Category: Beaver Art

A RAP FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Book March 16, 2019

Wait until you see this fun video beaver rap as poet Steve Schmidt of Connecticut serenades author Ben Goldfarb at a presentation of Eager. Wonderful poetry and some really fun gangly Ben rap appreciation that will start your weekend right. Steve had the odd fortune of reading “Eager” around the same time he happened to see the musical Hamilton, with delightful results. What everyone needs on a Saturday morning from our soon to be VERY GOOD new friend.

Rap for Castor

––for Ben Goldfarb, author of Eager

You got problems out west, you’re runnin’ out of water
Temperatures risin’ and the world’s gettin’ hotter
Tryin’ to mitigate floods and stop runaway fires
You got water in quantity but not where you want it to be

You gave us no respect, so what did you expect?
You thought a buck-toothed rodent would be better as a hat
So you trapped us and snapped us until you’re all that
Too stupid to see that you were fracking up your habitat

You exceeded your need until greed was your creed
Had a shizzle vision of your mission, to speed
a landscape raping you should have been arresting
Now I guess your destiny is manifesting

They call me The Beaver
No, not the one by Ward Cleaver
Castor canadensis
Genus? I’d say genius

We shaped the contents of the continents
Masters of geology, ecology, hydrology, topology
Our diligence, intelligence, experience, and innate sense
could handle any consequence

Now you need us more than ever, brother
If you want to last forever and recover
Looks like you could use a furry god mother
Give you pristine streams, replenish all your aquifers
A salmon run replacin’ all the damage done
Another keystone species where there isn’t one
Just keep in mind the beaver battle cry:
Wetlands Are the Best Lands, and that’s no lie

With us it’s just pond to wetland to meadow to forest
And day or night, oh, the concatenatin’ chorus
So we’ll find a dam spot just where you needed one
Now leave it to the beavers, man: We’ll get the job done

BEAVER WONDERS ON A SUNDAY

heidi08 Beaver Art March 3, 2019

Time for more “Only good news Sunday” which is just right because we have a parcel of it. Yesterday our Austrian friend Leopold Kanzler posted this on FB, which I’m calling “don’t wake me” but is honestly the most adorable beaver photo I may have seen yet.

And as you know, that is saying something.

Isn’t that precious? No one thinks about the poor unsung beaver who wants to sleep in right? I happen to know these things because I’m trying to change my sleep habits in view of my 8:00 pm presentation at Audubon Thursday – gradually going to sleep later each night,. I actually woke at 7 yesterday which I haven’t done since 2006 and it made me stupid all day. I think I’ll just stay on beaver-viewing time and be sleepy like this photo for my talk. It will work better.

Other fine news comes from Sarah Koenigsberg who is on her way to the Banff Film Centre Moutain film festival in Denver with a famous guest you’ll probably recognize. I thought you’d want to see their lovely selfie, That of course is the legendary Sherri Tippie to Sarah’s left, the beaver re-locator and hairdresser extraordinaire. She is prominently featured in the film and will be attending the showing.

I met Sherri at my first ever State of the Beaver Conference and was so inspired by her presentation that I just sat in the front row and wept the entire time. After such a hard won battle with Martinez to save our beavers it was glorious to listen to someone who already knew everything I was shouting over and over. I felt like a trusted adult was finally driving the vehicle and I could just fall asleep in the back seat.

Finally there have been some lovely new donations for our upcoming auction, starting with this beautiful watercolor from Marley Ungaro of Fleming Island Florida. It’s aptly titled “Beaver Moon“, and while the subject is fairly common, the original rendition definitely is not.

Isn’t that beautiful? In addition to the print Marley added some lovely tea towels with the image to the auction. Clearly she is a kindred spirit all the way across the US. Thanks Marley!

Which brings us to another fine donation from the metal artist “Spooniere”, who amazingly makes all her jewelry from vintage silver spoons. Of course you can easily see why I had to come knocking on Tami Miller’s doorstep in Aurora Colorado. In addition to being beautiful, Tam’s creation is completely one-of-a-kind. No one else you ever meet will have a beaver ring like this because none exists. Thanks Tami!

FESTIVAL XII IS ON ITS WAY!

heidi08 Beaver Art February 22, 2019

Amelia says it’s her favorite cover ever, I saw it’s pretty dam wonderful, doesn’t it make you want to start searching for the key right now? Now it goes off to Bay Nature so that it can appear as an ad in their April issue and tell all those nature folks to JOIN US!

This morning there’s pleasant beaver news from Washington State, which is trying hard not to be too alarmed about beavers in their city parks. They do better than most, I can tell you!

Beavers are active in Mercer Island’s Luther Burbank Park

Before snow blanketed the city’s parks, visitors to Luther Burbank on Mercer Island noticed some other phenomena of nature, including fallen tree branches and gnawed-on trunks near the shore and wetlands.

The 77-acre park on the shores of Lake Washington is a rest stop for many species of migratory birds, and is home to at least one family of beavers. Islanders have recently noticed their handiwork on some of the Poplar trees near the shoreline.

