If it worked for Emily Dickinson and an entire presidential campaign, maybe it could work for an animal no one has been very patient with? Beavers are getting them selves talked about far and wee because of the tools they can bring to our more difficult climate change problems – problems which usually make us feel powerless and overwhelmed. Beavers are something attainable we can do to help. Makes sense to me,
As an aside I may have mentioned my historical tendency to challenge my sleepy brain sometimes by making ordinary words into acronyms that mean what they define. Just in case you wonder my solution for the h.o.p.e. anagram game is “How Ordinary People Endure”. Which fits with the beaver theme too.
Oh look, an actual beaver photo! I feel hopeful already.
Mother Earth says, ‘Leave it to the beavers’
Beavers are having their media moment. The Guardian, the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, and CBC explain how these “superhero rodents” can restore nature and help deal with climate change.
Indigenous communities are restoring beaver populations in drought-stricken parts of North America. Frankie Myers, a Yurok leader, says beavers have “gone through the same struggles against Europeans as us… viewed as pests and driven off the land.” He adds, “we’re looking to bring the beaver back again, to help us manage the land like they used to.”
Extensive research shows that by reconnecting waterways to their floodplains, beavers improve water quality and quantity, support biodiversity, increase flood, drought and fire resiliency, and bolster carbon sequestration.
Aquatic plants grow rapidly in beaver ponds and along their margins. The carbon dioxide they remove from the atmosphere remains in storage owing to slow decay in waterlogged soil.
Beavers may be our number one ally in the fight against runaway climate change. The benefits they provide for the global water and carbon cycles far outweigh any local damages they may cause. Those damages can be addressed in a simple and affordable manner.
Beaver solve problems for us that we can’t solve. Beavers create problems for us sometimes that we CAN solve. The math seems pretty simple on this one. Am I missing anything?
A few million other species will also lend a hand if we let them. Municipalities, resource extraction companies, developers, and property owners must join an alliance with nature. The basic message is straightforward: Stop waging war on Mother Earth.
Designate areas currently managed for logging as “proforestation” climate reserves. Allow urban and suburban property owners to stop mowing. Greatly restrict use of herbicides such as glyphosate and insecticides such as neonicotinoids. Repeal drainage acts. Remove unused human-made dams. Unbury urban waterways. Reintroduce beavers and other animal and plant species in areas from which they have been extirpated.
In the words of a recent Guardian editorial, beavers have become a symbol of hope for nature’s recovery, and proof that restoring ecosystems is possible (and urgently needed).
Governments should take this lesson to heart at the upcoming global summits on climate change (6 -18 November, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt) and biodiversity (7 -19 December, Montreal).
Beaver as a symbol of hope. I like that. Maybe there could be a whole line of hallmark cards utilizing beaver imagery. Call it the “Hopeful Beaver Line” Just sending you this beaver to hope your finals go well, or your surgery is successful. Or specifically for climate change, Here’s hoping the flooding isn’t too bad in your neighborhood.
Beavers made Martinez hopeful. I’ll agree with that.
