Christmas is just around the corner. Maybe you’re wondering what to get that special person in your life? Wonder no more.
A dam good gift: Boris Johnson gives his father Stanley BEAVERS as a present for his 80th birthday
Most men are happy receiving a good book or a nice bottle of whisky for their birthday. But rather than an ordinary present, Boris Johnson gifted his father, Stanley, a group of beavers on his 80th birthday.
According to the Telegraph, the Prime Minister and his siblings clubbed together to get a licence to allow their father to have beavers in the river of his Exmoor estate
The Prime Minister met with the UK’s top rewilder, Derek Gow, to ensure the paperwork was arranged and the land suitably converted into a good beaver habitat.
Stanley Johnson was said to be ‘delighted’ at the gift.
Now there is precious little I like about Boris but goodness gracious this does go into the plus column. Why don’t I have an estate with beavers on it? One with a boardwalk and a nice viewing platform across from the dam?
Ben Goldsmith, brother of cabinet minister Zac Goldsmith and a friend of the Johnsons, is an investor in Derek Gow’s rewilding project.
Mr Gow told The Telegraph he is ‘deeply grateful’ to Boris Johnson for his ‘help in returning beavers to England’. Mr Gow said that he has been flooded with requests from people who want to introduce beavers to their estates.
Well sure. Everyone wants a beaver on their estate. I mean everyone who has an estate. A beaver in every creek. A chicken in every pot. You know the saying.
Meanwhile in America the Beaver Believers film has been making the rounds and received a very glowing review in Santa Barbara the other day. Mind you this is a town that could use more beavers to keep it from drying out and burning up.
Film Review: The Beaver Believers
The award-winning feature documentary directed by Sarah Koenigsberg follows the work and passion of five scientists and one quirky hairdresser turned beaver rescuer. Independently they’re all working to restore the North American Beaver, nature’s most hard-working engineer, to watersheds of the American West.
Beavers are a keystone species, meaning they have a disproportionately large effect on their natural environment relative to its abundance. They enrich their ecosystems, creating the biodiversity, complexity, and resiliency our watersheds need to absorb the impacts of climate change.
Ahh it’s nice to see the little ripples Sarah’s film is casting about the pond as it moves from state to state. Covid prevented her from having the film festival debut she deserved but it’s impressing anyway.
The film creatively used an unassuming animal to share the reality of how Earth is changing, how everything is interconnected, and how we need to make changes now before it’s too late.
Audiences have agreed by honoring “The Beaver Believers” with the 2019 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, winner of the Green Spark Award at the American Conservation Film Festival, winner of the Eco-Hero Award at the Portland Eco-Film Festival, and a finalist at both the London Eco-Film Festival and the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.
You can see the success its generating. I am not at all surprised it was the audience favorite. It’s certainly my favorite. Sarah recently started selling the DVD’s for individual viewing. If you’d like your very own copy click here:
Meanwhile it’s getting plenty cold for our friends and Mike Digout in Saskatchewan. How cold you ask? Well I can’t imagine this much ice at the end of October. But something tells me beavers can handle it.
