Month: October 2017

The other side

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's blaming beavers now? October 16, 2017

Things are moving in a good direction in the wine country. Yesterday at the Napa community meeting they stopped talking about the crisis and started talking about recovery. (Which will also be a crisis, but of a different, long-term, unfolding kind.) I hear from the artist who wants to help us this year and she and her husband are safely back at their home home, which survived on the very edge of the burning on the Silverado trail. I can’t imagine what it’s like to return to a home that’s now in a charred ghost town, but I’m so happy they are among the lucky ones. The fire never reached downtown Napa, so I assume Rusty, Robin and our beavers are doing okay. The whole region will need lots of support and rebuilding for a long time to come.

Meanwhile the beaver campaign in Wales is going strong and they have successfully proposed a five year license that will give the animals a toe-hold in the country. They must be doing well because the big liars have turned out in full force, and are tweeking their arguments to sound convincing without appearing negative.

Opinions sought over beaver reintroduction in Wales

Members of the public will be asked to have their say on plans to reintroduce beavers into the Welsh countryside. Depending on the level of response and issues raised, a final decision could come before the end of the year. Supporters of the plan believe they will bring environmental and economic benefits, but others remain unconvinced.

Beavers were once native to Britain but were hunted to extinction for their fur in the Middle Ages. The animal has been reintroduced into Scotland and England in recent years and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is currently considering an application for a licence to release ten pairs of beavers into the River Cowyn in Carmarthenshire.

The application has been submitted by Wildlife Trusts Wales and the Carmarthenshire-based Bevis Trust, which has three families of beavers penned on its land ready to be released. Bevis Trust founder Nick Fox believes the experience of beaver reintroduction elsewhere proves that the animals will bring big benefits to the Welsh countryside.

He told BBC Radio Wales’ Eye on Wales programme: “Beavers have a key role to play in the ecosystem. They build dams in the slower-flowing small rivers – not in big rivers – and those dams act as natural filters for pollutants and sediment.”

Alicia Leow-Dyke, who oversees the Welsh Beaver Project for Wildlife Trusts Wales, argued beavers would help improve biodiversity.

“Many studies have shown that where you have beavers you have a much richer biodiversity, you have a mosaic of different habitats – and that’s possibly something we have lost in the United Kingdom,” she added.

That sounds pretty persuasive. Better bring in the big guns to refute it and smoke up their objections a bit so no one realizes their just stubborn babies who are upset when they don’t get their own way. Go!

But Mark Lloyd, the chief executive of the Angling Trust, is not convinced that now is the right time to be considering such a project.

“There are lots of other really pressing priorities for the water environment that NRW should be focussing on rather than pet projects that are really “nice to have” but it’s not clear what the benefits are,” he said.

That is a concern for botanist Ray Woods, who has visited the River Otter in Devon where beavers are now in residence under licence.

“I asked the question, “What are they eating” and they just said, “Sorry Ray, we don’t know”. What’s been the impact on all these masses of mosses and liverworts and lichens that are absolutely bang full of useful pharmaceuticals?“

My jaw is hanging open as I type this. You’re worried that the beavers will eat up the lichens and then you can’t use them for pharmaceuticals? You do know that lichens grow in trees right? And beavers don’t climb trees. Do you think there is ANY possibility on God’s green earth that Ray was honestly ever told “I’m sorry we don’t know” when he asked what are they eating? Literally everyone is eager to answer the questions and start a conversation about beavers. Either that is a baldfaced lie or the only person he actually asked was a janitor on the train en route. And I can guess which one. Grr.

NRW has completed its initial assessment of the licence application and asked for some further information for the Bevis Trust and Wildlife Trusts Wales. Once that has been received there will be a short consultation. Depending on the level of response and issues raised, a final decision could come before the end of the year.

I’m going to guess that they’re leaning in the “Yes” direction and everyone knows it, because those two special lies aren’t the kind you make from a position of strength. They are what you say when you know you’re losing and you want to frame the argument in a new way out of desperation. Keep pushing Wales, you’re on the HOME STRETCH.

Yesterday I started making a list of the items I plan to ask for at the silent auction this year. In doing so I came across a lovely image designed by Sarah MacDonald of Into the Wilds. Her original water color was so lovely I couldn’t resist ’embellishing’ it.

