Category: Beaver Book

GIANT RODENTS ARE EVERYWHERE

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver Anatomy, Beaver Book March 23, 2021

You can tell right away when people aren’t accustomed to saying nice things about beavers, They reluctantly review Ben’s book with headlines like these:

The upside to beavers, a valuable rodent

You can feel them, stretching their fingers into the darkness with their eyes tightly closed afraid that something rat like is going to jump out at them.

SALISBURY — Ben Goldfarb, author of “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter,” told a Zoom audience of more than 150 people that beavers and their activities are highly beneficial to the environment. Goldfarb’s talk, sponsored by the Scoville Memorial Library, was on Saturday, March 6.

The beaver is a rodent, Goldfarb explained. The animals typically weigh between 40 and 50 pounds.

Poor Connecticut reporter. Nobody told her she’d have to write about 50 lb rodents when she took this gig.

Goldfarb said this near-extirpation had serious environmental ramifications. Describing the beaver as a “keystone species,” he noted that the habitats beavers create also serve waterfowl and fish species, and serve as firebreaks and filtration systems for water

.Get out! You don’t say!

Looking forward, Goldfarb contrasted a photo of a freestone mountain brook “(“looks like something in a fly-fishing catalog”) with a photo of a swampy area, with trees in standing water.

The latter vista doesn’t appeal to people accustomed to thinking of wetlands as undesirable.

“So we have to remember what our lands are supposed to look like.”

Aw do we have to? That Ben Goldfarb, always making us think about things we don’t want to. First those nasty R.O.U.S.’s and now this! Next thing you’ll be telling me is that these monsters are everywhere. Like even Texas. Sheesh.

Beaver found in south Austin neighborhood undergoes rehab

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Navigating a growing city like Austin can be a difficult task, even for a human, so when a beaver took on the bustle, he may have bitten off more than he could chew.

The City of Austin’s Animal Protection unit got a call about a beaver in south Austin right before the winter storm. They found the male rodent in the road near a neighborhood off of Menchaca Road and Slaughter Lane. He wasn’t doing too well.

Beavers in Texas? Yes. One of my favorite urban beaver photos of all times comes from a suburb of Dallas.

BEAVERS STEAL WATER AND OTHER LIES

heidi08 Beaver Book March 15, 2021

I know what you’re thinking. There has been so much good dam beaver news lately you’re thinking the battle’s almost over. The summit is in three weeks and there’s nothing much to fight over because people already know how good beavers are and how they help other species and creeks.

I would just direct your attention to this praised young adult fiction.

Who reduced the river to a trickle? The animals in the jungle decide to find out

Jack, the jackal, yawned and stretched. The sun was up. “Ugh! Summer again. Hot days and hot nights…”

“Come along, Gogol. Let’s go to the river for a dip and a swim. Look lively now.”

Gogol smiled. He loved Jack’s energy. He ambled along behind him. Suddenly, Gogol heard a scream and rushed forward, his hooves slipping and sliding towards the banks

“Look at this!” said Jack, pointing to the river. “Just take a look at this.”

Gogol looked at the river and was surprised to find that it had shrunk to half its size … overnight! Monkey, also a regular morning visitor, swung by. “Oh my goodness! Whatever has happened to our river?” she exclaimed.

Uh oh. I’m thinking this children’s book isn’t about to complain that a trapper killed the beavers and knocked out the dam making the pond where they used to swim. Gee I wonder what they’re going to say happened. Don’t you?

“You are not going to believe this. I went upstream to investigate. I was so sure that the humans had done something. Imagine my surprise when I saw a family of rat-like creatures…but with big heads, and sharp incisors, damming up our river.”

“Rat-like?” sniggered Wolfie. “Darling, are you sure your eyes are fine?”

Monkey ignored him and continued. “They were strange creatures. Their front feet are like hands and their back feet are webbed. When I confronted them and asked what they thought they were doing, they said this was necessary for their survival.”

“What about our survival, darling?” drawled Wolfie.

Agggh. The stupid. It Burns US! To see our beloved engineers described as “The rat like creatures just selfishly thinking of their own needs. Without a thought to anyone else.” Nasty water savers!

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Nasty beavers always stealing the water for themselves.

“Er…um…” said Gogol. “Monkey, I think you are talking about beavers. Yes, they do build dams with branches of trees, vegetation, rocks and mud. They live in shelters called lodges, to be safe from predators…”

“We need to talk to them,” said Jack.

So a deputation went to meet the beavers. There was a whole colony awaiting their arrival. Initially, the beavers were hostile and came at them with branches that they could hardly carry. But the Jungle deputation managed to disarm them and get them talking.

Learn to share

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHThis is sooooooooooooo provoking and wrong. I cannot stand it!!!

