Yesterday I found this historical footage of Grey Owl on the web. Since I had seen only still images I never imagined that they were from an actual movie. It was like seeing pages leap to life. You will probably remember that Grey Owl (Archibald Bellamy) was a trapper who became a beaver advocate at the turn of the century in Canada. It was generally believed at the time that he was half native, although it later came out that he was fully British. This created somewhat of a controversy as much of Canada felt ‘duped’ by his pretense at nativity. Looking at this footage the man looks so entirely anglo I can’t imagine anyone being successfully fooled.
Regardless of his parentage, Grey Owl did remarkable, needed, powerful things to highlight the value of beavers and their plight at the time. It is no exaggeration to say he single-handedly changed the attitude towards beavers and kick-started the conservation movement. His writings are delightful and attentive to the creatures, and one of my most treasured gifts was a copy of his second book signed by “Grey Owl” himself.
In 1999 the story of Grey Owl was turned into a movie with Pierce Brosnan, directed by Richard Attenborough. Our own friend Sharon Brown helped them find beavers for the starring role, and the movie can be purchased through the Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife site. All true beaver believers should own a copy. It contains more original footage as well. Cinematically speaking, I thought the movie itself was a fairly un-climactic look at a great man’s life, and could complain about the lighting, the acting, the editing and the sound quality, but the unmatched beaver performances were FLAWLESS! Such grace and power! I liked this speech a lot.
Great beaver viewing last night. Two kits milling about enjoying willow and blackberries. Then one went over for a short time before coming back with a sibling right behind! A beaver train! We hadn’t even known one was downstream. It was too dark for footage but images of the beaver procession would have been one to treasure!
Have you ever been down to see the beavers in the morning, when no one else is there, and the only sounds are train whistles and garbage trucks? All the noisy drunks are asleep, and no one is even out walking their dogs yet?. Then a sighting seems less like ‘meeting an old friend’ and more like a Grand Discovery. That’s how it was the June morning when I first spotted this year’s kit. We only saw one at first. It took a few weeks before we knew about the TRIO.
All month I had been waking up with a sense of “ITS TIME!!!” even though it would have been much better for me to sleep for another hour. It could hardly have been rational since we never saw a kit last year and mom was obviously not well. Even though I told myself it was probably not possible, I found my groggy self in the stillness at the bridge, waiting. Foremost in my mind were two blessed mornings two and three years ago when I had stumbled down at dawn and been greeted by furry wonders. The first time, June 13th 2007, when I was alone and discovered my first ever kit will always be such a startling, dramatic memory. I can’t tell you how forcefully I didn’t expect it. Forget Dads and Grads, June is now forever the month of new kits. Every summer after I have remembered that wonder and half-expected to feel it again – I certainly wasn’t thinking about the hundreds of times I came and saw nothing. (Any truly compulsive gambler only remembers her successes.)
We were so happy to find out that we had as many as three! And have been so comforted by how finely they seem to have grown so far. Clearly they are well on their way to becoming their own beavers. October will mark their 5th month. We’ve seen them all go over the dam and forage on their own. We’ve seen them mudding and putting sticks on the dam now. But it all started with the discovery: A morning alone with wonder. When I saw this remarkable video yesterday it reminded me so much of that feeling, I thought I would share.
So the October-December Issue of Bay Nature was in my mailbox yesterday. And guess what adorned the last page?
Remember the night last month where John Muir Laws came to sketch our beavers? This is what it was for! He was cajoled into coming to see our remarkable family by some very kind docents from Audubon Canyon that attended my Close to Home talk. They all came together, oohed and ahhed appreciatively at the right things, and finished the evening with burritos and salad in the park. It was a pretty magical night – Jack Laws has a way of making nature feel vibrant and accessible. The evening stands out in my memory as almost churchlike — but way more fun than church. The feeling of being the only person to enter an expansive stunning Cathedral in the morning when light is pouring in through the stained glass windows. Or maybe a gnarled bay grove along a valley basin that just looks like a Cathedral.
If you would like to pick up your very own commemorative issue for the grandchildren go here, but if you don’t already take this magazine you really should subscribe! It will tell you everything you need to understand the natural parts of the Bay Area and Beyond. They’ve been interested friends of the Martinez Beavers since way back. I’m still waiting for the four page exposé on the relationship between beavers and salmon, but someday it will come, I’m sure.
