Torrential downpours caused widespread devastation in Alyth yesterday morning. Rescue crews used inflatable boats to free people trapped in their homes and businesses in the flood-hit town centre.
Alyth Burn, which runs through the community, overflowed after debris and fallen trees blocked a series of bridges. Locals told The Courier a large section of the town centre was under water within minutes.
Why is this beaver news? Because this video was shot about 4 miles from the home of Paul and Louise Ramsay, and they are frantically trying to reassure folks that beavers can make this better, or at least not make it worse. It is true that beaver dams can function as ‘speed bumps’ in the stream to slow the water down. But frankly when I look at that level of flooding I sadly think beaver dams won’t matter at all one way or the other. This is what global warming looks like. California gets so little rain that we can’t even imagine what this would be like, and Scotland gets more than it can handle.
Stay safe Paul and Louise, and I hope your beavers stay safe too. From Scotland to Texas, I thought this very different story might help dry us out.
Let us pause to ponder the supersize mentality that has led to the proliferation of monster convenience stores, where gas pumps stretch far as the eye can see. The merchandise includes deer feeders, barbecue smokers, an extensive clothing line, an overwhelming array of road snacks, 80 soda dispensers — and America’s cleanest bathrooms.
That would be Buc-ees, a 60,000-square-foot emporium that just opened its 23rd Texas store in Terrell. We stopped there last Sunday on the way back from Frisco — along with what appeared to be several thousand other curious customers — to get gas and use those famed restroom facilities.
It relies on the rest of us eager to sample the utterly over-the-top ambiance of Buc-ees, where a bronze statue of a beaver stands guard outside the entrance.
It turns out Texas is closer than you might suspect, because long-time supporter Janet Thew made a generous donation of Buc’ee merchandise to the silent auction. Which I’m thinking you just might need to bid on.
Louise Ramsay is the tireless champion for the free beavers in Scotland and was the keynote speaker at the last State of the Beaver conference. She is wife to Paul Ramsay whose great-great-whatever was the physician of King Alexander the II who, in 1232 out of gratitude for an early successful surgery, gifted the estate where they both live (with beavers) today . Both are very well spoken and Louise has a blog that is far too modestly named for her delightful prose. She recently wrote about the DEFRA bruhaha over the Devon beavers and gave me permission to share this with you. Enjoy.
In the darkest hours of the night beavers go determinedly about the business of returning the landscape to the way it was in the middle ages, a way that we humans have entirely forgotten. They cut trees and build dams and make silvery pools in the midst of woods that quickly fill with trout. The new dams look bright with orangey sticks stripped of their bark by beaver teeth, and woven ingeniously together to hold back a cliff of water, several feet high.
As the dams get older plants grow over them and camouflage the beavers’ work. They incorporate themselves into the new landscape of pools and braided waterways to the extent that their beavery origins are almost indecipherable. The variety of plant species multiplies in and near the water and the new wetlands hum and flutter with life of all kinds.
Since their escapes in the early years of the 21st century these fast swimming creatures have found their way, in search of each other and new territories, around the whole network of waterways that make up the catchment, from Kinloch Rannoch in the west to Forfar Loch in the East, and from the Tummel in the north to the Farg in the south. There are probably about three hundred of them in the catchment now. They have bred and reared kits by rivers, lochs, streams and ditches. Where the waterways are small they have built a lodge and dams to make a string of pools, but where there is a deep fast flowing river they have burrowed into the bank and thatched a roof for themselves out of willow branches coppiced from the bankside vegetation. The kits live indoors for the first few weeks, learning to swim in a puddle within the outer part of the lodge. Then at about three months old they come out into the river or the pond to take their chance with predators, currents and other dangers.
The Ramsay Estate at Bamff
The beavers that used to be here, until the sixteenth century were all trapped out for their warm, waterproof fur, which was made into fine felt hats for gentlemen. They came back, through their own enterprise, by escaping from enclosures. They slipped silently and secretly back into the landscape before many people noticed them, spreading across the catchment, sleek & nonchanlant, unaware of their celebrity and the tangle of legalities that their presence has created. I hope that the River Otter beavers will have the same success and somehow manage to reclaim many of their old haunts in the rivers of Devonshire and begin to thread their silver strand of watery life through the landscape there.
