Valley of the Moon

At least two very important things happened yesterday, both of them Canadian in nature. Jari Osborne’s promotional interview for “Leave it to beavers” aired on Metro Focus. It featured a discussion of why beavers matter and some of the most intriguing clips from the film. The beaver part starts at 13:21. Enjoy.

Are you excited yet? I can’t tell you how thrilling it is to see a powerful filmmaker and a prominent interviewer casually discussing beaver benefits on national television. And that adorable footage of the kit hopping eagerly in the lodge is, I believe, the cutest event ever recorded since the development of film. (Or eyes.)

I heard from a very excited Jari yesterday. It must be a little weird to have your second premiere nearly two years after finishing the film. An American debut is a big deal. She even talked about getting Sherri, Suzanne and Carol together for a meet up reunion at the beaver festival. (!!) That is an impossibly wonderful idea to imagine, we’ll see. In the meantime, plan your superbowl-beaver party, tell all your friends, and get ready for next Wednesday.

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The other very important thing that happened yesterday was the death of 92 year old author, Farley Mowat. Up until the last moment of his life he was a fierce advocate for nature and a dedicated writer. You probably crossed paths with “Never cry wolf”, a story I drew on internally again and again when fighting for our beavers – from the idea of leaving a familiar job for the complete unknown, to the joy and brutality of an unexpected encounter with nature, to the bumbling of failed bureaucracies and corrupt politicians lurking under every stone. His writing prepared me for what I was going to face.

Even though my journey was only 8 blocks from my home, it was still a great distance from what I was trained to do. I needed an experienced guide to show me the way. He knew what challenges I would face there, and why it was worth the effort. He even understood how my life could feel at once completely taken over and more like my own than it ever had been. How fitting that his deer friend, Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd, remembers his important life by comparing him to Canadian icons like “Grey Owl”.

The world is such a better place because you were in it, Mr. Mowat. I hope I am a better person because you’re writing is inside me.

In the end, there were no simple answers,

no heroes, no villians.

only silence.

But it began the moment that I first saw the wolf

By the act of watching, with the eyes of man,

I had pointed the way for those who followed.

How good are you at waiting for things? You know, that feeling when the good thing is so close you can almost touch it, but you have to refrain for a little bit longer. Maybe you know that lump under the Christmas tree is your new bike and your parents say to stay away from it. Or you know the cookies will be better when they’ve cooled but you can’t help burning the roof of your mouth anyway. Maybe your license is coming in the mail any minute but you can’t stop calling yourself Dr. before it arrives. Or maybe that’s just me.

I bet you can already guess how good I am at it. This is maddening. Ripples are starting to trickle in from the PBS Nature episode by Jari Osborne, and I am chomping at the bit. Apparently time is unwilling to pass any faster just because I want it to. Who knew?

Beavers never make the list of cuddliest animals and they’re often considered more pest than problem solver. But it turns out that the industrious rodents may be true “eco-heroes.” On May 14, PBS Nature premieres Leave it to Beavers, a documentary about North American beavers, their habits, history and role as one of nature’s top infrastructure engineers. Filmmaker Jari Osborne tells MetroFocus host Rafael Pi Roman the behind-the-scenes story of the new documentary, and how the beaver “could possibly be the key to saving our world’s fresh water supplies.”

Jari’s interview on Metro Focus that she recorded Wednesday will air May 8th and I’ll post the link so you can watch it online. Her radio interview on The Animal House from the same day should be downloadable in a day or two and I’ll pass that along also. In the meantime I have already begged a copy of the Nature DVD for the silent auction.

Are we surprised?