Beavers

There’s this group at church who spearhead activities that encourage environmentalism and green principles in everyday life. Usually, it’s a protest, or a talk, or a march.

One time, it was a video. Sue had contacts who knew how to handle beavers, and friends in the church who were needing some remediation after a family of beavers mowed down their creekside haven. It took a couple of months to get everything to really come together, but I got the call in November to meet at a sekret location to shoot this beaver video at last.

Our friends had a beautiful spot of land right on a delicious little creek that wound around one side of their property. For the years they had lived there, they made an effort to plant the area with native plants and trees, which had all grown to a considerable size when the beavers took them out. By the time I saw it, the banksides were cleared to the gravel.

As for the video, I had no idea what I was shooting, so I tried to grab everything I could. After we got home, I quickly edited together a sketch of what I saw possible and showed it to Sue for confirmation that I was in the right ballpark. I got a thumbs-up rather quickly, but then it was holiday time, and I ended up not having time to work on the video again until mid January.

To be completely honest about my own motivations here, I want to do more videos. My goal was to create something that was professional enough to catch the eye of other folks at church, so that they’d say, hey, we need a video for our group, too! So my goal was to create the best product possible — with good editing, good sound, and something reasonably entertaining. This level of work takes time, and my lack of professional equipment increases the challenge level.

In the end, my intention to create a mildly educational and pleasant to watch video was reached if the rave reviews are any indication. And so, I present here to you, “Living with Beavers: Protecting Trees“.