Whatever you were planning on reading this morning, put it aside and go check out this fantastic guide to ‘working with beaver’. It was written by Sherri Tippie in conjunction with Mary O’Brien and the Grand Canyon Trust. It has a detailed account of how to protect trees, install beaver deceivers and configure flow devices. It very pragmatically talks about the benefits of beavers and even talks about relocating the ones that just can’t be tolerated. This is the kind of smart, complete guide to dealing with beavers that 200 people attending a certain November 7th, 2007 meeting would have been very grateful for. I put a link to it on the resource section of the website as well. If the names involved sound familiar, they should. Sherri Tippie is the top beaver relocation expert in the country located in Colorado. I called her the day before that meeting and asked about the potential hazards of relocation and what she’d charge to come out and move ours if we had to take that route. Mary O’brien is the true beaver believer from my favorite ever beaver article “Voyage of the dammed“. Honestly, you just don’t assemble a better beaver team than this. Go read it and the next time we write the city of St. Paul or Juno or Chicago trying to make them think twice about killing beavers, we’ll make sure to send them a copy!
When you’re done marveling at their good work, take a moment to consider ours. My meeting with city staff went amazing yesterday and they are undertaking the installation of the beavers on the sheetpile themselves. Check out this press release for details. It’s perfect timing, because Mom beaver died on a Saturday morning exactly two months ago today. Doesn’t it seem much, much longer? (Maybe I am just much, much older.) Well, soon there will be a reminder of her impact on Alhambra Creek forever, and that greatly heartens me. Thanks Paul Craig for your generous artwork!
If you need a reminder of how things used to be, check out our New York friend Bob Arnebeck’s lovely footage of his new kits with mom. He’s been watching for them all summer anxiously waiting for the launch and they just made an appearance. We know how that is!
