Check out volume 5 of Penny Weigand’s “Comeback Kids” series! We are currently arranging a book signing downtown at Sheila Grilli’s Booksellers, and we will post purchase information soon. Thanks Penny! And we’ll save you some champagne.
Month: June 2008
Last night we saw not three but FOUR kits marking their adventures at the dam. Like last year they are not all exactly the same size. The smallest climbed up onto the lodge after dark and a friendly flashlight revealed his stocky little body to be mostly head and a tiny afterthought of a flat tail. Others were up and over the dam without a second thought, foraging with parents and following around their bigger siblings. Also like last year, the little ones seem to be feeding upstream, and are still in evidence at the Escobar bridge. I’m sure it was a little one that took Luiza’s tree (“Tom”) which now only exists only in video and our memories.
Lots of Beaver related news this morning. Beloved beaver friend Luigi Daberdako and his wife Brixhilda will be attending tonight’s city council meeting to ask for fair treatment by the city and could use your support. The 500 block of Martinez, where his store is located, was instrumental in hiring the attorneys that threatened the city into initially saying the beavers must be exterminated. They worried understandably about a repeat of the flooding that damaged their shops before. Luigi was the first to notice that the beavers increased business and did not support their action. This prompted a host of difficulties, and Luigi has been told to remove signs from his window many times as a result of complaints from neighboring buisinesses that he says resent his pro-beaver stance. Recently he was approached by the city with the infomation that his patio “pocket” was going to be removed and replaced with parking spaces since it wasn’t being used. Luigi responded by installing some lovely patio furniture and plants. Now the city is saying that since he is not a restaurant he must remove them or pay a fine of 100.00 dollars a day. A nice article in yesterday’s Gazette tells the Hatfield/McCoy-like tale. Suffice it to say that some of the businesses who sell beaver merchandise downtown are not beaver friends. He will be addressing the council tonight, but is not on the agenda. This means his comments will be early, so come at 7:00 to 525 Henrietta and offer your support.
Other news involves our friends in Surrey British Columbia. Remember the Deja-Vu story of Beaver extermination in Martinez North? Well it turns out that our beaver friend from New Zealand is in Canada for a vacation and will be stopping by Surrey to have a little chat with the mayor. I contacted the beaver-advocates up that way Fur-Bearer Defenders and put them in touch with each other. I also invited the program coordinator , Fannya Eden, to guest blog and her post will be appearing tomorrow. Isn’t it nice when beaver supporters come together?
A final beaver-development was noticed by our own Cheryl Reynolds who tagged this yesterday. It’s the Discovery Blog of author Jennifer Viegas who was writing about the reintroduction of beavers to Scotland which we have discussed before. She emphasized beavers important restorative role on habitat, and this was a welcome reminder of the work of our furry environmentalists. I was surprised to check out the video at the end of her post: it looked strangely familiar! I had to write as she apparently has a local office, and she directed me to the new research covering beavers ameliorating effect on drought. Thanks Jen for the link and the beaver support.
Beavers Beavers Everywhere: They’re bigger than you think.
This morning Martinez marked the first official gay marriage in Contra Costa County with a public ceremony for County Recorder Steve Weir and his partner John Hemm. It took place in the park right next to the secondary dam, which (since beavers mate for life) must be a very good omen for a wedding. The event was widely attended by supporters, media and protesters and a host of police and sheriffs. There were even swat team on the roof and a bomb sniffing dog who checked out the area. Worth A Dam was there as well, to make sure the beavers were undisturbed and the interested media knew what they were looking at in the water. Many beaver regulars popped by to offer support and remind me that “beaver folk” are “good neighbors”. Even though they might not be of a single mind about the issue of gay rights, we appear to be universally decent and compassionate humans. A bagpiper welcomed the couple over the bridge and marked the occasion. Wherever one stands on the development, the day was historic. I’m pretty sure that even the Kansas protesters could hear the blowing winds of change. With the attitude shift in the younger generation it is just a matter of time before same-sex marriage is no longer a media event. In Hamlet’s words:
There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow
If it be now, ‘tis not to come
If it be not to come; it will be now
If it be not now, yet it will come
The readiness is all.
Hamlet V:2
Or for a more familiar voice…
Happy Father’s Day to all the brave Dads who brought their children over to see our display and took time out of their day to talk about the beavers. Have you ever stopped to consider what great role models beaver fathers are? They fully participate in raising the kids, work close to home, provide for for their family, are gentle, clean and entirely monogamous. I am pretty sure that if beavers had day-time talk shows there would be nothing to discuss.