Bay-State Madness

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Massachusetts Trapping Law, Mike Callahan, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now? October 15, 2017

Winds picked up again last night and there were more evacuations in Santa Rosa. The death toll now is 40. Things slowed a little in Napa and the Atlas fire, where it all started, is now 50% contained. Here in Martinez the air was actually pleasant enough to risk going outside for a bit. Allowing us to see the fine layer of ash all over our deck furniture. The red flag warning for fire conditions in Napa will continue until the afternoon.

In the meantime I am happy to be catching up on some actual beaver news. The next installment will be an old favorite as poor Massachusetts struggles to eliminate the will of those pesky voters once again.

Massachusetts May Centralize Beaver Population Control

A slew of hunting and wildlife-related bills are under consideration this legislative session in Massachusetts, including one that would transfer control of the state’s beaver population to the state division of fisheries and wildlife.

Last month, the state’s environmental committee, which is chaired by Rep. Smitty Pignatelli from Berkshire and Sen. Anne Gobi from Worcester, took a look at close to two dozen acts addressing everything from crossbows to beaver traps. Dave Wattles, the black bear and furbearer biologist with the Massachusetts division of fisheries and wildlife, says wildlife-related bills tend to come up in the legislature on a somewhat annual basis.

Currently, local governments have the authority to regulate beaver trapping and determine if an emergency permit should be issued to eliminate an animal. But Wattles says the data on how many beavers are trapped through the permits is inconsistent, which makes gauging the population size difficult.

“Right now, we are handicapped in terms of our ability to [manage the population],” he says. “So giving us, at a minimum, that reporting, or giving us regulatory authority over it would enable us to manage the population to the best of our ability.”

The terrifying thing is that I actually recognize Ann Gobi’s name because she’s been hurling herself at this legislation for so many years. There are parts of this that actually make sense. It would be helpful to know some actual data about the beaver population rather than just make wild accusations saying that it has exploded. But I don’t understand why you’re saying this is going to come by counting the number of beavers killed? How would you possibly infer the number of living beavers from the number of dead beavers statistic? I mean we don’t say there were 365 deaths by gunshot in America this year so our population must be around 323,000,000 right?

I can already see that you’ll go back in time before the 1996 change and say “We used to trap 50% of our beaver population at a rate of 500 beavers a year.” (Never mind that you didn’t actually have population numbers back then either. I’m sure it felt like 50%) “And now we have issued 1000 permits so that means our population has quadrupled!”

Mike Callahan says that there is a provision in this change to include an actual beaver census. Which would be a very good thing if it actually happened. In the meantime they are talking about all kinds of sporty environmental changes.

And while the state is looking to assert more oversight over the beavers, a separate bill aims to increase the freedoms afforded to hunters. Massachusetts is one of 11 states that bans or restricts hunting on Sundays, but the legislature is looking to repeal that Puritan-era “blue law.” A number of past efforts have been mounted to do so, and those backing the current rollback want the state’s division of fisheries and wildlife to regulate the practice. Advocates who support the ban, however, say it should be preserved for families looking to spend time outside.

Also on the agenda is a proposal to allow hunters to use crossbows, which are currently prohibited by the state, except for people with a disability that prohibits them from using other archery equipment. If passed, the new law would allow hunters to carry equipment complying with specific weight and design requirements.

Gobi told the Telegram she was optimistic that the crossbow bill would diversify the population of archers, which would no longer be limited to those strong enough to pull back a traditional bow.

“I don’t know of a single instance involving a bow hunter during archery season when someone was hurt in the woods,” Gobi said. “I take my dog for a walk in the woods every day…and we’ve never had a problem.”

Oh well then, I guess it’s safe. I mean if it never happened to you personally it must never happen right? And it’s not like your state is the most populated in New England or anything, or the third most densely populated in the nation, so I’m sure carrying around crossbow or shooting on Sundays won’t cause any problems for folks. Right?

Honestly, that is the stupidest thing I have read in a long time. And you think adding crossbows is going to diversify the hunting population? I can’t understand why you think that’s a persuasive argument that makes sense. I suppose handing crossbows out to terrorists or hungry children would diversify it too. Is that really the goal?

