Tag: The Beaver Whisperers

SAVE THE DATE!

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, In the News April 12, 2014

I heard this morning the official word that Jari Osborne’s Canadian Beaver Whisperers documentary will have its American debut on PBS Nature May 14, 2014! (It will be released under the title “Leave it to beavers” which is SO overdone.) That means in a month you can get your friends together for the very best superbowl-type viewing party of the century! It will star our good beaver friends, Glynnis Hood, Sherri Tippie and Suzanne Fouty, with beaver problem-solving by Michel LeClare of Quebec. Jari is flying to New York to appear on MetroFocus May 1st and promote the series.

Sherri Tippie kissing a beaver kit (a pup). East Beaver Creek, Colorado. Photo Credit: © Ford McClave 2013

Not excited yet? Just read the promo:

A growing number of scientists, conservationists and grass-roots environmentalists have come to regard beavers as overlooked tools when it comes to reversing the disastrous effects of global warming and worldwide water shortages. Once valued for their fur or hunted as pests, these industrious rodents are seen in a new light through the eyes of this novel assembly of beaver enthusiasts and “employers” who reveal the ways in which the presence of beavers can transform and revive landscapes. Using their skills as natural builders and brilliant hydro-engineers, beavers are being recruited to accomplish everything from finding water in a bone-dry desert to recharging water tables and coaxing life back into damaged lands.

Beaver at work dragging large branch/closeup. Ontario, Canada. Photo Credit: © Michael Runtz

It says these great photos by Michael Runtz (a good friend of our good friend Donna DeBreuille) can only be used for promotion but I’m pretty sure this qualifies! Watch it! Watch it! Watch it! Watch it with your children, your grandmother, your mailman. Drive up the ratings! Send letters to the station! Make PBS think they need a weekly beaver program! Don’t get up to use the bathroom during any part of it unless your in pain. Stay all the way to the very end of the credits because it’s theoretically possible that my tiny name will be there.

Here’s the viewing schedule for KQED in case your busy that night.

KQED 9: Wed, May 14, 2014 — 8:00pm

KQED 9: Thu, May 15, 2014 — 2:00am

KQED Life: Fri, May 16, 2014 — 7:00pm

KQED Life: Sat, May 17, 2014 — 1:00am

KQED World: Sat, May 17, 2014 — 9:00pm

KQED 9: Sun, May 18, 2014 — 10:00am

KQED World: Sun, May 18, 2014 — 3:00pm

KQED World: Sun, May 18, 2014 — 9:00pm

KQED World: Mon, May 19, 2014 — 5:00am

KQED World: Mon, May 19, 2014 — 11:00am

They haven’t released a trailer yet, but here’s the Canadian one which I adore.

Nothing Succeeds like Success – (Beaver Edition)

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Environmental October 16, 2013

I’m guessing you recognize the hardworking smile on the left, which belongs to Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions in Massachusetts. The one with the shovel is Kevin Swift, of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center who is working with Mike to learn the trade and eventually apply it in California. Kevin came to this year’s beaver festival with Kate Lundquist of the OAEC and we couldn’t be happier that solutions will be closer to home. Great start, men! Apparently yesterday’s job was ripping out a Clemson and replacing it with a Flex pipe. How symbolic is that? Here’s Mike’s rundown:

Good news. Kevin Swift arrived here in Massachusetts today to learn how to start his own business installing effective flow devices in his home state of California. Here he is performing maintenance on a Flexible Pond Leveler pipe. This is the site of my first flow device installation in 1998. The original Clemson Pond Leveler was eventually replaced with a Flexible Pond Leveler, and the fencing on that pipe was replaced last week. Beavers are still there and continue to maintain the dam. We’re doing three new flow device installations the next three days. We’ll keep you posted!

But wait, Heidi, maybe you’re saying. That’s not enough good news of people living with beavers. California and Massachusetts are crazy liberal states with campuses full of tree-huggers and tofu! Who cares what they do? This just isn’t enough to float my beaver boat, so to speak.

Well, then, how about Idaho?This is Mike Settell who you might recognize as the man from Pocatello who got the local chapter of Audubon to fund his beaver count a few years back because the animals affect bird population so significantly. He came to the state of the beaver conference last year, met the gang, and presented on his hard work in the granite state. Like all the attendees he was graciously given a copy of Mike’s DVD, and after reading and watching and learning went on to do his first install this weekend. I am very happy that Idaho is willing in this instance to apply a long-term solution instead of a short term (trapping) bandaid. Congratulations Mike!

There was a bundle of good news yesterday, I can barely keep up. We’re off to the Boys and Girls club today to talk beavers, which should be fun. And I just got an email from Jari Osborne of the Beaver Whispers that her excellent documentary (which you will see on PBS next year) is up for a digi award for Best in cross-platform nonfiction. GO VOTE RIGHT NOW. I know you haven’t seen it yet, but trust me, it should win. It will save the planet. You can help. GO VOTE

And my all-time favorite news I can’t share just yet but I just found out last night and it has to do with a a topic that rhymes with “weavers in postal quivers.”

Beam.

Three good things

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions June 25, 2013

More and more when I stumble towards the computer in the bleary hours and try an decide what to write about beavers, it is like being a raja sorting through a pile of rich jewels and deciding which to wear for the party. This morning I feel positively indulged with treasures. Let me assuage my Catholic guilt at having too much good fortune by sharing all of it with you! The first is from Melanie, who I met at the beaver dam Sunday night, and got her permission to post this morning. This is an example of how nurtured kits are by family members. We couldn’t even say if this is mom, because that’s a pretty big tail for our little mom. It might be dad or uncle for all I know, but I am certain beyond any doubt that beaver kits are loved.

