TREADDING UPON ANOTHER’S HEEL

heidi08 Beavers March 12, 2020

O Gertrude, Gertrude,

When sorrows come, they come not single spies

But in battalions.

Hamlet: IV:5

Gosh I feel better knowing flights from EUROPE are cancelled. Don’t you feel better? I just cancelled our John Muir Earth day comittmment and we got our first cancellation for the beaver festival last night. I thought yesterday looked dire. Today, I’m fondly remembering how nice yesterday appeared.

Ben is in Jackson Wyoming working on the new book and posted this on facebook yesterday knowing that I’m looking for images of cascading dams. I wish he had filmed it with a drone and gotten the entire channel but its still worth sharing. Enjoy

CHOSEN

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Rehabilitation March 11, 2020

Things are looking bleaker by the hour, and we decided yesterday that we can’t be at JMA earthday event this year – if it even happens, which since the county health department is advising folks to cancel events with more than 50 attendees I’m guessing it won’t. I think we need our souls to be soothed, an I think Anna Speshilova is just the artist to do it.

Charming Watercolor Illustrations of Women and Their Animal Companions

Russian artist Anna Speshilova creates charming watercolor illustrations that visualize adventures through fantasy forests and friendships with the animals that inhabit them. From woodland tea parties with wolves to flying through the night sky with owls, each whimsical artwork looks like it’s straight out of a storybook.

Rendered in her distinct, delicate style, each of Speshilova’s illustrations feature washes of watercolor and fine line work. Her ever-growing portfolio not only showcases her skills with a paintbrush, but her fantastic imagination. Speshilova’s illustrated characters include humans who live in harmony with forest animals, reminiscent of Disney’s Snow White. In one image, a girl rides through the woodlands on a moose, while deer, hares, and foxes gallop alongside her. In another, a different female character reads a book while a group of polar bears, rabbits, and various other creatures snuggle up beside her.

Wow, these are truly beautiful. I am reminded of all our friends caring for injured birds, opossums or harbor seals. It begins so simply, I’ll just give this an hour or a weekend, save one fledgling, feed one baby raccoon, and suddenly without realizing how it happened it becomes an entire way of life. Looking back you tell yourself you’ve chosen it all but you in reality, it’s chosen you.

Can’t you see these women at the beaver festival? They’re all there, men too. I don’t think I know a better way to spend a life.

Which reminds me, as much as I love these, something appears to be missing from her art. I can’t quite put my finger on it.

I think it starts with a B?

THE SUN SHINES ON BEAVERS

heidi08 Beaver Conference, Beavers and Flooding March 10, 2020

I don’t know, you might be saying, does a beaver conference like the one they just held in Maryland even matter? Lots of experts talking to each other, but Is anyone really paying attention?

Deploying beavers to create dams could prevent Ellicott City flooding

Pickering is an ancient village in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England, U.K. Descriptions of the place bring to mind Ellicott City, the old mill town in Howard County, Maryland, U.S.A. Visitors will find stone buildings along the main street in both communities. Both are nestled in valleys near public parklands. Both are tourist destinations. And both are situated on waterways and prone to damaging floods.

Pickering, in the drainage of the North York moorland, had considerable success in addressing its flood problems in recent years, but not in the big, costly way you might expect.

Oooh I wonder how. Don’t you? Hmm I have an idea,,,

“Pickering pulled off protection by embracing the very opposite of what passes for conventional wisdom,” journalist Geoffrey Lean reported in the Independent. “On its citizens’ own initiative, it ended repeated inundation by working with nature, not against it.”

Two beavers were released last year into a forest to build dams and help slow the flow of floodwater into the area. Just last month people who live in Yorkshire saw results. A storm by the name of Dennis came through and dropped what meteorologists call a “weather bomb” across England, with 90 mph winds and a one-day rainfall equal to what normally falls in two weeks. The storm caused extensive flooding, but apparently beaver dams upstream augmented the sticks-and-heather flood control already in place around Pickering.

“Beavers introduced to Yorkshire in 2019 may have prevented Storm Dennis flooding with their dams,” declared the Yorkshire Post on Feb. 20.

Alan Puttock, an environmental researcher from the University of Essex, proudly displayed that headline in Hunt Valley last week as he presented research at BeaverCON 2020, a gathering of professionals engaged in managing beavers and reintroducing them to places where their dam-building could benefit humans.

