Bridge-Brigade!

heidi08 Tile Bridge, Why We Care December 8, 2009

Yesterday I got word from ESA instructor Rona Zollinger (and long time beaver friend!) that our student helpers had finished with their “ascribing tiles” for the bridge art project. Would I like to come pick them up? Rona and her students were at the original beaver meeting in 2007, and told me once at the farmer’s market that it had been “thrilling” to attend and show her students first hand how all those people caring about something can make a difference. I was immediately fond of her after that! Since then I have really been drawn to learn about the academy and the remarkable way it teaches stewardship not just for the earth but for the humans that populate it. I did a beaver presentation to the class last year, and was definitely impressed.

What this means is that if the weather gives us a few dry days we can start installation. Take a moment to contemplate the distance crossed in spanning this particular hurdle. First we had to convince the donors to give us money for the pens and the tiles. Then we had to encourage copius young artists at the festival and John Muir Mountain Camp, then we had to bake all 120 tiles in the oven, (which if your oven is 100 years old will only hold 12 tiles at once), then we had to find a contractor and get him to pledge to the project, then we had to beg, plead, muscle and cajole our way onto the Agenda for the Marina, Pool, Parks and Cultural Commission, then we had to present to them and sit through their 3 hour meeting, then we had to meet with the director of public works, then photgraph every tile for their inspection, and FINALLY we had to present to the city council and get final final final approval.

Whew. I’m exhausted just typing it.

Coday, Jessica, Roger and Maddy did a stellar job with their civic art. Check it out. I can’t wait until this project is lauched! Hmmm…what will we do next year?

Semantics…

heidi08 City Reports December 7, 2009

The Gazette reported this week that Mayor Schroder was appointed to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. Reportedly he will be filling a long-standing vacant seat, and will specifically represent local government. “Each regional board makes critical water quality decisions for its region, including setting standards, issuing waste discharge requirements, determining compliance with those requirements, and taking appropriate enforcement actions.”

Just so you know, city beaver-betrayer Mary Tappel works for the waterboard. Waterboards are notoriously anti-beaver, so he should feel right at home.

Mind you, this is a man that went on national television and called historic Alhambra Creek a ‘drainage ditch’,that originally authorized killing the beavers, that approved scraping the entire habitat and allowing the silty overflow to drain illegally back into our creek, that won’t allow the planting of Riparian trees, and authorized the installation of a second sheetpile wall in front of a prior sheetpile wall, thus restricting flow by 20%.

Apparently he had a letter of recommendation from beaver-supporter Ted Radke, and the Western States Petroleum Association. So I’m just wondering…

Maybe they meant a different kind of waterboard?

As you were…

heidi08 Uncategorized December 6, 2009

Just a quick note to remind us that occasionally my life has activities that are not beaver related.

Someone I am

Is waiting for courage

The one I want

The one I will become

Will catch me

Cirque Du Soliel

That Toddlin’ (Beaver-Trappin’) Town

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere December 5, 2009

I got an email last night from a supporter in the South Bay asking for help for the beavers of his Alma Mater. Seems he went to med school at North Western and has family there. A brother wrote to say that the haggard beavers of Lincoln Park had just built a new lodge in North Pond.

From Lincoln Beaver-friend RH who took the photo.

I “discovered” the latest lodge yesterday morning. It is located on the recently manmade littoral shelf less than 150′ from the gazebo at North Pond in Lincoln Park.
The previous lodge was tucked away on the SE side of the pond, this one is on the NW side near a more heavily trafficked paved footpath as well as a restaurant (!). The head of the LP Conservation Society is a neighbor of mine. I’ll contact her asap.

Back in the early part of this year the parks department and the Conservancy wanted those beavers out. (Beavers eat trees. Lincoln Conservancy Protects Trees etc.) They hired the mirthlessly-named company “On Target Wildlife Control” to live trap and relocate the beavers, except mom beaver didn’t read the “live” label on her trap and subsequently drowned.

(Her orphans were successfully relocated. Does that count?)

These beavers have enough of a following that there are wikipedia updates and a facebook page about them. Still, when a nature conservancy has it in for you, you should never count your chickens. This morning I wrote them and the parks department, as well as the friendly author of this recent article. Hopefully a few others can follow suit.

I thought the idea of beavers being so near the zoo deserved a few reminders about the famous Jose and his recent starring role in September’s National Geographic. Why let the Bronx have all the glory? Embrace the North Pond Beavers, enlist some school children in planting willow and tracking wildlife, and wrap the special trees you can’t bear to share. You spent 4500 last time on a hugely bad publicity campaign. Why not do it right this time around?

Garden State Beavers

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions December 4, 2009

Things are looking up for beavers in New Jersey! After a few concentrated advocacy efforts for the beavers out-flooding their welcome in Franklin Lakes, things are looking a bit brighter. HSUS has assigned representative Heather Cammisa to work on the project. (Turns out Heather and Gail are old friends anyway. Something about a piglet and an animal shelter?) I heard from Audubon NJ that they will respond and are decidedly pro-beaver, and Gail found out that the local zoo vet actually lives in the housing development in question and is helping her communicate alternatives to the mayor using information I sent them. We were still looking for a good media contact when I came across this article by Robert Linnehan in the Haddonfield Sun discussing beavers in another area of NJ.

What can be done of a beaver that is encroaching onto land where humans typically tread? Brees quickly contacted his good friend Sarah Summerville, director of the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge Inc., who had several suggestions.

Recognize the name? Sarah is the one who told Gail to write me in the first place! Big beaver friend. I told Gail to track down that reporter and see if she can get him interested in Franklin Lakes. Fingers crossed. Check out this lovely article.

It would appear from the air photo that the waterway in question is an unnamed stream flowing from a large pond at Tavistock Country Club’s property into Cooper River. Cooper River appears to be the northeast boundary of Crow’s Woods,” Summerville wrote to Brees. “I am happy that we share the opinion that the beaver should, if at all possible, stay in the environment. I concur, based on my knowledge of beavers and the benefits they can bring. Beavers are considered a ‘Keystone Species’ because their engineering activities create habitat that is beneficial to many other areas in the affected ecosystem.” The dams beavers create can also act as “nature’s kidney,” Summerville said, slowing water flow which allows for sediments and toxic material to filter out through the pond bed. Having a beaver in the park would also provide for an interesting educational opportunity for students and residents alike in the borough, she said.

Well, since you already learned a lot about beavers Mr. Linnehan, maybe you’d like to write something about Franklin Lakes? Gail will fill you in, and I’d be thrilled to connect you with other great sources of information if there are any questions she can’t answer. For now though, we can wait hopeful that the beavers in your swamp will meet a kinder fate than there were slated for.