Jon doesn’t like me to talk about the festival until at least January but I can’t help it. The news of next summer’s beaver festival keeps getting better and better. Yesterday I found out from the street artist Amy Gallaher Hall that she’d like to start work the day before the festival. So she can do a larger piece and there can be something visibly in progress by the time folks come on the day. That means we might be able to get a news crew out there and have it on the evening news promoting the event! This morning she wrote to say that we should bring a stepladder to photograph the piece when its finished and to put photos on social media while its happening and to keep for future use.

She asked for barricades to protect the work that night so I asked the city about this. They are okay with the idea provided that our event insurance covers the artist the day before the event also, so I wrote our insurance team and got them started thinking this way. I suppose we’ll end up paying more for the extra coverage and another day of chalk but ohhh it is so worth it.

Just imagine this with beavers.

This morning we’re off to Wild Birds Unlimited in pleasant hill for their 35th anniversary event. We’ll be exhibiting there with other wildlife friends and talking to the good folks about their new flat-tailed neighbors up the block on Willow Pass rd. Mike Eliot who owns the store and handles the event is always a very thoughtful host – much more generous with his guests than I am at the beaver festival. He provides tents, tables, coffee and pizza to his exhibitors!

Shhh, don’t get any ideas.

Off to Wild Birds Unlimited Mother’s Day event this morning to make new beaver friends. Thought I’d put this together and bring it for our display so folks know what’s coming next week. There are new clips released to day here. Have fun. Meanwhile I just heard from Jari that her interview will air on animal house at noon today, which is 9 here. Catch the interview online WAMU here or catch it online later here

@JariOsborne talks about her new @PBSNature film “Leave it to Beavers” today at noon on @wamu885 and @wamuanimalhouse pic.twitter.com/gwCxV0ToZ6

I’ll be busy promoting how important birds are to beavers and plugging the documentary. I’m trying to prepare myself for the number of well-meaning phone calls and emails I will receive when it airs, telling me that there was ‘something about beavers the other night’. It’s evidence of a message getting out there, and it’s good that people think of me but to be honest, it kind of drives me a little insane that people wouldn’t think I know already.

The owner of Wild Birds Unlimited, Mike Elliot, is a generous host, and the exhibits get shade, drinks and pizza. Mike has already committed to the beaver festival, which is very nice of him. It should be a lovely and cheerful day. There was a blurb about it on Joan Morris earlier in the week, and it will be fun to see Gary Bogue again.

Amazing article from Vermont where there was a dam washout and road damage. The reporter talked to all the right people and still managed to make it a pro-beaver piece, quoting our old friend Skip Lisle, who I haven’t heard from in ages. Delighted to see he’s still doing God’s work and spreading the word aptly. Nice to see Patti Smith stick up for beavers too, wonder how the book launch went?

Want to reduce flooding? Leave it to beavers

Breaches can be avoided through the use of flow devices, which keep culverts open. Skip Lisle, a Grafton, Vt., resident, is known for inventing two beaver dam pipes that he said create “permanent leaks” in beaver dams and prevent reservoirs from getting too big. Lisle’s inventions — the Castor Master and The Beaver Deceiver — allow for a steady release of water. He told the Reformer a dam breach is usually a sign that beavers have left the area, because the animals constantly maintain the structures, which are in a never-ending state of decay. This decay that beavers are always working to counter causes dams to become uneven and erode in certain spots.

Great article, we need that reporter in California. Now we’re off to preach the beaver gospel to bird lovers. Should be a great day.