Who’s talking
7 speakersTranscript
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This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current podcast. A lot of things can happen on live radio. I've done some things, but I've never been peed on by a beaver.
There now. There now.
Can you hear? Can you hear?
[laughs] Oh, that's great.
There, little sweetheart.
That's, oh, how nice for you, Al. That's great.
Such a lovely boy.
We should-
And he's peeing on me.
We should warn them.
Oh, no.
Right? That's Ma. That's Mama.
Oh, no. [laughs]
Aaron?
[laughs] It doesn't stop.
Anyway.
I think someone better rescue him.
Listen.
Merry Christmas, Al. [laughs]
It's, it's a flood.
[laughs]
Listen, it's never happened before on the radio, I'm sure.
[laughs]
I'm sure you're right. That's Alan Maitland, co-host of the CBC radio program, As It Happens, interviewing a beaver in 1974. 51 years ago, in March of 1975, the beaver became an official national symbol of Canada, and it all started because of a spat with our neighbors to the south. We'll hear more on that in just a moment. But today, during a similarly tense time in Canada-US relations, we are going to start with a beaver tale below the border, where Canada's symbol, the eager and mighty beaver, is becoming a conservation hero in an unlikely place. That place is the Utah desert. Nate Norman is a live beaver trapper and director of the Beaver Ecology and Relocation Collaborative at Utah State University. And we spoke last week when Nate was, as one does, attending the BeaverCon in Minneapolis. Here's our conversation. What is BeaverCon?
[laughs] Uh, I guess BeaverCon is a, uh, conference. It happens every two years. Uh, it is just everything beaver, where we all come together and we, we talk about, uh, beavers and the things that they do for us on the environment and, uh, how we can keep them there.
It was a lot of fun, the BeaverCon?
Oh, it's a lot of fun. All kinds of great stories, and it almost feels like I'm in, uh, school, returning for the, uh, the summer break and, uh, hanging out with all my friends again.
The stories that you would bring are stories of this project that relocates beavers in the Utah desert to help save drought-stricken rivers. Tell me a little bit about this and why this is necessary. How bad was the drought before you brought in the beavers?
Well, Utah's always been a really dry area. You know, it's in the, the desert. And the removal of all the beavers historically has just added to, uh, that. And so, you know, we've had a lot of issues with ranchers and farmers that are losing water, and it's really important for their, their operations. And then we have a lot of people that live in Utah deserts as well. And so water's always
Episode notes
Do you know the story of how the beaver became an official symbol of Canada in 1975? Hint: it involved a real live beaver peeing on a CBC radio host during an anti-American campaign to "Keep the beaver Canadian!" We bring you the remarkable tale — and look at how it relates to the moment we're in right now politically with the US. Plus, a trip to the Utah desert, where our national symbol has become a conservation hero. We speak with Nate Norman, director of the Beaver Ecology & Relocation Collaborative at Utah State University, and Colin Coates, professor of Canadian studies and history at York University.