There will be no podcast today, just the remaining buzz of good feeling as we try to recover from our massively successful earth day event. We brought 200 tails and they were all gone by noon. We spent the day describing the Martinez Beaver story and the good that beavers do and the impact this little colony had had on the ecosystem (and really around the world). I think I described that “beavers build a neighborhood” 500 times – at least.
On reason our tails were so successful is that every single adult, teen or child who beheld them wanted one of these:
Which, who can blame them? Thank you SO MUCH to our donor! And I’m hoping we can manage them again for the festival. If you’re feeling altruistic you can write Woodluck and tell them they really should donate to the Beaver group that has shown off their product to 5000 people so far. I tried, but have not been successful YET.
The other remarkable thing about yesterday, besides all the old friends, new friends, beaver supporter Igor Skaredoff as a perfect John Muir, memories of beavers, grandson of Muir supporting a beaver tail, and the 86 year old woman who said she saw beavers with her father in Martinez when she was 7 (c 1933) there was this…..
Now if you’ve had quite enough Beaver-Rama and you want some serious ecological news, check out this lovely article from the Massachusetts Eagle Tribune!
A brighter view for herons
Birds thriving in North Andover due to protection of beavers
Beaver ponds cause trees to drown, but the dead trees attract the great blue heron, which often return year after year. Over time, a beaver pond can attract more than 50 nests in a colony, called a rookery.
Chris Leahy, an expert with the Massachusetts Audubon Society who wrote a major report last year on Bay State fowl called “State of the Birds,” said that the resurgence of the area’s beaver population has led to a subsequent revival and expansion of the great blue heron population.
Once they saw the plot of land, they saw a lot of ecological value in the beaver pond, which even then had dozens of active heron nests and a lot of activity.
“It’s a very large wetland, which supports a lot of wildlife, everything from terrestrial animals like beavers and muskrats to all kinds of amphibians and reptiles, turtles and frogs and those species,” Rimmer said. “At that time, there were old nests there we could see. That’s pretty impressive, and we were interested in protecting it.”
Go read the entire breath-of-fresh-air article. It’s the best beaver reporting I’ve seen out of Massachusetts since – well – let’s just say a long, long time!
