Month: June 2009

Advocacy

heidi08 Educational, Environmental May 9, 2010

After the death of our kit in March, I was contacted by Susan JunFish of Parents for a Safer Environment. She has worked fairly tirelessly since the group’s founding in 2002 to raise awareness about pesticides and safer alternatives. She advocates Integrated Pest Management (IPM) a policy which utelizes chemical control only after less invasive measures have failed. She points to the fact that many of our pesticides are known endocrine disruptors and carcinogens, and that when studies show that they are safe in low levels they are failing to take into account our hazardous lives of multiple and cumulative exposure.

Susan informed me that even though San Francisco, Alameda, Marin, Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties had stopped spraying herbicides on plants that lined the water ways, Contra Costa was still a prime offender. These chemicals leach into our waterways and travel downstream right to the beavers. She wondered whether there could be any effect on kit vulnerability overall because of this cumulative exposure, and whether we would be willing to explore this if funds could be obtained for a grant to look at liver toxicity in the necropsy of the kit.

An interesting and eye opening conversation began. Susan was interested in using our visibility on this issue, and I was interested in providing the most safe habitat for our beavers. On Monday Susan had arranged a meeting with State Senator Mark DeSaulnier’s office and a few community leaders interested in the issue. She invited Worth A Dam to be there, along with a representative of the West County Toxics Coalition, Moraga Parks & Rec Commission, Life Gardens, and Gardens at Heather Farms. The plan was to explain the issue, its far-reaching consequences, and demonstrate broad community support for Senator DeSaulnier if he should introduce legistation about a statewide IPM.

As I listened to Susan’s intelligent and persuasive presentation, I was a particularly struck by how much endless pressure she had already administered, and how well she managed her own frustration at the snail’s pace with which change moved forward. It reminded me that part of good advocacy is not just passion but temperament. You need to keep saying the same thing over and over again, sometimes to the very same people, and not get furious, impatient or condescending. You need to be able to hear each repetitive, obstinant, insular and ignorant question and answer it like you were thinking about the issue for the first time. You need to appear to weigh the pros and cons of your position even though you have a wealth of data and research to back you up and you know the other side is bogus and wrong.

(In short, you need to walk softly and carry your big stick under your coat.)

As a woman who has spent a comparatively tiny fraction of time trying to advocate for these beavers, I can tell you how enormously exhausting that is. Not just the tireless, scrappy, confrontation of THEIR SIDE but the sustained, internal self management of MY SIDE that restricts one from exploding at one’s (sometimes stubbornly) unenlightened audience, slapping them on the forehead and yelling “WTF!!!!!!!” Self management and other management is a massive responsibility, and one that I’m learning certain kinds of people are better suited for.

I definitely understand why some give up on the reasoned discourse side, and just chain themselves to a tree or do this:

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

The outcome of the meeting? The snail moved forward a 16th of an inch–a conversation was started, a dialogue opened. Another day in the life of an advocate.

Revolt of the Beavers

heidi08 Uncategorized June 16, 2009

Just when you thought you’d heard every beaver story there was to hear! Turns out that the Federal Theatre Project under Franklin Roosevelt produced a bundle of theatre productions for children, including in 1937 the widely watched “Revolt of the Beavers“. It featured some children whisked away to Beaverland where an evil Beaver Chief had consigned them to hard labor to produce goods that only he enjoyed. A plucky beaver named Oak Leaf organizes his beaver brethren and overthrows the ruthless chief. Given the dislike of employers and general mistrust of wealth in the day, the play met with packed houses but its message drew media fire. Nova website reports “Theater critic Brooks Atkinson labeled it “Marxism à la Mother Goose.”

I guess even in the midst of a depression (maybe especially in the midst of a depression), the tenets of capitalism were worth protecting. Hmm, some things never change.

Paul: Hey Mary, how can he be a professor? He’s only a beaver! Right?

Mary: Shhhhhhhh. He must be a beaver professor.

Professor: Say, that doesn’t sound like a beaver! Wait a minute! Wow human beings!

Mary: Don’t be afraid. We’re not going to take you to the zoo.

Paul: Yeah, don’t be scared.

Professor: Wow, human beings! Wow human beings in beaver land. How’d you get here?

Mary: Windy blew us here

Professor: Get out of beaverland. You’d better get out of beaverland right away!

Paul: Why?

Professor: Because there’s a lot of trouble in beaverland and you might get right in the middle of the trouble!

The entire script is available for download here, though I doubt RotB is going to see a revival anytime soon. In the mean time, just enjoy the thought of beavers as communists, which I do think kind of applies. Far be it from me to mention that some of the greatest opposition to our beavers has been from big money. I’m sure its just a coincidence.

