Our own Cheryl Reynolds swears that last night she and others watched three kits milling about the pond. She took these great photos but is still checking her video for further evidence. Remember last year we didn’t see them all at once until August so we might have a few more surprises yet this summer. Come see for yourself!
Month: June 2008
The long awaited Moses Silva Footage shows our newest kits playing with eachother, dad, and big brother. Blink and you miss it: they are already substantially bigger than these images which were taken last weekend. Come see for yourself before nature and maturity catches up with them.
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=6Lgy5cUY_EQ]
From Guest Blogging Martinez Resident and Long-time Beaver Fan Lory Bruno:
As we were driving into town last night around 8:00 PM, after picking up our grand kids in Williams, we decided to stop by to see if the beavers were out. We all were treated to a great show. One baby beaver was out swimming around near the Escobar bridge and he even came up on the bank to nibble some leaves. Soon Jr. came swimming down from the Main Street side bringing home a branch of treats. After a while, we decided to move down to the big dam, where we saw Mom with one of the new kits on her back swimming around while Dad just watched over things. Dad swam back to the lodge and Mom and baby crossed over the dam and proceed to go down to the second dam to join Jr, who had gone by before. The grand kids were so excited that they actually saw some beavers. We have all been down to the site before without any luck.
We also were treated to a show of a duck family swimming around and we were so surprised to see how big the ducklings have gotten. Joining the ducks were two beautiful white geese who have been hanging around the creek and also up at Star Bucks. The beavers really have created a wonderful natural habitat for so many birds and animals. We all came home thankful that we took the time to stop and check in on our Martinez Beavers.
Guess which half.
Every animal advocate has heard this admonishment, usually when they supplemental feed in some way. The philosophy is offered as if it were a genuine respect for the value of non-interference in wild lives; a Muir-like admiration for unspoiled nature. But this fatherly advice is just selfishness wrapped in green paper with a pretense of being eco friendly.
Notice WHEN it is said.
“Let Nature Take its Course” is only said after the dam has been lowered by three feet, the forest has been harvested, the tract housing has taken the last hunting ground, the bird nest has been disturbed, the whale has beached on landfill, and the elk have starved because the field they used to graze became a parking lot. It is offered with no acknowledgment or awareness of how enormously humans have altered that natural course. In some ways it bothers me more than the man at the farmer’s market who said outright that beavers should be shot. At least that is obvious and frankly intolerant. “Let nature take its course” is much more pernicious because it offers an illusion of concern for the enviroment, and pretends to argue against any intervention out of that concern.
Humans build, encroach, destroy and interfere all the time, interrupting populations, feeding ranges and life cycles. It is only when some pesky advocates attempt to fix the effects of our actions we hear this line delivered. “Let nature take its course”.
Truly letting nature take its course would mean keeping the dam at its original height, not protecting trees and letting the beavers feed and travel wherever they liked. Of course that isn’t going to happen. The advice is offered with all the compassion of a BMW driver who ran over a bunny that was injured but not killed. His tearful child asks him if they can take it to the vet. “Let Nature take its Course” is the answer for someone who doesn’t want to admit their responsibility. Let the animals die, move, starve. Let the young be orphaned, eaten, scattered.
It’s “natural”.
If only we really let nature take its course. If we let streams go where they planned to go, and let animals have their spaces back, didn’t get upset when gophers took our tulips, and didn’t cut down trees to build more houses and walmarts. If only we had beavers every couple of miles up every river and creek in the nation like we did 200 years ago, with a system of dams that regulated water in drought and flood and maintained an even flow. If only.
It is no longer possible (if indeed it ever was) for us to “Let Nature Take its Course”. Our footprints have changed and continue to change the landscape in every possible habitat, on land, in the air and under water. Since we can’t be observers, we must become stewards, and take care of what we have altered. In the words of Colin Powell, “You break it. You buy it”. Or Antoine de St. Exupery “You are responsible forever for what you have tamed”.
From now on when people say “Let Nature Take its Course” I’m going to say, “Great idea! Help me unwrap these trees, will you? And then we can work on uninstalling the flow device.”
Heidi P. Perryman, Ph.D.
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