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

Category: Beaver Helpers


It’s Monday again. I have a barrel of work to do and Monday’s always need a little good cheer. So I’m going to post my favorite kind of news this morning. My VERY favorite kind of news. Can you guess what that is?

Residents rally in support of Burde Street Beaver Ponds

Around 100 people showed up to talk about the importance of maintaining the Alberni Valley’s natural assets during a town hall meeting at the Athletic Hall this week.

The town hall on Monday, May 16 was moderated by Port Alberni residents Sandy McRuer and Robert Borrett, who co-administer the Facebook page “Friends of the Burde Street Beaver Ponds.”

San Group Inc. announced back in the summer of 2021 their plans to build a $1 billion housing development at the top of Burde Street under the name of Pacific Mayfair Estates. Although the undeveloped area is private property, it is popular with walkers and hikers and includes two ponds that are home to beaver dams.

Port Aberni is in BC right across the water from Port moody. I like how beaver advocacy tends to wick out from a source and saturate the surrounding areas.

Pacific Mayfair Estates has stated that the land immediately surrounding each of the ponds will be preserved as park land, but people like McRuer and Borrett are concerned that extensive construction will drive away much of the wildlife. The ponds are also home to the Western painted turtle, which is an endangered species.“What we have here is a jewel,” Borrett told the crowd on Monday.

A number of Port Alberni residents spoke at the town hall. Some were concerned about the increase in traffic over the past few years on Burde Street. Some had ideas about other areas in the city that could be redeveloped, instead. No one spoke in favour of the housing development.

A health-care worker from West Coast General Hospital (WCGH) said that she and her co-workers visit the beaver ponds on their breaks. Others talked about the importance of the ponds for their mental health.

Oh pooh. Since when do cities care about mental health? Oh right. They want all those people to follow rules and be nice to each other so I guess its good if theu’re calm.

“This many people in the room signifies that this many people care,” said Hupacasath First Nation elected councillor Jolleen Dick. “This many people caring is the envelope to push the change over the hill.”

Hupacasath’s Elected Chief Councillor Brandy Lauder said she was “surprised” to learn about the development because there hadn’t been any consultation with Hupacasath prior to Pacific Mayfair Estates’ official announcement.

“This is not the way we conduct business,” she said on Monday.

Hupacasath operates Woodlot License W1902 in the area, which overlaps with one of the ponds, and Lauder’s main concern is the conservation of the area. Lauder said she does not support the development at this time.

“We put in protection for those beaver ponds, the creeks, the trails,” she said. “We’ve done rebuilding of trails. As far as we’re concerned at Hupacasath, [Pacific Mayfair Estates] will need to change a lot before we’ll even consider it.

San Group did not attend the meeting on Monday, but company spokesperson Amit Chandra Shekar confirmed that they had been invited. “We politely asked them to reschedule because none of our representatives (were) available at the time scheduled,” he said.

Yeah yeah yeah. The big guns hate showing up for the big meetings where all those great unwashed masses gather and demand things. Did I ever tell you there’s was a sniper stationed at our big beaver meeting? I didn’t find that out until a few years ago.

“We know the problems, that’s the easy part,” said Borrett. “But what I’d love to do is actually bring forth constructive solutions to them.”

Shekar added that company officials were concerned at the perceived threat of violence at such a meeting, which came to light in an exchange on the Friends of the Burde Street Beaver Ponds Facebook page. McRuer had asked for one or two volunteers “who are willing to calm down anyone who gets aggressive.”

Despite this, the town hall remained peaceful throughout the night. Borrett acknowledged that the San Group is made up of “wonderful people” who have provided employment for many people in Port Alberni.

Peaceful people gathered to demand that development behaves itself. Who knew there were such things?

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Once upon a time I was the new kid on the block trying to save beavers. Those days are (thankfully) history. Now there are beaver disciples all across the land. Making huge difference. This is the recent post from Rachel Siegel who was motivated to save the beavers when her HOA wanted them killed in Glanview Park in Illinois. She started the facebook page Glenview Beavers fan club, republished our urban guidebook for their state and now has become a nonprofit under ISI just like us.

I have emerged unscathed from my meeting with the IEPA today! With the help of Representative Jen Gong-Gershowitz, I was able to make a polished pitch about the role that process-based restoration (and beavers!) can play in improving our water quality and creating floodwater storage capacity.

