I told him once, I told him twice

heidi08 New Species July 7, 2009

He would not listen to advice

I said it very loud and clear

I went and shouted in his ear.

Lewis Carrol

All the very best efforts of the Audubon Society and the Humane Society has done nothing to convince the Rossmorons that they must have their sacrifice of 50 acorn woodpeckers. Dennis Cuff reports in wednesday’s CC times that heads will role depite consultation of a major acorn woodpecker expert at UCBerkeley who says

“Killing the woodpeckers is a shortsighted and very short-term solution,” Eric Walters, an acorn woodpecker specialist at UC Berkeley’s Hastings nature reserve in Carmel Valley, wrote in an e-mail to the Times this week. “Unless they plan to wipe out the entire acorn woodpecker population, shooting birds is not going to do a darn thing to stop the damage to their retirement community.”

The Audobon society pledged to pay for Walters to come out and consult, and to provide materials for an artificial granary. Apparently the spirit of cooperation conveyed by their joint meeting with the property owners meant very little.

Diana Granados, chairwoman of a Mount Diablo Audubon task force on woodpeckers, said the shooting plan will fail because it will upset the unusual family structure of the acorn woodpecker, which typically limits breeding to two females in a group with other members sharing baby-sitting and feeding duties. If the females are killed, other birds will start breeding to offset the losses, Granados said.

In an update email received earlier this week, Diana wrote that the property owners had tersley instructed Laura Simon of HSUS to “send no more emails” about sparing the dastardly fiends. The feds were coming for Christmas and bringing their rifles with them. They were going to shoot them some ‘peckers and there was no use complaining. Twice “4 and twenty red and black birds baked in a pie”. There would be no mercy,

Just remember, “The Quality of Mercy is Not Strained”.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=UOji4H3Jgfw]

Babes in Arms

heidi08 City Reports December 18, 2008

Or is that kits in arms? Looks like Worth A Dam has crawled slowly from bastard child status, past step-child status, to the once-envied status of intended offspring! (Can favored son be far behind?) Our First Night presence will now be indoors, probably at Telfer Hall. There will be a formal presentation with slides and video at 7, 8, 9 and 10, as well as an ongoing art project, beaver display and “virtual tour”. If all goes well we’ll get lights next year and actual touring conditions, and in the meantime we’ll stay warm and cozy.

The hard work is all done. Now we just got a show to put together.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=2uLarextbjo&feature=related]

In the mean time, stop by and give some thanks to longtime friend Gary Bogue, whose website displayed his Martinez Beavers Christmas card today.

God bless us every one!

Gang Aft Agley

heidi08 Beaver News December 17, 2008

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion
Has broken Nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth born companion
An’ fellow mortal!

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=8VxnY_AR4-8&ytsession=AhjtlO7aZ6Lht04WuCuuZRcuiiCEV3_HEoorhihroqmgpncLrg9VPle168_2A2hm2BRHOpPWrW4JcWJUPn9sSKcFT3r1pEFhZ7djDNKdF6NO23gzsTBhmQK3tLKzDK8FtJCOjk0hZQbb2T6LYCPD0ilzXVgY8LfRxvSeYz_CDQl2SC8PWeFv5rQxEohZJPvmPZ-mSpmxcP94X_Haao0YVj07ZA1k7pIiXaD1q3v4xsIJFCXaLFB5wH0kH_R6xfv6Znb97Im5pzNNqLLOIK9BQKysY0rHHZH7odhzTirC7DzXjTztv8ifTDkscO7rX3EhleUoYScTKTuTaoZiF8NUVTcjyMuj_cah]

I thought Scottish beavers needed some Burns. This is a poem to a mouse but I bet he would have written it to a beaver if they hadn’t hunted them all. Thanks to our brave souls who heeded the cry for volunteers yesterday. It’s going to be a lot of fun. There’s still room for more, so if your resolution to 2009 is “Help Beavers More” (and whose isn’t?) drop us an email and join the party.

First Things First

heidi08 City Reports December 16, 2008

Beaver tours officially added to first night schedule! Looks like we’ve arrived and we need helpers. The webpage stats tell me that there were 754 page views to this website in the last 24 hours. Maybe a couple of you loyal readers could help out for an hour? We’ll provide the background and coffee. You provide energy, warm clothes and your enthusiasm to teach others about the beavers.

Think it over.

The Martinez Beavers have made a local splash both in the community and the media. Currently a family of eight resides in two lodges near Bertola’s at the Escobar bridge. A year ago the city hired expert Skip Lisle from Vermont to build a flow device that would control the height of the dam. This allowed downtown merchants to feel more secure and averted the possibility it would trigger flooding.

The beavers responded to their smaller pond by building a series of “secondary dams” downstream towards the railroad tracks. This increased their foraging area and gave them access to other foods. The beavers are visible most nights, when they can be seen pursuing their regular diet of willows and tulles.

Worth A Dam is dedicated to maintaining the Martinez Beavers through responsible stewardship, creative problem-solving, community involvement and education. It is associated with the 501(c) 3 non-profit organization Land for Urban Wildlife. The tour will visit their dams and lodges, help explain any beaver behavior you might see, and introduce you to our cast of nocturnal characters in Alhambra Creek.

Tours begin at 6:30 in the parking lot behind the Bulldog BBQ run every half hour until 11.

Seems Like Old Times

heidi08 Beaver News December 15, 2008

{column1}I remember, I remember,
The fir trees dark and high;
I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky:
It was a childish ignorance,
But now ’tis little joy
To know I’m farther off from heaven
Than when I was a boy.
Thomas Hood{/column1} {column2} I remember, I remember,
The beavers and the dawn;
I used to watch their swimming V
While stifling a yawn:
It was a magic moment,
But there is less a thrall
To know the creek was better off
When all the kits were small.
Heidi Perryman{/column2}

Just an introduction to this mornings sighting of a very confident kit returning under the Escobar bridge with a mouthful of tulles. Apparently winter’s increasing waters means that we are feeding upstream. Watch out lonely goose, you may soon be lonely no longer!

Because life never brings only good news, I thought I’d update you this morning on the super South American beavers, who, it turns out, are not really eating fish after all. Instead they’re munching their way through forests at a cheerful pace that has authorities up in arms. You see, trees in that region do not respond to “coppice cutting” by throwing out new shoots, so when the beavers take them, the forest doesn’t recover.

The article repeats the rumor that they have no predators and makes a case for the death penalty. Apparently the only solution is the final solution. A mass eradication effort is underway to halt the beavers before they get to chile.

Killing traps are one of the beaver control methods now being tested, in addition to adapting North American beaver control techniques using trappers, dogs, helicopters and boats. “We’ll have to move in on the beavers in a rolling front, going from watershed to watershed to remove them, with a massive monitoring program behind it to make sure they have all been eradicated,” describes Anderson.

I understand that conditions might be different in that part of the world, and that steps may need to be taken. Immunocontraception springs to mind, starting with the selfish entrepreneurs that brought them there in the first place. If you want to know more about the south american beaver plight, Canadian Geographic just did a program on them and its available for down load here.