Kit-adult nuzzle — Photo by Melanie 6-23-13

Many of you may be following the rodenticide-raptor problem which is killing and sickening hundreds and thousands of birds around the world and even prompted the EPA to rear its head in response. Our friend Lisa Owens Viani started the organization RATS {Raptors Are The Solution} to help educate and get cities to ban the poisons that are killing hawks an owls at an alarming rate. She has been hard at work to get the word out an asked me a while back if I thought Ian Timothy might be interested in helping and would I introduce them? So it turns out that Ian’s first natural passion was raptors and he was VERY interested. In the midst of going to Carnegie Hall and graduating from high school he agreed to work on this which was just released. Remember that telling the story is the most important thing we do, and Ian just made Lisa’s job a lot easier!

Isn’t that amazing? One of the things I love about his work, besides his delightful humor and artwork, is his compassion. He has the judgement not to show the dying hawk on camera just like he had the wisdom to show the teddy bear [and not its owner] get stuck in the trap. He gets the point across without shocking the viewer, which is very, very rare. I can’t wait to see what he does to improve Pixar!

A final jewel in today’s crown of beaver activity is this. The Beaver Whisperers aired in Canada in March this year, but the International Version is still being finalized. It will include a great segment on Sherri Tippie and have less of a Canadian focus. The producer has promised to generously donate a copy for the silent auction, but she let me watch the entire thing yesterday, which is where I saw this. I can’t tell you how irrationally happy this makes me.

International Acclaim

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental March 25, 2013

Beaver boom benefits German rivers

Beavers, long believed to be under threat of extinction, are making a comeback in Germany. The dam-building critters are now even a common sight in big cities such as Frankfurt and Berlin, said German conservationists over the weekend.

The beaver boom is a welcome development, said Harthun, as their presence encourages the growth of other species along Germany’s riverbanks. “Beavers pave the way for the rehabilitation of our rivers,” he said.

Nice to see the Germans recognizing beaver benefits! And love the rehabilitation sentence. It’s especially welcome after that exciting crocodile mistake earlier in the summer. (I have to be honest. That remains one of my favorite stories. Ever.) In case you forgot:

‘Crocodile’ terrorising German town turns out to be a beaver

Two visitors to the Bavarian city’s local lake, Klauensee, claimed to have spotted a crocodile in the water. After deploying dozens of searchers, including a dramatic night-time boat operation with more than 70 police, fire fighters and aid workers, officials in the town now believe they have spotted the missing reptile. But Klausi the crocodile, it turns out, is actually just a beaver.

My helpful graphic was offered to assist the challenging discrimination at the time. Ahhh memories.

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Well, onward and forward! Reviews are in on “The Beaver Whispers” which debuts this Thursday in Canada. Veteran critic James Bawden says the program is a ‘delight’.

I’ve just finished reviewing a CBC documentary about dogs. Now I’m being asked to review one on beavers? I was skeptical but after plopping in the DVD I couldn’t stop watching. To her credit Osborne seeks out the experts who argue beavers can bring back long neglected wetlands. They may be one part of our ecological survival –miniature animal flood control engineers.

Pre-hype is excellent wondrous news because it means more folks will sit down at their TV and learn why beavers are good for water and that there are actual ways to solve problems instead of trapping. Exciting. I can think of a few city mayors and magistrates in particular (and I’m looking at you, Jim) I hope open a cold one, put their feet up, and pay attention.

Now this third and final promo is excellent advertisement, but it contains one truly miraculous bit of mind-blowing footage that I want to be the first to draw your attention to. Watch specifically at 1:08, where an underwater sequence shows how their tail can propel them underwater at jaw-dropping speeds. The first time I saw it I thought it had been sped up. Now I know why the pope in the 14th century classified them as a fish.

Click for final promo — Click to watch amazing underwater footage

The Beaver Whisperers –Final sneak peek…

Cooperation & Copyright

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Creek Seekers Poetry Contest, Educational, Environmental February 16, 2013

GQ at work - Photo Cheryl Reynolds

Learn to share your stream

COQUILLE — A visiting conservationist will give a free presentation about beavers Feb. 25.Wayne Hoffman, coordinator of the MidCoast Watersheds Council, shares his presentation up and down the Oregon Coast to build support for beaver conservation. In smaller streams where beavers build dams, they can help stream ecology and watershed processes by improving the quality of habitat for juvenile salmon and for a variety of other wildlife.

Wayne Hoffman again to the rescue! It’s nice to read that this is happening in another city. After the last article I tried to write and introduce myself, but have heard nothing yet. I even wrote Mike and Skip about his idea of installing starter dams away from the culvert, which they both thought was interesting, and I passed their feedback along to him, – still as yet there has been no response.

Never mind. If folks are already preaching the beaver gospel….there’s no need for a ‘connect with the home office’!

Beavers also can be pests by plugging culverts, flooding agricultural lands and eating valued trees and plants. This presentation will include techniques for avoiding these problems and fostering peaceful coexistence between beavers and humans. A short Q & A follows the presentation.

Peaceful coexistence with humans. I like the way that sounds! Great work Wayne in teaching folks how and why to live with beavers! Let’s talk soon about teaching a JOYFUL coexistence with beavers…

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Documentary Update:

Sadly the ‘making of the beaver whisperer’ mentioned here yesterday is visible in Canada only. It is dark in America and Europe. Believe me when I say I tried to figure the whole thing out, and received a slew of bi-continental emails from folks eager to help. The wisest was the startled response that “The Nature of things” episode on beavers airs in March and Canada, and not on PBS until November. Argh. They aren’t letting the cat out of the bag, and the video is not downloadable.

I’m told a producer will send me one, but I’m sure they’re very busy with gay soirees and launch parties so I’m not holding my breath. So close and yet so far!