How’s this for Product Placement?

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Friends of Martinez Beavers September 1, 2011

sherri worth a dam — Sherri Tippie & friend model our 2010 shirt

Lookee what I got yesterday when I helped Sherri start up a facebook page! (Go friend her so she gets practice.) She wants a beautiful website like ours and is looking for some hardy souls to help her. I told her I would put out the APB, but in the meantime she could make things work with FB. This article was just published about her involvement with Estes Valley and apparently another big one is on the way.

Stan Gengler, executive director of the Estes Valley Recreation and Parks District (EVRPD), told the gathered citizens at the town board room on Friday that he wanted to hear everyone’s thoughts and concerns and that the meeting provided a great opportunity to talk about the assets of the trails and the beaver ponds. He assured worried citizens that the EVRPD doesn’t want to get rid of the beaver dam and doesn’t want the beavers to move. They are an environmental asset, he said, to applause.

“I hope we (can) come together and find the best alternative for constructing a trail, as well as for preserving the beaver habitat,” he said. “We’re not bulldozing the beaver ponds.”

Now this sounds like a community that appreciates beavers! Everyone’s suggestions were heard at the meeting, including the one to make the trail into a catwalk and the one to make the whole path cantalever! Sherri of course offered real alternatives, and I’m sure they’ll get it all figured out soon.

Tippie said that the problem with removing the dam is that engineers would have to go deep — it’s not just a matter of “taking out the sticks at the top.” That would lead to draining the pond, which is not as easy for the beavers to build back. Beavers, themselves, act as flood-control engineers, she added. They shouldn’t be relocated and have had enough harassment already, she said.

“If people don’t like beavers, they don’t know anything about them,” she said. “They are a keystone species, providing habitat for wildlife and stimulating growth of trees. This is an incredible opportunity. It can be a win/win, with a plan to make as minimal impact on the dam as possible….People are coming here to enjoy the wildlife. We have to plan around them….You have to have a soft touch, anytime you do anything with the earth. Bulldozers scare the snot out of me.”

Just a final note, when I was chatting with the filmaker yesterday about who she had talked to and who should be next, I asked about Sherri. She laughed, “Are you kidding? She was amazing, girlfriend!”.(Sherri often expresses her affection for friends by calling them “girlfriend”). I guess this impersonation was proof that they had chatted!

(I wonder how she’ll imitate me?)

You can read the whole delightful article article here.

Update from Skip: Now we’re heard from all out beaver friends post-Irene

We’re fine. Thanks. On high ground. The state got devastated though.

All of our b-dams held, absorbing enormous amounts of water, and taking the edge off below. All flow devices are fine, and many acted as debris catches, protecting culverts from clogging, and hence the roads.

Cheers, Skip

Sweet on Beavers

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise August 19, 2011

Just in case you wonder whether beavers are important to the imaginations of children or adults….here’s some food for thought.

There’s no doubt, people love beavers, celebrate beavers, enjoy beavers, and incidentally, fall in love over beavers.

Teapot Update

heidi08 Beaver News, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere July 12, 2010

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The tempest from Bemidji has been soundly resolved. You may have heard about the public art project in Minnesota that allowed 10 artists to complete their own works of art around beaver sculptures? Well one of the productions, “Gaea” by Deborah Davis got some unintended attention when a few folk thought that the image on the beaver’s tummy looked like a vagina. A few phone calls later to the city council and the statue was removed. (They said 20 but I’ll eat a bug if there were more than 2)

The artist protested, saying that the ‘vagina in question’ was supposed to represent a praying woman’s folded hands with roses coming out to show her faith. The city shook its head, saying public vaginas were only meant for the popular strip clubs of the town, and had no place on beaver statues.The internet did what it does best. Tweets were twittered. Articles and emails were forwarded. And lo and behold! the town of Bemidji decided that it didn’t want to be the beaver censorship capital of the world.

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The statue was restored.

Add this to the list of ridiculous beaver stories you have no doubt been accumulating. I’m glad the beaver is back, and if Deborah wants to donate a little something for the silent auction we’d surely appreciate it!

Help From Our Friends…

heidi08 Beaver News, Beaver-themed merchandise, Festival June 2, 2010

Always looking for a way to raise interest and support, I thought about the fluttered pulses beaver hero Skip Lisle generated when he shirtlessly installed the flow device at the beaver dam. Receptionists, litigators and project managers flocked in droves to the windowsills to watch muscles ripple in the water and I don’t think the appreciative sounds they were making were all based on the relief that the beavers would be safe. Mind you, Skip is a family man, married with children, and devoted to his school-teacher wife. But there is not a single event where the scrapbook is displayed that at least three fondly remembering women do not approach the Gazette photo page and wistfully recall their admiration.

Knowing this, I personally added a shirtless man with a shovel to the beaver diorama that Jon made for last years’s earthday event and was very pleased with the effect. Once at a Farmer’s market display the former photographer for the Gazette told me that they jokingly discussed using the photos of Skip to “make a calendar” to raise money. Hmm…. Recently I approached the photographer to dig up a photo or two, and wrote Skip to see whether he’d be willing to grace it with an autograph. I’m very pleased to announce that both said yes, and we will offer a lovely framed photo of the hero at work in the silent auction.

Let the bidding wars begin!

If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose,” the Walrus said,
“That they could get it clear?”
“I doubt it,” said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

Lewis Carrol

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A Beaver Management How-to

heidi08 Beaver News, Beaver-themed merchandise, Creative Solutions, featured, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Video May 19, 2010

At long last Mike Callahan’s instructional DVD is available to make the techniques and tools of beaver management accessible to every property owner and township. Having reviewed my own copy last Wednesday I can testify that the instruction is offered in pragmatic, easy-to-understand language, and will contribute substantially to the welfare of beavers and landowners for decades to come. A second clip of testimonials is viewable on his updated website, and purchasing information can be found by clicking here. Attentive beaver watchers will soon recognize our very own Martinez beavers featured in section two, which couldn’t please this particular supporter more!

There are lots of parts of beaver advocacy that are frustrating, disappointing and tiring. This isn’t one of them. I am eager to see this DVD in every public library across the country. I am impatient to see every city manager forced to watch it at breakfast twice a year, and hopeful that it will become regular fare at Fish & Game or the Department of Transportation soon. Do your part to help spread the word that any city smarter than a beaver can manage a beaver and let’s make doing the right thing harder and harder to avoid.

Thanks Mike! And congratulations!