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.

Swedish Beaver Ponds

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now? January 24, 2014

Constructed wetlands save frogs and birds threatened with extinction

Over the last few decades, several thousands of wetlands have been constructed in Sweden in agricultural landscapes. The primary reason is that the wetlands prevent a surfeit of nutrients from reaching our oceans and lakes.

An important objective in constructing wetlands is reducing eutrophication – over-fertilisation. It’s surprisingly positive that they’ve also had such a great direct effect on biological diversity,” says Stefan Weisner, Professor of Biology specialising in environmental science at Halmstad University.

A special thanks to BK from Georgia for sending this article my way. (I would never have found it because it stunningly doesn’t even MENTION beavers.) So the Swedes are paying their farmers to make wetlands and still paying their trappers to kill beavers? I’m scratching my head at that story, but happy to see they appreciate the value of wetlands. It’s a start anyway. If a country values wetlands enough to pay farmers to make them, we should have an easier time convincing them to leave the creature who does it for free.

Over the last 15 years, nearly 3,000 wetland areas have been constructed in agricultural landscapes around Sweden. Farmers have the possibility of receiving economic support for this from sources such as the Swedish Board of Agriculture. The primary reason is because wetlands catch the surfeit of nutrients from agriculture such as nitrogen and phosphorus–substances that would otherwise have leaked out into the seas and lakes and contributed to eutrophication.

The study shows that creation of wetlands is a cost-effective to catch the nutrients.

“It’s a very effective way of purifying the water. It’s less expensive than constructing treatment plants, and in addition it contributes to biological diversity,” Prof Weisner says.

The whole thing made me think of the WWII lyrics Jon used to sing as a boy on the playground. “The Yanks are flying fortresses at 40,000 feet…etc” set to the tune of the battle hymn of the republic….

The Swedes are building beaver ponds with farmers on the land

They do the labor all themselves, no beaver lends a hand

They say it helps the birds and frogs, and takes the toxins out

While trapping beavers off the land, of this I have no doubt.

Beaver, beaver, you could help the birds and fish

Beaver, beaver you could give them what they wish

You could do the farmer’s job much better by a score

And make the wetlands rich and pure just like you did before.

And speaking of Northern Europe, the silent auction received a donation from an artist who lives in Zurich Switzerland yesterday. (No, I’m not kidding.) Simona Cellar maintains the Etsy site Anomisbysimona and will be sending us her adorable eager beaver calendar to keep track of accomplishments. Thank you Simona!

Outside the city limits…

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now? January 22, 2014

Flooding from beaver dam bedevils Worcester neighborhood

WORCESTER — Residents of a quiet neighborhood in southeastern Worcester say they’re struggling with an intractable property owner in their midst — a bad neighbor whose inaction allowed beavers to turn a small brook into a sprawling swamp that periodically inundates their backyards.

Unfortunately for the aggrieved residents, the property owner they have a problem with is notoriously hard to fight — City Hall.

When city public works crews clear the blocked culvert, they release a torrent of water that gushes off the city land into the backyards of homes along St. Louis Street, sometimes sweeping away lawn furniture and forming a small pond of standing water lapping uncomfortably close to their back doors.

Now before we talk about a city that makes the streets flood on purpose because they are worried that the streets might flood on accident, can we please discuss the alliteration spasm that appears to grip editors when faced with beaver stories? “Beavers Burst Bubble”, “Beavers Build Bottleneck” “Beavers Begin Badly”. But Beavers bedevil neighborhood? Honestly, what gives? How many ‘B’ words do editors know? A lot apparently. Maybe that’s as high as they got in the thesaurus.

But city officials maintain the changes to the brook are part of a natural process, and that the city can’t correct drainage problems on private property. After years of complaints from the residents, the city hired a trapper last year to round up roughly a dozen beavers on the conservation land.

Department of Public Works and Parks Commissioner Paul J. Moosey conceded that city crews have erred in releasing water from the marshy city property too rapidly.

“As much as we’ve tried to make the peace with this neighborhood, their expectations are more than we can handle,” Mr. Moosey said. “Any time we get a call from down there that we can do something about, we do.”

Some in the neighborhood feel the city has a hidden agenda to force them to accept public sewers and streets, which they have resisted for years because of the expense. They see the flooding and private streets issues as separate.

Aha! The city can’t possibly fix this problem the right way because the area is unincorporated! Those aren’t city streets and they aren’t on the public sewer. Basically the city is daring them to incorporate so that they can have their homes protected. “Lovely home here, shame if something was to happen to it.” Except that it does take tax dollars to run a public works department. Maybe the residents and the city should chip in for a flow device and take care of this problem for good?
I thought for today’s Auction show and tell I would share something I just got word is being donated to the silent auction this morning. Campfitters is generously sending us one of these: it’s a beaver wall hook, and I can’t imagine a nicer place to hang your jacket when you come home from a visit to the dam!

Oh, and just in case you need a reminder why we need an actual artist to make our brochure for the festival, here it is. I was trying to see how my idea for Amelia Hunter’s new brochure would look. I was thinking of something that would show a beaver on the water and under the water, to communicate the beaver’s remarkable duality and the way he impacts both. Mind you, the child I was painting it with asked if I was making a gopher.

Don’t worry, apparently that didn’t stop me.

