You may have heard something about the successful re-release of beavers in Scotland this week. The home of Robert Burns hasn’t seen a beaver in close to 400 years, and their reintroduction is part of a study to see how the environment responds. (i can hazard a guess.) This has been a huge undertaking that has faught and cajoled and nudged and poked the salmon industry every step of the way. You see, the salmon-ites are concerned that beavers will block fish passage, and went to great lengths to research the issue at the very crowded “Library-of-articles-that-agree-with-my-position”. (LATAMP) For the record, this is a much more crowded research facility than its sister institution “Library-that-presents-all-the-facts-whether-they-agree-with-me-or-not”. (LTPATFWTAWMON) (In fact, it is often so crowded at LATAMP with goverment officials trying to justify invasions, city attorneys attempting to violate CEQA and bitter university professors marking down their student papers, that you can’t find a table!)
Of course if our Scottish Salmon-Sheiders had visited LTPATFWTAWMON they would have learned that beaver dams make important winter habitat for juvenile salmonids, and that these two species co-evolved and benefit eachother. Our New Zealand Friend William Hughes Gaines has been working hard to persuade some of the more vocal and unpersuadeable elements. This week the kilted land just got a little bit closer.
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=38_Vm6KEm0g]
In honor of the auspicious event we are looking for a bagpiper to play at the beaver festival! Know any?
Nae man can tether Time nor Tide,
The hour approaches Tam maun ride;
