Beavers Away – Worth A Dam

There’s great news from three nations today just in time for our Suday funnies. First there’s the fantastic announcement that Frances Backhouse (author of Once they were Hats) will be doing a lecture in 2 weeks for idea city (which is the canadian equivalent of TED talks). If you live near Toronto and have a spare 300 you might consider being in the audience. Us poor California folks will have to wait for the vide0,

Award-winning Canadian author Frances Backhouse is a former biologist whose curiosity about the world enticed her into a writing career. Her 2015 book Once They Were Hats: In Search of the Mighty Beaver, was heralded by The Globe and Mail as one of the “20 books you’ll be reading – and talking about – for the rest of the year.”

Speaking the morning of Friday, June 16th – buy your tickets now!

Frances was kind enough to donate another copy of her beloved book for our silent auction, and we are eager to see how the dynamic ideacity event success. Hopefully it will remind folks, like Glynnis talk back in the day, that beavers really matter.

Lots of good work in this country too, where beaver friend and Geology Student Erin Poor just posted about the project she’s working on in tualatin. Remind me again, how many people were talking about the Pros and Cons of Urban beaver before Martinez and Worth A Dam? Oh that’s right. Zero!

Beavers are known as environmental engineers because of their ability to change the landscape to fit their needs. Beaver activity, such as dam building, can increase stream and floodplain complexity, which may create a more diverse habitat for wildlife in the area.

Many scientists are curious to discover how beavers affect impaired urban streams. The USGS recently began studying the effect of beaver populations on urban streams in Tualatin River basin, located in the Portland, OR, metropolitan area. Scientists are studying whether beaver activity can improve the health of city streams. Insights from this study will provide a good foundation of the “pros and cons” of beavers in urban areas, thereby allowing local agencies to make management decisions based on science. This research is a collaboration between the USGS Oregon Water Science Center and Clean Water Services of Washington County, Oregon.

Tualatin_beaver_study_WithinOurReachPoster_2016

Bring back beavers to fight flooding and pollution, expert claims

Further proof that one person can make a difference? Here’s a slapdash beaver article from one of the silly English rags that will steal any story and photo off the internet and call it ‘news’. Case in point? How about my photo that I mocked up before Brexit? This was on USA news today along with an assortment of dimly related beaver images from around the globe, including the shop lifting beaver at Christmas in Maryland. Never mind, at least folks are talking about it.

We have some wonderful new auction items to mention this fine sunday morning, and I’m thinking we should start with Jennifer Lovett’s smart book for teens and tweens “Beavers away“. It’s a great way to look at the issue and she does an excellent job talking about the importance of beaver to biodiversity. I especially like this graphic. I met Jennifer on the beaver management forum on Facebook set up by Mike Callahan in Massachusetts. (It’s a good place to hear about beaver work and if you aren’t a member you should be.) She is a big supporter of all things beaver and became a good beaver buddy.

Thanks Jennifer!

Beavers-Away

Finally we have a much anticipated donation from Marcella Henkles in Corvalis Oregon. You will remember she was the amazing raku tile artist who featured two lovely beaver tiles to the Beaver tales art exhibit both of which sold almost immediately. I’m sure she was surprised to hear from me begging at her door but she generously agreed to send me one of the works she had recently fired. The complex technique demands carving the image on wet clay then glazing it into color. You really have to see it in person to understand how the colors, textures and rough barn wood all work together. It’s gorgeous. Doesn’t this need to be on your wall immediately?

best henkle — Beaver with Aspen Raku Tile: Marcella Henkles

And just because beavers like to look their Sunday best, here’s a fun video from Robin of Napa showing some excellent back footed grooming.

Our beaver gang is teaming up with the Watershed Steward interns, Friends of Alhambra Creek, the SF waterboard and the assistant city engineer this morning to plant willow cuttings along the creek under the guidance of creek wizardess Ann Riley. We’re hoping the rain waits kindly until they’re done. Cheryl will be there capturing it all on film and my contribution is making wrap sandwiches to feed the troops when they’re finished. I’m not mentioning this to the city but of course I’m hoping that the juicy delectable new shoots that grow encourage our beavers to show their furry faces again soon. Fingers crossed!

The saplings form our last guerilla planting are doing very well!

Yesterday I was contacted by children’s author Susan Wood who was publishing a book on the parachuting beavers which she said would include a link to our website for information about the animals. The book was coming out in April and a website was being launched to promote it. She wondered if the education resources section on the site might include links to our teacher’s activities as well?

First, we are always flattered and pleased that our site is useful to anyone. And of course beaver education is near and dear to our hearts. But another book on this particular subject? I guess folks just LOVE the idea of throwing beaver out of planes.

I told the author that I appreciated the contact and the mentions and she was welcome to link to our site. I also asked for a signed copy for the silent action. Here we are on their educational resource page. I’ve been doing this so long that I didn’t even remember designing the “beaver catcher” until I checked the site. Sometimes my enthusiasm surprises even me.

This is the second children’s book covering the topic. The first was was published last year by our beaver friend Jennifer Lovett and called “Beavers Away!” I guess we should brace ourselves for a beaver-flinging story every year! Maybe they’ll be a whole library shelf dedicated to them. I’ve politely told both authors it is NOT our favorite topic and have been assured the books make it clear that throwing animals from the air is not encouraged.

Hrmph. I also made sure both authors saw this: