Category: Beaver-themed merchandise

These are unusual beaver-themed designed merchandise we like. Some of the items have been donated to Worth A Dam, and some we just hope they will be soon.

Across state lines…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beaver-themed merchandise, City Reports, Who's blaming beavers now? August 21, 2015

Slightly better article from Fargo, I’m still wary of these beaver saving efforts.

Activists to again voice opposition to killing beavers in Fargo parks

FARGO — Residents concerned with a plan to kill beavers along the Red River will gather at a Fargo Park Board meeting next week to show support for using non-lethal methods to curb the rodents, which park officials say have been chewing through valuable trees.

Kathleen Keene, a member of a local group of animal advocates, said killing beavers is not a sustainable solution because the dead beavers will be replaced by new ones coming in.

The Park Board in April approved an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cull beavers, citing thousands of dollars worth of damage to trees, particularly in Lemke and Trefoil parks.

The USDA’s John Paulson said culling methods include a lethal body-gripping trap and another trap that grabs the beaver and pulls it underwater so it drowns.

Such methods are cruel, Keene said.

“Just think about if your dog was in a trap like that,” she said. “A beaver’s not much different than any other animal.”

Well, yes. They are cruel. But it’s worse than your dog, Kathleen. Because your dog would drown pretty quickly and it will take a beaver upwards of 15 minutes of suffering to die. Kathleen started the online petition that garnered 58,000 signatures. Remarkable enough that Fargo slowed its grinding wheels of beaver killing.

I’m still a little uneasy with this HS advocate.

Dave Pauli, a senior director for wildlife response at the Humane Society of the U.S., is expected to give a presentation to the Park Board at 11 a.m. on Wednesday at 701 Main Ave. on ways to control beaver populations. Keene said she and like-minded people plan to attend the meeting.

In an interview, Pauli said non-lethal methods are more sustainable than lethal ones.

“The Red River is a challenge because no matter what happens to the beavers, there’s gonna be more beavers,” he said. “It’s a flashing vacancy sign if they just remove beavers constantly.”

Non-lethal methods include protecting trees with fences and special paint, or by regulating noise and water factors. There is also beaver birth control.

To be honest, way back in 2007, we spent a great deal of time on the subcommittee worrying about the issue of birth control. The Humane Society recommended immuno-contraception and that charming harrigan that advised city staff recommended killing the father so that the mother would be forced to wait until her sons grew up to breed. The looming population explosion was much on my mind during those days.

But the truth we found was, population growth was NEVER an issue.

Since beavers leave to seek their own territory at 2 we’ve only had the one family. And in 8 years with 24 beavers born in our creek, our resident population has never exceeded 9. Not to mention that out of 24 live births, we’ve had 12 deaths over the years. That’s 50% mortality not counting mom. Someone tell that to Mr. Pauli before he starts handing out beaver condoms, okay?

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Another escaped beaver, this time in Kentucky. Makes me wonder if he saw the story of little Choppa making a break for it. You know, a copy-cat beaver crime?

Henderson wildlife rehabilitators looking for missing beaver

HENDERSON, KY (WFIE) -Wildlife rehabilitators in Henderson are now offering a reward for information about a missing animal.

Tyler the beaver from Misfit Island Wildlife Rescue Center disappeared.

The couple who runs the rescue say with help from donations, they’re now offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to her return.

Another $250 will be given for her safe return.

Hmm, who do we know in Kentucky? Ian was on summer vacation, but I’m sure he wouldn’t take a beaver with him back to Cal Arts, right?

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Beaver fever: Unique collection may set world record

55d69b45d9a29.image — Bill and Shirley Niese are pictured with a portion of Bill’s beaver-related item collection. More than 700 pieces of the collection will be counted at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Farm and Home Building at the Decatur County Fairgrounds during Greensburg’s annual Power of the Past antique farm machinery show. The Nieses believe the collection is the largest of its kind in the world.

Bill started collecting beavers after his Silver Beaver Award from the boy scouts. They just kept coming. Now they’re couple is off to the Indianna county fairgrounds for an official counting to see it their collection of beaver items can qualify in the Guinness book of World Records.

To which I say good luck and, um, just 700?

Cute Beaver Ideas that are not mine…

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver-themed merchandise, Creative Solutions August 9, 2015

I couldn’t help browsing around to see what other fantastic beaver ideas there were in the world. I came across this adorable kickstarter project that is very near its goal. Lucky for us, we still have time to help.

Little Beaver Builds a Bed is a short, illustrated children’s book focused on the importance of making things by hand, doing things well, and working together to get the job done. This book will be beautifully hand-illustrated and will be great for kids on an age 3 – 5 reading level. Through the book I hope to connect more kids with the craft of woodworking and introduce them to the value of making things with your hands.

In this delightful story, you’ll follow Little Beaver as he follows his curiosity about the amazing things his father builds in his woodland shop. Little Beaver will learn a lot about patience, making something from scratch, and will get to build a special project with his Dad.

Go here to help Katie bring this project to fruition, because we need some copies for our silent auction next year. The children of Martinez have certainly learned something about creating with their hands. These fuzzy little illustrations by Kristen are adorable. They should be prints as well because I bet I know where they would sell nicely.

Meanwhile here’s some fantastic children’s artwork by Caroline Brose, a young artists featured on the Ink and Snow website. I think this needs to be a t-shirt, don’t you?

Big smile for Caroline. Thank you!

I idly thinking how to make our awnings more beaver-y and wondering about whether we might let kids paint our art table awning next year. Since awnings are waterproof it’s a pretty sticky proposition to try and paint one. Look how this artist solved the problem. Jeanette Janson did a beautiful job setting her artwork display apart from all the others at the vintage fair. She’s an artist who got tired of her plain white display canopy used at fairs, etc. So she painted her own.

