Alone with the beavers

heidi08 Uncategorized November 6, 2008

Last night I was alone on the footbridge with four kits who reminded me why my life has been so beaver-y this past year. They were healthy and nuzzling each other and whining in their mewing voice, and it was like a nature program, (or a Disney movie without music). Mom and Dad are coming out later and later, but our little scamps are still emerging with around commute time. They were playing with their tunnel system in the scraped bank, popping into one hole and emerging from the other.

There are a hundred updates, but I only have time for four. Read the lovely LA times article from our friend Richard Paddock, who did think the 1999 photograph was pretty darn interesting. I wish he had talked about the fact that the wall was shown to have a footing, but crack is good enough. If you need more reading material check out the Martinez Adult Education Brochure, with its cover painting by Gary Rath. That’s a fantastic painting Gary, get in touch with us if you’d like it featured on the website.

The beavers will be presenting at the Mt. Diablo Audobon Society tonight, which given the new research on dams increasing songbirds, is not as silly as it sounds. Finally, last night (after agreeing to limit public comment) Council members Delaney and Ross asked for beaver interpretive signs to be on the agenda. Lara Delaney emailed me earlier about Worth A Dam helping with this, and I said we had both photographs and funds to work with them. So we will see.

Since its a bird night I’ll close with one of my favorite bird photos by Cheryl Reynolds at the dam.

70% Voter Turn out in Contra Costa

heidi08 City Reports November 5, 2008

Interestingly Mark Ross rode out the night with about 2000 more votes than Janet Kennedy. Bradley Jackson looks like he picked up votes from her modest popularity, which when you consider what she paid for her campaign makes Ross’ victory look fairly beaver-colored. Worth A Dam handed him a huge media presence and he had the good sense to benefit from it, so I’ll be expecting my thankyou note any day in the mail. You can check other results here.

MARK ROSS (I) 8,656

BRADLEY JACKSON 4,468

MICHAEL ALFORD 2,141

JANET HAROUTUNIAN KENNEDY (I) 6,398

Our crack team of incumbents will be wasting no time patting themselves on the back, and tonight a change to speaker rules is on the agenda. This will likely insure that everyone will be asleep by the time Menesini stops making the same point. Interestly, the council asked Mercy to investigate the speaker limits, but never had her look up the Brown Act Rules for public comment before closed sessions. Hmm, priorities.

Councilmember Lara DeLaney requested that the Council review the Council Policies and Procedures which were adopted in May of 2006. The Council specifically asked staff to research the time limits policy in which the public is allowed to speak.

While researching this issue staff observed that many other jurisdictions’ restrict time limits to three minutes per person, thus allowing more public participation which facilitates a more fair and efficient meeting. Removing the last sentence in Section “b” Public Comments, would achieve this purpose (see attachment, IV. MEETINGS).

Staff reviewed the agendas for all the cities in Contra Costa County, including the County’s and the Martinez Unified School District, and all agencies have three-minute limits for public comment, with the exception of City of Richmond who has a two-minute limit and the Cities of San Pablo and San Ramon who have a 5 minute time limit.

Alternatives:

A. Move the Public Comment section of the Agenda after the Consent Calendar or before Council Comments. This would allow those members of the public who wish to attend the meeting for a specific agenda item the opportunity to hear the item at a reasonable hour. Those wishing to speak under Public Comment can stay to do so. Below is a compilation of various processes adopted by other cities who only allow each individual to speak for three minutes:

VOTE VOTE VOTE

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors November 4, 2008

UPDATE: BEAVERS RIGHT AGAIN!

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

The beavers asked me to remind you to vote. They are busy with some primary dam repairs from yesterday’s rain or they would do it themselves. Also they asked me to thank Hess for the construction of the “secondary dam relief valve” which worked perfectly yesterday. Water rushed over the baffle and around the secondary dam (even through their little starter tunnel underneath), filled up the scraped plane and then poured back into the creek through the downstream opening. A perfect dam bypass.

Vote Vote Vote

Pretend

heidi08 Beaver News, City Reports November 3, 2008

Based on the Gazette’s failure to mention this photo that shows the $400,000 bank stabilization project was unnecessary, it is clear that we are supposed to pretend this massive lie doesn’t matter to the city that funded it. News headlines emphasize the ends justifying the means and everyone wants us to move forward into our new metalic destiny. The wall’s been built and the beavers are sort of okay, and the civic thing to do now is pretend that it was an investment in Martinez’ future, (or at least a downpayment on Martinez’ past). We are supposed to pretend that sworn testimony of imminent danger was unrelated to actual danger of any kind, and that this is the way things get done in small towns.

While we’re clapping our hands for Tinkerbell to come, the Gazette allows Mr. Parker to remind us that we should also pretend that this obscene amount of money was spent “because of the beavers” and that in addition to chewing through a 10 million dollar flood project, the beavers hungrily devoured Mark Ross’ finacial backing for re-election. After they chomped their way through concrete, our pretend beavers obviously set their teeth on the veracity and self-respect of the entire council. Will they stop at nothing?

The need for make-believe requires flexibility, credulity and in this case the dexterity to keep up with the speedy sucession of stories. First we were asked to believe that this was for the good of the town, and not for the benefit of one property owner. Then while some of us were still busy pretending the critical patient was Bertola’s wall, we were told by Ross that it was actually the bank near the elections building that was in danger. This was a little harder to pretend because there were all those pesky engineering reports contradicting this argument. So that make-believe didn’t last long.

Its primary function was to move us to the next mythology, which was pretending that this sheetpile was destined all along for that part of the creek and the city was merely keeping a promise. Keeping promises is important. Who can object to that? It is true that some work was intended for that bank section, and that it was ultimately left undone, but I highly doubt the plan was a block of sheetpile, intended to save a bank that was never in danger.

Never mind. We were asked to pretend that it was life-saving, then pretend that it was face-saving, and along the way pretend that the reasons for pretending hadn’t changed.

Finally, we are told two days before an election with two incumbents asking for our vote, to pretend that it didn’t matter.

While you’re working on your imaginations, you might try pretending that the siphoning of funds into a lumbering Redevopment Agency would be good for the city, and that a council who keeps its promise to one person by taking the money from thousands has your best interests at heart.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=DXY_8cJlGMc]

Are the beavers okay?

heidi08 Beavers November 1, 2008

MM writes that she is confused by the headlines quoting Ross saying “as far as we know the beavers are fine” and our web page showing mom’s eye injury saying the family hasn’t been all seen since October 23rd. What’s the real story? (Speaking of stories, read that article all the way through. They definately were interested in our photograph.)

The story is that the four kits are seen every night but the adults are more elusive. Someone saw a big beaver Thursday night, and I saw a yearling Wednesday. I heard today from two beaver supporters that Steve said he saw mom last night around 3:00 in the morning. She was carrying a large branch to the lodge, and he clearly saw the notch in her tail. He hadn’t heard about the eye injury so he wasn’t able to update on that.

Apparently there are rumors that the beavers built a lodge down at the footbridge. This is not true. They are sleeping in the lodge on the west bank, across from the old lodge and seen swimming in and out every day. Stop by and see the new mud on the old lodge. Apparently the beavers aren’t planning on relocating any time soon.