Remember Ian Timothy’s wonderful packaging of his five part claymation series “Beaver Creek” that he offered for the Silent Auction? Well he was pretty happy with how it turned out, too. Amidst the flurry of launching episode V he generated lots of new viewers and interest. I received an email yesterday from Joe Cannon of the Lands Council in Washington State. As you might recall, the Lands Council is the powerful information and advocacy group behind the “Working Beaver Conference” a few years back and the “Beaver Solution” production last year. It also has two Americorp positions teaching beaver management and stream solutions.
My Americorps coworker and I are coordinating a film fest themed on environmental issues and sustainable living. We’re showing several films, including the Imax “Beavers” film, and would like to show Ian Timothy’s Beaver creek animations series shown on your website. I’m so glad you’ve promoted his talents! These episodes are really great, and would be perfect for short segments between films! What would the best way to coordinate getting the DVD from him? If nothing else, I can try to connect with him through Facebook. I’m pretty sure the theater we are coordinating with can show DVD format.
Thanks! Joe
Joe Cannon
Beaver Solution Project AssistantThe Lands Council
So of course I got pretty excited and did a “Ian this is Joe, Joe this is Ian” email. I just hope Ian isn’t so bogged down with the beginning of the school year he can’t get to the post office! An environmental film festival is a great and well deserved honor to add to his resume. You know, of course, there should be an “introduction to the artist” segment included in the series, with some footage of him painstakingly fixing the clay scene, photographing and then moving it a fraction of an inch, and doing the whole thing again. It could show him doing his homework and sitting with his friends at high school and maybe it could say how he got interested in beavers?
Vermette pointed out where beavers had built a dam across one of the waterways, thus raising the water level behind it significantly. In many areas beavers can be problem animals, but here their dam slows the water flow still more, thus enhancing the marsh’s role in improving water quality.
Considering the bitter smack much of New York has been happy to talk about beavers, this article is a breath of fresh air. It describes two graduate students charged with monitoring, testing and studying the area, and who have been particularly enthusiastic about the effect of the resident beaver dam. The article goes on to describe how beavers often cause problems and dams are routinely destroyed by the transportation department, but how these students petitioned to let these particular beaver stay and help the polluted waters. Guess how well its working? The bemused article makes it sound like this healing dam is something unique or special, and sadly doesn’t mention that beavers could be bestowing the same gifts everywhere if they were just allowed to live. I wrote them the following:
Gerry Riser’s charming piece about the beaver dam improving water quality in Woodlawn wetlands seems to suggest that the good work done by this helpful dam is the exception rather than the rule. The truth is that once the transportation department stops wasting taxpayer dollars on futile dam removal and invests instead in real solutions like flow devices and culvert fences, every waterway, stream and creekside can be significantly improved by the addition of beavers. The secret wetlands of Woodlawn are only rare in their appreciative scholars: beavers benefit any waterway that is lucky enough to have them.
I heard from Sharon of Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife that they did a consult for a flow device in the area as well, so Buffalo should know better than to think ripping out dams is the solution.
Photo: Berryessa US DEPT of Interior
On a entirely different note I saw amazing footage taken by Moses yesterday morning of a MASSIVE otter in the area between the dams. His long whiskers and huge size let us know this is an otter that has seen many, many summers. Moses wasn’t willing to share the footage with the website, but keep your eyes peeled. We didn’t see sign of him last night, or the beavers either for a good long time and I was starting to get nervous. The kits eventually emerged as cheerful as you please, GQ crossed delightfully over the dam, a muskrat swam by and three green herons flew in for a squabble on the filter. All in all, it’s a pretty healthy habitat. Hear that Buffalo?
Have you heard the news about the race for the city council in Martinez? It’s an actual RACE with people that are actually NEW. I was told once by a man I very much respect that the combined time in office for our current city council (if you add up all the years one was mayor before one became a council member etc) is 50+ years. That’s what I call an old school. Well a new school year is in session and Martinez actually has real options. I thought I’d introduce you to two of my favorites today and maybe if you’re downtown for Art in the Park you can stop by and meet them for yourself. Before I do, I am reminded by Worth A Dam member Lory that the goal of Worth A Dam is to align with all beaver supporters everywhere and alienate no one. Certainly we are a broadly based group with attachments and beliefs all over the political spectrum. Worth A Dam as an organization doesn’t endorse any candidate without castor glands. Let me just say that these are two women I, Heidi Perryman, happen to like. They have been good citizens and good friends to the beavers and are smart, creative thinkers.
I first met Kathi at the final beaver subcommittee meeting in April where I presented the findings to the board at the county chambers room downtown. She came up and introduced herself and her support, asked me to think about running for council, and said that she was planning to do so after another term on the school board. Fresh from 90 days of controlling my temper on the subcommittee (well 89) and dealing with very stubborn politicians and staff I said that I would rather be eaten alive by wild dogs but a friendship was sparked.
