North American Beaver – Water Banker

History

In 1805, Lewis and Clark saw beaver dams “extending as far up those streams as [we] could discover them.” Even before the famous explorers, French trappers and traders were drawn to the land teeming with beaver.

The beaver is North America’s largest rodent. Its pelt is waterproof and has a double layer of insulation making it highly desirable for human use. At the height of pelt demand, some estimates claim that between 60-400 million animals were taken.

Fortunately, we have beavers living along Deer Creek!

The beaver method of water retention, stream restoration, and habitat rehabilitation.

Beaver ponds and dams;

  • reduce erosion
  • act as a fire break
  • slow water movement through a watershed, replenishing the water table, reducing the need for irrigation
  • filter nitrogen and other chemicals that cause algae blooms resulting in oxygen-deprived dead zones
  • retain sediments, increasing watershed biodiversity

Ponds volume keeps water temperatures cool, necessary for certain fish species

Discord Between Beavers and People

  • beaver may eat landscape plants and trees within 165 feet of the water’s edge
  • water pooling on the land will expand
  • roads and structures may flood
  • dams plug culverts and drains
  • animals and wildlife are attracted to the habitats beavers create

In 2017, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service killed 81 beavers in California.

Beaver Problem Remediation

  • install a pond flow device, limiting water rise, eliminating flooding
  • choose landscape plants that beaver don’t eat
  • choose plants that resprout after a beaver visit
  • keep landscape plants distant from the water source

Barrier methods;

  • wrap large trees with 3 ft. high galvanized welded wire fencing or multiple layers of chicken wire
  • paint tree trunks with sanded paint ( mix 2/3 cup masonry sand per quart of latex paint)
  • surround groups of trees/ shrubs with 3 ft. high fencing strong enough to withstand a 60 lb animal pushing on it or attempting to  get under it
  • apply and reapply deer and big game repellent

Diet and Behavior

Nocturnal and non-hibernating, beavers eat plants; leaves, bark twigs, trees, willow, cottonwood and other deciduous trees. They’ll also eat garden plants if given the chance.

Pairs may mate for life but are not always monogamous. Kits are born between April and June, remaining with their parents for two years. A beaver colony usually consists of a breeding pair and several generations of their kits.

A full grown beaver can grow up to 60 pounds. (Fossil records show that they once reached 300 lbs!) Their lifespan in the wild is between 5 – 10 years.

Spending most of their time in the water, beavers have few predators. When on land, they are most vulnerable. Predators include; man, wolves, coyote, mountain lion, bears, bobcats, and dogs.

The Beaver Butt Thing – Castoreum

Aside from fur, trappers learned of another beaver special quality; castor glands, located near the anus, smell vanilla sweet. Castoreum is secreted with urine to mark territory. One can’t help imagining the very first gland discovery. A mountain man noticed it while taking the animal apart. To verify, he needed a close-and-personal secondary sensory test. Enthusiastic conversations between trappers spread the news and began a new industry.

Castoreum, a thick, syrup-like ooze was used in the perfume industry, starting in the 1800’s, to enhance other scents and increase their longevity.

“The United States, the Food and Drug Administration lists castoreum extract as a generally recognized safe (GRAS) food additive. … While it is mainly used in foods and beverages as part of a substitute vanilla flavor, it is less commonly used as a part of a raspberry or strawberry flavoring.” Wikipedia

Despite Castoreum’s listing with the FDA, it was never a substance in wide use. Anesthetizing and milking beavers was time-consuming and costly.

[Castoreum should not be confused with Castor, as in Castor Oil, which is a plant.]

Beaver Adaptations

  • continuously growing incisors
  • an insatiable need to build at the sound of water
  • tail functions as extra leg while on land
  • a mouth valve that keeps water out while carrying/floating a tree or branch
  • ear valves with the same function
  • back of throat valve – ditto
  • nostril valves – ditto
  • nictitating membrane covers eyes underwater acting like goggles
  • tail slaps on water warn of danger
  • hind foot has a split toenail used as a comb
  • fur is waterproof, treated with an oily substance
  • intestinal bacteria ferment cellulose to digest plant matter — this is why castoreum smells so good!

