Well the news is in from Toronto and the conference was a sold out wall to wall success! There are three articles reviewing it this morning and I heard from the documentary filmmaker and Mike Callahan that it was a fantastic teaching moment where the names WORTH A DAM and MARTINEZ were repeated several times!
Martinez mentioned in TORONTO! Well that’s a headrush! (Gosh, should I sit by the phone in case Margaret Atwood calls?) Even better news came from Mike’s comments about hearing the filmmaker talk about the production over dinner.
I am really impressed with her vision for the film and her clear ability to make it happen. I am so excited by it. I think it is going to halo shift human consciousness is a positive way for beavers.
Whoohooo! A sea change for beavers! Let’s hope. In the mean time, I’ll share a little from the good press the conference received. This is from the local paper Burnaby Now about a family who found a beaver in the creek in their backyard.
When Chomper started gnawing close to Piché’s home, she worried trees could fall on her property.
That’s when the family contacted Burnaby’s Fur-Bearer Defenders, an animal rights group that’s hosting a sold-out Sept. 23 Toronto conference on wildlife conflicts like Piché’s. The Fur-Bearer Defenders wrapped chicken wire around the trunks to discourage further chewing, which helped secure Piché’s property.
Then
The conference features wildlife experts and sold out about a month ago with roughly 100 seats and very little publicity. Attendees include government officials, municipal workers, the general public, hunters and trappers. Because of the conference’s success, the group is considering hosting another one in Vancouver next year, Fox says.
The event has even attracted attention of filmmakers and will be featured in an international documentary affiliated with David Suzuki’s The Nature of Things, likely released next year, according to Fox.
What a great boost for our friends at Fur-bearer Defenders, who do a valiant job of standing up for wildlife in their neck of the woods and beyond. Of course I also enjoyed the article from the Star which discussed Sherri Tippie.
Tippie is a hairdresser by day but has moonlighted as a beaver relocator since 1985. She claims to have “the best record of anybody in the United States, if not the world.” She finds landowners and government agencies that need the beavers for habitat restoration.
Tippie was on hand to explain ways to prevent beaver-related flooding — such as a pipe system or water-flow device — rather than the oft-preferred method of simply shooting them.
“These animals are literally a keystone species to an aquatic ecosystem. And when you shoot them, they always return,” she said.
If you wanna imagine what it’s like to sit and listen to Sherri Tippie here’s a reminder.
Speaking of articles, the great Martinez cover-up has its own this morning and you should check out Lisa White’s nice piece in the Contra Costa Times. Greta’s smart front page at-the-last-moment piece from the Martinez News Gazette Thursday is online now too, and if you haven’t read it, you really should. Don’t you wonder who called the mayor and director of public works to complain about the beaver? How many syllables do you guess their name had? Three?
