tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36951966552549607242024-03-13T10:04:01.924+00:00Beavers at BamffA riparian and wetland rewilding project at Bamff in Perthshire, Scotland in which Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) play a key part.Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.comBlogger275125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-21267635574754589982020-12-15T16:44:00.000+00:002020-12-15T16:44:27.350+00:00Summer's lease hath all too short a date.<div><br /></div><div><span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.</span></div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Lockdown has been a time for slowing down and taking note, so I have watched the passing of spring into summer of various plants, especially members of the carrot family, but with diversions.</div><div><br /></div><div>First, the flowering of the pignut (Conopodium majus) from late April here to May: a modest plant that owes its name to the nut-like tubers in its root system. It seems that these make tasty morsels, though you would have to be determined to dig up enough to make a worthwhile meal: better leave them for the badgers.</div><div><br /></div><div>As the flowers of the pignut fade away, its seeds set, clumps of aniseed scented sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata) amass along the roadsides and rivers. Originally this plant was native to the mountains of the Pyrenees and Central Europe. It is used to flavour akvavit.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the meantime banks of ground elder, or gout weed (whichever name you prefer, but Aegopodium podagraria to science) come into flower. If you listened to gardeners you would think only ill of this plant and be surprised that it had not attracted a name such as Gardeners’ Bane (such is the tenacity and pervasiveness of its roots), but I am pleased to see it flowering and hosting its insect visitors. Ground elder was brought to this country by the Romans and can be eaten like spinach when it is young and before the plant has become too stringy.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next to emerge in my list is cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvatica), over by the end of June, intruding itself modestly into the mix of wayside flowers. Then, just as you are getting used to their presence, a newcomer appears: the basal rosettes of hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) start to unfurl their great acanthus like leaves. Almost overnight the splendid inflorescences telescope out and make landing strips for insects. By now we are into July: the weather is warmer and on sunny days their buzz lulls one into the fantasy that summer will never end. </div><div><br /></div><div>Myriads of flies, hover flies, bees and wasps, not to speak of sinister ichneumon wasps gather to feed on the pollen and nectar. One of my favourites is the soldier beetle (Cantharis livida). These mini-beasts sit around on the hogweed in pairs, motionless, mating. They are orangey red - hence their name which must date back to the days when the British Army wore red coats. They are a valuable food for trout when they fall into the water, no doubt exhausted by their love making.</div><div><br /></div><div>Below the tall hogweeds by the paths there are yellow flowered common bedstraw, yarrow, lady’s mantle, stitchworts and chickweeds - not to mention grasses, nettles, thistles and other vulgar ruderals. Elsewhere, draped over the wild raspberries are cleavers (Galium aparine), a member of the same family as the bedstraws (the Rubiaceae). Walking in an old wood not far from here earlier in the summer I saw an elegant plant with simple white flowers and delicate whorls of leaves. I didn’t recognise it at the time, but identified it later as sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum). A few days ago, walking next to the Burnieshead Burn, my eye lit on a bed of frothy vegetation with little white flowers and slender stems with whorls of leaves: another bedstraw, I thought. And so it was. This time it was marsh bedstraw (Galium palustre). Common enough in boggy places, except that there are fewer of these nowadays.</div><div> </div><div>Then, as the hogweed achieves its full height, angelica (Angelica sylvestris) rises through the surrounding vegetation, another member of the carrot family that used to be eaten by people and which had diverse medicinal uses.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now for August with its purple blooming heather on the moors, flaming willow herb, and wild raspberries in woods and clearings: is August to be a wicked month?</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOYfoTS_OptSuF9PohwgVPUzC5xY06SM3lW1ADqYqolhGcSTitOUhbGsEwrWEowK9Zgo9yI7v1zvvaT2jJTPmhqGmN0Ns4a74SWgcLJTm2zO0DuXdVZVH21OyTIoK8gi76Sc9rd9qpaZ4/s2048/9526EDB6-EAED-4E3F-8624-8E636BB8A9AD.heic" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOYfoTS_OptSuF9PohwgVPUzC5xY06SM3lW1ADqYqolhGcSTitOUhbGsEwrWEowK9Zgo9yI7v1zvvaT2jJTPmhqGmN0Ns4a74SWgcLJTm2zO0DuXdVZVH21OyTIoK8gi76Sc9rd9qpaZ4/s320/9526EDB6-EAED-4E3F-8624-8E636BB8A9AD.heic" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div>Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-45387368227034366802020-06-18T10:49:00.000+01:002020-06-18T10:50:55.768+01:00June 2020<div style="font-family: "arial narrow"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px; text-align: center;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">It is time to rise and go. The vapours of my post prandial repose are receding and a cup of coffee will clear the rest. Then it will be hey for the hill!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Which way will my stick take me? Go north and then west it directs. I march past the Grieve’s House. A peacock has pecked and broken a window on the ground floor. There are some who wish to exonerate him of this crime, but I have found recipes for roast peacock on-line, so note that the window breaking peacock is for the chop. The execution, followed by celebratory feast will happen once Covid restrictions are relaxed. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Spring is rushing into summer. The tentative steps of the last month have become a gallop as trees that seemed to be bare only a few days ago are now in leaf - except the ash, that is (and the black alder). Ash is always late, as is the alder, but the prevalence of ash dieback means that many of the ash we see still leafless are dead or dying. The wood anemone’s moment of glory is passing, but wood sorrel is still plentiful. Already chickweed wintergreen is blooming in some places.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Out on the newly planted area of the Bamff Hill there are carpets of cuckoo flower. It is a delight to see these pretty, pinkish flowers at the same time as hearing the call of the cuckoo, with whose return its flowering coincides. Lady’s smock is an alternative name for the species (<i>Cardamine pratensis</i>). Orange tip and green veined white butterflies feed on it.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Where were we? Oh, yes, walking and musing, I think. Wood violets contrast with wood sorrel: violet and white against lush green. And the wood wide web beneath it all. Did I turn left? No, I about turned and headed down the drive to consider the willows. Great candelabras of new stems are sprouting from their coppice stools. A vole runs towards me across the drive. I watch it disappear into a bank of primroses and then reappear for a moment before it hurries into the next tunnel of dry grass. Beyond the little stripe shines with marsh marigold (aka kingcup), a member of the buttercup family.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">What is that word ‘stripe’? It is a Scots word for a rivulet, or rill. I was reminded of it recently while browsing through the late Adam Watson’s ‘Place Names in much of North East Scotland’. In the terminology of hydrologists and geomorphologists a stripe is a first order stream. In immediately local terms stripes or runners join the Bruckly Burn, which flows into the Alyth Burn at Mill of Fyal as the charter says. Downstream of Alyth the burn becomes the Water of Quiech and joins the Isla at Inverquiech, where there was a royal hunting lodge. King Edward I of England stayed there on at least one of his punitive expeditions into Scotland in the 1290s. I don’t suppose that king ate peacocks while on campaign, but his people must have fed him venison killed in the Forest of Alyth.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">There was still a bank of wood anemones in flower at the Steffort as I walked past and a few dandelion clocks reminded me of the passing of time and the seasons. ‘Tout passe, tout casse, tout lasse, mais tout se remplace.’</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Well, who knows if it will come to that - the fate of the peacock, I mean? An appeal on the media for understanding homes to welcome peafowl resulted in several replies. We shall see what comes of them.</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><br /><br />18th June.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">No developments in the affair of the peacock so far: some enquiries, then silence.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">I was very excited to see chicken of the woods (<i>Laetiporus sulpureus) </i>in ancient woodland near Bridge of Cally recently. For some reason the photo I took of this fungus will not come over to Blogger. I was also delighted to see woodruff (<i>Galium odoratum</i>), whose photo did paste onto this blog.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn4vSTuNcYERZbKfRqFlvmtp4K3xj6od0yXhNyQROchMvRuPFjKrEWhSv0rzpCb9AMsN4eTUcHycSR8smX-hcrfUm1SvhJBkNZT6SHFEF0c3i_2JoML1Xyj-aFTGqutJXk7Dx0onvWiCw/s565/8B2C2621-8B9A-4E73-9F0A-40BDA7C59880.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="565" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn4vSTuNcYERZbKfRqFlvmtp4K3xj6od0yXhNyQROchMvRuPFjKrEWhSv0rzpCb9AMsN4eTUcHycSR8smX-hcrfUm1SvhJBkNZT6SHFEF0c3i_2JoML1Xyj-aFTGqutJXk7Dx0onvWiCw/s320/8B2C2621-8B9A-4E73-9F0A-40BDA7C59880.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Here is a piece that I wrote for July's 'Alyth Voice', but didn't send because something more exciting came up and I decided to write that up and send it in as my contribution.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><font size="5">The WhatsApp message announced itself with a ‘Ping!’ The message was brief it said get your act together and produce something for the ‘Voice’. Of course I must do that: so it’s on with the boots, stick at the ready and, with my binoculars around my neck, I stride out. Beyond the herbaceous border of Bishop’s weed in full bloom I pass the row of lime trees at whose feet a bank of Siberian Purslane displays its pink flowers. This species is described as being originally from western North America, not Siberia as its scientific name, <i>Montia sibirica </i>(<i>Claytonia sibirica </i>is a synonym)<i>,</i> suggests, but I see from its entry in Wikipedia that its range does include the Commander Islands, the westernmost of the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Straits. Striding past this gathering of incomers, which have been here since the eighteenth century (their leaves are good in salads,) there is an assembly of yellow flowered Wood Avens, some of whose stems are decorated with cuckoo spit. I wonder if I will see any of this plant’s near relation the Water Avens with its drooping head and pinky purple flower - I am sure that there are some further down the drive. These two species are closely enough related to hybridise freely, which always seems odd to me because, superficially at least, the flowers look so different. Past the trees, the drive side verge is grassed out. We are at that time of year when grasses, particularly the agricultural species, are reaching the peak of their annual growth and coming into flower. I notice some Timothy whose stamens are heavy with golden pollen, waiting to be carried away by the wind.</font></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><font size="5">Left along the Burnieshead path: yesterday evening wrens were cacophonous. The young were trying out their wings. A week before Greater spotted woodpecker fledglings were making a tremendous noise up in their hole in a dead sycamore tree: their parents were flying about the nest, apparently distracted by their offspring. The woodpeckers are quiet now. I suppose the young have fledged and flown. On the water the mallard duck with her brood of seven continues to supervise their activities. A couple of weeks ago I watched with amazement as the ducklings attacked a hatch of mayflies, or some other aquatic invertebrate. They darted about snapping at the insects. A few days later I saw them busy again, hunting for something on the surface. Some were upending. It was as though they were getting lessons in hunting and gathering. All the while their mother sailed along, watchful and attentive. In the meantime the moorhen pair still have one of their first brood of chicks, the other six having disappeared. Otters were around at the time of this disappearance and I haven’t seen them since. I wondered if the moorhens would try to breed again. One evening I saw a couple of young with one of the adults.</font></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><font size="5">The ferns are now fully grown. It is a pleasure to see a beaver swim over to the bank and then, some moments later, swim back to the lodge with ferns trailing from its mouth. I used to think that ferns were good only for bedding, but I have learned that the male fern (<i>Dryopteris files-mas</i>), one of our commonest species, is valuable nutritionally. I walk on. A roe doe in her brilliant summer coat of chestnut red bounds out of the young regenerating birch. Bumble bees forage in the broom and foxgloves are massing in the clearings, ready to burst into purple and white.</font></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><font size="5">Walking back up the drive after the circuit that has taken me by the Old Drove Road, a new bicycle path through the Steffort Woods and on to Cold Corner, I see Water Avens flowering and scattered groups of columnar purple bugle. All through the beaver wetlands along the drive the willow and birch regeneration is flourishing. The yellow flag will be out soon and I notice knapweed readying itself to flower. The seasons advance. It is high summer.</font></span></p><div><span style="font-kerning: none;"><font size="5"><br /></font></span></div></div><font size="5"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-67865305780909000262020-05-02T20:27:00.000+01:002020-05-02T20:27:20.893+01:00Spring 2020<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A conversation overheard on a bus the last time Louise and I visited Edinburgh led to a brief and informative exchange with our fellow passengers about those apps that tell you how many steps you have walked. Now I am smitten with an obsessive need to walk at least 10,000 steps a day. Well, that is all to the good. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">Thinning in one of the plantations gives me a reason to walk over and see how the work is getting on. This takes me through one of the latest plantings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">Striding along one of the old tracks that passes through the ground we had planted in 2018 it is hard to avoid noticing the exposed tunnels of the voles. The place is pock marked with them. From time to time I notice that a sapling has had its stem gnawed, and bared of bark, by voles. Throughout the area, as a counterpoint to the signs of the voles, are abundant fox scats: they are everywhere, as are owl pellets. Every now and then you can see digging where a fox has tried to unearth a vole.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">Around the outside of this plantation, whose little birch trees are showing the first signs of bud burst, is a heavy duty fence: high to shut out deer and netted lower down against rabbits. Here and there foxes and badgers have lifted the net and found their way through to hunt for voles and mice. When we realised that foxes and badgers were trying to enter the area during the winter of 2018 we arranged for badger gates to be installed. However, these seemed not to be used often or at all by those for whom they were intended, the foxes and badgers preferring to make new holes for themselves. This seems to me to be very understandable. If you were a fox or badger and knew about our species’ unrelenting persecution of their kind would you trust a gate that had been specially made for you? No, you would not. You would say, as our soldiers used to say, in the days of the war in Northern Ireland, ‘don’t go through the gate because it may be booby trapped. Cross the fence somewhere else.’ So, like good soldiers the foxes and badgers avoid the gate and make their own way through the fence, lifting the netting and pushing through. For the human managers of the plantation this is an irritation and an expense. A hole in a fence is an opportunity for unwanted visitors such as rabbits, capable of devastating young woodland, so they must be shut out, but it is also the access for the very creatures that you should want to help you establish the young wood by eating the tree predating herbivores. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">“Step on,” I say to myself and look at my iPhone see how many steps I have taken since I last looked a few minutes ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">Another day, another walk; this time not so vigorous. I am back on a woodland path. It is warm. It is early afternoon. Birch and willow are coming into leaf. I rest on the trunk of a fallen tree by the burn. Well, fallen? It was felled some years ago by a beaver. Sap bleeds from a nearby stump. I sit and watch and watch. The water gurgles past and a pair of buzzards flies overhead. Time to step on through the green pavilions of spring. Persephone is back from Hades.' </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The longer evenings and the growth of vegetation have made it much easier to see beavers going about their business. This one was grazing on the young grass growing around one of their pools. I have had wonderful sightings of otters hunting, playing and play fighting with each other. Similarly it has been wonderful to watch beavers play fighting together. It is curious to witness otters active at one end of the pool and hear a beaver gnawing something near the lodge. Next a fallen tree in the pool moor hens have made a nest. Seven tiny, black chicks have hatched out and will have to survive the otters in the pool that the beavers have made for them.</span></div>
