Bleak gets better

heidi08 Beavers May 16, 2017

Good news, yesterday I found out that we don’t need the changes to the ad until a week after Amelia comes back! Things must have sounded bleak yesterday because two strangers offered to try and fix the specifications. Thank you kindly strangers, but hopefully we can manage it all easily! And the weather was kind and did not start it’s looming rainstorm last night in the mountains until Jon did lots of this:

Now I know what you’re thinking, and I thought so too. No beavers in the area. Yet.

Things are green and springing up in the mountains. We were surprised how many wildflowers were making their way and how nice the green grass looks under all the places we were busily mourning lost ponderosa. Nature has her plan, doesn’t she? When one door closes another opens. We have one ponderosa that is proudly thriving next to its towering dead neighbor we’re still waiting for the neighbor to take down. The living tree had its topremoved by lightening. The dead tree was tall and stately.

So you never know how things will turn out. Nature has her plan, and sometimes her plan is beavers.

Unstable Climates

heidi08 Environmental, Festival May 15, 2017

It’s almost time for “Bipolar Event Planning” again. (It seems like it gets earlier every year.) Last night I was notified that we got tickets for the Napa Wine Train for the silent auction (first time, yeah!) and I was over the moon. This morning I’ve been informed that our ad in Bay Nature is the wrong size and our artist needs to change it. Problem is she is in Indonesia until Friday – so we’ll be paying for weird padding again, unless they can wait until she gets back.

I suggested this kind of edges to make it taller but I’m doubtful it will work. I don’t have the right tools to measure 3.5626″ wide by 4.9375″ high.

In the mean time we are headed up to the mountains this week to spend time at my parents and get sticks for the nature journals. Perfect timing right? Only it’s supposed to rain tomorrow so that’s not the best conditions for stick gathering! May through August is always the best of times and the worst of times getting ready for the festival. I’m trying hard to accept that’s just the way it is.

Meanwhile I head from the steadfast beaver defender Kelly Adams in Draper Utah that the court date was postponed until June 5th, so that keeps hope alive for a while longer. I dimly remember taking the city to court back in the day, and it’s hard, hard work, so I’m glad he gets longer to relax beforehand.

On to bigger news, where beavers have appeared in the Yukon for the first time. It is being blame on the ‘shrubification’ caused by climate change, so they aren’t thrilled by the news.

Beavers reported on the Yukon tundra for the first time

Canada’s national animal has been turning up in some unexpected places lately, and while there are different theories about how exactly the beaver has managed to gain a foothold in the Arctic tundra, a recent report says climate change is likely a factor.

In 2008 and 2009, Inuvialuit hunters reported seeing beavers on two northern Yukon rivers, near the Beaufort Sea. Then, in 2015, Thomas Jung, a biologist with Environment Yukon, spotted a large dam, beaver lodge and winter food cache on the Babbage River in Ivvavik National Park. All of this suggests beavers are attempting to colonize the Beaufort coastal plain, according to an article by Jung, published in the journal Canadian Field-Naturalist.

“I was quite surprised. I had to look a couple times,” Jung says of his 2015 sighting. He asked the man he was flying with, “‘Have you ever seen a beaver dam up here? Because there’s a beaver dam.’”

Beavers have a broad range in North America, but up until now haven’t lived north of the treeline because they need wood for food and shelter.

As the Arctic warms, the tundra is undergoing ‘shrubification,’ meaning woody plants are growing in places that were once inhospitable and may be drawing herbivores like beavers further north.

Jung says how the beavers got to the Arctic coastal plain remains a mystery. A large mountain range lies between the beavers’ expected territory and their new home on the tundra and as he puts it, “I don’t think beavers are known as mountaineers.”

They may have come from the forested Mackenzie Delta, leapfrogging from river to river until they ended up far north. They also could have swum in the sea.

“The overland route is certainly challenging and the through-the-sea route is improbable,” Jung says, “but animals do improbable things quite often.”

That’s the truth alright. Beavers do lots of things we don’t expect, and the climate is certainly changing. Maybe they just came for the view?

Treasures for Beavers

heidi08 Beavers May 14, 2017

The last 24 hours were very good for beavers, and their advocates. The drive to Safari West is always such a delight – we went up through Napa- past the wine train and countless tasting rooms, and came down by the way of 101 where we stopped off at artist Molly Eckert’s magical home in Sebastopol. (More about that later.) In between we stopped off at Safari West where Marie Martinez personally greeted us and showed us to our room before bringing us a $1000.00 donation to Worth A Dam from the foundation.

In the evening we had dinner at the staff table an got to chat about beavers and hoovestock, and hear about the baby giraffes and wildebeasts born this season, all while sharing a fanciful and rugged buffet cooked by their expert chefs. There was even a coloful sign announcing my talk in the courtyard. Then we headed into elephant room to set up my presentation, which was attended by available staff, curious guests and families with children. One very nice asian family spanned three generations at the table, with the children and grandma asking about the beavers afterwards.

There were thank yous and questions followed by a nice glass of wine on our open porch listening to flamingos, hornbills, night shrieks set their paces to the african drummer who played for an hour or so by the fire. It was windy and colder than you can imagine but the sky was crisp with stars and we slept like kings directly under the big dipper in our thickly covered tent.

