders and is advocating those whacky humane methods the kids are all trying these days.

“The methods Ruge is referring to mostly involve treating the trees with either a type of paint or solution that discourages the beavers from chopping them down or a metal type of shield on the base of the tree. Smith said the problem with painting the trees is there are too many and it would take up a great deal of time and money. “In a lot of the sites they are eating alders. You’d have a hard time painting all the alders”

Once again, Bruce provides some remarkable language and truly circular reasoning.

Bruce:”The beavers must be killed because they will eat all the trees
Peggy: “There are a lot of trees.”
Bruce: “There aren’t enough trees.”
Peggy: “Then paint the trees you want to protect”
Bruce: “There are too many trees to paint”
Heidi: “Help me out here, Bruce. Is the problem that there are too many trees? Or too few?”
Bruce: Waaaaaaaaaaaaa. Shut up. Shut up. SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Prince Edward Island will destroy the winter pools for juvenile salmon and pay taxpayer dollars for a solution they will have to repeat in three years all because they listened to a man whose initials are BS.

(BTW, if you didn’t click on the video, take a moment to marvel at the new skill I just learned of cueing it up to play right where you want. Ahhh the internet!)

Our newest family member was seen by the Worth A Dam gang last night at 8:30, swimming about near the primary dam and doing exactly what a beaver should. We received lots of well-wishes yesterday from people who’d seen the chronicle article. Skip Lisle wrote his congratulations and Lenard Houston of SURCP said he’s still trying to get photos of his new beaver twins to share. No sightings again this morning so I’m thinking he’s already found his rhythm and its ‘wake up early and go to bed early’. Our own LB was very excited to see him last night and posted this in the sightings page.

June 11th - Baby beaver seen swimming near the main dam around 8:30 PM and finding some willow twigs to eat and then taking some back to the lodge.  He/she is so cute and small.  Soon after a very large beaver (not Mom) came over the dam from down stream bringing back some willow branches and going towards the lodge.

There was a little flurry of news reports about the beavers yesterday. By far the most amusing one is this, a fortuitous byproduct of the massive media monopolies where everything is owned by everyone else. Clearly the best news ever printed in the Wall Street Journal and I’ll wager the only time Martinez has been discussed therein.

This week a copy of Mike Callahan’s Beaver Solutions DVD was donated to the Martinez Library which means it will be available for borrowing in all of Contra Costa and inter-library loans. If you’re curious about how to install flow device or culvert fence, or just want to see it done up close, stop by and check it out. The device used by Mike is called the “Flexible Leveler”. The one used by Skip Lisle is called the “Castor Master” (that’s what we have in Martinez) — different names and some different properties, but the same basic elements. Oh and Mike’s DVD stars the Martinez Beavers in all their swimmy glory so it’s definitely worth seeing!

Our VP Cheryl has been hard at (lovingly unpaid) work at IBRRC this weekend taking care of a peck of pelicans who have been adversely affected by all the runoff pollution in their water. It is hard, unforgiving work. These birds are nearly as tall as she is, and their beak can function as prodigious bayonet. Still the white pelican is one of Cheryl’s favorite birds in all the world, so she was happy to send this photo of a recovering patient:

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

A marvelous bird is the pelican

His beak can hold more than his belly can.

He can store in his beak

Enough food for a week

But don’t ask me just how the hell ‘e can.

Dixon Lanire Merrith (1910)

The beaver friend who went to med school at North Western has been closely following the fate of the Illinois Lincoln Park beaver and now connected with a current med student who also happens to be a beaver fan. She recently took this photo and put it on wikipedia to highlight the plight of the urban beaver.

Along with the judiciously chosen quote.

The prescription for those beavers is obviously “take two physicians and call me in the morning.” I’m hoping for good things for the Lincoln Park Beavers.

From the ‘worst of times category’ I offer this recent news report about the resurgence of the use of Castoreum in French perfume. (Not for the faint of heart)

Civil War tonight. Beavers Vs. Ducks.Winner goes to the Rosebowl. Even a pleb like me can tell that’s a big deal. This is one day out of 365 that you will be surrounded by cheerful beaver-believers. Enjoy! Don’t forget to wear orange!

I got an email yesterday morning from Jennifer Brennan of Allied Waste. She’s the beaver supporter that has helped us for two years with trash cans at the festivals. Seems she was watching the weather get cooler and thinking compassionately about what it would be like to be homeless as the days get more unpleasant. She went rummaging through her house and found some blankets she would like to donate for the homeless, and she wants to get her coworkers to contribute.

Why did she email me? Because she wants to give these supplies specifically as a thank you for “keeping an eye on the beavers.”And she hoped I could connect her with our creek regulars to make sure that the most beaver benevolent get the bulk of her donation.

It is true that some of our most regular faces at the dam site are people without a home to go to. I am always surprised how much beaver information they have picked up over the years, and how, by and large, they have been protective. (Maybe they can relate because Martinez hasn’t exactly been thrilled about their presence either!) I think Jennifer’s idea is a great way to encourage further protection, and a truly compassionate act that makes a lot of sense.

She will work on her employees and get back to me. If you’d like to add anything to the contribution (like sleeping bags or jackets) let me know and we’ll coordinate.

