If you live in Warren County and have a beaver dam on your property, you’re probably going to hear from the county attorney’s office in coming weeks.  The county Board of Supervisors asked county Attorney Martin Auffredou to send letters to those who own property on which beavers have built dams, after county highway crews conducted a survey.

The goal is to inform property owners they may be liable if a dam bursts and damages public or private property, and supervisors hope property owners will decide to remove the beavers and/or their dams safely, said Chester Supervisor Fred Monroe, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors Legislative & Rules Committee.

Lord knows, we don’t like for the government to tell us how many guns to have, or whether we can spank our children or what kind of pesticides to use near our creeks, but apparently it’s perfectly fine to send spies onto private property to count how many have beaver dams, and tell them to get rid of them. Honestly, sometimes I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It’s bad enough that cities quickly dispatch them on public land. But now you’ve got to scare property owners who appreciate them? Let’s hope your message is neither convincing nor contagious.

The decline of the trapping industry has led to a growing beaver population, Monroe said.  “Property owners need to understand there could be some liability if a beaver dam goes,” he said. “If it’s on public property, the municipalities can take care of them, but it’s a difficult problem if it’s on private property.”

The state Department of Environmental Conservation can issue permits to landowners and municipalities to have nuisance beavers trapped and their dams removed.  Stony Creek Supervisor Frank Thomas said the DEC should handle removal of nuisance beavers, with Monroe pointing out the animals technically belong to the state.

Trapping is an industry now? An industry in decline! Stand back – here’s yet another  politician at his desk fondly missing the days when it was easier and more profitable to kill beavers.  Get me a tissue. Do you really think they’ve thought this through? What if a landowner rips out the beaver dam, and the draining of water and reduction in hyporheic exchange causes a subsequent drop in the water table, and their neighbor’s well dries up? Is he liable for that too?

We need something nice after that article. Isn’t he looking fine! I think we are about a week before his first birthday.

Jr at secondary dam: Cheryl Reynolds

Beavers create scent mounds which act as sentinels and sign posts, alerting beaver passersby that the nearby pond is occupied. (Mary Holland photograph)

Naturally Curious: Scented Signposts

Mary Holland

When they disperse, most young beavers go downstream to look for unoccupied territory. Ideally they come upon an old, abandoned beaver pond that has regrown a good supply of aspens, willows and birches — a beaver’s preferred diet. However, young beavers are rarely that lucky. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility for these young upstarts to attempt to move into an inhabited pond site, so resident beavers take measures to alertthese youngsters that the pond is spoken for.

In an attempt to discourage young beavers from lingering, one of the first things adult beavers do in the spring is to mark the perimeter of their territory. They do so by gathering mud and leaves from the bottom of their pond and making piles, or “scent mounds” to advertise their presence as well as ownership to any beavers passing by. They deposit castoreum, a secretion that conveys information such as the beaver’s age and sex, on each mound by straddling it, everting their castoreum sacs and dragging them across the mound. Scent mounds vary in size, from a height of just a few inches, to three feet or so and they are usually located within two feet from the water’s edge. The pheromones in the castoreum are broadcast far and wide from these mounds. An encroaching 2-year-old beaver detects the odor, and, if it is smart, continues on its way. If a stray male beaver deposits some of his own scent on a resident’s scent mound, or stops to feed, the resident male drives him off by hissing loudly, and if that doesn’t work, he attacks the interloper.

This is a nice article about a little appreciated beaver behavior that really only gets talked about at all if we’re complaining that castoreum is used in strawberry flavoring, or some such nonsense. Scent marking is essential to beaver survival and indirectly lead to the success of the fur trade – since even once metal traps were invented, trappers had no idea what to bait them with, until someone accidentally tried castoreum! Wham! Instant beaver!

We have been avidly looking for scent mounds in Martinez, but never spotted any. We’ve even asked visiting beaver experts to hunt them down with no avail. Where ever our beavers are marking their territory, we it’s a secret we haven’t yet uncovered. Mary’s article is on the Valley news site and definitely worth a read, but the paper has an impolite subscription policy that might not let you come back so just between us shhh.

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Late-breaking news: our friend Malcom Kenton of Washington D.C. was inspired enough by beavers to write his own ballad and he’s looking for a musician! Here’s a taste but you really should go read the rest of it!

Inspired yet? Cheryl took this photo last night of some hard working-stewardship happening at the secondary dam!

