Do you remember those books you loved before you could read easily? We called them ‘picture books’ and they were illustrated in such an understandable way that you always knew exactly what was happening without a single written word?
Well think of today’s post as a ‘picture book’.
I just learned how to make a GIF of some of my favorite 2008 Dad footage. Most of the tailslapping I saw from the beavers happened in their first two years with us. Obviously they grew more accustomed to people in their lives and it was directed at us less frequently. Maybe it was never directed at us anyway. There were nearly always otters around when they slapped and it was nearly always spring. I’m guessing they were protecting these:
I consider Peter Smith of the Wildwood Trust in Kent a major beaver ally. He also happens to be my most reliable ally when it comes to finding beaver information in the UK. He’s wonderfully intelligent and earnest on camera and absolutely emphasizes the right things when talking about beavers. Apparently his dedication even won over journalist and Countryfile star Ellie Harrison, who surprised him this weekend with this.
Well deserved! Could NOT happen to a better beaver defender!
Finally Rusty of Napa photoghraped his first beavers together yesterday and his enviable fortune is our good luck this morning. Enjoy!
Good news for beavers in Wales! They’re getting closer to reintroduction. Count this as great news for dragonflies and salmon and otters and waterfowl too. Well here, I’ll let our good friend Peter Smith tell you. In addition to having the very best job on the planet, he’s an excellent spokesman!
Plans to reintroduce beavers to the Welsh countryside after hundreds of years without them have moved a step closer.
The Afon Rheidol river in Ceredigion has been chosen as the location for their return next year. Should the move go ahead it could see beavers brought in from the UK and around Europe.
Of course there are the usual grumblings from farmers and fishermen but they seem to be facing a losing battle. The players have done everything right and the advocates have made the right friends. Fingers crossed, but it looks like after being missing for 400 years, beavers coming back to Wales! Can a Welsh beaver festival be far behind?
Any news closer to home? I received this paper from Leonard Houston this morning. Its by Dr. Wayne Hoffman and the midcoast Watershed council. Hoffman is a name we’ve read over and over again this year, but we still haven’t connected. After I sip some coffee and read through this treasure I’m definitely introducing myself! In case you want to read this yourself, I’ve put a permanent link on the right hand margin under solutions. UPDATE from the small world files. Just heard from his colleague and co-author Fran Recht that she attended my presentation at the beaver conference this year and was inspired by the Martinez Beaver story!
Beavers and Conservation in Oregon Coastal WatershedsA background paper byDr. Wayne Hoffman, MidCoast Watersheds CouncilFran Recht, Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission
Those interested in salmon and habitat restoration are express ing renewed interest in reestablishing beaver populations as inexpensive “watershed engineers”. In many places the type of work that beavers do improves conditions favorable to cohosalmon, cutthroat troutand other animals. Their dams also store water that help increase nutrient levels for other organisms in the stream, build up eroded streambeds, release water during the dry seasons, and improve water quality by slowing waters to allow sediment to settle, among other things. However, in Oregon, beavers have been considered a pest as well as a game animal so their protections are limited and their numbers have fluctuated dramatically over time due to a variety of factors.In the central Coast major declines in beaver ponds and dams have been documented in the past 2 decades. This background aper provides a summary of the benefits of beavers, their conflicts with humans, and the policies and conditions that affect their survival. It also provides examples of ways to reduce conflict with humans, and suggests needed legislative actions
Now before we get started today I have some housekeeping to attend to. Yesterday I received an email from Joe Eaton, a fast friend of the Martinez Beavers and the author of my favorite article ever on the death of the mother beaver for the Berkeley Daily Planet. He said he stopped by to see the dams and thought they were abandoned (very high tide) and when he checked the website didn’t see any discussion of the Martinez Beavers since March! Were they okay?
