Beaver Trust – Worth A Dam

BEAVER AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Beaver Trust has been at it again, this time with a climate change summit of their very own. This happened two days ago and you might recognize California’s own Dr. Emily Fairfax.

Excellent! You know the staff of Beaver Trust requested a meeting with me, and I assumed it was to ask for my many wise thoughts about urban beavers, or generating public interest by throwing a festival but it was just because they wanted to poach the design of my ecosystem poster and replace it with their own english species.

Ahh sure I said. Go ahead. Mention Worth A Dam somewhere in its release. Then the Scottish Wild group asked the same thing and I said yeah yeah take a number. But no one asked me to be part of a summit! Hrmph.

I spent yesterday painfully cataloguing the reasons people wanted to kill beavers in 2020. You can definitely see that it’s a drought year because people are more worried about them blocking water than raising it!

Once again the easiest problems to solve are at the top and the actual problems that require skill to solve are at the bottom. Because people are very stupid when it comes to solving beaver problems. You knew that, right?

WATCHING BEAVERS CHANGES HEARTS AND MINDS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers July 27, 2020

One of the things I enjoy about my vantage point as a former beaver watcher and current guardian is that I get to hear the stories of other beaver watchers and remember what it felt like for that world to unfold before me. This latest post from Jenny Mann of the Beaver Trust in the UK brings it all back to me.

Beaver Watch

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of working at Loch of the Lowes Nature Reserve as a Beaver Interpretation Officer. The beaver population here was growing, and as many may know, this population was not part of the official Scottish reintroduction project. Therefore, in order to alleviate the concerns that many local people had, I delivered ‘Beaver Watch’ events. During these sessions we discussed everything from the beavers’ brutal history, to the behavioural differences between Eurasian and American beavers, and of course the positive impact that these amazing animals can have on the environment.

The evening event, hosted in a special “Crannog” wildlife hide, culminated in a spotting session looking over the loch. Each night we watched mesmerising sunsets with Ospreys overhead and red squirrels in the trees around us; only a beaver could top this truly wild experience.

I have many fond memories from this time, not least of all the way my volunteers treated spotting the beavers like an undercover operation. Fuelled with tea and biscuits, they donned their radios and binoculars and made sure every single visitor caught sight of a beaver during our sessions.

Ahhh that’s fun. Of course we didn’t need secret agent maneuvers in Martinez but I certainly understand your excitement. It’s fun to hunt beavers, but even funner to find them. Or better yet, let them find you.

It’s a magical experience to watch any animal in the wild, but considering their 400-year local extinction, spotting a wild beaver in the UK is A BIG DEAL. You won’t forget the sight of a beaver swimming easily… alright, you might be fooled by the odd duck, but there’s really nothing that compares to the smooth and purposeful wake made by a Best Dadbeaver heading for an evening feed.

I can remember the excitement building each night and my failed attempts to contain the oh’s and ah’s of my visitors as they caught sight of their first wild beaver. Occasionally our subject would dive down (and they can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes), but this would only make the group more determined to see another. Being able to help them connect with their local nature was a true privilege, and I know that I ignited a love for these wonderful animals in many people throughout our Beaver Watches.

Here you might be thinking, A love? Really? Is that exaggerating? And I will show you something precious and you let me know the answer. Tell me what your heart feels after watching this moment of dad beaver and his newest son in Martinez in 2010 after he just lost his partner of many years.

[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Best-Dad.mov” lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]

Well, is that love? Did the earth move for you, too?

“INVENTING PONDS”

heidi08 Devon Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? July 15, 2020

I’ve been staggering with shock lately at the viral firestorm that will clearly be with us long after the NEXT festival is cancelled. There will certainly be no donations to the silent auction ever again. Because zoos and restaurants and museums will be clinging by their fingernails if indeed they manage to survive at all. It’s a dark and terrible time with no hope in sight.

So I comforted myself on working with Chris Jones poem yesterday and was fairly happy with how it came out. Amazing what they let you do with free tools on the internet. I was even happier when he responded overwhelmed and grateful this morning. That makes a nice way to start the day.

[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://vimeo.com/438376774″ lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]

I’m sure this will be used by the good folks at the Beaver Trust some way soon. It’s a funny thing. I first began to communicate with Chris when I saw Derek Gow berating him affectionately on FB. Then I learned that his farm is very near where Jon went to school in Cornwall and where his grandfather retired. There are something Facebook is horrible at, but it has a few salient uses.

I was shocked to read Chris’ bio on the beaver trust. Besides being a farmer who also writes poetry he has had an impressive resume, He must be a horse of VERY MANY COLORS indeed.

Chris Jones

Chris Jones is a farmer and ecologist based in Mid Cornwall. He has worked as a policeman in Africa, as a forester in SW England, as a drilling fluids engineer in the North Sea, Middle East and Africa, and as a theme running throughout as a farmer in Cornwall. He has been interested in the idea of reintroducing beavers to the UK for many years, and has been practically involved setting up and running the Cornwall Beaver Project with Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Exeter University since 2014.

BEAVERS MAKING A SPLASH EVERYWHERE

heidi08 Devon Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? December 22, 2019

Wow. The Sunday before Christmas. Presents bought. Check. Presents wrapped. Presents under the tree. Check. Tree still alive. Check. Dried orange slice garlands on windows. Check. 72 butternut squash raviolis made. Check. 72 short rib raviolis made. Check. 72. Mushroom leek raviolis made. Check.

I think everything is on track!

It’s a good time to catch up with all the news I’ve been setting aside. I know some of you will be so full of eggnog, good cheer and family obligations that you won’t think about beavers again until 2020. But this should get everyone through the holidays.

BeaverCON_Social Media outreach

BeaverCon 2020 is offering three minority scholarships. (Enrollment only.) You still need to get yourself there and housed but its a great opportunity to share the beaver doxology with folks who might not otherwise hear it, Apply for the scholarship with this form: But do it before January 17th or it will be too late.

Attending the conference will be James Wallace of the UK and lots of the good folk from Beaver Trust. We had a truly dizzying conversation this week about all the excellent work they’re doing and who’ve they partnered with along the way. Honestly, they are starting out with a BANG and will make a huge difference for beavers in the UK and beavers generally. We also had a nice chat about the three E’s that come with this work: Exhausting Elbows and Egos that can sometimes make this work harder than it needs to be, and I was happy to provide some normalization and context.

I was so excited about some of their plans I practically had to take a nap after our conversation. Hopefully I told them some good things too. Because now I’m officially a “partner” of the project and listed on their alliance page. La!

**Heidi Perryman Worth a Dam**: Heidi started Worth A Dam to defend the beavers in her home town of Martinez CA, and then started helping other cities learn how and why to co-exist with these important animals. Since 2008 they have organised an annual beaver festival and maintained an internationally respected website. As California faces more drought years they believe it is more important than ever to coexist with these important ‘water savers’.

Welcome to team beaver, new friends!

And finally, to keep things interesting I put this together for the 2020 festival. Amy Hall was kind enough to say we were free to use her wonderful creation. Buckle up boys and girls, something tells me this is going to be one helluva year!