I admit that I read this article with one eyebrow arched, ready to mock it wherever possible. But there are parts of it I found genuinely wise, so either its very well written or I’m getting soft in my old age.

Animal Wisdom for Feeling at Home in Your Earthly Body

The fact that humans are animals is not a point rewilding facilitator Vanessa Chakour wants to be swept under the socio-cultural rug. In fact, exploring our inner and outer landscapes from the vantage of our interconnectedness with the web of life leads to pleasure, love, wonder, healing, and connection. In illustrating the wild tapestry that binds us to all we call primal, Chakour shows what it takes for humans to leave the enclosures within our minds, rehabilitate our bond with nature, and finally return our hearts to their true home: Earth.

Stories are the architects of our human world, shaping how we perceive and interact with everything around us. As a child, foxes, birds, butterflies, bats, and countless other creatures populated my storybooks. I devoured books like Charlotte’s Web, where animals were intelligent, complex beings with rich emotional lives. But as I grew older, a painful dissonance grew between my reality and the “civilized” world where more-than-human animals were seen as intellectually and spiritually inferior and, in some cases, devoid of emotion. For far too long, dominant narratives have alienated us from the natural world.

Well you won’t ever catch me disagreeing that stories are important. They saved beavers in Martinez. And the story of Martinez saving beavers inspired countless other stories around the globe. Telling stories is powerful.

By immersing ourselves in the natural world and understanding the unique roles of each species, we can forge a mutually beneficial relationship with our planet. Beavers offer an inspiring example: One of the few animals, like humans, that modify their habitat to be more comfortable. Beavers build homes to protect themselves and, as they build, they create and heal ecosystems.

Yes they do. And they do it without thinking about it. Beavers would neither read or write a book about creating and sustaining ecosystems that other animals depend on. They just do it. Every day and with their last breath.

While our current approach to conservation often treats nature as an entity needing protection from us, Indigenous cultures have long demonstrated the power of reciprocal stewardship, actively supporting the health and resilience of their ecosystems. This is evident in the fact that Indigenous people, who today live on less than 5 percent of global land and still deal with unconscionable injustices, protect a staggering 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity. Stewardship isn’t about “taming” nature but rather working in collaboration with nature’s incredible regenerative powers.

While land may legally belong to someone, ecosystems can never truly be owned. In practice, living landscapes belong to everyone and to no one. It isn’t necessary to buy land to steward land. In New York City parks, and many city parks around the world, people can volunteer to learn how to help forest and wetland restoration, plant and prune street trees, propagate native seeds, and monitor local wildlife. Land is more than a resource to be exploited or scenery to be maintained. The living earth is a complex ecosystem that sustains us all.

I like the idea that  we can all be stewards. And that the ecosystems around us can never truly be owned. I think about the truly resilient morning glory vine that is part of the block on my built in the 1800’s home. It was obviously planted once by a dreamy resident who first settled in Martinez when it was mostly soil. It has stunning blue flowers that grow to the sun and over the years it has dominated the block or been stripped out or climbed willfully over walls and stripped paint from doorways. It has been ripped away so that lawns or tanbark could be laid in orderly fashion. And sometimes it has entirely disappeared from site and I miss it fondly.

Only to show up twining around a rosebush or snagging a foothold on a picket fence. Never allowing itself to be forgotten. We just live here for a while. It reminds me. Things like morning glories and beavers have a way of showing up uninvited. And we can learn from them and make our lives more beautiful.

It was fun to stumble across this article this morning. A who’s who of fauna literature with a highlight on beavers.

Check It Out: Possums, beavers and owls, oh my!

Dorothy Gale, of “Wizard of Oz” fame, was obviously not from the Pacific Northwest. If she was, she’d have known that lions and tigers don’t live in forests. She’d also have known that you are far more likely to see smaller creatures in the forest than larger ones — like, maybe, possums. Or beavers. Or owls.