If you need reminding about the beaver story in Scotland, here’s my interview with Paul when he has just learned that the free beavers were no longer going to be trapped.
And just in case you need more amazing things this morning, I thought I’d share the work of Michael Grab of Colorado, whose incomprehensible talent uses instinct , artistry and physics to accomplish these glorious pieces using only what he calls “Gravity Glue.” By which he means No glue but
And here he is building an archway with no keystone. Ask any river how hard it is.
The ‘science’ at a beaver conference can get a little heavy. Lots of figures and graphs, from folks who are mostly interested in justifying beavers as a ‘means to an end‘. That’s very useful for creating persuasive arguments, but not great for telling stories. Even though the science is essential, to my mind what a conference also needs is ‘heart’.
Meet team heart.
Louise and Paul Ramsay were an epiphenomena at the conference. They flew in from Scotland specifically for the event, and dazzled us all with their tales of the highlands. In her presentation Louise showed an image of their house, and pointed out that when the left section was built in the 16th century, there had probably been beavers in the surrounding waterways, but by the time the larger right portion had been added in the 1700’s, beavers were long gone. Whether it was Paul’s forlorn admission that he had actually been arrested for ‘introducing an inappropriate animal’ (charges were eventually dropped), or Louise’s fearless and deftly delivered Scots brogue reading of Robert Burns at the awards dinner, they dazzled everyone.
Cock up your beaver, and cock it fu’ sprush,We’ll over the border, and gie them a brush;There’s somebody there we’ll teach better behaviour,Hey, brave Johnie lad, cock up your beaver!
Only a truly brave woman could read that aloud to a roomful of 150 people, and then soberly explain that at the time this was written beaver had been extinct in Scotland for so long that the poem is referring to ‘fixing one’s hat’ and not the animal (or the anatomy). Honestly, they were both amazing, but Louise as ‘keystone’ speaker at the awards dinner was breath-taking.
What I never realized was that the original ‘escape’ of the free Tay beavers had happened years before the bruhaha, before the knapdale trial, and with no interest by the BBC. Beavers had been spotted around the Tay since the early 2000’s and certainly before the Ramsay’s ever got their own. Beavers that had made their own way in the world long before Knapdale ever got permission and funding to try an official go.
How proud was I to see that the graphics I had made for their facebook page had made it into Louise’s striking presentation! From Eric behind bars to Rob Roy and the ‘tomb of the unknown beaver’. It’s always nice to contribute.
Louise and Paul have spent years talking endlessly to the media, public figures, the community, organizing meetings, children’s groups, an official charity, a website, reviewing international law, knowing when to push and when to demur, I can honestly say that their job was much, much harder than ours. (And I don’t say that very often.) It made it all the more moving to see how cordial and sanguine they both still are.
Louise ended her wonderful presentation with a passage from the 19th century poet Gerald Manly Hopkins from his work ‘Inversnaid‘. It could not have been better chosen or better delivered.
What would the world be, once bereftOf wet and of wildness? Let them be left,O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
Lots to talk about this morning. I’m told some visitors from Sonoma are coming down tomorrow for a beaver viewing because they heard my talk at Audubon and wanted to see the heroes themselves. I went down this morning to verify arrival times with the new clock. Mom came back over the secondary at 5:50 and jr swam around under the footbridge at 6:25.
Some odd Martinez beaver remnant conversations on the bridge this morning. A woman who said she moved to Martinez from out of state with her daughter in 2006. When all the excitement started they were drawn to hang out at the beaver dam and were picked up by a news crew. The little girl pointedly told the camera “We just moved here. Martinez is our home now. And it’s the beavers home too”.
Her daughter is now 15.
Also a boisterous cycling man who helpfully explained that he was the one who “started” this whole beaver thing by protesting on the dam when city staff was trying to remove it. (I actually remember this story.) He forced them to carry him off the dam and was arrested he says by the officer who was later shot in Martinez (Paul Starzck). He noted that the fallen officer was such a decent guy he let him drop off his bike at home before bringing him to the station, and he even talked about it at his funeral.