Kathi became more involved several months later when the sheetpile palooza party started. We relied on her knowledge of the Brown Act to play “spot the atrocity” as the council steamrolled a very bad idea over the voters objections. One of my favorite memories of Kathi was going to a council meeting where they had a “closed door meeting” before the regular one. She asked them to take public comment before the session and they indignantly said that they didn’t have to. She produced her Brown act book and said that it was the law and perhaps they’d like to check with the city attorney? They furrowed their collective brow, went and called the city attorney with came back sullenly to take public comment before a closed door session – which they never did before, but which is now routine. One of the things I will like best about having Kathi on the council is having someone who knows the rules.
I met Gay through Bill Wainwright, a former council member who was {/column2}instrumental in helping me know how to advocate for the beavers. I went to her delightful home for a meeting about networking and circulating information. She is on the Parks, Rec, Marina & Library commission which is every bit as ungainly as its name suggests. Gay is the voice of reason and cool clarity at those meetings. With a background in her own successful business and success now devoted to caring occasionally for her grandchildren, she knows how to get things done and how to redirect stubborn interests. When we went to ask permission to install the tile bridge and the very fopish member pontificated that they couldn’t approve it because “there was no cultural plan for the city so he couldn’t know what art was” Gay quietly motioned the project be approved. And it was. Gay has seen the best of Martinez and is pretty much known to everyone who knows anything: her home is the site for opera fund-raises, candidate luncheons, and exciting discussion. She’s also seen the worst of Martinez: broken promises, secret backroom deals and lots of buck passing to blame the other guy. Gay knows how things work in the ‘real world’ but also knows how to appreciate the spirit of community gifts like the beavers.
I’m thinking that this years election cycle will offer some real choices. The beavers and Worth A Dam will like you whomever you vote for, but spend some time checking these two candidates and think about what they might have to offer.
In the world of beaver news we had a confirmed otter sighting last night at the secondary dam, a new tree chewed almost to falling over the water and a possible mink visitation. Three kits, GQ, visitors from Los Altos and two more converts from my Close to Home talk, all who went out to dinner in town.
Just so we don’t become too jaded and accustomed to our wondrous creek viewing, I thought I’d take a moment to list some surprising things about going to visit the beavers. The first has to be their size. Everyone gasps the same thing when GQ lumbers out of the water. “They’re so BIG!” The tail slap, if you’re lucky enough to get one, is a big surprise. I saw my first one in May of 2008 on a morning where there was a massive otter hanging out on the beaver dam. Dad slapped 19 times and I was finally able to get the last one on film!
The fact that beavers don’t eat fish or live in the dam comes as a surprise to many people at first. People are also surprised to learn that they don’t pat mud with their tails but can walk upright when they carry it. The kit tail size brings wonders of its own, and everyone seems to adore their little tail. Ahh. But beavers don’t have a monopoly on surprises. How about the way turtles leave their heads above water while they float and hang out? Or the amazing squawk of the green heron when his repose has been disturbed? Don’t forget the rapid swimming of the muskrat who appears to go right into the beaver lodge at times, or the fact that everyone uses the same passage over the primary dam. I never fail to be surprised by the huge splash that comes when a massive fish leaps out of the water. And my most recent surprise has been a reminder of how well your basic Norwegian rats can swim, and even dive!
I guess turning beavers into gold isn’t really all that surprising. It was once the driving force in opening the west. A lot of people did it. Millions of beavers were turned into gold and the entire terrain and geology of a country changed forever. Places that had never known drought became arid, and places that had once supported rich growth flooded over. Never mind that’s no surprise. Beavers were turned into gold all the time. But how about this?
With all of three months under their beaver belts, our kit triumvirate have developed a new skill which they practice with great regularity. Lets call it the “sneaking up skill.” It used to be that our kits would swim into view like hollywood dancers in a chorus line, as flashy and look-at-me as you please. Now they emerge more quietly, eye the destination, and fill their little lungs with air to dive under and swim towards it. Sometimes only a line of bubbles marks their arrival. This breath holding and bubble blowing is a skill to develop along with diving and powering underwater. They blow far more bubbles than dad, for example. Adult beavers can slow their heart rates and take their body systems down to hold their breath for up to 15 minutes. Our three could never manage that, because by the time they “pop” out of the water, they are eager to breathe and eat.
Still, its a huge achievement, and its funny to see them use it, in every arrival without exception, for the last 10 days. For a reminder of how beavers propel themselves in water check out this video. The water has been weirdly clear and you have a great view of his working feed, paddling away.
Remember if you come to beaver watch that you might be sitting sadly thinking that there is no beaver activity when suddenly POP a beaver will emerge like an unexpected U-boat in a grainy WWII movie. It makes your watching job that much more challenging!
