Aspen Wildlife Sanctuary

Congratulations to our hardworking friends in Kamoka where they are organizing their first-ever Great Canadian Eco-fest. Getting folks to pay attention, try something new, and put it in the paper is hard to do, so I couldn’t be happier for them.

“We wanted a large community event in Komoka, and tossed around a few ideas, but it was my wife who came up with the idea if an EcoFest,” said Steve Galinas. “She has been involved with animal rehabilitation groups and thought about organizing an event for those groups, but that is a very small niche so it evolved into eco-friendly”

The great Komoka eco-fest will be held at the community center (soccer fields) on sunday June 23 from 10-5. “We definitely hope this will be an annual event” Galinas said.

I tracked down Margaret last year when I first got wind of this. She told me that the inspiration came to her when she was listening to Adrian Nelson at Fur-Bearer Defenders talk about our Beaver Festival! We’ve been swapping ideas about whom to invite and how to make it kid friendly. Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary will be there to educate folks about living with beavers and why they’re good for the ecosystem. (You may remember that sanctuary was started by Audrey Tournay who was the first woman who showed that rehabbed beavers could be released in the wild. This video just brought tears to my eyes so I’m guessing you’ll enjoy it)

Say it with me now: small, small beaver world! Good luck Steve and Margaret! I wish we could be there, but you can bet we will in spirit! Send us photos.

And because I never get tired of arguing about Jim Sterba’s ‘kill ’em all’ manifesto…

Earth Island gets a letter

Shortsighted Solutions

In his book Nature Wars (reviewed by Jason Mark in your Spring 2013 issue), Jim Sterba fails to recognize that, often, nonlethal solutions to wild animal encroachments are both less expensive and more permanent than trapping. He never acknowledges that beaver flooding can be effectively controlled with flow devices, allowing the beavers to remain. Or that new colonies can be naturally discouraged using the beavers’ own territorial behaviors. He never admits that beaver-created wetlands promote fish, birds, and wildlife while raising the water table. I am saddened to see Earth Island Journal promote his book.

Heidi Perryman, Martinez, CA

P.S. I sent this as a special gift to Margaret’s frazzled email earlier this week, hoping it would buoy her spirit as it always does mine.

We had some visitors from Cupertino last night who wanted to see the beavers I spoke about on Saturday. They got an early showing of our biggest kit and dashed off to Lemon Grass for dinner, leaving regulars Jon and Jean to watch and see what might happen next. The two larger kits appeared from upstream, and the smaller one (who isn’t that small anymore!) came from downstream. They engaged in some nuzzling, pushing and wrestling and then settled down to some fun with the flat board that has been floating in the water for a while. To the great delight of their audience, they chewed on it, nosed it, pushed it, and generally had a ‘tug-of-board’. It was a great show!

It has been worth noticing how our beavers interact with ‘processed’ and cut wood. Sometimes people see sawed branches on the dam and assume that we have put them there. The truth is that cut branches often appear at the dam because the beavers are perfectly willing to pull them out of the creek or off the bank and use them for building material. They aren’t picky. We’ve seen them use plywood, traffic cones, beer cans and plastic bottles to stop the flow. Audrey Tourney, founder of the Aspen Wildlife Sanctuary, wrote about beavers she was rehabilitating in her home who used newspapers, towels, foot stools and coffee mugs to build little structures in her living room.

Audrey Tourney with a Baby Beaver

Necessity is the mother of invention! But I’m pretty sure beavers are its children!

There are a few tickets left for tomorrow nights John Muir Conservation Awards, which will honor Jay Holcomb of IBRRC, Nature Bridge, The Lindsay Wildlife Museum, and our friend Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions. It will be hosted by Shelton Johnson, the dynamic park ranger from the Ken Burns series. Even our friend Susan Kirks of badger fame wrote about it. (Shhh! Don’t tell Mike or Skip that she accidentally turned them into the same person!) If I were a beaver supporter I would go to show your enthusiasm for the conservation community, drink a nice chardonnay and eat delicious catered treats and buy a signed copy of Shelton’s new book.

It goes without saying that you meet the VERY BEST SORT of people at these events.

And surely all God’s people, however serious and savage, great or small like to play. Whales and elephants, dancing, humming gnats, and invisibly small mischievous microbes—all are warm with divine radium and must have lots of fun in them.

—John Muir, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth