This is just about the only wonderful photo of a beaver we don’t have! (Cheryl, get on that, will you?) It is featured on this morning’s story here, discussing the beaver in Devon with a fine report on why beavers matter.

Found: One beaver

Countries across Europe have been reintroducing the beaver since the 1920s. Britain is one of the last regions to begin reintroduction, but there are now several controlled trial projects around Britain, including in Devon, Kent and Gloucestershire.

 It’s a mystery, however, where the beaver caught on amateur video appeared from. The Devon Wildlife Trust is nearing the end of its three-year project to introduce a pair of beavers into an enclosed wetland area. The pair had a baby, known as a kit, in August 2013, but none of the three is reported missing.

 ‘The beaver in Britain was, and still is, considered to be an important part of the ecosystem, and was certainly responsible for significant modifications to local and wider environments, through the damming of rivers since the end of the last ice age,’ said Sabin.

 It’s always nice to have physicists on your side! This article reminded me that the Scottish beaver trial will be over this spring and the project will either be continued, considered a success with the animals released or considered a failure with the animals removed. (Back to Bavaria?) The Devon trial will also conclude by removing the beavers while the data is analyzed. What a rotten fate for those beavers! Shuffled around to do Britain’s dirty work and then hauled out after everything looks nice.

Well, I’m practically ready to ship OUR beavers to Bavaria after three nights of not seeing them! I know winter is harder for beaver watching but we have been there at three different shifts and seen nothing. They’re obviously there though because the dam is looking worked on every day – in its crazy ‘Lazy S Ranch’ way! Jon sees them in the morning walking the dog before work, but we see nary a whisker at night. The big amusement of last night was a family of 5 young raccoons swimming downstream in a straight line up to the footbridge before they climbed out on the other bank. With the light you could see their little paws under the water, working so hard with their fingers cupped, which was adorable. They almost swam into the beaver lodge, and were clearly sniffing all around it. I wished an annoyed beaver would pop out and tell them to buzz off like they did in this video, but it was not to be. Looking at this again I see the old lodge and realize I made this video a lifetime ago.

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Yesterday I had a surprising response from this donation by Peter at CoinCreativity in NY. He kindly  wrote back

I would be very glad to donate a couple of items with a beaver motif for your great cause. Although I am an avid Etsy craft person, my college degree is in Environmental Science and Forestry, so I too know the importance of beavers and causes such as yours. Please forward the address to me and I will send you some great beaver jewelry for your event! Take care.  Pete

Thank you so much! And I agree Pete, beavers are dam important!