Thanks enormously to Rusty Cohn for stepping in and sharing his brilliant photographs while I was once again in the hospital yet again with sepsis rendering me feverishly incapable of doing anything else. I am better but a little weaker with lots of strange memories, of my adventure among the medieval walled city that is a medical unit battling covid, (which I thankfully do not have). It’s all masks, shields and armor in the castle so it was nice to roll out into the actual world where it was raining and leaves were fallen.

The best thing that happened while I was there was that I got an email from Sam Gandy who was the author of the paper I wrote about a while ago saying how nice it was to read my review and asking if he could quote it for the upcoming Beaver Trust blog he was writing.

I’m writing a blogpost article on my paper for the Beaver Trust, and I was wondering if there might be any chance of quoting you? It would be wonderful to get a perspective on this topic from someone outside the UK. For context, I’m attaching a draft copy of my blogpost post – it would be wonderful to have your input Heidi if you’re game! Many thanks, have a great weekend ? (more…)

Now this is the kind of article that doesn’t come along every day. It’s written about England but is really talking to every single community that unexpectedly rediscovers beavers in their midst. Not to be way more self-focused than usual, but it could have been written each word for magical word about Martinez. But I guess you knew that, right?

Potential psychological benefits of nature enrichment through the reintroduction of the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) to Britain: A narrative literature review

(Okay replace the word “reintroduction” with the word “discovery” and replace castor fiber with castor canadensis and replace to Britain with to Martinez and you get the point.)

It starts by noting that biodiversity is decreasing in the UK (and everywhere else) and that people are feeling more and more stressed out and hopeless about the environment (in England and everywhere else) and that reintroducing beavers is a way to show that we CAN take action that makes things better on a grand scale.

Beavers could act as a ‘super restorer’, facilitating psychological as well as ecological restoration through a beneficial synergy of effects. Through their eco-engineering activities, beavers increase biodiversity at the landscape scale and facilitate habitat restoration and creation (creating a mosaic of green and blue space, and a sense of wilderness) all of which can increase the psychological well-being of visitors. (more…)