Kim Frappier, the city’s natural resources specialist, said that she and the park’s urban forestry specialist “are monitoring the beaver activity within the park and working to both protect the beaver’s habitat as well as take measures to protect high value trees along the shoreline.”

Isn’t that just Washington all over! They’re trying to protect the trees AND the beavers. Except of course how can you be “Trying”? The trees aren’t wrapped or painted with sand. Are you trying to protect them with warding spells or something? With positive energy? Maybe thoughts and prayers?

Much of Luther Burbank Park has been left undeveloped to foster a variety of wildlife, including 135 species of birds, 50 species of waterfowl, raccoons, beaver, muskrats, tree frogs and rabbits. Many of these animals live in the wetlands that occupy the north and south ends of the park.

“Please help us protect our long-toothed furry neighbors by staying on established trails, protecting and respecting their habitat, and observing them from a distance,” Frappier wrote.

Hmm. I guess all those are good things, although I don’t suppose a beaver much cares if you stay on established trails or pick your soda bottle for that matter. I assume you knew this was coming or that it happened before? That tree on the right loos like a delicious aspen or alder so I’m sure this happened before.

Since Luther park about 10 miles from NOAA fisheries and Michael Pollock I’m thinking those beavers have a better than average chance of survival. But I’ve been wrong before.

EXPERTS DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING

heidi08 Beaver Art February 20, 2019

Yesterday I was giddy with excitement thinking about the start of the State of the Beaver Conference, I got snippets of news from friends Janet Thew, Molly Folly and Judy Atkinson about how the day was going. I heard that around 35 federal employees who were signed up to be there cancelled because of the government shutdown had already devoured their vacation days. I heard that Ben Goldfarb and Sarah Koenisberg’s talk on the most effective ways to persuade others about beavers mentioned Martinez in glowing terms and that was nice. I heard that Derek Gow received his Worth A Dam t-shirt and he gave me back a carved beaver he made that I will surely treasure. I was nice to be mentioned and remembered, even if I couldn’t be there in person.

But now it’s been a whole day that they get to talk about beavers and I can’t listen, so I’m done living vicariously and plan to just bitter, Yes,there is inspiration I am missing out on and yes, there are experts there that I desperately need to learn from, but inspiration is overrated and experts don’t know everything.

Let’s tell secrets and be bitter together.

For example. let me tell you a well-kept secret about one of the smartest countries in the entire frickin’ world – the country that passes out nobel prizes for pete’s sake – and show how truly stupid they really are.

Are you sitting down?

This is the coat of arms of the municipality of Härnösand, Sweden. Painted by Vladimir A. Sagerlund when he was the heraldic artist at the National Archives of Sweden (Riksarkivet). It Harnosand is just across the Baltic sea from Finland and close enough to Duncan Haley in Norway to know better. When I first saw it I thought it must be an ancient relic from back before we knew better than to say beavers eat fish. (Pike?) But alas, no. It is the current image by the modern artist recapturing an image that has been represented since at least the 1500’s.

Wiki says :The arms were officially granted in 1931. The arms were first granted in 1586 by King Johan III. The arms probably indicated the importance of fur trading and fishing for the new town.

Heidi says: the arms probably indicate that everyone who has ever lived in this town in this town is an idiot and should never, never be taken seriously. Honestly, was the flying pig heraldry already taken?

Experts don’t know everything.

FOR OTHER EYES

heidi08 Beaver Art February 8, 2019

One thing I never quite get used to (even thought I should) Is that other people – people I do not even know – read this website. I am always surprised to get a comment or link from someone I never met. Why, just the other day someone commented on the “Frequently asked questions”sites that the information provided was “rubbish” and that beavers did so live in the dam!

I’m guessing they had personally dynamited their dam to kill their beavers and then seen no more beavers so of course it worked! I couldn’t help it. I had to reply that this was a fact I was certain of and insist it was true.

The internet is a very interesting place. Sometimes like an busy international train station and sometimes like a nearly empty bus station at night.

Yesterday a member of the Pokeberry Creek Wetlands commented on the hurricane article which was a blast from the past because I had almost forgotten the story of the Chatam county North Carolina neighbors who wanted to protect the wetland near their homes last april I should have remembered because their lovely website boasted one of my all time favorite photos.

Even more surprising was the ‘ping back’ from a site called “Your Northwest Forests” which had linked to our beaver hat activity and included our site under their “for more information” section. Which I guess makes sense. We do have a LOT of experience doing kids activities that teach about beavers. And I do, after all, have a doctorate in child psychology BUT say what you like. There was afact about the YNF link that surprised me very, very much.

Source information: Forest Features highlight a new Pacific Northwest species (or sometimes, a family, order, kingdom, or genus) each month as part of the USDA Forest Service – Pacific Northwest Region’s regional youth engagement strategy.

I guess when the youth engagement part of the Forest Service links to you, you know you’re doing something right!