You Otter See this Beaver

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Dispersal, Environmental January 21, 2014

The beaver was snapped chomping on this tree by Tom Buckley with a hidden infra-red trail camera

Look who’s visiting the River Otter in Devon. (No, for once that isn’t a typo, he’s not vising ‘A’ river otter. He’s visiting THE river named ‘otter’ in Devon England.)

Mystery of the beaver making himself a new home in the River Otter

You might expect to see an otter on the Devon river which bears the animal’s name, but not a beaver which has been extinct in this country for hundreds of years.

Now one has been spotted on the River Otter by an environmental scientist – and it’s thought to be the only beaver living wild in England.

But how did it get there? And is it alone, or have a family of beavers moved in to a quiet part of the river in South East Devon?

These are some of the questions which retired scientist Tom Buckley and local farmer David Lawrence have been trying to answer since they established that at least one beaver is now living in a part of the river near Ottery St Mary.

Regular readers of this website, (who apparently do not include any scientists in the United Kingdom will remember on January 9th I posted the update from the Devon Beaver Project, which is located in Cornwall about 25 miles away as the beaver swims from where this story takes place. The Otter River flows all the way to the ocean, and a beaver could make an easy transit from Exeter. Shh don’t tell them. It works better as a mystery. At least they’re interested and curious, which is more than I can say for lots of cities.

I first noticed a tree that had been damaged because I walk around that area every day – then I saw a few trees had been nibbled,” Mr Buckley went on. “For me it posed the question: could it have been a beaver, or was it some kids messing about?

“When I looked more closely it was clear the damage to the trees had been done by a beaver…”

After that Mr Buckley began mounting his special “trail-camera” – which automatically takes photographs when triggered by some substantial movement – at various locations around a small island in the river.

“What happens on David Lawrence’s land near Ottery St Mary is that the river divides to leave a bit of an island in the middle – and that’s the main area where we are seeing them. It’s where most of the trees have been laid down, not necessarily forming a dam, but it may be that this is the early stages.

Oh that is one happy beaver! An entire island to avoid humans and the only one of his kind to chew those trees in 400 years! He must be feeling a cross between Rip Van Winkle, and a kid locked up in a candy shop that is closed for the night! The story was picked up this morning by the BBC. Lucky him! For now, anyway.

Mr Buckley added: “It’s all very interesting – it’s early days yet but, as long as lots of people don’t go there and frighten the beaver away, he should be happy enough.

“What’s going to be really interesting is how it gets on with the other animals, like the otters which we see on the river.”

Take it from Martinez, the otters will be THRILLED that the beaver is there, digging holes and improving the bugs so that the fish are fatter and more plentiful. The beaver won’t mind the company. He has had 400 years all to himself.

Moses’ otter footage

And to get us all in the mood for the beaver festival which is a mere 7 months away, I’m going to start a new series highlighting something that was donated to us or the silent auction. This painting donated by the artist Lynn Bywaters of Connecticut arrived yesterday. One look should get everyone in the mood to bid early and often!

Art imitates Life

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental, Massachusetts Trapping Law January 19, 2014

David Buckley Borden is an artist in Boston whose day job is a landscape architect. So guess what animal fascinates him a lot? I learned about him in this great article from Boston Magazine. This work began with a 16th century woodcutting by Konrad Gessner, and basically has a Massachusetts shaped hole through it because – well look at the title:Given how insane Massachusetts generally has been about beavers since the ’96 trapping law, I’m delighted to think they have a prominent artist who respects their contribution and boldly displays it in their galleries. (I guess every state gets the artists it deserves.) In case you don’t remember the original, here it is. I love how perfectly it represents the apparently epic bias that exists between beaver and otter. Otters are ‘cute’ and greeted with welcome banners. Even in 16th century woodcuttings, they bat their eye lashes and roll playfully in the water. They get gleeful articles in the SF Chronicle and Contra Costa Times celebrating their very existence.

Beavers are almost always seen as fierce trouble:

Speaking of which, a little otter was seen below the primary dam on Friday. He was busily eating something crunchy and looked very grateful for the habitat. Full disclosure: I may as well confess, I have a pillowcase with the Gessner beaver image. It gives me very courageous beaver dreams.

Begging for Beavers

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere January 12, 2014

The Beaver Pond Tray © Cobble Hill Puzzle Company

I spent all day yesterday filling out the grant application for the Martinez Community Foundation and now I’m practically in a beaver festival mood. We are asking them to pay for the beaver tail art project that children enjoy so much they ask for it every year. Wish us luck! In the mean time, wouldn’t this be a fabulous addition to the silent auction? It’s a 35 piece children’s puzzle made by the Cobble Hill Company which is owned by Outset Media in British Columbia. The artist really captured the biodiversity of a beaver pond very well. And I love the detail. I’m off to write the most compelling letter I can muster and hope for the best.

(When I was a child I was a campfire girl, so every February we were forced to sell mints. I hated asking friends and strangers to buy them. I hated the mints and everything about them with a fiery passion. I dreaded the entire month. I often worried about the event so much that I came down with strep throat very badly and wasn’t allowed to sell them at all. I was so shy when I finally made it to the door that sometimes I’d ring the doorbell and then say nothing.)

Funny how things change.