There was an article yesterday about a foundation grant to a university in Indiana so the ecology lab could study “Beavers and Birds”. My, my, my was I excited! It’s not exactly beaver central out there! I got out my beaver map and looked for the closest expert out that way. It’s a beaver wasteland but I thought Hydrologist and beaver supporter Donald Hey of the wetlands initiative would be a good place to start.
Apparently the million dollar gift is supposed to be the first of a 5 million dollar campaign to create an endowment fund for the ecological lab at the University. Seems they first gave 250,000 to restore the 55-acre wetlands that the lab is housed on. The intention is to protect the lands in perpetuity and teach better stewardship to students and children in the area.
Great! You have wetlands! Students! Money and good intentions! When do the beavers come in?
Students on campus are doing behavioral, hormone, and genetic research on beavers and birds
Ugh. There is no part of that sentence I like. And no part of that sentence that is going to advance your goals OR ecology. Do you mean you spent 250,000 to restore your wetlands, then locked all the beavers and birds in cages and you’re studying what happens when you increase their estrogen or combine their DNA with chickens? And people give you money for this?
Listen, you want to protect those wetlands forever? You want to create an environmental center that will show the world Indiana understands its wetlands? Here’s what you do. Write this down, got a pencil? Let the beavers out of those cages and make sure they have enough friends. Let them build dams and move mud and chew down trees, let them dig channels and turn up the soil. Let enriched soil increase the insect population and replenish the fish population and bring new wildlife. Let the chewed trees coppice and become dense bushy nesting ground for a host of new migratory and songbirds. Let your beavers be the foundation and I promise in 5 years your grad students will be so busy writing down everything they see they won’t have time to count their stipends.
