It looks like bad news from Lindsey about the rescued beaver from Martinez. She isn’t getting better and staff and the vet are meeting at the end of the week to discuss her lack of progress. In all likelihood they will euthanize, she is still looking ‘neuro’ – which is very sad but to be honest I would have expected this decision much earlier.
There is a part of me that is outraged on her behalf, I’m sure I have brain damage too, does that mean I should be euthanized?
And a part of me is grateful they tried so long, which I’m sure is partly because of the ‘fame’ and partly because there’s a new vet and partly because there weren’t a million other baby birds demanding their care yet.
Her last meal should be apples. She deserves that much.
The banquet at the state of the beaver conference was last night, there aren’t many rumors to report yet, but it seems like everyone is learning and having fun. Janet said she is on her 5th page of notes and I told her that next year she should be the one to present on beavers to SARSAS and she said she just might. So that’s excellent.
The festival is approved by parks and rec and they will wave our fee again. I heard from Amelia that she is in the final painting stages of the beaver poster, which I’m thrilled about. Everyone I’ve shown it to wants to color it in too. I truly love how the wildlife is dotted along the path and how everything ends at “Biodivers City”. X marks the spot!
Just imagine how cool it will be in color! We are so lucky Amelia has donated such a body of work to our beavers, and I’m of course a terrible taskmaster wishing for the impossible and imaging so many things that she can add and incorporate. Well. just know it’s appreciated!
Now on to a lovely article from the UK about saving our creeks from flooding. Guess what they recommend? Go on, guess!
Re-wilding Streams: Letting Nature Control Flooding
Government flood management investment, often reacting to events rather than in anticipation of them, has tended to focus on hard flood defences – channelling water faster elsewhere. But long term, is this just making things worse? Is there a more natural alternative to slow the flow as nature originally intended?
There now seems to be a consensus across communities, water and insurance companies, engineers and conservationists that we need to put back complexity into our river systems – helping creatures move from one place to another, creating natural barriers and ecosystems that can soak up surface water higher up in the river catchment.
Elsewhere in southern Britain, Beavers, known as “nature’s architects”, are being used to re-wild our rivers and streams.
In 2012, the villages of Lydbrook and Upper Lydbrook in the Forest of Dean were badly flooded. Some £290,000 was spent by the Council to replace just one section of culvert, as funding was limited. Seeing that this hasn’t been enough to reduce flood risk, last summer beavers were released into a large penned-off section to build dams and create ponds on Greathough Brook, which feeds into the River Wye, and slow the flow of water through the steep-sided, wooded valley at times of torrential rainfall.
The Government gave the backing to the scheme and launched guidance for assessing applications for further trial releases across England to hold back the waters in a more natural way and improve biodiversity.
And it’s free. (Well, it will be once your population establishes.) Don’t forget that! Beavers will do all this work for you and they won’t ask for a dime, although they will take your willow as payment. Seems a fair trade?
