Beaver Coat-Tails?

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Environmental January 6, 2009

Check out this invite to particpate in the East Bay Regional Parks Trails Challenge.

The Martinez beavers have garnered more fame, but there are beavers at Big Break, too. Big Break Regional Shoreline in Oakley will be the venue for a couple of nature programs this weekend and next. This Sunday, naturalist Mike Moran will lead a walk there from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to look for waterfowl and signs of our broad-tailed, bucktoothed, tree-felling friends, nature’s civil engineers. The program is free of charge, but reservations are necessary. Phone 1-888-327-2757, select option 2, then 3 and refer to program 20170. Mike’s program repeats on Feb. 22 as program 20171.

Kind of nice to see our beavers being used to help other colonies, and a relief to have beavers in Oakley that aren’t routinely killed, which I know happens without any reporters. I haven’t had any contact with Mike Moran, but that would be a great relationship to cultivate. If you’re an interested beaver supporter why not join in and make the introductions?

Sonoma Beavers

heidi08 Creative Solutions, Environmental January 5, 2009

Powered by DM PhotoAlbums&#153

Full Screen

Our own Cheryl Reynolds was hot on the beaver trail in Sonoma yesterday. Seems like a local resident spotted tree damage and thought it might be the result of continued human vandalism. He called out the experts and they said, no, um, beaver. There is an ominous sentence about Fish and Game being called out this week, but in general they seem to advocate a fairly sensible beaver policy.

Meanwhile, Lisa Micheli, manager of the Sonoma Ecology Center’s Restoration and Stewardship Program, said the center has been hired by landowners to protect some stands of large trees on private property south of the Ig Vella bridge. “The beavers have been very active this year,” she said, “we don’t know exactly why.” Micheli said the large-toothed rodents have been taking on some very mature trees. “They are extremely industrious and very optimistic,” said Micheli of the beavers. “We don’t know if they intend to build dams with these trees, and we don’t know how they would move them into the creek.” She said mitigation measures may involve fencing large trees to deprive the creatures of building materials.

Well, okay. Fence the trees you want to keep and make the situation sound as mysterious as you like. Just don’t argue that killing beavers is the only way to save those trees. We like Richard Dale’s observations, and respect the position that beaver behavior is something to manage, not eliminate.

The whole episode reminds me of why I want a google interactive map of beaver colonies. Enter your zipcode and find the family nearest you, and any relevant news reporting on it. Some skillful techie get to work on that will you? It would really help.

Heck of a job, Brownie.

heidi08 City Reports, Creative Solutions November 11, 2011

Last night we paid a visit to the dam and did a little New Year’s beaver watching. Three kits were milling about and feeding on some willow, and a fellow was there watching them with his son. He had the air of someone who had been watching them for a while and wanted to explain all about them. He liked to wait at the dam, he explained, to get his Blood Alcohol Level down so he could pass check point on the way out of town. Did I know that the lodge was under the dam? Did I know that the city had done a really great job handling this? Did I know a beaver expert had come out and installed that “culvert”? Did I know that the city had built the dam around the culvert? Did I know they had to install the sheet pile to keep the beavers from tunneling under the building? Did I know how great it was that the city had handled this so skillfully and taken such care to let the beavers stay?

Sigh.

Here’s the thing: for the benefit of the beavers it is wonderful that the city gets credit for doing humane and creative ecological work. Give Martinez accolades for trying something new and let them bask in the glow of responsible stewardship. Never mind that there are deep claw marks down the length of Castro Street where we had to drag them kicking and screaming and whining every beaver-dam inch of the way. Never mind that they lied and manipulated and distorted figures every opportunity they got. The truth is, we should be happy when the city gets to look good because its good for the beavers.

But (and this is my point) it sometimes bugs me.

Its not like I can’t acknowledge their accomplishments though. There are things the city has done exceptionally well. Their “Campaign to Convince” has been remarkably successful. They convinced Martinez and the media that they had to spend half a million dollars to stop rodents chewing through concrete. They convinced everyone that they spent 75,000 dollars already on the beavers, 6000 alone on elevated police presence for the November 7th meeting. Heck, they convinced Fox News that the body of water wasn’t a creek. They even managed to convince Martinez and the media that never voting on the issue was the same as letting them stay.

Now that’s one heck of a job!

I mention this last stroke of genius because it was the most common error on our First Night Quiz. Very compassionate, intelligent people who knew what beavers ate and how they lived misunderstood their fate and thought the city had decided to let them stay for good.

Sadly no. The pope may have decided to close down limbo, but our beavers still live there.

Beaver Competition

heidi08 Beavers January 2, 2009

There was lots of discussion Wednesday night about beavers being the only animal to so dramatically shape their environment besides man. Of course when they build to accommodate their selfish needs, the environment improves, and when we do it…well…uh…not so much.

Beaver loyals GH & KH send this card to start the New Year right.

Beaver Firsts

heidi08 City Reports January 1, 2009

Highlights include: Very interested children. Patient parents. Friendly Teens. A dog with a beaver tail. A Duck hunter and scout leader who was very intrigued by the link between beavers and duck habitat. A high school student seeking volunteer work for a science project. A very popular art project. A beaver motorcycle key chain. Nice people. A visit from Mark Ross. A little girl thought the Lindsay Museum display beaver was a boy because it “didn’t have a notch in its tail”. Lots of quiz entries and three fine winners who will be contacted soon.

Thanks to participants and volunteers. Happy New Year to all!