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.

Showtime!

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, featured, Festival June 4, 2014

THE BEAVER BELIEVERS | a documentary

The urgency of climate change provides an unexpected opportunity for new partnerships and creative solutions in watershed restoration.

This inspiring yet whimsical film captures the vision, energy, and dedication of a handful of activists who share a passion for restoring the North American Beaver (Castor Canadensis) to much of its former habitat and range. Although this goal might seem esoteric or eccentric, The Beaver Believers shows us how this humble creature can not only help us restore streams and watersheds damaged by decades of neglect, beaver can also show us how to live more harmoniously with nature in an era of destabilizing climate change.

When beaver come into a watershed, they transform the stream system to meet their own needs for food and security. In so doing, their dams and ponds also create the conditions necessary for many other species to thrive. It’s a kind of generosity that is born of self-interest yet results in flourishing for all. What better metaphor to take to heart as we face the challenges that climate change brings?

In the end, our film is about much more than beaver and the people who believe in them, it’s about a new way of understanding our watersheds and our role in nature. By “thinking like a beaver,” we can create more bountiful ecosystems and more plentiful water resources, while also providing for our own needs and enriching our human communities at the same time. Beavers can show us the way and do much of the work for us if we can just find the humility to trust in the restorative powers of nature and our own ability to play a positive role in it.

Say hello to the launch of the new documentary ‘the beaver believers”. If it all looks vaguely familiar it should since they were filming last year at the beaver festival. They’ve been hard at work interviewing the other players and now are ready for film. Won’t you send them a little support to get post-production moving along? It couldn’t be easier and they have some adorable thank you gifts. I got the DVD of bloopers and out-takes because THAT’S what I really want to see! (Suzanne Fouty stepping in a cow-pie, or Sherri Tippie swearing like a sailor! hahaha) Go choose your own and show the world you’re a ‘beaver believer’.

Did you notice Cassy and our own Beaverettes in the promo? You better go watch it again. Go check out their slick website to see how it all fits together. I can’t put my finger on it, but this girl looks kinda familiar.

Tick, tick, tick…

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Friends of Martinez Beavers May 3, 2014

How good are you at waiting for things? You know, that feeling when the good thing is so close you can almost touch it, but you have to refrain for a little bit longer. Maybe you know that lump under the Christmas tree is your new bike and your parents say to stay away from it. Or you know the cookies will be better when they’ve cooled but you can’t help burning the roof of your mouth anyway. Maybe your license is coming in the mail any minute but you can’t stop calling yourself Dr. before it arrives. Or maybe that’s just me.

I bet you can already guess how good I am at it. This is maddening. Ripples are starting to trickle in from the PBS Nature episode by Jari Osborne, and I am chomping at the bit. Apparently time is unwilling to pass any faster just because I want it to. Who knew?

Beavers never make the list of cuddliest animals and they’re often considered more pest than problem solver. But it turns out that the industrious rodents may be true “eco-heroes.” On May 14, PBS Nature premieres Leave it to Beavers, a documentary about North American beavers, their habits, history and role as one of nature’s top infrastructure engineers. Filmmaker Jari Osborne tells MetroFocus host Rafael Pi Roman the behind-the-scenes story of the new documentary, and how the beaver “could possibly be the key to saving our world’s fresh water supplies.”

Jari’s interview on Metro Focus that she recorded Wednesday will air May 8th and I’ll post the link so you can watch it online. Her radio interview on The Animal House from the same day should be downloadable in a day or two and I’ll pass that along also. In the meantime I have already begged a copy of the Nature DVD for the silent auction.

Are we surprised?

This is going to be a long week. I better rest up. Luckily I just found the perfect place.

Drawing Near Beavers

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers April 30, 2014

Vermont author at peace with beavers

As its title suggests, Patti Smith’s new book, “The Beavers of Popple’s Pond: Sketches from the Life of an Honorary Rodent,” awards no special status to homo sapiens.

Nor does it critique our species’ role in rapid climate change, and the crowding-out (and extinction) of other organisms.Her adventures offer “a restorative respite from bad news,” the West Marlboro naturalist writes in her introduction.

The book also might be strong medicine against paralysis of the sort that occasionally grips the overwrought environmentalist.

Smith, 52, demonstrates that humans can, with help from other critters, wrest a corner of society away from a civilization branded by planetary mischief.

She’s playful. She credits the authors Beatrix Potter, Thornton Burgess, and E.B. White with populating her childhood “with talking trees and friendly fauna.”

Smith no longer traffics in magic. But her command of natural history, animal physiology and wildlife behavior brims with enchantment.

In 1991, Smith co-founded the Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center near her home. She moonlights as a licensed Vermont wildlife rehabilitator.

Patti Smith’s endearing articles about beavers over the years have been a highlight of this website’s beaver travels. Remember “Ducky all grown up“? Living in Vermont, of course she knows Skip Lisle and has the very good sense to appreciate beavers. In addition to co-founding the nature center and being a generally exceptional human, she’s also a very talented artist. We’ve been in contact before, so I was thrilled to read about the book. Her drawings are adorable and I wrote to congratulate her – (and of course, ahem. that other thing too).

Patti and her publisher both wrote back graciously that they would be happy to send me a signed copy for the silent auction and that we were doing great things in Martinez. Which of course we are, and I wouldn’t change it for the world, but to be honest I’m still a little jealous of Patti’s idyllic conditions. She falls asleep on a bunch of clover while sketching the beavers like something from the pages of Tolkien.

