Audrey Tourney – Worth A Dam

A WILD LIVE WELL-LIVED

heidi08 Beaver Book, Beaver Rehabilitation December 4, 2019

Audrey Tourney has died.

I was saddened to read yesterday that Audrey Tourney died at 89. She was the founder of the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary located in St Rosseau in the middle of Ontario about 300 miles north of New York. She was the angel behind many orphan beaver releases not to mention bears and foxes and others. When she started her work she was told that rehabbed beaver could never be released into the wild because they had missed out on too much learning. They needed to go to a zoo. But Audrey didn’t much believe that.

And now no one does. Because of her work and what she taught us.

The wildlife and rehab and beaver world found a huge gift in Audrey and the world is a better place because she breathed in it. This Canadian short is a profound look at the work she did and how many lives – both human and wild – she changed forever.

I know yesterday was “Giving tuesday” and the soft hearted wallets are considerably lightened already but if you have anything left you should make a donation in her name to Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary. They do remarkable work, and their hearts must be heavier this season.

Click here to donate. Do it for Audrey.

Playful

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers November 12, 2010

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

Audrey

heidi08 Educational, Environmental January 30, 2009

Remember the former resident of St. Catherine’s who volunteered to take the beavers if the city wanted to get rid of them? It was Audrey Tourney, who we wrote about back in June and who founded the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary. A former high school teacher, she went from teaching students about wildlife to dedicating herself full time to their care. She has a special place in her heart for beavers, and has raised hundreds of them.

Audrey’s life took an unexpected turn one afternoon in ths 60’s when someone gave her two orphaned skunks to care for.400 skunks later she has only been sprayed 8 times, which gives you a sense of her gentleness and patience. She says she likes skunks “almost as much as beavers”, which is pretty high praise in my book.

From: Through the eye of Alan Gillis:

Beavers are Audrey’s favorites. Any current resident would make himself at home in your lap, and do in hers when pint-sized, feeding and nuzzling. Since they’re to return to the wild, close human contact is kept to a minimum. They’re as wonderful as Grey Owl says they are, the one who used to be a trapper and lived around Parry Sound. His cabin was loaded with them, very sociable and unstoppable. Can’t sit still for a minute unless they’re sleeping in your bed. If you’re a cottager, they could wind up gnawing your furniture. See the Aspen Valley website on how to deal with furry and feathered visitors, in a kindly way. There’s a downloadable pdf, Living with Wildlife. Animals should be respected and protected. With a little understanding, they’ll mind their own business, even bears.

Check out the website and follow the links to read about this remarkable woman, who faced life’s furry challenges and made a difference.