Now, I will admit that I have lived in the PNW for quite a while now, and I still haven’t seen a beaver outside of a zoo. But I have seen evidence of their presence, and I have seen other wild animals and birds native to this area. One memorable morning, I was walking my dog and we came around a corner and startled a raccoon in the shrubbery. The raccoon reared up on its hind legs — MUCH larger than a Disney raccoon. My dog looked at me, turned around, and began walking quickly in the other direction. In that instance, discretion was the better part of valor — at least where my dog was concerned.

Whether or not you have had wildlife encounters of your own, I’d like to share with you some engrossing nonfiction books about some of our local creatures. Read on for a walk on the wild side:

Okay well most of the readers of this website HAVE seen a beaver outside of a zoo, but we get your point.  Tell us about your suggestions.

Beavers

• • “When Beavers Flew: An Incredible True Story of Rescue and Relocation” by Kristen Tracy (2024). This fantastic picture book tells the story of how Idaho Fish and Game transported 76 beavers to new homes in a remote wetlands area — by parachute!
  • “Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America” by Leila Philip (2022). The beaver fur trade had a huge impact on America’s environment and history, as detailed in this book.
  • “Bringing Back the Beaver: The Story of One Man’s Quest to Rewild Britain’s Waterways” by Derek Gow (2022). A very funny firsthand account of Britain’s ecological movement to rewild the landscape there.
  • “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter” by Ben Goldfarb (2018). In a very engaging book, Goldfarb speaks on the impact of one of the world’s most influential species.

Not only do I agree that it is a good thing to read more about beavers, I have personally met three of the four of those authors and agree that they are worth pursuing! Half of them wrote about Martinez and one of them even came to Martinez.

Twice.

Now that’s a complaint I’ve not heard before. “The Beaver Deceiver works too well!” Apparently this communicty was worried about the road being flooded from the beaver dam. So a leveler was installed and the road stopped flooding.

But now the pond is too low!

Woodstockers worry about water level at Yankeetown

Is Yankeetown Pond, cherished by generations, being drained to nothing but mud flats, leading to an irreversible ecological disaster?

It depends on whom you ask.

The beaver deceiver

On August 13, the Beaver Institute, hired by Moran, installed the beaver deceiver after years of the pond flooding onto Pond Road. The town had previously attempted to remove part of a beaver dam to let water flow, but the beavers would plug the holes.

The beaver deceiver consists of a pipe directing water from the middle of the pond, up and over the top of the beaver dam. A large cage at the pond end keeps the beavers from trying to plug it. The device is designed to channel a steady amount of water out of the pond to keep it from flooding. The beavers do not hear or feel rushing water, so they don’t attempt to fortify the dam.

The height of the pipe, which determines the flow of water, is set at what is determined to be the desired level. It was supposed to lower the pond by twelve to 15 inches, but neighbors, showing an increasing shoreline in posted photos, say Yankeetown is being drained to mud flats.

Mudflats I tell you! It kind of makes me smile to imagine the Martinez tycoon who hated the beavers and was terrified they would flood his properties suddenly complaining that after Skip Lisle came the pond was TOO LOW!!!

Reached for comment, the DEC said it found no issue with the leveler, for which it issued a permit on April 3. “DEC Region 3 staff performed a compliance check on August 28, 2024, and confirmed that the pond leveling device was installed in a manner consistent with the permit,” a DEC spokesperson said.

The DEP initially referred the matter back to the DEC, but added that they also found no issue. “I wanted to assure you that we continuously monitor water quality at the Ashokan Reservoir all day, every day. In addition, we’ve assessed the City property at Yankeetown Pond and found no issues that could impact the City’s water-supply system,” said Heidi Haynes, deputy director of outreach for the DEP’s Bureau of Water Supply.

DEC made a second compliance check October 8 of the water leveler installed at Yankeetown Pond in Woodstock and confirmed that no unpermitted activities had occurred at the beaver dam to alter the water levels. A spokesperson added that the water level was remaining consistent with the permits it had issued.

Nothing to see here folks, move along.