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Every now and then I notice elm. Back in the '70s most English elm (<i>Ulmus procure) </i>in England were killed by Dutch elm disease. By the mid 80s most of the wych elm (<i>U.glabra</i>) in Scotland had gone the same way. We were told that any apparent recovery would be vitiated when, getting to a certain age, recovering elm would succumb again to the fungus bearing beetle. However, it does seem that some trees are getting beyond this stage and growing beyond bushes into trees. I came across this row of three or four elms growing along the old drove road that goes from Glenisla to Alyth. I hope they survive and become fine trees.</div>
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Walking on down this old drove road, a mallard duck flew up. I looked and saw her nest with its clutch of eggs.</div>
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The Tay Bridge wood, a plantation of predominantly Norway spruce, planted in the 1950s, is in the aftermath of a good mast year. The ripe cones are being taken, and stripped of their seeds by the red squirrels. Visiting a Sitka spruce plantation here that is being thinned, I see masses of cones, but almost none that have been stripped of their seeds. </div>
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And what about seed years and voles and El Niño?</div>
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<br />Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-28075771320533068382020-04-07T15:44:00.001+01:002020-04-07T15:44:22.939+01:00More walks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A chance overheard conversation on a bus the last time Louise and I visited Edinburgh led to a brief and informative exchange about those apps that tell you how many steps you have walked. Now I am smitten with an obsessive need to walk 10,000 steps a day. Well, that is all to the good.</div>
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What is this photo of? The faeces of a mustelid, yes, but is it pine marten or stoat, or even polecat?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDDgcgSVbrCtfFWGxPcJJ_oRcA7Ewrx4Aa4dcKNQOisjoFXw78hBcuv7FngJWtDoKBkCPCNB10ViCH-_CJNHUELoTY1U98ElASRcBG6RNv5bcF1ujusNQPC9NikL-gIYIuYP3XWBw4as4/s1600/B345D0D6-E889-47D8-A615-245032379C75.heic" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDDgcgSVbrCtfFWGxPcJJ_oRcA7Ewrx4Aa4dcKNQOisjoFXw78hBcuv7FngJWtDoKBkCPCNB10ViCH-_CJNHUELoTY1U98ElASRcBG6RNv5bcF1ujusNQPC9NikL-gIYIuYP3XWBw4as4/s320/B345D0D6-E889-47D8-A615-245032379C75.heic" width="240" /></a></div>
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Walking through the Beaver Swamp I came across these foot marks of an otter. </div>
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As March has turned to April I have become aware that the land is drying up. Muddy morasses are turning dry and baked. This is the season for forest fires and moor burn.</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">It is also the time when beavers, recognising that water levels are dropping are repairing breeches to dams that have been left unprepared through the winter. You can make out the dark </span>patches where fresh mud has been used to fill a gap.</div>
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My first primrose this spring, seen near the burn in the Burnieshead den. I expect that they are springing up along the drive as well.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjHlOZOPZeTG7QQepzgL360IqrjrjaoCkvriLtzB3is1Ty5CYtPb7QV0ZrLp1ZpaYKiEEVhmAHSlPAksaQzkOnF9wQnS2y6e4Ip1bhV_UHQ8ve-tr3LNPI23Yn2HvOOrBYhAXHuTVliCA/s1600/07DECE86-DAC0-453A-94EA-97C5EBD1811E.heic" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjHlOZOPZeTG7QQepzgL360IqrjrjaoCkvriLtzB3is1Ty5CYtPb7QV0ZrLp1ZpaYKiEEVhmAHSlPAksaQzkOnF9wQnS2y6e4Ip1bhV_UHQ8ve-tr3LNPI23Yn2HvOOrBYhAXHuTVliCA/s320/07DECE86-DAC0-453A-94EA-97C5EBD1811E.heic" width="240" /></a></div>
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A surprise greeted me when I went to get some feed for the hens this morning - four mice awaited me in the bottom of the bin. I photographed them and watched them running into the wood stack.</div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-13397896124316862852020-03-22T18:35:00.003+00:002020-03-22T18:35:44.696+00:00Time for a Catch Up<div style="font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px; min-height: 12px;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has got to be time for a catchup after months of silence. Here is my current offering to 'The Alyth Voice'</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Coronavirus… well, let’s give it a break and go for a walk. My default route is by the Burnieshead path, and then up and through the Tay Bridge Wood. I note, as always this winter, the abundance of cut and stripped stems of birch saplings, piled up against the high dam. These young birch have come from the regeneration on the bank above the burn. In late winter (early spring) when there are so few signs of new growth these fellings can look a bit extreme. However, Spring is on her way. The coppiced saplings will push out new shoots in May, eventually to create a thick, branchy scrub, habitat for the insect life that goes with it. Warblers will rejoice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Turning right to leave the path I climb the bank and walk in to the Tay Bridge Wood. Fourteen days into March, the stripped cones of Norway spruce are accumulating on the floor of the plantation. The squirrels are wearing through the winter stores, but there are still plenty on the trees. I see a cone stuck upright in the ground. A squirrel has raised it from the prone position. Is it easier for the squirrel to grapple with the cone upright to strip it of its seeds and eat them? But why did the squirrel leave that cone? A pine martin, a human, the shadow of a buzzard flying overhead?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Another day and I am walking along the bank of the main ditch. The winter storms have done much to rework the burn. New side channels, dug earlier by beavers, are now taking a share of the water that used to flow headlong down the straight, main channel. Sediments that used to lie on the channel floor of the burn have been swept on to leave a bed of coarse gravels and cobbles, habitat for young trout. Further downstream, where the water level has dropped since the latest floods passed through, and the current slows, these fine sediments have accumulated on the bank. Looking at the sediments I notice the foot marks of a small bird and pinpricks in the mud. What can have made these? The muddy bank makes me wonder if eels will return to these places one day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A bird rises from the ground just ahead of me. I am still puzzling over its identity when another rises from the rushes. I get a clearer sight of the creature. It looks like a snipe, but smaller, and doesn’t make that ‘crick crick’ call at take off: jacksnipe, the two of them, I realise. I stand and watch for a moment before heading on again. Later, it occurs to me that those pinpricks in the mud were the work of the just disturbed jack snipe. The birds were using their beaks to probe the mud for food. They must be on migration, heading back to breed in Sweden, Finland and Russia after wintering with us, like the flocks of greylag on their way to Iceland.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spring is with us. I know because I heard the chorus of the frogs over in the Beaver Swamp. Some years ago I managed to get some photos with which I was pleased of the creatures. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The wet winter has resulted in the amazing expansion of waterways through the swamp. Walking about yesterday I took a few photos of things that struck me.</span></div>
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Magnificent works on the north side of the Beaver Swamp</div>
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Another view of this growing swamp.</div>
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The first shoots of sweet reed grass (<i>Glyceria maxima</i>) - a fresh bite to cheer the beavers, water voles and other herbivores.</div>
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Gnawed rhizome of yellow flag</div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-10604180396564314392018-02-11T18:32:00.000+00:002018-02-11T18:52:14.553+00:00The Scottish Government's consultation on the restoration of the beaver to this country ends on the 6th March 2018.<br />
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The following is a letter that we are sending friends of the beaver and our Scottish Wild Beaver Group members.<br />
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It would be good to give a really strong signal to the Scottish Government that we should protect this returned native.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville"; font-size: 18px;">Dear Beaver friend / SWBG supporter</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville"; font-size: 18px;">Soon the legislation allowing beavers to remain in Scotland will be debated in the Edinburgh Parliament. Before that can happen, the Scottish Government is obliged to issue a report and hold a public consultation on the conclusions of that report. The report was issued in December 2017 and the consultation is now underway. </span><br />
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The Cabinet Secretary for the Environment indicated in 2016 that she is minded to allow beavers to remain in Scotland. However, the final decision is not a forgone conclusion, and she may well be influenced by the results of the consultation and the subsequent debate in Parliament.<br />
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If you want beavers to remain in Scotland, please could you contribute your views to the 5 substantive questions in the consultation which can be found at the following link:<br />
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<a class="" href="https://consult.gov.scot/forestry/beavers-in-scotland/">https://consult.gov.scot/forestry/beavers-in-scotland/</a></div>
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The deadline date for receiving responses is 6 March 2018 - and the more of us who reply positively, then the more likely the Cabinet Secretary will be persuaded to stick to her initial decision to allow beavers to stay. As we have seen in the press recently, those who are opposed to beaver’s presence in Scotland can be very vocal - and we need to make our voices heard.<br />
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The government report on beavers in Scotland is technical and lengthy. So to make responding to the 5 questions easier, we set out below a summary of the answers that Scottish Wild Beaver Group has provided to the consultation. You should of course, feel free to respond to the questions as you see fit. If you feel uncomfortable or unqualified to answer any particular question, we suggest you just leave it blank.</div>
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Please help us to keep beavers in Scotland - by responding to the Consultation by 6 March<br />
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Kind regards<br />
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Louise Ramsay<br />
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Convener Scottish Wild Beaver Group<br />
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<b class="">Question 1<br class="" />Do you agree with the re-introduction policy and that the Environmental Report has correctly identified the potential impacts and appropriate mitigation?</b><br />
<b class="">-Yes ✔<br class="" />-No<br class="" />-Unsure</b><br />
<b class="">Please explain your answer</b><br />
We strongly agree that beaver populations in Scotland should be allowed to remain,and that beavers should receive strong legal protection.<br />
Beaver bring many benefits such as flood risk reduction, improved water quality and increased biodiversity.<br />
In addition their presence has socio-economic benefits (such as ecotourism potential)<br />
Beavers should be actively managed to reduce any negative effects on farmers, but culling should only ever be a very last resort after all other mitigation methods have been exhausted<br />
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<b class="">Question 2. <br class="" />What are your views on the evidence set out in the Environmental Report that has been used to inform the assessment process?<br class="" />Very positive <br class="" />-Positive ✔<br class="" />-Neutral<br class="" />-Negative<br class="" />Very Negative<br class="" />Please give details of additional relevant sources:</b><br />
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The evidence contained Environmental Report is generally detailed and thorough.<br />
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<b class="">Question 3<br class="" />What are your views on the predicted environmental effects as set out in the Environmental Report? See page 15 and Section 4<br class="" />Very positive<br class="" />Positive ✔<br class="" />Neutral<br class="" />Negative<br class="" />Very Negative<br class="" />Please explain your answer</b><br />
The report’s findings on the predicted environmental effects of beaver reintroduction are generally comprehensive and well reasoned. </div>
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<b class="">Question 4 <br class="" />Are there any other environmental effects that have not been considered?</b><br />
The creation of riparian buffer zones (involving beaver dams) could potentially provide a critical solution to combatting agricultural run-off pollution in intensively farmed areas. </div>
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<b class="">Question 5 <br class="" />Please provide any other comments you have on the environmental report</b>The environmental Report has correctly identified the the potential impacts and appropriate mitigation – but it will be critical to see how the identified mitigation measures are implemented in practice, that sufficient funding is made available for beaver management, and that any evidence of wildlife crime involving beavers is swiftly investigated and prosecuted.</div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-79738527221123546822018-02-03T19:37:00.000+00:002018-02-03T19:37:24.561+00:00Runoff and Dams<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was surprised when I found this pool of muddy water as I walked through the beaver swamp here at Bamff. I used to call this the 'Wet Wood', but the character has changed so much with all the work that the beavers have undertaken over the years.</div>
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Downstream of the dam the water was clear.</div>
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I went in search of the source of the muddy runoff and found that it started with a puddle on the public road.<br />
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The water flowed down this ditch. The dam in the first photograph is a few yards round the corner in the distance.</div>
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some of it flowed into this tributary of the main ditch and </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI6lHNxZuinjl7M1t5L8hqAdnkRJ9ySFZ0t-5tI9NTiWxN2Nz7tUEAw9_gaz4mngEWedB1OpW74g0iEITMeGXjFh0isi-V4uixuOI_jKTMFOHn1L5PN3p9V8hFzIAAqrq67RTaT2CCFMM/s1600/IMG_6022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI6lHNxZuinjl7M1t5L8hqAdnkRJ9ySFZ0t-5tI9NTiWxN2Nz7tUEAw9_gaz4mngEWedB1OpW74g0iEITMeGXjFh0isi-V4uixuOI_jKTMFOHn1L5PN3p9V8hFzIAAqrq67RTaT2CCFMM/s320/IMG_6022.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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flowed into this pond. You can see the lighter sediment laden plume of water. It is joined by another sediment rich body of water that has run off a nearby field. The direction of flow is towards the dam in the top right of the photo, built by the beavers that inhabit this swamp.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSoRyBFXHAM9OWMlvM5FkjL4yNfSEhoJF50ZZQST3CSGN39LhdgnPpSkIRVEdeQ3mtiu0NMnSh2EI5pr5yFf37-hpVY1dBjXywYuo1v1KTzJKJd3l54zcNi-V4z7SQOP9A6fqgEIEmies/s1600/IMG_6023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="903" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSoRyBFXHAM9OWMlvM5FkjL4yNfSEhoJF50ZZQST3CSGN39LhdgnPpSkIRVEdeQ3mtiu0NMnSh2EI5pr5yFf37-hpVY1dBjXywYuo1v1KTzJKJd3l54zcNi-V4z7SQOP9A6fqgEIEmies/s320/IMG_6023.JPG" width="180" /></a></div>
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Here is the dam through which the muddy runoff must flow. I think it is between 70 and 80 paces long.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5iTBmNQGHDY7LKFKybt22wCtgGsYW45jR8t5PJzkCRviFPA2wGvFdzHpe48p5-dqvPZtGrurwxtgVt645DjxAK5YQVrohhI8nibN6BHH7uJsl8HNtoHaZ4rcbWTzT2ogPuWTvDFvr0U/s1600/IMG_6025.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5iTBmNQGHDY7LKFKybt22wCtgGsYW45jR8t5PJzkCRviFPA2wGvFdzHpe48p5-dqvPZtGrurwxtgVt645DjxAK5YQVrohhI8nibN6BHH7uJsl8HNtoHaZ4rcbWTzT2ogPuWTvDFvr0U/s320/IMG_6025.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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This shows the clean water that the dam has filtered.</div>