He also explained that he was really mad at that “Swede named Bork” who came in and took down their dam by so much. (Swede? Bork?) He had tried to explain that they need that protection from predators and of course did I know after he did it that one kit died and got all scratched up by a raccoon?
Which I repeat here primarily to note that the Martinez Beavers weren’t ever protected because it was the right thing to do, or the easy thing to do. They weren’t preserved because they were good for creeks or birds or children. They survived only because they were functionally family pets and “owned” defensively protected by many, many people. People who talked to their neighbors and friends, and news media. They said good things and wrong things and had remarkable insights and repeated gossip and got facts incorrect. People who thought beavers ate fish and lived in the dam and people who still swear they regularly see them in the daytime. Now those who have seen me wince at the conversations will know that I have an allergic reaction to misrepresenting the facts about beavers, but it doesn’t matter because my accuracy didn’t save their lives.
Their populism did.
Are the beavers still important to Martinez? Well, this campaign flyer in the Gazette this morning appears to think so. I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that he’s not using that ad with the South of highway 4 crowd, but it’s a funny thing to see anyway. I used to joke about the “beaver bump” but I don’t think there was ever anything as unified as a beaver voting block. We were libertarians and democrats and republicans and teachers and policemen and seniors and shopkeepers and health care workers and homeless people and criminals. We were motivated by compassion and ecology and revenge and sour grapes and good will. We were the original big tent: eclectic with a purpose. And that’s why we won.
We got the city to hire “Bork the Swede”. Ha ha.
Happy Almost 5 year Anniversary by the way!
Which makes this new article from BBC Nature timely to say the least.
Reintroducing a species is never easy. The cause is championed by some, while critics question the wisdom of the species’ return, as with the case of the European beaver’s return to Scotland. Hunted to extinction in Scotland in the 16th century, the beavers are part of an official reintroduction trial in Knapdale Forest, Argyll.
Since the trial began, controversy has surrounded the project but it could be that reintroduced species can benefit local economies as well as ecosystems. Given that the beaver is the first extinct native mammal to officially return to the wild in Britain – the wild boar has also come back, but by accident rather than design – you might think this would be cause for celebration.
But the beaver continues to cause controversy, with a small but persistent alliance of landowners, anglers and foresters ranged against its return.
This is a smart, well written article and our scottish friends are very happy with it for a good reason. The answer of course is “no, not all by itself”. Tourism alone can’t justify beavers in Scotland or Martinez for that matter. But when you combine it with birds, and fish, and mammals, and dragonflies, and community spirit and the wash of bad will you would have incurred to get rid of them, the beaver equation is looking pretty nice.
Even for the illicit beavers:
Earlier this year SNH finally announced that it was suspending any attempts to capture beavers along the Tay, a decision that will be reviewed in 2015. In the meantime a working group has been set up to advise landowners on how to co-exist with beavers on their land.
But given that this population now seems to be fully established, any attempts to eradicate beavers from Scotland would now surely be a case of shutting the stable door long after this particular horse has bolted. Sir Lister-Kaye certainly thinks so, suggesting that by 2015 there could be as many as 300 beavers living wild in Scotland.
“We do need a constant on-going educational effort, aimed at a new generation of young people who understand fundamental ecological principles and who can lend weight to the debate about the beaver,” he said.
The reality is that, whether people like it or not, beavers are now firmly established in many of Scotland’s river systems and wetlands. And polls show that the majority of the Scottish public welcomes this new – or rather returning – addition to their fauna.
Paul Ramsay suggests that instead of worrying about beavers, we should be celebrating their return.
“When you consider that in Europe as a whole this creature was on the very brink of extinction, and yet has made an incredible comeback, this is a fantastic conservation success story – and something we really should be boasting about,” he said.
