Tag: Derek Gow

Beaver Independence

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? July 5, 2014

Beaver Believers has hit the final 12 hours of their Kickstarter, and producer Sarah Koenisberg says she’s proud, humbled, and excited by how it’s gone! Someone has stepped forward and will match all funds raised above $15k – pretty awesome! So we have until 3pm today to make one final press to support this important film – the only film to feature our own Martinez Beavers and their festival! Please check your penny jar and see if you have anything left to spare.

Jon and I were on the bridge last night watching out for beavers with the massive foot traffic that was making its way down to the fireworks. Many surprised passers-by saw 4 beavers, including the little peanut who was taking advantage of the very high tide to get out of his playpen, over the secondary and swimming through the secondary to look for treats! This is the most horrible footage in the history of the world with all the bouncing foot traffic on the secondary, but at least he had the good sense to go back inside after this. Fun to hear so many visitors saying they saw the documentary on PBS about beavers and they couldn’t wait to come back to this years festival! Even a family from Walnut Creek who were all members of the SF Scottish Fiddlers and wanted to play this year but there wasn’t room!

It looks like Derek Gow in Scotland is thinking about a legal battle over the Devon beavers and that’s music to my ears. The sinister part of DEFRA’s decision is that the conclusion of the Scottish Beaver Trial means the final decision will be made in 2015, which means beavers will be formally back in the UK and protected. So they want to get rid of these refugees NOW while they’re still unsafe. Isn’t that rotten?

Expert may mount legal challenge to Defra’s beaver removal plan

Mr Gow said: “The Eurasian beaver is a former native species. There is significant national and local support for the restoration of this species and a wider appreciation within society of the ecological benefits that would accrue from its presence. Britain is now the last large western European nation state where the species has not been reintroduced.”

In conclusion, he said the beavers on the Otter should be captured and tested and – if clear of the EM disease – be tagged and re-released following a survey to ensure the river was a suitable home for them.

Mr Gow added that he and his colleagues would consider a legal challenge if Defra went ahead with the capture and re-homing programme.

Go Derek Go! He has been lone voice for beaver in the region for so long, but the tide is changing and he’s not alone anymore. And this is just the kind of negative ad campaign Martinez learned was so effective in raise public support for beavers! Nice work DEFRA!

I was a little more surprised to see the Austrian version of this story running Cheryl’s photo! But it’s on wikipedia so that means everyone in the world can use it. Your welcome!

And even if you had your share of fireworks last night, you HAVE to watch this because it’s a historic first that was never possible before and may never be legal again. This was filmed by drone last night from INSIDE the explosion of fireworks in West Palm Beach Florida in May. It had a couple thousand hits when I first saw it last night, now it is cresting 2 million. Aside from being the single best use of a drone ever, watch all the way through, because it will blow every part of your mind.

Apparent this amazing use of the drone caught the attention of authorties and is illegal. Check out the disapproving article on Forbes. But if Jos Stiglingh does ever get in trouble for this his attorney only needs to show the video to the jury. Because it’s awesome.

Beavers on PRI

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental April 23, 2014

Whatever you’re doing this morning you HAVE to make time to hear this excellent program on the beavers in the river otter in Cornwall. My mom happened to be in the car when it aired yesterday and gave the beaver signal. Reporter Christopher Werth interviews the farmer who discovered them, and then our old friend Derek Gow who has been beating the beaver drum for years in England. Honestly it’s an excellent interview, you won’t regret it. They interview the usual castor-phobic fisherman, and then let Derek respond.

But Derek Gow, firmly in the Yea faction of the beaver debate, has a stiff rejoinder to these concerns.

“That’s just a crap argument,” says Gow, a conservationist who’s campaigned for the reintroduction of beavers since the 1990’s.

Gow says beaver dams would actually reduce flooding by holding water. And he says fears about beavers arise from the fact that, after centuries living without them, people have forgotten what the animals actually do.

“They think it’s some sort of Godzilla-type thing that’s going to rip babies out of prams, and kick down the Houses of Parliament, and chop down every tree there is in the landscape,” Gow says. “And that’s just ridiculous!”

I just adore the visual of beavers ripping babies out of prams, and wrote Derek this morning to say so. But the truth is, people aren’t uniquely irrational in England after their 500-year beaver break. There have been beavers more or less consistently in America and we’re still anxious and stupid about them. They’re pretty stupid in Canada too. Let’s just say that castor-phobia isn’t unique to the British Isles.

(And this was the most fun I ever had making a graphic).

Thanks Mom for the tip! Looks like my comments from last night have been bumped to the top of the page. Now I’m just waiting for them to have a beaver festival in Cornwall!

Capture — This apparent family of beavers are the first seen in the wild in England in roughly 500 years. They were discovered by retired ecologist Tom Buckley, who installed motion sensor cameras, caught the beavers on tape and gave the images to the BBC. “It’s a great achievement that they’ve managed to come back,” Buckley says.

This apparent family of beavers are the first seen in the wild in England in roughly 500 years. They were discovered by retired ecologist Tom Buckley, who installed motion sensor cameras, caught the beavers on tape and gave the images to the BBC. “It’s a great achievement that they’ve managed to come back,” Buckley says.

Beaver Farmer – Derek Gow (Devon, England)

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental October 30, 2013

Earthrise Al-Jazeera

I like this snippet of beaver wisdom as much as any I’ve ever seen. Very clear understanding of permaculture and the importance of beavers to water storage. Clear language about keystone species. An obvious explanation about why we should do better. And beavers kissing at the end. It gives me a feeling of inevitability about beavers in the UK.

