All kinds of news…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Educational, Environmental, History January 31, 2012

It seems like its been ages since we talked about OUR VERY OWN beavers, but my oh my have they been busy! This weekend the tree above Reeds sleeping hole was artfully felled and polished off, then used to rebuild the now-curved secondary dam AND it turns out the long-lost third dam! Pictures will follow but you can rest assured that Martinez Beavers are no slackers!

This weekend I was able to complete a wonderful interview with Mary O’Brien of the Grand Canyon Trust, and our conversation took so many exciting directions that my head has been a little dazzled trying to follow them all. She told me about the beaver management paper they had just submitted to the forestry service, getting tuned into beavers by attending Suzanne Fouty’s dissertation defense, and Newspaper rock in Utah with hundreds of tribal images of humans and animals.

Of course this is my favorite part:→

Getting ready for the interview I went to re-visit the article that first introduced me to Mary lo these many years ago. “Voyage of the Dammed” in High Country News remains my favorite beaver article ever written. This time when I looked at the photo I saw it in a new light – an OMG-that’s-a-muskrat-light!

Of course I wrote everyone involved about the error: the author, the publisher and the hapless photographer, but they’ve made no response so far. It’s the only photo without a description, so maybe they know its not a beaver and just used it to ‘imply’ beaver? Still it’s a little like finding out Jesus on the Mount was reading from a teleprompter. Sigh.

Oh and this photo from Mike Callahan’s facebook page explains why we should be happy that our beavers are busily taking down trees and building third dams instead of occupying their time in a more insidious way:

plugged filter — Dammed up Intake Exclusion Fence on a Flexible Pond Leveler

Like Minds…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers January 11, 2012

The amazing case of the Stittswell beavers in Ottawa, Canada brought a host of new friends and supporters. I didn’t realize at the time just how many. This arrived over the weekend from the president and co-founder of the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Center.

Dear Heidi

I wanted to thank you and your amazing team for the work you do on behalf of beavers. It is not only an inspiration but your website provides an exceptional forum for supporting and promoting the value of wetlands and beavers. So often people working on wildlife issues feel isolated and alone, particularly in challenging the status quo, so the value of Worth A Dam simply cannot be over estimated.

Our Centre has been in operation for over 20 years but it has only been in

the last eight years or so, with increased development in the region, that we have become involved in beaver issues. We have worked with individuals quite successfully on beaver solutions and have attempted to get the City of

Ottawa to adopt more progressive practices, particularly with respect to storm water ponds. As you can attest, it is not easy changing mindsets within government but we are determined to do so while recognizing it will be a long battle.

As you know, most recently we have been involved with Anita Utas, a local resident, in challenging the City’s plan to trap beavers in a Stittsville storm water pond. Anita is an amazing advocate for beavers and we hope to continue working with her and to involve her in our school program wherever possible.

Most of our Centre’s efforts are directed to providing education on urban wildlife through area schools but we also have a growing community outreach

program, giving presentations to a wide range of groups on wildlife issues, writing a weekly ‘Living with Wildlife’ column in regional newspapers ( website version that features the Stittsville beavers) a website (www.wildlifeinfo.ca) that provides detailed conflict prevention information, and we do extensive work with other environmental and animal protection organizations on specific habitat and wildlife issues.

Since learning about Worth a Dam, we have been very pleased to have been able to direct a number of people to your website. Like the proverbial ripples in a beaver pond, it is spreading the message and doing much good.

We can’t thank you enough for the dedicated and talented campaign you have undertaken. We wanted you to know that it’s positive impact and influence is

being felt throughout the country.

Donna DuBreuil

Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre

Donna! That’s the best letter EVER! Coming from a woman who started a wildlife rehab center with her husband more than 20 years ago after finding a baby squirrel, we take your appreciation very, very seriously. The facility helped injured and orphaned wildlife for many years, trained volunteers, encouraged humane solutions and made a massive difference. When regulations changed in the country they stopped being able to do animal rehab, and made the decision to go full time into education. I am awed by their dedication and commitment to teaching children to appreciate wildlife and making sure adults know how (and why!) to live with it.

