Folks liked seeing Tim’s mural yesterday, the post got 2 comments and something like 80 likes on FB. Public art does things like that. It seeps into your experience and brightens your day without permission. That’s an extra reason to have beaver public art around.

This morning there are a cluster of stories to take care of. I particularly like this one, since its so close to being excellent.

900-acre preserve focuses on environmental education

Covering 900 acres north of Warrenton, The Clifton Institute focuses on environmental education, ecological research and restoration for native plants and animals.

Grants and donations fund the non-profit’s annual budget of approximately $250,000.

Mr. Harris, an ecology expert, and his wife Eleanor, the managing director and a biology expert, started six months ago at The Clifton Institute. They hope to offer more educational programs and intern research opportunities in the coming years.

“There’s incredible diversity in our own backyards and people don’t realize. Just by showing people what we have here, I think they are going to want to have a lighter hand.

“People protect what they understand and love,” President Doug Larson said. “I think if you gain an appreciation for the natural world you are more inclined to protect and respect it.” and in how they manage their own property,” Mr. Harris said.

So far so good! I love the idea of kids in Virginia getting a chance to explore the outdoors. And he’s right. Children will grow up to be adults that protect what they learned to love along the way. Where’s the problem, Heidi?

The property off Blantyre Road near Airlie features a beaver damn, several bodies of water, fields and about 10 miles of maintained trails.

Good lord. Maybe that’s just how they feel about beavers in Virginia?

Time for another fine review of Ben’s book, this one from the Addison County Independent in Vermont by Becky Dayton.

Book review: Eager: The surprising secret life of beavers and why they matter — by Ben Goldfarb

As an environmental journalist covering wildlife management and conservation biology, Ben Goldfarb has written extensively about birds, bears, fish, and more for periodicals such as Mother Jones, Science and Orion, but it was beavers, of all critters, that inspired him to write a book.

And what a book it is! While fantastically well researched, “Eager” rarely — if ever — gets bogged down by its own comprehensive heft. This is a function of Goldfarb’s genuine enthusiasm for his subject, his healthy appreciation for the humor inherent in smelly, buck-toothed rodents, and his entertaining way with words.

“Eager” is, above all else, fun to read. The opportunity it presents to learn almost everything there is to know about these surprisingly bright, if maddening, rodents is almost secondary to the pleasure of consuming Goldfarb’s lively, storyteller’s prose. But learn you will — about the rich natural and cultural history of Castor canadensis. Goldfarb leaves no stone unturned in his investigation, visiting 12 US states and the UK to interview and “go into the field,” i.e., wade into the pond, with everyone from wildlife management biologists to civilian enthusiasts of various stripes, the whole range of “Beaver Believers.” The takeaway — that, contrary to popular opinion, beavers and humans can live harmoniously — is practically a foregone conclusion; it’s the getting there in Goldfarb’s company that makes it entirely worth your time.

What a lively review Becky! Thank you so much for putting your enthusiasm into words for us. That was exactly how I felt reading this book! I hate to ask but do you have a sister or something that lives in Massachusetts? We need your brignt energy proclaiming the book out that way.

Lastly there’s an update from our friend Tom Pelletier at Ask A Naturalist. You might remember a while back I noted that someone had asked a question about swimming with beavers and he wrote back a long detailed description of the risks of giardiasis. I sent him my thoughts and right before the festival he wrote and invited me to provide an update on the post.

Here’s what it says now:

Can I swim with beavers?

Additional commentary from Heidi Perryman of martinezbeavers.org/wordpress: If the question is “Can beaver ponds carry disease?” the answer is yes, and so can any other body of water you might feel like swimming in. If you’re asking “Do beaver ponds cause beaver fever?” the answer is also sometimes. Beavers can pass on giardiasis just like deer, muskrat or even humans. They are not, however, more likely to carry it. One researcher even remarked that in other countries there is no association with beavers and giardiasis because in other languages the words “beaver” and “fever” don’t happen to rhyme!

From the beaver’s point of view the answer to the question “Can I swim with beavers?” is: please don’t. Beavers would rather not have you around while they’re working and would definitely rather not have your dog around. This is especially true in the summer months when there are young beavers to protect. Every year I read at least one story about someone whose pet was attacked by a beaver in June or July. Remember, any animal that can chop down a tree with its teeth can do harm to your dog. (Rosell, F. Rosef, 0 & Parker H ) 2001. Investigations of Waterborne Pathogens in Eurasian Beaver (Castor fiber) Acta vet. scand. 2001, 42, 479-482.)

Well that sprinkled in a little education! Thanks Tom for letting me add my caveats. Hopefully more folks at least will think twice about letting their dog swim in a beaver pond in summer!

Can I swim with beavers?

Common knowledge associates giardiasis and beavers so closely that people often call the disease “beaver fever.” However, it’s not clear that beavers very often contaminate people with Giardia. In fact, it seems that Giardia species tend to specialize. So the Giardia that most commonly infects beaver is different from the one that infects people. However, most Giardia have some ability to infect organisms other than their primary host, and you can find human-type Giardia in beavers. But the evidence suggests that when it is found in swimming waters and in beavers, the most common source of the human-type Giardia is not the beavers but people. Typically, it’s from untreated sewage that gets into the water or from fecal matter washing off people when they are in the water. For that reason, health officials recommend that people with diarrhea stay out of swimming waters.

When I asked Lihua Xiao, who is Chief of the Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory/WBDP of the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases for the United States Centers for Disease Control, for his opinion about swimming with beavers, he said flatly “I would not swim in a pond where beavers are active.”

First of all, just because it rhymes doesn’t mean its true. Yes beavers can cause Giardiasis just like any other mammal, and most mammals, as it happens, aren’t too particular about not pooping in the water. But they don’t carry it MORE. To be fair, he does go on to describe a study which showed that muskrats carried the disease far more commonly than beavers. BUT he accompanied it with a photo of a nutria which he only just recently changed when it was pointed out to him in by a reader in May two years after this article appeared. Which begs the question, naturalist?

If you do decide to swim in your beaver pond, you should, as much as possible, avoid swallowing the water, and you should never drink untreated surface waters. The recommendation is to boil or use filters that specifically say they will remove Giardia. The cysts of Giardia and Cryptosporidium are somewhat resistant to chlorine, so don’t count on that. Boiling and filtration will also kill or remove most other waterborne diseases and parasites at the same time, including any worm-like parasite.

Do you think Tom has read any of the humorous articles from beaver researchers in other countries that point out that it’s only ENGLISH speaking nations that associate beavers with beaver fever because of it’s only in our language that they rhyme? Do you think he knows that the biggest risk of swimming is for dogs when folks let them swim too close to their families in June and July when they are protecting kits? Do you think he’s ever seen this photo of beaver expert Sharon Brown doing this?

I’m going out on a limb and saying the answer to these questions is NO. He does end the article with a reference to a Washington state website on living with beavers, but that is small compensation after talking to the foremost researcher on infectious diseases who, last I checked, knew bunk about beavers.

Might I suggest that the NEXT time someone asks you a question about beavers you talk to a beaver expert? Oh and here’s a helpful way to tell muskrats and nutria apart.