Of course, Derek is a little rough on those poor beavers, picking them up by the tail (which Sherri says you should never do) but remember he’s a Cornish Farmer in a land that has treated beavers much worse. And he bungles the native American quote – I think it was probably a groovy ecologist in the 70’s who coined the term ‘Earth’s Kidneys”, because I’m pretty sure the tribal nations didn’t have autopsies or pathologists. Heck, we didn’t even know what kidneys did until the late 1700’s, so I doubt natives named a beaver based on its similar function.

He meant to say “Native Americans called them the Sacred Center.”

Which they are. But we understand. And beavers are on Al-Jazeera. This means we’re past the “ignoring” stage an onto the fight! (First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight with you. Then you win.) Nice work Derek! You and your very-cornish neighbor did a perfectly cast job explaining how beavers shape the landscape. Since Jon went to school in Cornwall he practically recognized both of you, and the Perryman family hails from just to the west in St. Austel, so I can tell we are going to be great friends. You are the perfect man for the job of bringing beavers back to England.

Beavers on Aljazeera?

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Earth Day, Educational October 15, 2013

You bet your sweet alif they are! Check out the episode four of Earthrise.

Earthrise: Beaver Farmer

An English farmer sets out to restore the country’s wetlands, with help from nature’s most experienced engineers.

Wetlands are one of the world’s most valuable ecosystems; as well as providing a rich habitat for plants and animals, they also store carbon and help reduce floods by soaking up excess rain. But around the world, vast swathes of them are being destroyed, and in England alone, 90 percent of wetlands have disappeared in the last 400 years.

Now English farmer Derek Gow has a novel plan to restore these precious habitats – bring back beavers, the massive semi-aquatic rodents that once played a crucial role in shaping the British countryside. Using their sharp teeth, beavers chop down small trees and branches to build dams across streams, creating a large network of pools and channels to live in, which form a brand new wetland.

Sylvia Rowley travels to Devon, UK, to see what nature’s construction workers can do, and to help release a pair of beavers into their new home on Derek’s farm.

I hope this particular episode is available on the web once it airs, because this is definately news we can use. I’ll be excited to see it in person. You will remember that Derek is the farmer in Devon (Southwest England) that has been pretty outspoken for beavers. I found out he and Duncan Ramsay (Free beavers on the Tay in Scotland) are old friends so we are working the country from both ends, (so to speak). I can’t wait to see this particular work from the beaver lobby and am excited to see this making the rounds.

And just to show you I’m a trustworthy source, here’s some feedback about yesterday’s Clemson Calamity:

Mike Callahan Heidi is right on about the historic importance of the Clemson Pond Leveler and that it rightfully has been relegated to the proverbial shelf as had her original personal computer or the Model T. Flexible Pond Levelers and Castor Masters work so much better, last longer, and are much cheaper and easier to install. Coincidentally today I am going back to the Norwottuck Rail Trail, the site of my first and only Clemson Pond Leveler installation in 1998 to adjust a Flexible Pond Leveler pipe that successfully replaced that CPL.

This Just In: Apparently Beavers are different than Brittney Spears

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere April 24, 2012

Feisty runaway beaver ‘is no Britney Spears’, says bemused owner

I’m not even going to speculate why this is a headline in a respectable newspaper.

article-1335254969547-12BA0477000005DC-536633_636x411[1] — Derek Gow is glad to be reunited with runaway beaver Igor, but claims his furry friend is not as recognisable as Britney Spears (Picture: SWNS) Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/897083-feisty-runaway-beaver-is-no-britney-spears-says-bemused-owner#ixzz1syU1q87j

England has been abuzz since Sunday with the news of a ‘rescued’ beaver from the Devon area who was supposedly found in a slurry pitt on a farm. Since England doesn’t HAVE beavers it is assumed that it is one of three who escaped from an estate when the electric fence failed.

If the name of the fella in the picture looks familiar, it should. Derek Gow is the author of the lovely article ten days ago about the value of beavers in the ecosystem. If you’re like me you will be interested to learn that a ‘slurry pit’ is a circular pitt where farmers dump animal waste and unusable bits to compost and turn into fertilizer eventually.

Apparently beavers aren’t happy about being fertilizer.

‘He’s about the size of a medium dog and he has been growling at us,’ said the park’s operations manager George Hyde.

All the accounts have been boasting about the VERY BRAVE female RSPCA officer who rescued him with a dog crate. Good for her, and good for the beaver! But I would venture to say that it wasn’t so much that she is remarkably courageous (although she may well be) as it is that the men on the case are big ol’ sissies.

(Unless they all have wooden legs I believe Sigmund Freud might have something to say about a grown man terrified of a growling beaver.)

Igor’s owner, Derek Gow of Lifton, Devon, said it would be impossible to confirm the beaver was his. ‘Beavers are a brown amorphous mess. They’re not Britney Spears,’ he said.

You know, another courageous female, Hope Ryden, recognized her individual beavers in Lily Pond. And we could recognize Mom, Dad, GQ and Reed. “Amorphous Mess?” Really? It’s possible that even though you wrote a very nice beaver article, you suffer from a rare condition known as Prosopoagnosia Castorium.

Just saying.

Here’s some more messiness from a wildlife center in Kentucky that was posted by our friends at the River Otter Ecology Project yesterday.