Fur-bearer Defenders Radio

As of today the Beaver Believers has 77 backers and have nearly met their initial goal of 9000. Last week, Fur-bearer Defenders signed on as their first corporate sponsor! There’s an interview with Sarah about the film here on FBD radio. (The other interview is with Simon Jones who has headed the VERY successful Scottish beaver trial, so it’s all worth your time.)

With new confidence that the film will reach its kick starting goal, Sarah released a stretch goal today. This will fund a more ambitious project with better grapics, more indepth information, and Oh incidentally MORE OF MARTINEZ.

What a whirlwind these last few days have been! Thank you all so much! Five days, 72 backers, and more than $7,500 already pledged – this is a dream come true.

An extra special thank you is in order for our first corporate sponsor, The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals! They are a non-profit organization based out of Canada that works to minimize human-wildlife conflicts and end the commercial fur trade. Check them out at http://furbearerdefenders.com/

We’ve made incredible progress but please keep spreading the word through your networks. We’re feeling confident we’ll reach our initial goal of $9,000, so we’ll be announcing our first “stretch goal” tomorrow. Our starting budget reflected the absolute bare minimum needed to get this film cut, but a bigger budget would allow for a longer, more thorough, and well-polished film; the addition of maps, graphics, and illustrations to help explain the scientific parts of the story; the creation of an original score recorded with actual musicians; and so much more.

THANK YOU!!!

-Sarah and The Beaver Believers Team I don’t see your name written up here. Mine is at the topish left. And Cheryl’s and Mike’s and Malcolm’s. Where’s yours? Did you know that we’ll get more about our urban beavers if you do your part? You could join at the 5 dollar level and show the world you’re a beaver believer! Or you could donate that nest egg you’ve been saving and really have something to show for it.

Donate today! Sarah has generously offered to send some footage for the beaver festival promo, so can you spare some support to thank her?

Yesterday’s cold weather made me grateful that our beavers at least don’t have to worry about their pitiful pond freezing solid. Beavers in colder climates rely on the deeper water to stay unfrozen so they can get access to the lodge and reach their food caches. Once the surface water freezes solid they can’t get out until it thaws! Ours practically live on easy street – er, creek. This is a nice explanation of what those beavers do to get through the winter from the University of Wyoming.

Not much beaver news today but yesterday I was at work in the salt mines and saw that my name had been dropped on facebook – turns out Michael Howie of Fur-bearer Defenders radio was looking for someone to talk beavers and ecology for 10 minutes and someone I barely know said “Heidi Perryman is the obvious choice!”. Ha. (Only 10 minutes?)

I don’t know if we connected fast enough for his timeline, but its nice to be mentioned!

And just so you know I’m not the only crazy one in the family, this is what my nieces are up to in San Mateo where they received a contract to Yarn Bomb the city. Here are some pictures from from the Mercury News, and this is the explanation on the city’s website. Isn’t that awesome?