Work, work, work!

heidi08 pictures, Recent Sightings February 23, 2010

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

Cheryl caught dad in the act yesterday, working hard to bring this tree to the secondary dam. Daylight wasn’t kind to her, but Mr. Beaver was and let her see how hard it really is to get a 90 pound sapling over a twiggy muddy dam.Three other beavers were in attendance, but not much help. Ahh look at that nose. Even though our yearlings are adult sized, they don’t have noses like that! Very broad and unmistakeable. Nice to see the fam in full display.

Interestingly, this trunk was part of a fork of a tree with the woodduck box in it. Jon sand painted it to protect the ducks from having their home toppled by a toothy bandit, and stopped at exactly the point where this was chewed, which does seem to prove that sand painting works, although one could observe that it wasn’t painted quite high enough!

I would write more, about the diligence of beaver ethics, and how it could benefit our lives, but I am very jealous of Cheryl’s amazing good luck and just have to go see for myself! Come along, why don’t you?

I’m going out to clean the pasture spring;
I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha’n’t be gone long. You come too.

I’m going out to fetch the little calf
That’s standing by the mother. It’s so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha’n’t be gone long. You come too.

Robert Frost: The Pasture

Update: Mom seen this morning, doing what she does best. Also a yearling in the most languid of poses. Mom’s eye condition looks no worse, but is sadly no better. I’m just thankful that she is keeping a lazy schedule because there was a massive dog fight in the water at 6:45 and I was nervous she would show up in the middle. Two large hound dogs showed up from no where, biting and snarling at each other in the water right at the tunnel to the damlet by the Marina Vista bridge. An unlucky raccoon was forced to swim much farther than he might have wanted to make a getaway. I made as many scary noises as possible to get the dogs to clear out, one was hurt in the fray and wouldn’t leave until the victor vacated the area. Jon will repair the fence today and see if we can keep further canine intruders at bay.

Anyway mom was completely unperturbed, and the beavers had a calm and easy morning, which was nice to see.

Treacherous Waters

heidi08 History February 22, 2010

This weekend I embarked on some historic sniffing to help our wikipedia friend in his effort to document the presence of beavers in the South Bay. Knowing the history is an important defense for the argument that “beavers don’t belong here so kill them”. Most have heard of the reference for Captain Sutter bringing 1500 pelts to the San Jose mission, but the question remains whether they were taken from local beavers or are “imports”.

So it’s a matter of following up with who trapped where and what they found, and its a lot more exciting than you might think, although sometimes I am pushed into reading something I really should leave to others with harder hearts. This is what I found this weekend, trailing facts about the Fur desert, the Hudson Bay Company and the use of native peoples as trappers.

Ice chisels on long poles. Shades of Basic Instinct come to mind. Except times a billion. First drain their pond, then lock them in their homes. Can you imagine someone nailing poles to trap our beavers in their lodge and hacking them to death with an ice chisel? I’m still shuddering. Hmm well I’m sure some would have imagined it if they had known that was how its done.

Build a better mousetrap, the saying goes. The article goes on to describe the slow progress of beaver genocide even after the arrival of the steel trap in the 1750’s. Apparently no one could figure out what to bait them with. A tasty willow leaf just wasn’t cutting it, and they didn’t seem interested in fish. (No kidding!) By accident it was discovered that they went crazy for the smell of castoreum, (oil from their scent glands) which was easy enough to get from the beaver you caught yesterday. By 1818 most natives were trapping beaver with steel traps they bought from trappers and baited with Castoreum.

Game. Set. Match.

Gosh. It really IS like basic instinct. Using your own sexuality against you. Luring you in with the promise of a good time and then hacking you to pieces. So when beavers tried to procreate and identify their family members they were killed. Although the slaughter taught them to adapt to a nocturnal life and start building sneaky bank lodges instead of obvious island lodges, evolution couldn’t possibly eliminate THAT instinct. Charming.

And this is why I should dedicate my spare time to connecting with supporters and potential supporters, and stop reading historical snuff films. Note to self.

Beaver Creek: Episode IV

heidi08 Creative Solutions, Environmental, Video February 21, 2010

Ian, Ian, Ian. When are you coming to Martinez so we can brain storm about what to do next? How about a Public Awareness campaign for the entire state of Georgia?

Love the pantry stocking. Love the snowball fight. Love the ducks in V. I was just sorry I didn’t get to see your beaver break the ice though, because I was curious how you’d pull it off.

Enjoy all of Ian’s brilliant (now fifteen year old) artistry. That’s his dad playing the banjo and we SO need him at our beaver festival. Look for “beaver creek” on youtube. Apparently just because every episode has been nominated for a national scholastic award he isn’t taking a break. Keep them coming Ian, we love you!

Passing on the Beaver Gospel

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Educational February 20, 2010

I was contacted this week by Mary Grim of the Contra Costa Resource Conservation District. She was involved with a project to provide materials to elementary teachers in Brentwood and Oakley about their local environment. Might I consider sharing the kids beaver powerpoint for them to use?

Might I indeed!

Brentwood and Oakley are two areas of California in particular with whom I’d be happy to pass along some beaver-understanding. There are beloved beavers at Big Break in EBRP and some protectively undisclosed beavers around the watershed, but the delta region in general is phobic of beavers. (Worried that they will tunnel through the eroding levy walls and cause massive flooding.)

So I can’t imagine a better way to effortlessly pass along the things we’ve learned about beavers first hand. I added notes to the presentation so that teachers would have an easier job, and included the handout I worked on with Mike Callahan for his DVD, “What good are beavers?” The powerpoint emphasizes the way beavers adapt to their environment using our beaver photos with children’s photos and drawings.

Anyway, Mary was thrilled with the product, and very generous with her enthusiasm. She also wanted to know if we had really seen all those new species first hand and did I really think they were drawn by the beaver ponds?

I assured her the photos were most definately taken here, and invited her to come see how beaver ponds attract wildlife for herself!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere February 19, 2010

St. Louis Missouri’s alternative weekly RTF posts news of this fund raiser, an off campus party with a 5 dollar cover, held tomorrow night. Martinez might possibly be the only city that would require greater specificity on this, but funds go to a nearby women’s shelter, to stop violence against women, especially rape.

Ohhh that kind of beaver! Ah, well Martinez doesn’t begrudge a beaver symbol to be used in such a noble service. We wish you God Speed and a friendly tail slap from us! We have certainly fielded all manner of sniggering jokes from politicians, teens, and reporters alike. (The reporters have honestly been the worst.) In doing so we have become hardened to the innuendo through careful practice, but we wish the women of the University Village Loft apartments well, and we hope they raise more than their last year’s total of 450.00.

And if any of you go on to wonder about the violence done on a daily basis to the other kind of beavers, look us up!