Back on my very own computer and my very own wifi, I may never stop talking at all this morning. Certainly there’s very good news on the beaver front. This week I found out that we received three of the four grant applications i made. The fourth we are still waiting on. The CCC board of supervisors met this week and decided to award our fish and wildlife grant for the treasure hunt at the festival, and the Martinez community  foundation is once again funding our art project. Fingers crossed we will hear good news from the city soon which, adding the grant from Kiwanis, will bring us to a full three thousand for the festival and with proceeds from the silent auction should allow us to break even for the event.

There’s some scattered good news from other states as well, including this report from Colorado.

Boulder County, city of Boulder analyzing best streams for beaver restoration as ecological health boost

Researchers over the past two years have been looking for the best spots to potentially reintroduce beavers into streams on Boulder County and city of Boulder public open spaces.

The county and municipal open space programs spent $10,000 apiece to fund a study led by Colorado State University researchers Ellen Wohl and Julianne Scamardo to help identify stretches of streams most able to successfully host beaver, if one or a family were to be placed in the given area.

“We awarded (the funding) to them because of our interest in beaver restoration and ecological restoration using beaver,” Boulder County Parks and Open Space Biologist Mac Kobza said, noting habitat for other animals and whole riparian ecosystems can be enhanced by the ponds resulting from beaver damming.

“Where beaver go in they tend to increase the biodiversity. Native species benefit from that, from trout, to native insects that live in the water to other native species,” he said.

Not only is Boulder investing money in reintroducing beavers to study, they’re even considering city open space locations! Be still my heart! Dr. Wohl is a powerful beaver force that often gets overlooked in the summation of how we know beavers matter. Her research has made much of the conversation were having today.

Yet, water storage across this thirsty state could actually be improved by the beaver’s tree-felling and damming habits, authors of a Colorado Sierra Club report argue, citing studies suggesting as much.

“Potentially the easiest, cheapest way to accomplish this end is to allow nature to regenerate where practicable to its previous state with the mighty ecosystem engineer, the American beaver, breaking the trail,” the Sierra Club writers stated.

What an awesome start to a study. I can’t wait to read all about it. Apparently Julianne Scarmado has the oral defense of her dissertation on monday, I for one can’t wait to read all about it. Good luck!

Speaking of Colorado and great minds, guess who finished her Ph.D. from CSU Boulder landed an excellent job as Assistant Professor in Environmental Resource Management at California State Channel Islands! I guess her explanatory stop motion video was a big success because this is that state where she wanted to end up.

So of course Dr. Emily Fairfax celebrated in the usual way.

California is lucky to have you in our state, yet another brilliant beaver researcher added to our ranks, I eagerly await great things.

One final bit of wonder I’ve been saving to share with you comes from Helen McCaulley, the seasonal ecologist from Scotland who patiently filmed this classic moment watching the Tay beavers. Make sure you watch until the end so you can see the pond maker reminding the otter just whose neighborhood he’s in.