Tag: Hope Ryden

It’s up to us now, let’s create a new Hope for beavers

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beavers, Friends of Martinez Beavers, History June 28, 2017

One of the things I’ve learned over the years about trying to change folk’s minds about beavers is that people don’t change their minds about beavers. All the science data from Michael Pollock or all the facts from Dietland Muller-Swarze doesn’t actually translate into policy changes regarding beavers unless another important organ is altered as well.

Hearts.

That’s why the intelligent, heartfelt, observant, tear-inducing writing of Hope Ryden’s Lily Pond was so powerful. She told a story as a compelling, factual and feeling woman who read her history and was gradually was touched by beavers. And I defy anyone who read through her book to ever disdainfully call them ‘rodents’ again.

Hope Ryden, Wildlife Protector and Photographer, Dies at 87

Hope Ryden, whose lifelike photographs of North American beavers, coyotes, mustangs and other wildlife helped elevate them into poster animals for conservation campaigns, died on June 18 in Hyannis, Mass. She was 87.

The cause was complications of hip surgery, her brother, Ernest E. Ryden, said.

An English major who later developed a passion for photography during breaks abroad as a Pan Am flight attendant, Ms. Ryden, in 1961, joined Robert Drew & Associates, a noted documentary production company, where she and her colleagues were in the vanguard of cinéma vérité filmmaking.

By the early 1970s, she had become a full-time naturalist and animal-rights advocate, publishing books for adults and children lushly illustrated with her own photographs.

Her advocacy was credited with encouraging Congress to pass legislation in 1971 protecting the populations of wild horses and burros in the West; their numbers had dwindled to an estimated 17,000 in 1970 from a peak of two million. She also helped persuade New York’s Legislature to name the beaver the official state mammal in 1975.

Ms. Ryden wrote two dozen books on wildlife, including “America’s Last Wild Horses” (1970), “God’s Dog: A Celebration of the North American Coyote” (1975), “Bobcat Year” (1981) and “Wild Animals of America ABC” (1988).

In addition to her books, Ms. Ryden wrote for National Geographic, Audubon, Smithsonian and The New York Times Magazine.In addition to her books, Ms. Ryden wrote for National Geographic, Audubon, Smithsonian and The New York Times Magazine.

Hope changed minds. True to her name. She gave beavers the best chance they ever had to survive in an indifferent and inconvenient world. Grey Owl may have softened things a little, Enos Mills got folks to listen, but Hope made people love them. And that was a game changer.

She was a naturalist of the highest order and wrote many wonderful books on many wonderful topics, but to my mind this was her crowing achievement. The introduction was written by Dr. Jane Goodall. For years Hope was an email buddy and would donate signed copies to the Silent Auction. She always said that the Martinez beaver story made her happy and made her feel as if new options were possible. She was friends with Sherri Tippie and knew the good folks at Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife. She never stopped caring about beavers even after her amazing 4 years.

I put off reading Lily Pond because I didn’t want to save the Martinez beavers with sympathy in the beginning. I had the crazy idea that just explaining the science would make everyone understand. Silly me! I read it in the winter the year after mom’s illness, and the passage when her matriarch died literally made me erupt in tears. We were driving back from the mountains and I could literally only read a 10 words at a time before I had to put the book down and weep. Her beautiful words were carved across my aching heart; “Oh, Lily! Is this how you leave us?” And I will thank her forever for saying how it felt to watch the beaver heroine you have sat with in the dark for years, suddenly leave the world where she brought so much life.

Hope told stories. And taught me that stories Save Beavers.

Beavers: The future and the past

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Chewing, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? June 10, 2015

Let’s start out with some momentous news. Last night in Napa they almost certainly saw three kits. HURRAY THREE KITS!!! One appears to charge off with the adults to feed, so missed his photo opportunity in his rush to maturity, but they are pretty sure it’s a brave little kit they’re seeing. Congratulations Napatopia, we’re excited for you!

Now its on to some inspiration from our great friend Camilla Fox who lent full ‘Project Coyote‘ voice recently to the Bobcat hearing in Santa Rosa. Great work team bobcat!

Finally an update and a short poll. I know you all recognize the fellow on the left, but the gentleman on the right might be less familiar to our new readers. This is Alex Hiller a beaver supporter from Germany who once came to america to visit a beaver family with Hope Ryden of the famed Lily Pond book. Alex was an early and dedicated supporter and attended the beaver symposium in Lithuania, shocking the heck out of Skip and Glynnis by wearing his Worth A Dam t-shirt shown here.

I hadn’t heard from Alex in a while and I thought I’d send him the Geo article in case he hadn’t seen it and wanted to help with a translate. This morning he wrote back sighting an old German saying, “Some people you assume to have perished only got married.” He announced that he met and married a wonderful woman from Sri Lanka who was passionate about elephants so they were focusing their energies there for the time being. How cool is that? Congratulations Alex! We wishing you every happiness but we will miss our reliable foreign correspondent!