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It was good to see such a clear example of the capacity of beaver dams to stop excess sediments. I suppose that the water on the road contained traces of oil, rubber from tyres and so on. </div>
<br />Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-10701192708680682722017-08-23T12:31:00.001+01:002017-08-23T22:59:13.865+01:00<span style="font-size: large;">Oh dear, about two months since my last post!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">(I have just noticed a draft today, 23 August 2017, and thought I would write a bit more, add a couple of photos and post it all the same.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Well, here goes!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSc1a8UmhNt5rAVlXPkbW-jbQ1NViaTh1OXzOdlYzZNIEPIe_mRfR7yX-D0pa6XigqhOTp-M_DXLAvj6ulzeCRb3NKhLCz_mw_IMHA76qRsEVNgBPhpuCn0Wsv-AWCHXEMzrrY8LuAVXw/s1600/IMG_4764.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSc1a8UmhNt5rAVlXPkbW-jbQ1NViaTh1OXzOdlYzZNIEPIe_mRfR7yX-D0pa6XigqhOTp-M_DXLAvj6ulzeCRb3NKhLCz_mw_IMHA76qRsEVNgBPhpuCn0Wsv-AWCHXEMzrrY8LuAVXw/s320/IMG_4764.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That was back in May, I see. The beavers in the burn/ditch west of the drive have been doing great things. I notice tree stumps I had thought were dead sprouting coppice shoots.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw7cPlv-lfSEzkwK1RiKg9hGpuzXSIxV27ntdtSqFZvQFNOf22IkGENiJnImBJ77lb-KoJpp9rysGM01cY0n7ajyYAu17KEforcr-js59oaKT3aauhjR_wdXaKu2Cla5YRg6k5nOjbdGo/s1600/IMG_5161.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="904" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw7cPlv-lfSEzkwK1RiKg9hGpuzXSIxV27ntdtSqFZvQFNOf22IkGENiJnImBJ77lb-KoJpp9rysGM01cY0n7ajyYAu17KEforcr-js59oaKT3aauhjR_wdXaKu2Cla5YRg6k5nOjbdGo/s400/IMG_5161.JPG" width="225" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A hazel stump sends out coppice shoots.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWd_TKQN5R-8ENH7iyafM-VAk8-X22SNZyp0Q7JZHVoIei4ejqWdrwLOs6b2mj1mPPh_-jrEpKh8S37L_kAFoZRwuF8cyNzP4b4lK5X5lH_TXLqUDSlctFOQxUNN_NMyeYwU_hE46ILEE/s1600/IMG_5162.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="904" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWd_TKQN5R-8ENH7iyafM-VAk8-X22SNZyp0Q7JZHVoIei4ejqWdrwLOs6b2mj1mPPh_-jrEpKh8S37L_kAFoZRwuF8cyNzP4b4lK5X5lH_TXLqUDSlctFOQxUNN_NMyeYwU_hE46ILEE/s400/IMG_5162.JPG" width="225" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">An ash does the same. I fear for the ash here because I see many signs of the ash die back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Water spearwort is a spreading feature of the burn side.</span></div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-19808571319216703462017-08-23T12:17:00.000+01:002017-08-23T23:00:19.295+01:00Time for a Catch Up<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Arial Narrow'; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here is my contribution to 'The Alyth Voice' for August 2017</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">High summer! A brilliant day of sun with thermals to send buzzards soaring. Swifts fly screaming at altitude and the swallows dart out from their nests on endless sorties. Perhaps there is a second brood to raise?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Life moves on. There are new routines to adopt. Recently, and don’t tell the foxes, pine martens, badgers, stoats, pole cats and others who might be interested, we bought six pullets from Mrs Bruce at Woodside. Now they are here I have to alter my routine to include them in it. They must be shut into their house at night and let out by day to wander and forage through what was once a tennis court. They must be supplied with food and their water supply maintained. Well, that is one new responsibility. Luckily the world is full of people who know about poultry.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Next, a researcher has installed a notched weir and various devices with which to record the flow of water along the Burnieshead Burn. Unfortunately beavers react to the sound of flowing water by going to check where it is coming from. If the flow results from an overflow that they have made themselves they leave it, but if the flow is unauthorised, so to speak, they will do their best to block it. This is what they are doing with the researcher’s notched weir. What is he to do with the situation? The altered flow resulting from the beavers’ work will affect his data. A solution must be found. For the moment I have to visit the notched weir every day to remove the beaver’s efforts of the night before. Perhaps they will give up?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After clearing the notched weir one day I walked on, turned left over the bridge that used to carry the drive to the house, and took along the northern endrigg of the field called Dance Naked. I stopped half way along by the big beech tree that stands there, and looked in towards the burn. A substantial area had been cleared of nettles, dockens and thistles. Climbing over the fence, I went to look more closely: a path led from the top of the bank into the burn: a beaver had cut this clearing among the bankside vegetation. I was fascinated because I had thought that the animals avoided plants like nettles and thistles: clearly not. Beavers do create characteristic areas of lawn along the banks of water courses, but my impression has been that they graze the tender species and leave the more fibrous grasses. I left the bank and crossed the fence back into the field.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I trod on my way, reflecting on what I had just seen, when I noticed a detached foot on the ground. I looked more closely. It was the right hind paw of a beaver kit. What could have done this? A few paces on and I noticed the rest of the creature among the rushes by a canal. All that remained of the little animal was its tail, skin and a shoulder blade. Some beast had scrobbled the kit and consumed it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After their first six weeks of life, when their parents keep them safe in the lodge, beaver kits can become surprisingly bold. They seem keen to explore their surroundings, while their parents stand guard nearby, mostly. Perhaps something distracted the parents’ attention in this case? A careless moment is enough to allow the alert hunter its chance.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Otters are around, so my suspicions fell on that species, but perhaps a badger had caught the beaver, or a fox? A Belgian correspondent has told me that it could have been a wolf in his country. So it goes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here is my contribution to the AV for September:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As August heads into September the first hints of autumn are becoming apparent; a touch of colouring on the crowns of trees, heavy dew on the grass. The swifts have been gone since early in the month. The house martins and swallows fly in gathering masses to catch their insect prey and fatten on it before setting off for Sub-Saharan Africa.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The pullets I bought in July have started to lay and to make some points clear about their contract with me as custodian. They made it plain very soon after arrival that confinement to their pen was too restrictive. No amount of reminding them of the danger of predators would make them change their mind. Every day as I went to visit their pen they would rush to the door and push as I opened it. Eventually I gave in and allowed the six to rush out, bearing at the back of my mind the thought that I owed them a duty of care as their protector. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Once out they picked and pecked at the fresh blades of grass. They scratched at the ground with their feet. As the days have passed they have grown bolder and wander further afield. In the afternoon I round them up. Well, that gives you a rather inaccurate idea of what happens. I look around a hen-less landscape and wonder which of several species of predator will have enjoyed them. Perhaps it will be the fox I saw from our bedroom window recently, or the otter whose paw mark I saw by the burn yesterday? And there are pine martens and possibly polecats, not to speak of stoats and weasels. Then, all of a sudden, I hear the reassuring, conversational ‘toouck, toouck' of a hen. Two of the creatures have walked out of the undergrowth where they have been foraging. Soon most of them have come out into the open, curious to see what is going on.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">An email arrived from friends in Argyll. They had bought a fine bantam cock for their hens and no longer needed the full sized beast they had on the strength at the time. At first I was unpersuaded: we didn’t need a cock for our hens. We were not planning to establish a breeding flock. Then, another email arrived.The cock in Argyll would face death if he could not be given away: an axe was at hand. Our friends would delay execution if we accepted the bird: they would drive him over to us. He was of a kindly disposition, would look after our hens and protect them from evil. He would even sacrifice himself rather than let his hens face death at the claws of a predator. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This was too much for me. I emailed back immediately that the cock must come to Bamff without delay. He would be granted full rights of residence as an asylum seeker in danger of his life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The cock has turned out to be a splendid red gold specimen with iridescent green black tail feathers, which include a white one for good measure. Our friends told me that he had an exceptionally pleasant character, was very quiet, would only crow at dawn and then only for a short time. We drank tea and I listened while my friends extolled the cock.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What of the reality on day two of his presence? He wandered round the house all day, crowing quite often. When it came to rounding up the hens in the afternoon he had only two with him. Is this the future, I thought, am I condemned to an old age of rounding up hens every day from two hours before dusk?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the meantime our consumption of eggs has risen. Omelettes, scrambled, boiled, poached and fried eggs, mayonnaise, rum soufflé (still to cook). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This takes me to my last point: the poached egg. I have always consoled myself with the thought that the poached egg was an inferior fried egg. This was because I have never been able to cook one satisfactorily until now. I would boil the water, break the egg into it and watch while the white spread through the water and seemed to curdle. Well, some months ago I heard on a radio programme that success with poached eggs depends on their freshness. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With our own eggs I could put this to the test; so I did. I chose two eggs that had been laid that morning. I followed instructions from the internet (<a href="http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/eggs-recipes/poached-eggs/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; line-height: normal;">http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/eggs-recipes/poached-eggs/</span></a>) and ‘Presto!’ They were perfect. Of course super market eggs may be months old by the time they reach the kitchen, so it’s not surprising they don’t poach well.</span></span></div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-45936664697116625822017-03-26T20:13:00.000+01:002017-03-26T20:13:00.435+01:00A Walk to the Wet Wood/Beaver Bog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last week it was the otter latrine that excited me. This week it was the chorus of frogs. The British frog is <i>Rana temporaria </i>and the song it sings is a simple one note trill - satisfactory in warm weather and bright sunshine as a harbinger of spring.<br />
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Here is a choral group.</div>
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The small pond at the west end of the Beaver Bog/Wet Wood has grown dramatically.</div>
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Otters, water voles, frogs whatever next?</div>
<br />Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-40064248324732319682017-03-22T21:22:00.002+00:002017-03-22T21:24:19.549+00:00Memories of our visit to Seattle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Forests for fish should be recognised in Scotland as being important for the health of the Atlantic salmon. That doesn't mean monocultures of Sitka spruce but of a programme of ecological restoration as proposed by Helen Armstrong (<a href="http://www.forestpolicygroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/The-Benefits-of-Woodland-Part-II.pdf">http://www.forestpolicygroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/The-Benefits-of-Woodland-Part-II.pdf</a>), Duncan Halley and others.</div>
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I took the next few photos at the Seattle Aquarium.<br />
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The removal of the Elwha Dam has been a huge project (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUZE7kgXKJc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUZE7kgXKJc</a>), <a href="http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/160602-us-elwha-river-dam-removal-restoration-vin?source=relatedvideo">http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/160602-us-elwha-river-dam-removal-restoration-vin?source=relatedvideo</a></div>
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It is thrilling to think that, as with other river restoration projects, salmon are running up the Elwha River again.<br />
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I liked this tank of coho parr in the Seattle Aquarium.</div>
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The two photographs below are taken just above the hatchery and so rather upstream of the now removed dam.<br />
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-32748554788697320862017-03-21T21:28:00.000+00:002017-03-22T17:24:32.847+00:00<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Spring Notes 2017</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Being short of time I thought I would look out something I had written earlier and put it in for April 2017. But no, that would not do. The articles I found were all relevant to some extent, but not enough in the particulars. Snowdrops, aconites, migrating geese, beavers and wild boar were all mentioned in the articles that I looked through, but in the context of the year and seasons they described they were irrelevant to the present. There were late years and early years and comments that belonged to a particular year. No, I decided, I would not get away with it. I would have to start afresh and make time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> This year I see that daffodils are beginning to flower, which seems a little early, but then the weather has been quite mild. Buds of the red berried elders are about to burst and I see one of those flowering currants coming into bloom. Greater Spotted Woodpeckers are drilling away in the snags of dead trees of which there are plenty here, especially along the banks of the Burnieshead Burn. Song thrushes are singing furiously from the tops of trees. One, at least, has been pretending to be an oyster catcher. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">What of the passing winter, revived as it is from time to time by frosts and teuchat storms? The green sandpiper that wintered here for the last two years made a brief touch down along the Burnieshead Burn a couple of weeks before Christmas, but I didn’t see it again. The dippers were absent too. Our Dutch shooters saw a flock of snipe during one of their visits. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">While walking in the Wet Wood I came across an otters’ latrine by the side of the burn. Usually I come across single spraints in various states of dissolution, but this latrine comprised at least ten separate scats: clearly a meeting place for otters. The spraints are sources of information for the animals. They learn from each other’s faeces what there is to eat in the area and other important information such as the sex and state of sexual readiness of the informant. Otters are not seasonal breeders, but will breed whenever their body condition allows.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The species has made a wonderful recovery since the dark days of the 1970s when it nearly became extinct in this country owing to the widespread use of various poisons in the environment. Happily, scientists of the Nature Conservancy’s Monks’ Wood Research Station, led by the late Derek Ratcliffe, were able to persuade Government of the toxicity of the organochlorines and then the PCBs. This led eventually to the withdrawal and banning of these chemicals. Rachel Carson’s famous ‘Silent Spring’ was a classic summary of the case against the chemical companies’ irresponsible promotion of the use of these substances. And still the struggle continues: the British Government, unlike those of Germany and France, refuses to ban the neonicotinoid chemicals that threaten to destroy honey bees and bumble bees, essential pollinators of so many crops. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Otters are still rare in various parts of mainland Europe, but making a come back just as ours have. There is the possibility of recovery: we must make the most of it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span>There we go! Some photos of otter spraints<br />
