Maybe it’s just me. But do you sometimes get the feeling that the entire state of Colorado is just trolling us? Showing off with their big mountains and lovely vistas and crystal waters?
I am definitely having that feeling now based on the chat I had this week with Nicole Fox of “Give A Dam” who is putting together the first ever Beaver festival for this summer in Rotary Park.
Give A Dam is thrilled to announce Durango’s first-ever Beaver Festival, June 14th, 2025, at Rotary park in Durango, Co centered around the theme “When We Partner With Nature, Everyone Wins.” This exciting event will bring
together many diverse organizations to highlight the numerous benefits of beavers and showcase the innovative 
work being done locally to maintain and restore our watersheds. By partnering with nature’s most skilled water engineers—beavers—we can enhance water quality, recharge our water table, reduce flood risks, create fire resiliency, and support biodiversity.
The festival will serve as an educational platform to raise awareness of how beavers contribute to healthier ecosystems and sustainable water management. Local conservation efforts, beaver habitat restoration projects, and successful partnerships between communities and beavers will be featured throughout the day. Families, children, and other attendees will have the opportunity to engage with experts to learn about the science behind beaver ecology, and explore how supporting these remarkable creatures can create long-term environmental benefits.
By joining together to celebrate the incredible role of beavers in our watersheds, the Beaver Festival will demonstrate that when we partner with nature, everyone—from wildlife to local communities—wins!
Mind you Rotary park is right along the beautiful Animas river where actual beavers live because (Not to sound bitter mind you) of COURSE it is. With parking and restrooms and paved pathways. Plus a big beautiful Gazebo for the band that is so pretty people get married there, because of course they do. And cherry on top chef’s kiss this is a park where founding parents Sherrie Tippie and Skip Lisle actually intalled a flow device many years ago.
Because of COURSE it is.
I tried to be helpful and offer suggestions about using portable audio for tours and how to make picket signs and using the word “neighborhoods” instead of “Communities” for childears. But honestly all I can think of when I look at this is that for ten years our trashy beaver park used to get called “BUM PARK” by the nice ladies in recreation and my one presentation to Rotary left me permanently scared with Janet yelled at me for not being nicer to the city and the lesbian pastor advised later I should to be “More Forgiving”. Overall the city treated us with such affection that one year they actually ripped out the paved trails and streets around the park the DAY BEFORE THE FESTIVAL without telling us.
Ahh those were the days!
But hey. That’s blood under the bridge. And so what if Worth A Dam cut its teeth on serrated steel. Give a Dam is headed for beautiful times. And that is great news. Another beaver festival in the world. Have a wonderful festival Durango! Send us lots of photos!
