The Crow Woods Beaver from Haddonfield Civic Association on Vimeo.
Our friend Sarah from Unexpected Wildlife Refuge, alerts me to this video from her friend Butch Brees about the Crow Woods beaver(s). Last month I read a lovely article about the local conservation commissions response to the new resident, and now it’s here on the little screen! Notice the fact that their citizen association spends money to actually film the story of these beavers and put footage on the website. (The city of Martinez won’t even provide a link or a photo.) Notice also they invested in lengthening the bridge when the beavers flooded it, instead of bemoaning damage to their trails and hiring the trapper. Bruce tours the area with a Haddonfield Conservation Commissioner and talks about the new habitat the beavers are creating for wildlife.
It’s almost made me teary to think of a video explaining the beaver value and habitat on the same website as video from the school board and city council. I can’t even really imagine it. One would think that Conservancy organizations are the obvious friends to beavers, but alas, it is rarely true. Sarah has clearly done admirable work spreading the beaver gospel in her neck of the woods. The BEST PART about this video is at the end, when Butch talks about how the park benefits from the raised water level because of the beavers, but if the beavers raise it too much they can install a flow device. Wow. A city that knows its options. Hand me my smelling salts, I’m feeling faint.
Speaking of Conservancy commissions, Massachusetts has about 300+ of them, one for every municipality. I have written several this year advocating a humane investment in beaver management. I just learned that Saturday Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions will be giving a talk at the state wide conservancy conference.They are pairing him with “on-the-other-hand, why-not-try-killun” representative, Laura Hajduk to present all the options.
Devoted readers of this website will recognize her name from the New York Times article where she bemoaned the successful (but very partial–Ed. note) recovery of the beaver population in the state, blaming it on ‘them pesky environmentalists who outlawed body-crushing traps’, (even though any creative man, woman or child with two IQ points to rub together could still get permission to use those traps under almost any circumstances). There will be a kind of “dueling beavers” note to the conference as they argue management from both sides of the crick. (I’m proud to say that website wonders allow me to note that several people searching for Ms. Hajduk over the year have come to our website, which is just plain fun.)
Final Note: Jon watched the otter for an hour this morning, in fine display! If you haven’t seen him yet, you still have time!