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I should have pointed out that the short article is my contribution to April's number of 'The Alyth Voice'.</div>
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And now to the same walk at Bamff where I came across the otters' latrine.</div>
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This is the little pool that John Lister-Kaye dug with the excavator in September 2001.</div>
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The new dam for that pond - the dam topped with turf and mud.</div>
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Here is the pool created by the Long Dam. In the distance you see a mass felling grey alder. The trees are felled parallel to each other, but not facing specifically towards the water.</td></tr>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-45865237016757002412017-03-13T14:47:00.000+00:002017-03-13T14:48:48.130+00:00More about Canyonville and the State of the Beaver Conference 2017<br />
We reached Canyonville. The air was crisp and promised frost that night. Word was that there was a lot of snow higher up and not far away. The prospect of a visit to the Crater Lake was dismissed.<br />
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We met our fellow Brits and Gerhard Schwab in the Seven Feathers Hotel as well as Leonard and Lois Houston, and ate and drank with them before heading for bed.<br />
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We were sorry to learn that Heidi Perryman had decided not to come after all, put off by the prospect of floods. Louise and I were lucky not to have been blocked by landslides because two or three roads were blocked by landslides, either after we had passed through, or because we didn't take those roads by accident.<br />
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As she was absent Heidi sent us the following talk as a video. Here is a link to it:<br />
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Stan Petrowski welcomed us all, but the first talk came from Derek Gow who was standing in for Professor Bryony Coles. The talk covered the familiar grounds of Bryony's 'Beavers in Britain's Past' of 2007/8, but it was interesting to see photos of soil horizons in river banks with great gaps, filled with different sediments, their shape suggestive of beaver burrows, the significance of which I had not fully taken in before.<br />
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Gerhard Schwab's talk covered much familiar ground to do with the interface between beavers and people in Bavaria. The theme of much of the conference was exactly that. Gerhard also introduced us to Max Behr Amtman who worked on the protection of the beavers of the Elbe floodplains in the 1920s.<br />
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Translocation of beavers came up as a subject. It was interesting to learn of high failure rates (up to 40%) in some projects. Much of this had to do with predation by cougars and coyotes. Young adults of dispersal age must be specially vulnerable.</div>
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One of the most interesting talks was given by Stewart Reid. Dr. Reid spoke about the relationship between beavers and Pacific lampreys. Two years ago when Louise and I attended the last State of the Beaver conference I found myself wondering about beavers and lampreys. It struck me then that our river and brook lampreys (as ammocoetes) should benefit from the fine sediments that accumulate on the upstream side of beaver dams, as they seem to in the Pacific North West. As the Tay is a Special Area for Conservation in part because of the presence of three species of lamprey this is something worth remembering. On the other hand the amount of agricultural pollution in the lower stretches of the Isla and other tributaries of the Tay is probably such as to make the survival of lampreys difficult. It would be interesting to learn more about this.</div>
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Vanessa Petro spoke about beavers in managed forests. She started her talk interestingly by saying that we know surprisingly little about the species. For example it was not generally known that American beavers like the Eurasians, often live in bank burrows. </div>
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I became aware of this recently. It seems that beavers of both species are more flexible in their solutions to housing problems than people had thought. </div>
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Mike Callahan showed us a design for a ditch levelling device for narrow channels with high flows:</div>
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Except that here is a photograph of Stan Petrowski</div>
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<br />Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-77835618710523478732017-03-12T12:36:00.001+00:002017-03-12T12:36:47.492+00:00Some random thoughts about our visit to the 'State of the Beaver' Conference at Canyonvillle, Oregon.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have been having difficulties in downloading photographs and thought I would move my blog to Wordpress. However, I thought I would try Blogger again and, lo and behold, photos downloaded. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyhow, just to start with her is my piece for March's number of the Alyth Voice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They do say that San Francisco is inclined to rain, but nobody told me that Los Angeles would suffer a massive rainstorm while I was there. Instead of golden sun and blue skies the rain lashed down, tearing old palm fronds off their trees and casting them on the roads and sidewalks. The famous Hollywood sign was hidden in the mist and there was no view from the Griffith Observatory. Ten inches or so of rain fell in the storm of Friday, 17th February. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">California is in the throes of a metereological turn around. For a good six years there had been unbroken drought and now there are floods. The US's highest dam, the one at Oroville was in danger of overflowing and the massive outpouring of water through the spillways threatened to destroy these structures themselves. About 180,000 local people had to be evacuated from their houses in case the dam itself collapsed. An article in the current number of the 'Scientific American' reports that recommendations that the dam should be strengthened as a response to the changing climate were turned down in 2008.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Interstate 101 is the highway that takes you through much of the Central Valley of California. This lies between the coastal range and the Sierra Nevada to the East. The area amounts to some 18,000 square miles and is given over to intensive agriculture. We drove past vineyards and huge orchards, some of them almond orchards in flower. There were plantations of peaches and vast fields where rice would grow. Irrigation pipes were to be seen in many place, a curious counterpoint to the flooded fields in which those pipes lay. Single enormous fields stretched out of sight from the road as we drove by. The biggest fields in Strathmore were dwarfed in comparison.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The signs of the recent rains were present everywhere, but it was not until we drove through the northern end of the plain that we saw the extent of the flooding caused by the rainfall that has threatened the Oroville dam (and a couple of others) with apocalypse. By this time we had left Interstate 101 and were heading for Chico. I noticed a high rampart to our right and then saw a sign to Oroville. Wow! I thought. Passing so close to this enormous lake/reservoir with its threatened dam, was an unexpected brush with current headlines. We drove on and the rain continued to lash down. I noticed a huge flock of snow geese resting in a flooded field. On the other side of the road some Canada geese were grazing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Looking at maps later I discovered that the rampart we had passed by was the boundary of the Thermalito Afterbay, which is part of the Oroville-Thermalito complex of reservoirs and structures. The main high dam lies further to the east. It was completed in 1968 and created a lake that flooded the Feather River and various others in the catchment to store water for hydroelectricity, irrigation, flood control, etc.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In my excitement about the Oroville dam I nearly forgot to mention our visit to the Muir Woods National Monument. This is a small reserve of about 500 acres a little to the North of the Golden Gate Bridge, and one of the last areas of old growth coastal redwoods. It was declared a reserve by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 in honour of John Muir who fought so hard throughout his life for the protection of wilderness and for the establishment of a system of national parks in a country that was being assailed by the demands of modern society and the growth economy. The great trees are an astonishing sight and presence, for which nothing can prepare the visitor. The old trees in this wood are at least 1,000 years old.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rolling back in my memories of this journey from Los Angeles to Oregon I must mention Monterey, the site of John Steinbeck's 'Cannery Row', where we stayed a night. The canneries in Monterey processed fish, mainly sardines, of which there was once tremendous abundance, but the fishery was grossly over exploited and eventually collapsed by the late 1940s, leaving a legacy of pollution in the Bay and collapsed economy on land. Steinbeck's friend, the marine biologist Ed Ricketts, and Julia Platts, the mayor of the town, campaigned for the restoration of the ecology of the marine environment with eventual success. Ed Ricketts is the 'Doc' of Steinbeck's novel. Dr. Ricketts founded the world famous aquarium in Monterey, a major attraction to visitors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now we are in Canyonville, Oregon after driving out of California, over the mountains, ready to attend the 'State of the Beaver' conference for 2017. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Time to go.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Louise standing at the foot of a coastal redwood at Big Sur. The road to the South had been blocked by landslides and the road we took down fro Monterey was closed the next day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We visited the Muir Woods National Monument - an area of about 600 acres which were declared protected by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1908. They escaped logging because the ground was at the bottom of a deep canyon. The wood was bought by Congressman William Kent and his wife. In 1906 the wood was threatened by a proposed dam. Kent insisted that the monument be named after John Muir.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">More soon.</span></div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-89149169877667604762017-01-24T11:16:00.003+00:002017-01-29T22:36:50.928+00:00Resumption Of Activity<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After a silence of more than a year here I am again, at last. I thought I would post my most recent contribution to the 'Alyth Voice'. Why not? And some photos of the Burnieshead area and Wet Wood at Bamff.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>An Afternoon Walk in the Wet Wood</b></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">'A beautiful afternoon and time to visit the Wet Wood, I thought, so putting on my coat and boots, binoculars, and carrying my camera, I set off into the afternoon sunlight. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Middle to the second half of January: most ewes should be pregnant by now and many will be bearing twins. I reach the end of the field and prepare to cross the fence. Placing my right hand on the top of a fence post, I raise my left leg to place my boot on the top wire and, drawing my right leg up to join the left leg, push up. My left hand swings over and places my stick on the other side, ready for landing. Over I go. With a light leap I touch down safely and climb the embankment onto the farm road and set off for the Quarry Wood. The path through it is clear since the Wild Sparks started, but there is no one about today: no sounds of children busy in the woodland. I cross another fence and make my way towards the wetland. A woodcock flies out from the undergrowth near me. The afternoon sun is still above the horizon and the landscape around me glows. Turning left I make my way towards the long dam. Usually I walk along the crest, but today I do not: the beavers have taken advantage of the open weather and have spent much time repairing it and raising its height. Mud has been dredged from the floor of the pool and slapped onto the dam wall. They have added sticks, mostly brushwood, and in some places small branches along the top. To tread on this structure would be to risk damaging it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A pair of mallards flies up, interrupting my concentration for a moment as I make my way through the rushes. This demands some care because there are hidden channels up to a couple of feet deep. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I walk on and note that the beavers have diverted one of their canals to create new pools. Another woodcock sweeps off. As I pause to look around a red squirrel appears: it has probably been eating alder seeds. Ravens croak and I look up to see a couple of the birds flying over. I walk on and another pair of mallards irrupts into the sky, quacking their warning to the world. By this time I have more or less completed my customary circuit and am crossing a dam. ‘Plop!’ What was that? Too small for a beaver: I look at the disturbed surface of the pool and wait. Moments pass: a beast raises its head from the water some yards away. It looks about, submerges and swims off: it is a water vole. I wait on, hoping to see the animal again. There are some ripples in the water and a sound of gnawing somewhere else, but the creature has gone. It has been a long time since I last saw a water vole and I am glad to see one about.'</span></span></div>
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This photograph shows huge bubbles in the foam that aquatic hyphomycetes produce during their breaking down of leaf litter in the Burnieshead Burn. I first learned about these fungi when attending a meeting of the Scottish Freshwater Group at Stirling University many years ago. </div>
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Developments at the Burnieshead have been remarkable over the past year.</div>
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This is one of the new dams next to the drive to Bamff House.</div>
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The beavers in the Wet Wood have been active in repairs and alteration of their long dam, now more than 100 metres long.</div>
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The beavers have used a lot of brushwood gained from felling grey alders.</div>
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Further on in my walk I came across this place where beavers have diverted one of their canals to create new pools.</div>
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Here is a wide angle view, looking east through the wetland that resulted from the presence of beavers over the last 15 years.<br />
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A bit further east than the last photo in among some mainly grey alder woodland. </div>
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December 2016 was a dry month, so it is interesting to see how the beavers have maintained and even raised the water level here this past autumn. </div>
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Last winter I read John Pastor's wonderful book 'What Should A Clever Moose Eat?' Professor Pastor has a web site at <a href="http://www.theclevermoose.com/">http://www.theclevermoose.com</a>. What more can I say?</div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-15660435795866344072016-01-05T12:55:00.000+00:002016-01-05T12:55:18.306+00:00January 2016 - A Walk along the Burnished Burn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Looking upstream from the drive to Bamff House.</div>
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And then, looking downstream along the Burnished Burn.</div>
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Here is the High Dam, which was breached twice last winter and repaired. It has held successfully so far. The inverted V is the repair from last year.</div>
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This side of the V is an accumulation of birch twigs and branches. I wonder if this is the cache that used to lie a little upstream, or whether it is reinforcement for the dam.</div>
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A pair of dippers is living along this stretch of the burn. Their song greets me from time to time when I walk along to visit the territory.</div>
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The High Dam from further down stream. </div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-52942792942561068432015-11-16T22:05:00.000+00:002015-11-16T22:05:15.892+00:00Autumn 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last summer we went to Brittany. At some point in our stay I remembered that beavers had been returned to Brittany in the 1960s. We drove towards the catchment of the Elez and found this sign near a lake. Freshwater pearl mussels and beavers! I had always thought the two species must coincide, not least because Peter Goodwin told me that he had seen banks of freshwater pearl mussels near beaver dams while on visits to the USA.</div>
