Cheryl sent out notices for our beaver festival yesterday. Which means it’s definitely happening and I’m fully entitled to panic now. Feel free to join in or plan now to be implored for assistance. I was relieved yesterday to see that we’re not the only ones celebrating beavers.
Great Swamp Conservancy celebrates beavers
Canastota, N.Y. — Each year, the Great Swamp Conservancy honors a native animal, and 2019 is the Year of the Beaver (Castor canadensis) because these residents of the GSC are essential to the wetland complex.
To kick off this year, on March 9 at 2 p.m., an educational nonprofit called Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife (BWW) will trek from Dodgeville over to the Great Swamp to teach about a species that builds the land’s best life support system.
This keystone species doesn’t adapt to its surroundings like most; rather, it alters and creates a habitat that aids in their survival and the survival of other species in the area. BWW believes beavers are an important ally in solving the earth’s major environmental problems.
Guests are invited to come to the swamp to receive expert advice on how to coexist with nature’s most intuitive engineers. Tickets may be purchased at the door for $4 for nonmembers and $3 for members.
Excellent! I’d be thrilled to come listen to Sharon and Owen talk about beavers! I would be delighted if 2019 was the year of the beaver in every state and Canada. Wistful sigh. We’ll get there eventually I think. I mean after we celebrate the year of the pig and the rat you’d think we’d even get to beaver.
I was very pleased to read this article from Oklahoma of a landowner who was actually happy to have beaver settle into his land. Yes happy!
The World Around You: Young beaver finds a new home at a small pond
It’s about time David John had some water in his pond up by Skiatook. It was dry most of the summer, and in a way that makes the latest development at the pond that much more interesting.
It’s an expert developer. A young beaver.
Nobody knows how to collect and save water like a beaver, although even they can be chased out by drought.
February and March are dispersal months for beavers in Oklahoma. A number of things might cause a beaver to leave its colony, but youngsters often are pushed out to make room for the next litter.
My goodness. I didn’t see that coming. Joy at a beaver arrival in the Sooner state, Well, well, well. Of course the columnist has to repeat the story about beavers being pushed out which we know they are not, but still. That’s pretty nice to read from that part of the world.
Remarkable engineers, they are famous — or infamous, depending on your situation — for using sticks and mud to build dams or stop the flow of any trickle of water escaping the stretch of water where they want to live. Anyone who has waded through a marsh or other wetland has stumbled across — or into — the systems of canals the beavers clear and travel to connect deeper pools and expand their range.
It’s always interesting when a beaver arrives because something is bound to be developed.
I was entirely hopeful when I read this article until I looked at the photo. 
That sure looks like a kit to me. I wrote the reporter in alarm saying I didn’t think that was a disperser who moved in but an orphan who’s parents had been lost or killed. She thanked me for my concerns and assured me that the beaver was older than it appeared in this photo and was building a lodge. Hmm. Maybe I’m crazy.
Lord knows beavers aren’t generally safe anywhere in the state so this one has a better chance than most, right?
This was a nice little film from Scotland – all of 5 minutes with a fine shout out to beaver. If you need something peaceful on your monday morning I’d start with this.