I’m not the only one who thinks this is crazy. Here’s a nice letter to the editor this morning on the subject.

Letter: Let hunters go out on Saturdays, leave Sundays to non-hunters

Managing beavers and other wildlife doesn’t mean that we need to open up the state to fur trapping and Sunday hunting (“Bills introduced would allow hunting on Sunday,” Tuesday 10/10).

Sen. Gobi contends that some sportsmen don’t get licenses because they can only hunt on weekends. As a working mother, the only time my family gets to enjoy the outdoors together is on weekends as well. If hunters are given one day during the weekend to enjoy their recreation I think it’s only fair that families also have one day to take their dogs and little ones out in nature without worrying about wearing orange, explaining gunshots, or coming across hunted or trapped animals.

We enjoy seeing animals in their natural habitats, including beavers, which are an important keystone species. As expert engineers, they create habitat for other species and help improve water quality.

For those rare situations when humans and beavers come into conflict, there are plenty of humane, non-lethal, and cost effective solutions such as trunk guards, sanded paint, and fencing around tress as well as piping systems, fencing systems, and flow devices.

Trapping beavers is a temporary solution, removing one beaver from a desirable area only opens up that habitat for the next migrating beaver to occupy. In these instances, the trapping and killing of beavers must be repeated, ad nauseam.

Rather than trapping and killing beavers over and over again, as Sen. Gobi and others advocate, let’s pursue and continue to invent creative and humane solutions.

Margaret Mulcahy

Excellently said, Margaret. You made so many excellent points in such a short space that I am happy to share your letter. And you did it all while being much more polite than I was. Of course Ms. Gobi won’t change her position, because obviously her opinions aren’t vulnerable to actual facts or the concerns of voters or anything. But I am proud of you, and beavers unanimously agree.

BDAs in NWF is a BFD

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? October 14, 2017

They made good progress on the fires yesterday (thank god), and were bracing themselves for the winds last night. The death toll has climbed to 36 this morning, with 5700 structures leveled. WP says 90,000 people are displaced and I bet the numbers are even higher. We’ll be coming to terms with the scale of these fires for many, many months and years to come.

In the mean time beavers have been the subject of attention by the National Wildlife Federation. I was contacted by the Vermont office rrequesting use of some photos for an upcoming event they are publicizing with Amy Chadwick in Montana about coexisting with beavers. (Which is just the right message delivered by just the right girl!) They thought Cheryl’s great photos would help promote it and Cheryl was kind enough to share. The announcement would link to this story in the August-September magazine which had escaped my attention entirely:

Beavers as Ecopartners

THE SUGAR CREEK RANCH FLY FISHING CLUB sits at the confluence of Sugar Creek and Scott River in northern California. The river’s cold water feeds the ranch’s eight ponds and lakes stocked full of fat trout and other fish that draw hordes of anglers. But the more important action is happening at the ranch’s unassuming beaver ponds. There, two beaver dams have helped save threatened coho salmon that were struggling to find enough water in the river just two years ago at the height of the state’s record drought. Today, the coho are thriving along with bear, fox, deer and hundreds of birds. “It is kind of a paradise,” says ranch manager Jerry Lewis.

The ranch’s beaver pond is one of many that the Scott River Watershed Council and its partners have encouraged property owners to create in the Scott River Valley to help restore water reserves while creating vital habitat for juvenile steelhead trout, coho and Chinook salmon. The trout and coho grow in the ponds’ still, cold water before swimming down to the ocean to fully mature and then return again several months later to spawn.

The ponds began with beaver dam analogues, or BDAs. Landowners can build these by pounding a series of vertical posts into a stream or river, interweaving branches through the posts then packing on vegetation and mud to create a dam that pools water. Enticed by the ponds, beavers often move in to build lodges and raise young and will increase the dam’s size and subsequent water retention.

To date, the Scott River Watershed Council has helped ranchers and farmers install eight BDAs in the watershed, and beavers have moved into six of their ponds. “Beavers have greatly enhanced the structures we’ve put in,” says Betsy Stapleton, the council’s board chair. “It has been a really cooperative relationship.”

