I have been asked this question often in the past months, from kindly listeners at the Friends of Alhambra Creek presentation, less kind skeptics behind the desk, and truly curious documentary interviews. I have asked myself the question as well, wondering what answer would possibly justify the amount of time and energy I’ve allowed this campaign to demand of me. I guess the answer, like any answer, is evolving. As I learn more about the ecological impact of these animals, my explanation can become more sophisiticated, but that doesn’t really explain why I started caring. As I observe more about the community impact of the beavers, my reasons can be more civic, but that’s not really why I started either.
The truth is, it started with curiousity, developed into wonder, and turned into a kind of protective admiration. Months ago I described this to Sharon Brown of Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife as being “lured by these creatures into caring about them“. Sharon is the compassionate biologist for the largest beaver advocacy organization in the nation, and was a personal friend of Dorothy Richards whose legendary 50 year study of beavers was bequeathed into a NY reserve and the development of BWW to teach others about their unique benefits. Sharon expanded the oblique introduction of my email and turned it into a lovely article called “The Lure of Beavers” which was published in Wildlife Watch Binocular. In it she describes beavers drawing human interest for those lucky enough to be close to them, partly because of their “good natured responsiveness and sense of humor”.
The article describes observations by Dorothy Richards that beavers actually engaged in “practical jokes”, were elaborately social and even self-conscious. Their behavior is familiar to humans, because it often matches ours, (or the best parts of ours) and this endears them to us at close range. Just yesterday I watched a young kit approach the dam, laboriously climb out of the water onto the structure, check a stick that was already firmly imbedded, and move it a quarter inch to the left before returning to the water with satisfaction. Beaver perfectionism.
The article describes Dorothy Richards introduction to beavers by the writings of Grey Owl, an complicated early environmentalist who was born in England, adopted by Ojibwa indians in 1906, married an Iroquois woman, was a trapper for years and later used his knowledge of beavers to educate others regarding habitat and conservation. Sharon’s article describes how he began to understand why Natives referred to them as “beaver people” and aptly quotes his writing with,
“If any of their qualities are found to approximate some of our own, it is because they have, unknown to us, always possessed them, and the fault lies in our not having discovered sooner that these characteristics were not, after all, exclusively human”
The entire article ends with a credit to Martinez and the enormous citizen response involved in saving our beavers. It advocates that other cities match our compassion and become involved as we have, pointing out that in this time of climate change, restoring wetlands has become even more important. Maybe explanations grow up, like children. What’s your answer to the “Why beavers” question?
