Beavers See Green

heidi08 Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers August 18, 2009

The startlingly atypical radio hour talking about the role of beavers in the watershed of one little Northern California Community got some nice attention. I thought I would share a little with you this morning, so that we could all bask in the well-received delivery of this particular bit of beaver gospel. It’s a nice reminder that fellow beaver supporters have become friends after 2+ years of contact, and sometimes old friends have in turn become beaver supporters!

Great finish – getting in that plug about the effect on salmon. If anything will engender support, that will be it. You came across cool, calm, competent and most sympatico. It’s 3:04AM. I’m going back to bed. Great to hear your voice. William Hughes-Games New Zealand

Great to hear you on the radio! I didn’t know that beavers can help restore salmon habitat, and was delighted to learn this. I also didn’t know that there are other beaver groups so close by “our” group. You sounded very cool and knowledgeable, but you probably knew that too. Good job! DJS Attorney San Ramon

I listed to your radio talk show and liked the way you were performing your efforts – without showing any anger towards the city officials. What you wrote afterwards on your blog meets it best :Encouraging listeners to sustain beaver families looking forward to smart solutons of what appeared unsolvable at first sight. Carry on! Alex Hiller Frankfurt Germany

Well done! Mark Ross Martinez

You should have a radio show! Nice strong, clear smart! Great laugh…perfect! It’s amazing you are clear and strong…you are doing a great great job. Expert…talking about the history of beavers and how streams are affected and then tying it into warming. Great plug for Worth a Dam and your blog! You just went on a break. Sensational job! Can’t wait for the next portion. PJ Tampa Florida

wow he really spent time with you and brought out some great issues and I hope you get some more national attention as biodiversity should be our number one goal to a sustainable future, great job Heidi I am going to send this to a couple of the Native Bird gals as it is worth listening to …take care Diana Granados The Native Bird Connection

You did such a great job! How fun. You sounded clear, smart, calm and fun. I also loved it when you laughed—made me giggle out loud. A great show and a great job. You should be proud. I loved the story about the farm land and the plug for the salmon that was very cool. And didn’t know that two kits have launched. Wondered what happens to them etc., glad that they are on their “way to college”… loved how people comment on the beavers when you are presenting the research you did too.EBG Psychologist Lafayette

Very nice downtown Mtz plug!
Thanks for sharing. Leanne Peterson

That was cool…. (but we all know, that the Chair of Friends Of Alhambra Creekis Shirley, not I:-) No worries – this is not causing any marital strife. Cheers,Igor Skaredoff

nice job!!!!! Lisa Owens Viani, SFEP

Congratulations on a stellar performance. I managed to listen to you on the radio live! we listened to your interview in the garden with a nice cup of tea. How cool is that? I have to say you were a natural, very cool and assured and knowledgeable, brilliant!I was filling Jo in on some of the beaver tales and was astonished at how much beaver knowledge I have gleaned just from your web site. From how flow devices work to water tables, and what a keystone species can do for a once littered little creek and cute mink families getting in on the action and bogus burrowing rumours and how the beaver family have stuck with Martinez through sheetpile upon sheetpile – well, what an amazing educational tool your site has been. The one thing Jo had trouble understanding was the actions of the council…how could they not see the benefits??? Hmmm. MBG Kent UK

you came across really well on the audio! Calm, confident, informative, reasonable. Very well done! The host was good too. Obviously a like minded soul.Great job, Mike Callahan Beaver Solutions, MA

Oh and this one, which just came this morning.

Thanks so much for appearing on Living Green Radio! I really appreciate it! It was an incredible segment.I have a Green Special we air each month for another network and I would love to invite you back to talk on that show. The next show is Monday, September 21st at 8am for one hour. Can you do it?

Dave Egbert

The morning after my birthday? I’m supposed to be in Mendocino staring blankly at the ocean as I contemplate what it means to have made it another year. Hmm…I guess they have phones in Mendocino…it’s not impossible, and I guess I could let the beavers give me one more present.

Add the Carnegie Science Center

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Video August 17, 2009

to the list of organizations eager to benefit from the renewed interest in beavers! This month the Philadelphia based museum launches its Omimax premier of “Beavers” billed as the “biggest dam movie you’ll ever see.” What I love about the trailer is the soundtrack of a distinctly familiar noise. Listen, can you tell what that is?

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

I’d write more but I gotta go catch a plane to Pennsylania…

What I learned on the Radio

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere August 16, 2009

Yesterday’s interview was much less surreal than I expected it to be – partly because I had so little sleep the night(s) before I was feeling too unreal myself to notice! Still I did learn a few things from the experience. I had a strange sense of freedom to say whatever I wanted, but another equally powerful feeling of responsibility for the interview. Dave was an enthusiastic interviewer, but I realized when I listened again that he often asked me several questions at once, so it was up to me to decide what to answer. In the commercial breaks I would pause and think about what I most wanted to emphasize with the remaining time, and since his questions were very plentiful, I could pick and choose, or, as I did with the salmon issue at the end, just interject.

