Because the beaver isn't just an animal; it's an ecosystem!

Tag: Heidi Perryman

Garden State Beavers

Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions December 4, 2009

Things are looking up for beavers in New Jersey! After a few concentrated advocacy efforts for the beavers out-flooding their welcome in Franklin Lakes, things are looking a bit brighter. HSUS has assigned representative Heather Cammisa to work on the project. (Turns out Heather and Gail are old friends anyway. Something about a piglet and an animal shelter?) I heard from Audubon NJ that they will respond and are decidedly pro-beaver, and Gail found out that the local zoo vet actually lives in the housing development in question and is helping her communicate alternatives to the mayor using information I sent them. We were still looking for a good media contact when I came across this article by Robert Linnehan in the Haddonfield Sun discussing beavers in another area of NJ.

What can be done of a beaver that is encroaching onto land where humans typically tread? Brees quickly contacted his good friend Sarah Summerville, director of the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge Inc., who had several suggestions.

Recognize the name? Sarah is the one who told Gail to write me in the first place! Big beaver friend. I told Gail to track down that reporter and see if she can get him interested in Franklin Lakes. Fingers crossed. Check out this lovely article.

It would appear from the air photo that the waterway in question is an unnamed stream flowing from a large pond at Tavistock Country Club’s property into Cooper River. Cooper River appears to be the northeast boundary of Crow’s Woods,” Summerville wrote to Brees. “I am happy that we share the opinion that the beaver should, if at all possible, stay in the environment. I concur, based on my knowledge of beavers and the benefits they can bring. Beavers are considered a ‘Keystone Species’ because their engineering activities create habitat that is beneficial to many other areas in the affected ecosystem.” The dams beavers create can also act as “nature’s kidney,” Summerville said, slowing water flow which allows for sediments and toxic material to filter out through the pond bed. Having a beaver in the park would also provide for an interesting educational opportunity for students and residents alike in the borough, she said.

Well, since you already learned a lot about beavers Mr. Linnehan, maybe you’d like to write something about Franklin Lakes? Gail will fill you in, and I’d be thrilled to connect you with other great sources of information if there are any questions she can’t answer. For now though, we can wait hopeful that the beavers in your swamp will meet a kinder fate than there were slated for.

“Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain!”

Educational, Environmental September 29, 2009
Well, maybe a little attention. I thought today I would pass along a recent development that has been slightly confusing me. To understand it you need to see this image from “behind the curtain”. It’s what I use to track traffic to this website. It’s always good to know how many people care what happens to our beavers and how far the word has traveled. Technology being as wonderous as it is I can also see what country viewers are from or how they got to the site, but lets just focus now on the “how many” site.

The blue line is unique viewers to this website in the past 24 hours and the red line is separate page views in the past 24 hours.(Posts are what I add to every day. Pages are the bar across the top) If you are inexplicably in love with this website and check it every minute you will still only get counted once per IP address. New viewers are likely to check other page views, while familiar visitors probably won’t.

Last summer we had reliably 250 views a day (less on the weekend because, don’t be shocked, but apparently some people check this website from WORK!!!),  and when there was a snow flurry of media attention sometimes we got as many as 500. After this years festival we were reliably getting 500 a day, which made sense because we had a lot of media attention and curiosity. Since then, though we’ve been regularly getting 700 viewers a day.

The obvious question: Who are these people? They can’t all be in Martinez. And even if we counted our friends from Frankfurt, New Zealand, Massachusetts and Alaska that’s still only four. Heck even if you counted my mom, and three of my friends that’s still only eight. There were curious visitors from the two Egbert interviews, and a brief peak afterwards. Sometimes people come to our site “accidentally” because they’re looking up something else (no not that!). Things like particular quotes or references I’ve included can draw visitors that aren’t interested in beavers, and I’m sure at least for at least one of them it was a happy accident. For example, the most readers ever came from the article about beavers and social democracy. Not because the writing was so brilliant, but because it had a graphic that middle school students were probably looking for as part of their American history reports.