We here at Worth A Dam we aren’t just focused on our own selfish needs for local beavers, what about other lands? Don’t all free peoples have the right to enjoy beavers? Not according to the Scottish National Heritage which is still dead set (and I mean that literally) on their plan to put the free beavers of the river Tay in zoos, and spend millions of dollars on the fancy radio-tracked beavers. The Tay beaver travesty is getting greater and greater attention. Paul Ramsay and his wife had a meeting with the Minister for Finance who was a little more thoughtful than the confounding Minister of the Environment in this case. They also had a meeting on Tuesday of interested folks, and I asked Paul if he wanted to give me a rundown.
(His wife too the minutes and wrote “Paul summarised the recent history of beavers in Scotland and drew our attention to the fact that the SG is going against its own legal advice of September 2005 when they stated that “the release of European beaver in Scotland would grant the species full legal protection under the Wildlife and Countryside act. 1981” He summarised the success of this campaign so far in attracting support, journalistic articles, web presence, letters to SNH and to politicians etc etc.”)
We were lucky to have three members of the North Tayside badger group with us. These folk have a lot of experience of checking on badgers and their dens to see that they are not being persecuted, which is just the sort of skill that we need to develop, along with the organisation.
We agreed to form a company limited by guarantee to give us an organisation through which we could, if necessary, initiate litigation against the Scottish Government in the fullness of time. There was a bit of sucking of teeth when I described this, but we gained the general agreement of the meeting.
I forgot to take a photograph of those present.…Aaaaargh!
Louise and I met John Swinney, our Member of the Scottish Parliament, this afternoon. He confessed himself bemused by the action of the minister for the environment, Roseanna Cunningham. John is Minister for Finance in the Scottish Parliament and thus second only to the First Minister. His advice to us was to press on with our campaign.
As you will see from the attached minutes we are to meet again on 8th February, just after I return from the beaver conference in Oregon.
With best wishes,Paul
If you read the notes you see that they decided to take some brilliant advice and get the children of Perth involved, adopting Eric the beaver at the zoo. You can also see the support given by the ‘badger folk’ which made me smile since Susan Kirks has been such a dynamic friend. You will discover what I believe might be my favorite sentence ever, “ES said it worked for the hedgehogs.” Which is such a profound nonsequitur that I might just start using it in daily conversation. Certainly it sounds like the title of a play EVERY one could enjoy at next years fringe festival! There was some disagreement about whether to pursue legal means or just to threaten the pursuit and a second meeting date was set for after the conference. When you read the notes I think anyone should be forgiven for being reminded of this of this famous civics passage:
Here one of the guinea-pigs cheered, and was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court. (As that is rather a hard word, I will just explain to you how it was done. They had a large canvas bag, which tied up at the mouth with strings: into this they slipped the guinea-pig, head first, and then sat upon it.) `I’m glad I’ve seen that done,’ thought Alice. `I’ve so often read in the newspapers, at the end of trials, “There was some attempts at applause, which was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court,” and I never understood what it meant till now.’
Since Paul couldn’t provide photos of the meeting, I thought I’d add some of the beavers themselves. These were mostly taken by Ray Scott who forwarded them to our wikipedia editor in hopes of getting a great Tay article. This is Castor Fiber. They don’t look all that different do they? They have more chromosomes than our beavers so the two can’t reproduce, but they are equally skilled at causing panic and forcing politicians to do stupid things apparently.
Beavers at Bamff: Ray Scott
Beavers at Bamff: Ray Scott
Beavers at Bamff: Ray Scott
Beavers at Bamff: Ray Scott
Beavers at Bamff: Ray Scott
Beavers at Bamff: Ray Scott
Aren’t those nice? Are you ready for the ‘wow that’s a weird coincidence’ punchline? When Paul told me about meeting with the Financial Minister I remembered that I had met an Environmental Minster, Paul McLellan of East Lothian. He came to California for a vacation and wanted to visit the Muir site and strengthen the bond between us and Muir’s birthplace in Dunbar. I mentioned this contact to Paul thinking maybe he would know someone with some pull in Perth, and he wrote back very surprised saying he hadn’t realized John Muir lived in Martinez and he was actually ON the Muir Trust!
