It has definitely been a tough first month, especially for many of the residents of the greater Los Angeles area who have been affected by wildfires and threats of deportation. Here at Consider the Beaver, I want to acknowledge a few things before presenting this brief first-of-the-year article.

I stand with hardworking people and families who make their homes in this country, raise children, and build communities. I am against any administration that would seek to deport millions of people based on their place of birth or the color of their skin. The broad generalizations leveled at vast swathes of this country’s population are flatly racist, and regressive, and do not represent me or this page.

Consider the Beaver also extends a welcome to anyone, regardless of how they identify, who they love, or who they voted for. This project seeks to create connections. Its core tenet is the belief that human beings and animals share certain emotional capacities for love, happiness, fear, pain, anger, and sadness. In light of that, this page is dedicated to championing the ideals of compassion, cooperation, curiosity, and love. You are welcome here.

Lastly, because this post deals specifically with the Beaver’s ability to fight fire, I want to preface this post with a sincere thank you to the thousands of human firefighters who risked their lives for weeks battling the Palisades and Eaton Canyon fires. What Los Angeles just witnessed is a testament to the logistical and compassionate genius of the human species. I seek to promote the dedication, hard work, and sacrifice it takes to fight fires, save lives, and rebuild. It was truly inspiring to witness the good human beings are capable of when confronted with something so wildly destructive.

To all of those suffering from the aftermath of the fires, and those uncertain about the future I hope you find this page to be a resting place where you can, if only for a brief moment, engage with the better angels of our nature by stoking the flames of your curiosity and compassion.

What is it that beavers do?

They build dams..

They fell trees..

The build lodges..

But what is it that they actually do? Taken together, everything a beaver does creates wetlands. Beavers are what is known as a “keystone species.” They fell trees to build dams to back up water to make it easier for them to navigate from dam to lodge. In so doing they create wetland habitats that become home to a great diversity of plant and animal species (fish, mink, otter, shrew, owl, even larger animals like moose). These species thus depend on beavers.1

These wetlands are also a natural way to fight fires.

By keeping water on the land, wetlands act as a natural barriers between wildfire fuel sources. Oftentimes they won’t burn at all, or if they do the intensity of the fire is much lower.2 Because of this, in the fall of 2023 the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), for the first time in almost 75 years, released a family of Beavers in the hope of re-building a breeding population in the area. According to CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham:

“Beavers help retain water on the landscape, which increases groundwater recharge, improves summer baseflows, extends seasonal flows and increases fuel moisture during wildfire season, effectively creating green belts that can serve as wildfire buffers or breaks and provide refugia for wildlife,”3

Beavers also inspire human engineering projects in the form of “beaver dam analogues” or BDAs. The BDAs are constructed using wooden posts and willows to mimic the effect a beaver dam has on the landscape.4

Many private landowners continue to trap and kill beaver who they see as pests. What the CDFW and other land management agencies are beginning to realize is that by working with beavers and nature we can begin to protect our forests and communities from the dangers of wildfires and give our brave firefighters a chance at containing blazes before they take lives and property.

Thank you for considering the beaver!5

p.s. here is a video of the CDFW releasing the beaver family:

I discovered the movie Hundreds of Beavers a few weeks ago as my wife and I were scrolling through Apple TV looking for something to watch. If she knows anything about what I do as an historian, she knows about the beaver content. So when we scrolled past we both let out an audible "Huh!" We watched the trailer and decided an hour and half long silent film wasn't really our speed at that exact moment, so we put it in the queue and watched episode two of Slow Horses... 

Well, I'm proud to announce that we watched it! And I'll tell you. Its VERY GOOD. I try not to let a Rotten Tomatoes score ruin my chance at seeing a good movie, but if you like numbers, H.O.Bs. is currently running a white hot 97%.  

As stated in the intro, Hundred of Beavers, directed by Mike Cheslik, written by Cheslik, Ryland Brickson, and Cole Tews, is a (for the most part) silent film, shot in black and white, that tells the story of a one time Apple Jack salesman who, after falling on hard times, decides to change careers and become a fur trapper is sometime nineteenth century Wisconsin. Filmed in Wisconsin and Michigan in 2019, the movie was released in 2022.  

I highly recommend checking out the website: https://www.hundredsofbeavers.com/

You get a distinct feeling that this movie is a throwback in more ways than one. It was made for a purported $150,000, and at one point you could book a screening of the film at your local theater. This is what we call in the biz, "four wallin'." 

The "story" is pretty simple. Applejack salesman Jean Kayak has a mishap at his Applejackery. After numerous trials he learns that the only way to make money and survive in the snow covered tundra of nineteenth century Wisconsin, outside of the applejack business, is by selling animal furs. He pals up with a mountain man, learns the trade, and soon enough becomes a crack fur trapper. All of this is portrayed visually with repeating motifs of an animated map, and a musical score that cues us in when Jean is on the move. This device is jettisoned from the film after juuuust about overstaying its welcome.  

Jean sells his furs at the local trading post which consists of a log cabin, an owner in a fur hat under a menu that lays out, in illustration, prices like: one beaver = a pipe. 7 beavers and a rabbit = a rifle: 

Jean Kayak falls in love with the trading post owner's daughter/fur processer, but in order for her father to give his blessing Jean must bring him "hundreds of beavers." This line is related through emphatic pantomime as the title card smashes into frame. This is a full hour into the film.  

The rest of the movie is Jean Kayak fighting with (and killing) beavers who are building an actual Dam along Lake Michigan. The climax is an extended sequence between Jean and the beavers that honestly is one the coolest pieces of live action / animation blending I've seen, maybe ever. You have to see it.  

It should be said here that every "animal" Jean encounters in the film is actually an actor dressed in an animal costume:  

This is hilarious, and it also lets the movie get away with more than it ever could if it were animated. The violence done to the animals is not watered down, but made vividly clear. It has fun with the antagonism between Jean and the beavers, and racoons, and rabbits, but it also doesn't let the viewer of the hook psychologically in its portrayal of killing these animals. 

As an animal lover, and the operator of a page dedicated to uplifting the beaver and sharing its story it might seem odd that I'm recommending a movie that makes light of a process that claimed their lives as forfeit. One reason why the movie succeeds, is that, it is 100% a slapstick comedy, but also shockingly true to the essence of the commodification of animals. Vince Mancini, who writes The #Content Report (can’t recommend this page enough) often reminds his readers, the best movies portray the universal by articulating the specific.  

Hundreds of Beavers articulates through a combination of literal pictures as prices, and fuzzy stuffed hearts and entrails being pulled from a stuffed animal on the table of a fur processor, what the act of the commodification of animals was mostly like. Things are matter of fact on the ground of for the protagonists. Questions are not asked. Money is made.  

And honestly, the movie is just really funny. Check it out.  

The Martinez Beavers

History reminds us constantly that it often takes multitudes to make change. Large or small, this is an example of that.