BWW Leaders Given Lifetime Award

Owen Brown, President of Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife (BWW), and Sharon Brown, wildlife biologist at the educational nonprofit, were given the “BeaverCON 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award” at a March 3-5 conference in Baltimore, MD.  Mike Callahan, President of the Beaver Institute, gave them the award, and remarked, “For me, this is personal. The Browns were instrumental for me in moving forward with beavers.”

Over twenty years ago, Callahan attended a “Coexisting with Beavers” workshop in Rome. NY, organized by the Browns and other Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife (BWW) volunteers over twenty years ago. At the 1999 event, he met professional installers of beaver flow devices from Canada and New England and helped build a Beaver Deceiver. Later Callahan created Beaver Solutions, and has installed hundreds of devices allowing people to coexist with beavers and their vital wetlands.  In 2017 he created The Beaver Institute to train others to do the installations.

The Browns accepted the award on behalf of all who have supported BWW, and their mentor “Beaver Woman” Dorothy Richards (1896-1995). After beginning as volunteers for Mrs. Richards at her Beaversprite Sanctuary, they have been educating about this key species for 46 years.