Now Headlining: The Beaver!
The past month has been a watershed (!) moment for beavers making a splash (!) in the news. From the New York Times to the LA Times to the Washington Post, beavers are front and center and burrowing (!) into the consciousness of the general public.
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Reflections on summer, embracing autumn
It’s been a busy and productive summer here at the Beaver Institute. Our 2nd biennial BeaverCON held outside Baltimore, MD in June was a rousing success with 45 presenters and 200 attendees. All the presentations from the conference are now available for free on our YouTube page.
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Highlighting B.I. Supporters – A Guest Blog from Animal Welfare Institute
AWI has long supported the Beaver Institute’s outstanding work. Early on, in 2009, AWI provided financial support to Beaver Solutions, a sister organization to the Beaver Institute, for the development of an educational DVD providing instruction on the manufacture and installation of pond levelers. In 2012, Beaver Solutions received a grant from AWI to fund a project to develop and install effective fishways to permit the unimpeded passage of threatened adult salmon through beaver flow devices at sites in California, Alaska, and British Columbia. In 2017, AWI provided startup funding for the development of the Beaver Institute’s website and expert training program. Later, AWI helped sponsor BeaverCON 2020.
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Colorado BeaverCorps Members join forces in Gunnison National Forest
Colorado BeaverCorps members Paul Planer (RangeWorks), Alli Del Gizzi (Arable Earth), and Mark Beardsley (EcoMetrics) came together to work towards the restoration of a Stage-0 beaver wetland complex on Trail Creek in the Gunnison National Forest.
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Presentation at International Conference on Ecology & Transportation
In September 2021, our President Mike Callahan presented at the 11th biennial International Conference on Ecology & Transportation (ICOET). ICOET is the foremost interdisciplinary, interagency supported conference addressing the broad range of ecological issues related to transportation systems in all modes.
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Connecticut Beaver Initiative
While beavers build dams that create biodiversity and have many other benefits, sometimes these dams can cause serious flooding problems for people. When this happens the beavers are all too often killed and their dams removed. To improve this situation, the Beaver Institute Inc. is excited to announce an innovative program for the state of Connecticut to help property owners and municipalities resolve these human-beaver conflicts nonlethally.
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BeaverCON 2020 Wrap Up
We were extremely fortunate that the inaugural BeaverCON 2020 east coast beaver conference was scheduled just in time to beat the Coronavirus shutdown! How wonderful the gathering of 160 international beaver experts and beaver curious seemed at the time, and how much more precious those 3 days seem during these ensuing days of pandemic social distancing!
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Kids and Beavers: A Natural Match – a guest blog by Frances Backhouse
Beavers have been a huge part of my life as a freelance writer for the past decade, providing me with subject matter for a book, several magazine articles, a radio documentary and various speaking gigs. But all of those were aimed at adults. It wasn’t until a publisher invited me to write a beaver book for middle-graders that I considered reaching out to a younger audience. If I had known how fun—and rewarding—it would be, I would have done it sooner.
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BeaverCorps Spotlight: Dan Aitchison, Hudson Valley Beaver Strategies, LLC
Much of my childhood was spent learning about the natural world through my parents, shadowing local naturalists, studying the forested landscape and observing the wildlife that inhabits our local forests. I started working for Westchester County Parks Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation in 2005 and in 2009 was promoted to the position of Senior Curator of Wildlife.
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iBeaver: A Community Science App for Beaver!
Our friends at Defenders of Wildlife have debuted an awesome new community app called iBeaver! The app collects data on beaver distribution, habitats, beaver coexistence efforts, and more. Below, we hear more about the app from Aaron Hall and Mae Lacey.
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Climate Change Beaver Coalition
Last month, our President Mike Callahan and many other respected beaver experts spoke (virtually) at the California Beaver Summit, a two-day panel of talks highlighting the many ecosystem benefits of beaver. Over 1,ooo Summit attendees learned of the many climate change benefits of beaver-created wetlands, and how we can help to restore them. The lessons in California are applicable to us all. There are several grassroots organizations that are building climate resilience by restoring and protecting beavers, while resolving human-beaver conflicts. These efforts need to be scaled significantly in the face of the climate crisis.
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Biodiversity, Beavers, and Me
Educating the public about the value of the ecosystem, biodiversity, and watershed services beavers provide is a critical component of improving society’s stewardship of the earth. While this knowledge is critical, individual direct experiences in nature can profoundly impact a person and motivate them to put that knowledge into action. At least that was true in my case….
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