On Christmas eve, the Perryman family rules were that we were allowed to open one present. So I will pass on this fine tradition to you. This is the best Christmas present you are ever likely to receive from a beaver website. It was sent to me yesterday by Dr. Ellen Wohl, the fluvial geomorphology professor at Colorado State who has written some of the most important papers on beavers and rivers. She is in the front row on the left, and one of these scrubbed, smart outdoor types around her is responsible for this clever work. This blog is written by one of her graduate students. Enjoy!

About Chewy:

I joined the fluvial geomorphology group at CSU in 2010. They were finally starting to recognize the worth and, I might say, critical importance of beavers in all aspects of the natural world. I decided that they needed professional guidance. It can be tedious being stuck in that nearly-windowless office day after day, but occasionally I get to return to the spacious outdoors and inspect the work of other beavers (see photo below). Someday, when my task here is finished, I’ll move on to another group and enlighten them in turn.

Ellen said this was written and posted very recently, and she didn’t tell me who was the genius behind it. You need to read it all the way through so I have to share it. It’s nearly Christmas and there is no alternative. I’ve decided to risk great copyright wrath and re-post it all here.  Except for my very favorite part, which is the last lines. I know they will be your favorites too, so mesmerized by great admiration for the first 300 words, I am sure curiosity will compel you to click the link for the last 15.

This clever author deserves to know how truly appreciated this column was by folk who love beavers.Then they will realize their work was adored and also be able to tell that the link came from www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress, and everyone will be happy.

Okay? Get ready….

Research:

Research may not be the right word to describe my primary activities. I do, after all, know all that I need to know. Education is really my higher calling. Judging by the sorry state of beaver populations across the northern hemisphere, humanity clearly needs to be educated regarding the critical need to restore beaver habitat and protect beaver populations. After all, there are more than 7 billion of you, and far fewer of us. The Canadians have the right idea, putting us on their currency, although I do think we should be placed on something of much higher monetary value  than a nickel. You people are all so (rightly) worried about the mess you’ve made: dwindling water tables, declining water quality, compacted ground and flash floods, and loss of wetlands and associated habitat, biodiversity and carbon sequestration (didn’t think I knew those words, did you?). Well, I’ve got the answer for all your problems: beavers. We deserve our title of ecosystem engineers, and if you give us half a chance, we can clean up a great deal of your mess. Just stop cooing about our cuteness in one breath, and then dismantling our dams and running us over with your cars in the next.

CLICK HERE FOR THE BREATH-TAKING LAST 2 LINES.

Isn’t that wonderful! Have the merriest of eves. And tomorrow I’ll have some appropriate Christmas tunes for your entertainment. A millennium ago, when I was a child I used to fall asleep fantasizing about drifting down a secluded river on a raft that carried everything I needed. Not any more. Now I’m going to fantasize about being Ellen Wohl’s graduate student.

Here’s the description of her most recent book, which you can buy here:

Far from being the serene, natural streams of yore, modern rivers have been diverted, dammed, dumped in, and dried up, all in efforts to harness their power for human needs. But these rivers have also undergone environmental change. The old adage says you can’t step in the same river twice, and Ellen Wohl would agree—natural and synthetic change are so rapid on the world’s great waterways that rivers are transforming and disappearing right before our eyes.