You do realize the whatever stream is feeding the pond is probably lower at the end of summer right? I mean the leveler  is not a “sucker”. It doesn’t keep taking water out of your pond even when it reaches equilibrium right?

A second Hudsonia study

Some have cited a yet-to-be released study by the nonprofit Hudsonia Institute, whose mission is to protect the natural heritage of the greater Hudson Valley.

“I suggest that the leveler be adjusted as soon as possible so that the pond water level is no more than six inches below the normal springtime high-water level, and that the water is at least high enough that there is some water covering the currently exposed water-lily beds,” Erik Kiviat of Hudsonia wrote.

This passage is oft-quoted by Sylvia Bullett, someone who would like the beaver deceiver pipes capped.

I’m sorry this just makes me laugh. I’m imagining a family of beavers wrote that report and all those letters. Can’t you just SEE them demanding the DEC that the beaver deceiver be CAPPED!!!!

Sarah Marshall shared this yesterday on the Beaver Management Facebook Forum and it made me very happy. I thought you’d feel the same way so I’m sharing it here.

With Beaver Con coming to Colorado, I wanted to share the Colorado Beaver Activity Mapper (COBAM) with the group. You can browse clusters of beaver ponds from the past decade, older mapped beaver wetlands, and statewide BRAT model results. This is our state’s most comprehensive beaver map to date and we hope it can inform our state’s upcoming beaver management plan.

Take a look at this resource which makes me smile from ear to ear. I can’t wait until we have the same for California. I understand with the google beaver finder we should see it very soon. You can use the tool to zoom in and look at individual waterways.  Click on the image or the headline to accesss.

 COLORADO BEAVER ACTIVITY MAPPER (COBAM)

I was happy to see this article emerge from the Parks Record in Utah. There was just one part I would have changed, of course…

Sunday Drive: Busy as a beaver

High up on the north side of the river was the Duchesne Ridge, one of my favorite fall color drives with sweeping meadows on its flanks. On the south, towering pines clung precariously to the steep slopes leading down to the river.

The West Fork has its humble beginnings in headwaters along the eastward-facing slopes of Heber Mountain just a mile away. It runs a squiggly line for 20 miles before sweeping down along S.R. 35 to Hanna, where it joins the main Duchesne River, eventually becoming one with the Green River in Ouray on its journey to the Colorado.

Just a few miles in, we spotted a strange-looking grove of fallen aspens. Coming up onto the scene, we could see more than 50 stumps with pointed tops — carved away by the orange front teeth of beavers. The scene was almost eerie. Some of these trees were huge, a few so large that they weren’t cut all the way through. With remnants extending three feet above the ground, you get a sense of the size of beavers, which can be three to four feet long and weigh 75 pounds or more.

Yup. You know what else is big about  beavers? They;re a big deal. A place as dry as Utah knows dam well it needs all its beavers.

All along the river, beaver dams created pond after pond as the West Fork wiggled its way down the valley. Flowage after flowage poured water from the steep north and south canyon walls into the river, from Vat Creek to Telephone Hollow. 

Walking through the brush down to the river, you can quickly see the remarkable engineering that goes into a beaver dam. With the spear-like tree trunks forming a bulkhead, sticks and mud are used to create the main dam. It serves to create a pond environment while establishing a lodging structure underneath for their family.

Uh-oh. Did you just say what I think you said? Did you just write on paper for all the world to see that beavers build a dam which creates an underneath structure for their family to live in?  Are you thinking beavers live INSIDE the dam? With scuba equipmen0 and hard hats?

I know that’s what the New York Times said a couple of times, but  those city slickers were wrong. You don’t want to be as wrong as them do you?

Beavers don’t live IN the dam. They live in a lodge or bank hole. The dam is where they  “work”. You don’t want to sleep where you work do you? Neither do beavers.  The dam is solid like a wall to hold back the water.

Think of it like the AQUAFENCE they used to keep out hurricane Helene.

A beaver dam is the original aquafence.