So last night, when I couldn’t be there, there a was beaver extravaganza on the new cottonwood. Several of our regulars got the full view of family munching on its spoils. There’s a lot more tree to enjoy so if you missed out too you can still catch tonight’s show.
In the mean time I thought I’d get a “Round tuit” also and talk about our good friend William Hughes-Games’ first adventure with beavers.
Now William lives in New Zealand, where they have honey possums and echidne’s but they don’t have beavers. Don’t ask me how he got interested in the industrious creatures, we’re just glad he did. He’s a supporter of Beavers Wetlands and Wildlife and read about our beavers in their newsletter this winter. He is a scholarly-minded fellow who maintains his own blog down under. He has always been particularly interested in the relationship between salmon and beavers. This summer he made a trek to Canada to check all the Salmon hatcheries there.
And he got to see his VERY first beavers in person.
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=DkWMf-HEq-o]
In the midst of his exciting beaver/salmon safari, he reconnected with an old family member who turned him onto a great read: “Three Against the Wilderness” by Eric Collier. It was published in Canada in 1959 and is the story of an amazing family and their committment to returning beavers to British Columbia in the early 1900’s. The hero and author marries a woman who is a quarter native american. Her very interesting blind grandmother Lala gives the couple a unique life plan.
“Aiya, the beavers! Until white man come indian just kill beaver now an’ then s’pose he want meat or skin for blanket. And then, always the creek is full of beaver. But when white man come and give him tobacco, sugar, bad drink, every tam; he fetch beaver skin from creek Indian go crazy and kill beaver all tam’. What’s matter white man no tell Indian—some beaver you must leave so little ones stop next year? What’s matter white man no tell indian s’pose you take all beaver, blimeby all water go too. And if water go, no trout, no fur, no grass not’ing stop?”
“Why you no go that creek and give it back the beavers? You young man, you like hunt and trap. S’pose once again the creek full of beavers, maybe trout come back. And ducks, and geese come back too, and big marshes be full of muskrats again all same when me little girl. And where muskrats stop, mink and otter stop too. Aiya! Why you no go that creek with Lily and live there all tam’ and give it back the beavers?”
And so off they go, after he is given sole trapping rights of 150,000 acres in the roughest, wildlest lands of Meldrum Creek from headwaters to mouth. To say they encounter (and bravely face) great danger, hardship and sacrifice is putting it midly. After buiding a log cabin, they start by repairing the dams along the drought plagued creek, which gets all its water in the rapid snow melt and loses it to the big river because it can’t trap any to save for itself. There are no beavers to reintroduce because they have all been killed, until a very wise Game Warden gives him two breeding pairs to start things off. The book is an exciting combination of little house on the prairie, Robinson Caruso and “Lost”. It’s out of print but you can pick up a used copy from amazon here. It is a very literal retelling of the Keystone species principal. It is stunning to me that this book has existed for nearly 50 years and there are still discussions about whether beavers are good for the environment.
It was thrilling this summer to read about William’s first beaver encounters. Apparently Canadian beavers are way more stressed out than Martinez beavers. That tail slap is positively jittery! Check out the rest of his furtive beaver footage on his youtube site. Or read about his trip in his own words by visiting his blog here.