Hurray for our Scotts River beaver friends!

A Beneficial Coexistence

“Farmers need to irrigate their land, but beavers can plug up a head gate where water comes off a stream in just 12 hours,” says Stapleton. “They can also dam up a creek near a home or field, which can flood them. And they chew down trees that people enjoy. When we started, we would barely mention the word ‘beaver’ in public. Then the drought hit. That really changed the conversation.”

California’s drought from 2011 to 2016 severely depleted water reserves across the state. When in 2014 segments of the Scott River dried up, the California Fish and Wildlife Department trucked thousands of juvenile coho to areas of the river that had adequate flows and habitat.

Since 2015, salmon and trout are thriving with the help of the new beaver ponds, which expand surface water, recharge groundwater reserves and improve water quality by filtering and trapping sediments and recycling nutrients. Their shaded, deep pools also provide cool refuge for fish and support a wide diversity of wildlife.

NOAA Fisheries biologist Michael Pollock is monitoring the region’s BDAs and found that they have raised water tables up to 3 feet as far as 1,500 feet from the dams. In addition, the BDAs have kept water flowing through fish-filled, downstream side channels all summer long, habitat that previously dried up during that time. Pollock says the positive impacts of the BDAs have reached far further than anticipated. “We didn’t expect that,” he says.

Federal and state agencies, including in California, are considering beavers as conservation partners to restore habitat and bolster its resilience to climate change. Not only do the dams build up water reserves but a series of dams can act as speed bumps to slow flooding, and they can even sequester carbon.

Several western states, including Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Colorado, are using BDAs or reintroducing beavers to help restore local ecosystems. For Montana’s Lolo National Forest, the National Wildlife Federation and its affiliate Montana Wildlife Federation are working with the Clark Fork Coalition to help the U.S. Forest Service craft a plan to build BDAs and restore beavers. This would help boost water reserves in riparian habitats at risk from reduced snowpack and increased droughts, which would restore habitat for threatened bull trout and other wildlife. “Beaver are low-cost workers, but they can provide huge benefits,” says Traci Sylte, the forest’s soil, water and fisheries program manager.

Hurray for beavers! It’s wonderful to read this rose-colored a collection of sentences like that but we all know that there is plenty of resistance still from the all kinds of agencies and property owners towards beavers. It’m always impressed with the work being done with BDA’s, and Michael Pollock is the very best kind of cheer leader to have on this team. In fact, I just got word that he’ll be opening the lecture series on tuesday evening at BioJams at the Olympic National Resource Center at the University of Washington.

ONRC Evening Talk: BIOJAMS Tuesday, Oct. 17, 7 p.m.

Dr. Pollock has been studying forest, stream and wetland ecosystems for over a decade. During this time he has engaged in a diverse set of scientific studies including: the influence of disturbance and productivity on biodiversity patterns in riparian corridors, the influence of beaver habitat on Coho smolt production and ecosystem function, the historical patterns of riparian forest conditions in the Pacific Northwest, and the importance of riparian forest to maintain stream habitat. Dr. Pollock will be speaking to us about his current research on the use of BIOJAMS — Working with beavers to restore salmon habitat.

How much do you wish you could be there? I’m just thrilled that all those students and professors will be inspired by the beaver gospel delivered by the very best teacher. We sent Michael a beaver tie after they were donated to us for the auction one year. I wrote him that this would be an excellent time to wear it.

Saved by the beaver

heidi08 Beaver Chewing, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Urban beavers, Who's saving beavers now? October 13, 2017

Yesterday and last night were not as bad as they feared. There was even a FB update from Safari West at 8:30 pm saying they spent the day feeding the animals and shoring up defenses. I can’t imagine how they’re survived because on the Cal-fire map there is just a huge red cloud from Healsburg to Santa Rosa. But somehow they persisted. The parts of Napa that were expecting to be told to evacuate didn’t have to because the fire turned a little. Which means our Tulocay beavers are okay. I read a story this morning about a 70 year old couple from Santa Rosa that survived by submerging for 6 hours in their neighbor’s pool while everything burned around them – hiding like beavers below the water until they needed to breathe. They made it through the night and are miraculously not among the 31 dead.