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Now we return to November in Perthshire.</div>
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This is the famous top dam downstream of the drive at Bamff after the recent heavy rains.</div>
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Ambitious? Not really - it's just a willow.</div>
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This is part of a new complex of dams in the burn below the old and ruined gamekeeper's cottage at the Burnishead.</div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-26277358228525812372015-09-07T19:06:00.000+01:002015-09-07T19:06:46.624+01:00An Indian Summer?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On the way to the Wet Wood, a pool dammed by some reed sweet grass.</div>
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The simplestem bur reed has spread remarkably into the Wet Wood and down the Burnished Burn to flourish along its reaches. Jeremy Purseglove mentions the plant as an important one for wetland habitats in his 'Taming the Flood', first published around 1986 and republished with revisions and beautiful woodcuts this year. </div>
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Summertime, a short spell of drought, and the canal is running more as a trickle than an engineering work along which branches may be floated.</div>
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Overall the work of the beavers has made the whole place wetter. My leaky trainer shoes confirmed this for me, though the undergrowth was too thick to see through.</div>
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The arrival of a hobby was an excitement of the summer at Bamff. Hobbies tend to be further south. They prey on fast birds such as swifts and swallows, but also dragonflies. Could an abundance of dragonflies at Bamff encourage them? I don't know, but swallows, martins and bats looking for invertebrate life over the ponds could well.</div>
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<br />Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-83305461765209952352015-08-21T12:07:00.000+01:002015-08-21T12:07:14.677+01:00I Missed the Deadline for September's 'Alyth Voice'.<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial;">
<b>There you go. There is no latitude on the deadline even for the editor of 'The Alyth Voice'.</b></div>
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<b>The Sting and the Buzz</b></div>
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I<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span>have taken to standing and waiting for the green figure to replace the red one at pedestrian crossings with traffic lights. It gives one a moment to stand and stare. As the Welsh poet WH Davies put it:</div>
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What is this life if, full of care,</div>
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We have no time to stand and stare.</div>
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No time to stand beneath the boughs</div>
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And stare as long as sheep or cows.</div>
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No time to see, when woods we pass,</div>
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Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.</div>
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No time to see, in broad daylight,</div>
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Streams full of stars, like skies at night.</div>
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No time to turn at Beauty's glance,</div>
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And watch her feet, how they can dance.</div>
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No time to wait till her mouth can</div>
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Enrich that smile her eyes began.</div>
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A poor life this if, full of care,</div>
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We have no time to stand and stare.</div>
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It was just at this moment, while waiting for permission to cross the road that I heard the sound of an angry group of herring gulls. Looking up from the display of pumpkins on the other side of the road, I saw a group of gulls, a regular hue and cry, chasing a buzzard. Well, I would not have been surprised at home, but this was Edinburgh.</div>
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Here we are in Edinburgh for a few days: going to the Festival and its Fringe, walking about, reading and writing. I love Edinburgh during the Festival. I like to see all the people going about, hearing all the different languages and the discussions. What of the performances? The Marriage of Figaro, performed by the Budapest Opera was a delight. I have been haunted by magical memories of the music for the last three days.</div>
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As to reading, I have just finished ‘A Buzz in the Meadow’ by Dave Goulson. Until a year or two ago, he was Professor of Biology at Stirling University (since moved to take up a chair at Sussex University). I wandered through his department once, while lost in a maze of corridors, looking for another Dave (Dave Gilvear, a professor of fluvial geomorphology). The walls were adorned with beautiful photographs of bumble bees. Back home again, and on to the internet, I discovered the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, a charity Dave Goulson set up while at Stirling University to promote their conservation. </div>
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Bumblebee numbers are declining: thirteen species became extinct in at least one country in Europe between 1950 and 2000. Why? The usual reasons are given: loss of habitat due to agricultural intensification, urban development and disease. Last year Goulson’s book ‘A Sting in the Tail’ was published to great acclaim. An interesting section describes the dependence of soft fruit growers in Strathmore on wild bumble bees to pollinate crops of raspberries and strawberries while at the same time buying in commercially reared bumblebees. The worry is that centrally reared bumble bees may be the bearers of disease to the native wild populations. </div>
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This year Goulson has followed up his earlier success with ‘A Buzz in the Meadow’, another excellent and readable, but alarming work in which, among a great deal else, he describes his research on the effects of the neonicotinoid insecticides on bumblebees and their part in the Colony Collapse Disorder that so worries the keepers of honeybees. </div>
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When they were first introduced in the 1980s the neonicotinoids were seen as reassuring successors to the organochlorines (DDT.Dieldrin, etc.) of the 1950s-1970s, and the organ-phosphorus compounds of the 1980s to 90s. The neonics, as they are called for convenience, are very poisonous to insects, but less so to mammals, which has to be a good thing. Since the late 1990s, however, there has been increasing concern about their environmental impacts. Like the organochlorines they build up in the soil and can linger on in sediments under water. They cause initially subtle, but real damage to the nervous systems of bees. The worrying thing is that these pesticides are very widely used: as seed dressings for cereals and oil seed rape, and as sprays for soft fruit. Being systemic they penetrate right through the plant, making the whole thing poisonous to insects. This is fine if the insects are pests, but disastrous if the species affected include bees, and the other insect pollinators that enable us to continue to live on this planet.</div>
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Did the light go green? </div>
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STV's Nature Nuts with Julian Clary went down very well. The filming that happened here took place last year some time, I think. Bob Smith took the part of paddler of the canoe</div>
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This is the 'High Dam' in full flow, taken about the 8th August.</div>
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Now we have a team from the RSPB filming beavers here. I am looking forward to seeing the results of their work.</div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-62430678814115630342015-07-26T18:43:00.000+01:002015-07-27T17:56:04.078+01:00The Alyth Flood, 17th July and afterwards.<br />
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Much has already been written about the flood of 17th July and its aftermath, and I am going to add to it. An important aspect for those of us who are interested in the official restoration of the beaver to Scotland is the concerted attack on the species by interests hostile to their return.<br />
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Peter Grewar Jr. seems to have begun the campaign. He visited Alyth on the 17th and drove up to Bamff where he noted that some rough grazing had rushes growing in it that indicated poor drainage.<br />
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High water table indicates that there is little capacity for the soil to take more water: a reasonable point of itself, but what he missed was that although that field is a wet field it is not always so, at least not in summer, generally speaking, when there is a water deficit for at least some of the time. Ewan Pate in his article in the 'Courier' last week spoke heavily and portentously about poorly drained land and those who own it.<br />
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Why would you drain generally wet land if there is no significant profit to be had if you did? Besides what beaver dams achieve is to spread the water, so taking the energy out of the flood - leaving aside the important filtering functions: the removal of surplus nitrates, phosphates that are such a problem in the diffusely polluted waters of lowland Strathmore. And then again there is the biodiversity of wetlands.<br />
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Originally Peter Grewar Jr. claimed that logs and branches in the debris that lodged in Alyth were the work of beavers. A tree still in the Den of Alyth, upstream from the town had the marks of beavers on its barked trunk, he had been told. Our friend, John Ferguson, who helped clear the Alyth Burn of debris told me that he had seen no examples of timber that had been gnawed by beavers.<br />
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Here is a tree that was photographed and the barked bits of the trunk described as having been stripped by beavers. In fact the bark must have been stripped off the tree as it was washed down the Alyth Burn and rubbed against rocks on the river bed, or other detritus. I could see no signs of beaver tooth marks on this tree or any of the others I walked by.<br />
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<i>'Na craobhan mòr, miarach,</i></div>
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<i>As am friamhaich 'gan reubadh.</i></div>
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The big branchy trees,</div>
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Ripped from their roots. (Gaelic song)</div>
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But what if there were? The area of the beaver ponds at Bamff amounts to about a hectare. Taking into account the rest of this mini catchment of perhaps up to five hectares, you have to remember that the whole Alyth Catchment amounts to 3600 hectares. If we take the outside figure of five out of 3600 hectares that is 0.001 of the catchment. Water did run over the barrage that closes the ponds at Bamff, but did not break it, or any of the other dams at Bamff that are part of the Alyth catchment.</div>
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The blame game started by a few people spread with the help of one Alex Stoddart of the Scottish Countryside Sports campaign. This group seems to be a subsidiary of the Scottish Gamekeepers' Association. 'The Courier' published an interview with him in which he spouted all sorts of nonsense. This nonsense was published in 'The Scotsman' and 'Herald' as well. Much of the same article found its way into the 'Sunday Express'. It is true to say that I was quoted giving a response to Stoddart's assertions. </div>
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In the meantime opinion in Alyth itself had focussed on the management of the Alyth Den, a riparian woodland, managed by Perth and Kinross Council for recreation. Over the years paths have been made, some building up of the river bank carried out, and a large concrete sluice installed, as well as a foot bridge. The foot bridge was built in 1990 by the Aberdeen University Officers' Training Corps. Solidly built of two massive steel girders, set in concrete, the bridge survived.<br />
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The criticism of Perth and Kinross Council was based on the fact that substantial amounts of chain saw cut logs had been present in the debris that carried away the two foot bridges and had come to rest against the bridge in the Market Square.<br />
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Given the force of the flood, already washing away farm roads as far away as Craighead of Bamff, I wonder how relevant the logs from the Den were. </div>
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Built up bank with downstream banks swept away.</div>
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The bridge built by Aberdeen University OTC.</div>
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A large sluice close to the town of Alyth from downstream side.</div>
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The same sluice from upstream with some debris still present. Did this block early in the incident, get torn away by a build up of more debris and contribute to the second pulse of flooding of which people speak?<br />
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The severity of the rainfall of the night of 16/17 July had been predicted by the UK Met Office.</div>
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<a href="https://frm-scotland.org.uk/frmp/tay-lpd-8-draft-flood-risk-management-strategy/user_uploads/pva08_04_v3.0a.pdf">https://frm-scotland.org.uk/frmp/tay-lpd-8-draft-flood-risk-management-strategy/user_uploads/pva08_04_v3.0a.pdf</a></div>
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Here are two photos of one of the dams near the drive at Bamff before and after the 17th July</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtZTrWnyZP5ylbrEffE9McfuffdWJP6Eg3wgUJxY1-2nz5hRSsi1P4Yj9f2qtzNyPzhMuT7MR_4hxjUbUBo8tXyXAy_M7mCZMTBt0sPLs8a03ObhX3w2GGDWBTmyP-iHe6L8sRI1OPuo0/s1600/P1040493.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtZTrWnyZP5ylbrEffE9McfuffdWJP6Eg3wgUJxY1-2nz5hRSsi1P4Yj9f2qtzNyPzhMuT7MR_4hxjUbUBo8tXyXAy_M7mCZMTBt0sPLs8a03ObhX3w2GGDWBTmyP-iHe6L8sRI1OPuo0/s320/P1040493.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5H-KF0-7VhOK1jTW8_YfOt6Roows17a2qBXe68J2yKF7_SYbwM1GHWoo3fxR1G1OAvoXQ1CvcIMFwi0CuDV8oAOx4XHZYBPQ8JrG-dRQQsEvnOQYwMvkgM5SIvyrWbW6ZtdTiBQcpotc/s1600/P1040496.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5H-KF0-7VhOK1jTW8_YfOt6Roows17a2qBXe68J2yKF7_SYbwM1GHWoo3fxR1G1OAvoXQ1CvcIMFwi0CuDV8oAOx4XHZYBPQ8JrG-dRQQsEvnOQYwMvkgM5SIvyrWbW6ZtdTiBQcpotc/s320/P1040496.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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After</div>
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Alan Law, part of whose study area for his PhD about beavers and their ecology was at Bamff, tweeted.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxepIY64Z5JBuXr6NHTcv1t6qaauAq4nl-6l1uRBDQEjntiijOaNF7F3VZ6jWrGUDqdszdikb35dzCFYaNsL75rDcBSNxD2nZik_A-dU8ET0DLs16ZkXG3kKpwFqxDL-SLWWC3jsqSwk8/s1600/IMG_0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxepIY64Z5JBuXr6NHTcv1t6qaauAq4nl-6l1uRBDQEjntiijOaNF7F3VZ6jWrGUDqdszdikb35dzCFYaNsL75rDcBSNxD2nZik_A-dU8ET0DLs16ZkXG3kKpwFqxDL-SLWWC3jsqSwk8/s320/IMG_0003.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmQ3UKKbFTAyeScq7jUEWPD3hZToRUhqsocd2jT4s29eYumDZcQjiA94AuIM0fxgwVqsaRAeqr0Xxp0hmxq8bFhLHnlHwcPduMGtYrHX4ow_z3seKTuATlhT1MxumIdgVuW0CxYxIg4ZI/s1600/IMG_0004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmQ3UKKbFTAyeScq7jUEWPD3hZToRUhqsocd2jT4s29eYumDZcQjiA94AuIM0fxgwVqsaRAeqr0Xxp0hmxq8bFhLHnlHwcPduMGtYrHX4ow_z3seKTuATlhT1MxumIdgVuW0CxYxIg4ZI/s320/IMG_0004.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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This graph is taken from his research.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGtprRJlf0rhbbphOphAgMUtnVF1dOanPzs_C0x305wrtvfbnmVBFdH8VMwwLeOLiDmYccDcE0lxEPwpBJi2VEaCruunvIhVLEeiVnHndIHkt5O7cQ3H_O5Qvqf8z4I19FsrrYUL9Z1ao/s1600/P1040301.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGtprRJlf0rhbbphOphAgMUtnVF1dOanPzs_C0x305wrtvfbnmVBFdH8VMwwLeOLiDmYccDcE0lxEPwpBJi2VEaCruunvIhVLEeiVnHndIHkt5O7cQ3H_O5Qvqf8z4I19FsrrYUL9Z1ao/s320/P1040301.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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This photo shows the Wet Wood, which is on a mini catchment that flows via the Auchrannie Burn into the Isla and so misses out Alyth, late in June when there had been a spell of dry weather. Some water did remain in a channel immediately next to the dam (the Long Dam), but otherwise the area was very dry.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXBW1IB3jdDwYkAzf0C4QWFIF6vTLFJPhuhiWQ3exieh9tk3BQFU0iPqVhXHgvIx4cOYJjaEXEMCZnd01MuxzT8FbjkpxMdRqsZBpDDfL0mPCkhCPzlhfdSg-OunGoGi2xq1iB3fFw-co/s1600/P1040504.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXBW1IB3jdDwYkAzf0C4QWFIF6vTLFJPhuhiWQ3exieh9tk3BQFU0iPqVhXHgvIx4cOYJjaEXEMCZnd01MuxzT8FbjkpxMdRqsZBpDDfL0mPCkhCPzlhfdSg-OunGoGi2xq1iB3fFw-co/s320/P1040504.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Recent years have seen the arrival and tremendous expansion of water bur reed (<i>Sparganium erectum)</i> and sedges.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ImltSo_mNyA3COwGXhzH_wyaDzYgVJ-Hjt6tsJW-67mu5wnqWw60kJecTRKBUlSx8b1NqwTwDxRMrP1pwx59XHaoHj4Piv7XMUuyWBLD4UcE0QE_kqYbQLPFJ3UhwMXO86ykIxywDv0/s1600/P1040505.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ImltSo_mNyA3COwGXhzH_wyaDzYgVJ-Hjt6tsJW-67mu5wnqWw60kJecTRKBUlSx8b1NqwTwDxRMrP1pwx59XHaoHj4Piv7XMUuyWBLD4UcE0QE_kqYbQLPFJ3UhwMXO86ykIxywDv0/s320/P1040505.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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This photo and the ones below show the area after the 17th, now once again full of water. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFNj6eaZsSya5v83EIc__FQ6kA_Oc9oyG9ebHxl7tia8DSANLXi9HxC2zl6xxDC_LOEVWqFx51PkwcHwpiLxSnw6Fs049at63B_6uYrI5x0G2tTng5MzdhhCajKrfMiW9ukogg5tO-feg/s1600/P1040506.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFNj6eaZsSya5v83EIc__FQ6kA_Oc9oyG9ebHxl7tia8DSANLXi9HxC2zl6xxDC_LOEVWqFx51PkwcHwpiLxSnw6Fs049at63B_6uYrI5x0G2tTng5MzdhhCajKrfMiW9ukogg5tO-feg/s320/P1040506.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0QHf-RhcOeIblN1xufdJmWmot6OcdAKwGjk3ddyumBoX4YOxc2608nT8C6whqrFWQsjENQHEvPuIdCcfPwHttpniy2UfIQpdfvZrGukujjjOWg_bQrBW3alb6t-6H7-Hxwf_FmnudP2U/s1600/P1040526.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0QHf-RhcOeIblN1xufdJmWmot6OcdAKwGjk3ddyumBoX4YOxc2608nT8C6whqrFWQsjENQHEvPuIdCcfPwHttpniy2UfIQpdfvZrGukujjjOWg_bQrBW3alb6t-6H7-Hxwf_FmnudP2U/s320/P1040526.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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A beaver kit explores its surroundings at Bamff</div>
