Taken for granted

heidi08 Creative Solutions, Festival May 18, 2009

Ahhh its that time of year when hopeful college students all over the planet are opening their mail with trembling fingers to learn “Due to the unusually outstanding entries this year, your application has been denied”. That was me Friday when I saw that I had finally gotten the letter from our interpretive sign grant application. “So many other fine projects, unable to award yours, please submit again, and have a nice day.” Sigh.

Sniff. (I defy them to show me one single project for watershed public outreach that will interest more people or involve more children in understanding nature.) Thank you very much Kelly and Jeff for pledging your support and involvement. Well, we’re not giving up, just changing strategy. The very next morning we were off to REI where we had been invited to talk about how Worth A Dam could benefit from their involvement and support.

REI as a corporation offers hundreds of thousands of dollars in stewardship grants, primarily for projects that involve getting children outside and involved with the natural world. We talked a little about the John Muir Mountain camp and it’s involvement at a parking lot event they are having in June, to which we were invited. We also talked about a possible service project that could benefit Worth A Dam. The monies have all been applied for this year, but our projects were described as appropriate for consideration next year.

In the mean time, REI is going to be help with a “service project” creek cleanup before the beaver festival. I suggested that a few kayaks would have best access to the dams and would generate the most media for the effort and show REI’s good works and create interest in the festival. If we become a featured non-profit for REI we go in the newsletter and even on the website. They will also distribute brochures for us on the interest wall, and allow us to have an interest table indoors some saturday in front of the climbing wall if we would like.

Hard working, enthusiastic, sporty, environmentally savvy, beaver supporters. Who could ask for anything more?

Aix Sponsa

heidi08 New Species May 17, 2009

The Wood duck is an easy candidate for “best dressed”. The name aix sponsa literally transelates into “Waterbird in bridal dress”, and it ain’t no boring old white, either. Wood ducks have many unique qualities that make other ducks hang their feathered heads in shame: they nest in cavities, they have claws and the eat acorns! Our eagle scout candidate will be adding three wood duck boxes to the creek, and I thought you’d want to learn a little about the neighbors we’re trying to attract. This isn’t a “pipe dream”, because Ted Radke of EBRP board of directors observed 3 wood duck this winter near the beaver dams. In fact beaver dams are known for providing the best possible habitat to encourage wood duck.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=qd3SqLpdHdg]

If you’re a woodworker with a passion for beavers, drop us a note, because I’m sure our scout would appreciate some support.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=h9u01gA-mFA]

Reminder to the City Council:

heidi08 New Species May 16, 2009

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=1jByfWOLmjo]

Seeing people take care of wildlife makes your heart feel lighter. No one would argue there’s a “squirrel shortage”, or that squirrels can’t be annoying little pests that plant forgotten walnuts in your tulip patch and destroy your bird feeders. But watching these UCLA students experience and express compassion for this compelling “human-like” drama, makes us happier. Our hearts are weighed down every day by images of cruelty or indifference. Moments like these are a treat.

Any Questions?

Badgers in Petaluma?

heidi08 Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers May 9, 2010

Beaver friend, fellow blogger and superhuman activist, Susan Kirks from Sonoma360.com writes that they are hard at work in Petaluma taking care of these guys on Paula Lane. With much labor, cajoling, inspiring and “badgering” they are in the last stages of an openspace deal that will purchase the land where these little fellows hang out.

Beavers and Badgers Part 3

The badgers have been on Paula Lane since the early 1900s. Long-time residents will share stories of seeing several badgers slithering across the land of the existing City of Petaluma water tank site. One resident who’s lived along the lane since the 1970s says a badger once chased his daughter on a bicycle (likely a threatened female), with of course no harm done. But, seeing a badger these days is a rare occurrence, if at all. Somehow, the badgers have remained, adapted and still have, thanks to the efforts of many concerned citizens, a protected movement corridor and protected habitat. Just recently, new burrows were seen in land on Paula Lane where the presence of badgers had not been known for 15 years.

The Paula Lane Action Network (PLAN) is a 501(3)c nonprofit with a dream for an open space preserve on the land. Like all cities, in 2000 the edges of Petaluma were rapidly growing, and Paula Lane was once farmland that went up for sale. The idyllic curve of land is a beloved spot for watching the last rays of sun on the city, so it has been dubbed “sunset hill”. I’m sure the city had dollar signs in its eyes and said something like “Badgers? We don’t need no stinking badgers!”, but PLAN had vision of open space that was part of the ring trail that circles the city and makes a wildlife corridor.

