Month: May 2010

Our council got off Easy!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions February 28, 2011

So it turns out that Martinez isn’t home of the first-ever beaver festival. There was one in Knowlton NJ about 7 years ago. Seems the town had some pesky beaver problems that were made harder to solve by some more pesky resident-voter problems, and wound up reaching a compromise of “if you can’t beat em’ join em'” proportions.

On a misty afternoon, Knowlton Mayor Frank Van Horn steers his SUV up to a 20-acre lake that is home to some 30 beavers.Last year, says Van Horn, the town decided, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” and declared the beaver its official animal. Van Horn went farther last summer and proclaimed June 21 “Beaver Day,” attracting nationwide attention. Festivities included an essay contest, a public singing of the Beaver Song, (sample lyric: “We’re gonna get along/We’re gonna be buds”) and a special beaver appearance at the elementary school. Reported by the Associated Press, TV and scores of newspapers around the country, the zany celebrations put this rural northwestern community of some 2,900 residents on the map. “People say, ‘Knowlton, that’s the one with the beaver,'” says Brian McClain, the town’s recreation director.

Hahaha. Obviously some people now say something else. Looks like the mayor wised up a little more quickly than ours seems to be doing in learning that beavers can ‘rebrand’ a city. Knowlton may have learned its civic lessons faster, but it learned its beaver lessons slower. They never figured out how to protect that culvert by installing a ‘beaver deceiver’. The mayor could outsmart the demons of obscurity, but never castor canadensis, which is surprising considering he was able to take this issue as far as the New York Times.

(To be honest, what’s really surprising to me is that the beaver story in the NYT was dated October 2007. 30 days before Martinez seminal meeting. I was completely unaware of it, and certainly there was no vast network of beaver supporters to bring it to my attention. I feel sooo ill-informed!)

Clearly the mayor of Knowlton is a media sharpshooter with more love for his name in lights than he has hatred of beavers. (Which our mayor probably will not be accused of any time soon.) Remember this is a man who seized the media opportunity when a dead body was dumped in his city, so beavers troubles were clearly in his repertoire. My very favorite part of the story was this:

Last year, Knowlton made its surrender official in a document that is equal parts peace treaty, fish story and excuse for a town-wide party. According to the resolution, the beavers are “long standing residents of the Township of Knowlton, perhaps even longer than the Taylors,” and “it has been demonstrated on numerous occasions over the past year that the Beavers of Knowlton Township are both clever and cunning, having thwarted all attempts to dislodge them from their preferred lodge.” The resolution designates the beaver as the town’s official animal and gives the mayor the authority to annually proclaim Knowlton Township Beaver Day, “at which time the Deputy Mayor shall dress in the likeness of a beaver during all official functions.“

Ohhhhh ‘make me a willow cabin at your gate’ and bring me some popcorn. Save me a seat in the very front row. I’m fairly certain that is the very best sentence I have ever read with the word ‘beaver’ in it. Nope.

Best. Sentence. Period.

Of course I took pity on the fellow readers of this blog, straining their imaginations to conjure that portrait. Photoshop offers this as help: Whadya think? I know I’d go to every civic function where I got to see this!

Preparing a Better Response

heidi08 Environmental May 11, 2010

Today a few hundred remarkable advocates will be meeting in San Francisco to discuss Oil Spills in the Bay and how to better deal with them. Check out the flyer here or this compelling CBS interview. Beaver friend Lisa Owens Viani of the San Francisco Estuary Partnership helped envision this conference long before the gulf atrocity occurred, but its certainly very timely now.

Speaking of close to home relevance, James Fallows of the Atlantic reported on this handy tool that allows you to use google maps to project the size of the spill onto an area you might be more familiar with. I thought you might be interested in this.

Of course this is the size of the leak two days ago. It’s bigger now.

Taryn’s Beavers Get Press

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere November 9, 2010

Reporter Dorothy Jasperson-Robson of the Westby Times has a nice article about the Wisconsin beavers that a have been slowly gaining a following. Taryn was very a happy about the article and pleased to see the support it has raised.

Jim Neubauer said during a phone interview on Tuesday, May 4, that his main concern as chairman of the town of Clinton is public safety. For Neubauer this has become a problem since the beaver continue to burrow under Parker Road forcing the town to refill the area with gravel and place orange safety cones at the location. “Public safety is my main concern and when this damage keeps reoccurring to our town road this becomes a safety issue for emergency vehicles and closing the road is not an option,” Neubauer said.

The beaver situation has become a misson of mercy for landowner Taryn Greendeer, who is ready to proclaim herself the “Loon of the Tree Women” in her fight to prevent any kind of trapping or removal of the beaver from her land. “The beaver do so much good for the environment and there has to be a way for us to all co-habituate. There are solutions to living with the beaver and I’m determined to stop anyone from destroying what these magnificent animals have created,” Greendeer said.

Ahhh. I would put up more of the article but every follower of this blog could likely write it verbatim. Promises and reassurances broken. “Lives could be lost” versus “Help the environment”. Seems like yesterday. Care to guess the easy front runner? (Hint: the answer is currently written in oil on the water between Mexico and Florida) The newspaper recently did a poll on whether roads were more important than beavers. The results were predictable, but of course the dichotomy is a false one. Clinton, you can have roads AND beavers and you can do it for less money than you’ve spent trapping them the last decade and with a better success rate.

Greendeer has since been contacted by numerous environmental groups who are offering their assistance in keeping the area home to the beaver and have also provided what she believes is some workable solutions to the issues, which she plans to present to town of Clinton board at an upcoming May 12 meeting. Greendeer is also hoping anyone with knowledge of dealing with beavers will attend the meeting and offer further suggestions.