There was no Wifi in the tents so I tried to stay in bed as long as I could, where it was warm. Before seven we had coffee and bagels on the deck again. Later we explored the bird enclosures busy with brightly colored wings, displaying, flying and courting. Some porcupines were excitedly waiting for breakfast and a kookaburra was hiding in the bushes behind them. Woodstorks and spoonbills shook their prodigious beaks at the water. There was a large nest in the upper treetops guarded by scarlet ibis, and we learned that the flamingoes were trying once again to lay eggs because the last clutches were unsuccessful. The iconic rugged vehicles were lining up to take guests on their adventure through the back country and many animals there when we stolled over to visit the lemur island, moated by hungry fish, and met the a sweet family who had attended my talk and still ha questions about the beavers. Then we packed up from our short stay, slipped onto the road and came back through 101 this time.

We were headed to artist Molly Eckert’s home to pick up her donation to the silent auction. It was an easy drive off 12 past Guerneville to her eclectic home at the end of a wooded lane. She met us saying they had just finished some yard work and invited us in. The entry way was adorned with a line of perfectly round stones, every wall was covered in her art, and the ceiling shafted with brilliant skylights that made the home burst with light.

She gave us 10 copies of the 1988 poster she made for Point Reyes, and delighted us with stories of how this once happened before photo shop so she had to insert all the individually painted wildlife by hand. We sat in her living room chatting with her and her very nice husband while she signed every last one. Our hosts were eager to hear the beaver story, and heartened by the public response. She admitted ruefully that she had not yet turned her artistic skills to beavers, but her husband showed us some sketches she had done of animated prairie dogs playing instruments that were so enchanting I could barely keep from stealing them and saying “you MUST do this for beavers, beavers, beavers!” Instead we showed her the ecosystem poster and the children’s banner and they were very impressed. Her husband was an elementary school teacher, and a big admirer of the children’s artwork and Fro’s sewing skills.

I would be very surprised if beavers were not in her future, at least! She was looking at the newsletter intently when we left. Fingers crossed.

Other additions to the silent auction this week came from the Oakland Zoo (two adults and two children, plus free parking!) and the California Academy of Science (4 tickets!), which have both been wonderful supporters of the beavers in the past and are fantastic ways to keep yourself and your family curious and learning during the long summer months.

Six Flags unfortunately declined to donate but forget them anyway. There will be plenty to entertain!

sidse by side — *Mom and Junior: Rusty Cohn*

Finally I heard from Rusty Cohn of Napa that he saw three beavers last night for the first time in a long while. In addition to their being a definite size difference in these beavers there is something else you should take note of. Happy Mother’s Day everyone!

napa mom — Mother beaver with visible teats: Rusty Cohn

Beaver Safari

heidi08 Beavers May 13, 2017

Great crowd and a generous donation from our friends at Safari West. Amazing wild sounds all through the cold clear night. Then a fantastic trip to the Molly Eckler Studio for more wonders. You’ll hear all about it soon, I promise!

A beaver-friendly Friday

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? May 12, 2017

Happy Friday! We’re off to Safari West today so I can talk beavers to families after dinner. It’s always a lot of fun, because we get to stay in one of their luxury tents and drink wine on the deck listening to exotic animals or crazy birds making noises there is no word for. On the way back we are stopping at Molly Eckler’s studio in Sebastopol to pick up her donation for the silent auction! In the mean time there is a startling amount of news on this end. I was notified yesterday that we were getting donated tickets to the Oakland Zoo and Academy of Sciences. And Coyote Brush Studios just finished the artwork for our temporary tattoos. (They say Tina is half way done with the Ecosystem poster).

They are going to look SO cool on the nature Journals, I had to try a mock up to see. Obviously Tina Curiel is a great talent and with Lindsey Moore managing the business side they make a great team. In the meantime we’re heading to the mountains on Monday week where we will gather a mere 150 8 inch sticks for children to use as the bindings and make each one have ‘beaver chews’ on my father’s grinder.

So I feel full of purpose.

To top it all off we weren’t the only ones irritated by that trapper-fan-fiction article last week. Settle back with a second cup and enjoy.

There’s a reason animal rights groups demonize trappers

Re “On the trap line” by Leila Philip (Opinion, May 5): Of course animal rights people “demonize” trappers. Why shouldn’t they? Methods of controlling beaver damage abound, including beaver deceivers, baffles, and PVC pipes. Philip should pay attention to her own instinctive resistance to the cruelty of trapping; to her, the beaver is a “token of the wild.” Consider the animal that has been trapped: Perhaps the night is icy, and yet he cannot escape. He is in a great deal of pain. He tries to chew off his paw in order to rid himself of the painful trap.

Nothing can be said in favor of trapping other than by people who do not care about the animal’s suffering. That’s why we demonize trappers.

As for the trapper: Who cares if he is “the ultimate locavore,” using the defenseless animal in every possible way? He may be deeply rooted in nature, but of what significance is that when he accepts cruelty?

Virginia Fuller

Nice job, Virginia. When I read a letter like this I, of course, wish it talked less about ‘cruelty’ and more about what removing a beaver is taking away from the community in terms of ecosystem services. Every beaver you trap means a bird that won’t nest there, a trout that won’t survive, a frog that won’t reproduce. That dead beaver carcass is weighted down with ghosts, like Marley’s chains in Scrooge, or like the tin cans on a just married car, expect they make no sound and it’s more like a ‘just buried’ car, instead.

Hmmm, that would be a more complicated graphic to create, but worth thinking about.