My second story of generosity came at the end of the day, when I was attending the John Muir Association Board Meeting. Turns out one of our local NPS rangers, Ralph Bell, is in Samoa doing crisis work through the National Park site there. The park had several rangers go missing after the tsunami last week, and has been involved in the rescue and grief work efforts as well.

As a grad student I was peripherally involved with supporting the CalTrans workers who were doing the horrific front-lines work of dealing with our own earthquake disaster nearly 20 years ago. Often Caltrans was the first on the scene, and these were some grisly scenes. I know its tough, draining and exhausting work, and part of what makes it bearable is the comfort and support of the people who are doing it with you.

So thanks Ralph and NPS for helping samoan victims recover and restart their lives. Our beaver friend from New Zealand, William Huges-Games, just wrote that it feels like a war zone in that part of the world right now. New Zealand has gotten part of that weird orange dust from Australia, a lot of random earthquakes, and a tsunami warning after nearby Samoa’s troubles. They are kind of holding their breath to see what might happen next. As we creep closer to October 17th, we can completely relate to a terrifying and dislocating earth-rumbling event, and we are grateful there are people like Ralph and Jennifer to help out.

More From our Foreign Correspondent: Alex Hiller

Susanne Horne Max Planke Molecular Ecology

Criminal Intent on beaver fossils:

How can you be sure the injured beaver from the road shoulder is not a stranger in the night but legally belongs to its geographical habitat? - Just show a tissue sample to Susanne Horn at Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and get its DNA analyzed.

In her lecture she mentioned a DNA probe of an injured beaver recognizing it as member of the inherent Eurasian beaver species Castor fiber and not of the North American species Castor canadensis it was suspected to be according to the untypical color of its anal gland secretion. DNA research was done on the data basis taken from dozens of  tooth and bone samples of ancient beavers throughout Europe.

Beaver Populations can be distinguished even locally by the genetic  DNA sequences. Extensive hunt in the 19th century had led to the extirpation of beaver in most parts of Europe except for a few relict populations thus providing a bottleneck in the genetic diversity.

According to the Symposium`s student award winner of the 2nd price, Susanne Horn, “ancient DNA can provide information on the indigenous beavers of a certain area. These results reflecting the history of this species, can now be taken into account by maintenance projects, when planning the relocation of beavers.

Speaking of anal gland secretion (AGS) the 1st price of the student’s award was won by students from Telemark University College, Bo, Norway, on investigation “whether information about age and territory ownership (social status) is coded in the AGS of male Euroasian beavers” ( c.fiber ). Experimental scent mounts in a field study using a free ranging population in Telemark, Norway, as well as chemical analysis confirmed the preliminary suggestions:  The older son of a male intruder appeared to pose a greater threat to resident beavers than the younger son and the intruder itself, suggesting “that dominant beavers carry a `territory owner`badge making them perceived as less a threat than beavers without a territory. ( Helga Veronika Tinnesand, Susan Jojola, Frank Rosell )

Regarding beaver territory the participants of the Symposium were shown the findings at a prehistorical beaver site and its suggestions on the development of the beaver species:

Excavations at an ancient peat bog on utmost northern Canadian Ellesmere Island disclosed in its permafrost ground well preserved bones, sculls, claws and teeth of prehistorical beavers as well as hundreds of sizzled sticks with teeth marks at age of 3 to 5 millions of years ago  (in short = mya ) just before Ice Age. Natalia Rybczynski of Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, who led the excavations, did research on the form follows function relationship regarding ( 1 ) swimming, ( 2 ) grooming claw and ( 3 ) woodcutting .

Rybcynski`s findings to ( 1 ) were, that the stream-line body , its modified webbed hind feet  and modified tail developed 23 mya with its tail as a “propulsive structure” while swimming for getting thrust. The specific form of a flattened tail developed only 5 to 10 mya whereas the ancient grooming claws ( 2 ) had presumably developed 30 to 35 mya and could be distinguished easily by their specific shape different from regular claws at hands and feet throughout millions of years. Woodcutting behavior ( 3 ) could be proved by investigations in National Zoo of Washington, DC: Video analysis of beaver teeth in action cutting wood gave evidence that beaver make use only of one incisor in adjacent position at one side of their jaws, that means beaver gnaw sidewards providing a mean cut width of 60 % of Incisor width. Exactly the same pattern was analyzed on the sizzled sticks of 3 to 5 mya from Ellesmere Island.  As a result wood-cutting behavior in beavers is presumed to have developed 23 mya. What still remains to be unsolved according to Rybczinski is the development of dam-building behavior of beavers.

Sticking to the teeth of beaver fossils, Dr. Clara Stefen, Curator of Mammals at Senckenberg Museum of Natural History , Dresden, Germany, presented her research on length to width ratios of upper and lower molars of beaver sculls to determine the evolutionary progress.

Best

Alex Hiller

If you are interested in green living and sustainability this show will give you practical ideas and ways to live and be green while helping the planet…

Speak to Dave: Call in between 8-9 am PT, 3rd Monday every month at 800-555-5453 or 310-371-5444 or Twitter or Email Dave at dave@daveegbert.com during his show.

The archived show will be available later as well.

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Hope that was okay. I could barely hear the questions due to some audio weirdness. The best part was in the breaks when Dave asked me about the woodpeckers and said he had invited Rossmoor on. They said, are you kidding me?  I think I said everything I meant to say, but forgive me for omissions. That was clearly the longest interview I’ve done on beavers…