Yup, someone was paying attention. HURRAY HURRAY HURRAY! There was a beaver conference and a reporter paid attention!!! Hurray for Mike and Scott and Alan and Dan Rodricks!

So much of human activity causes flooding, it’s exciting to think about the possibility of bringing back beavers, deploying them where needed and where it makes sense, and letting them restore the landscape to its natural best.

We could consider it a team effort — combined human and beaver ingenuity to address serious challenges in land use, water quality and flood control. Could beavers have spared Ellicott City its recent trauma? I don’t know. But I know we’ve tried man-made solutions for a long time. Maybe it’s time to include a nature-based one.

Got that Maryland? Beavers are part of the solution. So stop killing and complaining and start celebrating! Let beavers do what they do best. And some things will work out okay.

RENDER UNTO CAESAR

heidi08 beavers and otters March 9, 2020

Whose is this image and superscription?
¹⁷And Jesus answering said unto them,
Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,
and to God the things that are God’s. Mark 12:17

No wonder people get it wrong all the time. Apparently the animals themselves are mistaken. This amazing photograph is from Ghostbear.

‘A CASTOR CANDENSIS CONSENSUS’

heidi08 Beaver Conference March 8, 2020

We’re in for a treat this morning, because Worth A Dam ~~foreign~~ domestic correpondent Doug Noble of Pennsylvania, who attended the BeaverCom in our name has finally mulled and gathered his thoughts to gather to give us his notes about the three day beave=pallooza, Enjoy.

Thank You for the OP to attend the Beavercon2020. An Eye Opening experience. I am in ‘Awe’ of these Beaver Believers. I love “my” beavers even more. I’m not sure of the next step but I’m sure the moment will appear. The hardwork, physically & mentally, is inspirational. A unique Dedication & Respect to Our Environment as well as a future outlook unlike No other.

*Mike Callahan (Beaverman) when the beaver signal shines, he fires up the beaver mobile. “Let’s go Robin” >Unbelievable man & better person.

Mike Egan (Robin). Sidekick and expert pipe, drain, beaver psychology. Nice & very informative presentation. Loved the ‘retooling’ of hardware as the beaver was understood.

Skip Lisle (Clark Kent) mild mannered and knowledgeable Skip will morph into Super Beaver and devise mitigation plans for Our communities & Their environment.

*Stanley Petroski (Underdog) What a guy, what a Bio. A survivalists similar to Castor anadensis. Pennsylvania dude who has travailed thru thin & thick. TY for ur Service Sir.

*Alexa Whipple, Kent Woodruff, & Julie Nelson. (3 Beavers in a Tub). Very symbiotic, experiential beavr/salmon relationship. Trio was Fun, Informative, clarity & comprehension were nice.

*Leonard Houston/Son (Jeremiah Johnson & Jr. Johnson). Excellent GrassRoots efforts exceptional…. commitment, courage, community.

;”>*Roger Auster. (007) English intellectual with exceptional data. Exeter U. Very nice group from UK.tention

Chris Becraft. (Johnny Quest) Maryland dude. Could really relate to his work since I know the locales. Probably a good contact to begin the next track of beaver tunes.

Also Joe Wheaton, Kent Woodruff, Gerhard Schwab, Duncan Halley, Frances Blackhouse, Robert Hopper, and many other (Beaver Dwarfs)….spoke to, listened to, and bumped (ebola) elbows with numerous Believers. Ha. All “Whistling while they Worsummary!!”

What a fantastic who’s who list! Great work Doug. I am so glad these good folks got all your attention and won your heart, Having met many of them, I entirely agree. But wait, you’re probably thinking, something’s missing. What about Heidi? What did he have to say about the Martinez p[resentation?

*Heidi Perryman (Snow White)
A people person & now a Beaver Believer. Information dissemination, a backbone of Any Revolutionary or Riparian Cause. TY. Nice show. Informs all the Beaver Dwarfs Believers.

Hahaha, yes because if there’s one thing people always say after meeting and working with me, and listening to me bark orders or tell people what to do or make them feel guilty foe not doing it, its that I’m JUST like Snow White. Just ask Jon.

But seriously folks, it is truly wonderful that Doug could be there, and be our eyes and ears on a monumental day, I’m all happy that a resident of the “Keystone State: can bring these truths about the ‘Keystone Species’ back home for ask his neighbors to learn from. It sounds like he really learned a lot and was impressed with what he saw.