Gogol looked at the lovely pool the beavers had made for themselves. He saw several young beavers eagerly swimming laps, shouting and playing catch. “I know you cannot live without water. But, neither can we. All of us need it, and this is our only source. We must learn to share…” he said.

On hearing this, the beavers huddled together and growled and moaned. Finally, the biggest one came forward and said, “We will dismantle our dam. But we have one condition: that you allow us to shift our lodges downstream. Looks like you guys have a good set-up there.”

So not only does this book teach young people that beavers steal water from other animals it also teaches them that they LIVE IN THE DAM which is wrong in soo soo many ways. I can’t imagine any more ways it could be wrong. But I bet the author can.

Then they heard the noise. It seemed to be coming closer. There were distinctive barks, growls and grunts. The noise grew louder and louder. Amazed, the animals watched. As the moonlight gleamed on the water surface, the river seemed to come to life. It danced and jumped, shivered and shuddered.

As it drew closer, Monkey shouted, “Oh goodness, the beavers are coming! The beavers are coming!”

“How many?” asked Jack.

“I counted 50 and then lost track…Looks like a big colony,” said Gogol.

Sure. Why not a hundred. If you’re going to be wrong you might as well go all in. Everyone’s worst fears, come to life.

The animals went home, wondering if they had got the bad end of the bargain after all. The next morning, they woke up to yet another surprise. The banks of the river were overflowing. The eager beavers had been busy all night. They had built their dam and flooded the plain.

Jack had had enough. He decided to give the beavers a talking to. “Listen, Beavers, all of us in this forest need the river. Water is an important part of our life…just like it is for you. We need to learn to share our resources.”

“But it’s not all bad, guys,” said Gogol. “These beaver dams prevent erosion and raise the water table, so the water does get purified…”

Oh puleezeeeeeee too little too late. Don’t try to add a sentence NOW to say beavers are useful. You have already set the entire cannon back five centuries. The weird thing is I think the hindi author has something to do with the beaver trust in England. I forget how I know that but I believe she does.

WHYYYYY OHHH WHYYY WASN’T SHE STOPPED?

IT’S ALL FOR THE BEAVERS

heidi08 Beaver Book February 10, 2021

Now this is a sweet read. I don’t know what the term is for eye candy that you read, but this is pretty darned close. I guess if you’re going to be famous for doing something, writing about beavers isn’t too shabby. Just look at what it’s brought Mr. Goldfarb.

How local environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb turned his love of beavers into a surprisingly successful book

Even before Goldfarb moved to Spokane, accompanying his wife when she took a nurse-midwife job shortly before his book was released, he was a fan of the bucktoothed creature.

“I was fishing in upstate New York,” he recalls, “and had one swim between my legs.” At first, it was startling. But then the sense of wonder hit. “It was spectacular,” he says, “watching this animal glide past you in this beautiful, translucent water.”

Still, Spokane, he says, is a near-perfect location for a journalist on the nature beat.

And there are, of course, plenty of beavers. They chomp at trees at the city’s central Riverfront Park, diving into the Spokane River into the lodge next to the DoubleTree Hotel. One waddles up to the Auntie’s Bookstore downtown, practically serving as a living advertisement for the Goldfarb books inside. Goldfarb recalls watching a couple lounging on the beach at Bowl and Pitcher campground of Riverside State Park when a beaver suddenly hauled itself out of the water and plopped itself down about 15 feet away from them.

Oh Ben! We are so happy that you set your eye on beavers. I mean you might have been writing about bugs or coyotes and this is SO much better.

Writing for High Country News in Seattle in 2015, Goldfarb found himself at a beaver restoration workshop, full of biologists, activists and tribal members who thought the animal was just as incredible as he did. His articles showcasing his “proud love of the beaver” caught the eye of some folks at Chelsea Green Publishing, who pitched him on the idea of writing a book about beavers.

“They basically said ‘Beavers: Go,'” Goldfarb says. “‘Whatever you want to write about beavers, knock yourself out.'”

What a dream job! If I weren’t such a big fan I might be jealous!

In fact, Goldfarb says, he’d raised the exact same objection while on his book tour in Britain. And, in a quintessentially British development, that comment got transformed into a culture-war story in the Daily Mail, the right-wing British tabloid. Their lengthy and sensationalized headline proclaimed: “Environmentalist blasts Chronicles of Narnia author C.S. Lewis for ‘mis-educating’ the public with Mr and Mrs Beaver’s fish suppers because the animals actually only eat plants.”

And yet, that trip also gave him one of his favorite experiences, when he gathered with a bunch of beaver fans in the Cornwall region of England to witness a sighting of the once nearly extinct European beaver.

“It was twilight. And we’re all sitting around being silent … And then the beavers emerged and were gliding across this pond,” Goldfarb says. “It was incredible. People had tears in their eyes. Here was this part of their biological heritage that had been absent for so long and is now finally back.”

You can get so familiar with an animal, that, at times you lose sight of their majesty. But a moment like that brings it all back.

