:Yesterday beaver-friend Joe Eaton published a column in the Berkeley Daily Planet that was the very best memorial article yet written about mom beaver. (And I say that as somewhat of a connoisseur.) Go read the entire, painfully comforting piece.. A small taste of what awaits you follows,

Mom, as she was generally known, was thought to be about six years old. (The longevity record for a North American beaver, according to the Animal Ageing and Longevity Database genomics.senescence.info/species, is just over 23 years.) Recognizable by a distinctive notch in the side of her tail, she had been observed in the Alhambra watershed before she paired with her mate and got down to the business of dam construction in the fall of 2006.

I first connected with Joe when he was writing an article on the Martinez Beavers for the San Francisco Estuary Partnership Newsletter. That article has always been one of my favorites as he is the only reporter who included my oft-repeated quote ‘Any city that’s smarter than a beaver can keep a beaver’. We met at the Creek Seeker’s Express last year. I am heartened by his thoughtful attention to wildlife, but even more by his knowledge base and effort to connect with experts and references. His article on the mink last year was a thing of beauty. He concluded yesterday with,

In her short but prolific span, the female beaver was an effective good-will ambassador for her species. The Martinez family, just by being beavers, did a lot to enhance consciousness of the beaver’s role as an ecosystem engineer. Public support forced city officials to back off from an initial plan for lethal control and to work out a modus vivendi with the rodents. What happens now? Will the two-year-old sibling stay on as a parent-surrogate? Will the widowed male mate again? Will one of the dispersers return? Stay tuned.

More good news? The Director of the Montana Zoo wrote me back yesterday and is excited about taking the opportunity presented by the orphan baby beavers to teach about the value of beavers in the watershed and educate the public about effective and humane beaver management. I put her in touch with Mike Callahan who offered to help in any long-distance way he could and showed her the successes we have had using art projects to educate children about beavers. I also offered my children’s beaver powerpoint and several helpful articles. Looks like Montana is going to have a little beaver-teachable moment.

And the final piece of good news? Ahh I’ve been saving the best for last. A while back I wrote about NOAA’s March draft of the 2010 “Recovery Plan for the Evolutionary Unit Of Central California Coast Coho Salmon“. The document outlines policies and procedures for helping the suffering salmon population. Guess what it doesn’t mention? At all? I’ll wait. Honestly, beavers are such an unpopular solution that saying they can help the fish population is like discovering you can cure impotence with feminism. “Really? Isn’t there another way?” The unwanted answer hardly recruits followers.

Still, the document is a ‘draft’ so they are still accepting comments, and a host of very smart minds have written back about the missing piece of the puzzle. Last night I read the comments of a certain prominent beaver-salmon researcher who can remain nameless. The whole thing was an exhaustively sourced thesis that makes my meager endorsement seem silly. I don’t have permission to quote but my favorite part is something like “Given that salmon depend on beaver ponds for two stages of their development, we will need the beaver population to recover before the salmon can.“

Swear to God.

Be still my heart. Wow! We are inching towards the promised land where salmon people and beaver people have actual conversations and listen to each other and where commenting aloud that ‘beaver dams hurt salmon populations’ is a punchline that makes everyone in the room burst out laughing. I’m waiting for the day where every time a city or property-owner decides to kill some beavers they have to pay a salmon-tax and face the consequences of their destruction of habitat.

Fingers crossed. I’ll keep you posted.

I saw this photo and Sharon’s facebook page and knew you’d want to see it too. Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife was enormously helpful back in the early days of struggling to slow down the city’s beaver-extermination-runaway-train. To give a little context to this enviable photo, she put together a bio for some nice monday morning reading. Enjoy!

Sharon Brown is a biologist and co-founder of the educational nonprofit Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife (BWW, BeaversWW.org). Her work involves consulting, writing and giving programs nationwide to help people understand the benefits of beaver wetlands and peacefully resolve conflicts with keystone species.

Brown volunteered as a licensed wildlife rehabilitator for 15 years, and the photo shows her swimming with an orphaned beaver kit. She explains, “This is Bounce, a kit I rehabbed with her three siblings, after their mother was run over. The kits were a bit nervous about the big pond after paddling in a bathtub—and I later found a large snapping turtle there that I relocated—so I swam with them a few times.”

She documented highlights in the lives of the four kits in the video “Hi, I’m a Beaver” that has been shown at museums (soon it will be available as a DVD). Brown and her husband Owen are featured in a “Coexisting with Beavers” DVD that includes half an hour of beaver natural history plus a 12-minute segment on installing a Flexible Leveler to manage water levels at road culverts or beaver dams.

Brown is the editor of Beaversprite, the quarterly of Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife (BWW), and wrote the script for the nonprofit’s website. She has had articles and photos published in a variety of national magazines and taught college level biology courses prior to concentrating on beavers.