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Here is my piece for August's number of 'The Alyth Voice'</div>
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<b>The Flood</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A wall of water thundered down the burn: within a few hours the Market Square of Alyth lay four feet deep in it. Cars parked along Commercial Street were shunted onto each other like so many copulating beetles. John Ferguson rescued a lady caught in her car. The occupants of a hundred houses had to be offered accommodation as their homes flooded. Massive amounts of woody debris, including large bits of tree trunk had smashed the two foot bridges. Some came to rest in the arch of the main bridge that spans the burn, as did a skip, while the rest sped on. A sheep washed by, struggling on the chaotic waters. Luckily the old pack horse bridge survived. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A downpour of unprecedented proportions had struck Alyth. The Meteorological Office has been warning us for some years that the kind of flash flood that results from such an event is to be expected as a feature of climate change. But why Alyth, we ask ourselves? There is no answer to that, but to say that Alyth is not alone: think of Bankfoot, Pittodrie in Aberdeenshire, even the Open at St.Andrews. These may be random strikes that come with little warning. A forecast of ‘heavy rain’ doesn’t imply massive flooding, after all: or does it? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The flood itself was relatively short-lived. By mid-day on Saturday 18th July, a visitor to the Market Square, would hardly have known that a serious inundation had taken place, except that clearing up was continuing and the high visibility jackets of the SSE people were prominent. Driving home from Edinburgh, we could see flood waters gathered around the confluence of the Isla and the Ericht.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the meantime those affected by the flood had been offered temporary accommodation and food and clothes provided. The community of Alyth had pulled together tremendously and with characteristic generosity, I learned, but the repairs to homes and property will take a long time to achieve. Some damage may prove to be irreparable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Flash floods happen in a context. The Alyth Burn rises high up in the Forest of Alyth, way back near the watershed, north of Drumderg. It flows through this bowl of land, joined by the Ollies Burn in the den south of Tullymurdoch and to the west of Gauldswell. The dens that receive the runoff from the open hills concentrate the flow: a cloudburst in the hills must lead to flooding below. This is what happened on the night of Thursday/Friday, 17th July. The rush of water uprooted trees, smashed fences and dykes, carrying with it water gates from the Mains of Creuchies as it flowed past on its way to Alyth. At Mill of Fyal water from the Welton Den, the Bruckly Burn and Bamff (and yes, water from the overtopped beaver ponds, too), joined the wall of water, gathering momentum on its way through the Alyth Den and so to and through the town.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Alyth grew out of the old town that ran along today’s High Street into the low boggy ground below, the burn was effectively turned into a canal, and the drained haugh next to it built over. As a result, for the last two hundred years or so, the water has not had the former flood plain into which to overflow and lose energy. This is no comfort to those whose homes and shops have been damaged in the latest flood, but it may be an opportunity to consider aspects of flood and catchment management that have eluded us so far, but need to be resolved in this time of climate change, so that people in Alyth can live reassured.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The problem for Alyth as a flood prone place does not lie so much in the Den as in the hinterland. The open hill grazings and the ploughed coniferous plantations shed water with great speed. The Rivers Isla and Ericht are notorious for the speed with </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">which they rise and fall. There needs to be a good programme of re-afforestation of the hills. Research for the Eddlestone Water project has shown that soils under old broadleaved woods are ten to fifteen times more permeable than are soils under coniferous plantations or hill grazings. It is time we took notice of this kind of research and acted. </span></div>
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Will this kind of flood, relatively infrequent until now become a 30 year event? What will insurers think of that? Perhaps flood prone, flood plain settlements will have to move to higher ground?<br />
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The press reaction fails to credit the Alyth folk with their intelligent and compassionate reaction as they set about recovering from the shock of the flooding.<br />
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Very few believed that the beavers had any part in the floods: in fact the idea of beavers with chainsaws has become a joke.</div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-42960706077969416042015-01-20T17:11:00.000+00:002015-01-20T17:11:50.862+00:00January 2015 - Dippers and Other Matters<br />
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This is my piece for February's number of the Alyth Voice.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Dippers in the Burn</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Standing for a moment before joining the queue for the checkout in the Co-op, I looked through the magazines on the periodicals stand. I noted 'Horse and Hound', 'the Scottish Farmer' and sundry others, many with pretty cover girls: I decided that I liked a lovely brunette best, and then my eye lit on 'The Scots Magazine'. Now, I had been meaning to buy the current number because I noticed somewhere recently that Jim Crumley had an article about beavers in it. I took a copy from the shelf and looked for the piece in question. Well, there it was and blow me down if he hadn't written about the very same subject that I had chosen to write about in February’s ‘Voice’! In short, Jim's article in 'The Scots Magazine' is as much about dippers as it is about beavers: and why not? Here is what I wrote, but I should like to recommend Crumley's excellent piece in January's 'Scots Magazine' to you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The dipper is a delightful bird. For a while I have been able to watch one going about its business along the Burnieshed Burn here at Bamff. The first I know of its presence as I walk along the path is the song, melodious, but slightly harsh. I stop and stand, wondering when the bird will reveal itself to me. It is going to be hard to make out in the snow blotched landscape. Perhaps it will show itself by taking off and flying swiftly along the burn to some other stance, where it will look out for things to eat, or it will give itself away by bobbing up and down and displaying its white front? Today, it was the latter. All of a sudden I realised that a white patch on the other side of the burn was the dipper. I watched to see what the bird would do. At one moment it jumped into the water and splashed around for a while. I hoped to see what it had caught, if anything, but could see nothing. It emerged from the water and went back to its stance. Dippers favour streams with fast flowing water and gravelly beds. Their diet consists mainly of the larvae of mayflies and caddis flies and other insects, as well as some fish eggs and very small fish. I watched for some moments and took a few photographs before moving on into the wood. The exciting thing about the colonisation of the Burnieshed burn by dippers (and the visit last autumn of a kingfisher) is that it is evidence of the increasing productivity of the burn and its capacity to maintain populations of birds, fish and mammals, having been until eight years ago no more than a narrow ditch, and seasonal destination in the years past of breeding sea trout.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The harder weather of the last few days has brought in the snipe. Out for a walk at dusk, I disturbed several of the birds. They zigzagged into the sky, crying ‘Grit, grit!’ Three mallard quacked their way off the flooded land as I continued on my way, slithering cautiously over the refrozen patches of ice. Over the fence at the end of the field, I climbed up the bank and on to the farm road, then down the other side and over another fence into the West Wards. The burn is running full and the water level in the wet wood beyond is as high as I have seen it. The neatly cut canals are flowing and paths to felled trees show that the beavers are active. Having completed my circuit I headed for the warm glow of the kitchen windows and a cup of tea.</span></div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-81689384414218783222014-12-10T22:25:00.000+00:002014-12-10T22:25:14.673+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here is the dam referred to by Alastair Driver in a recent post on Twitter. It breached on the 7th November and has been repaired since then. The V-shape is a triumph because the water flowed through the gap it now blocks with tremendous force after the nearer part of the dam was rebuilt. </div>
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You may notice that rhododendron has been used in the rebuilding. It sometimes looks as though the beavers were just using it as an adornment to their more serious work. </div>
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I took this photograph yesterday. You can see there is a bit of frost on the ground.</div>
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The fine dam down the drive collapsed after heavy rainfall about a fortnight ago. </div>
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Interestingly, the beavers who live in the burrow above the site of the dam have done nothing about it so far. Have they left the burrow, or are they content to leave repair work for the time being?</div>
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There are troubling reports of the destruction of riparian woodland up and down the Dean Water and as far afield as Weem. </div>
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This photograph shows a ditch at Weem. The bankside vegetation has been stripped away apparently to discourage the beavers who built that dam.</div>
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And in this photo you see the riparian woodland neatly stacked by the water side.</div>
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The Swiss Federal Government's Department of the Environment have published a document about beavers and the riparian habitat which puts our compatriots to shame.</div>
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The link is:<a href="http://www.bafu.admin.ch/publikationen/publikation/01780/index.html?lang=fr">http://www.bafu.admin.ch/publikationen/publikation/01780/index.html?lang=fr</a><br />
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The text is in French, but the photographs and figures with their captions are self explanatory.<br />
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I have made a crude translation, which is best read with the original French document:<br />
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<b>Revitalisation of waterways: the beaver is our ally</b></div>
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<b>Revitalising the waters - for and with the beaver</b></div>
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<i>In 2011, a revision of the law on the protection of waters was accompanied among other things by the launching of a permanent programme for the restoration of rivers and streams at local level. The present document shows how the activities of the beaver can be useful for the ecological improvement of aquatic habitats within the framework of the implementation of this programme and how it is possible to avoid conflicts with this rodent. This document is intended for specialists in the federal, cantonal and communal establishments who are competent in the subject, as well as for those in the offices of engineers and environmental consultants.</i></div>
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The updated law on the protection of waters and the corresponding regulations define a minimal space that is reserved as riparian zone. This minimum space depends on the width of the bed (cf fig.1). The area surrounding the watercourse can be used as sacrificial or as extensive meadowland, or be covered with woody plants. These habitats are considered as surfaces for the promotion of biodiversity, giving priority to its contributions. The use of fertiliser and pesticides is not allowed there.</div>
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<b>Bringing the riparian landscape </b><b>to life</b></div>
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The revision of the law has been matched with a programme for the restoration of embanked water courses that had been straightened or put underground (fig.2). Here are the objectives of restoration:</div>
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> high water can be allowed to flow without causing damage.</div>
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>waters are not polluted by substances coming from the surrounding area.</div>
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>the waters are colonised by a fauna and flora that are characteristic of that water course.</div>
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>the terrestrial and aquatic environments form a connected network.</div>
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>the landscape is diverse in structure.</div>
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So that these objectives can be properly met, the space reserved for waterways must generally speaking be wider than the minimal space cited in the regulation on the protection of waterways. The publication entitled 'Main ideas - Swiss waterways' prepared by several federal departments can serve as reference.</div>
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From now to the end of the century it is foreseen that 4000 km of waterway will be restored. It falls to the cantons to designate the rivers and streams concerned. The costs and associated costs will be borne jointly by the Federal authorities and the cantons.</div>
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<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">The larger the area reserved for the water course the greater will be the federal subsidy</b><b></b></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">The total of the federal subsidy granted for a project of restoration will depend essentially on the foreseen size of the space reserved for the waterways. The wider the area, the more will be the contribution of the State to the total cost of the project, from where the least expenses (in absolute numbers) for the canton en depit of extra costs for the purchase of land.</span><b></b></div>
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The acquisition of areas of ground necessary for restoration is to be carried out within the framework of a fundamentally integrated improvement with exchange of land.</div>
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The loss of farmers’ productive land can be compensated for by improvements to their infrastructure, notably by the regrouping of the farmer's <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">of basic equipment or by the construction of modern infrastructure such as farm roads (Suissemelio et OFAG 2011).</span></div>
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<b>> The beaver: architect of waterways</b></div>
