Tag: Ben Goldfarb

Heading towards beaver moon and our anniversary!

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Educational, Environmental October 27, 2017

There’s a nice story this morning about watching beaver activity as we head towards winter from Marshall Helmberger of Minnesota.

The busy season

It’s the busy season at our neighborhood beaver pond, as the locals prepare for the impending season of scarcity. The signs of activity are everywhere, particularly along the pond’s edges, where the resident beavers have recently felled at least a couple dozen youngish aspen to put away for the winter.

It all seems pretty familiar. We fill our own wood sheds and stock the pantry and freezer with the season’s produce, and the beavers do pretty much the same. This time of year, the beavers are cutting aspen and willow and storing the branches and smaller trunks in a huge cache under the water, just outside one of their two lodges. These caches are readily visible this time of year— since some of the smaller limbs often stick out from the water— and are an easy way to tell if beavers are planning to spend the winter in any given lodge. Beaver lodges can last for decades and they can fall in and out of use over the years, so this time of year I always look for the telltale signs of a fully-stocked pantry to determine if a lodge is currently active.

Once the ice arrives on the beaver pond, which could happen this coming week given our recent cool down, the beavers will be locked in for the winter. They’ll live the next several months within their dark lodge, only occasionally venturing out of one of their underwater exits to grab a bite. While their pantry of sticks is their primary source of winter food, they also store large amounts of fat in their tails this time of year, which they will also rely on during the winter months. A beaver’s tail, in the fall, is usually substantially larger that it will be when the beavers emerge from their lodges next April or May.

Don’t you wonder what that’s like? Or which family member you like enough to be stuck in a closet with for three months out of the year? I’ve been fairly lucky in terms of opportunities to see beavers, but I will always regret not getting to see this. The tell tale food stash and the signs of beavers cracking through the ice to get whatever they can forage. I’m not entirely sure I believe the last sentence about their tails being smaller in May, but I bet our beaver size has a lot to do with not needing to live off reserves. Marshall does a nice job in this piece by capturing the urgency of late fall.

Speaking of beaver authors, I heard from author Ben Goldfarb that he just had a very enlightening chat with our city council man Mark Ross about the beaver story. He said it was helpful to get the city perspective on the story. (I would just LOVE to be a fly on the wall for that conversation, wouldn’t you?) I bet there were lots of fears of flooding and very few honest concern about voters in his tale.

Meanwhile it you want to get the story from the other perspective, why not listen to the talk I did Tuesday from the convenience of your desktop. I really appreciate fur-bearer defenders for getting this online and sending me the link! This will give the whole story plus some never before disclosed secrets from behind the scenes. (You can thank them for doing tall his by dropping 5$ in their donation jar.) I just realized that the anniversary of that big November meeting is a week after halloween! Perfect timing to hear it all again or for the first time. I think my voices sounds lower, what do you think?

“Beaverland”

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? November 12, 2017

Taos is a historic and artist mecca in the upper middle of New Mexico. With an elevation of nearly 7000 feet, you will definitely feel the visit all the way down to your lungs. There’s plenty to keep you busy whether your hiking, painting or meditating. But save some free time tomorrow evening because Ben Goldfarb will be talking at the Harwood Museum about beavers and his new book.

Talk targets beavers and ecosystems

Environmental writer Ben Goldfarb will spend his October residency at the Aldo & Estella Leopold Cabin putting the final touches on a manuscript about the importance of beavers in restoring ecosystems.

Goldfarb holds a master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies – the same school that Aldo Leopold attended and was among its first graduates. And the Leopold Cabin sits across the valley from the historic seat of the beaver pelt trade in the early 1800s at Taos Pueblo.

“I can’t think of a better venue at which to complete my present project, ‘Song of the Dammed,’ a book about the ecological and hydrological benefits of North American beaver restoration,” said Goldfarb, who spent last summer surveying ranchers, scientists and public land managers about beaver restoration. “Northern New Mexico plays in integral part of the story I want to tell. And I’m happy to be invited to U.S. Forest Service property, as that is an agency that gets the importance of beavers the most.”

Ooh that’s so exciting! I wrote Ben yesterday to see if someone will be filming or taping the talk so the poor souls not in Taos could see it. He said he wasn’t sure and corrected that the books title is now “Beaverland”.

Goldfarb will present elements of his book, including a history of beavers in North America, the ways beavers influence restoration, and several case studies that support his findings at a presentation planned Wednesday (Oct. 4), 7 p.m., at the Harwood Museum of Art, 238 Ledoux Street in Taos. The presentation is free and open to the public.