I though that since a friendly faced didn’t know, you might not know either! You can always check for new sightings under the “sightings” tab on the menu bar on the top of the page. It will tell you what was seen, where, what time, and by whom. Just in case Joe is not the only one who doesn’t know! The sightings page is managed by Worth A Dam champion Lory Bruno whose friendly face you will see at the silent auction booth this summer. Here’s today’s update
May 7th – 6:15am – One beaver was seen above the primary dam and possibly a sighting of another beaver. Not sure if the same one came out but the second one was a bit smaller it seemed.. It came up to the lodge area and went underwater. Seems like there is something going on at the old lodge and there looked like new branches were on the lodge site, which was heavily mudded Saturday morning.CR
Next, our Kentucky Derby watching friends might find it interesting to know that the logo for the Derby was created by none other that the mother of our beloved Ian Timothy (creator of the beaver creek series).His father of course wrote and performed the music for the series. Here’s photographic proof of a very talented family!
You may remember that last week I wrote about the beavers at Silver Lake in CT which Councilman Thorpe described as “wreaking havoc” on the ecosystem. Of course I wrote him about the good that beaver do for the birds and fish and wildlife and he wrote back (in a manner I can only describe as ‘clipped‘) and said he knew all that but that this area was special because of a sewer line. Which, if true, you might have thought he’d mention to the media. Anyway, there’s a nice rebuttal to his alarms this morning
As the Record-Journal’s Richie Rathsack reported, there’s also evidence that the pond, larger now thanks to the beaver work, is more attractive to other wildlife. He also described dozens of trees along the shore with signs of beaver gnawing, as well as small trails left by beavers dragging trees through the woods to the water’s edge.
My strong suspicion is also that the proprietors of this so-called beaver hut are not paying their proper share of property taxes, and the beavers should probably be told that if there’s any vehicle involved that in Connecticut we tax you when you buy one, while you own one and once again when you sell one. Those trails the beavers are building should also be candidates for some sort of review and taxation, I’d wager.
Now let’s head even farther East for our final update. With beaver advocates chipping away at the resistance in the United Kingdom, check out this mornings BBC report on beavers in Wales!
It is thought that beavers, while common in medieval Wales, became extinct by the 16th Century. But Ms Girardi said she believed the beavers remained “keystone species,” whose re-introduction would increase biodiversity.
On a final note it’s Monday so if you’re very, very good you can watch this video from Peter Smith at the Wildwood Trust in England. A very stalwart, enthusiastic member of the Save the Free Beavers of the River Tay died two weeks ago, Mike Johnston. So Peter very nobly made sure that one of these kits was named after him. I guess its theoretically possibly you might see something cuter in your entire lifetime, but it surely isn’t likely! Enjoy!
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vitami ritrovai per una selva oscura,ché la diritta via era smarrita. Midway upon the journey of our lifeI found myself within a forest dark,For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
This, in case you don’t recognize it, is the famous beginning of Dante’s Inferno, written in 1308, in which the poet is guided by Virgil into the underworld and devotes a couple thousand cantos to describe for the rest of us what kind of fate awaits our sins. The entire trilogy is called the Divine Comedy, not because its funny, but because it goes from despair to heaven, which is the old sense of the word where ‘tragedy’ begins in happiness and ends in ruin, and ‘comedy’ ends in triumph.
Though no theologian, I can announce with certitude that Dante was wrong about at least three things. Socrates, sodomites, and beavers. Given the topic of this website I’ll confine myself to the latter for the time being.
Canto XVII
If your archaic Italian is a little rusty, allow me to translate. Dante is using a reference to the beaver sitting on his tail at the edge of the water as a way to describe how a monster is waiting at the edge of the void to carry them to the next level. ‘Lo bevero‘ is our friend, and he’s sitting there to ‘wage war’. Wage war? Who does a beaver wage war against? Not city council members or trappers or piles of willow leaves, according to Dante something very unsuspected. I’ll let the Scottish journal I was pointed to yesterday written for Lord Bute (who apparently had his own Scottish Beaver trial in 1878) describe it.
Isn’t that beautiful? This was the best Thanksgiving present ever and you might want to check it out yourself here. So thank you to Peter Smith (CEO of the WIldwood Trust in Scotland) who put me on to it and thank you to Lord Bute for inspiring this excellent excellent dressing down of Dante. A great bit of beaver lore and further proof that folks have been lying about beavers for 700 years!