You think it takes a long time to save beavers? PLAN has been hard at work on this goal since 2003. The issue has been pushed back and pushed forward again and again, but in 2006 the family that owned the land took it off the market and indicated a willingness to sell it for open space. The two 1800’s farm homes on the site will be rented by “caretakers” who keep an eye on the land, and adjoining schools will have environmental classrooms in the region. Hiking trails and inviting open space will make room for the badgers and the people who need to breathe open air and see the sun set at the edge of their community.

From Corey Young: The Argus Courier

From there, things began looking up for the preserve’s supporters. That year, the city included the Paula Lane site as one of four properties on a list of requests for matching grants from the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District.

Although unsuccessful, the project was back for consideration this spring, and ultimately won support from the Open Space District. This fall, the county Board of Supervisors agreed to give $1 million toward the city’s purchase of the site, if the city and PLAN would take on maintenance and operation responsibilities.

Still to be determined is the final purchase price. A 2005 appraisal pegged the value of the land at $3 million, but the drop in property values has likely reduced that.

A new appraisal is under way and the city’s latest estimate of the property’s cost is $2 million, according to a recent application for a $990,000 grant from the California Coastal Conservancy.

Are you noticing those dates and numbers? This is a huge undertaking that makes me positively dizzy to consider. Susan is an acupuncturist by trade who also started a wildlife rehabilitation center. I am so thoroughly impressed with what she has inspired I could just sit with my mouth open for weeks. Honestly I thought that having your life completely taken over by an issue so that there are traces of your advocacy efforts leaking into every day and visible in every room of your home was occasionally necessary but very, very weird. It turns out that there are amazing people making space to make a difference all around us.

Find something outside yourself that is yourself, and devote yourself to it with all your heart, said Bob Walker the EBRP photographer who is credited with saving much of the open space in the Bay Area and beyond. I guess you found yours, Susan.

I know the beavers would want me to thank you so much for all the hard work you have done to leave a legacy of badgers on sunset hill.

W.W.J.M.D.?

heidi08 City Reports, Environmental March 5, 2011

Ahh spring, the chirping, sprouting time of year when tomato plants are wistfully laid in the ground and Worth A Dam annoys the city about planting trees. This year we wrapped our tree planting plans in a boyscout package to make it more attractive to a city that cannot possibly do something that might benefit beavers. Our “Trojan Eagle” has been fairly effective at getting cooperation, the city is allowing planting along the “beaver festival” park and the corp yard creek side. The planting will occur on the weekend of June 6th and 7th, and staff will help out and even extend a drip system to water some of the trees.

Except for the “bad trees”.

Worth A Dam has insisted at every possible juncture that three trees were needed at the lodge site, to protect the lodge from sun and intruders. Their own biologist, (that Janet Kennedy kindly reminded me the city spent painful dollars to obtain three times), Skip Lisle, recommended increased cover for the lodge. Rona Zollinger’s students pledged to plant the trees and carefully wire wrap them. Dates were laid, plans were made, and the entire project was detailed for the mayor at the May 6th presentation to the council.

Alas, it was not to be. Those, dear readers, are “bad trees”.

We were told those three trees were not “authorized”, were not approved by tree experts, were not part of the “buy-in” from the business community, were too much for an Eagle scout project, and were too controversial for Boy Scouts to be involved. These of course were offered in serial succession as each defense was challenged with pesky fact checking. They were “authorized” by their own biologist, and by the creek plan originally outlaid by the army corp of engineer, and by the city’s own watershed planting grant, and by the biologist they forced us to secure for the project. There are no property owners on that side of the creek but the city, and certainly no businesses. The Environmental Studies Academy students, who have already undertaken copious planting and stewardship for the city, could take on the responsibility and not over extend the scouts. And finally, three trees is as close to a “teapot” as the beaver “tempest” will ever be.

Sadly the city’s powerful logic-deflector shields were already raised. and our arguments were meaningless.The bad trees could not possibly be allowed under any conceivable circumstances. We were asked deftly “How would John Muir feel about planting trees for beavers?”

W.W.J.M.D.?

If I were to write one more time that I was dismayed or disappointed by this response, I would run the risk of being compared to Charlie Brown and Lucy holding the football. So I won’t be surprised. I just want to ask if this clever WWJMD test could be freely applied in other circumstances as well? What would John Muir think, for example, about removing trees to install sheetpile along a living creek? What would he think about removing trees to build parking lots and covering the earth with asphalt? What would John Muir think about controlling plant growth by spraying along the creek with pesticides? What would John Muir think about forming a redevelopment agency, for that matter?

This is fun. Can anyone play?

Far be it from me, now a member of the John Muir Association board of directors, of which two are descendents of Muir himself, and which are owners of the most extensive collection of Muir information and original documents in the world, far be it from me to attempt to answer that question. I will do what I always do, and pass it along. There’s a board meeting tonight in fact, and I will make sure that I ask how Muir felt about replacing stolen habitat to benefit wild things.

I can’t wait.