WINTER SOLSTICE AND THE BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers and weather December 22, 2021

Shortest Day and Longest Night.
Something tells me that tonight is a beaver’s favorite day of the entire year. The longest night in which to feed,forage, swim, sunk their hrother’s and mess around with the dam. Add to that that all the trappers are probably safely ensconced in their warm homes drinking eggnog and bragging about their glory days AND that it’s just about mating season and soon time for the teenagers to leave. Yup this must be the very best time to be a beaver. It’s a pretty fine time to be a human too.

Happy Solstice: Welcome Yule! (more…)

WE’RE NOT OVER-HARVESTING. YOU’RE UNDER-TREEING!

heidi08 Beaver Chewing December 21, 2021

There is hardly a thing not to like about this article from Kootenay British Columbia. Located just above Idaho they are using students to wrap and protect cotton woods which is way better than trapping beavers.

Ecological Comment: The relationship between cottonwoods and beavers in Kootenay ecosystem

Not only are beavers our national animal, the largest rodent in North America, and skilled builders, they are a keystone species. A keystone species is a living thing that fills an essential role in their ecosystem that no other species can.

Our friendly beavers are ecosystem engineers and one of the only mammals capable of changing a habitat. The trees that beavers fall to construct their dams and lodges are also a source of food for them. Unfortunately, this practice has impacted populations of young cottonwoods negatively in out river (riparian) systems. (more…)

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES WITH A DOLLAR VALUE

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact December 20, 2021

Did this actually slip by me in October? If not it’s worth talking about again Never mind that people from YALE cannot tell the difference between a photo of a nutria and a photo of a beaver. I won’t share it here. The writing is very very good. And I’ll definitely share that.

Busy beavers: Calculating the value of ecosystems services provided by beavers.

There are two species that have fundamentally changed rivers in the United States: humans and beavers. Beavers are an integral force in shaping the ecosystems around them. Their dams may not look like more than an impressive mound of gnawed sticks, twigs, and logs, but in reality, they provide a long list of benefits to both their immediate surroundings and to humans downstream. (more…)

LILY SEIKA JONES: THE WORLD IN A GRAIN OF SAND

heidi08 Beaver Art December 18, 2021

The wonder that is Myrna Hayes (of flyway festival fame) shared this with me on facebook. Not sure if she is currently in seattle or BC but very compelling either way. If you want to see more of her fantastical artwork check out her Instagram. Rivulet Papers. Her Etsy shop of the same name will reopen next year.

Lily Seika Jones

Freelance illustrator based in Seattle, WA

I can’t rightly tell if that is a beaver or a muskrat to the right, but I love it either way. Here are a few more of her delights. These little guys are definitely muskrats, Here is what I was able to find about her:

Lily Seika Jones is a full-time artist/illustrator currently working out of Vancouver, Canada. She spends the majority of her time drinking tea indoors while creating highly detailed, whimsical watercolor and ink paintings, taking inspiration from her favourite childhood stories and mid-century illustrators, as well as the natural world of the Pacific Northwest. Lily is interested in how myths and fairytales shape our childhood and the world around us, and sees her art-making as an exploration of the significance of these stories as we grow up.

Something tells me she’s liable to get a letter from a friendly beaver woman very soon. Don’t you think?

Lily Seika Jones

POIKILOHYDRIC: WHEN YOU CAN’T BE A BEAVER

heidi08 Beaver Book December 17, 2021

Yesterday a glorious accident befell me and I came across this stunning interview with Robin Wall Kimmerer . She is a member of the Potawatomi First Nation, the author of “Braiding Sweet Grass” and a distinguished professor at the Cuny University of New York in Syracuse.

The word Poikilohydric is one she taught me in this interview when she discussed the wonder of small mosses that are able to use their abundance when water is present to flourish and multiply and then disappear when resources evaporate and wait until it’s time for them to come back. She used it as a metaphor with her students about coping with the pandemic,

“Okay, I can do this for now, and when the time is right I will flourish again”.

I wish I could find a way to post the audio of the interview directly but you will just have to click on the headline to listen for yourself. It’s a stunning interview. And I can’t think of a single thing that would be better for you to hear this morning,

Why is the world so beautiful? An Indigenous botanist on the spirit of life in everything

“What would moss do?”

Robin Wall Kimmerer posed the question to her forest biology students at the State University of New York, in their final class in March 2020, before the pandemic sent everyone home.

The answer was at least as useful as anything to be found in the glut of ‘how to survive COVID’ stories that would follow over the next nine months:

- Give more than you take;

- Be patient when resources are scarce;

- Find creative ways to use what you have.

“Mosses have this ability, rather than demanding a lot from the world, they’re very creative in using what they have, rather than reaching for what they don’t have,” Kimmerer told Tapestry.

“When there are limits, the mosses say, ‘Let’s be quiet for a while. Abundance, openness, water, will return. We’ll wait this out.'”

I guess mosses are the opposite of beavers. They cannot engineer anything, They cannot shape their world. But I think that must be how life is. Sometimes you are a beaver that can work hard and create your own ecosystem that provides what you need and even provides enough for others…

And sometimes you just have to be Poikilohydric and wait.