It was  twenty years ago today
Beavers  came in from the strait to stay
And they took a tree beside the creek
Built a dam they guaranteed  to leak
So may I introduce to you
The story that has lasted years?
Mainstreet Beavers in Martinez D-A-M

The main street beavers in Martinez  built a dam
They hoped we would enjoy the show
Main street beavers in Martinez built a dam
They city said they had to go
Mainstreet beavers, Mainstreet Beavers,
Mainstreet beavers in Martinez built a dam

It’s wonderful to watch them
Its certainly a thrill
So many otters, birds and fish
Attracted to their pond you know
Attracted to their pond!

They promised he could fix the flow
So the water wouldn’t grow and grow
And he alone knew  what to do
what no really thought was true
And then they introduced to us
The one and only from Vermont
Here comes Skip to fix Martinez d-a-m.

Feel free to sing along…

Love everything about this except the square filter. Why reinvent the wheel exactly? Pretty sure Mike made it round for a reason.

One of the special guests at our beaver festival this year was Reese Mercer the director of the beaver advocacy group Western Beavers from Oregon. The group is also fiscally sponsored by ISI. I made sure she got a special invitation to join the Aqua Squad activity so we could share some ideas about how to include children in learning about beaver benefits directly. Because adults always tag along as well! She enjoyed what she saw so much that she asked to repeat this activity at their county fair event later in the year. Of course I agreed and gave yer links to all the designs and materials so she could repeat them for the next generation of water guardians.

She sent a summary of the event this morning and I couldn’t resist passing it along:

Beaver Facts Scavenger Hunt
Kids carried a small passport and visited four participating booths as part of the “Become a Water Guardian!” scavenger hunt. Western Beavers partnered with the police department, Oregon Hunters Association, the Bowman Museum and the Crook County Weed Management Association, with each booth holding a different beaver sign and question. Together, the four answers reinforced a simple message: beaver dams can make water cleaner, deeper, cooler and slower-moving.

Each correct answer earned a sticker in the passport. After collecting all four, children returned to the Beaver Booth for a Beaver Believer  sticker and a special drink, “The Irrigator,” from a local vendor. The activity became something kids actively sought out and told their friends about – a strong sign that it had become part of the fair experience rather than simply another educational handout.

It makes me very happy to think that there are many more young beaver believers and water guardians running around in Crook County because of this. And I’m especially jealous about the special drink name and idea.How fun!

The castor-phobes are excited about BDAS but I was delighted to see this research. Pay special attention to the statistics. Here’s the abstract:

Beaver dam analogues increase amphibian breeding occupancy and bat activity

Abstract

Introduction

Beavers are ecosystem engineers that can create ponds, increase stream complexity, and enhance biodiversity. To mimic these and other effects, restoration practitioners increasingly install beaver dam analogues (BDAs) in degraded streams. These artificial beaver dams are often intended to support fish, although beavers also facilitate many other taxa. Understanding how nontarget species respond to BDAs is essential for maximizing full ecosystem benefits and managing potential trade-offs.

Objectives

We aimed to determine whether two taxa facilitated by beavers—amphibians and bats—responded positively to BDA restoration.

Methods

We conducted visual surveys for amphibians and acoustic surveys for bats to determine the effects of BDAs and compare these to the effects of undammed stream control sites and natural beaver sites.

Results

Amphibian breeding occupancy was higher at BDA (24%) than control sites (0%) but remained much lower than at beaver sites (88%). Bat activity was 3.9 times greater at BDA sites and 4.7 times greater at beaver sites than at their respective paired control sites. Amphibians exhibited a binary response to BDAs, breeding in sites only if BDA construction produced still-water ponds. Bats, in contrast, responded along a habitat gradient, with incremental flow reduction at BDA sites leading to higher activity.

Conclusions

BDAs can increase amphibian breeding occupancy and bat activity.

Conclusion: BDAs can help a little bit. But they help 64% less than beavers.

Well yesterday’s  talk was – of not plagued by pesky technology, at least marred by it, but it can’t entirely replace the sense of surprise and wonder I that so many people. from so many different watersheds, attended because they wanted to learn about beavers, or had read Ben’s book and wanted to learn about me and Martinez.

Go figure.

I’ve read that in some way

There came Eight parts of Speech into the world

And that the Women

(Much good may it do them!)

Went off with seven of them between them.[1]

^[1] Women’s Tongues, a traditional Welsh Penillion, author unknown, probably 17th century.  Reprinted and translated in A Celtic Miscellany, (1971), Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson: Penguin Books, England.