The Aldo and Estella Leopold Residency began in 2012 as “an inspiring retreat for writers to reflect and create in the home where Aldo and Estella Leopold first lived as newlyweds from 1911-12,” a press release states. “Now in its 6th year, the Leopold Writing Program selects one to two writers for one-month-long residencies, depending upon funding. Participants receive a $500 stipend to help defray travel and living expenses. In exchange, residents give a public presentation of their work in Taos.”

Past residents include Courtney White, John Hausdoerffer, Bonnie Harper-Lore, Leanna Torres, Gavin Van Horn, Tovar Cerulli, Priscilla Solis Ybarra, Andrew Gulliford, Maya Kapoor, Andrea Clearfield, and Ariana Kramer.

Could Ben be in better company than the spirit of these great writers? I don’t think so. He asked me what I thought of “Beaverland” as a title and I said it was nice maybe kind of similar to “Beaver World” and Enos Mills territory? My personal inclination would be more to something about the way they are an extremely unappreciated resource that gets ignored. Like “Untapped” or “Unsung” or more specifically focused as to their function, “Water-Savers”.

I also tossed out the notion I had been toying about thinking of beavers as “Stream-catchers” (playing off the idea of dream catchers being the Ojibwe belief of the woven hoop you place near the infants crib to keep out the bad dreams) Maybe the beaver dam itself is the web? Keeping out flooding and drought, and the stream that it brings are the ‘good dreams’ vibrant with fish and full of life?

Ben liked that idea and thought it might become a chapter, so we’ll see what happens. In the mean time I’m excited that beavers get a book and Ben gets to talk about it tomorrow night.

“The beavers are calling, and I must go”

heidi08 Beavers September 24, 2017

From author Ben Goldfarb who won a writing fellowship to work on his eagerly awaited beaver book.

“I’ll be spending the next month working on #Beaverland at a writing residency at Mi Casita, former home of legendary ecologist (and Yale Forestry alumnus) Aldo Leopold. If I can’t finish a book in this setting, there’s no hope for me. The house is thirty miles outside Taos, up a dirt road in the Carson National Forest”

I am pretty sure there are no distractions, internet or cell service there. The spirit of Aldo himself will speak for the steams and their truest guardians. Nothing to cccupy his time but beavers beavers beavers. Here’s wishing him ALL the best muses, excellent phrasing and a book that all comes together.

“There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.”
― Aldo Leopold

Ben Busy?

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers July 5, 2017

Yesterday was was a fun and oddly familiar day spent sharing the Martinez Beaver story with very busy author Ben Goldfarb who laughed often at the story, took notes on a little pad, and recorded the interview with his phone. Ben kindly brought me a treasure of immense value: A beaver chewed stick from the sanctioned Scottish beavers in Argyll – which of course I will treasure. We reciprocated his generosity by giving him a poster, one of Sherri Tippie’s sculpy beaver families and a beaver tie for all his important beaver lectures he will be asked to give soon.

He was delighted about this tie and a good sport about putting it on for this photo.

After brunch and the interview he went through the scrapbook slowly, pausing at particularly interesting or important stories and really enjoying the whole drama of the Martinez beavers. He definitely seemed to understand the politics involved, and said he was planning to do a whole chapter on California and our stubborn beaver resistance. He was fascinated by the historical papers and had spoken to Rick Lanman already. He had also heard from Damion about the Placer county depredation rate and was interested to hear that we had been the ones to process them and get one of my psychology friends to run some stats on the numbers to find out that Placer county was issuing 7 times more depredation permits than anywhere else in the state – significant at the .02 level! On his tour with Jon they met some local color that asked about beavers it it made him remember that it was still a big part of Martinez history even today.

Ben told me that he had been nipped by a beaver in Cornwall, and very surprised to hear it growl sooo loud and ferocious. He was not offended and took it as a badge of honor. After all the time we spent in close quarters with beavers in Alhambra Creek, we were surprised. But Ben is very tall, so maybe that factored in to the yearling’s (I’m guessing) reaction? He’s very polite and careful not to be imposing in anyway, but it still makes an impression. Ben indicated that he reads this website often and in addition to finding it very useful to his work he seemed fairly affected (scarred?) by my confrontation of that NPR show host whose guest suggested that a good solution for beaver problems was to eat them. (Remember that?) Ben was the expert that talk show host cited in background for the story. And then proceeded to host a show of mostly beaver-ignorants. Yes, I did rattle the cage bars a bit after that. What can I say? Sometimes things get under my skin, and when National Public Radio chooses to be stupid about beavers, even after interviewing some very smart people, I get riled.

Anyway, it was a long, interesting, day. I got to hear some great stories about the fascinating people he’s been talking to, a little about his dream of being an apprentice to Mike after it’s published and opening up his own beaver solutions one day in CT after his wife finishes nursing school. I must have been working hard while he was here because I slept like a flat stone at the bottom of the river all night, and right through the fireworks.