Mr. Neubauer wants Taryn to find solutions and also wants her to pay for the road if the dam causes any damage. I have a thought about that that I’ll whisper to a lawyer if it gets that far. In the meantime, I don’t know a flow device installer closer than 15 hours away, but Mike Callahan’s DVD will likely be available within the month. Water isn’t going to be a problem in the summer, so city staff and DNR will have enough time to learn how to do this highly successful work on their own. Or you could connect with the Skunk Whisperer a few states away and invite him to bring his Discovery crew north to film the installation and make some new famous beavers! Hmm. Maybe you can persuade your town chairman to bring in Skip Lisle to do the work himself. I see Madison University produced the Revolt of the Beavers this year, why not tag onto that energy? Maybe do a revival in Clinton’s town hall to raise money for this project? Your own Prof. Peter Jacobs of Whitewater University made national news this year with his discovery of what giant beavers ate. Maybe he could help focus some attention or connect you with an ecological science professor whose students are interested in learning about this work? If all else fails, you have a whole town and a highschool named after the problem handiwork, why not bring the football team from Beaver Dam out for a little flow device installation training?

Any town smarter than a beaver can keep a beaver. Look for solutions and you will find them.

Skip Lisle Installing a Flow Device

Martinez Beaver Dam January 2008

Copycats!

heidi08 Festival May 9, 2010

So guess who’s having their first ever beaver festival this September! An article released April 30th announces that Rotary and Hospice of Canada are teaming up to offer a beaver festival and race in Barrie Ontario.

Race Beavers Now On Sale in Barrie for the Great Canadian Beaver Race

The Kempenfelt Rotary Club is pleased to announce that Race Beavers are now on sale for the 1st Annual Great Canadian Beaver Race and Festival (www.barriebeaverfestival.com) taking place Saturday, September 25th, 2010 at Heritage Park in Barrie.

The Beaver Race, one of the main attractions of the beaver festival, is like a rubber ducky race but with beavers. Ten thousand rubber beavers will be available to be purchased for racing at $10 a beaver. Proceeds from the race and festival will go to Hospice Simcoe (www.hospicesimoce.ca) and the Kempenfelt Rotary Club (www.clubrunner.ca/CPrg/Home/homeD.asp?cid=188).

Ahhhh every good idea is imitated! What was it I wrote in April? Oh right, that it would a good idea for Sutter Creek to replace its duck races with beaver races and that they’d get national news out of it. Funny. There will also be a beaver public art contest. You know, where groups buy the beaver statue and then have artists paint it for auction. Main Street Martinez was interested in this idea last year but decided to go with bulldogs instead. Go Figure. And how many times have I said that this company needs to sponsor our festival? A million?

Well the truth is you need one of these in every province of Canada and we need at least one in every state. There should be an important educational component about the good beavers can do for the watershed and how to easily solve beaver problems. I wrote organizer Krista LaRiviere to remind her. Give us a call if you need any pointers, Krista, this will be our third. Wait, are there any ideas that might have been useful but you have forgotten to appropriate? I wouldn’t want Barrie to embark without every possible advantage. Ohhh don’t forget this one.

Wild Birds Unlimited

heidi08 Uncategorized May 8, 2010

Worth A Dam will host a table today at this magical store in Pleasant Hill. If you’ve never been you should stop by and look at their track-stopping aviary where brightly colored exotic birds sing and flutter in perfect comfort. If you’re a regular you should still stop by and pick up some spring seed and a lovely card or gift for mom. Wild Birds has been a big supporter of the beavers since way back when, and donated to our festival last year in several generous ways. Today I’ll be helped by Scott of JournOwl, who has been interested in contributing to the beavers and is also working to network with a community of supporters for his burrowing owls. It should be a friend-filled day. We always have fun at their shows. Remember this from last May?

One of most the delightful moments at the Wild Birds Unlimited fair was an approach from a retired teacher named Virginia, who stood patiently while I was talking to someone else and silently waited with a furry beaver puppet on her hand. She explained that her (3rd grade?) elementary classroom had been the “busy beavers” and that a parent who hand made puppets had made her the beaver original.

Now I’m a big fan of folkmanis, but this beaver was adorable, and had the slightly scruffy well loved look that told me he had a very active child-cuddled life.

(You’re all familiar I trust with the story of the velveteen rabbit and what it means for a favorite stuffed animal to become “real”? Well this beaver was well on its way…)

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day. “Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

Virginia thought that since she wasn’t in the classroom anymore, she would give it to me to use in future child beaver presentations. She had carried it in a plastic baggie all the way to the bird store because she knew Worth A Dam would be there. She was absolutely delighted with the idea that the beaver would continue helping children.

As freely as this gift was offered, I knew it couldn’t be mine. This was a precious totem of her heroic adventures in the classroom battlefield and the light in her eyes told me it reminded her every time she held it why she started teaching in the first place. We agreed that she would keep the puppet, and that she would let me hold it for a while and take a picture with her iphone (of which she spoke so fondly I thought it might also be becoming “real” too…) and she would send me the photo when she could.

The moment I slipped on the puppet I could practically feel the energy and echos of a room full of laughing children. A sudden need to make a beaver voice possessed me, and I knew the first thing out of that beavers mouth would have to be “oh no! mayor rob was trying to kill me!” by the time he got to the sheetpile paneling in their lodge the beaver would have descended into a George Carlin monologue that wasn’t safe for public viewing.

I extracted him unwillingly from my hand, patted the beaver’s head and furry tail and handed him gently back, suggesting she poke some holes in that plastic bag.

Thanks Virginia, for sharing your very special gift with me, and reminding me how our seamstress beavers can thread the needle of community spirit to stich perfect strangers together.