There were 48 birds by the time she was done and it took her an entire weekend or longer. She ended up with something truly awesome that made her booth completely visible and unique. It was a lot of work. Because if you do the math it’s 40 feet total (10+10+10+10).

But it would be a lot easier with 100 children to help, right?

Passing the beaver-chewed baton…

heidi08 Beaver Chewing, Beaver-themed merchandise, Festival July 27, 2015

For more years than we can count, Worth A Dam’s own Lory Bruno has been the steam engine behind the festival’s silent auction. Helped endlessly by her husband Ron, the pair have been pretty much solely responsible for its successes, which involves tagging and grouping the items, hauling and handling the display and sale, and making exchanges for late pickups after the festival.

This year Lory officially retired her gavel and asked for some well-earned rest. We had to get several hard-working people to take her place. Deidre Martin, who arranged the amtrak journey last year, is taking on the bulk, along with the help of Napa’s Robin who generously agreed to manage bid sheets, Erika, who will help with display throughout the day, and Pam from ISI who will help with sales. I, of course did my usual begging and spreadsheet and Jon will handle transport and late exchanges later.

Yesterday, Deidre, Jon and I went through the auction items and tagged and grouped them with the bid sheets. 126 items from some 40 states and 10 countries valued at 5700.00. Here’s a look at some of the items that will be offered. From jewelry, adventure tickets, fine dining, and paintings, books and puppets. You won’t believe your eyes. There’s even a gift basket from a family at Pixar that will keep your children or grandchildren busy all year.

IMPORTANT:

One new rule this year should appeal to the affordably impatient. Find an item you LOVE and pay the full value to take it anytime during the day. Remember many of these items are unique, and one of a kind. Avoid the wait and the suspense while you donate to a great cause. Honestly, I don’t think you will find a better grouping of beaver-friendly merchandise anywhere.

Rock On!

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Festival June 13, 2015

The biggest beaver news at the moment comes from the Smithsonian Zoo, where they just added a new beaver to the inclusure. The yearling is still getting used to his surroundings and that explains his startled reaction to his roommate. Enjoy!
Beaver gets surprise welcome to new home

I got word yesterday that Worth A Dam is on the calendar for the Parks, Recreation, Marina, and Cultural Commission meeting tuesday night. As usual we are asking to waive fees for the festival and get an exception for attendance. The meeting starts at 7 and we’d love the support if you want to attend.

Registrations are starting to trickle in, most recently Sulpher Creek in Hayward and RCD and Flood Control in Napa. Our quarter page ad will run in the next issue of Bay Nature and looks fantastic. All in all, I’m starting to think the next event should be very well attended and exciting.

One of the most unique items for our silent auction comes from artist Ernestina Gallina in Italy who agreed to donate her handpainted beaver rock. Her incredible artwork has been shown in museums and sells for hundreds of dollars. It and must be seen to be believed. Stop what you’re doing right now and go look. Here’s the description from her website.

“In Italy it’s called “sassi dipinti”. It’s Rock Painting, the art of painting rocks. The difference with prehistoric cave painting is that, being a rock a three-dimensional thing, the finished piece of art is not only a painting but also a sculpture. Painting all-around is an unique artistic experience: no perspective is involved, there is no foreground or background: imagination can run wild. Everything starts with the search for the natural canvas: the rock. A walk to the seaside or along the shores of a river can become a fun safari, almost an hunt for animals that are already there, waiting to be picked up by you.”

Warm-hearted Earnestina agreed to donate right away, but it was a little tricky figuring out how to do it. It is, after all, a ROCK and expensive to ship. And even if I had a friend traveling all that way for summer vacation who has room in their suitcase to bring back a rock? In the end we agreed to split the shipping costs and UPS tells me the rock will be delivered on Monday. Check out its global flight path from Milano to Nevada.

More good auction news came from Frisky Beaver wines this week. Since they’re not international they can’t sell in America yet, but they want to help with t-shirts or coasters, and added our link on their website that is very cute. So of course I added a link to theirs!

Beavers: The future and the past

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Chewing, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? June 10, 2015

Let’s start out with some momentous news. Last night in Napa they almost certainly saw three kits. HURRAY THREE KITS!!! One appears to charge off with the adults to feed, so missed his photo opportunity in his rush to maturity, but they are pretty sure it’s a brave little kit they’re seeing. Congratulations Napatopia, we’re excited for you!

Now its on to some inspiration from our great friend Camilla Fox who lent full ‘Project Coyote‘ voice recently to the Bobcat hearing in Santa Rosa. Great work team bobcat!

Finally an update and a short poll. I know you all recognize the fellow on the left, but the gentleman on the right might be less familiar to our new readers. This is Alex Hiller a beaver supporter from Germany who once came to america to visit a beaver family with Hope Ryden of the famed Lily Pond book. Alex was an early and dedicated supporter and attended the beaver symposium in Lithuania, shocking the heck out of Skip and Glynnis by wearing his Worth A Dam t-shirt shown here.

I hadn’t heard from Alex in a while and I thought I’d send him the Geo article in case he hadn’t seen it and wanted to help with a translate. This morning he wrote back sighting an old German saying, “Some people you assume to have perished only got married.” He announced that he met and married a wonderful woman from Sri Lanka who was passionate about elephants so they were focusing their energies there for the time being. How cool is that? Congratulations Alex! We wishing you every happiness but we will miss our reliable foreign correspondent!

Lastly. if we were offering recycled bags for sale at the festival would you prefer a green bag with a logo or a khaki bag with this in brown? I like them both so you’re vote is needed. Let me know here. Thanks!