Because the beaver isn't just an animal; it's an ecosystem!

Category: Beaver Art


I’ve been trying to work on a composite image to use as a puzzle in next year’s festival. The beaver in the center of course is from Amelia and a festival brochure, but everything else is collected and patched together to match. I thought you might want to see how it’s coming along.I want to use this company to make a tray puzzle for children to solve next year. I received a sample that was beautifully made. I like idea of children collecting the bird piece from Audubon and the Salmon piece from NOAA etc, and getting the tray from me to put it all together.And the price is reasonable.

“Beavers are the missing piece that every creek needs.”


One of the very first beaver stories I remember reporting on from another state with real admiration was the story of Mike Settell leading  beaver count for Audubon in the city of Pocatello Idaho. I was so impressed that he had even managed to get a grant from Audubon to count beavers because they meant so much to birds. I was trilled to meet Mike at the State of the Beaver C0nference and pass on anything we had learned in Martinez.

And now look.

10th annual Beaver Dam Jam Idaho set for Sept. 9 at FMC Park to benefit Watershed Guardians

POCATELLO — The 10th annual Watershed Guardians Beaver Dam Jam Idaho, to support beaver conservation, will be held from 4 to 9 p.m. Sept. 9 at the FMC Park west of Chubbuck.

“We’ll have organizations with booths, activities for youth, live music, food trucks, raffles and fly-casting seminars,” said Mike Settell, Watershed Guardian founder. “It’s in a beautiful setting and we are offering special pricing for car-pooling. Hope to see you there.”

There will be games and activities for kids. Up to three local bands will be performing. No dogs are allowed except permitted service dogs.

GO MIKE and the Watershed Guardians! You continue to be an inspiration!

Tickets are $40 a carload and are available online from Brown Paper Tickets at BeaverDamJam tickets, https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6113273.

Watershed Guardians helps the Portneuf Watershed, by helping beaver. Proceeds from the events will support BeaverCount, a free winter event to census beaver colonies in the Portneuf Watershed.

Funds raised help us pay for snowshoe and ski rental for our annual BeaverCount,” Settell said. We don’t have a city, agency or corporate entity covering operating expenses. We are 100% volunteer. Your support goes a long way.”

Funds also support beaver mitigation projects in rural areas such as BeaverDeceivers, pond levelers and tree coatings.

For more information, visit the website WatershedGuardians.org

More information on the event is also available by contacting Mike Settell at 208-220-3336 or mike@watershedguardians.org.

Idaho officials have been gradually stepping up to the idea that beavers are worth having ar0und and it is no exaggeration to say that Mike is the Endless Pressure Endlessly applied that  got them there. He has been a voice for beavers and a burr under the saddle of every oblivious trapping advocate for more than a decade.

Congratulations Mike for all that you’ve accomplished.


I like this illustration by Robin Lee Carlson very much, but there’s something missing. Can  you tell what it is?

Robin is an amazing natural artist and author in California but from what I can snoop she hasn’t done many illustrations with beavers, She’s a buddy of Jack Laws though so I bet she’d be interested…. hmm…


I was so happy to see this great article featuring Stephen Anderson’s awesome beaver album. His fantastic work deserves recognition and acclaim. But for the life of me I can’t understand why the headline applies. I guess because the article talks about flow devices, but it talks just as much about music?

Technology is helping beavers become a greater environmental asset

LA GRANDE — With guitar in hand, Stephen Anderson is helping people discover that beavers have the potential to be an environmental superhero.

Anderson, a Eugene resident with deep La Grande roots, has released a CD called “Beaver Celebration” that is part of his drive to heighten the awareness the public has of the good things beavers can do for the environment. 

Beaver Celebration contains nine fast-paced songs telling stories about the North American Beaver.

“All of the songs were inspired by the ability of beavers to create a wildlife neighborhood from flowing water,” Anderson said. “Nobody else but humans can create their own environment the way beavers can.”

Anderson, who lived in the La Grande area from 1960 through 1997, wants to convince the public and farmers and ranchers that beavers can play a valuable role in restoring and enhancing watersheds, something that is becoming more critical than ever in this age of climate change.

Tadaa! Fantastic press for Stephen. You can bet I’m already fantasizing about what these songs would sound like on stage at the beaver festival. Ooooh.

Use of a deceiver often results in beavers constructing a series of smaller dams on streams that leave meadows in their wake. The meadows are created from the water that leaks out from them.