Lastly. if we were offering recycled bags for sale at the festival would you prefer a green bag with a logo or a khaki bag with this in brown? I like them both so you’re vote is needed. Let me know here. Thanks!

Three more good things:

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions March 26, 2012

Beaver Town: Residents Coexist With Wildlife

Photo Credit: Steven David Johnson via Flickr

(ANIMAL NEWS) OREGON — The town of Corvallis, Oregon has decided to protect beavers residing in Dunawi Creek, right next to a local popular park. The park’s fields frequently flood from the beaver’s damming. However, an engineer team with support of the community is finding a way to coexist with the beaver’s natural behavior, instead of getting rid of them. Read on to learn how communities can live peacefully amongst animal neighbors. — Global Animal

Let’s start Monday off on a bright note! What an adorable picture! This feel-good beaver-tale comes from Corvalis Oregon, south of Portland where there are plenty of beaver fans among football goers. I’ve been reading something about this story for at least two weeks now as the city is making sure to get maximal promotional value for its kindness. Now it’s an AP story which is even better press than Martinez ever got. Good for them.And good for beavers!

Corvallis parks officials have decided that solving flooding caused by beavers at a local park will take a little engineering of their own. The Gazette-Times reports that for years beavers have caused flooding at the softball fields at Sunset Park from damming the Dunawi Creek. But now parks officials are planning to install pipes to keep the water in ponds at a manageable level.

Maintenance supervisor David Phillips says they considered removing the animals, but that moving the critters may not sit well with the community by Oregon State University, where the mascot is a beaver. Phillips says they “decided we should try and see if we can live with the beavers, this being a Beaver town.”

Mind you an earlier article reported that what they had put in was actually a 15 inch pipe with an elbow – so that the water drains into the elbow until the pond’s a certain height and then it stops until the water rises. No protection on the intake. Which is nice if the beavers don’t plug the pipe since the opening isn’t blocked in any way. The article describes the city as having a “team of engineers”. I’m sure they thought of this.

The beaver-gods must be smiling down on us this Monday because two other amazing things happened before I fell asleep last night. Worth A Dam received a last minute invite to the 100th anniversary celebration of Girl Scouts at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. (As in 20,000 girls and their families do some art and learn about beavers.) And I finally persuaded the iconic beaver author Hope Ryden (of the much beloved Lily Pond) to talk with me on Agents of Change. Since the subtitle of her book is “Four years living with a family of beavers” I’m thinking we’ll have LOTS to talk about! Stay tuned!

Busman’s Holiday

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Environmental December 14, 2009

The phrase “Busman’s Holiday” is an English saying referring to a vacation during which you engage in activities very like what you do for a living. Reading Lily Pond is somewhat like that for me, since pretty much every dramatic thing that happens in the book has happened for our beavers. For example, when vandals “destroy” the dam and the pond collapses, I remembered several similar actions to our colony’s real estate. Of course it was never vandals: (at least not by strict definition standards). It was always someone with a paycheck from the city, and it was always done on purpose, even if it was denied later.

The worst and most obvious was the night Skip Lisle took the dam down by three feet to install the flow device. That stressed our colony horribly. It was heartbreaking to remember how all 6 beavers worked all night, ripping up tules and mud and pulling sticks off their own lodge, to make repairs. The following day one of our kits nearly collapsed with exhaustion and had to go to the lindsay museum where he later died. The necropsy found lesions from roundworm parasite, that had even made him blind, but I’m sure the panicked night(s) of hard work didn’t help.

A lot of the author’s “discoveries” are common knowledge to us. Maybe because we were such novices to begin with, we didn’t have years of “PROVEN THEORY” to combat. We just watched and learned. Beavers make use of varietal feeding. Check. Beavers work on dams from both up and down stream. Check. Beaver kits are taken care of by the whole family. Check. Beavers solve arguments and assert their power though “wrestling” in the water which doesn’t result in bloodshed. Check. Muskrats live in and around beaver lodges. Check.Beavers vocalize while feeding, but also to socialize. Check. Beavers repair holes and leaks under the water, not just at the top. Check. Beavers are adaptive in their thinking and problem solving. Check.

One thing I love about the book, is reading about things we observe all the time, but never had a “name” for. Hope Ryden describes the beavers water wrestle as a “Push Match”, which is exactly what it looks like. She says of it

I have watched these matches many tmes and thought a lot about them. Any species that posses sharp teeth with which to obtain food must avoid using those hazardous tools against its kind, for doing so could bring about its extinction. Moreover, it is certainly not in the interest of an animal to kill a close relative whose hereditary make up (being similar to his own) offers a backup means by which his own genetic material may be propagated. Finally, only a colony that is able to live in peace is assured the help of many hands and jaws in the creation and maintenance of its waterworks. This it is not surprising that the beaver has evolved strong inhibitions against biting, together with a ritualistic means by which to safely settle disputes.

