Tomorrow is Earthday! And our beavers third anniversary of being at the John Muir celebration. The first time we were a whimsical write-in at the very last moment, and it was the very first ‘display’ we had ever done. I was actually shocked to see how many materials we had at our disposal! We stopped at longs on the way and got some pens and scratch paper for first ever children’s art project asking kids to enter a beaver drawing contest. We expected little, Fro was planning to stop by and work on her painting ‘plein air style’. We raffled off the very first beaver t-shirt offered by a supporter, and the most recent, neither from Worth A Dam, because we didn’t have t-shirts then. We had only met twice. Our thinking at the time was to use our presence to pressure the city into actually VOTING on the future of the beavers. 3 years later I can safely say I’m fairly certain that will never, ever, ever happen.
In doing that first event we learned that children’s artwork can be a powerful tool in shaping adult minds. We understood that being visible and teaching about beavers was a great way to motivate support and educate the public. We got 79 drawings that day and scanned every delightful one of them to add to the website. Two of them were from a certain anti-beaver city council member’s children. Very interesting indeed.
Things change. Now I’m on the board for JMA and in charge of entertainment this year. Our goals using the art of children are much more ambitious. Last year we did a diorama and had children make clay beavers to add to it. This year we are doing the other half of our fabric banner that we started at the flyway festival. this is going to be one adorable project. Fro has already sewn ribbon between the first squares to mark each contribution. I’m thinking it will be displayed in a bagpipe ceremony at the festival. And each artist who contributes his/her vision will receive a lovely beaver tattoo. Stop by and say hi. You really don’t want to miss this.
Every tale has its heroes and villains right? Well click on the above photo for a slide show of this particular beaver hero at work. Mike Callahan left a career as a physician’s assistant when he got interested in saving beavers near his home. He and his wife started a volunteer association and invited Skip Lisle out for a conference to train advocates in beaver management. The rest, as they say, is history. More than a decade ago, Mike left his PA work behind him, and started the business of “Beaver Solutions” in Massachusetts. He has since installed more than 700 flow devices, and is committed to sharing what he’s learned
Last year, Mike was awarded a grant from AWI to produce an instructional DVD teaching beaver management. He is about four weeks away from its final launch, and I thought today was a good day to remind you. My ‘sent’ file tells me that I first wrote Mike on November 17, 2007 after i learned that I had been appointed to the Beaver Subcommittee. I had about a hundred questions about flow devices, materials cost and beaver behavior. I am very pleased to say that 2.5 years later he has answered those 100 questions, I have about 10,000 more, and consider him a friend. I agreed to help him spread the word about the upcoming DVD because making these tools readily available means that beavers around the nation can avoid threat from the people they inconvenience. The funny thing is, I ended up writing him and not Skip because I couldn’t find an email address for Skip, only a phone number. (In those days I was shy about talking to strangers about beavers). (Wow.) Of course, Skip was eventually hired by the city and went on to become a friend too. Small beaver world.
Water flow control: Some fairly famous urban beavers
I am a resident of Martinez, CA and a member of the subcommittee on keeping our urban creek beavers. I have been in contact with BWW & Sherri Tippie. Our downtown beavers have gotten a lot of press, and may be included in a documentary on urban wildlife, but just to summarize: the state of CA does not allow relocation, our beavers were going to be exterminated, there was a huge public outcry and CFG stepped in to say they would grant a one time relocation permit and hire Ms. Tippie. Residents weren’t satisfied and wanted the city to consider allowing the beavers to stay, which eventually happened after an electric town hall meeting. Now the city will form a subcommittee to consider allowing them to stay and I’m on that subcommittee. I want to make sure the city has all the information it needs to take positive action. I wanted to approach you specifically on the relative drawbacks/benefits of the flexible leveler vs the clemson.
Our creek is small (20-25 feet wide in most places) and normally a trickle by late summer. However it has two flow exceptions that will present unique challenges. It serves as the flood drainage for the town so in hard rains it can get a sudden increase. Also we sit on the upper bay so can have an occasional high tides. When hard rain happens with the high tide we’ve historically had flooding (long before the beavers) and this makes the city very anxious about the dam.
A hydrology report issued by the city raises concern about the increased water behind the dam, and obviously lowering the level is paramount, as is reducing the dam so that when the next rain comes the surge can flow away. I wonder if you can help me identify where to start with this and what device seems most appropriate. It occurs to me this may even be useful to do in steps, with one device to start and another to maintain. Certainly the city does not lack for volunteer labor or financial contributions. I also wonder whether you are ever available for intra-state consultation/visits or can recommend someone who is.
Again, thank you for the fantastic resource and I hope my questions are clear.
Ahhh, memories! You will recognize the center photo as being the lovely image of our own Cheryl Reynolds, who has never been unwilling to share her hard work when beavers benefit! Thanks Cheryl, and thanks Mike!We’re looking forward to the finished product!
