Event:
It feels a little odd to be planning a social event this week, but then again, growing community, sparking joy, and connecting to our watershed and each other is exactly what times like this demand. We've mellowed our initial plans a bit, but invite you as friends and colleagues to join us in tickling our curiosity, celebrating our favorite bucktoothed, paddle-tailed, resiliency-restoring rodent, and raising some funds for the USU Beaver Ecology and Relocation Collaborative (BERC) at the same time. We'll have snacks and libations, a build-your-own-beaver-button station, merch (of course), and after the screening have a little Q&A and chat filmmaker Sarah Koenigsberg and two of our buddies from BERC, volunteer coordinator Becky Yeager and professor of Watershed Sciences Nick Bouwes (who's also in the film!) 

Film Synopsis:
Sometimes the best solutions to the biggest problems are found in the most unexpected places. Meet the Beaver Believers: five scientists and a sassy, spicy hairdresser. There’s a better paradigm for managing our western lands, one that seeks to partner with the natural world rather than overpower it. A keystone species, beavers enrich their ecosystems, creating the complexity and resiliency our riverscapes need to restore process and absorb the impacts of climate change. Beavers can show us the way, if we find the humility to trust in the restorative power of nature and our ability to play a positive role within it. This film will change the way you think about streams and inspire you to take a bite out of climate change, one stick at a time. 

"The Beaver Believers" has screened worldwide, winning the Green Spark Award from the American Conservation Film Festival, the EcoHero Award from the Portland Eco Film Festival, and numerous Audience Choice Awards, and it was a finalist at the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival, the London Eco Film Festival, amongst many more. A short cut of the film was a favorite on the 2019 Banff World Tour, screening in over 20 countries to more than 250,000 audience members.