Castoroides Ohioensis

heidi08 Educational July 7, 2009

This unglamorous scientific name acknowledges that the first skeleton of the prehistoric GIANT BEAVER was discovered at the bottom of a peat bog in Ohio. The year was 1837, and remarkably we have no records of this bear-sized creature before that. The great creature started out about 3,000,000 years ago and became extinct after the last ice age about 10,000 years ago. That means that giant beavers roamed North America with early man, and yet we have no cave drawings or artifacts to tell us more.

Castoroides ranged from Florida to the Yukon, and from New York State to Nebraska, but it has not been found outside of North America. Giant beavers seem to have flourished in the region south of the Great Lakes toward the close of the last glaciation. In fact, three nearly complete specimens are known from Fairmont and Winchester, Indiana, and from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Yukon-Beringer Interpretive Center

What we do know is that Castorides had bigger back feet and thinner vertibrae in its tail than our modern beavers. Sometimes it is shown with a muskrat-like tail in drawings, or a thinner beaver-like tail. Its big feet made it even more ungainly on land so it couldn’t disperse by walking and when the great lakes began to change it may have just been unable to adapt.

Aside from having people for neighbors, Castorides also had Castor Canadensis, whose smaller multi-function size survived the ice age and went on to great things. Ancestors of Canadensis were specialists rather than generalists. There were smaller beaver species that were strong diggers and larger beavers that were strong swimmers. There was even a beaver the size of a mouse! Castor Canadensis, by all accounts, had it all.

Today’s beavers “do it all” by digging, swimming, cutting wood with their teeth and building dams. Their ancient relatives, however, seemed to be divided up into those that were digging and burrowing specialists and those that spent more of their time swimming and munching vegetation.

Jennifer Viegas: Discovery News

For some reason, cave men didn’t draw pictures of beavers and we have no images to show us what they looked like. Apparently they didn’t even hunt beavers. Maybe there were so ubitous that no one thought to represent them….like parking meters…or maybe there were other reasons. Most historians speculate that the Algonquin myth about the fierce beaver-monster “Wishpoosh” (who refused to allow anyone to fish in his pond) is actually an echo of Castorides.

Now Wishpoosh the monster beaver lived in the beautiful Lake Cle-el-lum which was full of fish. Every day, the animal people would come to the lake, wanting to catch some fish, but Wishpoosh the giant beaver drove them away with many threats and great splashing. If they refused to leave, Wishpoosh would kill the animal people by dragging them deep into the lake so that they drowned.

Coyote and Wishpoosh

(Never mind that Castorides didn’t eat fish any more than Canadensis. Beavers were apparently always misunderstood. I guess if there’s a beaver myth right inside of an actual beaver myth we shouldn’t be surprised.)

Anyway the story says that Coyote felt badly for the animal people and took on this monster beaver in battle. They fought so hard that they splashed water everywhere and made the cascades and all the surrounding lakes, but in the end the wiley Coyote was victorious, killed the monster and hauled the carcass up onto land where he cut it into pieces to become the tribes of the nation

Coyote was tired after his long fight with the monster beaver. He called to his friend Muskrat, who helped drag the body of Wishpoosh to shore. Coyote and Muskrat cut up the giant beaver and threw the pieces up over the land, thus creating the tribes of men. The Nez Perce were created from the head of the giant beaver, to make them great in council. The Cayuses were created from the massive arms of Wishpoosh, in order that they might be strong and powerful with the war club and the bow. From the beaver’s ribs, Coyote made the Yakimas and from the belly the Chinooks. To make the Klickitats, Coyote used the beaver’s legs, so that they would become famous for their skill in running. With the leftover skin and blood, he made the Snake River Indians who thrived on war and blood.

Coyote and Wishpoosh

Wishpoosh aside, a possible prehistoric lodge has been found in that peat bog in ohio, but no dams were ever located. Its speculated that Castorides didn’t have the skill to build dams.Imagine that, a giant beaver that doesn’t get noticed and can’t build a dam. Completely unlike Castor Martinium.

Giant beavers seem to have preferred lakes and ponds bordered by swamps as their habitat, because their remains have been found in ancient swamp deposits so often. Perhaps a rather sudden reduction of these surroundings due to changing climate linked with the giant beaver’s apparent inability to build dams like those of Castor canadensis and its inability to disperse readily overland to new drainage systems when drought occurred may have resulted in its extinction and the survival of the smaller, more adaptable modern beaver. Likewise, the Eurasian “giant” beaver, Trogontherium, gave way to the living Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber), but earlier.

If you’re curiosity about Castorides has been at all peaked, you must come see ol’ Wishpoosh at the Beaver Festival. I promise he won’t disappoint.

