This lovely photograph was kindly shared by photographer Bob Armstrong and appears in his remarkable book “The beavers of Mendenhall Glacier“. He and his colleague, Mary Willson, spent a summer waking up at 4 in the morning to be there at first light and catch these glorious images. You remember that he was involved in the heroic citizen effort to manage destructive beaver behavior without killing in Juneau, Alaska. I tracked down Bob and put him in touch with Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions, who will be heading out there this fall to help with a comprehensive beaver management plan.
While I was devouring Bob’s detailed descriptions and lovely photos, I came across this shot of a newly started beaver dam facing the breathtaking Mendenhall glacier. I was prepared to beg, purchase, plead and cajole for access to this lovely image, but Bob kindly volunteered and promised to send me a hard copy as well. One of the nicest things about the book, (besides its advice about photographing beavers, its keen awareness of their habits, and an amazing tailslap shot that has our own Cheryl Reynolds green with envy), is its photographic documentation of varietal feeding in beavers. He offers images of them eating pondweed and horsetail, and its great to see the complexity of the beaver diet.
After you consider the beauty of this photo (and get off the phone with your travel agent) you might enjoy this video I made after our helicopter glacier trip two years ago. (mybluehouse is my nonbeaver-youtube account…) At the time it inspired me to think that in traveling home from Juneau to Martinez I was retracing the steps of John Muir!
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=0v28YCLlJgA]
