A story of hope

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the enormity of the climate and ecological crisis.

‘Eco-anxiety’ may not be a medically-recognised condition, but it’s something many people can relate to, especially if they care deeply about the natural world. It’s important for Christians not only to share the hope we have in Jesus Christ, but stories of hope we can experience in the world about us. Indeed, secular communicators recognise that always harping on about the bad stuff only puts people off taking action, and so organisations working to care for creation need to tell positive stories (while not ignoring the bad news).

A story of hope

So for my story of hope I offer you not a bird, but a beaver. It’s a story that tells us something about people’s changing relationship with creation; from one of unsustainable domination to more responsible stewardship, and seeking to recover what has been lost.

First though, I have to make clear that there are no beavers in the Bible. It’s an animal of temperate climates found (in two species) in a region stretching across North America and Eurasia. There is a third species known only in Narnia, but we’ll come to that.

I’ve never seen a beaver and I expect you haven’t either, but we may think of them as rather lovable, even cute, semi-aquatic mammals which love gnawing trees and building dams.

However, throughout most of human history beavers have been animals prized for their fur, their meat, and a substance known as castoreum which has been used in medicine, perfume and food flavouring. If you’ve ever heard of a beaver hat, well, the clue’s in the name. Apparently a good-quality top hat used two or three pelts, but if you had one of those 17th-century Puritan or Cavalier hats, they used even more.

Now, this column is not about the natural history of hats, but the point is that the demand for beavers was so great that it led to their near extinction in both North America and Europe. Much as modern conflicts might be over oil, there were even so-called ‘Beaver Wars’ in North America in the 17th century, as different sides sought to control the fur trade. This was dominion theology at its worst.

From near extinction to recovery

All this was not good news for the beaver. Beavers disappeared from much of Europe and were extinct in Britain by the 16th century. Changing fashions and protective laws may have saved the beaver from total extinction, but it’s only recently they’ve started to make a comeback in Britain. They’ve needed a helping hand from people (and possibly some illegal reintroductions), but there is now a well-established population in Scotland. Some wild beavers (origin unknown) were found in Devon in the last decade, and now there are a number of carefully-managed reintroduction projects around the country, including in London.

Although they can sometimes be a nuisance, on the whole the way beavers shape the landscape is positive for other wildlife and for reducing the risk of floods.

Narnian beavers

And then of course there are Mr and Mrs Beaver, representatives of the Narnian species. I am sure that Mr Beaver has featured in many a sermon for his remark about Aslan: ‘Safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.’ Hard-working, honest and loyal, Mr and Mrs Beaver display many of the characteristics often attributed to beavers. But I have to tell you an unpalatable fact – beavers do not eat fish.

Before you rush to demand that all copies of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe be henceforth withdrawn for beaver inaccuracy, I hasten to remind you that the entirely herbivorous Eurasian beaver and its North American cousin are not talking beasts either. At least as far as I know.