GO AHEAD, GUESS!

heidi08 Beaver News June 13, 2018

Hurray for June! Guess what our Napa beaver friend saw yesterday morning for the very first time! Go ahead, guess!

Ohhh so beautiful! When I was done being ravenously jealous (and it took a while) I was very, very happy for him. i remember that breathless feeling very of kit discovery so well. It will stay fresh in my mind until the very last thing is forgotten. It was something that happened annually for nine years, and every single time was different and magical in its own way. 2007 was such a surprise I hardly believed it. 201o was wrought with heartbreak.

2013 is probably my favorite, though.

There was so much more. Yesterday was a wild swarm of wonders, starting in the morning when city staff came to the park to hang the banners. I can’t tell you what an awesome feeling of pride it gave us to see them go up – both because they were amazing looking AND because the city of Martinez was spending manpower hours to benefit a beaver festival. After the all the hours they spent trying to get rid of them! There are 14 in all, and he carefully hung them and ziptied along the bottom to secure.

It turns out that winning the argument is the best revenge.

Doesn’t that look wonderful? Amelia did such a fine job! The ones the children colored at earth day were especially beautiful hung in place. We put all those in the center of the park so that folks could sit and study them,

While we were hanging them a man strolled by with his son to ask about the festival. He said that his son went to Creekside Montessori – the daycare right beside where the beavers live that happens to be run by someone who is not a fan, The man said his son and all the kids knew about the beaver dam and the beavers and loved them! They would be sure to make it on the day.

(If there are better ways to put pressure on the adults to do the right thing I surely can’t think of any.)

Just to give you an idea of how bizarrely fluttery my day felt yesterday, I later got a note from Ben’s publisher saying the book was being released and they were sending me a copy. Then I got a note from Ben himself, asking very politely if he could have 100 copies delivered to the house for the events he is doing when he gets here. And posters too. Could we just put them in the garage of something until he arrives?

100 beaver books delivered to my house? Guess what I said! Go ahead, guess!

DO YOU THINK BEAVERS ARE SICK OF ALL THE WINNING YET?

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact May 31, 2018

Last evening I was settling down with a new episode of Handmaid’s tale and had to stop in my tracks because a beaver alert hit my inbox. And OOHHH what a beaver alert! Get ready for a very nearly PERFECT report on beaver benefits from the public radio station in Colorado. I’m starting to realize that once the book is published there’s going to be a lot of this. Beaver message saturation in more ways than one.

Short On Water In The Mountains? Beavers, To The Rescue

Honestly, except for the obligatory throwing beavers from planes reference this is the PERFECT report. Wonderful to hear from Ellen and Ben and see new grad student research on the horizon.

And a beaver CANDIDATE? Be still my heart!

Go listen if you haven’t already. 5 minutes of your life that will affirm, thrill and educate you. Send it to three friends that need convincing. And then leave a comment telling Luke Runyon what a great job he did.

Short On Water In The Mountains? Beavers, To The Rescue

SOMETHINGS COMING: SOMETHING GOOD

heidi08 Beaver Book May 30, 2018

Leopold Kanzler lives in Austria and has taken some of my very favorite beaver photos. In addition to being hugely talented, he is wildly patient and animals just seem to get comfortable around him. Check out his newest offering.

Time is ticking down. The other day I was browsing for information about Ben Goldfarb’s book coming out and was surprised to find an event already logged at the San Francisco Book Passage. It’s so wild to think about his message of beaver benefits making its way across the country.

I think his head must be spinning a little too because he posted this on facebook yesterday.

SAN FRANCISCO on June 26 PORTLAND on July 2 BOSTON on July 31

=June 25: Healdsburg SHED, Healdsburg CA, 7:30 pm
-June 26: Book Passage, San Francisco CA, 6 pm
-June 27: Science Buzz Cafe, Sebastopol CA, 7 pm

-June 28: Screening of Sarah Koenigsberg‘s wonderful documentary “The Beaver Believers,” Empress Theatre, Vallejo CA (I’ll be on a panel after the film).

