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

Tag: Napa Beavers


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Rusty Cohn

The rule is only good news on Sunday, right? There’s a painstaking amount of beaver stupid going on right now but I’ll stifle my impulse to ridicule and focus on the positive. They are being treated to beautiful kit show in Napa since last weeks coming out party. Now the little peanuts are wandering far upstream on  their own and coming back whenever they dam well feel like it. Rusty has his work cut out for him, jogging up and down the creek to follow them, but he’s holding up bravely under the joyful strain.image009

Tiny Tail: Rusty Cohn

 

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2017 kit: Rusty Cohn
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2017 kit Rusty Cohn

Ohhh so precious. What adorableness! We think there are (at least) two because if you look closely one’s eye looks a little puffy and the other is bright and shiny. And just to prove they really are better than us, Rusty snapped this at the pond for good measure, sigh.

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Great Blue Heron in Flight: Rusty Cohn

I see Rusty is now posting the photos on facebook so I guess that means the cat’ser kit’s – officially outta the bag! Maybe you should take a field trip and see for yourself?


Onward to the generous donations from Suzi Eszterhas to the silent auction. She can’t be at the festival this summer because she’s leading a tour photographing humpback whales calving in the Tonga.(!)  So she wanted to donate and show her support anyway. You can see how committed she is to wildlife and making sure we take care of it. She sent three lovely books and a archival quality stunning print. Take a look for yourself.

The books are delightful accounts of hand rearing rare species that will be sure to encourage the budding naturalist in your life. But it was the print that really blew me away. A little back-story: very often during her time photographing the beavers on our creek she would tell us that she wouldn’t be there the next few nights because she had to nip down to Monterey or Morro bay to photograph some baby otters. And I would (as I’m known to do) give her a hard time for filming precious sea otter eye candy when beavers were way cooler and needed her more.

But suddenly, I almost understand why. Shhh don’t tell the beavers.

 

 


In the Napa Valley, future landscapes are viewed in the past.

“The project also created new ecological niches. No one knew there were once beavers on the river, for instance. But researchers at the institute found an entry in a fur trapper’s journal from 1833: “Found a few beaver,” it said, an assertion corroborated by references from historical studies.

So the rodents have been allowed to re-establish their dams, including one within view of downtown Napa. The dams will slow erosion and create deep pools, offering a nursery for young fish — some of them threatened — and helping rebuild the river.

Ahem. Cough. Er… you mean those historical studies done by US??? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Robin gets to sell the book AND be in the NYTimes  and Napatopia gets to keep its beavers, but hey. An oblique reference to our hard work is plenty.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m plenty happy about this article. Besides, Napa restoration was 20 years hard work in the making, with partners from every part of the aisle and grueling weekly meetings that must have taken watershed saints to attend. So Napa deserves its thunder.  Go enjoy the whole article.

And we have our own little victories to celebrate. I heard yesterday from Heyday books which is publishing Beth Pratt’s California collection and is going to include a section on our Martinez beavers. They want permission to use a fine photo of FRO working with two children to paint that wonderful giant beaver!

And I heard from  illustrator Alex Perlin that she would happily donate to the auction, which obviously makes me very, very happy indeed.

Illustration of the campfire classic: Land of the Silver Birch.