Descriptions of our newest threesome were particularly popular at today’s Farmer’s Market, as were details of when was the best time was to see them. There were several who had seen more of them on the news than in the water, and I passed along beaver tips for best viewing. We collected some remarkable stories, 53.00 in donations, made new friends and spread the beaver gospel. A few visiting bay area instructors mentioned updating students on the beavers, and one aunt with a nephew in Marin revealed that her son’s elementary school teacher had followed the story with her students and helped them write the city council. There was even one gruff beaver foe who talked with me about his concerns for costs and flooding and left with a much more positive outlook and a thankyou. All in all a successful day in the field.
Oh, and about today’s letter in the Gazette protesting that I had “twisted” the petition writer’s words; allow me to explain that my intent was to “untwist them”. Or rather to “untwist” the numbers the words were referring to. I am surely not the only one who knows those costs were exaggerated to make a particularly persuasive point. (I dare say that the City used the same guestimator to assess the costs of the beavers that they cleverly employed to measure the height of the dam: and with similar accuracy.) The city twisted the numbers to argue that Martinez couldn’t afford to keep the beavers, and some very cooperative people were generous enough to believe them and sign the petition.
They twisted the record: I was merely setting it straight.
The Canadian press is all a buzz with talk about the town of Surrey and its extermination of 40 beavers last year. They plan to take 40 more this year. Apparently there are complaints about them blocking streams, causing flooding and taking trees. Their city staff has said that there are no alternatives to killing the animals and originally reported they were being live trapped and euthanized. They later admitted they were being killed with conibear traps, which they insist cause no pain and kill the animal instantly.
Wrong three times out of three.
Information on alternative beaver management is readily accessible. Cities like to say they have no choice but extermination. Remember in November when our city manager reported that there was no other way to control flooding? He did this even though I was sitting in the audience holding his return email from August thanking me for describing flow devices and saying he would discuss it with staff.
The second lie? “We’re live trapping the beavers then euthanizing them.” What? Who even thought of that ridiculous lie? You, Surrey, desprately need a better spin machine. I don’t know which animal activists you figure that idiotic story would pacify, but it’s silly, wasteful and pointless. No one should have believed that story, ever.
The third lie: Conibear traps are painless. This is the most grim. I suppose if a beaver is lucky enough to stick his head all the way through and position it correctly they probably are painless. That rarely happens. Instead what happens is that the animal gets a foot or a tail stuck in the thing, can’t get free and just slowly drowns. There was a youtube video of this filmed underwater by an activist. It was horrible.
Surrey officials note (without any insight at all) that the beaver population seems to be increasing inspite of their best killing efforts. Hmm. Could it possibly be that mass killing causes a rebound effect when there is suddenly abundant food and broad territory for remaining animals? I won’t even mention the gentleman’s name from the “Environmental Consulting Firm” hired to do the trapping, but go look it up: the similarities are eerie.
So lets see, we have flooding fears, alarm bells and the expressed inability to do anything else. If my predictions are correct the next article should mention flow devices, say they’ve tried them but they didn’t work, and name a new concern: something eco-friendly sounding. Maybe salmon.
Carrie Baron, Surrey’s manager of drainage and environment, said she’ll be speaking with West Vancouver and King County about bringing a similar system here. Her initial concerns with the system were how salmon would pass through the fencing. But fisheries biologist John Werring, of the David Suzuki Foundation, told The Leader earlier this week that even beaver dams don’t serve as an impediment for spawning salmon.
Right on cue! You do remember the famed “salmon monologue” from the November 7th meeting, don’t you? Salmon provide the uneducated a useful reason to complain about dams. Turns out beavers help salmon as we and others have written about again and again. Dams are essential in making habitat for little salmon. Bring on the next complaint.
Mayor Diane Watts says she wants the killing stopped, and has approached the B.C. Ministry of the Environment regarding relocation, which they do not allow.
However a ministry official told The Leader this week relocation is no longer a preferred option by the province. “Basically it’s very stressful for the creature, and almost all the habitat around the province is already (populated by beavers),” she said. “And if you take one beaver and put it into other beaver territory, you’re just creating beaver competition, and stressing it more.” She added the animals cause “millions and millions of dollars” damage per year from the dams they build.
Are you having complete Deja Vu yet? Relocation not allowed. “Millions and Millions of dollars damage.” Those darned beavers. Wickedly outsmarting hard-working city staff and foiling their every move. Thank goodness Surrey doesn’t have some smart-ass animal lover making videos and starting a non-profit.
Beaver-weary community of Surrey: we can help. Download the subcommittee report and the powerpoint presentation. Read the articles on creative solutions. Write us with any questions you have and we’ll hook you up with the top beaver minds on the continent. You are not alone, and you can face these issues with creativity and compassion.
Any city SMARTER than a beaver, can manage a beaver.
BEAVER FESTIVAL XVI
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