Betsey Reiche – Worth A Dam

For Love of Nature: The beavers of Blackwater Creek

While it’s true damming creeks in urban areas can interfere with water and sewer lines and exacerbate flooding, beavers are important parts of many ecosystems.

Early residents of this continent considered beavers sacred because they create wetlands, the key to life for many species. Almost half of endangered and threatened species in North America rely upon wetlands, which also soak up floodwaters, alleviate droughts and floods, lessen erosion, raise the water table and purify water.

It’s not every day we get a reminder of beaver benefits from Virginia. Thank you Shannon Brennan of the NewsAdvance for carrying the torch. You can count the number of beaver supporters I’ve met from that state on one hand. But maybe there are are a few more closeted beaver believers out there than they let on.

The pointed stubs are telltale signs a beaver has been busily munching, both to eat the bark and potentially use the tree for a dam. Beavers topple small saplings and very large trees, leaving many people to decry the damage. It makes me wonder what beavers would say about us.

That’s easy. I know exactly what beavers would say about us, if they bothered to talk about us at all.

“Those lazy things give up so easily!”

Looks like Devon is officially ‘calling the dogs off ‘ – dogs that helped hide the beavers when DEFRA was playing beaver-catcher. Now they want the community to know that the beaver should be quickly caught, tested for the parasite and released so they can go about their business. Not sure how that’s all going to work, how long the test will take, and what will happen if the family gets separated. The cynic in me wonders if DEFRA expects them never to live through the trauma, find each other again, or make it work and that’s why they’ve agreed they can stay. But years of watching officaials lie to us about the beavers in Martinez might have ruined me. I’ll keep quiet and hope for the best.

Wildlife experts to discuss plans for wild beaver colony in Devon

Now the Trust wants to start talking seriously about the animals’ future with a public drop-in session arranged tomorrow between 3pm and 7.30pm at The Institute, Ottery St Mary, East Devon.

Representatives from Natural England will explain the temporary removal of the beavers to ensure that they are healthy. Devon Wildlife Trust staff will also be on hand to discuss how the trial will work over the coming years.

Spokesman Peter Burgess said: “It is very good news that we have been granted a license to release the beavers back on the river once they have been proven to be healthy.

“Natural England and Devon Wildlife Trust are hosting this meeting to answer any questions the local community may have about the next steps of the project.”

How timely! The one I bought for my own valentine arrived this morning and showed me that these were alarmingly cuter than I had previously thought. The red see is the cut out wood showing the red layer behind. Even the cross hatch in the tail is delicately cross cut to reveal the space behind.

I had no idea. And I’m sure you didn’t either because we only got TWO ideas for original sentiments to ask for on the bottom of the card. Remember, Betsey Reiche the talented SF artist of B-spired genererously agreed to donate 10 to the festival and engrave them with sayings you nominate. So put on your thinking caps and send me a loving beaver message right away that belongs on this card.

Hmm…Maybe I just thought of the solution by myself. The perfect engraving for this remarkable card. And unlike the majority of valentine’s cards on the market, it’s entirely true.

“Our love is Worth A Dam”

Let me end with a thank you for this cheery little fellow who has been in our garden since December. Hope you decide to stick around.

Beavers are back – and we should welcome them with open arms

We’ve been showing people wild beavers for nine years now. Wild, yes, but captive. Our beavers are in a large, fenced wetland enclosure, a whole eight-acre loch and its associated marshes and deciduous woodland in Inverness-shire – perfect beaver habitat. They don’t know they’re captive, and they don’t need to, since they have everything they want: plenty of food; birch and willow trees to fell for bark – they are strictly herbivorous – and to build their lodges and dams; streams and ditches to dam; canals to dig; lagoons to create. That’s what beavers do: beavering away, they adjust their habitat to suit themselves, and just about everything else as well.

Our nine years of soggy monitoring have demonstrated precisely what the scientific literature predicts. Measured against adjacent wetland the beavers have not utilised, we find that biodiversity has expanded by a factor of four.

That’s a 300% increase on the initial pre-beaver presence: more aquatic bugs for fish to hoover up; more fish for herons, diving ducks, grebes, otters and ospreys; more newts, frogs and toads; more insects for small birds to snatch; more small mammals, including water voles and water shrews, for owls and other predators. And so it continues up the chain: more food for pine martens, stoats, weasels, foxes, badgers; more and a wider variety of wild flowers and wetland plants. Altogether more of just about everything, in a happier, fatter, richer, healthier and more diverse ecosystem bubbling with life and energy.

Years ago, I knew the River Otter very well. I have fished it and canoed its dreamy Devon reaches. It is right for beavers. They are mammals of optimum habitat. That means they will cruise upstream and downstream until they find the place they like best. Then they will stay, dig burrows in banks and build impressive lodges of mud, sticks and logs dragged and packed into a dome, with underwater entrances to protect their young from predators (they are hard-wired to think there is a wolf, a lynx, a bear or a wolverine behind every bush). Here they will breed, producing two to three kits every year.

Great article from the Guardian by author John Lister-Kaye. Besides being well written, it’s highly informative and a good place to educate yourself about beaver benefits. This is what I’ve enjoyed most about the beaver battle in the United Kingdom. It forces the ‘good team’ to spend a great deal of time getting the word out. And we all are the richer for it.

John Lister-Kaye is director of Aigas Field Centre (aigas.co.uk). His new book, Gods of the Morning – A Bird’s Eye View of a Highland Year, will be published by Canongate in March.

Mean while I’ve been hard at work hunting for adorable things to to see if any kind souls will donate to the silent auction, and came upon Betsey Reiche yesterday. She and her business partner of “bspired “ are San Francisco based artists who do cards and invitations in wood. Everything they make is cute, but this was the particular offering that caught my eye. I’m sure you can see why.

The card is made out of walnut and comes with a little kickstand for display. She kindly offered to give us several printed with what ever slogans you nominate. So, valiant team beaver, get to work on your beaver puns. This caption reads “Wood you be my valentine?” but beaver experts like you can do better than that I’m sure! (I personally like, Dam it! I’m in love again!) I want to hear YOUR ideas. Send your recommendations to me here and we’ll chose the top five to be available at the beaver festival!