Hope Ryden: Lily Pond page 167

Martinez Beaver Push-Match:

In some ways, reading Hope Ryden’s book is like finding a loveletter written by your grandmother. It’s wonderful to know what went on in her head, and to see the parallel’s in how she was feeling and thinking. But its also confusing to realize that someone else had these feelings, allowed their life to be shaped by them, and ultimately moved past them. It’s like seeing a familiar production from back stage. You know the plot and how it ends, but its delightful to see how the cast puts it all together.

Is there a copy under your tree yet? You can get one here.

Revelations

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, Why We Care November 14, 2009

So here I am, a beaver advocate, who has resisted reading the most famous beaver story of all time; Hope Ryden’s Lily Pond. Everyone said it was sad and beautiful, and I had enough sad and beautiful right here in my own backyard thank you very much. I will say my curiosity was peaked when I learned that our German beaver friend and foreign correspondent Alex, had sent her a few of my columns. I later learned that Alex had spent a summer working with her and later Sherri Tippie in Colorado. Recently a beaver supporter sat me down with an original signed copy and insisted I read a little.

I’m so glad she did!

I am slowly savoring the earliest chapters, but I had no idea it was so science-thoughtful. It’s like reading Gorilla’s in the Mist or Never Cry Wolf. As the story opens she has obtained a permit from the Ranger to study a local colony in New York. She is waiting silently for a glimpse of a beaver, patient for hours, days, longer. Then sees a large beaver she calls the “Inspector General” who comes out at the same time every night to check the dams. At first he is the only beaver than can tolerate her approach and allow her to get closer.

It’s wonderful to watch her learn things that we have learned by accident, but I was most excited by her use of night photography. She was trying to take pictures without disruption and painstakingly used red lights and strobe lights so the beavers wouldn’t be upset by the light. (!) Then an accident happened and she turned light upon them, and lo! the beavers were unphased! and she learned that beavers have no Eye Shine!

In this moment she realized what we’ve long realized. When you shine a light in a beavers eyes there is no reflection. Nocturnal animals like raccoon, bobcat, deer and possum have light gathering crystals called tapetum lucidum. They evolved this ability to help them manage life at night. Hope wondered why beavers didn’t have it? Could it be that the species is too newly adapted to night life to have evolved the trait?

She did the work I admire and went searching through historic records. Early trappers often mention beavers out during the daytime, and even “Sunning themselves on their lodges“. She writes

If these descriptions can be believed, they raise another question: what would cause a diurnal species to become a nocturnal one? Could such a change have come about as a result of the extraordinary trappping pressure exerted on the beaver over three centuries?

Hope Ryden, The Lily Pond pg 45

She goes on to convincingly describe the horrific “beaver ethic cleansing” that was perpetrated by the Dutch, the Canadians, the French, and the Native Americans in service for all of the above. The market was already hurting because the European Beaver had been trapped to extinction in the 1600’s. So it was wonderful to find a new source for pelts and castoreum. There were no restrictions at all placed on the number of beaver. At the end of the 18th century there were so many beaver pelts on the market that 75% of the pelts taken were burned to hold the price of fur at a profitable margin. In fact, in 1811 John Jacob Astor’s fur trading post had taken all the beaver from Oregon and systematically removed every them from every last tributary in the Columbia River. By the time of the invention of the steel-jawed leg hold trap in the 1840’s, there weren’t many beaver left to trap.

In 1895, fourteen states announced they had no beavers at all. Not one. These included Massachusetts (where Beaver Solutions is located) Vermont (where Skip Lisle is located!), New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, delaware, Maryland, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Florida.

One can speculate that the few animals that escaped this continent-wide decimation must have been the wariest of their kind, deviants, disinclined to build conspicuous lodges. And inded, the late ninteeth-century reports of sightings describe the beaver as a reclusive bank-dweller. One can also speculate that these survivors escaped the notice of trappers by turning night into day, for by the end of the last century, no further mention is made of beavers “sunning themselves on their lodges”.

Hope Ryden: The Lily Pond pg 48

Okay, I know I’m a huge beaver nerd, but that’s FASCINATING. It makes so much sense to think of bank lodges as an adaption to hunting, and beavers being nocturnal out of necessity and not out of genetics. The book was written in 1989 and I haven’t yet heard what beaver-ologists like Muller-Swarze or Baker think about it, but you can be I’ll be asking them.

In the meantime, you can pick up your own used copy of Lily Pond from Amazon, and follow along at home. I am sure I’ll have more revelations soon.