The Yampa Valley in Colorado is about to put Martinez to shame.  I guess we should not be surprised. Colorado had the last beaverCon and is the home of Ben Goldfarb and Sherri Tippie.

Can you be impressed and jealous at the same time? I sure was reading this.

Community experts eager to educate about beavers

The education series this winter circles around the One Book Steamboat reading choice for 2025 called “Eager: The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter” written by award-winning environmental journalist and Salida resident Ben Goldfarb.

According to the Colorado Beaver Working Group, the beaver is a keystone species that plays a critical role in holding together ecosystems because the large rodents are engineers that build dams that raise water levels, slow water speed and change water direction.

“Beaver ponds and wetlands are biodiversity hotspots hosting many species including freshwater fish, aquatic mammals, waterfowl, migratory birds, shorebirds, amphibians, reptiles, plants and invertebrates,” according to the working group.

Okay that sounds great. I’m super excited. But tell me about “Changing water direction” How does that happen exactly? Do beavers change gravity? That’s fantastic! I had no idea!

Wildlife Biologist Jeremiah Psiropoulos from the Routt National Forest office in Steamboat Springs said beavers have been engineering the Yampa Valley for many years with dam building and tree felling that create wet meadows and riparian corridors that host a myriad of species.

“Whether your interactions with beavers are positive or negative – a destructive nuisance depriving your fields of water, or the excitement of a fleeting encounter in a high mountain stream – they are a creature that demand our respect,” Psiropoulos said

The library staff are encouraging readers to request a copy of “Eager,” which is available in print, digital and audio formats. The library staff is promoting the viewing of the short film “Beavers in Paradise” that shows beavers as they make a comeback in London through a community-urban beaver project.

That’s nice. I’d love to see that film too. Sounds like my kind of viewing. Here’s my favorite part.

Librarians created a new outdoor Story Walk that features the children’s book “The Lodge that Beaver Built.” The family-friendly walking and reading opportunity is located in intervals along a side path off the Yampa River Core Trail near the Stockbridge Transit Center.

Isn;t that cool? A family beaver trail! Please can someone send me photos? There used to be a cr0ss country ski trail in Kirkwood called the “Beaver dam trail” that long before I ever saw a beaver filled me with excitement!

A Tween Book Club for readers of “Rescue at Lake Wild” is scheduled for 5-6 p.m. Feb. 25 at the library to discuss the adventure book about friends rescuing orphaned beaver kits.

The science talk “NASA and the Beaver Believers” is scheduled for 6:30-7:30 p.m. Feb. 27 in Library Hall featuring a conversation with landscape ecologist Nick Kolarik about using NASA Earth observations to monitor impacts of beaver-related conservation efforts in dryland systems.

Something for everyone. A science talk too for the star lovers. This is such a thoughtful beaver blitz!

A panel of local environmental experts will come together 6:30-8 p.m. March 6 in Library Hall to discuss “Beavers in the Yampa Valley.” Educators from such groups as Community Agriculture Alliance, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, U.S. Forest Service and Friends of the Yampa will discuss beaver encounters, drought resiliency, fire mitigation, biodiversity and co-habitation with beavers across the Yampa Valley.

Readers can register to participate in a community book discussion about “Eager” at 6:30-7:30 p.m. March 12 at the library.

The finale for the educational series and One Book Steamboat 2025 will be an author talk with Goldfarb at 6:30-8 p.m. March 18 at Library Hall. With a master’s degree in environmental management, Goldfarb covers wildlife conservation, marine science and public lands management and has written for such magazines such as Science, National Geographic, Outside, Smithsonian and Audubon.

I am super impressed. Well done steamboat valley folks. Now just tell me when the festival is!

And if you are interested in Beavers in Paradise you can watch it here:

When do you  think they will stop lying about beavers? Not anytime soon I think. Apparently this rehab center believes that all those lonely kits were “rejected” by their parents.

Um…okay. They were “rejected” because their parents and siblings went to live “on the farm”, Like that puppy your parents took to the pound when you were four. Does that make you feel better?

What annoys me is that insipid lies like that along with adorable but unsurprising beaver kit photos fund the rehab facility which instead of teaching people how important beavers are helps the media perpetuate convenient lies about vicious rodents whom occasionally reject a baby which leads to more trapping inevitably and starts the cycle all again.

Sigh.

Just once I wish a rescue center would tell the truth. “We’re raising this kit because Mr. Galter was worried that his basement would flood so he paid his nephew to kill her parents and older siblings rather than install a flow device to fix the problem for real..”

