Once upon a time I was the new kid on the block trying to save beavers. Those days are (thankfully) history. Now there are beaver disciples all across the land. Making huge difference. This is the recent post from Rachel Siegel who was motivated to save the beavers when her HOA wanted them killed in Glanview Park in Illinois. She started the facebook page Glenview Beavers fan club, republished our urban guidebook for their state and now has become a nonprofit under ISI just like us.
I have emerged unscathed from my meeting with the IEPA today! With the help of Representative Jen Gong-Gershowitz, I was able to make a polished pitch about the role that process-based restoration (and beavers!) can play in improving our water quality and creating floodwater storage capacity.
We left the meeting with a couple of action items, including setting up a meeting with staff at the IDNR. So in the meantime, I will continue to work on setting up my new organization, the Illinois Beaver Alliance, which is a fiscally 
sponsored project of Inquiring Systems, Inc. , and thus has nonprofit status.The mission of the Illinois Beaver Alliance is to improve the health and function of Illinois watersheds, which will increase climate resilience, improve water quality, increase biodiversity, and create floodwater storage capacity; and to educate the public about the ecological importance of beavers and the modern tools for resolving human-beaver conflicts. I’ll tell you more about it soon!
Tomorrow we have our meeting with the Village of Glenview and then I am going downtown with Donald Hey of Wetlands Research to pitch nutrient farming (or water quality credit farming) to a prominent Clean Water Act attorney.
Did you catch all that? She presented her position to her state representative and is now going to meet with fish and game a water attorney. Is your mind blown completely? Beavers: The Next Generation has some fine recognition of our buddy Rusty Cohn in the County RCD Monthly Newsletter.
July Conservation Champion: Rusty Cohn
We are 100% certain that at least some of you know our July Conservation Champion, Rusty Cohn. If you’re on Facebook or NextDoor, you may know him as the one sharing photos of local cute baby animals: the downtown Napa beavers!
Rusty does a great job inspiring us to treasure the wildlife that we have in our downtown. In addition to sharing his photos, he also shares stories and behaviors he observes while photographing these creatures. So who is Rusty?
Rusty has been in Napa 10 years and says his favorite part about being here is that it is a small town with a slower pace of life that is matched with a great diversity of wildlife so close by. After visiting his daughter here, he and his wife fell in love with the area and decided to move here once he retired. Now, Rusty keeps busy with several hobbies (including photographing local wildlife) and walking his dog Toby.
After first noticing a beaver dam next to Hawthorne Suites Hotel while out walking, he became fascinated with beavers and all of the other wildlife that were living in and near the beaver ponds. Rusty says his favorite part about photographing and sharing the animals found in our urban landscapes is that you never know what you might see next. He finds it exciting to observe the variety of wildlife, and he hopes his photos encourage others to become more interested in viewing and protecting the diverse wildlife of Napa County.
One thing Rusty wants us all to know: “Napa is a wonderland of biodiversity, get outside and enjoy it!”
Not only does Rusty share photos on Facebook and NextDoor, he also shares videos on his YouTube page!
We love community members who are excited about seeing and sharing local wildlife, and Rusty is a great example of that. Thanks for helping us get to know the nature in our own neighborhoods!
WHOO HOO! Rusty has been a good friend and supporter of Worth A Dam and helped out at our festivals AND earthday! I’m so happy his hard work is getting noticed.
Meanwhile I my hard work is apparently only worth stealing because my OpEd was stolen again by a letter to the editor for the Eugene Weekly. Hope my words are having fun being kidnapped!
Leave It To Beavers
Oregon is killing off one of nature’s best firefighters.
Last summer Oregon endured the single most flammable year in modern history. Record-setting fire after record-setting fire churned through the state, yet once again we continue to ignore or even kill the water-saving firefighter who would work for free to protect us: the beaver.
Recent research, published under the title “Smokey the Beaver,” found beaver complexes were three times more resistant to wildfire than similar areas without beaver. Beaver habitat, with its dams, ponds and canals, showed less wildfire damage than un-beavered streams. In keeping water on the landscape, beavers reduce fire, mitigate drought and recharge groundwater.
Beavers save water and reduce the risk and severity of wildfire. They do it all day, every day, at zero taxpayer expense. Their ponds have been consistently shown to increase biodiversity from stoneflies to steelhead. Beaver ponds help fish survive at a time when the Pacific coast is hemorrhaging salmon.
Our own self-interest dictates our attention. Yet Oregon isn’t learning.
Susan Libby
True. This time it contained five whole original lines of her own specific to Oregon which must have been exhausting to pen. I hope the shoplifter isn’t too tired to steal more?
Editor’s note: Since this letter was published in EW, we have learned that it draws heavily and without attribution on a column by Heidi Perryman published in the San Francisco Chronicle on June 26.