Beaver Mudding: Cheryl Reynolds

Feeling nostalgic I posted this on our Scottish friend’s facebook page, asking about beavers in celtic mythology and Paul Scott (who is one of the Tay beaver champions), replied that he personally had always thought about the Kelpie or water-horse as a likely celtic or pictish representation of a beaver. This is the most depicted animal on scottish stones and no one knows what they might have referred to. Of course there are no more Kelpie’s in Scotland but until recently there were no more beavers either – coincidence? This was was so intriguing I had to start researching and reading all over again.

Stone carvings of this mysterious ‘pictish beast’ are seen all over Scotland. It has been described as like a seahorse, or a dinosaur. In most tales the Kelpie is noted to be very black, very at home in the water, but breathing air. Usually only its eyes are seen above the surface of the water, it’s very strong and its mane is constantly dripping. It’s fur is smooth like a seals but it is deathly cold to the touch. The mythical beast has both sinister and magical properties, In tales it lures children into the water to offer it rides on its back, sometimes even changing its length to hold as many as 20. Then it dives, drowning and devouring them. In many tales the Kelpie acts like fresh water mermaid to take the shape of beautiful woman to lure the men to their deaths beneath the water.

Here’s a famous tale of a Kelpie victim from an 1889 retelling. It’s beautifully archaic language, but give it a try.

A party o’ Highlanders were busily engaged, ae day in harvest, in cutting down the corn o’ that field; an’ just aboot noon, when the sun shone brightest an’ they were busiest in the work, they heard a voice frae the river exclaim, “The hour but not the man has come.”

Sure enough, on looking round, there was the kelpie stan’in’ in what they ca’ a fause ford, just foment the auld kirk (old church). There is a deep black pool baith aboon an’ below, but i’ the ford there ‘s a bonny ripple, that shows, as ane might think, but little depth o’ water; an’ just i’ the middle o’ that, in a place where a horse might swim, stood the kelpie. An’ it again repeated its words, “The hour but not the man has come,” an’ then flashing through the water like a drake, it disappeared in the lower pool.

Spooky huh? A man on horseback then comes crashing down the hill to try and get to the Kelpie, but his friends stop him and lock him up to protect him, whereupon he promptly drowns himself in a water trough, because some fates you can’t be protected from, I guess. Ain’t that the truth.

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Speaking of the hour coming…guess who graduated from high school this weekend? Our good friend Ian Timothy who will be off to CalArts in the fall for their experimental animation program. Here he is posing with his rightfully beaming parents. The ceremonial cords represent National Art Honor Society.

Can I say how much like yesterday it seems when I first saw Ian’s Beaver Creek animation? He was 13 when he made it. Ian has been part of the Martinez Beaver story since there was a story. He and his parents visited last year, and the entire beaver world wrote letters on his behalf when the beavers in draught park were threatened. Still not convinced his graduation is relevant news for a beaver website? He asked me to submit letters of recommendation to colleges (which I did) and when he was being wooed by two amazing art and design schools and not sure which to pick I asked the producer of the Beaver Whisperer’s documentary and she asked her animator who pitched in with excellent advice on where he should go! Small, small beaver world.

Ian has already gathered such an amazing wealth of awards and experiences he won’t need beaver contacts or praise from me anymore, but I’m so proud and grateful our paths crossed that I had to send him this photo I found on the web. Yes that’s a cake showing a beaver graduating. I don’t know why either.

At the end of Bridle Path stands a big yellow house on 3.6 acres of secluded land and an interior fit for a magazine. You’d think people would be racing to put offers in, but it’s been so difficult to sell that the price was just reduced by $200,000.

“I can’t figure out why this house isn’t selling,” Margo Kealler, the homeowner, said as she walked into her gourmet kitchen. “This kitchen was once in a magazine.”

Kealler — who runs her business, Park Street Travel, out of her home — believes what’s keeping buyers away isn’t inside the house, but rather outside. Down a slope from her house sits a beaver pond, and Kealler said several potential buyers have shown up, looked at the pond and left.

Beaver real estate prejudice in Massachusetts? Well, knowing how deeply insane some folks are there about beavers it’s certainly possible. Still, 3 acres of woods with your OWN BEAVER POND! I know what I’ll be fantasizing about tonight. That and this kitchen.

Beaver ponds are not known to be problematic for homeowners. Rarely will a beaver go near humans or pets. In fact, for many people, a pond is an added bonus. It’s protected so no one can ever build there. Kealler said she’s never even seen the beavers in the Bridle Path pond. And there are geese, blue herons and many other birds that add to the scenery.

