NPR SAYS BEAVERS CONTROL OUR FATE

heidi08 Beavers February 3, 2023

Leila Philip’s book earns a fine review on NPR and beaver benefits are well extolled. Of course there is the usual discussion of beavers being “weird rodents” which continues to jar me every time and makes me bristle to the ends of my tail. What’s weird looking about beavers? I demand as I suddenly turn into a 7 year old boy on the playground. I’ll tell you what’s weird, OTTERS! They’re all slinky like they hardly have any bones or anything. That’s weird,

Beavers aren’t weird. Hrmph.

In ‘Beaverland,’ Leila Philip credits the beaver with building America

Journalist Leila Philip first became interested in beavers when she saw a group of rodents building a pond near her house. Her fascination with what they were doing led her to research and report her new book, Beaverland, which takes a closer look at the animals’ impact on North America, from the earliest transatlantic beaver fur trade to today’s river restoration efforts. Philip spoke with NPR’s Michel Martin about how learning their long history on our continent can highlight beavers’ ongoing economic and environmental contributions, especially when it comes to water conservation.

But maybe I should stop attacking the word weird and actually start thinking about its origins. Did you know that weird comes from the old english word WYRD which literally means fate. The three weird/wierd sisters controlled the fates of human life When you were born, how long you lived, when and how you died,. The first spun out the thread of life, the second wove it with other lives, and the merciless third cut it at the end. From the old german wert which litterally meant to turn or to wind.

Clotho, the youngest of the sisters, presided over the moment in which we are born, and held a distaff in her hand; Lachesis spun out all the events and actions of our life; and Atropos, the eldest of the three, cut the thread of human life with a pair of scissors.

Weird meant “uncanny” and “supernatural”. In the 1400’s calling something weird literally meant

“having the ability to control fate“.

which if you think about it, makes it pretty entirely appropriate for any animal that can turn a pond into a wetland and make a desert spring into an oasis and change an urban trickle into a vibrant ecosystem.

BEAVER TRAPPING ON FEDERAL LANDS

Last night I heard from retired USDA hydrologist Suzanne Fouty that she was working with Adam Bronstein of Western Watersheds Project on the final touches of a letter to president Biden asking him to officially prevent beaver trapping on federal public lands as part of the climate change and biodiversity crisis response. They need support from non profits and professionals to sign on. You can read the letter here, and sign on below.

Dear Potential Signatories,

A coalition of non-profit organizations, scientists and concerned citizens has drafted this letter (also attached to this email) to President Biden asking his administration to issue an executive order banning hunting and trapping of beaver (with limited exceptions) on federally-managed public lands as an emergency climate change response.

Beavers are ecosystem engineers that create rich wetlands offering us an important nature-based remedy for carbon drawdown. In addition to climate benefits, beaver dams and meadows provide vital ecosystem services such as water storage and filtration, natural firebreaks, and fish and wildlife habitat.

State fish and game agencies have failed to sufficiently protect beaver across the country. Banning beaver hunting and trapping is the one single factor that we can control to help their populations grow and recover. The urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises now calls for bold action at the executive level of government.

Sign-on Disclaimer: University and agency affiliations will be listed on the letter for informational purposes only to indicate the credentials of the cosigners.

If you represent an organization or are a scientist and would like to sign on to this letter, please fill out the form linked below by 2/17

Beaver Letter Sign-on Form

Please forward this sign-on opportunity with your networks.

Sincerely,

Adam Bronstein
Oregon/Nevada Director
Western Watersheds Project

Suzanne Fouty, PhD
Hydrologist/Soils Specialist
retired USDA Forest Service

You can read the entire well-written letter here and please share with your contacts.

Biden Beaver Letter

THE OLD NATURE VS. NUTRIA CONUNDRUM

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, mistaken identities February 1, 2023

I was rooting about looking for beaver photos the other day, the way I’m wont to do, and was surprised to stumble on the pbs “FACT” page for beavers, released in 2021. It talks about their diet and their life span and all the scientific names associated with their genus, The source is the Smithsonian. And what else do you suppose they had on their FACT page? Alongside the nice sleek photos of beavers?

After my years of psychological training, I of course recognized at once we were back in the age old NATURE vs NUTRIA debate again.

The very notion that this is the FACT sheet for beavers from the revered public broadcasting network that informed so many of us over the years and yet cannot tell the difference between two entirely different species breaks my heart into pieces. I loved Jari Osborne’s documentary that taught so many so much and really jump started the entire conversation. This post is released 9 years later and is not anything to do with the series but still is linked to the website and the whole thing greatly depresses me.

Is this an “Alternative facts” sheet?

PBS sustained me as a child, and growing up. Long before there was an internet to search from my home for answers I had to go to the actual library and look things up. The encylopedias could only get you so far… In the Library there were card catalogs and round stools that rolled and lots of whispering. I can actually remember how the room smelled. But libraries aren’t always open and you can’t always go and check facts in the middle of the night or whenever you want like we do now on our phones.

In fact one of the worst things I ever did as a young child was lie to my older sister that my mom had given me permission to come with her to the library when in fact I was told the exact opposite the moment before. It was a fine summer evening and after her refusal I promptly sneaked outside ostensibly to “walk the puppy” whereupon the poor confused yellow pup was swiftly dumped it in the garage and I the young criminal ran off after my sister telling her gaily that mom said I could come too. And since the teen didn’t know I had been forbidden, and thought she had once again been burdened with me, off we went.

To the LIBRARY. The destination of my first real crime. Where giddy with freedom I stayed and poured through pages until it was dark and closing so that when we came home after streetlights my mother was crazy with worry on the streets calling my name and wondering where her 5 year old was.

And I say now all of that could ugliness have been avoided, officer, if the internet had just been invented and I would have been able to surf through it and find stories or misleading incorrect information on a public broadcasting blog that showed me pretend photos of beavers from the privacy of my own home.

Was I just in fact a bad seed? Or was my environment lacking something essential?

Honestly. I was very sad to find the photographic error but honestly, the pun sustained me in my hour of need. I may have paid for my library crime like Max did with his wild things, apologized to my mother and my sister and eventually received a Ph.D. in child psychology but here it was once again:

The old Nature Vs. Nutria conundrum.