Those crazy beavers. Deliberately confusing people about the difference between dams and lodges. They never give up. You’d think a state like Massachusetts where the founder of the beaver institute lives would be immune. But No. They are just as vulnerable to beaver trickery as the New York Times.

Dog stranded on beaver dam rescued in Longmeadow

The owner called the fire department and crews put on their ice rescue suits to help Ranger. Crews were able to successfully rescue Ranger and returned him to his owner. Besides being cold, Ranger is okay.

With yesterday’s drama and monster academy graduation ceremony you might have missed this fine trickle down in Wyoming where Ben Goldfarb wisdom is still falling out of the sky like  rain. Enjoy.

Beaver believer: How North America’s keystone species shapes our ecosystems

The future of ecological harmony could lie in North America’s largest rodent — if we can learn to coexist with this vital yet challenging species, according to environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb.

Drawing from his 2018 book, “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter,” he explored their history in North America, their potential to combat drought, flooding, wildfires and climate change and how humans and beavers can peacefully coexist across the West.

“Beavers are what scientists call a keystone species, an animal that’s disproportionately supporting lots of weight in their ecosystems,” he said. “In the American West, wetlands cover about 2% of total land area and support around 80% of biodiversity, so any animal that’s capable of building and expanding and maintaining wetlands is really important.”

What I love is the idea that the local journalist is sitting in the front row scribbling notes. That’s why you get the real deal to talk at your event. Accept no substitutes.

Goldfarb highlighted how beavers’ impact reaches far and wide — from supporting species like the boreal toad, which breeds in beaver ponds, to helping juvenile cutthroat trout thrive in the calm waters of beaver habitat. Additionally, their ability to mitigate drought and foster biodiversity makes them indispensable to the environment.

“We know that we’re losing snowpack. You wouldn’t necessarily know it this winter in Montana, but certainly, the trend lines aren’t great,” Goldfarb said. “As we lose that snowpack, which gradually melts throughout spring and summer and fall and keeps water in our streams and irrigation ditches, we need some other way to keep water on the landscape, right? And beavers do that really well.” 

By building thousands of small reservoirs in the high country, beavers create natural water storage systems. These reservoirs slowly release water downstream throughout the summer and fall, helping to sustain ecosystems and support water availability during dry periods, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Contrary to popular belief, Beaver dams also play a crucial role in flood prevention. By holding back and allowing rainwater to spread laterally, they reduce flood energy and help protect downstream properties, Goldfarb said.

“I think it’s worth taking a second to contemplate that duality,” he said. “We’ve got beavers in climate-stressed places like the American West, helping to mitigate drought and then in really wet places like New England or the UK, beavers are mitigating flooding. So the fact that they can tackle those two seemingly opposite problems, I think, is kind of magical.”

Yup. Magical is the word I’d use to describe it too. Excellent.

However, to fully reap the ecological benefits beavers offer, humans — specifically non-Indigenous people — must be willing to coexist with them, Goldfarb said.

“This notion that beavers are helpful is something that western science is rediscovering now, but that Native People have known for a very long time,” he said.

The long history between westerners and beavers has often been one of conflict — beginning with trapping during the North American fur trade in the 1500s, which nearly wiped out the species by the 1900s, according to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. More recently, beavers have faced threats from trapping, water pollution and habitat destruction.

“What happens when you kill several million beavers and all of those beaver dams break down and all of those ponds drain? Well, it’s this immense loss of habitat for cutthroat trout and moose and wood ducks and boreal toads,” Goldfarb said. “Historians have referred to the fur trade as the aquatic Dust Bowl, this vast elimination of riparian habitat that profoundly shaped streams all over the continent.”

Yes we lost a lot of the furry flattail resources and will lose more if we’re not careful.

While the beaver population has since rebounded, now estimated at 6 to 12 million in the United States, they are still far from perfect neighbors.

From damaging and felling trees to blocking culverts and causing washouts, beavers are not without their conflicts. As Goldfarb explained, the traditional approach to managing these issues often mirrors how bear conflicts are handled — by “trapping out lethally” the offending beavers.

In 2023 alone, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, which manages human-wildlife conflicts, reported killing over 24,000 beavers, with thousands more killed during trapping season. While Goldfarb understands the impulse to remove problematic beavers, he cautioned that such small-picture thinking ultimately leaves a lasting negative impact on the ecosystem.

“When you eliminate the beaver, you’re eliminating that great pond and wetland habitat that we care about and also, all you’re doing is creating a vacancy sign for the next family of beavers,” he said.

But is there any alternative?