“Crepuscular”

heidi08 Beavers, Educational May 22, 2008

Isn’t that a beautiful word? It means coming at dusk and dawn, and there has actually been some debate as to whether beavers were “crepuscular” or “nocturnal”. Skip Lisle told me about a standing argument he had had with a professor over just that. He was very excited to learn that some of us had spent wee hours at the dam site and could say with certainty that they were nocturnal. At least OUR beavers are nocturnal.

First Night in Martinez saw several of us act as beaver docents from the bridge, explaining behavior and keeping things safe. We saw the beavers at 6:00 and at midnight and all the hours in between. It was kind of magical, bundled in the freezing air and able to watch them when they are usually alone. Imagining they’re crepuscular seems the height of egocentric to me. Like when you’re a child and you think the moon is following you. Man can only see the beavers at dusk and dawn so he assumes that’s when the beavers are out?

I have read that beavers are on a different internal clock than we are, some where closer to a 26 hour day. They often live in conditions where the daylight is inaccessible anyway. Think about what it would be like to be a beaver in a lodge under the snow for three months. You would probably decide when to feed based on your hunger, not much else. One woman I met at the dam had only seen beavers in Alaska. She saw them in daylight because the latitude and time of year made it “the land of the midnight sun” and that was when they could feed. (“There are strange things done, ‘neath the midnight sun, by the men who moil for gold…”) One might imagine that if you watched 20 different beaver colonies you would see 20 different beaver clocks in operation, depending on the available food and how far they needed to travel for their supper.

Our beavers, though, are nocturnal. I saw them last night at the “crepusculum”, and filmed them last summer at the “diluculum” but they are up all the hours in between. Mystery solved. Next question?

Oh and for your daily dose of cute, follow the link to this footage from the Pittsburg zoo’s new baby beavers.

“Make me a willow cabin at your gate…”

heidi08 City Reports, Friends of Martinez Beavers May 29, 2008

Calling all Volunteers! Worth A Dam will be purchasing native willow trees from the Jeff Anhorn Nursery, (and Jeff has promised to generously donate trees well). Tim Tucker has coordinated city staff to pick up the trees and have them stationed for planting Saturday, June 7th. We need able bodies to lovingly get the trees in the ground, replacing some of those our beavers have enjoyed and hopefully securing continued habitat. We’re asking interested volunteers to register and presign the city waiver for creek volunteer work. Contact us and we’ll give you the details. If you want to become more knowledgeable about our creek in general, Judy Adler is teaching a “Quick and Easy Creek Botany” class at Heather Farms this weekend. Unfortunately if there aren’t more enrollments it might be cancelled and that would be a shame for our beavers who need good watershed stewards.

Drop us an email if you’ll be around or interested. By the way, if you don’t recognize the title of this post, maybe you better go here this fall.

Making Friends

heidi08 Uncategorized May 19, 2008

The Beavers had a great day at the Farmer’s Market, and lots of support from the downtown shoppers. There were $67.00 dollars in donations, and generous words of encouragement. Our first shopping trip will be to pick up some willow trees which we better get in the ground before it gets any hotter. Luigi as always was full of help and offering refreshments. Apparently he’s done that quite a bit lately. Last week his daughter’s third grade class made a field trip to the dam. He gave them a tour and free, much-needed, bottled waters. The class expressed their thanks with this coloring, which he is proudly displaying. You may recognize the picture as from the beaver coloring book which our own Donna Mahoney got her colleages at Financial Title to donate for distribution. Luiza tells me she’s now working with her classmates on a clay model of a lodge and beavers, which I can’t wait to see!

The Beaver Days of Summer

admin Beaver News, In the News May 20, 2008

There has been a steady stream of water related news stories over the past month and just last week East Bay MUD was the first to impose water rationing in sixteen years. Once again I am reminded of what it is that beavers bring to the discussion; water.

Water rationing, I can somewhat remember the seventies with the bumper stickers that read, ‘save water – shower with a friend’; I remember being introduced to low flow shower heads and toilets in the nineties. Here we are in the 21^st century and in Martinez it seems some have forgotten the lessons of the past while ignoring today’s concerns and would eagerly let fresh water run through the town’s grasp, straight out to the straights (Carquinez that is) without a care or concern.

In addition to all of the other noteworthy changes beavers bring, they also help combat climate change; one dam at a time. One beaver supporter forwarded this link beavers offer solutions about a town in Utah that is reintroducing beavers in order to slow down and conserve snow melt so streams don’t see a boom/bust water cycle between spring and summer.

“In the Southwest U.S., biologists are talking about returning beavers to rivers they once inhabited in order to fight droughts – which are expected to get worse as the globe warms.”

The report cites concerns from local residents that closely echo concerns here. But the concerns for Martinez have been addressed in bold, workable, systematic solutions. It’s time for the city fathers to step up and look at this situation as a worthy opportunity to not only reinvent our town but fully embrace its commitment to doing our part in staving off the effects of climate change.

After this recent heat wave, I’d prefer the beaver to the dog days of summer.

Linda Meza

For further reading on beavers and climate change see Beavers are drought insurance printed in Conservation Magazine and the letter to the City of Martinez from Sharon Brown posted in our Featured Articles section.

A Big Deal

heidi08 Beavers, Educational, Uncategorized May 17, 2008

For last night’s beaver viewing I brought a friend and colleague who had never seen the beavers but who has bemusedly observed their grip on my life and free time over the past six months. Of course it was mama beaver who obligingly gave the best display near the dam: reaching up for the choicest willow and snapping it down with authority.

“They so BIG” my friend gasped.

The size of adult beavers comes as a real surprise to most people. I don’t know what we expect, but something more like a water-daschund with a flat tail is probably close. It’s remarkable to see these solid bodies hall themselves onto the dam, with their great heads and strong jaws. Beavers have an elegant design which allows them to be almost entirely submerged in the water and still hear, see and smell. This means that often what we see is the top of a little flat head swimming at the apex of a rippling “V”. Every once in a while you get a glimpse of the adult beaver body, and the response is pretty universal.

“They’re so BIG!”

Yes, they are big. Beavers do big things, so size is important. They cut down trees many times their weight, and haul those trees in streams and sometimes over soil to get them into place. They move into the middle of strong currents and push logs into opposition of the stream until they form a dam. They excavate mud and move piles of it onto their lodges and dam. They dig canals and trenches which they use for hauling and feeding. In addition to being a keystone species, beavers are considered a wetlands engineer, shaping the landscape as dramatically as any contractor. Recently I read an article calling the beaver a “surrogate species” as well, since they can repair some of the ecological damage caused by man. That’s a post for another day, but beavers bodies are big because their work is big. It’s directly in proportion.

There is national and international interest in how the little town of Martinez handles its castor-challenge. People are watching to see whether we can take the opportunity for habitat restoration, education and stewardship these beavers create. They want to know if we can possibly protect and value a misunderstood species, and show that compassionate and intelligent humans who are smarter than beavers need not fear them. Maybe if we show we can do it, they might think they can do it. You see, our beavers are big in another way:

They’re a big deal.