So in the increasingly dense fog of discovery (a phrase chosen for a reason) that has settled upon my beaver life, I was learning yesterday about the role of music with the early trappers. Apparently the French Canadians were famed for singing as they paddled their canoe to keep time and motivate the troops. One such trapper had the presence of mind to put 11 of these songs on paper. Edward Ermatinger was the son of a swiss father, born on an island off Tuscany, educated in England and went to work as a clerk for the Hudson Bay Company. About his unique skills, a family member later wrote;
He took up [in England] the study of Latin, French and Italian, besides acquiring those habits of neatness and precision, both in calligraphy and expression, which his journals disclose. He, at this time, also took up the study of music and acquired some proficiency with both flute and violin. Accomplishments which afforded him much enjoyment in after life, especially during his service with the Hudson’s Bay Company …
Sounds kind of refined for a beaver-killer doesn’t it? I suppose trapping was the ‘space race’ of its time. Exploration. Adventure. Fortune. Memoirs. Escape from the rules and constrictions of society. Escape from wives or potential wives. (And how much do you wanna bet the slang-meaning of these rodents has something to do with this their feelings for the women they left behind?) They quickly learned from the natives that the birchbark canoe was their best means of getting around, easy to build, cheap to repair and ready for action. Two men could portage easily over short distances, four men could do it over long. The music kept their strokes in time, encouraged the hungry or frightened, and focused the inattentive. Alouette is a trapping song we still sing today. Trois beaux Canards was one of the most popular at the time. Words could be changed or added to fit the particular brigade or quarry.
The Ermatinger Collection presented here offers the best answer so far discovered. Its eleven songs, recorded about 125 years ago by a fur trader, are typical paddling songs for canoemen. Their tunes are rhythmical, and the solos, as in most work songs, alternate with a chorus (“refrain”) which prolongs the action. Yet these songs belong also to the common stock of traditional folk songs brought over by the colonists from France at the beginning-mostly from I640 to I680. Even their deviations from the original pattern resulted from their vitality. Alive and variable, they constantly yielded a trifle to the mannerisms of individual singers and the utilities they served either in the settlements or in their peregrinations. Canoe men, more than others, were apt to fashion refrains that reflected new surroundings and features, like canoe and paddle.
So after a few hearty rounds of the french equivalent of “row row row your boat” the men would haul out at an inviting looking-lodge, plant some poles to keep the beaver from getting out, and then rip open the top of the home to kill them. Maybe they’d throw the carcasses into the boat to skin later and paddle away singing some more until they got to their next lodge. Wash. Rinse and repeat. And so on, farther and farther west until there weren’t many beaver to find, no matter how hard you sang. You can see why you’d need a vast lexicon of music to intersperse with all that killing.
It chills me deeply to think of the disconnect between a ‘group hum’ and a near species genocide, but the strangest thing is this: I have been an avid canoer for 30 years, and when i am in ‘thick water’ paddling against the wind, I have always, always, instinctively, sung as a way of keeping my spirits up. I guess its destiny.
May I suggest some new lyrics to ‘alouette?’ It’s not a lovely song to begin with, so these fit right in.
Do these pictures suggest any kind of riddle to you? The old puzzle was a purported favorite of Lewis Carroll and now a standard of teachers everywhere. It’s a great problem-solving challenge and one that’s been much on my mind as we whittle down the hours until Saturday. As with any large scale undertaking, there are last minute changes and scheduling nightmares. Someone has to leave early and someone has to come late and no one wants to perform while the bagpipes warm up.
Never mind. I have it on the very best authority that John Muir himself will be spending some time at the beaver booth. I believe he is fond of our compassion and tenacity, qualities with which he is very familiar. Last year after a successful celebration he and a certain friend of Alhambra Creek spent a delightful evening at the dam watching the entire family with the helpful guidance of our own Cheryl Reynolds. With Muir and two descendents on site, I’m hoping the city manager will have the temerity to repeat his very thoughtful question “How would John Muir feel about planting trees for beavers?” Like all scholarly pursuits, motivated entirely by genuine curiosity and good will, I’m sure he could get an honest answer.
What are you doing, Saturday? I really think you should be there to see how this all works out.
Regular readers of this blog will recognize our friend, Ned Bruha aka “The Skunk Whisperer” of Tulsa Oklahoma. We connected through Cheryl’s well-directed tweets and began communicating about beavers and the best tools for their management. The website says,
The Skunk Whisperer®, Inc., has become known as a pioneer in unique, truly humane nuisance wildlife management methods, and is often featured in the news recently receiving international attention. Oklahoma based, our humane wildlife control services surpass model guidelines from The Humane Society Of The United States for nuisance wildlife control companies. Our offices are in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
Lo and behold, sometimes good works (and a cowboy hat) get noticed! Last week, Discovery Network announced plans for an upcoming series to be set in northeastern Oklahoma and which features the exploits of wildlife recovery expert,“The Skunk Whisperer.” It will run on animal planet. This will be a season of following the exploits of humane animal exclusion and the corresponding hi-jinx that ensue! Animal planet broadcasts all across the nation and around the globe, so its a big deal for humane management.
Of course, we all know the broken record audio of my one-track mind, so I wrote him with immediate congratulations and suggested he might want to do program soon addressing management of a certain particular rodent. I had some suggestions about a possible guest as well that might help explain flow devices. Let’s just say it was an exciting conversation – apparently there are lots of beaver conflicts in his region, and its one of the first things he wants to address.
“We are so pleased that we’re going to get my message — of humane, no-trap, no-kill, non-traditional wildlife message — out to a national audience,” Bruha said. “If people who watch ‘The Skunk Whisperer’ get nothing else from the program, I hope they realize there are other options than killing the odd squirrel, bat or other critter they find in their shed or attic.”
You and me, both! When you watch the above video you will understand at once that Ned knows more than a few things about pleasing the media! We’re so happy for you! And for critters everywhere!
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