She became interested in beavers after meeting Dorothy Richards, who studied that species for 50 years at Beaversprite Sanctuary in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. After Mrs. Richards’ death in 1985, Brown and her husband Owen created the nonprofit to honor the “Beaver Woman’s” legacy by focusing on the ecological significance of beavers. She says, “Beavers can help combat climate change because the wetlands they maintain absorb carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas, and beaver dams slow the flow of streams which lessens the damage done by major floods and droughts.”

The Browns share their 300-acre Wildsprite Sanctuary in the Adirondack foothills with a variety of wildlife, including two beaver families.

Maybe you remember the horrific news report from Berriens County Georgia about the “pied piper” solution to get rid of the beaver problems by having a”kill contest” for the most tails cut off. After writing everyone I could think of, I eventually hit upon a solution that settled my heart. I decided the original artwork from earthday 2008 needed to be in the hands of the short-sighted commissioners. I also wanted it to come from one of their own people. Luckily I have a friend of a friend in the state, and was able to send her the pictures and have her send them to the commissioners.

Not surprisingly, the commissioners never wrote us back, but the friend sent this issue of the Spring Newsletter of Georgia Forest Watch, which, surprise surprise! Has an article all about the value of beavers in the watershed! In my very demanding opinion its a woeful undersell of beaver benefits and doesn’t say enough about birds and wildlife, but being as it comes from the very state that recently reduced me to tears, I admit I couldn’t be happier! I dropped them a line of thanks and encourage you all to do the same. Maybe it’s time for a new bumper sticker: Friends don’t let friends kill beavers.

In praise of Castor Canadensis,

the ever-industrious North American Beaver

Finally, it is worth noting that beaver work for free and can assist
forest managers to attain specific wildlife goals in an age of tight
budgets. The active management approach to forest restoration
can benefit from embracing the primary ecological role of beavers
across the public landscape, gaining the many benefits of this
remarkable creature at an economic savings to the taxpayer. A win
for beaver and human.

Darren Wolfgang: Staff Ecologist Forest Watch

It’s a nice introduction to some ideas Martinez has a lot of familiarity with! I sent them information about Mike’s upcoming DVD as well, so they can add to their list of solutions.  Go check it out.  Its delightful to know that there are thoughtful and compassionate watershed, wildlife and forestry stewards all across the country. Sometimes, when you read too much about the ‘beaver-killing-fields’, it’s easy to forget that.

“There is, perhaps, no class of men on the face of the earth, … who lead a life of more continued exertion, peril and excitement, and who are more enamoured of their occupations, than the free trappers of the West. No toil, no danger, no privation can turn the trapper from his pursuit. His passionate excitement at times resembles a mania. In vain may the most vigilant and cruel savages beset his path ; in vain may rocks, and precipices, and wintry torrents oppose his progress; but let a single track of beaver meet his eye, and he forgets all dangers and defies all difficulties. At times he may be seen with his traps on his shoulder, buffeting his way across rapid streams, amidst floating blocks of ice: at other times, he is to be found with his traps swung on his back clambering the most rugged mountains, scaling or descending the most frightful precipices, searching, by routes inaccessible to the horse, and never before trodden by white man, for springs and lakes unknown to his comrades, and where he may meet withhis favorite game. Such is the mountaineer, the hardy trapper of the West.

Washington Irving: The Pathmakers

The great and dimly understood California Fur Rush lasted from around 1820 t0 1845. In that slim quarter of a decade the beavers of an entire region were nearly completely wiped out. Beaver pelts (called “plews”) were so plentiful they were used as currency and all other furs were measured against how many skins it would take to equal a beaver (”made beaver”). They were counted not by the tens, but by the bale, like hay; one bale of beaver skins being nearly 100 pelts. Horses laden with beaver plew were trucked back across the mountains to the trading posts, literally by the hudreds. These ‘brave’ men risked frost bite, starvation, abandonment, hostile natives and plague to bring back their quarry. Extremes of hunger lead their guides to turn against them, lead them to eat their dogs, and even their horses. No matter. No hardship was too much to endure in pursuit of the increasingly-elusive beaver. It was worth any cost.

These then, were the men that made California - were in a broader sense the men that made our nation. Should we be surprised that credit default swaps and toxic assets bankrupted our economy? America was essentially founded on greed, risk and selfish exploitation of irreplaceable resources. Just as we could never have succeeded without a thriving slave trade, America could never have become wealthy and independent with out destruction of the beaver. By 1911 there were 11 known colonies of beaver in the entire state of California.  The trappers were a model of exploitation that has been woefully repeated with off shore drilling, sports fishing, logging and whaling. Reading their accounts is a horrific glimpse into souls hardened by greed and a nation forged more by opportunism than courage.