“They’re these enormous rodents with these bizarre paddle tails that, you know, cut down trees and build walls out of them,” Goldfarb says. “For them, it was like seeing the Loch Ness Monster.”

This is how I felt every fucking time I saw a beaver, And I live in California.

THE MISSING PIECE WE DIDN’T KNOW WE NEEDED

heidi08 Beaver Book January 18, 2021

R. Grace Morgan authored the most important beaver dissertation of the last 40 years at a time when no one was caring much about the relationship between beavers and water, Now she has a book. And we all need to read it.

Book looks at cultural connection to bison, horses and beavers

A recently released book delves into the traditional importance of three well known animals; the beaver, the bison, and the horse.

The book, not surprisingly titled Beaver, Bison, Horse: The Traditional Knowledge and Ecology of the Northern Great Plains by the late R. Grace Morgan endeavours to be “the seminal, anthropological account of Indigenous peoples’ relationship with essential fauna of the Plains region in Canada and the US., according to the release from the University of Regina Press, with the book centering on “traditional knowledge and ecology from an age before colonial settler invasions.”

Every beaver advocate everywhere (and I mean you too) owes Grace a debt of gratitude and their first years allowance. They might not even know it. I didn’t come across it until an article about the pipeline protests. And beaver champions like Michael Pollock were stunned to read the abstract. Ben referred to it in his book so it is better known to all of us now. Her dramatic writing about the cultural importance of beaver to drought ridden Blackfeet tribe gave researchers the motivation for studying the question in person. I am so glad to see this book hitting the shelves.

The book “features deep analyses of beaver, bison and horse agriculture and habitat manipulation, which sustained Plains inhabitants for thousands of years,” noted the release. With the author passed Yorkton This Week was able to arrange an interview with Brian Morgan and Kim Morgan regarding the book, beginning with some insight into the woman behind the book.

Dr. R. Grace Morgan “was an anthropologist, archaeologist, and a scientist, deeply connected to the prairies and passionate about its ecological complexity and the sustainable practices that early Indigenous inhabitants had with the land and its animal occupants,” began Brian.

Grace passed away in February 2016 from Ovarian cancer after many years of determined resistance. Grace Morgan [née Hrytzak] was born in Rosthern, Saskatchewan and raised in the small town of Yellow Creek, where her father worked as a schoolteacher and principal, where cultural life revolved around the local Ukrainian community.

The world lost a great light and part of its soul when we lost Dr, Morgan, But I am so happy the book will keep her wisdom informing scholars for years to come

“Grace always felt that her work on ancient environmental practices would be relevant to contemporary problems of climate change, global warming, and drought, which was especially relevant environmental problems in Saskatchewan,” said Kim Morgam. “She deeply respected Indigenous stewardship of the natural habitat, recognizing that this environmental wisdom was not recognized nor taught in white settler schools and society in general.

I am so happy she was able to breathe this book into life before she passed. The world needs to remember everything that Grace and her ancestors once knew about beavers. I never got to even hear her lecture, but this might give us a little taste of what its like to apply tribal knowledge to modern problems.
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BEAVERS CAN SAVE THE PLANET

heidi08 Beaver Book, Beavers, Beavers and climate change January 14, 2021

Let’s say (and why not) that Tuesday night was your regular zoom bridge night with the girls and you missed that fantastic discussion of beaver benefits from the Scotts Valley Watershed Council. You are pretty dam lucky because the following night is going to be pretty beavery too.

Sequoia Park Zoo Hosting Virtual ‘Partnering with Beavers to Heal the Planet’ Lecture on January 20th

The Sequoia Park Zoo Conservation Lecture Series has gone VIRTUAL for 2020/21 and the next virtual lecture is scheduled for Wednesday, January 20, 2021 at 7:00 PM on Zoom and Facebook Live. Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb will be joining us to present, “Partnering with Beavers to Heal the Planet.” Zoo updates and information will begin at 6:45 PM with the lecture starting at 7:00 PM promptly. As a security feature, lecture attendees are required to have a free registered Zoom account available online at Zoom.us. Prepare ahead of the lecture by logging in and creating your personal Zoom account. On the date of the lecture, simply log in to your Zoom account and then click the provided Zoom link at www.SequoiaParkZoo.net or on our social media. Virtual lecture attendees can ask questions to the speaker at the end of the presentation via the chat box on Zoom or Facebook Live comments. Special thanks to Papa & Barkley for sponsoring the Conservation Lecture Series!

That’s right, Ben at 7 will be talking about how beavers can save the fucking planet, Isn’t that an incredible photo? The beavers in Voyageurs Park have had their way with the park for decades. If it weren’t for the wolves I’d say they are the luckiest beavers alive. Come wednesday at 7 and hear Ben tell you how beavers can save the planet. Or at least parts of it. The info about how to access the conference is here: