That’s the thing about good ideas. The really good ones get stolen and passed off as original. I’m sure there were lot of tossers saying they came up with the theory of evolution too when Origin of the species was first published. From the point of view that getting the word out is the only good thing, it’s still good news.

How a group of beavers prevented a wildfire and saved California a million dollars

Graig Graziosi

A dried-out floodplain in Place County – just north of Sacramento, California – was in perfect condition to fuel wildfires. It was 2014, and California was in the midst of its worst drought in decades. The floodplain was full of dry brush and devoid of moisture. Fire prevention and ecological workers in the state were desperately working to mitigate potential wildfire fuel sources anywhere they could. Ecologists – facing a dangerously dry floodplain and a price tag of $1m to $2m for a major construction project to fix the site – did something surprising. They called in the beavers.

Note that the stealing is so entirely opportunistic that they didn’t even have the sense to get the NAME right. It’s Placer county, you moron. Not Place county. Sheesh. Of course this article isn’t written by “GRAIG” but by Isabella Bloom who was once the intern at the Sacramento Bee and is now at the UCB graduate school of journalism.

The Sacramento Bee spoke with researchers involved in the furry gambit to protect the state and revitalise the land.

Ultimately the Doty Ravine project only cost $58,000, which was used to prepare the land for the beavers to come in and do what they do.

Damon Ciotti, a US Fish and Wildlife Service restoration biologist who led the project, estimated that the beavers would take about a decade to return the dried out land to streams in the region, but the critters blew away his expectations. By year three, water was back in the floodplain.

The success of the project has spun off a number of other projects using beavers for land revitalisation throughout California.

Yeah yeah yeah. We know, Because we read it four days ago in an American paper, you lazy Brit. And besides that’s a ridiculous way to spell “Graig”.

Ms Batt said that federal programmes were beginning to take notice and offer training on how to use beavers for wildfire mitigation, and indicated that universities and nonprofit programmes were also interested.

This stealing must happen ALL the time. Lazy reporters who just rewrite stuff as their own because honestly who is going to know? If I weren’t such a weirdo reading every single article published about beavers I wouldn’t.

This is personal though.

How about a letter to the editor in the register guard which is published in Eugene Oregon.

Fighting fires with beavers

Susan Libby, Eugene

Last summer, Oregon endured the single most flammable year in modern history. Record-setting fire after record-setting fire burned through the state, yet once again we ignore or even kill the water-saving firefighter who would work for free to protect us: the beaver.

Hey, wait a minute, you’re thinking. I read this before, But I don’t think it was about Oregon.

Beavers save water and reduce the risk and severity of wildfire. They do it all day, at zero taxpayer expense. Their ponds have been consistently shown to increase biodiversity from stoneflies to steelhead. Beaver ponds help fish survive at a time when the Pacific Coast is hemorrhaging salmon.

Our own self-interest dictates our attention. Yet Oregon isn’t learning. 

GOD DAMMIT. I know its for the good of beavers and we need to share credit but hemorrhaging salmon is MY line. I had to look up how to spell it THREE times.  Stoneflies to steelhead is MY line. I worked hard on the alliteration. Our own self-interest dictates is MY line. Like anyone else ever talks like that,  SHEEEESH.

Okay, I just heard from Suzanne Fouty that she shared my op-Ed with Susan and others that are working on the beaver bills. Um okay. But its still stealing if you lift entire phrases off the page. GRRR Someday  you can bet we’ll have a conversation about copying someone else’s paper and passing it off as your own. HRMPH