Because the beaver isn't just an animal; it's an ecosystem!

Day: March 25, 2010


“There is, perhaps, no class of men on the face of the earth, … who lead a life of more continued exertion, peril and excitement, and who are more enamoured of their occupations, than the free trappers of the West. No toil, no danger, no privation can turn the trapper from his pursuit. His passionate excitement at times resembles a mania. In vain may the most vigilant and cruel savages beset his path ; in vain may rocks, and precipices, and wintry torrents oppose his progress; but let a single track of beaver meet his eye, and he forgets all dangers and defies all difficulties. At times he may be seen with his traps on his shoulder, buffeting his way across rapid streams, amidst floating blocks of ice: at other times, he is to be found with his traps swung on his back clambering the most rugged mountains, scaling or descending the most frightful precipices, searching, by routes inaccessible to the horse, and never before trodden by white man, for springs and lakes unknown to his comrades, and where he may meet withhis favorite game. Such is the mountaineer, the hardy trapper of the West.

Washington Irving: The Pathmakers 

 

The great and dimly understood California Fur Rush lasted from around 1820 t0 1845. In that slim quarter of a decade the beavers of an entire region were nearly completely wiped out. Beaver pelts (called “plews”) were so plentiful they were used as currency and all other furs were measured against how many skins it would take to equal a beaver (“made beaver”). They were counted not by the tens, but by the bale, like hay; one bale of beaver skins being nearly 100 pelts. Horses laden with beaver plew were trucked back across the mountains to the trading posts, literally by the hudreds. These ‘brave’ men risked frost bite, starvation, abandonment, hostile natives and plague to bring back their quarry. Extremes of hunger lead their guides to turn against them, lead them to eat their dogs, and even their horses. No matter. No hardship was too much to endure in pursuit of the increasingly-elusive beaver. It was worth any cost.

These then, were the men that made California – were in a broader sense the men that made our nation. Should we be surprised that credit default swaps and toxic assets bankrupted our economy? America was essentially founded on greed, risk and selfish exploitation of irreplaceable resources. Just as we could never have succeeded without a thriving slave trade, America could never have become wealthy and independent with out destruction of the beaver. By 1911 there were 11 known colonies of beaver in the entire state of California.  The trappers were a model of exploitation that has been woefully repeated with off shore drilling, sports fishing, logging and whaling. Reading their accounts is a horrific glimpse into souls hardened by greed and a nation forged more by opportunism than courage.

Just thought you should know.


It’s official! Yesterday I turned in the application for this year’s Beaver Festival which will be August 7th from 11-4. We are hoping for an “estuary awareness” car to bring passengers on Amtrak from the Jack London Square with the watershed appreciation of Lisa Owens-Viani. We are hoping for five hours of remarkable music, face painting, beaver tours and naturalist walks with Doc Hale. We are hoping for the children’s cloth drawings to be converted to a flag that we unveil at the festival. We are hoping for an excellent silent auction with donations from Safari West, Wild Birds, Six Flags, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Marine Mammal Center! We are hoping for the best attendance ever and the entire event to be sponsored by Castoro Cellars.

We dream big.

We are also hoping for YOU! So if you plan to be in town that day, would like to help out in anyway including transport, setup, take down, organization, musical delights, children’s activities, manning the book table, helping with sales, recruiting attendance, hanging up signs, taking down signs, having your daughter’s swim team sell water bottles, or offering a service so valueable I haven’t yet thought of it, drop me a note! It takes a VILLAGE to make a beaver festival.

Yesterday I had a very exciting chat with Julia Reischel of the Watershed Post. I had contacted her after reading her review of Mike Callahan’s presentation at the state house. Apparently I came close to giving her a “Road to Damascus moment” and she is now very interested in the role beavers might play in watershed restoration. She was delightful on the phone, and wanted to know who the “big names were” in beaver research so she could follow up. Why hadn’t she heard about the effect beavers have on birds? the effect beavers have on salmon? the use of beavers to combat climate change?

Sigh.

I honestly have no idea. Talk about hiding beavers’ light under a bushel. With the exception of Michael Pollock there really are no “big names” associated with this important research, and his name isn’t NEARLY big enough to make a dent in all the ridiculous lies that are being told about beavers by the salmon industry in Scotland. Research gets done, but its done by doctoral candidates because no one else wants to step into that mire.I sent her in the direction of Dietland Muller-Swarze who teaches right down the street.

Still, start with the dissertations. Its a great beginning. The rest will follow.

BEAVER FESTIVAL XVI

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