Speaking of beavers and resilience I wanted to share the wonderful letter I received Monday from Judy in Port Moody BC. .

Hello from Canada

I am writing from Port Moody, British Columbia, and I have been following your website for years. I am a member, and former board member, of The Fur Bearer Defenders. Last year two beavers moved into a creek just a few minutes from our home and I have been dedicated to making sure this family survives.

Pigeon Creek is a small stream located in the middle of the Klahanie development on Murray Street, Port Moody. The creek is part of a green easement that runs between two low rise condominiums. The population of Klahanie is about 2000.

The creek was originally landscaped by Polygon development but has slowly been overgrown by several invasive species including Japanese knotweed, Himalayan blackberry and some smaller plants such as bittersweet nightshade. However there is still a preponderance of Dogwood, Willow, Aspen and a large stand of mature Cottonwood trees.

In November, 2016, my husband, Jim, and I discovered the start of a small beaver dam. We are familiar with the activities of beavers because Jim has volunteered to help Adrian Nelson, the wildlife conflict specialist with The Fur Bearers, install beaver flow devices throughout the lower mainland and up along the Sunshine Coast to help mitigate the effects of flooding from beaver activities.

You can imagine how hooked and fascinated I was at this point. A knowledgeable beaver advocate in the making! With a husband who helped Adrian install flow devices! And who had followed our website for years! Be still my heart.

We soon spotted what appeared to be two juvenile beavers working to dam a portion of the creek. The work continued throughout the winter and the two beavers seemed to become more comfortable in their new environment and were seen by the residents on a more regular basis.

By April we were only seeing one beaver and assumed, rightly as it turned out, that the female may have been pregnant. During gestation the male built a separate bank den.

During this time I was approached by the new General Manager for the Environment with the city of Port Moody, who told me she wanted to relocate the beavers. I knew that the province of British Columbia was not issuing relocation permits and that her intention was to trap and kill the beavers. Adrian Nelson, Jim and I met with her and convinced her to take a different approach and manage the beavers “in place”.

Although we have an understanding with this General Manager, I am cautious and am taking every step to ensure that these beavers remain undisturbed. It has been very stressful for me because she has given me misinformation about the beavers that has led me to believe she is not knowledgeable about them.

Oh, yes the old “We want to relocate these beavers” trick. If we’ve heard it once we’ve heard it a thousand times. ‘You’re puppy went to live on the farm’. It’s a fairly common ploy (or maybe not a ploy). Maybe folks really think it’s possible until they start making the phone calls and then they just let the story cover their tracks.

We finally got the first glimpse of the two new kits, late in the summer, when they were about 8 weeks old, now weaned and starting to eat leaves.

What I find so remarkable about this entire storyline is how the residents of Klahanie have responded to this new family in their midst. We have a community face book page here, for residents only, and people are constantly posting pictures, videos, drawings and even hosting contests to name the beavers. The male is named “Brewster” and the two kits are called “Woody” and “Chip”.

Jim and I have been wrapping trees to protect them from beaver damage, tracking what they are eating and I am providing educational posts on the face book page. I have invited a local biologist to give an evening Wildlife Talk and we had a good turn out for that event.

I would never have guessed, when we first spotted the beaver dam, that this pair of beavers would turn out to be such an attraction in our community. Every day there are people who come to watch for the beavers and the easy viewing location and accessibility provides everyone with a window into the lives of these animals. Beavers are not common in Port Moody and this is the first one in the city for almost a decade. Our viewing area is similar to yours, a pedestrian walkway on the bridge over the creek.

My very favorite parts are in bold because I just LOVE the idea of beavers enlivening and educating the community and attracting attention. Just like they did in Martinez. Urban wildlife helps neighbors talk to each other. Especially beavers. It’s as simple as that.

I am including a link to a new you tube video that a resident of Port Moody just made about our beavers.

Turn your sound up for this, the train reminds me so much of Martinez!

Judy! We are so impressed by your letter and heartfelt interest in these beavers. We love the video. We think those beavers are enormously lucky to have you and your husband in their corner. Communities that watch beavers are the best kind of protection against over-eager general managers. I wrote her yesterday with lots of ideas and this website has a host of resources for folks wanting to keep beavers safe and energize the public. I also suggested she might want to sign up for the webinar I’ll be giving this month about how Martinez saved our beavers, and I’ll say more about that later.