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<i>The management of water courses is not the prerogative of humankind.The beaver is itself very active in this domain: to the extent that its talents as architect have to be taken into account in the planning and realisation of projects of riparian restoration.</i></div>
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Beavers are capable of shaping freshwater landscapes to their advantage. No other living creature apart from humankind can do as much. From which comes the following question: how has this rodent developed such an astonishing capacity?</div>
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To serve as habitat for a population of beavers, the waters of a stream must flow gently and be a minimum of 50 cm deep, even in times of low flow. In these conditions, beavers can swim easily, transporting branches for their building projects and building up stores of food for the winter (fig.3), dive under the water to avoid danger and to dig into the banks to make burrows whose entrance must always remain submerged.</div>
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Such conditions are sufficiently rare nowadays, 15 million years since the genus Castor first made its appearance, because water courses naturally undergo an alternation between low water and flood. When precipitation is heavy, they swell and flow faster. In time of drought and in winter, they attenuate and become a single ribbon of water.</div>
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In the course of evolution, the beaver has learned how to render these streams perfectly habitable. In the zone of retention created by the dam he has built, the water level remains constant, the entrance to the burrow is never dry and the speed of the current is considerably reduced.</div>
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Its activity as architect is not limited to the building of dams. In order to obtain branches which it needs to carry out its building works and create reserves of food, the beaver strips whole parcels of forest. And to make connections between the little water courses present on its territory, it digs canals.</div>
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<b>Certain species have appeared thanks to the beaver</b></div>
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In behaving thus over millions of years, the beaver has created certain habitats in the freshwater landscape that would only have been found occasionally before its intervention: ponds, still waters, marshes, bare sunny clearings in alluvial forests. In this sense the beaver was an essential factor in the evolutionary process. Certain species of the fauna and flora, typical of the riparian habitat, have become adapted to landscapes modelled by its needs, and it is certain that more than one emerged thanks to it.</div>
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With the almost total extinction of the beaver in Europe at the beginning of the 20th Century, the species that share its habitat have also been threatened. Since its return, the situation has improved in many places: amphibians, reptiles, water birds, dragonflies and other insects, as well as different plants and fungi, benefit from the constructions of the builder rodent.</div>
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The same thing goes for fish: true, sediments in suspension retained by dams can clog up the redds of trout, but the water that flows on downstream over the gravelly bottom of the river is only the clearer because of this. For migratory fish, beaver dams do not constitute completely uncrossable or permanent obstacles: they can be submerged by flooding or yield at different places. Studies carried out in Europe and North America show that the diversity of species of fish present in a water course is increased when the water is colonised by beavers.</div>
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<b>A Partner in projects of riparian regeneration </b></div>
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All that makes the beaver an ideal partner in projects for the the regeneration of rivers, and what is more, a factor in reducing the cost of such projects. It is, therefore, no longer necessary to remodel water courses using diggers at great expense; only a few civil engineering operations need to be carried out at the outset of a project. The beaver will then take on the responsibility of relaunching the freshwater habitat for nothing and in a completely natural way - as long as one leaves it enough space.</div>
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In some places, the beaver's activity can equally share in protection against floods, since dams placed in the upper reaches of small water courses can attenuate peak flows of flood water (Nyssen <i>et al</i>. 2011). But it is still necessary that riparian areas should be wide enough.</div>
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<b>> More space, less conflict </b></div>
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<i>In a</i><i> landscape exploited intensively by humankind, an animal that digs burrows in the slopes of banks and holds back the water of streams is not always welcome:</i><i> its works interfere with those of humankind, which modify and regulate water courses to his own advantage and often exploits banks to the crest of their slopes. Technical solutions exist to resolve many of these conflicts, the most enduring being the widening of the riparian zone.</i></div>
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Three quarters of the water courses of the Swiss Plateau are bordered by tracks that are accessible to motor vehicles, whether from one side or both. By digging burrows in the slopes of banks, beavers create a risk of collapse.</div>
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The building of dams constitutes another reason for conflict between man and beaver, because the retention of the water can bring about the raising of the water table, with possible saturation of the soil as a consequence.</div>
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The beaver is a protected species throughout Switzerland. This protection includes the habitat of the rodent, to the extent that it is forbidden to destroy its lodges or dams without exceptionally granted licences from the competent authority.</div>
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If certain isolated individuals cause substantial damage or threaten zones of human habitation and infrastructure of public interest, they can be captured and killed, in conformity with regulations for the management of hunting. Such regulatory <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">measures are authorised only for a limited period, which must be used to good effect to prevent further damage. Because the calm that follows the killing of an animal is generally of short duration: another beaver will usually come to dig in the same place.</span></div>
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<b>Constructive measures of protection</b></div>
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There exists a whole suite of technical measures suitable for protecting infrastructures that have been installed near water courses:</div>
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> Wire mesh and stone stopping nets (<i>gabions</i>?) placed on the surface of the bank make a barrier that is uncrossable for beavers, as well as musk rats and coypu which are spreading in Switzerland (size of mesh 10X10 cm for the beaver, and 5X5 cm for the musk rat and coypu). The installation of artificial burrows in netted slopes (Beck and Hohler 2000) allows beavers to feel at home (fig.5 right bank). Naturally, the installation of such devices should not compromise either the stability of the slope, or nearby tracks and roads.</div>
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> it is essential not to make breaks in the embankment of a water course whose bed lies above the level of the land neighbouring it, or when it is a matter of an embankment against floods, or forming part of a hydro-electric operation. It is better to protect the embankment with the help of steel mesh nets or gabions. If it is possible to proceed to the exterior reinforcement and the levelling of the embankment, the mesh can be installed directly in the heart of the embankment. Beavers can thus dig as far as the artificial barrier without causing damage.</div>
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The embankment on the right bank must be laid out in such a way as to make up for the loss of stability due to the digging of the beavers (fig.5 left bank).</div>
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Technical measures for the prevention of damage by beavers are onerous and contribute little or nothing to the ecological restoration of water ways. They do not allow for the creation of new habitats or enrich the landscape. In this sense they are not appropriate except in places where the replacement of the infrastructure involved is impossible or too expensive.</div>
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On the other hand, the enlargement of space reserved for waterways constitutes a real plus for nature and the landscape. It extends the possibility of surfaces and structures near to their natural state, favours the development of varied habitats and resolves most of the conflicts between humankind and the beaver by limiting the space over which the beaver is likely to interfere with human activities. The risk of the collapse of tracks is reduced from a distance of about 5 metres from the top of the bank, because it is rare for beavers to dig beyond this limit.</div>
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Standing water created by beavers can be a problem for crops near banks, but only over small areas. The floodable area is limited to a riparian strip between 10 and 20 metres wide, except in extremely flat areas where the soil is gravelly and permeable.Unless this strip is being intensively farmed, coexistence with the beaver should not prove to be a problem, except in the case of backing up of water in drains (read fig.7).</div>
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As a consequence, restoration projects must give priority to areas of conflict.</div>
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<b>Optimal management of banks</b></div>
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In the same way that the widening of space reserved for the riparian edge, which is the best arrangement for river banks, is a preparation for eventual conflicts. Levelled banks being ill adapted to the digging of burrows, the slope of the embankment should be between 1:5 and 1:3 (maximum) on the stretches where digging by beavers is not wanted. The transverse section of the water course is bigger in this case, which improves the flow capacity as well as the retention of water in case of flood.</div>
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One may foresee steeper banks (with a slope more than 1:3), ideal for the construction of burrows, on stretches where no infrastructure is installed in the immediate proximity of the water or on the ridge of the slope. (Fig. 6).</div>
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<b>Drains and beaver dams</b></div>
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<i>When a beaver builds a dam in a very flat agricultural area, it can cause retention of water in nearby drains. Trapped sediments can then block the drains, leading to flooding upstream in meadows and fields. An appropriate drainage system can help to resolve this problem. The other option is to transfer the affected areas into wet meadows which become home to a great diversity of species.</i></div>
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According to a census carried out by the federal Office of agriculture in 2008 (OFAG 2010), there are 192,000 hectares of artificially drained farmland today in Switzerland, perhaps 18% of the usable agricultural area. Two thirds of the drainage schemes date from before 1960. And a third of the network is in a bad state or in an unrecorded condition. There exists, therefore, an important need for renovation. In a general way, the outfall of a drain joins the stream just above its bed. If the beaver colonises or is likely to colonise such a water course, the renovation of drains should at least envisage the adoption of another solution - especially in the context of a project of renovation.</div>
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No need to reinvent the wheel. At Konolfingen for example (BE), a system that is compatible with the presence of beavers has been working for 100 years: in the Hünigenmoos, whose drainage for agriculture began at the beginning of the 20th century, drain pipes do not pour directly into the stream de la Chise, but into two collecting drains, dug parallel to the banks. The collectors carry the drainage water as far as a place where the fall increases, at which point it can join the main stream.</div>
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Such measures are easier to instal as part of a large scale project of improvement, applied to an extensive area, and subsidised by the Confederation and the canton.</div>
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<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">An opportunity to favour wet meadows</b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span></div>
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The renovation of a drainage scheme carries with it considerable costs, estimated by OFAG to amount to 25,000 Swiss francs/ha. (OFAG 2010). Continued agricultural exploitation may also prove to be expensive, especially if it is necessary to pump water, which is actually the case for 11% of the drained areas.</div>
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Taking account of the cost incurred, the opportunity to renovate a drainage scheme depends particularly on the nature of the soils involved. According to a cautious estimate by OFAG, about 70% of soils drained are in areas of intensive arable cultivation (OFAG 2010), which the sectoral plan of the Confederation recommends should remain as such to a large extent. In this set up, the renewal of drainage schemes is therefore an appropriate measure. For other areas, on the other hand, it is recommended to proceed first to an evaluation of the soils. If it appears that the necessary investment will bring very little advantage in terms of agricultural exploitation, the alternative solution lies in transforming the land near the water course to wet meadowland, with the support of the farmers (fig.8). This approach can be particularly profitable in the context of a project of restoration because the temporarily flooded areas constitute habitats of extreme richness, especially for species of amphibians threatened with extinction. Wet meadows used in such an extensive way are considered to be eligible for grant aid.</div>
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<b>> </b><b>Water courses that are welcoming to beavers</b></div>
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<i>Here are several examples of existing restoration projects, which show how suitable management and an enlargement of the riparian zone can allow the renewal of embarked streams, to the extent that beavers cause no conflict. The suggested choice is in no way exhaustive.</i></div>
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<b>Hermance, Pont des Golettes (GE)</b></div>
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In the 1990s, the canton of Geneva launched a programme of restoration for its water courses, and set up a special fund for financing it. One of the numerous projects carried out since then concerned a stretch of the Hermance inclusive from the Pont Neuf to the Pont des Golettes, to the south-east of Anières. As this stream constitutes the frontier with France, its management required the cooperation of the two countries.</div>
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Before the execution of the project, the bed of the Hermance at the level of this stretch was narrow and embanked by rock. On the left bank, trees grew to the crest of the embankment, while the right bank was entirely bare of trees. The restoration took place in 2010. It consisted of grading the slope of the banks, in bringing a morphological diversity to the river bed and enlarging the space allowed to the waterway, allowing it to expand from between 10 and 30 metres up to 50 metres wide (fig.9).</div>
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Aquatic and marsh species such as the bulrushes, iris, water plantain, loosestrife, common loosestrife, and several sedges and rushes were planted. To shade the waters and prevent excessive warming of the water in summer, copses were planted on the banks. Food was thus more abundant for the beavers, which chose a managed burrow under the Pont des Golettes as their home, and actively exploit the restored water course.</div>
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<b>Urtene, Kernenried (BE)</b></div>
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If the waters of the Urtene upstream of Kernenried (BE) have been able to benefit from a project of restoration, it is partly thanks to the sewage works at Holzmühle, carried out in 2001. Because the restoration work had for effect especially the improvement of the quality of the water of this badly polluted stream and as a repercussion the its improvement for fishing. To exploit this potential it was necessary only to manage the over dull course of a stream that was entirely embanked.</div>
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This programme of management undertaken between 2003 and 2007 allowed the enlargement of the space allowed to the water from a width of 15 to 20 metres. In the programme of reallocation of fragmented parcels of land necessitated by the building of a new stretch of Rail 2000, acquisition of land was made easier by the fact that farmers became aware of compensations in nature.</div>
