Wonderful reporting from Canada. I would say Emily’s beaver spiel has definitely improved with use. Much more emphasis on coexistence and you don’t need to move a beaver to benefit from its ecosystem services. Just to be clear, the documentary Emily mentions seeing on PBS called Leave it to Beaver was first made in Canada and called “The Beaver Whisperers” slightly altered to fit audiences and formats. It was the hard work and vision of Jari Osborne. This is why cross pollination is important.

An unlikely ally in the face of wildfires and droughts: the humble beaver

In the face of increasing wildfires and droughts, scientists are looking to a highly skilled “environmental engineer” to help fight climate change: the industrious beaver.

“They build these dams, which slow the water down, they dig canals that spread the water out, and ultimately they just give it time to sink into the earth like a big old sponge,” said Emily Fairfax, an assistant professor of environmental science and resource management at California State University Channel Islands.

“Whenever you have a drought or a flood or a fire, it’s a much more resilient system to that disturbance,” she told The Current’s guest host Nahlah Ayed. 

Fairfax co-authored a research paper calling beavers a key part of a climate action plan for North America, and calling for greater efforts at co-existence and repopulation in specific regions. The paper was published in the journal WIREs Water in April. 

Beavers are the new shiny thing and we’re getting closer to the right messages out there. We still have a long way to go. Let’s keep it up.

Because I entered my doctoral program with a masters degree I had the opportunity to waive a year of classes by taking massive comprehensive exams. It was five monumental tests over two surreal days. It required months of review and the few of us who attempted it worked in groups one subject at a time. I had never faced anything like it. It was the kind of exam where you went at night to review your score on the wall to see if you passed or failed. It was terrifying. And no one I ever met had passed all five.

The night before my first exam I had a nightmare that I was in my most difficult class and there was some unknown demon growling outside the closed door. The five students beside me were frozen in terror and the instructor pointed at me to open it. I could not refuse. I remember standing with difficulty in the dream and balling my hands into fists that felt absurdly weak before pulling it open to face the threat.

Sometimes we all feel unequipped in life, Others are smarter or faster or more beautiful than we are. Looking around at what others have to offer can make us feel inadequate, unprepared and not up to the job. It doesn’t matter how small you feel. There is work to be done. That’s what I knew when I opened that door. It doesn’t matter how weak you are.  Roll up your sleeves and do it anyway.

When I flung open the door I thankfully woke up and went on to pass all five. I remember that as I see this and think of what D, H, Lawrence said. “I never saw a wild creature sorry for itself”