Just thought you should know.

The mistress of this website had a computer hazard this week which meant there could be no grand discussions of beavers or the fur trade, only panicked snatches from the laptop. A very nice man, recommended by beaver friend LB, came to perform herculean repairs and shook his finger gravely at the piles and piles of dusty beaver information in the hard drive. It’s time for a new system he said.

Preaching to the choir, I said! Bring on the new wide open spaces to fill with beavers! So our first computer, in 1987, had a whopping 20 MB hard drive and cost us equivalent of half a new car. This new machine will be equipped with a Terabyte, which is equal to 1,048,576 (1,024²) megabytes and cost us less than a new set of tires. That must be progress! I guess that should be enough room for all kinds of beaver footage!

And speaking of extra bytes, we were noticing this week that mom beaver always goes home in the morning with a little something to nibble on. She carries a branch for mid-day snacking, and brings it usually from great distances. It’s a unique behavior, nobody else does it with such regularity. We aren’t sure if she just gets hungry in the interim, or maybe is conditioned from a lifetime of kit rearing to bring something for a snack, but it helps identify her. If you stop by the dam one morning and see a beaver coming back with something in its mouth, check its tail for a notch, because its probably mom!

This morning a trip to the beaver dam produced some unexpected treats. I was there at 6:30 and while I waited for a beaver to appear I listened to the showoff songs of the resident mocking bird. I haven’t heard one for a while, and it was delightful to remember what an extraordinary performance they can muster. Most birds learn all the songs they are ever going to sing in their first year of life. The mockingbird keeps adding and imitating sounds he hears every day. Mockingbird song surpasses even the nightingale for quality. They imitate every other bird, humans, car alarms, and traffic noises. At Rankin swimming pool there even used to be one that imitated the life guards whistle.

I also remember the misery of having one decide to sing outside your window all night.It is a something a person who has lived through will not likely forget. It’s not the volume, its the unpredictabilty. If it were the same thing over and over again, it might be possible to adapt. But mockingbird song is impossible to “get used to”. The tune repeats a just few times and then abruptly changes, with an endless repertoire of variety. Try as you might not to listen, your attention is always jarred back by a sudden shift in cadence or tune. Sadly, mockingbird song is never boring or just repetitive.

As you might suspect, sex is at stake.

Mockingbirds sing to attract a mate, and apparently females don’t want to hear just the same old tune over and over again. (Who does?) The male woos her with his variety, volume, accuracy and prowess. Look at me! I can imitate a robin! Look at me! I can imitate a lawnmower! Look at me, I have highly developed syingeal biphonation! Well, we humans understand something about showing off. I guess we can make allowances. Apparently all males sing during the day, but those that sing at night are the ones that haven’t got yet won the girl. Once love comes their way and nest building and chick rearing require their attention, they’ll stop. I promise.

At 7:15 a telltale V in the water marked the return of mom from far downstream. She crossed the secondary dam and swam steadily carrying a large leafy branch over the primary and back to the lodge. It was great to see her swim back home and know she was there and doing okay. I don’t know if the mockingbird saw her. I forgot to listen.

Photocopy of historical Fur Trade Districts Map.
R.M. Bone fonds, University of Saskatchewan Archives
Box 28. II. Stony Rapids Project. Historical material - nd, 1954-1971.

One of my favorite parts of the Lord of the Rings is the council of Elrond where the nine were chosen for the mission to Mordor. I always enjoyed the introduction and identification of power, liked meeting faces you thought you knew but now understood in a completely different way, and was comforted by the idea that Sam and Frodo weren’t going to be alone.

I mention this because yesterday was the first ever conference call for the “historical beaver presence in california” for which it looks like there are nine of us involved. It was the most natural and still surreal thing, hearing truly thoughtful strangers obsessed with the goal of showing how the reintroduction of  beavers could restore the watershed. They all came from their own particular point of view; “beavers are good for meadows, beavers are good for salmon, (or me): beavers are good!’

I was so interesting hearing about the different places the archeologist sampled the historic dam for carbon testing, hearing how to identify a likely beaver site by the shape of the valley, hearing how to construct an argument against the myth by understanding the myth itself. I was dazzled when a biologist from USFS asked someone to write up something about what to look for so that she could distribute it to all their field agents in the state and find more sites for research. At that moment it was clear to me how many resources and powers were assembled in that phone call.

I was especially amused when everyone admitted they were “addicted to beavers” and required a 12-step program to help deal with their need to compulsively look up information, follow links and return email. I just smiled at that, of course, knowing nothing of the condition myself!