1 . wishpoosh R. M., Indian Legends. Lyons and Carnahan. 1925-1938. xvi, 366 pp; illus. Vocabulary. Index, [N 970.6 L98i] m_origin, c_Beaver, r_Interior Salish.

2 . wishpoosh Peery, Wilson Kimsey, And There Was Salmon. Portland, OR: Binfords & Mort. 1949. [96] pp; illus., [N 970.6 P346a] m_river monster, c_Spilyaay, c_Wishpoosh, r_Coast Salish.

Castor Country

heidi08 Uncategorized June 14, 2009

Yesterday was a wonderous beaver-phile day. The Close to Home group was 25 of the smartest kindest environmental-friendly faces you could hope to meet. They asked intelligent questions, pulled out their binoculars to watch phoebe’s or song sparrows, and offered knowing praise for a long and sucessful civic fight. At one point an admirer asked “Wow, after such a big fight to keep the beavers, the successes you have had must be very heady!” Which made me giggle and say “Yes, very head-y against the wall-y”….

Igor Skaredoff showed them a fine day of Martinez Watershed wonders, including a visit to the Muir Gravesight. Worth A Dam tshirts were sold, donations were made, addresses were exchanged and our tenacity was praised. We were also given a portion of Igors fee for the eco-tour event. We were very uplifted by their everyone’s cheerful good will.

Then it was off to The Bone Room where a pleisticine beaver skull had my name on it. The shop owners were friendly and appreciative of our glowing-eyed wonder and beaver tshirts. In fact, I’m pretty sure I sold four others to beaver fans who would love a large toothed beauty of their own.

That night we went to Erawan downtown to hear the Muir Station Jazz Band who has graciously agreed to play at the beaver festival. They will be our closing band and even though there isn’t electricity in the park, I don’t think volume will be a problem for this banjo, clarinet, horn and bass group. They were working very hard to keep things soft for the restaurant! During one particularly lively dance number we noticed some avid beaver supporters in the conga line and urged them to give the members plenty of beaver encouragement. (They might not need it. They really wanted our shirts.)

Then finally a visit to the dam site, where visitors from the day’s eco-tourism had driven home and come back with the entire family for the full showing. The beavers did not dissappoint. There was a quintet of castor displays (mom, dad, three yearlings). No sign of our newbies. Great beaver vocalizations and a lot of shining children’s faces, especially the little girl who came down in her pj’s.

And to top it all off when I got up this morning there was an appreciative email from Felicity Bradshaw, an Australian zoologist with a specialty in marsupials. She has been particularly interested in drawing attention to the plight of the Honey Possum, a uniquely austrialian pollen-eating mammal that relies on endangered habitat. She recently published a lovely children’s book on the creatures, complete with a DVD of rare footage in the cover sleeve. Here’s the video of her and her husbands work:

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y1CjINN38Jc]

Felicity writes: I am bowled over by your magnificent web-site – in particular its energy and involvement that connects people with a special animal that needs help. Bravo!

All in all a beaver-benevolent day. Thanks to all who made it possible, and thanks beavers for letting us keep an eye on you!

Close to Home

heidi08 Beaver News, Educational June 13, 2009

Today, beaver friend Igor Skaredoff will be leading a tour from the nature-appreciating group “Close to home“.

Close to Home offers a threshold into the the natural world of the East Bay. Our seventh yearlong program began in May, 2009. Our focus is Exploring the Waters of the East Bay in a series of monthly public talks. You can also join us for a year-long program of monthly field trips for a more in-depth experience.

The journey will begin at the Muir House, take in Strenzel Meadows, the waterfront park, and travel midday to the amtrak station where Jon and I will take over to help explain what we can of the beaver habitat. We meet at the footbridge in the afternoon and will describe the dams, flow device, lodges and point out any day time visitors. Maybe we’ll even show off Mitchell’s new trees or see our grebe cousins (clarks and western) who come at all hours to fish.

The very best part of today (and a part that I’m eager to share with many whether they are Close to home or just passing through) is that I get to pick up my VERY OWN pleisticine era beaver skull cast from The Bone Room in Berkeley. I was so enamored of the one brought by Chris Richards from the Oakland Museum, I just had to see if it was possible. I guess Heidi’s birthday comes early this year. TBR is a great local resource and was extremely helpful in ordering my very odd request. It will be enormously useful for teaching and displays, but honestly my motivations are more selfish. The size of this skull is cheerfully and outrageously symbolic for me of the proportions of the beaver issue in Martinez; the degree of threat their dam represented, the amount of damage they could do to the bank, the financial cost of looking after them. All these factors have all been so grandly and ruthlessly exaggerated that only the size of THIS skull makes sense. If I can resist the temptation to pull a godfather and place it in someone’s bed, you might look for me sitting in the next council meeting with this on my lap….