-June 29: Copperfield’s Books, San Rafael CA, 7 pm
-June 30: Martinez Beaver Festival, Martinez CA, 1:30 pm
-July 2: Powell’s on Hawthorne, Portland OR, 7:30 pm
-July 3: West Linn Public Library, West Linn OR, 6 pm
-July 18: Yale-Myers Forest Seminar, Eastford CT, 7 pm
-July 20: Northshire Books, Manchester Center VT, 6 pm
-July 26: RJ Julia Booksellers, Madison CT, 7 pm
-July 31: Harvard Bookstore, Cambridge MA, 7 pm
-August 1: Tin Mountain Conservation Center, Conway NH, 7 pm
-August 2: Ridgefield Public Library, Ridgefield CT, 7 pm
-August 3: Litchfield County Summer Book Fair, Sharon CT, 5 pm
-August 4: David M. Hunt Library, Falls Village CT, 1 pm

That’s the kind of schedule that has you living out of a suitcase and eating cereal. It’s so wonderful that Ben is young and strong and up to the task! Can you imagine how many new beaver friends there will be in 6 months? I was especially startled to see the book is even available for pre-order at Target!

All I can say is that if folks don’t get the idea THIS SUMMER that beavers matter – what with Ben’s book and Sarah’s film and our festival – there is literally no hope for them.

Now we just need a huge donor to buy copies for every member of CDFW – and force them to read it.

FRIENDS WITH BEAVERS

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? April 25, 2018

In addition to folks going out of their way to save beavers, they are also hiring people to do it the right way! Ben Goldfarb posted these photos of him and Mike Callahan working together to install a culvert protection fence (beaver deceiver) on Tuesday. You’ll not it is not the customary trapezoidal shape because of the site demands. I’m especially happy that Ben and Mike like working together because apparently when this author gig is all over Ben is thinking he’ll become the flow device expert in Connecticut, where he plans to settle.

Author and soon to be beaver installer Ben Goldfarb

.Mike was busy helping friends this week. Art Wolinsky in New Ham[shire also posted this time lapse video of his installation of culvert protection on Monday at Art’s Sherwood Glen’s condiminum as well.

It’s so fun to see it all come together!

More videos posted this morning, this from the West Hampton Trail Cam that we’ve been watching.

Westhampton Trail Cam: Beavers, then deer (video)

The article says the tussle is likely courtship. I relly don’t think so, considering we filmed mating and wrestling both. When ever we filmed this behavior it was with two yearlings wrestling to see who was stronger. Like on this lovely morning nine years ago.

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT BEAVERS

heidi08 Beaver Book April 19, 2018

Well, well, well. Are we getting tired of all the winning yet? So much beaver good news I really don’t know where to begin. But I heard from Ben Goldfarb’s publisher yesterday that his book is already attracting interest and attention. The release date has been bumped up to the 13th and here’s a little of the upcoming buzz about it.

And as if all that wasn’t news enough, here’s a great review from the Reece Halstead blog and new film of the beaver project in Cornwall England. (Where my father’s father was born, btw. Because, as we know, all roads lead to beavers.)

The Re-Introduction of Beavers on Woodland Valley Farm, Cornwall

Beavers were once a native species to the UK, though they became extinct 400 years ago due to hunting. In recent years however, there has been a big desire to bring back this much-loved species so we can call them a native UK species once again!

On February 9th 2018, Chris Jones, an innovative farmer from the Woodland Valley Farm Trust in Cornwall, came to Bangor University to inform us of the important (and highly successful) conservation work he was a part of which aims to bring the beaver back to the UK.

A 5 acre forested area with adjacent stream near Ladock, in Cornwall, was the main site for the re-introduction of the beavers. Chris described how 1 male and 1 female beaver were released on June 16th 2017 and in only a matter of days they has already begun constructing a dam, with noticeable changes to the dam occurring every week after this!

Chris Jones was a highly informative, entertaining and enticing presenter and his Q&A session at the end of the talk offered further study information and possible negative impacts of the project. I would highly recommend