Ealing Beaver Project presented at the International Beaver Conference in Oct 2024 in Boulder, Colorado. Project lead and licence holder Dr Sean McCormack, project ecologist Nadya Mirochnitchenko, and award-winning wildlife filmmaker, Matt Brierley, shared exciting results from the first year of the Ealing Beaver Project to an international audience of beaver researchers, conservationists, and enthusiasts.
How did we get here? Project ecologist, Nadya, learned about the conference when the conference was accepting abstract proposals for presentations in the spring of 2024. With support from the rest of the leadership team, the team wrote three presentation proposals (a traditional oral presentation, a screening of the EBP documentary Beavers in Paradise, and a panel discussion on community engagement). To our surprise, all three proposals were accepted! Through the planning process, it was decided that we would have a longer session to present all three at once! Now that we were going to present, we needed to find a way to fund our trip.
With limited funds available, Sean and Nadya, worked tirelessly to deliver beaver walks and safaris over the summer to fundraise for the conference. The paid walks and safaris were a big success, bringing enough support for the team to attend the conference and some extra to add to the EBP general fund as well! Goes to show the power of ecotourism and the interest the beavers inspired.
Come October, the team departed together for a long journey from London to Colorado. The first beaver conference activity Sean, Nadya and Matt attended was a field trip to see urban beavers in Boulder. It was pleasant to see similar mitigation techniques being employed in public parks and green margins in the United States as we did in the Ealng Beaver Project such as wire tree guards. It was refreshing to see beavers living without enclosures where they blend into the surrounding landscapes with minimal to no active management required. A wonderful vision of a possible future for us back home in England.
The next few days were the traditional conference part, which involved presentation and workshops at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The conference was started with a traditional Native American welcome ceremony from the local Ute tribe. Respect to the Native American past was present throughout the conference, reminding the attendees of a gentler way of coexistence with nature. Presentations covered a range of beaver-related topics including scientific research, case studies, translocation strategies, community projects, rescue stories, documentaries, and history lessons.
Although most of the conference related to the North American beaver (Castor canadensis), we had a strong representation from Europe and the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber). Dr. Roisín Campell-Palmer, head of restoration at Beaver Trust, presented on a panel about beaver translocations. Gerhard Schwab, Derek Gow, Alicia Leow-Dyke, presented on the history of beavers in Europe, United Kingdom, and Wales, respectively. Later the Ealing Beaver Project team presented on the London project. Altogether, the European delegation made a strong representation at the International Beaver Conference.
The Ealing Beaver Project presented in the later half of the conference. Although there were three different presentation rooms, the Ealing Beaver Project team were assigned to present on the main stage! We were excited to present the Ealing Beaver Project to a large audience. We received many compliments on our presentation including being labeled the ‘gold standard’ of the conference. In a fully sold-out conference of 500 beaver believers, we were flattered with the high praise.
You can watch the full recording of the presentation below. Enjoy!
The last day at the conference, Sean and Nadya participated in a flow device workshop. This workshop explored different techniques for managing beavers’ changes to hydrology and mitigating negative impacts on urban infrastructure in particular. At the end of the course, Sean and Nadya participated in building a pond leveller. This practical workshop and consultation with the president of the Beaver Institute and CEO of Beaver Solutions held many lessons that the pair brought back to improve the Ealing Beaver Project, namely an appropriate design for the pond leveller we installed to manage on-site water levels at Paradise Fields. The pond leveller we installed on Paradise Fields, with the help of Roisín and Sam from Beaver Trust, is the largest pond-leveller in the United Kingdom to date and is successfully managing water levels at the main lagoon.
The conference was an opportunity for the team to share knowledge, gain new perspectives, to make new and strengthen existing connections in the beaver restoration realm. A success on all accounts!
