Ottery St Mary Friends of Phyllis Baxter Action Group in collaboration with Bianca Perla writes for the Herald.
It has always amazed us how the start of a conversation leads to really interesting follow ups.
A few days ago we were talking about the unique biodiversity of an island with Bianca Perla Founder & Director of the Vashon Nature Centre in the United States.
The 2019 miniseries with Martin Clunes “Islands of America” and his filming in Vashon Island became part of the conversation as it did our famous beavers when equally talking about the areas where we live.
Bianca was immediately interested in knowing more about it and we asked her why. She said: “Nothing motivates more than hands-on experience.
Both Ottery and Vashon have something in common. They are both experiencing a resurgence of beavers.
For us, beavers are important in improving salmon habitat and remediating local effects of climate change (for example, the deep pools they create give refuge to fish in our increasingly hot summers).
It’s one thing to read about the importance of beavers in a textbook or scientific article.
It is quite another to be walking alongside your childhood creek and to see a beaver building a dam for the first time in generations!
This happened to me recently, and I am sure it has happened to some of you in Ottery. It is a wonderful feeling”.
The word childhood prompted our next question. What suggestions she had for our younger generations who probably have not realised how lucky they are growing up near a river famous for its beavers. “Children are key stewards of the natural world.
They are the ones inheriting it. And, there is a plethora of information now that shows that an outdoor childhood is very healthy for stress levels, problem solving skills, general feelings of happiness, creativity, compassion, even ADHD.
So, programs that involve children and foster their connection with nature are so important.”
“We run programs in our local schools where we take students outside to help us monitor the health of salmon in our creeks, sort stream bugs to categorize the health of our watersheds, conduct beach surveys, help with bird surveys, and more.
"We also run a community BioBlitz each year where scientists and families come together to count and record as many species as we can find in one area in 24 hours.
"So far, we have identified over 2500 species that share this island with us.”
“During the pandemic when many children stayed home from school and learned via computer, we created a program called Everyone Counts.
"That got children outside using their senses and contributing to a biodiversity study. Each student inventoried a small plot somewhere near their home and recorded all the species in it using an app called iNaturalist.
"We’d love for anyone to participate! Our dream is to have plots to compare from all over the world! Anyone can sign up for Everyone Counts! It is free and the modules can be downloaded from our website.
“More than anything, the world needs people who care, and who understand that belonging to a place and a community means giving back to each other and to nature.
"As a world we face daunting challenges in terms of global climate change, freshwater health, and biodiversity loss to name a few.
"It can seem very overwhelming and some actions to turn these trends around need to happen on the global level. But there is a lot we can do in our own communities.
"If all of us all over the world take care of our home, it will add up and it will help.
"Both Vashon residents and those of Ottery are blessed by the nature that surrounds us.
"The most valuable thing we can do is to keep learning about it and loving it.
"So, keep supporting the return of beavers to the rivers in Ottery and we will keep supporting and celebrating their return on Vashon Island in the USA and through this there is hope.”
We thank Bianca for her collaboration and her inspirational words.
If you are interested in knowing more about VNC or would like to initiate a similar action group in Ottery have a look at their website: https://vashonnaturecenter.org/
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