Every now and again, I come across an article that bring its very-tippy-toes to the edge of the line in praising beavers and advocating humane methods for living with them. I think of these writers as “beaver advocates manque“…from the french root of manquer which means ‘to miss’. It is used to refer to someone that missed out in life, missed their calling, missed their potential, missed a golden opportunity. Check out the ‘almost advocacy’ editorial from Jim Blight from Lake of the Woods Enterprise and see if you don’t agree he qualifies.
When I was a kid, one of my favourite playgrounds was Page’s swamp. The swamp ran along the east highway from the current site housing Tim’s Paints right through to A&W.
It was a real adventure. It was there I watched firsthand the evolution of frogs from the egg stage, to tadpoles, to half tadpole-half frog to frogs. A few frog’s eggs fights were thrown into the mix. Of course my mother didn’t appreciate my science adventure as, for some strange reason, my rubber boots were never quite high enough and my balance must have been poor as I came home soaked to my waist and smelling of muskeg….
Wetlands are disappearing from the countryside as we humans expand our land base. Efforts at protecting them have been made by environmental groups and organizations such as Ducks Unlimited, but the problem of disappearing wetlands is bigger than them all.
Enter to the equally loved and reviled beaver, the steward of our wetlands, the architects of the water systems that support them. We, as humans, are doing everything we can to eliminate or destroy them, and in doing so, do irreparable damage to our ecosystems.
Ahhh what a great sentence! Praising the value of beaver to endangered wetlands! Calling them architects, just like our friend Brock! I thought I was going to love reading this article. But I guess he had to demonstrate his evenhandedness by hating them a little bit – not unlike the token ‘hippy-punching’ practiced by prominent members of the democratic party….(but I digress).
Let me say first that I don’t particularly like these rodents. At our lake, they have virtually eliminated poplar and birch from the shores and, at times seem to have overpopulated and polluted the lake. I have seen the damage broken dams can do. I have listened to the stories of flooding of homes and properties. Beaver fever scares me. In spite of my personal feelings, I understand that the solution of killing beavers within the municipality and in the country is rather barbaric, not to mention ineffective. There are other solutions to be investigated.
This just in! Beavers Eat Trees! Sorry about that. I’m trying to imagine how you knew your pond was overpopulated and how you could tell the pollution was caused by beavers. Gumtree wrappers and rootbeer cans? If you’re afraid of beaver feaver I highly recommend that you don’t let your neighbors give it to them because beavers carry it, they don’t cause it. (We mostly do that.) Sigh, you were THIS close! Jim you coulda’ been a contender, but never mind. Let’s move forward. You do go on to suggest that trapping might not be the only solution.
A the request of a local citizen, the Fur Bearers Alliance, a long time advocate for fur bearing animals, took an interest in our situation in Kenora. This group has been working for decades in studying beavers and developing alternatives to killing them. In fact, they have volunteered to come to Kenora, study our problem areas and erect some beaver deterrents that are cheaper and more effective than trapping. I assume the city is making up their minds regarding the free offer and I assume they would agree to have the expert advice. I should note that beavers are not protected and a property owner in the outlying areas has every legal right to eliminate them by whatever means if their property is being damaged. But I think it behooves us to look at the alternatives that, in addition to being more humane, can be more effective.
We Kenorans brag about our beautiful surroundings, our lakes and forests and wildlife. I think it is up to all of us to advocate for the protection of all these, including beavers.
Lucky for you we are grading beaver editorials on a curve. Yours is the closest to being positive and rational about managing beavers that we have read this year, although to be fair the competition hasn’t been very steep. I wrote Jim about the effects of coppice cutting but I do think it would be worth his time to research a little about beaver impact on water quality. In the meantime, thanks to our friends at Fur-bearer defenders for stepping up to the plate. You guys do beavers a real service! Come to think of it, maybe now is a good time to say Happy Birthday to PETA who is celebrating its 30th year. Sometimes getting attention for the issue is half the battle, just ask the Martinez Beavers.
