Restore Quartz: This favorite Interior Alaska lake needs water; we can help
Dave Klein
In the past, beavers, through their building and maintenance of dams, have played a major role in maintaining higher water levels in the Shaw Creek Flats, allowing increased amounts of water to flow from the flats into Quartz Lake. The periodic presence of beaver dams on the small lakes and drainages in the flats adjacent to Quartz Lake has coincided with high water levels in the lake.
Coincidence? I think NOT. This is a great article that works as hard as it possibly can to say WE NEED BEAVERS YOU IDIOTS without out name calling. The author is a professor emeritus at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, and he is definitely a beaver friend, and maybe even a friend of this site. Just read this.
Continued lowering of the water table throughout the flats also increases the likelihood of wildfire during the spring and summer. Beavers, as builders of dams that control water levels, have effectively demonstrated their engineering and hydrological skills, and they do their work when permitted at no charge to the state.
Dave! Awesome advocacy for beavers. Have you considered beaver festival Alaska? You could have this whole t’linget component to the festival, and teach people about beavers and the watershed. Call me, we can chat.
Now back to our previously scheduled countdown.
Worth A Dam hosts 6th Annual Beaver Festival in Martinez
Why are a beaver’s teeth orange? Do they really pat down mud with their tails? You can learn the answers and other fun facts about beavers at the 6th annual Beaver Festival in Martinez on Saturday, August 3rd from 11 am to 4 pm.
Heidi Perryman, President & Founder of Worth A Dam, is excited about the positive response to their local beaver residents, and that their successful experience can also help educate other urban areas about co-existing with beavers. “This is our 6th festival and definitely our biggest. Last year there were 4 festivals modeled after our own nationwide and two in Canada! We are so happy to be reaching out to cities all across the state teaching them how and why to live with beavers.”
Nice article from the Beth Pratt of the Examiner. Go read the whole thing, and try not to get nervous for Saturday, okay? In the past 24 hours I’ve turned down three booths that wanted to be included at the last minute. We definitely got the attention of the wildlife community. The only thing that can go wrong now, short of meteor or alien invasion is that nobody could come.