Clearly we needed more evidence than just one dam. Was their tribal lore adequate to establish beaver in the high sierras? Was there evidence of soil changes or step plateau sedimentation of a beaver dam? Was their evidence of castor bone in midden piles in the area? Was their trapping records that would pinpoint colony location? Is their correspondence from the time that would prove beaver range? All we really need are a few letters from squinty-eyed pioneers living in the sierras and complaining, “Pa made us eat beaver again today!”

The entire conversation is still playing over in my mind, but the most easily recognizable delight came from early in the call when one researcher said that he had given a talk in Washington the night before and ran into several people who had heard about him from this “beaver woman in northern california!!!” hahaha

It was a great, collaborative, and creative conversation. The beavers would have been proud.

Tomorrow begins the “State of the Beaver Conference” in Oregon. I am beyond jealous of the great minds who will gather to talk about the valued relationship between beaver and salmon. Tomorrow at noon will be the Umpqua tribal welcome and conference overview. Then the entire event launched with John Hadidian of HSUS talking about Urban Wildlife. John is the author of “wild neighbors“, a friend of the Martinez Beavers, both our familiar flow-device installers, and generously sent me an autographed copy of his book when I initially wrote him in a panic two years ago. I am eager to have long conversations with him about my idea for a beaver management internship through AmeriCorp that would train half time with both Mike and Skip, taking care of beavers for generations to come. Next is a discussion of the beaver in Europe by Duncan Halley, who it says has a PhD in zoology and a BA in psychology. Coincidence? I think not!

But the star of tomorrow’s opening day will be Michael Pollock of NOAA Northwestern Fisheries talking about the relationship between beavers and salmon. Michael was the reason I was most willing to drive 8 hours to get to the seven feathers casino, and I was delighted when our wikipedia friend nudged him into contacting me. He said that he had family in the area and would be willing to come down at any juncture to give a talk or education program for us. He also said (and this sealed his popularity in my heart forever) that he was once a member of his city council and knew first hand how remarkably pompous and foolish their discussions and decisions could be. Be still my heart! He speaks at 2:45 and I’m guessing will be the recipient of many avid listeners.

Sigh, its no use. I better confess it now. I’m a beaver groupie.

It’s just as well I’m not there. I’d be in the audience with my cigarette lighter raised the whole time. Don’t even get me started talking about Mary O’Brien’s presentation Friday morning. I can’t possibly swoon this early in the morning…

I wrote earlier about “Inscrutable Beaver Behavior” where the beavers do something that either doesn’t make sense or something purposeful whose goal is not yet clear to us. A good recent example is the tree mass nibble at the primary dam, resulting in the taking of the largest willow that fell to the bank.

A savvy observer of beaver behavior (like any one of us) would expect that tree to be sliced and diced by all the family members at a castor-thanksgiving feast. That’s what happened the night they took down the big cottonwood by the corp yard last summer. That’s what happened to the big willow dad removed from the Annex  the winter before that. Still, since this tree has found its way to the horizontal position, the beavers seem to have lost interest in it. No one has nibbled on it at all.

It fell onto the bank but obviously some human with a fuzzy understanding of the fact that beavers actually walk onto the bank, worked to push it in the water. That meant it fell on the flow device and was in danger of being removed by city staff and being a “wasted willow”. Jon went down on sunday and cut the heaviest part away, so that at least the top of the tree would likely remain in the water.

When will the feeding begin? Who knows. Will the beavers get to eat the willow before the leaves lose their luster? Who knows. Was the entire tree nibble triggered by the drop in temperature? Who knows.

IBB. Inscrutable beaver behavior. We’ll keep you posted. It might make sense later.

Photo: Heidi Perryman

So three times yesterday I had contact with someone who worked in a prominent environmental position, who knew enormously helpful things about beavers and the watershed, who thought the website was delightful and who offered to help Worth A Dam with its endeavors.

They just didn’t want to be mentioned because we were so controversial.

Really? Saving beavers and improving the habitat is controversial? Using humane methods to solve problems and take care of property is controversial? Raising public awareness about the importance of our creeks is controversial? Increasing the waterfowl and songbird population in Martinez is controversial? Making habitat for mink is controversial? Bringing back salmon and steelhead is controversial? Teaching children to pay attention to their environment and the relationship between species is controversial? I had no idea!

Honestly, for all the flashing orange caution tape people see framing our organization you would think we were handing out flavored condoms at a catholic middle school.

Now that would be controversial!

Still, secret friends are hugely important when you need to form an environmental “beaver underground railroad”. I am grateful for everyone who reaches out to us even though they feel the hissing breath of their employers breathing down their necks.  Secret Help is HELPFUL, and very much appreciated. I guess it used to be controversial to spay your pet, “daylight” your creek or feed birds in your garden.

Maybe someday efficient and humane beaver management will be as well understood as pruning your trees instead of cutting them down.