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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his wife, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Brady Preheim, Marty Rowe, President Elon Musk, President Trump, Stephan Miller, Mike Johnson, J.D. Vance, Vlad Putin, Ted Cruz, Kamala Harris, Trump’s MAGA followers, or my neighbor’s dogs. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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Beavers Are Making A Comeback
Beavers are making a comeback in Oregon. Oregon is known as the Beaver State. The North American beaver is a keystone species. A keystone species is a plant or animal that plays a crucial and unique role in the way an ecosystem functions. Without this species, the ecosystem could collapse. Beavers are nature’s crucial “ecosystem engineers,” but the structures they build aren’t always embraced by humans because of threats of flooding or other damages. Now, conservation groups are helping people learn how to co-exist with beavers. In the remote area outside Sweet Home at the foot of the West Cascades, lies an historic beaver dam. It's really old. Some old timers call it a legacy beaver dam, it's been here for decades. It's about 125-150 ft. long, 6 to 7 ft. tall, and it retains about a 3/4 to 1 acre pond behind it. There's an ecosystem engineer out there that provides as many benefits to both the ecosystem they're creating or supporting, but also to human communities and human systems. The Beaver is a keystone species, other North American keystone species include sharks, grizzly bears and bees. The current beaver population is around 10% of what it was historically. But thanks to conservation work, beaver numbers are improving. The ignorance of the human species resulted in the highly reduced numbers of this important species. THE CITY OF ST. HELENS and one Park director were one group of stupid ignorant people, who deliberately tore out a beaver damn a few years ago in Milton Creek. Not only did they destroy the beaver dam, they drove greasy nasty equipment across up and through the fish bearing stream, to proceed with their destruction. All because the stream had backed up a ways into a park. People complained and addressed the issue at city council meetings and on FB but was faced with blank stares and crickets. Even a representative of The Division of State Lands did not respond appropriately, Oregon’s ODFW did not take action against the city either. At least the city should have been fined for destroying a fish bearing stream in my opinion. Yet here we are the state of Oregon are trying to bring back beavers, spending tax dollars to do so and we had zero accountability by state agencies. Disgusting. Remember the City of St. Helens destroyed a Keystone species. Back to the story, the benefits that beavers provide to the habitat is it creates this retained water that is held in a system longer than if the water was just flowing through a stream. In addition to water retention and creating habitat for bird and mammal variety, beavers can also help reduce wildfire risks. Areas that have significant beaver wetlands and beaver ponds, these drainages have showed that the riparian areas are being saved from wildfire where wildfire hits. The fire will burn up to the beaver wetland and not be able to make it in because of all that retained water. Humans are trying to coexist with beavers these days, when a huge beaver dam is up- stream from humans homes conservationists help these magnificent builders strengthen their homes aka dams by installing rebar, and installs a pond leveler, which is essentially a bathtub drain for the pond. "It's about a 40-foot-long corrugated pipe that's 12 inches in diameter. Human helpers set the outlet of the pipe on top of the dam and that height of the outlet controls the height of the pond. So now, no matter how high the beavers build their dam, the leveler will control how much water is retained behind it. Because beavers cannot control the weather. California Oregon Power Co. v. Beaver Portland Cement Co. Is a 1935 Supreme Court case that established that patents for land in arid western states, issued after the Desert Land Act of 1877, did not grant a common-law right to the natural flow of water to riparian landowners. Instead, water rights in these areas are acquired separately through beneficial use, as secured by federal acts. This meant a patent owner could not stop another party from using the water for beneficial purposes, even if it reduced the flow, and the state could regulate water use. The ruling affirmed that a patent for land in an arid state like Oregon, issued after the Desert Land Act of 1877, did not automatically grant a common-law right to the natural flow of a non-navigable stream. The Supreme Court held that the United States government, as the owner of the public domain, had the power to separate the disposition of land from the disposition of water. Federal laws like the Desert Land Act of 1877 were designed to allow the acquisition of water rights through beneficial use in the arid West, separate from land ownership. A landowner's claim to water could not be based solely on being a riparian owner, but must be based on an actual, beneficial appropriation of the water. Keystone species are important to every living species on earth. We must continue to protect these valuable species. And every other species on earth.
Tammy
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