OTTAWA – Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada’s Office: In a continent always prepared for earthquakes, the last 8.9-magnitude temblor caught battle-hardened Japanese off guard. Now China, Japan and many other Asian countries part of the “Pacific Rim” are looking for new alternatives to avoid more damage caused by earthquakes and tsunamis in the future. The EDC – Export Development Canada announced yesterday that they have made an agreement with the ACPR – Asian Countries of the Pacific Rim where Canada will be exporting beavers to Asia in order to try to modify the landscape of those countries so vulnerable to earthquakes and similar disasters. Beavers are famously busy, and they turn their talents to reengineering the landscape as few other animals can. When sites are available, beavers burrow on the beaches and in banks of rivers and lakes. But they also transform less suitable habitats by building dams. Felling and gnawing trees with their strong teeth and powerful jaws, they create massive log, branch, and mud structures to block streams, tsunamis and earthquakes. Beavers are among the largest of rodents. They are herbivores and prefer to eat leaves, bark, twigs, roots, aquatic plants and other stuff available in Asia, including sushi and sashimi if necessary. Beavers’ average life span in the wild or on the coast is up to 24 years (under sunscreen protection) and they are second only to humans in their ability to manipulate and change their environment. That’s why these Asian countries are importing two and a half million beavers from Canada next month. The containers (with these precious creatures) are being loaded in B.C. under the supervision of the David Suzuki Foundation and are expected to arrive in Tokyo in the beginning of May. Canada’s government officials said it was a CDN$ 15 million charity deal sponsored by Tim Horton’s (Roll up the pacific rim campaign) and each beaver was sold to Asia for for only $5 bucks – plus applicable taxes such as GST (Government Stands against Tsunami), PST (Planning Seismic Technology) and NBA (North American Beavers in Action). With the help of our incredible beavers, Asian countries expect to have an earthquake-proof landscape built very soon and finally have their problems solved.
