You have to be careful who you “rescue”. Just remember the Little Prince said “You are responsible forever for what you have tamed“.

I’m not exactly sure how deporting an unwanted family off your property counts as a RESCUE, but sure, okay, I’ll play.

Wetland restoration; leave it to beavers

CASCADE-SISKIYOU REGION, Ore. – A family of five beavers has been relocated to the Cascade-Siskiyou region, marking a pivotal moment in a community-driven effort to restore local wetlands. The beavers, rescued from a private property on the Rogue River, arrived at their new home last month following careful preparations to ensure their well-being. The beavers were transported in enclosed bags to provide a sense of security, and upon release, they were gifted willow bundles, apples, and carrots. This relocation aims to harness the beaver’s natural engineering abilities to enhance the ecological health of the area.

The reintroduction is the culmination of a six-year project spearheaded by the Vesper Meadow Education Program. Jeanine Moy, the program’s founder and director, initiated the effort in 2018 with a vision for community-powered restoration at a demonstration site. “The whole idea is this process and working with nature, and part of that is encouraging beaver to come back, because they will restore that habitat and maintain it better than we ever will,” says Moy.

Well having beavers around is certainly better than NOT having them around, I guess.

Moy sought to involve diverse participants, including students, volunteers, and various organizations, alongside scientific monitoring and artistic storytelling to convey the project’s cultural relevance. In recent years, Vesper Meadow has increasingly collaborated with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, recognizing the historical stewardship of these lands by tribal people. “The beavers are the keepers of the waterway, and the Native people have, since time immemorial, been the keepers of the land.”

“It’s been just over six years of work repairing the habitat to the point where beavers could be reintroduced to the area, and now we are excited that beavers will be the ones to lead the way forward in the restoration work.”

You’re too modest, 6 years repairing the habitat but 206 years destroying it first.

Project Beaver, a key partner in this endeavor, played a crucial role in the beaver relocation. The organization, which has been collaborating with Vesper Meadow for five years, holds permits to relocate beavers from areas where they are considered a nuisance or are at risk. Moy expressed hope that this project will inspire other land managers to adopt similar restoration practices.

In the last 100 years, beavers in Oregon were pushed to the brink of extinction. Jeanine Moy explains that this near-extinction is one of the “wrongs that were made to the land,” and identifies it as one of the settler colonial harms to the landscape. The dramatic reduction in the beaver population is a significant alteration to the ecosystem, having occurred relatively recently and in such a short time.

A lot of the work being done to Vesper Meadow is funded under a grant to promote clean water for drinking purposes. Vesper Meadow is upstream of the Robert A. Duff water treatment plant outside of Eagle Point. Moy says that with the beavers doing their work, downstream users should see increased water quality and decreased sedimentation. The project has also been made possible in partnership with the local offices of Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, Jackson County Soil and Water Conservation District.

It takes a long time to repair what we have destroyed,. Maybe someone should tell that to those folks in Washington.

Canada wants to be in charge of its own beavers, thank you very much.

COLUMN: Industrious beaver has long been a source of Canadian pride

In January 1975, a senator for New York introduced a bill to acknowledge the beaver as its state’s official animal. Well, harrumph, this did not go over well with Canadians, who had, for a couple of centuries, ‘claimed’ the beaver to be representative of all things Canadian: an industrious engineer and the base of our economy ever since the first European explorers tripped over this area.

In quick response to this threat of an American brazenly stealing our nation’s pride and joy, in March 1975, a private member’s bill was presented by MP Sean O’Sullivan to rightfully claim and protect the beaver icon to be our nation’s representative. On March 24, 1975, the Canadian Parliament made it so. Take that, ya upstart Americans! Elbows up, eh?

Ok, but I honestly don’t know why beavers are uniquely Canadian. Everyone who had them killed them. And they were a boom for every nations economy at one time.

The beaver had been inserted into many company logos well before 1975: the Hudson’s Bay Company since way back when; Roots clothing, which outfitted the 1998 Canadian Winter Olympic teams with its beaver-branded clothing; and Parks Canada, which long had the beaver as its mascot. And many others, probably more so than even the Canada goose.

What surprised me a bit was that the beaver had shown up on Canadian nickels since 1937, well before the aforementioned American/Canadian beaver debacle of 1975. As a young collector of coins in the 1960s, I assumed that to be engraved on a coin, the subject must have already received royal assent. The things you learn later in life.

Honestly Canada has a lot to be pissed about right now so we should just give them the beaver. Okay?

This headline made me smile and was even note worthy enough to be sent to me by Amy our chalk artist who is usually too busy in her own life to check in until May.

Report: More Americans Moving Away From Urban Areas For Rural Life Where They Have Escalating Feud With Beaver

CAMBRIDGE, MA—Suggesting the reversal of a longstanding historical trend towards urbanization, a report published Tuesday by researchers at Harvard University revealed that more Americans were moving away from cities to pursue a rural life where they have an escalating feud with a beaver.

“Our findings indicate there has been a 15% increase in Americans who trade the hustle and bustle of metropolitan life for an agrestic existence in which they dismantle a small beaver dam on their property, leading the determined rodent to seek retribution,” said the report’s lead author,

Just to be clear: if this was true they would all be living in Placer county because that sounds exactly like what happens every year in Rocklin or Lincoln.

Keith Rawlings, noting that rising rents and concerns about crime had driven even long-term city dwellers to purchase a secluded woodland home whose walls, cabinets, and tables would ultimately be gnawed into a series of elaborate booby traps by the vengeful beaver and his family. “More U.S. citizens are leaving behind the nightlife and cultural events of large urban centers, preferring to spend their disposable income on a faulty beaver-trapping kit, an eccentric exterminator who will end up poisoning himself, and a two-barrel shotgun they will use to destroy their remaining possessions in a desperate pursuit of the elusive semiaquatic mammal.

Oh I wish trapping beaver was even a LITTLE bit hard!

While many say they miss the convenience and variety of cities, they nonetheless prefer a country life in which they realize the beaver would make the perfect mascot for the big ad campaign they’ve been working on and ultimately learn to live in peace with the creature.” Rawlings added that, by contrast, a relatively negligible number of Americans were choosing to leave rural areas in pursuit of an urban life in which they befriend a wise-cracking pigeon.

That’s true. Beavers are way better than pigeons.

Minnesota is going to school. Beaver school to be exact. While Dr. Fairfax was teaching in California we got a whole lot smarter in the Golden State.

Now it is Minnesota’s turn.

 

Itasca Waters will continue its online Practical Water Wisdom series at noon on Thursday, April 3, with Beaver Dams, Ponds and Effects.

This program will feature Emily Fairfax, assistant professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota, who will describe the role of the beaver within the ecosystem of the Great Lakes Region. Fairfax will also discuss beaver management practices and strategies for the future.

Lets hope its the same role they play everywhere else if we let them.

“Learn about the benefits and challenges of beaver activity, from improving water quality and wildlife habitat to dealing with flooded roads or downed trees,” said a release.

The Practical Water Wisdom series is the brainchild of Itasca Waters, a nonprofit organization located in Itasca County whose mission is to team up with organizations and concerned citizens to maintain clean water for continued health, enjoyment and a strong economy.

Attendees will hear about ice-out forecasts, climate change and fisheries, septic system inspections, harmful algae blooms, drainage infrastructure, traditional ecological knowledge in lake management, banded mystery snails and water-focused books for children in future webinars.

Bring on the Beavers. Any good beaver showroom knows they come with problems AND solutions.

Happy first day of spring! This was posted yesterday on the rewildling webpage. I like it a lot, but I’m not sure a cow should be in the water upstream.