Tim Nolan, Foreman of Maintenance at the Department of Public Utilities, a division of the city’s public works department, stands on a beaver dam at the Still River drainage basin that feeds Lake Kenosia. There are two dams that are opened with a rake each morning. Friday, Sept. 24, 2010 Photo: Scott Mullin / The News-Times Freelance
The constitution state takes its name from the Algonquin word for the “Long tidal river”. In the 1600’s tribal leaders actually asked the settlers in Boston and Plymouth to come to their region, luring them with promises of beaver skins and corn. They were looking for help managing their unruly neighbors the Pequots. Great idea, how could that possibly go wrong?
Podunk sachems were journeying to Boston and Plymouth to solicit English settlers with promises of corn and beaver skins and glowing descriptions of the “exceeding fruitfulness of the country.” What the Indians along the river wanted was protection against the hostile neighboring Pequots. The bait was taken when, in the fall of 1633, William Holmes and his followers settled at what became Windsor, Connecticut.
I offer this tidbit so you can see the history of Connecticut is inextricably linked to beavers. The economy couldn’t have existed without them. The landscape couldn’t have been formed without them. The fish and the birds and the wildlife couldn’t have ever been sustained without them. So I bet in 400 years the region has learned a lot about this semi-aquatic neighbor. When I saw the article this weekend from the imaginatively named “Newstimes” I couldn’t wait to read what a state that had half a century to learn about beavers had gleaned.
Furry facts Beavers are nocturnal semi-aquatic rodents. They build dams to protect their homes, called “lodges,” from predators and to create fishing ponds as a food source. Beaver families can include two parents and as many as six pups, who leave the lodge after two years. The lodges are built above ground and water, but have underwater entrances.
Dirk Perrefort, Newstimes
Stunning. You hear that misunderstanding a lot but it still takes my breath away when its reported in a paper. Furry Facts Dirk??? Are furry facts the same as fuzzy logic? Just so you know, beavers are vegetarians. They don’t eat fish. They do make ‘fishing ponds’ but not for the reason you think. Since they aren’t polygamists, all families have two parents. And we call the children ‘kits’ but now I’m just being picky.
Well okay, so they had one reporter who hasn’t been outside a lot but I’m sure the rest of the state knows their beaver psychology! Let’s hear what from the hard working salt of the earth.
Several times this week, work crews have taken apart a series of dams the beavers built along a nearby stream feeding the lake, only to arrive the next morning to find the structures have been rebuilt. Nolan said they’ve used large rakes attached to poles to dislodge the dams, only to return the next day to see them rebuilt.
So the city of Danbury paid public works to pull out the dams several times in a week and you are surprised that the beavers rebuilt them? You have heard of this animal before, right? You are familiar with how the whole family pitches together to repair their livliehood when something traumatic happens to it? (Irrelevant backstory: Last night I met a grating man at the dam who demanded to know when we had piled up all that wood on the surface. “You guys did this, right?” When I said that these were beavers and building dams is what they do all by themselves without any help from us, he snapped defensively that he ‘knew that’. It’s heartfelt exchanges like this that make evening docent trips to the dam worth while…)
What explains the enduringly stubborn human belief that removing dams will magically make beavers go away? It sadly happens in every state in the union. It happened in Martinez in 2006. Could it be projection? Might it not demonstrate the character of the actors themselves? How do you respond if your effort is hampered? . If someone destroys what you made do you walk away or rebuild? Since you would give up are you assuming the beavers will too? If that’s true then there are a whole lot of ‘quitters’ in city government and public works all over the country.
Paul Rego, a wildlife biologist with the DEP, said beavers are fairly common in the state. He said they create dams to protect themselves from predators and to create a food source. Beavers eat trees and other aquatic vegetation near water courses. Rego said the local beaver family may have been around for some time, but weren’t noticed until the city began draining water from the nearby lake.
Well being that they had two strong dams I think Paul’s right. That’s the first sentence that hasn’t made me groan or giggle. (Although I can see how Dirk got the wrong idea. You said beavers create ponds for a food source, but he didn’t understand that meant a riparian food source!)
Clearly the city of Danbury is in dire need of some beaver education, stat! Since they discuss the possibility of trapping beaver to solve the problem, they win this week’s ‘whose killing beavers now’ entry. If you’d like to provide some needed education the article has the reporters email. I looked up the director of public works, the mayor, and the two council members representing that ward. Maybe you could explain how cities live with beavers and why they should? The constitution state needs your help!
