For the longest time, the very best beaver article ever written was featured in the High Country News and described the ‘working beaver conference’ in 2009. It introduced me to heroes like Mary O’Brien, Michael Pollock and Suzanne Fouty and set in motion a discussion of beavers as an restorative species that I don’t think could have been possible otherwise.
Well now, Kevin Taylor’s breathtaking article finally has some competition. Today’s Globe and Mail features a truly stunning look at beavers as ecosystem engineers with extensive reports from Glynnis Hood, Steve Zack and Duncan Haley. The benefits of beavers to water, pollution, fish, birds, soil and carbon storage are discussed in two full pages of good news. There is even a section on flow devices and their value in tricking beavers to prevent flooding.
Our bucktoothed icon is hard-working and monogamous, steadfast and stable in the Canuck way. But beloved? Not when one drops a tree on your cottage or floods your land with its dam. These days, however, the beaver has a new brand: eco-saviour. An increasingly vocal group of scientists and conservationists believes the dam-building rodent is an overlooked tool to mitigate climate change – a natural remedy for our sick rivers and ravaged wildlife. Fly away with that, bald eagle.
Did anyone else just get chills? Well this increasingly vocal group of scientists clearly came back from the state of the beaver conference fired up and ready to go! This is a fantastic read, and I just took a moment to write Erin and thank her for the most thorough bit of beaver reporting I have seen in 5 years.
The challenge, the researcher says, is to find a balance with the beaver – to put them where they happily improve the environment, in healthy numbers, without clashing against urban sprawl. “It’s as though two control freaks are competing for the same environment, and there’s been this ongoing battle ever since,” says Dr. Hood, who has just completed the manuscript for a new book, The Beaver Manifesto: In Defence of Tenacity. She spent 19 years on the front lines as a warden for Parks Canada while humans and beavers tussled over land – when the phone rang, she says, you could usually count on a beaver being involved somehow. “We like nature as long as it’s well behaved,” Dr. Hood says, “and once it starts getting the crayons and running loose, then we get worked up about it.” Except that now may be time for one control freak to step aside – and let a few well-placed beavers run loose with the crayons.
Well there’s my reading list in waiting. I can’t wait to read that book. I think she should sneak us a chapter for preview right away. I may not be able to wait until it comes out. The article is a beautiful look at what beavers do best. Go read the entire thing. There is even a page of ‘Fun facts‘ that are actually fun (and actually facts!).
Deceiving beavers
Trap one beaver family, and another will inevitable move in. But beavers build dams where they hear running water, so devices have been designed to reduce the noise with pipe and fencing around culverts to prevent the flooding of roads and farmland. The animals also don’t climb very well, so fencing trees tends to stop beaver activity.
I ‘m not sure why I feel so exhilarated by this article. It seems like so many beaver threads are coming together at once: I did a delightful interview with the Sonoma Tribune yesterday for a beaver article that’s coming out on Tuesday to talk about the presentation Thursday night. The Michigan radio program is still buzzing in my ears and I’m definitely proud of my beaver service over the past three weeks. Maybe its the faint echo of Egyptian triumph against tyranny I’m feeling, or maybe it’s the Wisconsin-feuled notion that beaver voices are finally using their collective bargaining rights! “Hey-hey! Ho-ho! Killing Beaver’s got to go!” Or something like that…
