Beaver seen in NYC; first in centuries

NEW YORK - Beavers grace New York City's official seal. But the industrious rodents haven't been spotted here for as many as 200 years — until this week.

Biologists videotaped a beaver swimming up the Bronx River on Wednesday. Its twig-and-mud lodge had been spotted earlier on the river bank, but the tape confirmed the presence of the animal.

"It had to happen because beaver populations are expanding, and their habitats are shrinking," said Dietland Muller-Schwarze, a beaver expert at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. "We're probably going to see more of them."

Beavers gnawed out a prominent place in the city's early days as a European settlement, attracting fur traders to a nascent Manhattan. The animal appears in the city seal to symbolize a Dutch trading company that factored in the city's colonial beginnings, according to the city's Web site.

But amid heavy trapping, beavers disappeared from the city in the early 1800s, according to the city Department of Parks & Recreation.

The beaver that has made its way to the Bronx appears to be a male, several feet long and 2 or 3 years old, said Patrick Thomas, the mammals curator at the nearby Bronx Zoo.

Biologists have nicknamed the animal Jose, as a tribute to Rep. Jose Serrano (news, bio, voting record)'s work to revive the river. The Bronx Democrat lined up federal money for a cleanup.

"But I don't know to what extent I imagined things living in it again," he said.

Hmmm, beavers returning to their natural habitat, what's next Indians returning to theirs? The beavers must be scaring the hell out of the chemical companies.... Go Beavers!

Here in New York State, amongst other regions, local casino revenues have enabled many Native Americans (I'm part Iroquois) to start buying back their land which was removed from their possession unfairly- and I'm being kind here about how the land was lost. That's a blog for another time.

I have a bumper sticker on my car- and only one, in the very center of my rear bumper that reads "HONOR INDIAN TREATIES". I want you to have a good idea of where I've placed the bumper sticker so that you can appreciate the prominence of it on my car- and in my heart.

I'll write it again, next to nature in the wild, Native Americans are our greatest natural resource. We should be honoring their sovereignty for what it is, and the people for who they are. We have a lot to learn in this country and the way has already been provided to us... honor the treaties and the rest will follow....