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Today, the Urtene has regained a bed of great structural diversity (fig.10). The varied vegetation of the banks and slopes (big deep rooted plants, shrubs and trees) give shade to some of the stretch. The waters have regained their proper dynamic: sandbars and gravel beds are deposited on flat banks, while zones of deposition and erosion are formed on steeply sloping banks. </div>
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A survey carried out in 2008 concluded that a net improvement of the ecological situation had taken place. The number of fish has increased considerably and a new species that values the current has appeared: the barbel. The revitalised stretch has been stocked with brown trout and beavers dug their first burrow soon after the works had been completed.</div>
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Upkeep is the responsibility of a water management group (Wasserbauverband Urtenebach) which has prepared a management plan and employed two farmers part time to carry out works.</div>
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<b>Grabenbach, Münsingen (BE)</b></div>
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Some years ago, the Grabenbach used to become engulfed in a subterranean gallery at the east entrance to the village of Münsingen and did not flow out again, except in times of great floods, as in 1968 and 1977, when violent storms made the water overflow and caused damage valued at millions of Swiss francs. To avoid a recurrence of such phenomena, a holding pond with a capacity of 40,000 cubic metres was built in 2009 at Mülital upstream of Münsingen and a new bed was laid out above ground downstream from the village.</div>
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To restore the subterranean stretch to the open air the bed of humus had to be taken from a stretch of land 20 to 30 metres wide, so that today the banks of the Grabenbach are adorned with a ruderal vegetation rich in species. The new watercourse flows into the Aaregiesse.</div>
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The project is accompanied by a long term monitoring of results, the first reports from which are promising: the aquatic vegetation is luxuriant (fig.11), the invertebrate fauna is distinguished by a great variety of species as well as a significant biomass: the brown trout is breeding successfully. Several beavers, settled lower down on the Giesse, have already been observed in the Grabenbach.</div>
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The management of the waters is the responsibility of the commune of Münsingen, which entrusts the works to specialist employees of the commune workshops.</div>
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<b>Rheintaler Binnenkanal, Rüthi (SG)</b></div>
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Built more than one hundred years ago, the Rheintaler Binnenkanal drains the marshes of the Rhenish valley of St.Gall. In May 1999, when an exceptional flood caused the industries of Rüthi damages estimated at several millions of Swiss francs, it appeared obvious that this canal was no longer able to cope with such accumulations of water without flooding.</div>
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Studies then showed that the lowering of the water level could improve the protection against floods that it would be necessary in order to achieve that considerably to widen the bed of the canal as well as the riparian zone. </div>
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The project, carried out from 2006 to 2007 on the stretch of the interior canal stated downstream from Rüthi consisted of widening the bottom of the bed, which only measured 8 metres, from 16 to 20 metres with excavators. The riparian zone, which was only twenty metres wide was expanded to a maximum of 65 metres (fig. 12).</div>
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Initially rectilinear, the canal now includes meanders, branches in several places and forms little islands of gravel, zones of calm water and ponds separate from the main stream in time of drought.</div>
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The revitalisation has had an extremely positive impact on the natural restocking of fish, to the extent that young nases (<i>Chondrostoma nasus</i>) have been noticed on this stretch after several years of absence - just at a time when the species is threatened with extinction in Switzerland.</div>
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The nearest population of beavers is living about three kilometres away, on the interior canal of Werdenberg (2013). For the present, beavers have not colonised the restored stretch, but they would find the necessary habitat there to build lodges.</div>
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the management of these waters is assured by the Rheinunternehmen establishment, on a mandate from the Rheintaler Binnenkanal association. This association was set up by the 12 communes situated along the interior canal with the objective of taking on the management of the waterways. Rheinunternehmen, a public body, with a team of specialist of its own, is affiliated to the Department of bridges and highways of the canton of Saint-Gall.</div>
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<b>> Managing the waters while favouring the beaver</b></div>
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<i>The ecological quality of a restored stream does not depend only on the levelling and the carrying into effect of the work of restoration. The continuing management of the waters and the vegetation of the banks is also all important.</i></div>
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In general, it is wise to found an association for the management of the waters for the stretch concerned, or to entrust the management to an existing management cooperative. The farmers of the agricultural land bordering the water course can thus carry out the necessary management on the basis of a previously arranged plan. Advice and offers of continuous training should ensure that the carrying out of those works of care and upkeep of the revitalised waterways is properly done.</div>
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The best being the enemy of the good, it is sometimes preferable to do nothing, especially in the sectors where the stability of the bed and the flow capacity are already assured. In that way nesting sites for birds can be spared, as can the habitats of many insects, which need time to develop. In the same way, it is not necessary to cut the meadows every year.</div>
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>To prepare reserves of food for the winter, beavers need to find enough tender wood near the river banks. If trees have been cut too low, beavers, deprived of their basic food, will have to migrate to a neighbouring stretch and dig new burrows there, which can in its turn lead to conflicts.</div>
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>It is, therefore, advised that so far as possible beavers should be entrusted with the cutting of wooded banks and not to use the chainsaw except as a backup.</div>
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>When burrows cause collapses on the banks it is not always necessary to fill the cavities. Sometimes a biological framework will be enough to fix the problem: this solution consists in planting all around the zone, on quite a large area, bushes with deep rooting systems, such as willows or alders. The subsidences are thus easily reparable by the farmers and the banks are stabilised. A staged riparian vegetation can then develop for the long term.</div>
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> The smaller the areas of intervention, the better. Mowing the grass in short stretches allows little animals the possibility of finding shelter near the area of intervention (fig. 13).</div>
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>In the area of retention of beaver dams, it is noticeable that there is an enrichment of nutrients, which favours the growth of vegetation in the waters concerned and speeds up the deposition of sediments. On very flat stretches carrying much sediment, the process can be slowed down by the installation of sand traps.</div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-11586139820684572672014-11-20T21:43:00.001+00:002014-11-20T21:46:30.026+00:00Floods and Dams - Beavers rebuild a breached dam.<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica;">
This is my piece for December's number of the Alyth Voice. </div>
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<b>Floods and Dams</b></div>
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Rainy, mild November, I walk out of the house, glance around me and set off right, down the drive. Some big yellow leaves of the lime trees still hang, spare and bright against the dark background of damp, dripping trunks: others flutter sodden to the ground.</div>
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The pot holes are worse than ever: I must order more of the Type 1 from Collace.</div>
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Almost the worst stretch of the drive from the point of view of potholes is the bit under which the main ditch flows. Upstream, the burn has overflowed into the rushy wetland that forms its border. Downstream, the pool is full. The dam that makes this pool must be overflowing. I turn left to walk along the Burnieshed path and note that an apparently abandoned burrow has been reoccupied: fresh mud over the roof and newly laid branches and twigs tell me this is so. I walk on. Water is lipping over the brim of the dam and cascading down a spillway. No self respecting salmon would have a problem surmounting this dam, but then I wouldn't expect salmon here for this is trout water, both brown and sea trout.</div>
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I walk along the wetland below the path, crossing the moss and lichen covered trunks of fallen trees, and return to it after looking at an old birch, whose gnawed trunk reveals a great cavity within. This is the tree that bled sap in the summer on being gnawed, and sustained a family of wasps, reminding me that restored species bring with them unsuspected opportunities in the way of habitat and food for others. Regaining the path I walk under a willow, along part of whose overhanging bough a beaver climbed in the summer of 2013. Around me I note the presence of an abundance of Sitka spruce saplings, the offspring of the hundred and fifty year old monster by the burn.</div>
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Retracing my steps I join the drive and turn left past the stacks of timber, ready for burning later this winter: Yule logs on an industrial scale. I pass the track that leads through the Tay Bridge Wood, whose name is a reminder of the storm of 28th December 1879. The track, itself, is a mess. Deep ruts, made by heavy forwarders have made bits of it impassable for walkers and light vehicles. Only great machines with huge wheels can travel in and through the plantation, compacting the soil to its scaith. Continuing on my way, I pass some wild boar. They have gathered near a gate and are waiting to be fed. I walk on. The object of my walk is to photograph a new dam down the drive: its building has resulted in the creation of a beautiful pool of limpid water, already colonised by many water beetles. Downstream of the main dam is a smaller one: beavers often build dams in pairs, the lower one adds stability to the upper one by reducing the speed of the current immediately below it. I take a few photographs and, once satisfied, set off back up the drive.</div>
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Considering the height of the water at the pool next the drive, which I walked by only a few minutes earlier, there is a remarkable amount of water weed showing. But no, that's not right. The water level has dropped. The dam has breached! In the quarter of an hour or so since I passed it the dam has collapsed. Water is pouring through a gap in the middle of the dam. One hundred yards below, the next dam has been breached too and the water level is dropping to reveal the floor of the pools and burns.</div>
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These floors are covered with vegetation: water star wort, water milfoil, pondweed. At the boggy water's edge trails of brooklime tangle with the underlying plants and branched bur reed lies in swathes along the bank. What a diversity: ten times the number of plants there used to be before the beavers came (as I learned from Alan Law's PhD thesis). Meanwhile, the water has cascaded through the gap in the dam and breached the dams below.</div>
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A week later, despite nearly constant rainfall, the dam has mostly been repaired, leaving a narrow channel through which the water races. Today, the 19th November, the beavers have closed this gap. Once this work is finished they will turn their attention to the other dams downstream. No doubt all will be ready in time for Christmas! We shall be able to drink their health in Bibergeil, another of those pleasant herbal liqueurs that the Germans make to keep out the winter chill.</div>
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Here is the High Dam before the burst. I think I took this photo sometime in October.</div>
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Here is the dam again soon after breaching.</div>
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This photograph, taken the next day (8th Nov. or so) shows that the beavers are already rebuilding, despite the fierce onslaught of the water.</div>
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We were away from home until the 15th and I took this photo on the 16th. The beavers' work has been heroic, but what about that gap?</div>
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Here is the answer. I took a walk along the Burnished path a couple of days ago and was delighted to notice that they had bridged the gap. The beavers have regained control!<br />
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I saw a kingfisher just after the bursting of the dam on the 7th November and have been delighted to see dippers a couple of times in the last week. It was the first time I had seen a kingfisher in that burn.<br />
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-7698328357656314972014-09-22T21:18:00.000+01:002014-09-22T21:20:16.440+01:00A new flow levelling device at Bamff<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As I walked along the ditch to visit the Wet Wood one day in July, or so, I noticed that the beavers had built a fine new dam. I thought little of it because there were no signs that water was seeping up into the field to the south.</div>
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Some weeks later, however, I noticed that the dam had grown and that the endrigg of the field to the south (the Ladyswell Field) was flooded. What to do? I must ask Lush (Lewis Smith) to come and build a pond leveller.</div>
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Lush was busy for a week or more, but he came last week and inserted this pipe and his trademark tall wire cage to protect the inlet of the levelling pipe.</div>
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What will the beavers do next?</div>
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Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3695196655254960724.post-20072301983132968102014-09-22T19:12:00.001+01:002014-09-22T19:12:42.583+01:00And Now Autumn!Summer is past and not a post since June. It must be time to try and make up for this dereliction.<br />
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With the coming of autumn beavers become especially active. More of this later because there is some catching up to do.<br />
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On the 14th August a team from the Tay Salmon Fishery's Board, led by Dr. David Summers came to carry out electro-fishing in the Burnieshed Burn. They were accompanied by Drs. Nigel Willby and Alan Law from Stirling University and Sean Dugan from the Freshwater Fisheries' Laboratory at Faskally.<br />
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We noticed that wasps were benefitting from the sap exuding from a freshly gnawed birch: evidence of the way in which beavers and other restored species can return a long forgotten dynamic to the environment.</div>
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A few of the captured trout in a bucket. About sixty trout were caught. Little trout inhabited the running waters of the burn and some bigger fish lived in the slow moving pools, created by the dams. The biggest trout caught weighed a little over 1kg.</div>
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Alan Law and Nigel Willby take a break.</div>
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This takes me on a little. Walking to the Wet Wood one day this dragonfly landed on my left hand. I managed to photograph it, but have no idea to which species it belonged. There are small orange patches at the base of the wings.</div>
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The crumpled and folded piece of paper below shows the impact of beavers at Bamff since they came here in 2002. Monitoring of the vegetation started in 2003. Between 2003 and 2014 the number of species of plant in the areas where they are active has nearly doubled. Think what this is doing for biodiversity!</div>
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<br />Paul Ramsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16216052795133586551noreply@blogger.com0