I’m so excited about the possible news! There was almost no water in the creek the other day, but with the recent rain it may have replenished for a while. Perfect timing for an exploration of the territorial variety. Look at the calendar: It’s February!
Dispersal month!
When you’re riding a news cycle wave, try to smile, grip tightly and hold on!
Beavers: Boon for the Environment
Whenever beaver news gets reported in a financial paper we should all be happy! Congratulations tiny 3 hectrare study out of Exeter. You may have become the widest reported beaver news of all times! HURRAY for Devon beavers!
Speaking of the biggest broadcast, I posted this photo on FB yesterday and was stunned to get over 500 likes, 200 shares, and forty comments. You will understand when you see it and share it on your own facebook page. Please look carefully at the evidence. Exhibit A – the tail. Exhibit B – the perfectly formed web back feet. And exhibit C – the tiny smile.
This is a new born beaver and I am certain it is the most adorable thing in the entire world.
The news is quite catching, you see, like a cough
It just takes one news to start other news off
Right now on the covers of seven more papers
Great news are in blossom! They’re rising like vapors.
A paraphrase of Dr Seuss’ Sleep book.
The unhappy BBC did its job. Despite their mealy mouthed un-coverage of the quaint Stirling ‘study’ they set off a host of reports yesterday and today around the science-reporting world. I must have received 5 emails telling me that they were in “Science Daily“, or “The National” and finally our good friends at Phys.org. Or as we’ve come to think of them….
Beavers bring environmental benefits
Examining head water streams which drain water from 13 hectares of Scottish countryside, scientists compared areas where beavers had been active with areas in which they were absent. The study formed part of a programme of research at this site by Stirling scientists that has been ongoing since 2003.
Leading the research Dr Nigel Willby of the School of Natural Sciences, said: “Our study found that beaver behaviours have several benefits for the environment. Their dam building skills help restore degraded streams and increase the complexity of the surrounding habitat, consequently increasing the number of species found by 28 per cent. The dams also help improve pollutant levels and store flood water.”
I for one, am shocked, SHOCKED! I tell you, to find that beavers perform a similar function in a narrow patch of southern England as they do in all of Europe and North America! I ask you, what’s next? Will you expect me to believe that gravity functions similarly around the globe? Or that light travels at the same speed no matter what country you’re in? Here’s a photo of that radical beaver conspiracy theorist and an interview from today’s “Good morning Scotland”.
Favorite question: Is biodiversity always a good thing?
Last night’s presentation was well received I think, and folks were positive about the mural. Just got word that the PRMCC voted to approve the project and send it for review by the city council. Hurray! Mario came with his updated painting including
a chewed tree and a beautiful green heron. Really exciting to see how this comes together. If you want to watch the presentation (and happen to have powerpoints on your computer) click on the photo below. I tried embedding it on slideshare but it lost all my animation, so I’ve given up on that idea. The average ppt presentation uses about a pinky fingernail size of what the program is capable of – so folks looked pretty impressed last night.
That’s the BBC for you. Working hard to eventually report the news that other outlets have broken if the Guardian posts it first – adding a negative twist at the end that basically makes sure it will unsay everything it just said if the news is in any way controversial.
Beavers ‘help to prevent flooding’, says studyScotland’s beaver population may help to prevent flooding, according to an academic study.
The rodents, which are living wild around the River Tay, were accused by some locals of contributing to flooding in the Perthshire village of Alyth. But Stirling University researchers said beaver dams helped to mitigate flooding by storing and then slowly releasing water.
And they said beaver dams also helped to improve local wildlife habitats.
The study was part of a 13-year programme of research by the university’s scientists, who studied streams which drained water from 13 hectares of surrounding countryside.Areas where beavers were known to have been active were compared with areas in which they were absent.Pools created by the dams had 20 times more aquatic plant life, and the number of species in the surrounding habitat was 28% higher.
Nicely said. Beavers improve biodiversity and reduce farming pollutants. Don’t think for one moment that they it’s a quirky accident of language that they called this a STUDY rather than RESEARCH. Because now it’s time for the UN-SAYING:
NFU Scotland deputy director of policy Andrew Bauer said: “Statistically, it was always likely that there would be small pockets of land where the environmental benefit might outweigh the considerable problems being caused.
“There is no indication where the 13 hectares mentioned in this case are, but any benefits seen in localised areas will need to be viewed by the environment minister against the damage being done to productive farmland, long standing flood banks and established woodland on large parts of Tayside.”
Anne Gray, policy officer at Scottish Land & Estates, said: “We are not opposed to official trials of beaver reintroductions but this process has to be properly managed, which did not happen with the illegal release in Tayside.
“As we know from the trial at Knapdale, there may be some environmental benefits from beavers but this must be balanced against the negative impacts on many farm and forestry businesses.”
Such commitment to science. Delivered with all the unbiased open-mindedness of Waldorf and Statler.
No matter. The research has been reported in the BBC now and that makes it much harder to ignore. I believe that places our beaver friends in the UK on step three of the Gandhi advice-for-winning-just-battles-over-improbable-odds hierarchy.
Ocean first just released a “Beaver Ecology Unit”! Saving you all that awkward ‘research and preparation time’ that teachers loathe so much. Oceans first will send the itemized beaver unit your way complete with student guide and handouts for a mere 19.95! Act now and we’ll throw in an apple, which will keep both teachers and beavers happy.
The course itself looks harmless enough, dam building, adaptions, etc. Nothing about nitrates or salmon or drought – nothing about how our ocean will be cleaner if we let more beaver do their jobs – but we can’t ask for miracles. Now you can guess with your eyes closed whether it teaches more than just five free minutes on this self-guided interactive website we make freely available every day.
Silly, silly me. Unlike the slickly produced glossy O
cean First website, broadly funded by educational institutions and the dive industry, when we here at “Beavers first” develop educational tools on the subject, we just GIVE them away.
