NINETEEN DAYS

heidi08 Beavers June 5, 2023

NO PHOTOS this morning!

What will we ever do to cope with the loss? I have forgotten how to fill this vast empty page without adorable kit-carry photos. Haven’t you?

All I have are horrors. Like the beaver festival is nineteen days away. We still have to get the brochure finished and to the printer and gather items for the silent auction. Jean walked the neighborhood yesterday to alert them of the coming inconvenience as required by the city and tomorrow there is a meeting with Park staff and EBRP to see about getting the mobile fish tank set up and filled up for the event. And I’m supposed to present on how and why to start beaver festivals to the working groups of the beaver institute.

Please remind me why again.

MORE BEAVER BACK RIDES

Oh and if that’s not surprising enough for you and you can’t imagine what’s fun to do after June, here’s something to look forward to besides my birthday!

Planing a long lunch hour on Sept 13th and 20th because the middle states are about to get a belly full of beavers. Thanks to Rachel Siegal and her posse.It looks to be a pretty terrific lineup. The first day starts with Ben Goldfarb and launches into Emily Fairfax. The second day sees Michael Pollock talking trout to JUST the right places where they’re still blowing up beaver dams.

I am so impressed that this is happening and that the beaver message is rolling across the country. First with New Mexico that wanted to do what Utah did with Mary Obrien’s help, and only went virtual because of Covid and then with us in California that thought hey covid why NOT get people to talk about beavers which lead to the funding that paid for the lobbyist that triggered the big changes at CDFW then Colorado and now the midwest! We are all riding on the shoulders of greatness!

RIDE BEAVER, RIDE

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers June 3, 2023

Is there anything cuter in all the world? No I don’t believe there is. I don’t blame Rusty for spending every possible moment at the pond trying to capture it. There are only three days all year when this is possible.

Three days to lift hearts and change the world.

That weightless, breathless feeling as you peer around corners looking for that little pulse of movement. Ah yes, I remember it well. That rush of electricity when you realize you captured a beaver endearing moment and try to resist the impulse to check your camera so that you don’t possibly miss the next one.

Nothing defines beavers better than this first kindness to their young, where they fully seem to comprehend the complicated world they want their children to be able to face. They understand the full complexities of water and want their young to be able to move through it, over it, under it. They practice their entrance and exit over and over again until the kit is ready to do it himself.

Thanks for the golden memories, Rusty. To paraphrase a better writer than I,

“All the world’s a pond and all the men and women

in it merely beavers.”

JUNE IS FOR KITS!

heidi08 Beavers June 2, 2023

Rusty Cohn transported my heart and happiness and took a visit to the North pond in Napa last night. Guess what he found? Click on any photo for a closer look.

I guess it really is June after all!

I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy.

CDFW can have all the zoom meetings and public input and share holder sessions they like and the governor can write policy and the fisheries can argue about salmon vs whirling disease and the new rules for depredation policy can be outlined and revised but meanwhile beavers are marching on without any input at alt: without authorization, without funding, without interspecies input. without more research on nativity, without translocation, without scientific papers or peer review,.

Beavers are doing it themselves.

AN OLD FRIEND FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beavers, Flow Device Installed June 1, 2023

It was nice to see Martinez’ swarthy hero on the teevee this morning, doing what he loves best. Hurray for Bolton, Vermont which has solved a problem instead of trapping it! I can’t embed the video but if you click on the image you will go directly to watch the report. Say Hi to Skip when you do.

Bolton installs beaver device to protect trails

BOLTON, Vt. (WCAX) – The town of Bolton is working to battle beaver issues.

A public trail runs along Preston’s Pond in the Bolton Town Forest and beavers are building dams that occasionally flood the trail.

Crews Wednesday built and installed a Beaver Deceiver. The device controls the flow of the water so when it gets too high, it will drain while keeping the trail from flooding.

“For me, I’m just trying to keep live beavers in ecosystems. I’m trying to help people solve annoying problems — so, it’s the same everywhere in the world,” said Skip Lisle, who designed the device.

“It’s better to have a wetland here than a pasture, so that value you get, and you get to keep it without the trouble of beavers flooding your road or your culvert or whatever, by putting in a device like this,” said Rob Mullin, Bolton’s animal control officer.

The money for this project came from donations.

You bet it’s better to have a wetland than a pasture. Nice work Skip. It was better for Martinez to have a healthy lush creek filled with wildlife than it was to have a drainage ditch filled pollution too.