Trial and Error

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers or Social Ambasadors May 31, 2009

You may have heard something about the successful re-release of beavers in Scotland this week. The home of Robert Burns hasn’t seen a beaver in close to 400 years, and their reintroduction is part of a study to see how the environment responds. (i can hazard a guess.) This has been a huge undertaking that has faught and cajoled and nudged and poked the salmon industry every step of the way. You see, the salmon-ites are concerned that beavers will block fish passage, and went to great lengths to research the issue at the very crowded “Library-of-articles-that-agree-with-my-position”. (LATAMP) For the record, this is a much more crowded research facility than its sister institution “Library-that-presents-all-the-facts-whether-they-agree-with-me-or-not”. (LTPATFWTAWMON) (In fact, it is often so crowded at LATAMP with goverment officials trying to justify invasions, city attorneys attempting to violate CEQA and bitter university professors marking down their student papers, that you can’t find a table!)

Of course if our Scottish Salmon-Sheiders had visited LTPATFWTAWMON they would have learned that beaver dams make important winter habitat for juvenile salmonids, and that these two species co-evolved and benefit eachother. Our New Zealand Friend William Hughes Gaines has been working hard to persuade some of the more vocal and unpersuadeable elements. This week the kilted land just got a little bit closer.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=38_Vm6KEm0g]

In honor of the auspicious event we are looking for a bagpiper to play at the beaver festival! Know any?

Nae man can tether Time nor Tide,
The hour approaches Tam maun ride;

Robert Burns Tam O’ Shanter

Rossmoor Revisited

heidi08 Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers July 7, 2009

Having used up California’s noble Fish and Game in securing the right to “shoot” 50 woodpeckers, Rossmoor went after USDA/APHIS for more help in the “Styrofoam Saving Campaign”. Sensitive to the delicate fact that the permit to shoot woodpeckers runs out in two days, the USDA has issued a second “scientific collection” permit to remove 20 more birds next month as well. Perhaps this will allow them to use “enhanced interrogation techniques” on the offending birds, to find out why they chose this particular granary target. Or perhaps the mutual owners have suddenly become researchers and will be sponsoring a large scale avian factor analytic model. We’re told that they agreed to “build” three artificial granaries to the tune of 895/each, spending money on their favorite contractor while Audubon would have done it for free. The important thing is that USDA agreed with F&G and ruled that that endangered styrofoam needs protecting.

Look for the pied pipers of woodpecker removal to ride in sometime after this month. For more information keep an eye on Cheryl’s blog Bay Area Wildlife or the Mt. Diablo Audubon Society.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=XcsK-Ck43LU]

Pull up a chair…

heidi08 Friends of Martinez Beavers May 29, 2009

Not just any chair, mind you. Sometimes you need just the right seat to toast beaver successes. And I know just the place to do it. Why not cap tonight’s beaver viewing with something cold and a little Delta Blues?

Tell Roy the beavers sent you.

“Endless Pressure, Endlessly Applied”

heidi08 Uncategorized May 9, 2010

One of the things I love about days like yesterday, is meeting with people who understand all the footnotes without even glancing down to the bottom of the page. I’m talking here about the inherent recognition that the living things in an environment are valuable, that the habitat is worth saving, that the good will of a hundred volunteers with a sense of community is irreplaceable, and that a myopic and concrete-lined city council could fail to see this again and again.

Last night Lisa Owens Viani of the San Francisco Estuary Project, who organized a very demanding day with lots of bumps in the road, who cut her environmental teeth saving Baxter Creek in El Cerrito, and who now pals around with buddies like Ann Riley who wrote “Restoring Streams in Cities“, this very Lisa wrote me a quote from her eco-advocate friend in Portland.

“Endless Pressure, Endlessly Applied.”

Turns out this is a famous quote from Brock Evans, ex-marine, environmentalist and highly successful attorney who is now in Washington DC. His list of publications is impressive, and he is recognized as one of the most successful environmental attorneys in the nation. He practiced for a long time in Washington State (beaver mecca) and even ran for congress. Although he didn’t win, his campaign manager is now a US senator. (Maria Cantwell). In a recent blog post he discusses the thunderdome match between the environment and the redeveloper, and how much still has been accomplished.

How could all this happen, given the wealth and political clout of developers?

Answer: the same way as it has always been. By small bands of determined individuals who personally knew and loved the places, or the values, about to destroyed. The enormous public support came a bit later. First it was necessary to speak out, to challenge and take action — to show the way. The vast majority were volunteers. All they really had was their courage, their determination to never back down. Ordinary folks like the rest of us. They are the ones who did it.

Well this I am starting to believe. From Susan Kirks with badgers to Heidi Perryman with beavers, just ordinary folks doing what they knew was right even when they felt discouraged or hopeless or slighted. Endless Pressure, Endlessly Applied.

The journey really is to Ithaka, not Babylon.

Alllll Aboard!!!!!!!!!!

heidi08 Creek Seekers Poetry Contest May 27, 2009

This was one of those deceptive days when it felt like FINALLY the beavers will be recognized as valuable and the city will wisely become their biggest advocates. The most respected environmental names in the bay area were in attendance, waterboards, estuary and state parks. You know the saying “preaching to the choir”? Well this was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Their vocal range runs the entire Bay Area and beyond. There was a host of media and authors amongst them. Poor Igor wasn’t able to join us because of a sudden heath issue. A colleague from the urban creeks council filled in instead.

My favorite part of the day had to be THIS from the Oakland Museum. A pleisticine era beaver skull from the ice age when beavers were the size of BEARS. I looked at that and thought that is soooooooooo how the city imagines our beavers. Meddlesome and larger than life.

Sweetest part of the day? It had to been when music and beaver affianado Roy Jeans of Armando’s displayed the lovely chair he had painted for the occasion, with the words Worth A Dam, and Igor and Heidi emblazened on the surface. He gamely proclaimed he was selling it for 50 dollars and would donate the entire proceeds to Worth A Dam.

Exquisite day. Very tired, must rest now. Thanks Lisa for organizing it and Cheryl, Jon and Linda for being stalwart volunteers. Thanks also to our lovely beavers for being so photogenic.