Our Correspondent in the Field…

P1000097 — Rick Lanman (left) Michael Pollock (center) Cheryl Reynolds (Right)

Back down the mountainside after a dynamic presentation, good conversations with enthusiastic rangers followed by a cheerful lunch and drive swapping stories. This is an excellent picture of my traveling companions. I would be disappointed that the one of me didn’t take, but I have this slide as a token of my treasured adventure, which is much, much better. Look closely, this was presented by Dr. Pollock and summarizes research he did comparing the benefit to smolt production (baby salmonids) from large woody debris (LWD) placed in a stream bed versus the benefit of a beaver dam in a stream bed.

Take a moment to truly let these numbers sink in. We go from a benefit of tens of fish to more than a thousand fish. Not to mention that ‘replanting’ woody debris in ponds is expensive and time consuming. Beavers do it for free and do it vastly better. A powerful sermon in the growing beaver gospel!

When I got home there was an email from Glynnis Hood pointing me to this radio program. It’s a lovely interview and describes her excellent research and upcoming book. Go here to listen. I’m off to sleep for a couple hundred years. Wake me when we have new kits.

There’s been a weird flurry of activity on the ‘beaver-saving front’. I had an email from one of the women who attended the Santa Clara Creeks Conference asking if it was okay to pass my name along as possible speaker for a parks conference. Sure, I said, thinking ‘regional parks’. Yesterday, I was invited to speak at the California State Parks Conference in Yosemite. State Parks. Did I want one hour or two?

(Gulp. Just two?)

After I twittered about the house in a panic I wrote Michael Pollock and said, hmm might the NOAA ever authorize you to talk about beavers and salmon in Yosemite? He answered “sign me UP and lets call Rick”. So I talked to our historian-wikipedian friend, Rick and he can’t wait. We will be a “Beavers: How, Why and Where” triumverate on the Ides of March in snowy-bound-early-spring Yosemite, convincing rangers to use different tools and let beavers stay.

Somebody pinch me.

Of course our state parks are in dire times here in California, or they wouldn’t have a conference full of riff-raff like me. But we will make sure the state’s loss is the beavers gain. Deep breath. Hail Castor Yosemite!

More good news? I learned that our friend Adrian from Fur-bearer defenders (who just built the flow device) will be coming to the State of the Beaver Conference. And I just heard this morning that Paul Ramsay of Save the Free Tay Beavers will be there as well! It’s a long way from Scotland to Oregon, but he was lured by the keynote speaker, Donald Hey, and I don’t blame him. It will be a rare delight to sit in a room full of people who all know way more about beavers than me.