Back To School

heidi08 Educational August 22, 2008

Got an email from an environmental teacher from this SF program, looking to arrange a student fieldtrip and sketch-study project. She read about us in Bay Nature and was excited to learn that the beavers had not yet, as had been threatened at the time of the article, been relocated. It prompted me to pull together resources for a “Teachers page” which you can access in the menu bar. Worth A Dam members and supporters will be willing to meet visitors and explain the habitat. I’m still hopeful we’ll get the “Incredibly Adapting Beaver” powerpoints presentation up soon.

Check out WALC’s fantastic poetry section. It’s great to read, and we definate need them to guest blog soon!

So Our Words Can Join Our Wisdom
Cynthia Dominguez
Balboa High School

We will write poems
because we feel the
warmth of the sun
that lets us wander
Our eyes become
glistened
We will write poems
because we want to
escape…
Escape the world we
live in
escape televisions
radios, phones, pagers
Enter a world of
trees, animals
campfires
We want to feel
the warmth of our
emotions

Read the rest on the excellent webpage.

As if we needed another reason…

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, In the News August 21, 2008

I was cruising beaver news the other day and found an article in the guardian about the then newly elected President Bush who was going to have a trapper in Colorado make him a special inauguration hat from patriotically slain beaver pelt. Now that shoulda made us mistrust the guy right away. Apparently PETA responded immediately to the news and wrote a persuasive (and for them, restrained) letter asking that it not happen. I couldn’t find anything about the outcome, but the story just seemed fitting to me. Doesn’t that just reflect the overall impact of this man’s presidency on the environment? To say nothing of the economy or national security…

Remember back when the media was reporting that he was the kind of candidate Americans would like to “have a beer with”? Well, I think I’ve found the perfect brew: (Come to think of it, there might be a few choice others I want to invite along…)

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=VUqsF8vbR_Q]

Beavers were seen in the am and pm shift yesterday, with a host of new appreciative watchers. Jon kayak-cleaned the creek on tuesday and was annoyed to find a plastic bag on the secondary dam the day after his cleaning. (Plastic bags are great offenders, as they blow from all over the city and often end up in the creek, and eventually at a dam.) He scrambled through the brush to haul it out to a cheering crowd and two curious kits who came to watch what was happening. The action so inspired an appreciative on-looker that he went down the other side to fetch a large gin bottle in the trench under the footbridge. Someone remarked that the beavers were very well looked after, and another said as an after thought “We should all be so lucky.”

Gotta agree with you there!

Beavers and the East Bay Express

heidi08 Beaver News August 20, 2008

Ahh I remember my coffee sipping, shuffling student days where perusing a copy of the East Bay Express was a sure way to find out about everything you probably weren’t supposed to be doing but wanted desperately to know about. Turns out they cover news too.

Back in April they published this article on the delivery of the subcommittee report. We were included in the “Best of the East Bay” in the “most watchable wildlife” category, which was a huge compliment. The article refers to the city’s “beaver expert”. At the time that I read the article I assumed this meant Mary Tappel, since she was the only self-proclaimed beaver expert present that night.

I marched off this letter to the author in response hoping to encourage this independent paper to be more curious about the workings of Martinez government. It was published in full. I’m glad it gets the issues squarely out there, but I am doubtful now that this author was responding to Tappel’s comments. While she did discuss beavers not being very bright that evening (along with calling our report mythology), I have heard Skip Lisle say the “deductive reasoning line” verbatim. Chris Thompson never explained who he was talking about, and I know Skip had a few media conversations after that meeting in an effort to dispel Mary Tappel’s rumor.

Anyway it’s another example of the attention we get paid.

Beaver Fever: New Believer

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Festival, pictures September 6, 2008

Hey now that’s a Dr. Suess book just waiting to be written. Check out your gazette this morning which says that this Art in the Park had the largest attendance of any in memory, with visitors numbered in the thousands.

Now I just want to point out that based on indendent analysis and solid science the increase in attendance covaried with the increase in beaver displays (r=1.0 p>.0001). I’m not saying Worth A Dam should get all the credit, but it seems silly to hide our beaver light under a bushel.

Combining the beaver festival and Art in the Park, Worth A Dam can boast some 65 new memberships and nearly 2500 dollars raised in small donations. Thanks to everyone who helped and invested in the Martinez Beavers. We’ll make sure your gift to them will keep on giving.

New Visitor to the Dam

heidi08 New Species, Uncategorized, Video September 6, 2008

It’s official. Confirmed by the Lindsay museum and the Sierra club. This new visitor filmed the morning of the beaver festival by our own Moses Silva, isn’t an otter, as initially assumed. This is a mink. Number one on their diet is the Muskrat, number two is crayfish, we having been seeing alot of down at the dam. He was on the bank in the no trespassing zone. Apparently mink can’t read either. Sorry for the poor editing but I’m sure we’ll get a better look soon.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=-umJnw2G5CI]