Thanks Judy for writing and telling us this fantastic story.

Skipping to the rescue

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Fire Prevention, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? October 12, 2017

Well, the wine country fires are nearly as deadly as the Oakland Hills fires now, and have taken more homes and plenty more acreage. The entire town of Calistoga was evacuated last night and the two massive sidewalls of fire around Napa are probably going to meet up today, which is terrible news for our friends and the Tulocay beavers. To top it all off Cal-fire just announced a red flag warning for much of the entire state, which means the whole thing will get worse before it gets better.

(I was vaguely remembering this morning how much people said they hated 2016, but they are going to remember it with fondness after this horrible year.)

The good news is that we heard from Rusty Cohn of Napa yesterday who is not missing but on vacation. We also heard from Susan Kirks of PLAN who said that Petaluma is terrified but holding steady. And our plucky little Martinez beavers have decided to forge ahead and rebuild one of the dams that were recently ripped out. Since there is fresh mud on the smallest dam, we can assume they must have repaired the larger too, even though we can’t see it. So we will take heart from their resilient spirits and fiddle on while Rome burns.

How one man tricked beavers and saved them — and roads — in the process

Knee-deep in muddy water, Skip Lisle wrestled with a metal fence, a key component of his invention, the Beaver Deceiver. On the morning of Sept. 29, deep in the woods of northeast Maine, Lisle pieced together the simple, durable device that he designed with one goal: trick the beavers, and in doing so, save the beavers.

Constructed on the upstream end of a road culvert, the device would prevent beavers from damming up the culvert and flooding the gravel road, something that is extremely common problem throughout the state.

“You hear about beavers being industrious and loving to work,” Lisle said. “That’s a myth. They’ll always choose the easiest damming site.”

Where humans see a gravel road with a culvert in it, beavers see a dirt dam with a tiny hole in it. As water rushes through the culvert, it calls to these natural builders, and their instinct is to “repair the dam,” block the culvert with sticks and mud so the area will flood, expanding their habitat. It’s what beavers do … unless you can somehow stop them.

That’s where the Beaver Deceiver comes in.

Maine is really a hotspot of beaver IQ at the moment. In the past two years I’ve covered stories as progressive as I’ve ever seen, and several that are equally backward – with hunting and trapping listed as the only solution. There is clearly some controversy going on there. But I’m hopeful with articles like these that beaver attitudes are moving in a good direction.

Growing up in rural Vermont in the 1970s, Lisle witnessed how beavers can rapidly change a landscape to benefit many other species of wildlife. On his family’s land, beavers constructed a dam across a waterway, creating a pond that expanded over the years, attracting a wide variety of animals to his backyard.

“There were so many animals using it, different species, and that stuck with me my whole life,” Lisle said.

When Lisle was bout 15 years old, the local beavers started damming up a culvert on a town road that ran through his family’s land. He realized that he needed to stop them or the road would soon be flooded. If someone else took action, the beavers would likely be killed. So he took charge and got creative.

“I actually stole some of my father’s old garden fence,” Lisle said, “and just built a crude fence in the culvert. And that’s when it all began.”

Constructing a fence around a culvert is the first step in building what Lisle would later call a Beaver Deceiver. But that invention was years in the making.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in geography from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, Lisle worked for ten years in construction, mainly doing painting and carpentry work. He then returned to school to earn a master’s degree in wildlife management from University of Maine in Orono. His thesis was on beavers, and more specifically, the wetland habitats they create.

“[Wildlife management] has always been my calling,” Lisle said. “I just didn’t answer it at first.”

Ahhh Skip! What a great article about a great man with a vision. Thanks for giving Maine such a lovely view of how and why to do this. And thanks for being our hero when we needed it. If folks need proof that it works, give us a call. Martinez was happy to function as a ‘test case’.

Now there are two more fantastic beaver stories on my waiting list I’m eager to get to. Assuming I’m not too stricken by fire-grief tomorrow to do my job, tune in for a great story of saving urban beavers in Port Moody BC.