California Native & Aquatic Keystone Species

The National Geographic Society describes a keystone species as an organism that helps define an entire ecosystem. Without its keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether.

 

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If you liked this post, you may also like, Singing Coyote – the Ultimate Adaptor.

Resources:

Bay Nature – For beaver believers salvation lies in a once-reviled rodent

Beavers: 8 things to know about nature’s most impressive landscape engineers

Dispatch – USDA fights endless battle of wits with ingenious beavers

Bridge Creek (Oregon) Beaver Dam Analog Steelhead Restoration (2004-2020)

Climate Change | Beavers Help Battle Ongoing Drought

Eager Beaver author, Ben Goldfarb Radio Interview.

KCRA Beaver Problem

Martinez Beavers.org

Mental Floss – A Brief History of Castoreum, the Beaver Butt Secretion Used as Flavoring

Nature World News – (Beaver) Dams Help Remove Nitrogen From Estuaries and Restore Streams | 2015

National Geographic – Beaver Butts Emit Goo Used for Vanilla Flavoring

National Geographic – Beavers Have Vanilla-Scented Butts and More Odd Facts

National Geographic – Beavers —Once Nearly Extinct—Could Help Fight Climate Change

National Park Service – Beaver

New York Post – Distillery has new bourbon flavored by beaver secretion

New York Times |2017 – Beavers Emerge as Gents of Arctic Destruction

NOAA Fisheries – Working with Beaver to Restore Salmon Habitat

NOAA – Working with Beaver to Restore Salmon Habitat

Science Magazine | 6/7/18 – Beaver dams without beavers? Artificial logjams are a popular but controversial restoration tool – rebeavering Bear Valley (an hour north of Redding)

Smithsonian’s National Zoo – Beaver

Spokane Lands Council – Beaver Solution

Time Magazine – The True History Behind Idaho’s Parachuting Beavers

USDA – 2017 California Animals Killed Report

USDA – How to Keep Beavers from Plugging Culverts [PDF]

USDA – Mountain Beaver Damage and Management

Washington Dept. Fish and Wildlife  – Beavers

Wikipedia – Beaver in the Sierra Nevada

Wikipedia – California Fur Rush

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warning! Video below shows animal butchering – Beaver Castor Gland Removal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Native Plants for Healing the Land after Fire

“Destructive fires in California have increased in both number and severity over the last decades. … Recent drought and bark beetle tree mortality has resulted in millions of dead and dying trees … significantly weakened to resist fires.”
– Nevada County 2018-19 Fire Safe Guide

 

This is California’s new normal,” says Governor Jerry Brown.

Contributors to the New Normal

  • warmer and longer summers
  • more homes
  • more people in remote areas
  • above ground powerlines
  • weakened trees from 100 years of “no forest fires”
  • flammable invasive species growing near roads

“Cal Fire investigators have determined trees coming into contact with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. power lines are to blame for two Nevada County fires in October (2017) that burned a total of 897 acres and destroyed 60 structures.”
– Auburn Journal – Cal Fire pins blame on PG&E in two Nevada County fires (5-31-2018)

Nevada County Fire Statistics for October 8, 2017

McCourtney Fire – 76 acres burned.
Lobo Fire – 821 acres burned, 47 destroyed structures.

 

To date, the 2017 wildfire season was the most destructive and costly in California’s history.

If predictions hold true, this record will be broken.
In urban areas, toxic clean-up becomes necessary after fires.

In areas with steep topography, such as Nevada County, mudslides often follow fires.

https://youtu.be/qyYSS11bsXw

If soil from the Lobo Fire has become unstable, Lake Wildwood may have cause for concern.

Native Plants for Healing the Land

As landowners recover from fire, they can make plant replacement choices that will speed land recovery, hold soil in place, create healthier environments, and reverse some of the disruption caused by mass urbanization and exotic ornamental plantings over the last hundred years.