I was a little shocked to hear him say that he thinks of me as a key player in the beaver story – especially since I just make up everything I do! But one of the fun things about this work is its a pretty rag tag field with a lot of holes and any one with can break in.

All of Ben’s work is going to result in a GREAT book!

Too many good things for beavers

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Chewing, Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? June 16, 2017

Some days I just can’t keep up with the hot number of good news stories reported about beavers. I’m already over the moon because Jon picked up the generous puppet donation from Folkmanis yesterday and we received our posters back from the printer. Didn’t this illustration of Alex Riley’s quote, my design and Coyote Brush Studios‘ beautiful artwork turn out extraordinary?

The plan is to sell these at the festival and by mail, although we haven’t settled on a price yet and technically they’ll be thank you gifts for donations, not sales! They are 18 x 24 and would make a wonderful classroom or visitor’s center poster!

As if that wasn’t exciting enough, this morning there’s a fantastic story out of Alberta about the always inspiring Cows and Fish teaming up with the Miistakis institute to undertake a massive survey an beaver education project, to learn how best approach the landowners.

Is Canada’s national animal a boon or a pest?

Beavers: love them, hate them or ambivalent?

A recently launched survey seeks to learn Alberta landowners’ attitudes about one of Canada’s national symbols. Alberta’s Cows and Fish society has partnered with the Miistakis Institute, a non-profit research group associated with Mount Royal University, on a survey to assess landowners’ knowledge and perception about beavers, their habitat and their management.

There are benefits and drawbacks to having beavers on the property, and survey results will be used to further develop education and outreach on the role of beavers in the ecosystem.

“Beavers are a really important keystone species in our ecosystems and they provide some really critical function within our watersheds, and people don’t know a lot of that,”said Miistakis executive director Danah Duke. “We recognize that beavers cause a lot of damage. They take down trees, they flood areas. We recognize that and we recognize that in order for people to be able to coexist with beavers, we need to be able to manage beavers.”

Duke said she suspects many people don’t realize all the benefits beavers provide, such as raising the water table, slowing stream flow, creating habitat for biological diversity and making stopgaps against drought.

“Beaver ponds retain water 50 percent longer than stream sections with no beaver activity, so in times when water is scarce, we find places that have beavers and beaver ponds, water stays on the landscape longer.”

Anyone in Alberta is welcome to take the survey, but the project is aimed at southern Alberta for the moment, said Duke. Organizers are hoping to receive at least 400 responses so that they have statistically significant results.

I am so beyond impressed with the good work Cows and Fish is doing and has been doing since long before Martinez started to play. You can check out the great survey here, I was already their outlier this morning. It’s well done and obviously sneaks in a little education at the same time as it asks questions. Just check out this question which must come as close as a beaver survey can to being a push-poll.

I sure hope during their data analysis they recognize me and wave hello!

A final burst of good news just came from author Ben Goldfarb who is writing the newest book on beavers. He just found out he is the winner of the Aldo Leopold Mi Casita fellowship which means he gets to write his book at Leopold’s home in Taos. It’s a huge honor and beavers and Ben couldn’t deserve it more.

Leopold’s ‘Mi Casita’ residents focus on environment projects

Wolves, beavers and the land ethic are the areas of interest for this year’s participants in the Aldo and Estella Leopold Residency Program, which is now in its fifth year. The residents will spend a month in late summer at the Leopolds’ first home located on U.S. Forest Service land in Tres Piedras.

Ben Goldfarb, a science and environment writer from New Haven, Connecticut, will continue working on a book project about the ecological and hydrological benefits of North American beaver restoration.

In fall 1912, Aldo Leopold, then the newly appointed supervisor of the Carson National Forest, married Estella Luna Otero Bergere, a prominent daughter of Santa Fe. They moved into their new house, called “Mi Casita.”

It was at Mi Casita that Aldo Leopold found his footing as a leader in forestry and conservation. He once described conservation as “the slow and laborious unfolding of a new relationship between people and land.”

The U.S. Forest Service restored the Leopold house in 2007 and has joined with other residency partners to make it available for the Aldo and Estella Leopold Residency Program.

The sponsors of the residency program aimed to promote a transformative “unfolding” by inviting conservation-minded writers, artists, teachers, professionals and practitioners to Mi Casita. Each resident receives a stipend of $500 to help defray travel and living expenses.

Ben says the residence committee was certain Aldo would approve, and we of course agree. He notes that Aldo’s son Luna who wrote so much about fluvial geomorpology never mentioned beavers. But here’s a secret fun fact. Luna was the dissertation chair of Ann Riley who’s recent book on restoring neighborhood streams has a chapter on the Martinez Beavers.

So I think this was all meant to be, don’t you?