Ooh spooky. When the universe is determined to give you what you want you better just sit back and take it, Didn’t I end my post yesterday with a plaintive whine for more flow devices mentioned in prominent articles? Why yes I did. I always do.
This headline dropped about an hour later.
The ‘Beaver Deceiver’ Protects the Taos Watershed, Wetland Habitat
A wildlife ecosystem can benefit from a beaver dam, but their location can cause headaches for humans when they produce flooding.
In Taos, New Mexico, conservationists think they’ve found a cohabitation solution. It is technically called a “Castor Master,” but is better known as a “Beaver Deceiver,” a device designed to allow an ecosystem habitat which can support otter, raccoons, skunk, coyote and a variety of bird species without mucking-up the town’s infrastructure.
Wow. Just wow. Do you mean to tell me that I not only get exactly what I want in an article with an actual photo of a beaver, I also get you to use the proper WORDS for it? I’m swooning. I’m weak in the knees. Even in Martinez where we had national attention on Skip’s installation I could never get a single reporter to write “Castor Master”. This is sooo beautiful. Sniff. Maybe you do care after all!
Stephen Fry, project and policy specialist and collaborative facilitator for the group Amigos Bravos, called the system to be installed today in Fred Baca Park a “win-win” for the Rio Fernando Watershed and a Keystone species previously plentiful in the state.
“And now, whenever beaver seem to appear back on the landscape, most people are concerned and annoyed,” Fry noted. “But it’s honestly quite easy to live on the landscape with beaver, and we just have to be more intentional and creative about it.”
Fry pointed out installation of the “Beaver Deceiver” should prevent the city from needing to use heavy machinery each spring to clear dams and other debris in order to control the water level.
Stephen Fry! You are my new best friend! The New Mexico Beaver Summit did a lot of good. On a lot of levels. Neither Stephen nor Skip presented at the summit but I’m sure they know about it. It changed the landscape. Maybe forever.
Beaver dams can reduce soil erosion and retain sediment, which absorb and filter pollutants such as heavy metals, pesticides and fertilizers, improving the quality of water downstream used by humans and other species.
Fry explained the project came about after the city of Taos agreed to purchase the materials needed, and volunteers, including youth in the community, agreed to do the installation.
“It’s a great example of a simple, simple technology that manages flooding and allows the beaver to stay on the landscape and provide all these great ecosystem services,” Fry stressed. “For not only themselves, but other species and humans.”
The effort is being led by the Rio Fernando de Taos Collaborative, working with individuals, elected leaders, organizations and government entities to restore the local watershed.
Maybe after attending the conference Amigos Bravos paid for Skip to come out and teach them how to install a Castor Master? I know he did a training way back before he came to Martinez out that way. I am so impressed.
Maybe I should end each post with speaking a wish out loud for what I want to happen tomorrow. Maybe I’m under a magic spell. Okay! Tomorrow I wish that there will be a fantastic report that beavers don’t live IN THE DAM.
