The summer issue of Beaversprite, (the quarterly newsletter of Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife), reads like the class yearbook of that school where you really had a lot of friends and wanted to remember every single one.  There is a lovely account of Lega Medcalf and her beaver festival in Maine. There’s a fierce account of Anita Utas and the beaver drama in Ottawa. A cover of the Amherst tale where beavers were saved from trapping for eating memorial trees. And an excellent article from Susan Rolleri, that I met through the beaver management forum, the environmental grad student that worked with Mike Callahan on a flow device installation.

What we need are a thousand more Susans, interested in studying beavers all across the united states and canada. If you aren’t already receiving this very ‘who’s who’ informative  newsletter, you become a member and support a great cause for 20 dollars a year by signing up here.

And the reason I know we need a better spread of beaver knowledge and recognition across this hemisphere, is that THIS is the cover photo for this mornings Ottawa Citizen article describing beavers as the founding father of Canada.

The Canadian beaver: our nation’s forefather

Sigh.

In addition to not being a photo of a beaver, the article does not describe a single important environmental contribution of the beaver.  Not that they build and maintain wetlands that filter toxins, raise the watertable, help and sustain wildlife, and improve the density and diversity of fish populations. The article doesn’t mention that beaver chewed trees coppice triggering a dense, bushy regrowth that increases the ideal nesting habitat for migratory and songbirds.  It doesn’t note that when beavers were trapped off the landscape the entire continent changed and became less hospitable and productive.

Well, what should we expect from a news source that offers a close-up of a woodchuck and suggests it gnaws down trees with those pointy incisors?