If I feel asleep with the beavers I’d wake up snuggling Robert.

Dewberry the beaver, and shoe (Photo: Drawing by Patti Smith)

There’s a fun interview with her and her mom in the article which you should check out. If you can’t BEAR to wait and buy your copy at the massive biding war at the silent auction in August you can pre order on Amazon or direct from the publisher here.

Albert the beaver, eating while swimming. (Photo: Drawing by Patti Smith)

And any time Patti needs a field trip, maybe some wine tasting or a visit to Point Reyes, she should definitely come see our city beavers! Martinez will provide the train whistles, homeless. and garbage trucks and we’ll bring a picnic and introduce you to the BEAVERS OF PEOPLE’S POND.

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Oh, and I just happened to come across this from CSTMS at UCB last may. I contacted the great presenters, Cleo Woelfle-Erskine and Daniel Sarna-Wojcicki . I was told we had met at the state of the beaver conference and Cleo had just finished transcribing my interview. I have zero memory of being interviewed there, but sometimes before I present I am inattentive to anything else, so it could very well be true! Their presentation is a lot of fun, and Michael Pollock wrote back that it cracked him up, which is high praise indeed. I also mentioned that the last slide they presented was OUR photo and they wrote back appropriately chagrined and talked about wanting to come for a beaver visit in June!

I can’t believe it took me almost a year to find this video. Where has it been all my life? But at least it has twice as many views today as it did yesterday, hopefully more after this. It’s a great look at the changing climate around beavers. And even if it gives everybody in the world credit except Worth A Dam, we know very well how important we are.

Hats off to beavers!

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere April 25, 2014

Meet Bolton’s new St George’s Day mascot – the Little Lever Beaver

A NEW St George’s Day mascot — the Little Lever Beaver — popped up in Bolton town centre to fly the flag for England.

The top-hat wearing rodent is the creation of husband-and-wife team Phil and Angie Sutcliffe, who said they wanted to mark the Saint’s holiday by bringing their very own creation to the Town Hall steps.

“We came up with the Little Lever Beaver as we wanted something that rhymed with the place — I was born in Little Lever and now we’ve settled here after travelling for 30 years.”

Add this to the number of stories stacked up for the inevitable re-colonization of beavers in England. I’m not crazy about the top hat, since beavers were exterminated in Europe, Canada and America in pursuit of felt for top hats. It’s kind of like having a baby cow dress up as veal picatta.

But I love the very last sentence in this article.

Beavers are now extremely rare in the UK, after they were hunted to extinction in England during the 12th century.

“Extremely rare” is SO much better than “extinct”. You almost get the feeling that some folks in the country are beginning to accept their fate.

Who’s talking about us now?

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental April 15, 2014

That would be Ghostbearphotography in Toronto. Just look at what’s featured on their site today?

That dam beaver chase…

Simon has told you all about his ‘curse of the beaver’, the chase for this surprisingly elusive creature. Well, maybe just elusive to Simon and me.

From his first post introducing the trials and tribulations we went through to find a beaver; to the story of the urban beaver that we discovered in Toronto one harsh winter day; to learning that you don’t want to get on a beaver’s bad side after we unknowingly got in the way of one: each post sparked some laughter from our readers.

It also sparked a wonderful new connection from a beaver advocate located in California.

Heyyyyyyyyy! I know that site! And you do too! Thanks Jill and Simon for recognizing how worthwhile beavers are! And plugging the work of Worth A Dam. They reprinted my letter explaining what we do and asking for a donation for the festival, which apparently got them interested enough to help out and spread the word. I’m waiting for the print to arrive as we speak. I especially like that they had their own “beaver-muskrat” mystery and thought our video was helpful.

FYI: Simon would really REALLY have benefitted from watching this clip from their website:

Ahhh, I always was fond of that film, my third effort ever. I had just learned to use iMovie and the world felt like my videography oyster! It remains one of my favorites of all times. All the footage is from 2007, and that tail slap at the end isn’t from mom or dad – and there were no kits yet. I filmed it before the time our first kits were seen. It was so long ago that when I walked to the lodge and saw a huge otter sitting on top of it I wondered if it was a beaver! Then that beaver swam out and did 19 tail slaps until the otter hi-tailed it away. I missed filming 18 others and finally got the last one, which accounts for my exclamation.

The reason this is interesting is because I think it means that Mom and Dad had a yearling already when they moved in to Martinez. The first woman who told me about the beavers in Martinez said she had seen three, but I never knew how much to believe her. The idea of their being a yearling comforts me because it means Mom was a little older when she died than we understood. I hate to think of her life being cut short. But if she had a yearling when she came that means she was at least 6 or 7 when she started her life in Martinez, which puts her closer to 10 when she died, and that’s about average I think for a beaver in the wild.

Anyway thank you, Jill and Simon for your support of beavers and Worth A Dam! And Planetsave is featuring that beaver lodge building from Canada film today, with excellent quote from Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife on why beavers matter:

Busy Beavers—You Bet! (Video)

“Beavers reliably and economically maintain wetlands that sponge up floodwaters, alleviate droughts and floods (because their dams keep water on the land longer), lessen erosion, raise the water table, and act as the “earth’s kidneys” to purify water…. Several feet of silt collect upstream of older beaver dams, and toxics, such as pesticides, are broken down by microbes in the wetlands that beavers create. Thus, water downstream of dams is cleaner and requires less treatment for human use.

Nicely said, and very true. Thanks BWW and PlanetSave for reminding us!