“Someone said to me, ‘you have a bird-seeker’s paradise here,’” she said.

I’ll bet! If anyone happens to be sitting on an un-invested 999,000 burning a hole in their pockets, you should seriously consider this. Beautiful, remote, peaceful and BEAVERS. Great place for an ECCC (East Coast Castor Conference!)

Good news for beavers in Wales! They’re getting closer to reintroduction. Count this as great news for dragonflies and salmon and otters and waterfowl too. Well here, I’ll let our good friend Peter Smith tell you. In addition to having the very best job on the planet, he’s an excellent spokesman!

Beavers’ return: Afon Rheidol river near Aberystwyth is preferred site

Plans to reintroduce beavers to the Welsh countryside after hundreds of years without them have moved a step closer.

The Afon Rheidol river in Ceredigion has been chosen as the location for their return next year. Should the move go ahead it could see beavers brought in from the UK and around Europe.

Of course there are the usual grumblings from farmers and fishermen but they seem to be facing a losing battle. The players have done everything right and the advocates have made the right friends.  Fingers crossed, but it looks like after being missing for 400 years,  beavers coming back to Wales! Can a Welsh beaver festival be far behind?

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Any news closer to home? I received this paper from Leonard Houston this morning. Its by Dr. Wayne Hoffman and the midcoast Watershed council. Hoffman is a name we’ve read over and over again this year, but we still haven’t connected. After I sip some coffee and read through this treasure I’m definitely introducing myself! In case you want to read  this yourself, I’ve put a permanent link on the right hand margin under solutions. UPDATE from the small world files. Just heard from his colleague and co-author Fran Recht that she attended my presentation at the beaver conference this year and was inspired by the Martinez Beaver story!

Those interested in salmon and habitat restoration are express ing renewed interest in reestablishing beaver populations as inexpensive “watershed engineers”. In many places the type of work that beavers do improves conditions favorable to cohosalmon, cutthroat troutand other animals. Their dams also store water that help increase nutrient levels for other organisms in the stream, build up eroded streambeds, release water during the dry seasons, and improve water quality by slowing waters to allow sediment to settle, among other things. However, in Oregon, beavers have been considered a pest as well as a game animal so their protections are limited and their numbers have fluctuated dramatically over time due to a variety of factors.In the central Coast major declines in beaver ponds and dams have been documented in the past 2 decades. This background aper provides a summary of the benefits of beavers, their conflicts with humans, and the policies and conditions that affect their survival. It also provides examples of ways to reduce conflict with humans, and suggests needed legislative actions

Fast forward to 2012, when the wildlife groups had been so excited to be involved, became frustrated at their complete helplessness and marginalization on the committee and publicly resigned, saying “We aren’t giving up a seat at the table. There is no ‘table’.”  A few months later, on Canada day when everyone was on vacation, the city goons ripped out the beaver lodge, swearing after objections that they had done no harm because the beavers had moved on.

Except the next day Anita filmed a mother beaver with two tiny kits, and since they had no lodge for protection they were spending the day breast feeding in a bush. And the father beaver was never ever seen again. After insisting that there were no beavers there, and then that if they were there they had never been harmed, they said the beavers must be relocated – because STORMWATER. Ever flexible and pragmatic, the white hats advocated a wildlife sanctuary that had agreed to take them. But the city insisted it would handle it themselves, and that no media or witness should be allowed to see it, but ‘just trust us – it will be fine’.

So Lily and her two kits were ‘disappeared’. And then miraculously, 90 days later video was sent to Anita of an adult beaver and a much older yearling! A note was attached explaining the other kit had lived fine, but had just dived and wasn’t visible at the moment, but see? They said. Everything turned out fine! You worried for nothing you silly goose-lover! The city waited for public attention to turn back to J-walking or childcare like it always did.

It was pointed out that unless the city had relocated those beavers by way of a time machine, there was no way in heaven or earth that those beavers were the same ones they moved. And the people who were mad before got mad again. And the people who had lied before lied again. I made a video of the event  set to the soundtrack of just Paul Simon’s “Lie, Lie Lie” from the end of the Boxer, but Youtube, in its infinite copyright wisdom, took it away. If you know it, you might hum along as you watch.

Are you still with me? I know that’s a lot of back story to cover. One of the advantages of just putting down layers of evil and bullshit on top of each other over and over again, is that the story gets too long to even tell in the media. And because your story becomes too complicated to report on, the media talks about some one else’s simpler crime. Never mind, this is the Martinez Beavers website. We know all about complicated lies. I’ll get to the point.

