Consider the beaver. Iconic Canadian rodent. National symbol of industriousness and resourcefulness. Sometimes a nuisance. Cute, furry and cutting a fine figure on our nickels since 1937.
For author Glynnis Hood, beavers have occupied significant mental real estate for decades. In fact, the animals have become such an important part of her life’s work that they’ve made her something of a beaver expert. Earlier this week, the professor emerita of environmental sciences at the University of Alberta celebrated the second-edition release of her 2011 book The Beaver Manifesto.
Hood has studied how semi-aquatic mammals — mainly beavers — interact with and influence their environments for many years. The subtitle of her book alludes to what she’s discovered in doing so: “Conservation, Conflict and the Future of Wetlands.”
Beavers may be a beloved national icon, but there are some who decry the animals’ destruction of natural environments — think, taking down beautiful trees — to build their homes. What Hood has learned in her research paints a more nuanced and favourable view: beavers can help mitigate climate change and drought in the wetlands and other habitats they occupy.
Born and raised in B.C.’s Creston Valley, where she spent her summers boating off the shores of Kootenay Lake, Hood now lives on Miquelon Lake in Alberta’s Camrose County, where her closest neighbours are a family of — you guessed it — beavers.
Here’s what she had to share about her relationship to the natural world in our Moose Questionnaire.
This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity — all opinions are the subject’s own.
Illustration: Shawn Parkinson / The Narwhal
What’s the most awe-inspiring natural sight you’ve witnessed between the Pacific, Atlantic, 49th parallel and Hudson Bay, i.e. Canada?
Chown Creek in northern Jasper National Park. When I was a backcountry warden in Jasper through the 1990s, we would ride into side valleys and check seldom-used trails. Seeing flowers growing up to my horse’s belly and waterfalls flowing right out of the sides of the cliffs of the surrounding mountains stopped me in my tracks. It also helped that there was no rain or snow that day. There was so much beautiful country that the horses and I rode through to access the area, but something about that view stays with me even today.
What’s the most awe-inspiring natural sight you’ve witnessed outside of Canada?
Watching a group of mountain gorillas at Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. Two of the trackers quietly indicated for me to follow them while other people in the group were photographing other gorillas. The trackers and I soon came into this patch of forest to see a family of gorillas complete with babies, parents and juveniles. It was among the best 30 minutes of my life.
Glynnis Hood grew up in B.C.’s Creston Valley and spent formative years working as a backcountry warden in Jasper National Park, pictured above. She would choose the Rocky Mountains over the Great Lakes any day. Photo: David Moskowitz
Think of three iconic Canadian animals. Choose one each to kiss, marry and kill.
Kiss? I suppose the right answer is cod, although the screech owl might do me in. Marry a beaver, because it comes with a house, works hard and never fails to bring home food. And kill a mosquito. Enough said.
Name a person or group doing something meaningful for the environment that everyone should know about.
The people at the Beaver Hills Biosphere in east-central Alberta. The multi-agency group behind this UNESCO biosphere started from the ground up and have become a model of community engagement, environmental stewardship and integrating Indigenous perspectives and reconciliation into everything they do.
Name one person who could significantly help mitigate the climate crisis if they really wanted to.
Each and every one of us.
Outdoor cats: yes or no?
Only wild ones — cougars, lynx, bobcats, etc.
Tell us about a time you changed your mind about something, environmental or otherwise.
When I first started working with Parks Canada in the late 1980s, I thought that national parks were untouched wilderness and were free from human development and exploitation. Very soon I saw the rapid development of infrastructure inside the park. It was then that I realized that everything is managed — either to protect it or exploit it (sometimes at the same time).
Tell us about a time you tried to change someone else’s mind about something, environmental or otherwise.
As a professor, I worked hard not to tell students what to think, but encouraged them to learn to see the world from multiple perspectives, so they could develop their own ideas. Some, however, became as engaged with beaver ecology as I was, once I put them on snowshoes for our annual winter beaver lodge occupancy surveys. Some are still coming back years later.
Hood lives on Miquelon Lake, in Alberta’s Camrose County, and wakes up every morning next to a family of her favourite animals. Photo: Manuel Valdes / Associated Press
Rocky Mountains or Great Lakes?
Rocky Mountains. I was born and raised in the mountains and they will always be home.
Researchers at Yale University, the France-based Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society and other institutions have found women tend to be more concerned about climate change than men. Why do you think that is?
Part of me wants to say that women are more aware of the influence of heat on their daily lives, but overall, I think women are used to listening and observing more than men. This added awareness reveals the obvious changes more readily.
What’s a beautiful or useful thing you’ve owned for a really long time?
My mother gave me a Swiss Army watch when I was a backcountry warden in Jasper. My last watch was broken when I fell from one of my horses (I was not broken). She went to the local sports store in my hometown and asked the owner to sell her the best watch he had that wouldn’t let me down in any situation. I still wear it more than 30 years later. It has never failed me.
What’s one way you interact with the natural world on a daily basis?
I live next to a beaver pond, which is part of a provincial park. Sometimes I eat breakfast while watching moose sleep on my lawn. At night the owls, coyotes and red-necked grebes sing me to sleep.
If you could ask one person, alive or dead, their thoughts on climate change, who would it be?
Jane Goodall. Her perspectives across various environments and accumulated insights over time would be invaluable.
Jane Goodall is another pioneering animal researcher whose favourite species became her life’s work. Hood would like to hear her thoughts on climate change. Photo: Colorado State University Archives / Everett Collection
Smoked salmon or maple syrup?
Maple syrup, sometimes on salmon.
Who in your life has had the greatest impact on your connection to nature?
My mother. One of my earliest memories is of her pointing out robins on our front lawn and explaining how to distinguish between the male and female and how they fit into the natural world around us.
Whose relationship with the natural world would you most like to have an impact on?
People who never get the opportunity to interact with nature outside of urban centres. Sometimes that one experience can set off a new way of seeing the world.
Would you rather be invited to Victoria and David Beckham’s Muskoka cottage, or Harry and Meghan Sussex’s B.C. escape?
Neither. I will always be partial to our family cabin on Kootenay Lake — you just can’t beat the view.
Camping: yes or no?
Yes, regardless of season.
Enjoying the Moose Questionnaire? Read more from the series here.
