Beavers in the Retention Pond (Part IV)

I'd love to not be posting exclusively on beavers, but they've been on my mind an awful lot these last couple of months. Other stuff is still happening (like a wild hive of honey bees a student of mine found nestled in an old white pine), so more to come on that later.

Other notes: Following up on my Monday post, the second reason that I'm upset by the way the "beaver problem" was handled is that it shows a lack of transparency and input from public voice. It's not surprising that Centennial Woods holds a dear spot in many people's hearts. Every time the University or City proposes some other development in or around CW, it just galvanizes the residents and students that love it. We want to have a say in the shaping and management of CW, to make sure that the emotional connection, and personal experience of the woods holds weight in how the land gets managed and stewarded. The decision (and lack of public input) doesn't appear to take this in to consideration; it doesn't even show a huge consideration for or knowledge of the ecology of that area. Even if Fish & Wildlife said that the beavers could be trapped and not moved, that doesn't mean that that's the other only option. I see two sets of options.

The first in relation to the beavers:
1. Trap all the beavers
2. Relocate the beavers
3. Do nothing
4. Wait until spring to see if beavers leave on their own, and then return to questions 1-3

The second set of options is what to do after the beavers are gone
1. Install beaver baffles around the outflow pipes
2. Cut down trees around pond to remove habitat
3. Do nothing

I'd prefer options 4 and 1. Again, people love this area and want input. Much like CW, few animals are as charismatic as a beaver is. These beavers in particular had become small-time celebrities - so when FWS says "yeah, go ahead and trap them" their comment is on one hand practical and on the otherhand completely ignorant of the context of this specific case - how embedded in the education of many students and hearts of community members these beavers were.

Two of the boys I mentor, one 7 the other 9, came out to Centennial Brook with me last year to meet the parents of one pair of these beavers. When I told the older boy the beavers had moved back in to Centennial Woods, he gathered up a group of his friends and brought them out to meet these beavers. While out visiting the beavers, Sam (the TA for my Natural History of Centennial Woods class) ran into them and they exchanged stories and watched three beavers making last minute preparations for winter, caching beech, cherry, and birch saplings near their lodge. The following day the boy brought his mom and grandma to the pond to meet Melvin and the other two beavers. I got to follow up with them and exchange more stories. Almost every time I go to the pond I meet up with someone down there and we share stories. The beavers have become an anchor for those of us who are connected to Centennial Woods.

It would be amazing if management decisions as sensitive as this were based not on relative ease, but took time and weighed multiple options with multiple voices. It might take more time, but it would empower community members and students to share their voice and make sure that management decisions reflect the needs, desires, and heart of the community that they effect. It'd be great if making "the right decision" included more that just a dialog about how to maintain the functionality of the outflow pipe. How wonderful if the list of consultants contacted for this decision included people deeply connected to the land, who knew this land not from a distance, but hold its stories in their hearts.

Brains!!

What: While out at the retention pond in Centennial Woods the other day I spotted a most gruesome scene. Actually, within a little more than a square foot there were three cool finds. See if you can spot them (or at least what I thought was cool) in the photo above.

1. Golf ball. I've seen staff from UVM Grounds on numerous occasions hitting golf balls down into the retention pond. I picked up about a dozen yesterday. Most of them are driving range balls, but occasionally a nicer Titleist ball will show up.

2. Deer scat. A neighbor tipped me off a couple years ago that in the winter, deer in the area often spent their mornings grazing on the north side of the retention pond. That slope has great southern exposure and gets warmer before the other areas - it also has a lot of ground cover. I was surprised, however, to find a few fresh piles of deer scat in the ponded area. I haven't seen their tracks within the fence in the past few years.

3. De-brained short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda). Easily the coolest find was a de-brained short-tailed shrews. Much like grizzlies that eat salmon heads during the salmon runs, in times of plenty members of the weasel family (Mustelidae) will consume only the most delectable parts of their prey. And apparently for weasels that's the brain. According to Mark Elbroch, chipmunks will also eat the brains of mice and leave the rest, which was news to me as I didn't know that chipmunks would eat prey that large.

Shrews are toxic to most mammals (they secrete a venom in their saliva that helps incapacitate larger prey). A mammalogist friend got bit by one a few years back and his arm went numb - imagine the effects on a green frog! I have found two half digested shrews thrown up by red foxes. Here the mink ate it's brains and so didn't have to worry about poisonous saliva. I assumed mink (Mustela vison) and not one of the other smaller weasels (long- and short-tailed weasels) as there were tracks about 15' away in a little stream. Mink also prefer aquatic habitats.

It was a pretty neat find and the second mink kill in that spot in the last couple of weeks.

Where: Centennial Woods

Other notes: Miraculously the fourth beaver (well now the third since UVM killed one of them) showed up again. While out the other night I could see two of them and heard a third making a low grunting noise. All three of them, at about the same time, started making that noise. It reminded me of when my chickens make a really uncomfortable clucking sound when our backyard woodchuck comes around. It's not a sign of imminent danger, but a signal that another presence is in the area - I wondered if the beavers were grunting at the fox that I've seen tracks from in the last week.