This week, the never-awaited pretend Wildlife strategy Plan has finally been released!

Wildlife plan shows Ottawa a “dinosaur” in species protection, says group

Beavers, turkeys and coyotes will still be killed at the hands of the city despite 11 recommendations laid out in a draft wildlife management strategy early this week, charged a local conservation group, Wednesday.

“Here’s Ottawa continuing to kill the majority of beavers,” said Donna DuBreuil, president of the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre.

DuBreuil, who is also a spokesperson for the Ontario Wildlife Coalition, walked away from a working group on the document last September after more than a year passed without a stakeholder’s meeting.

“There was no support from the other agencies,” she said. “They have fought for years any progress.” The policy is now up on the city’s website for public consultation.

Here I did the heavy lifting for you. Maybe you  have something to say about this excerpt?

With respect to beavers, opportunities appear to exist for the employment of “beaver deceivers” to protect some infrastructure (especially road and rail culverts), with associated ecosystem benefits and the potential for long-term maintenance cost savings. Seven beaver deceiver demonstrations sites have been established by the City. However, the City can find no precedent or support for the use of beaver deceivers in engineered stormwater management ponds, and the City’s stormwater engineers have concluded that they may interfere with the performance and maintenance of those facilities.

Because, you know, storm water is SO different from the other kind of water.  And those 5 photos sent to us by that guy Mike Callahan of installations in storm water ponds could have been photo shopped. He’s not even Canadian.  And what kind of name is ‘Beaver Solutions‘ anyway? There’s only one solution to beavers.  And everyone knows it.

So help our Canadian friends and send your comments about how flow devices work and beavers create habitat HERE. As part of the plan they’re proposing hiring a 100,000 dollar a year wildlife biologist to handle these issues in the future. Smart thinking. Get an expert on staff to do it.

We wouldn’t want to put elected officials in voter jeopardy, right?

CBC News Posted: May 15, 2013 3:18 PM CT Last Updated: May 15, 2013 5:35 PM CT This premature beaver kit was brought into the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre on Tuesday after a trapper removed it from its mother's womb. Three other kits that were also found had died. This premature beaver kit was brought into the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre on Tuesday after a trapper removed it from its mother's womb. Three other kits that were also found had died. (Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre)

The trapper discovered the four kits after killing the mother beaver, according to the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre which is caring for the young beaver.  “He had trapped a beaver and then he killed it and noticed that its stomach was moving, so he cut it open and took out four baby beavers,” Reesa Atnikov, the centre’s supervisor, told CBC News on Wednesday.

What a humanitarian! St. Francis of the fur trade! So after killing the mother and three of its siblings, the trapper had the kindness of heart to take the trouble to slit open her belly and bring one gasping survivor for rehab. No word yet on whether he donated the sum he received for offing the beaver for the babies care. Gosh, this is such touching story, they should show it every Christmas.

The surviving beaver kit, which is about the size of a large baked potato, is receiving around-the-clock care and its condition is improving, Atnikov said.

No mention of the literally thousands of unborn kits that are killed every year when trappers take care of a ‘nuisance’ mom. The internet is literally strewn with photos of unborn kits because the monsters think its kind of cool to see them all tucked away and fully formed like that. Don’t worry, I know my audience and won’t share any. But trust me they’re out there.

Meanwhile, lets hope the baby does okay, that he doesn’t remember any of this or the butcher that delivered him. Also that the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Center has enough funding to pay for his ongoing  care. You can help by donating here.

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And speaking of kits, Cheryl was out for our own kit-watch yesterday. She made a discovery that the streetside lodge was being generously mudded. And she snapped this, which should leave very few questions about where mom (and at least 1 newbie) is living at the moment!

Mom beaver with teats: Cheryl Reynolds

It’s okay, the first time I looked I wasn’t sure I saw it either. Check between her head and foot on the right. That little brown thing hanging down means she’s got babies, (and not the unborn fileted kind either). that’s two years in a row mom has changed her mind about where to raise her baby. She seems very capricious! But there aren’t five beaver colonies in the world followed more closely than ours. For all we know it could be normal to have the baby one place, get it all messy, and move to a new abode?

At any rate, after two weeks of watching and waiting we can know for sure that it was dumb fool luck that got those first seconds of early footage. And that, for now at least,  we should be looking for Junior in the pond by the primary! You can bet we’ll keeping hoping for more foolish luck in the future.