Yesterday, I was having the usual beaver conversation with a man I greatly respect and have known for 4 years. He is single-handedly responsible for saving thousands of beavers and is definitely playing for the home team. We were discussing this paper which proudly says flow devices never work and noting how officials prefer dynamite to maintenance or planning. In response he had just sent me a video of a beaver dam being blown up and I had told him next time to add a warning label so I would know what to expect.
“You can’t be like that.” He admonished. “The reason I was able to get things done is because people didn’t think I was a hugger“
In case you are unfamiliar with the term, hugger (i.e. Bunny or Tree) is a dismissive term for anyone who advises protecting animals because they’re cute or unrealistically thinks that other species have just as much right to exist as we do. Which of course in addition to being childish is entirely subversive and unAmerican. Serious people that value nature (SPTVNs) spend a long time clarifying that they’re not ‘huggers’ so that the world will take them seriously. Sending a person a video of a dam blowing up is one way of proving your a SPTVN. Saying that trapping is occasionally necessary is another.
His caution rankled me enough that I’ve thought a great deal about this in the past 24 hours. First of all, why on earth would we still have beavers in Martinez if it weren’t for ‘huggers’? And why on EARTH would I still be involved if I wasn’t one of them? And really when it comes right down to it, what actually saved the beavers? Was it science? Skip’s Flow Device certainly sealed their safety, but the city would NEVER have unclenched their purse strings for him to do his magic without HUGGERS. And Lots of them. In the paper every morning and ON THE NEWS EVERY NIGHT.
Calling someone a ‘hugger’ is shorthand for saying you don’t have to listen to them. Maybe they don’t get listened to. But if you put a few on camera they DO get seen. And they have power in groups, which is probably another reason why we are always admonished not to be like them. Beavers have a hundred solid reasons to protect them besides being cute. SPTVNs spend time showing how removing one species impacts another, or thinking of the cost of removing the animals again and again. I have learned to speak their language and am happy to do so when it will help the cause.
But I’m still a hugger. And I’m going to insist that hugger isn’t a bad word or a neutralyzing word. It happens to be a word that gets things done. Not everyone has time to learn the science or the hear the ecological explanation. But thank goodness lots of people can find time for CUTE. It’s never the end of the story, but fortunately for us – it is often the beginning of it.
Which leads me to my new term, for when that conversation strikes again. You have to be able to talk to SPTVNs and Huggers both, and you can’t afford to lose either side. I will smile and say firmly.
“Of course I’m a hugger! I’m a REALITY HUGGER”
