Today is the day when Leila Philip’s book officially goes on sale so hop on to your local bookstore and pick up a copy. She did a nice launch yesterday on this newscast. I predict we’re going to be reading and hearing a lot about the book in the coming days.
Leila Philip, professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, and the author of the forthcoming book Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America, explains to Moore In The Morning how beavers could be North America’s secret weapon against the climate crisis.
The city of Rocklin has a pretty terrible track record with beavers, but still found itself faced with an unwilling beaver heroine as it heads into the final stages of excavating its remaining wetlands to make room for a monstrosity of a housing unit opposite Sierra College. Laurie Rindell has been filming and photographing these beavers and talking to neighbors and doggedly reading planning documents and writing engineers as they ruin one of the last wild spaces left in Rocklin. It’s a grim job. She didn’t ask for it. And I feel a strong combination of beaver solidarity and deja vu whenever we chat about it to plan or console.
But I didn’t expect this.
Yesterday a package arrived for me in the mail wrapped in brown paper. And I thought, “Oh a christmas gift! That’s nice” and thought maybe it will hold some little beaver trinket or other or maybe a chew and I should thank her. Then I turned it sideways and saw she sketched this on the side of the box:
Beaver drawing by Laurie Rindell
I was blown away by the artistry, the accuracy, the waterline and the potential. I could immediately imagine this on our ceiling, like the Sistine Chapel or as a watercolor flag with children filling in all the fishes below and the dragonflies and birds above. I could see this as a bookmark. A tattoo. Letterhead. I love it. Love it. LOVE IT.
I still have no idea what’s in side the package but I strongly doubt it could ever EVER be as lovely as what’s outside it. Thanks Laurie.
Well, give it up for Brampton Canada, a suburb of Ontario and located mercifully close to actual beaver wisdom. They are taking this finding wonderfully in stride.
No, it’s not an alligator floating in the pond behind your house.
Brampton councillor Rowena Santos has been getting calls about one of Canada’s iconic animals taking up residence in local storm water management ponds in the city. The humble beaver, it appears, is making its way into Brampton and enjoying the swampy, sheltered digs around local subdivisions.
“We’re starting to get a beaver issue,” Santos said at a special council meeting on Nov. 16.
She said that from her understanding, beavers were coming downstream from Caledon and making homes in Brampton storm water ponds.She said the province has legislation for managing beavers in northern Ontario, but not in urban areas.
According to Credit Valley Conservation, beavers like storm water management ponds.
“Stormwater management ponds provide suitable habitats for beavers especially when built next to their natural stream and wetland habitats,” said Scott Sampson, manager, Natural Heritage Management at Credit Valley Conservation.
Okay so here’s where the usual article recommends trapping and says that beavers are aggressive and can cause beaver fever. Are you going to do that?
He said beavers are important for healthy ecosystems. When they build dams, it creates a wetland habitat for countless other important species such as fish, birds and amphibians.
“As such, CVC recognizes that beavers help restore, maintain, and enhance ecosystem health, diversity, and resilience in the Credit River Watershed,” Sampson said.
Beaver management is the responsibility of the landowner, in this case, the City of Brampton. The CVC has spoken to the City on a number of occasions about beavers and have a few suggestions. One is to build fencing and install beaver guards on trees and shrubs. The CVC also suggests pond levellers, which are pipes that keep water flowing through past the dams. Levellers have already been installed at some ponds, one being at Steeles Avenue and Creditview Road.
The item was referred to the Dec. 7 council meeting to talk about possible solutions.
Apparently this squeaky little voice casts a bit of a shadow in Beaver World because yesterday the PBS program above the noise posted this on their FB feed:
Hey folks! (Heidi Perryman ) caught a mistake in our latest episode (https://youtu.be/juFtc_xAjKY). The animal we show 35 seconds in is NOT in fact a BEAVER – castor canadensis (North America) and castor fiber (Eurasia) – but a NUTRIA (myocastor coypus). They are both semiaquatic rodents, but any other similarities are superficial.Media literacy lesson: stock footage companies sometimes label their content incorrectly, allowing misinformation to spread via unknowing creators like us who didn’t realize there was no way that rodent looks like an actual beaver!And worse, nutria rats are not at all superheroes when it comes to climate change – they are, in fact, an invasive species primarily located in South America that damages ecosystems through their destructive burrowing and eating habits – and they often spread diseases to humans and other animals through water contamination. So…OOPS! We apologize for this error and we’re working on how best to correct it. But hey, we learned to always FACT CHECK YOUR IMAGES and not to trust those spiny-tailed nutria rats!
Spiny tailed Rats? Only live in South America?
Shhhh just be happy they say they’re going to change it and just shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,,,
In his much more neighborly way, Jon posted our lovely Christmas lights this week and everyone was admiring them as they lined up for the Christmas parade at city hall. In fact when he moved the car an entire family was gathered around gazing with a mesmerized little girl in their midst who said breathlessly as Jon approached,
“NICE BEAVER!”
And of course everyone burst out laughing as you might expect but it IS in fact very, very nice.
Well that’s a mystery for you. I pride myself on being able to identify WRU (Wrong Rodent Use) in photos accompanying beaver stories. But this clever video from PBS Above the Noise teen educational series has me stumped. I even wrote them and said whatever mysterious animal that was it wasn’t a beaver. And they wrote back and said, whoops!
“Good call! Probably a capybara!”
Which is even funnier, because how many capybaras do you know with white whiskers and pink noses?
Anyway the rest of the video is well done and stars our friend Emily Fairfax, it makes sense and is worth sharing.
Maybe it’s a pet. Like a hamster. Hmm. I think I’ll name him “peeve”.
Leila Philip, professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, and the author of the forthcoming book Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America, explains to Moore In The Morning how beavers could be North America’s secret weapon against the climate crisis.