Beavers in the retention pond (Part III)

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Beaver clearing trail for a beech sapling

What: Centennial Woods feels a bit emptier today. On Friday afternoon I got the very sad news that UVM was kill trapping the beavers that many of us have come to know so well.

What I know so far is that they have killed one of the three beavers, the one we called Melvin, using conibear traps. There are three conibear traps set up on well-worn trails running between the upper and lower reservoirs of the retention pond. Conibear traps are incredibly effective at killing animals. While they can be baited, these aren't. UVM hasn't locked or closed the gate to the detention pond in over a year and with regularity I find mink, gray fox, raccoon, red fox, deer, domestic dog, and domestic cat tracks in the pond (this morning fresh raccoon and red fox tracks on the wet snow inside the gate). While the traps weren't baited when I checked them, they're located in access points the beavers use with regularity. Trappers place traps where their quarry go. And where their quarry go so do their predators - or anything curious about their scent. This is why Conibear traps also kill so many beagles and other domestic dogs that investigate the one place around a beaver pond where a beaver leaves its scent on the ground (you can find lots of depressing articles on beagles found dead in these types of traps).

Sam and I spooked the beaver while

coming down to check the game cam

Rose Leland told me on Friday that this was the best course of action and that everyone they had talked to recommended this. I find this problematic for two main reasons. I'll post my first here, and the second in a couple of days. First, it's irresponsible management. The beavers had obviously moved in during the summer, immediately backing up the outflow pipe, felling several large beech trees that landed on the fence, and built a visible lodge. All of this is easily visible from UVM's Ground's office and the spot where UVM Grounds employees hit golf balls down into Centennial Woods. They clearly could have seen the effects the beavers were having.

If the beavers were indeed a problem, UVM could have done something at that time to a) beaver-proof the fence around the retention pond, and/or b) transplanted the beavers. The beavers did move out of the pond sometime during the late summer (perhaps UVM did transplant the beavers). But because the habitat and access to it still existed, it would only be reasonable to assume that beavers would return, which they did in late September. Again the signs of their presence was obvious. UVM's negligence in dealing with this until December (almost 10 weeks later), meant that options were severely limited as it's now too late in the season to transplant them. But even the assumption that killing them is the only way to deal with them (if you believe dealing with them is even necessary) is false as beavers have been known to adopt other beavers in their home territory. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the initial pair of beavers adopted the second pair after UVM destroyed their habitat at the other retention pond. An assumption on my part, but due to last year's long growing season and tame winter, beavers this year should be better off and have larger caches. They would, therefore, be more likely to adopt other beavers. Had UVM responded sooner we wouldn't be mourning the loss of a beaver that had touched the lives of so many.

Beavers in the retention pond (part II)

What: I went back and set the game cam up further back from the fence. It doesn't quite capture them crawling under the fence (I put it too far back), but it does give a pretty good sense of how curious and observant they are. They definitely, in both this video and the previous one, noticed the game cam and spent time to investigate it.

Ecological notes: The three or four beavers that live in the pond are two pairs. The second pair moved in about 4 weeks ago when UVM Facilities destroyed the habitat surrounding the other constructed retention pond by the Sheraton. With no food the beavers headed down stream, found this pond and took up residency with them.

I think that two of the beavers were siblings (one from each pair). And I think that they're probably also the same beavers that were living here last spring. Sam and I have both been watching the beavers in the spring, and it took time to earn their trust (where they wouldn't slap their tails at us). I would assume that this beaver remembered me (and the trust it had for me), which is why it only took a couple times to have it come right back up to me.

Where: Retention pond in Centennial Woods.

Beavers in the retention pond (Part I)

What: Sam and I went out last Tuesday afternoon (11/27) to set up the game cam. They've got a number of trails that run under the fence around the retention pond that they've used so we decided to stash some aspen on the uphill side of the fence and put the game cam facing the water on the downhill side so we could get video of them dragging the branches back to the water.

We got about 70 videos starting at 4:30pm and ending around 4:30am. The beavers used the path about every 30-45 minutes or so for the whole 12 hours. The video is a compilation of the three beavers making foraging trips from the retention pond to the beech stand (we caught about a dozen trips on camera). The photo to the right is of our second set up to get shots of the beavers crawling under the fence. The game cam is attached to the beech log in the foreground.

Ecological notes: There were 4 beavers in the pond three weeks ago, but we've only seen 3 at a time in the past couple of weeks. Their cache seems to be primarily beech, with some red maple, white ash, elm, white birch, and witch hazel in the mix. They've also been eating heaps of staghorn sumac, scant black cherry saplings, and an occasional glossy buckthorn. Stay tuned, as there are more videos to come (with all the warm weather, the pond should stay thawed for at least another week or so and they'll be out and about)!!

Where: Retention Pond under powerlines in Centennial Woods