Long ago, in the great beaver controversy, we were ‘advised’ against having open comments to ward off all the careless and mean things that might be said. This may not have been a mistake, but I think we missed out because of it. Yes the gmail accounts gets bursts of spam and offers for miley cyrus unclothed, and someone is checking our domain tools to find out who owns us almost daily, but I would like to hear how people came to this website and what there interests are. My greatest wish is that people come to this website when they google beavers with a particular question and find out something that helps them make better choices—then maybe decide to come back. Maybe they’ll tell me something they’ve learned about and  I’ll learn it too, and pass it along through the website to others. I’d like this site to be a environmental hub, and sometimes that has happened in surprisingly successful ways. Just yesterday I heard the good news that Penny Weigand will hook up with Scott of the Burrowing Owls, and Carolyn Jones of the Chronicle is interested in the story.

In the meantime I’ll keep waking up and trying to think about new things to say about beavers and the environment. It’s been uncannily easy so far, although I recognize each distinctive Peanut Character in my 662 posts.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=HZEmxby8g8A]
(For the record, this was definately a “Linus” Post.)

Once Upon A Time…

Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions September 22, 2009

Once upon a time, in a very far off land where olive trees made a familiar pattern on the hills, a family of travelling magicians moved into the creek. There were three to begin with, a mother, a father and a healthy teen and all were adept at weaving straw into gold and sticks into shelters. They picked a neglected spot along the stream to make their home, right at the edge of the tide, and nestled in amongst the willows and rushes of their people.

Children and their parents sometimes stopped near their camp to watch a party trick or two. The magicians could juggle brightly colored lights and carry trees on their fingertips and it was amusing for the townspeople to see. But back at the castle, the stern old mapmaker was not amused, and argued that the magicians  would call the Great Waters to rise up and flood the small village, drowning their homes and cattle. He directed the magistrate to kill the magician family, and the decision was swiftly made to execute.

‘Such decree of death caused public outcry for those who had enjoyed the magicians waterside display, and the sentence was softened to banishment when the children began to cry at the great meeting where it was considered. A gathering was planned to consider the fate of the magicians, and all the people left their huts and hovels to join in council around the fireside where important decisions were always made. There were four on the dais and four hundred in the fields. The magistrate’s brought in high priests with yardsticks to speak of the Great Flood the magicians would bring if allowed to stay, and the people spoke of their talents and treasures and asked that the magistrate find a wizard who could prevent the flood and allow the magicians to remain.

Faced with such a united and determined voice, the magistrate appointed a council of seven and charged them with the weighty task of finding such a wizard and setting him to its dilemma. Perhaps he expected the task to be impossible, and hoped to divide the inevitable failure by seven and share the blame for banishment. However, these seven quickly scoured the nation for the best skills in the land and the sharpest minds of the nation. After 90 days of searching they brought forth a great wizard the Green Mountain State and, after much council and deliberation, employed him for the position.

Sir Gallop of Lisle  was tall and stern as he surveyed the magicians’ lair and considered the risks of the great flood. The pulses of many a maiden fluttered as he strode shirtless into the shallow creek to see what damage might be called. Despite the prodigious difficulties he knew just what must be done, and he used an enchanted conduit to move some of the powers from the area so that the magicians could cause no harm. With the new bypass in place, even the yardsticks of the high priests could assess no risk of flood. There was great rejoicing and many sighs of relief, and the townsfolk bought Sir Gallop many tankards of finest ale before he returned to his home in the green mountains.

Now the magicians have lived in the town for three autumns, and the townsfolk still love to gather and watch their displays. The enchanted conduit works day and night to direct the power, and in the late summer the townsfolk gather for a festival to celebrate the magicians presence in their town.  Come join them some evening to watch the juggling of brightly colored lights at the waterside, and remember that your town may get magicians soon.

Listen Live

In the News September 21, 2009