Hearing Mark Ross on the other line was also interesting, partly because I think he did a really nice job, and partly because I (surprisingly!) didn’t feel angry at him. Since the sheetpile-palooza I have (at the very least) rolled my eyes at the mention of any council person’s name. Yesterday I was just felt happy we were there, and happy the beavers had given him this new experience.

Which leads me to the MOST important thing I realized yesterday, and of course its personal. Given that I understood fairly early on that I could steer the interview where ever I wanted, and that Mark Ross would have to deal with my fall out, I could have spent the whole 40 minutes blasting the city for their stupidity or explained why the tunneling issue was bogus, or explained how we had been harassed even about planting trees, but I didn’t.

Why not?

It wasn’t because I was afraid the city would retaliate against the beavers or me personally. (They do constantly.) It wasn’t because I thought if I was nice they’d be nice, because even I have had ample time to realize that doesn’t work. It wasn’t because I didn’t care anymore or it didn’t upset me anymore, because it still does and I can still do a pretty feeling rant about it.

It was, strangely, because I was more interested in helping ALL beavers than in hurting the city.

I was very aware of the possibility in the interview that someone, somewhere, in Idaho or Maine or Utah, was dealing with similar issues and could be helped by hearing that there are actual solutions that work. I imagined him or her wondering whether this was worth doing and arming them with a list of reasons why beavers are an investment in the watershed. Maybe I imagined myself, three years ago, and what it would have meant for me to hear that interview before I embarked on this “epic tail”.

Anyway, it was a learning experience on many levels. If you’d like to listen, I’ve put it on youtube without comercials. Part I tells the story of the historic importance of the prominence of beavers in the watershed. Part 2 tells how I got involved with our beavers and the way they’ve changed the habitat. Part 3 about the city’s response and the unintended political effects, and Part 4 let’s call “don’t forget the salmon!”

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=vSeIprK4vMc]

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=u5qcmMtT1t8]

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

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

April 5, 2007

heidi08 Uncategorized August 15, 2009

Links to Archived Episode or click thumbnail in sidebar to access parts 1-4

Talk about full circle, this is my initial letter printed in the Martinez News Gazette about the beavers:

Leave the beavers’

I am pleased to read that Mr. Ross believes the main street Beaver family is an asset to Martinez. Certainly whenever I visit the dam it is surrounded by human admirers. One can easily imagine a day when fieldtrips of 2nd graders studying habitat come by the busload to visit its sturdy construction…or news cameras…or conservationists. In the mean time this is an excellent opportunity for Martinez to renew its commitment to rebuilding downtown by commending the constantly rebuilding beavers. When the new county building workers dismantled their old dam, they had the new one built within three days. That’s the kind of work ethic we all can get behind.

A fantastic earthday activity would be the planting of tasty trees along the creek line to encourage our furry friends to stay. I and others would certainly donate funds to purchase trees and a massive planting effort could mark the occasion. Any mosquito problems can be easily solved with fish, and a saturday evening :beaver meet and greet” ending at La Beau’s would be a great revenus builder for the city. Consider holding a city meeting to discuss the issue.

If the city takes the archaic and wildly unpopular stance that the beavers need to be eliminated (or worse destroyed), you will encounter massive public outcry. Just walk down there any evening or morning and meet their constituents and lobbyists. And the obvious campaign slogan for protecting their dam in Alhambra Creek?

Leave it to Beavers.

Heidi P. Perryman, Ph.D.

With a prediction track record like that, maybe I shoulda been in the stock market! Seriously, it’s been quite a ride beavers. Thanks for letting us come along!

America’s Best Idea

heidi08 Beaver News, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental August 14, 2009

Last night the John Muir Board was treated to a sneak preview of a single hour of Ken Burns upcoming documentary on the radical and quintessentially American concept of the National Parks. Awesome yet accessible, it tells individual stories of heroes, millionaires, presidents and visionaries that realized this great work was worth doing. I arrived late because of the day job and snuck in just at the moment that Roosevelt and Muir were camping out together under the giant sequoias. For my money, that was the one conversation in our nation’s history I would most like to have overheard.

You can enjoy a preview of your very own for free, September 19th when the NPS and JMA team up to offer an hour long preview at the High School Performing Arts Center. The event will include a reception and presentation with 299 of your closest most environmentally thoughtful neighbors. Mark your calendar’s now. Not sure you’re interested yet? Here’s a clip to whet your whistle:

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=mx8WbZIWCSM]

Anticipation is a glorious thing, a fact of which I keep reminding myself as I try to prepare for tomorrow’s interview on Dave Egbert’s living green radio show. I think they take listener questions so if you want to call in and ask me something really easy or mention that you agree with everything I’ve anxiously said, that would be nice. It airs at 7:05 tomorrow morning.

(Have to make sure the beavers are back by then so they don’t miss it!)

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