We left the meeting with a couple of action items, including setting up a meeting with staff at the IDNR. So in the meantime, I will continue to work on setting up my new organization, the Illinois Beaver Alliance, which is a fiscally sponsored project of Inquiring Systems, Inc. , and thus has nonprofit status.The mission of the Illinois Beaver Alliance is to improve the health and function of Illinois watersheds, which will increase climate resilience, improve water quality, increase biodiversity, and create floodwater storage capacity; and to educate the public about the ecological importance of beavers and the modern tools for resolving human-beaver conflicts. I’ll tell you more about it soon!

Tomorrow we have our meeting with the Village of Glenview and then I am going downtown with Donald Hey of Wetlands Research to pitch nutrient farming (or water quality credit farming) to a prominent Clean Water Act attorney.

Did you catch all that? She presented her position to her state representative and is now going to meet with fish and game a water attorney.  Is your mind blown completely? Beavers: The Next Generation has some fine recognition of our buddy Rusty Cohn in the County RCD Monthly Newsletter.

July Conservation Champion: Rusty Cohn

Look at me! Photo by Rusty Cohn

We are 100% certain that at least some of you know our July Conservation Champion, Rusty Cohn. If you’re on Facebook or NextDoor, you may know him as the one sharing photos of local cute baby animals: the downtown Napa beavers!

Rusty does a great job inspiring us to treasure the wildlife that we have in our downtown. In addition to sharing his photos, he also shares stories and behaviors he observes while photographing these creatures. So who is Rusty?

Rusty has been in Napa 10 years and says his favorite part about being here is that it is a small town with a slower pace of life that is matched with a great diversity of wildlife so close by. After visiting his daughter here, he and his wife fell in love with the area and decided to move here once he retired. Now, Rusty keeps busy with several hobbies (including photographing local wildlife) and walking his dog Toby.

Beaver building dam with two rocks: Rusty Cohn

After first noticing a beaver dam next to Hawthorne Suites Hotel while out walking, he became fascinated with beavers and all of the other wildlife that were living in and near the beaver ponds. Rusty says his favorite part about photographing and sharing the animals found in our urban landscapes is that you never know what you might see next. He finds it exciting to observe the variety of wildlife, and he hopes his photos encourage others to become more interested in viewing and protecting the diverse wildlife of Napa County.

One thing Rusty wants us all to know: “Napa is a wonderland of biodiversity, get outside and enjoy it!”

Not only does Rusty share photos on Facebook and NextDoor, he also shares videos on his YouTube page!

We love community members who are excited about seeing and sharing local wildlife, and Rusty is a great example of that. Thanks for helping us get to know the nature in our own neighborhoods!

WHOO HOO! Rusty has been a good friend and supporter of Worth A Dam and helped out at our festivals AND earthday! I’m so happy his hard work is getting noticed.

Meanwhile I my hard work is apparently only worth stealing because my OpEd was stolen again by a letter to the editor for the Eugene Weekly. Hope my words are having fun being kidnapped!

Leave It To Beavers

Oregon is killing off one of nature’s best firefighters.

Last summer Oregon endured the single most flammable year in modern history. Record-setting fire after record-setting fire churned through the state, yet once again we continue to ignore or even kill the water-saving firefighter who would work for free to protect us: the beaver.

Recent research, published under the title “Smokey the Beaver,” found beaver complexes were three times more resistant to wildfire than similar areas without beaver. Beaver habitat, with its dams, ponds and canals, showed less wildfire damage than un-beavered streams. In keeping water on the landscape, beavers reduce fire, mitigate drought and recharge groundwater.

Beavers save water and reduce the risk and severity of wildfire. They do it all day, every day, at zero taxpayer expense. Their ponds have been consistently shown to increase biodiversity from stoneflies to steelhead. Beaver ponds help fish survive at a time when the Pacific coast is hemorrhaging salmon.

Our own self-interest dictates our attention. Yet Oregon isn’t learning.

Susan Libby

True. This time it contained five whole original lines of her own specific to Oregon which must have been exhausting to pen. I hope the shoplifter isn’t too tired to steal more?

Editor adds this

Editor’s note: Since this letter was published in EW, we have learned that it draws heavily and without attribution on a column by Heidi Perryman published in the San Francisco Chronicle on June 26.

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