“Greenways are created,” Anderson said, adding lush meadows appear because water tables are raised and vegetation, including willow, aspen and cottonwood appears, providing shade that reduce temperatures. 

The technology that ultimately makes this possible is a device that tricks nature’s dam builders into making smaller ones, one known as a beaver deceiver. Anderson said the deceiver keeps water levels down to an acceptable level for farmers and ranchers and high enough for beavers to remain. The deceiver allows water to exit the pond not by overflow but by an intake pipe located below the surface of the water. Anderson said water exits the pond through a covered drain located below the surface of the water and a large diameter black pipe. The key is the draining process the deceiver allows is silent.

Well not exactly. Being unable to feel the suction because the 6 foot filter keeps them away from the intake matters too.  They can still hear the outflow much of the time.

Anderson said farmers and ranchers are receptive to the idea of building beaver deceivers when they are introduced to the innovative invention.

“When we get the information to them, farmers and ranchers are discovering the blessings in the system,” he said.

Anderson wants the state to begin making funding available to farmers and ranchers for installation of beaver deceivers and later hopes that money can be made available for them by the federal government.

“We want to take this to a national level,” he said. “We want to take this as far as we can.”

Anderson said that one of big pluses of the series of smaller dams beaver deceivers can help create, is that the dams can remain in place for years.

“They will improve water in a sustainable way,” he said.

Anderson hopes that the availability of the deceivers will ultimately result in fewer farmers and ranchers trapping beavers to protect their land. This, he said, could spark a comeback of the beaver, an animal that almost became extinct in Oregon and in many parts of the United States in the 1800s due to heavy trapping. Anderson said it is estimated that there were once at least one million beavers in Oregon, many of which were in Northeast Oregon. He said it is not known today how many beavers are in this region or the state. However, he said the total is a small fraction of what it once was.

I like the idea of triggering a beaver renaissance across the state. Save some of that good vibe for California too, will you?

Today it is only fair, Anderson said, that a full-fledged effort is made to help restore beavers throughout the United States because of the role their dams have played in the development of ecosystems across the nation.

“They built this environment and then we took them out of it,” he said.

I don’t know about that, humans don’t seem to care much ab0ut what is fair. How about pointing out it is in our OWN SELF-INTEREST to make sure they come back.

We for sure care about that.

The public can listen for free to songs from Beaver Celebration at Anderson’s website, bringbackbeaver.org.  The Beaver Celebration CD is available locally at La Grande Stereo and Music.

Anderson made the CD with the help of many musicians, including three of his classmates at La Grande High School in the 1960s who were members of the Sceptres, a band that first performed in 1964. Those three musicians are Robert Bailey and Dan Ross, both of The Dalles, and Cal Scott, who resides in Portland.


Every so often we receive a donation for the silent auction from a truly talented artist that conceptualizes beavers in an entirely dramatic way. We are fortunate when it happens and I will never stop being grateful that our story touches the generosity of talented folks from around the world that agree to share their gifts with us.

This year the artist is Tim Andranka of New Kingstown Rhode Island. I was drawn towards his work when I saw a remarkable illustration called “the Calvary”. I wrote asking if he might consider donating a print but Tim said he had none left to share Instead he mentioned he was working on a new piece that might interest me.

Instead of donating a print Tim gave the original pen and ink drawing which is beyond stunning. Our own Martinez’ talented “I‘ve been framed” shop owner Rick Holcomb was so inspired by the work he framed it in a truly dramatic  way. The finished piece is breathtaking.

Not the least of which because of its highly enviable title: Dambassador.

 


Since the piece is lovingly wrapped for safety I’m not sure you can see that the wood frame itself is marked with stunning divets that echo the mechanical surreal flare Tim displays so well.

I love his highly believable impossibilities. But to me this beautiful drawing is not surreal at all. It’s a perfectly symbolic representation of Beaver Dam Analogues, which are poor imitations of beaver dams that only offer a fraction of the service of the real thing. The name “Dambassadors” perfectly suggest the fact that BDAs often get a better reception and audience than the real thing, convincing people to try out the pretend effort that isn’t at all as valuable as authentic beavers.

Maybe they Damabassador at first and Rebeaver second?

Thank you Tim, for your kindness. And for the art investors among us I have no doubt Tim will be way more famous in five months and that this auction item will be a firm investment.

In the mean time I am simply horrorfied and ashamed that I never ever came up with that title myself.

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