Well, the next time I’m feeling like our flailing efforts to save beavers and teach folk about their importance to the watershed don’t make a whit of difference, I will reread Donna’s words and keep trying a little longer. Thank you, Donna, for taking the time to write a beautiful letter, giving me permission to post it, and making us feel like all our hard work really is Worth A Dam!

So close and yet so far…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions, Environmental December 16, 2011

There was an article yesterday about a foundation grant to a university in Indiana so the ecology lab could study “Beavers and Birds”. My, my, my was I excited! It’s not exactly beaver central out there! I got out my beaver map and looked for the closest expert out that way. It’s a beaver wasteland but I thought Hydrologist and beaver supporter Donald Hey of the wetlands initiative would be a good place to start.

Apparently the million dollar gift is supposed to be the first of a 5 million dollar campaign to create an endowment fund for the ecological lab at the University. Seems they first gave 250,000 to restore the 55-acre wetlands that the lab is housed on. The intention is to protect the lands in perpetuity and teach better stewardship to students and children in the area.

Great! You have wetlands! Students! Money and good intentions! When do the beavers come in?

Students on campus are doing behavioral, hormone, and genetic research on beavers and birds

Ugh. There is no part of that sentence I like. And no part of that sentence that is going to advance your goals OR ecology. Do you mean you spent 250,000 to restore your wetlands, then locked all the beavers and birds in cages and you’re studying what happens when you increase their estrogen or combine their DNA with chickens? And people give you money for this?

Listen, you want to protect those wetlands forever? You want to create an environmental center that will show the world Indiana understands its wetlands? Here’s what you do. Write this down, got a pencil? Let the beavers out of those cages and make sure they have enough friends. Let them build dams and move mud and chew down trees, let them dig channels and turn up the soil. Let enriched soil increase the insect population and replenish the fish population and bring new wildlife. Let the chewed trees coppice and become dense bushy nesting ground for a host of new migratory and songbirds. Let your beavers be the foundation and I promise in 5 years your grad students will be so busy writing down everything they see they won’t have time to count their stipends.

Since she started with Beavers…

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Uncategorized November 16, 2011

Every now and then you encounter a happy accident on youtube and it introduces you to something you never would have saught out on your own. That’s true for this song by Jonathan Richman whose original recording I don’t really like, but inspired this young woman to record her own version. It starts off a bit rocky, but stick with it for a treat.

Of couse my mind immediately provided some carefully selected edits…

So who’s going to record this for us?

Beavers on NPR

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental October 10, 2011

Beaver friend Brock Dolman was alerted to this weekends beaver news by one of HIS beaver friends! Beaver restoration was discussed in Living on Earth – it happens to feature OUR beaver friend Amanda Parish from the Lands Council who came to dinner and a Martinez Beaver viewing last month!

Eager Beavers Engineer Ecosystems

GELLERMAN: For the past few weeks, Living on Earth has been reporting on the efforts to remove dams around the country. Well, this week, we talk about building them. On a tributary of the Spokane River in Washington state, new dams have gone up – helping to raise the water table, remove pollution and pesticides, attract fish and wildlife, and they cost: nothing.

Because we’re not building the dams, beavers are! Amanda Parrish has been busy with the new dams – busy as a, well, you know! She’s director of the Beaver Solution – a program run by Spokane’s Lands Council to protect beavers, and promote their engineering talents. We caught up with Amanda Parrish while she was knee deep at work.

Go listen to the interview which starts at 24:30.

The next segment was a reading from author Mark Seth Lender, author of Salt Marsh Diary. His description of the beaver and pond was so lovely I had to put it with footage (see below).

More treats, you ask? Well, okay “Oliver”, how about this? Remember the visitor from Utah who came to the beaver festival this year, Mary O’Brien? She just wrote me about this new site they are developing for beaver-assisted restoration. Click on the banner to check it out.

Not impressed yet? Well have a good look around and then stop off at the section titled “Interesting Web links on Beaver”. Hmmm, I wonder what’s there?

Now that’s what I call product placement! Thank for the plug, Utah!