Native plants are;

  • adapted to local soil and microclimates
  • their water needs are small
  • they flourish without fertilizers
  • they have their own natural pest management systems
Native plants also;
  • purify water
  • reduce run-off and erosion
  • contribute to soil health
  • provide food for wildlife
  • attract bees and butterflies
  • prevent the spread of invasive species
  • reflect the unique landscape of the area
  • combat climate change by storing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide

What are Native Plants?

Native plants are those that evolved to survive to live in a specific environment.

 

Doug Tallamy, Department of Entomology & Wildlife Ecology, University of Delaware, states that native oak trees support over 500 species of caterpillars while ginkgos, an Asian import, only support 5 caterpillar species.

If it takes one baby bird 150-200 caterpillars to grow to adulthood, oak trees will support them while ginkos…

How Do We Know Which Plants are Native?

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Plant researchers compare fossil records to notes and drawings that European explorers made of seeds and specimens. While the list of California native changes as new information is discovered, scientists have a solid working knowledge of the plants that originated in the California Floristic Provence.

“The way we garden and create places like meadows will determine what life will look like tomorrow.” Doug Tallmay, author of Bringing Nature Home

Where Can I Buy Native Plants?

Every October, the Redbud Chapter of the California Native Plant Society holds an annual Native Plant Sale.

 

click on image to go to plant sale page

 

Native plants listed in ‘Native Plants for Healing the Land video.

California Buckwheat | Eriogonum fasciculatum 
Western Redbud | Cercis occidentalis
Narrow Leaf Milkweed | Asclepias fascicularis
Showy Milkweed | Asclepias speciosa
Heart Leaf Milkweed | Asclepias cordifolia

Redbud Chapter, Native Plant Society Resources

click on image for PDF page

 

click on image for PDF page

 

click on image for PDF page

Redbud Chapter Publications (700 local native plant species!)

Wildflowers of Nevada and Placer Counties, California 2nd Edition (2017)

Trees and Shrubs of Nevada and PlacerCounties, California (2014)

*Price discount for Members 
if purchased from Redbud*

Amazon

If you liked this post, check out Invasive Species Choke Natives or Forest Management and Fire.

click on image to purchase or view the entire Life on the Creek design collection

Resources:

California Fires

CNBC – Gov. Jerry Brown warns ‘new normal’ of wildfires could bring fiscal stress for California  (8-1-18)
Good Day Sacramento – Lobo Fire Threatening Thousands of Homes in Nevada County (9-4-18)
Living Wild Project – Redbud
NASA – Fire and Smoke (8-7-18)
Nevada County 2018-19 Fire Safe Guide – California’s new normal?
New York Times –  California Fire Now the Largest in State History: ‘People Are on Edge’

NASA Photo – Mendocino Complex fires – July 2018

Population Reference Bureau – Human Population Lesson Plan
The Union – Disaster averted; Firefighters save homes in western Nevada County (7-18-18)

Plants & Animals

Audobon – Why Native Plants Matter
Audubon’s handy database.  Enter your zip code for a list of native plants and the birds they’ll attract.

California Native Grassland Association
California Native Plant Society

Calscape – Gardening and Landscaping
Calscape – Native Plant Nurseries in California
Library of Congress – Edible Wild Plants
Monarch Joint Venture – Counter the loss of monarch habitat
MonarchWatch.org
Native American Ethnobotany Database – Nisenan Tribe
Sunset Magazine – Knock-Out Native Plants
UC Master Gardiners of Nevada County
UC Santa Cruz PODCAST – Saving Rare California Native Plants
University of California, Berkeley – University and Jepson Herbaria
Wild Seed Project

“By creating a native plant garden, each patch of habitat becomes part of a collective effort to nurture and sustain the living landscape for birds and other animals.” – Audobon

More Books

Bringing Nature Home, How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants
by Douglas Tallamay
Growing California Native Plants, by Marjorie G. Schmidt
Living Wild: Gardening, Cooking and Healing with Native Plants of California by Alicia Funk
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