Month: October 2010

Just Us…

heidi08 Uncategorized October 11, 2010

it’s been a busy weekend with lots beaver troubles from other lands and website distractions.The upgrade was almost entirely a success mostly because it doesn’t look much different…sort of like how putting a new engine in your car doesn’t change the color. Speaking of which we will probably change the color and trim in the next few days, but the most difficult job is done and I’m sooooo grateful.

It was great to spend familiar time last night with our three kits who put on a grand show which included the usual swimming, chewing, and exploring along with some very cute pausing. I’ve never seen anything ‘pause’ with as much regard and determination as a beaver. It’s as if you can see their minds at work but you have no idea what they’re thinking. In my day, the moments where I pause are the moments when I forgot what I was going to do, or why I came into that room in the first place. People pause when their minds are in neutral. I think beavers pause when they’re firmly in gear.

There were a host of new visitors to the dam last night, from as far away as Oakland and San Francisco. They came for the first time because of the Bay Nature issue. The beavers did not disappoint and I’m sure Martinez has more friends today than it did yesterday. There has been a slimy green pollen in the water in the beaver pond for the past week, which leaves a trail where the beavers have passed. It is starting to clear a little, the turtles can poke their noses through, and that is a welcome sight.

Have you made your reservation for the Santa Clara Creeks Conference? I know you’re thinking, what on earth does that have to do with beavers? But I can assure you that this year’s topic will be the first ever in California to contrast the benefits of beaver dams and the hardships of concrete dams. If the topic gets the traction it deserves there will be twenty more next year and beavers will be welcomed in cities all over California. Check out the speakers list and you’ll see why I’m already starting to get nervous.

And just in case you need more joy to your Monday, I saw this and had to share. What I love about is that you see the wild foxes ‘discover’ that the ground feels different, and experiment with it. Which means, when you think about it, that foxes know about gravity and how the ground is ‘supposed’ to feel. Who knew?

“It’s The Trees!”

heidi08 Educational, Environmental October 10, 2010

Yesterday I was reading through the latest issue of the SFEP newsletter and I happened to spy an interesting article about how the Army Core of Engineers feels about trees on levees. Turns out they’re against them, and asking every city in the nation to rip out trees that are within 15 feet of the waterway.

The original ordinance was announced back in June of 2009 along with a requirement to ‘fill in animal burrows’ and remove woody debris. (I bet you can guess why this article got my attention.) The requirement got a lot of pushback from environmental groups. So much so that the USACE released its own “don’t believe the lies you heard” web page. Which outlines the outlandish things they’ve been accused of and justifies them without ever denying them in any way whatsoever. Here’s a favorite:

Error: The Corps ordered thousands of trees chopped down.

Fact: The Corps notifies levee project sponsors of operation and maintenance deficiencies, which may include vegetation, animal burrows, encroachments, and closure structures. These deficiencies must be corrected to remain eligible in this voluntary program for federal rehabilitation and repair assistance following a flood.

Translation: You only need to remove all nesting locations for those damned birds and close the stinkin’ rabbit holes if you want our money! If you don’t want it we can take it to some other city that deserves it more. The rule is that if you fail to do all these ridiculous things we, (like that fire department in Tennessee), aren’t responsible for you! If we come out to a flood situation and see one single tree branch floating by we’re not going to pay you a dime or lift a shovel. Got that? Don’t come crying to us if your cities wash all the way out to sea, this job is really hard and besides KATRINA WASN”T OUR FAULT! WAHHHHHH!!!

This was my favorite under ‘key points’

Proper operation and maintenance (O&M) of levee systems is a critical component of public safety and the consequences of O&M issues, such as vegetation on levees, floodwalls or dams, go beyond a breach or failure. While vegetation and other encroachments can harm the structural integrity of the infrastructure, it can also obscure visibility for visual inspections, impede access for maintenance and inspection, and/or hinder emergency flood fighting operations.

Did you get that? All those darn trees block our view when we come out once a decade to check how things are working. It’s really hard to see all the reasons why we aren’t responsible and how your community is really at fault. Sometimes we have to move branches and they’re really scratchy, we get mosquito bites and the mud is slippery. Back off people. All these boxes won’t check themselves!!!!!!

Ahh, dear sweet, overworked ACE. (Isn’t that cool that your initials are ACE? Like a handsome P.I. or something. I know you like initials) I know you’ve had a hard, hard time of late, people were awfully mean about the levees in that Gulf Coast town, and you had those awkward whistleblowers and documentaries made about you. It’s been a nightmare! Here, have a beer. Sit in the good chair. Put your feet up. Better? I want to tell you a little secret about trees that might make you feel differently.

You see, trees have a part you can see and another part you can’t see. (Stop me if I’m going to fast for you.) The part you can’t see is under the ground. Well it turns out they’re about equal in size. Imagine that! All those forks and branches are mirrored under the soil. They’re called ROOTS and there’s millions of them.

I understand you’re worried about your levees. Look at all those things under there! And its not just the trees! The grasses and blackberries and tulles and thistle…All those matted roots…I can understand why you’re stressed….but ACE. Roots are our friends! More importantly, roots are YOUR FRIENDS. Think of them as if they were holding their little hands under the soil. They’re making a net to support the dirt. To support YOUR LEVEES. They keep it altogether with their interlocking connections.

See, the roots are saving you hours and hours and hours of work – (paper and field). They are saving you angry documentaries when the levees collapse. They are on your team ACE. They are your FRIENDS.

In the interest of time I won’t post again how your own research proves that willows along streams help protect the levees, increase flow and reduce erosion, but go look here if you’re interested. I won’t waste time repeating again how woody debris is essential for salmon and trout. What would be the point? I will just assume that in the history of the world there has never been a government employee that doesn’t want his or her jobs to be easier. Who could blame you? Holding back water is hard work. Which is why I am here to remind you that Roots can help make that happen.

I suspect that this issue is coming to the forefront in the next few days as the regional ACE-representative has given Ca until the end of the month to make its case for riparian benefits. Stay tuned.

Keep Tahoe Beaver!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Who's Killing Beavers Now? October 9, 2010

Kings Beach Beavers

Once upon a time there was an enchanted forest by an Emerald Pool. People from all over the land traveled hundreds of miles to gaze at its glassy reflection, play in its sparkling waters and view its many grand peaks.They loved the way the sun set over the mountains, the way the hawk and eagle cried out over the tallest trees, and the dapple of deer-shadow that twitched its ears in the forest. They came to love the Emerald Pool so much they built homes right by its bank. They cut down the tall trees to make room for their families and built high fences to keep the twitching ears away from their roses. They drove SUV’s into the peaks and power boats into the middle of the Emerald Pool so they could see its beauty close up, and they complained when their waterways were interrupted.

One sturdy rodent struggled to make more ponds, plug leaks, trap silt and stimulate new tree growth near the Emerald Pool. It had been living there for thousands of years, but hunted to extinction for its thick soft fur nearly 200 years ago. When the rodent left a lot of the soil left too, eroding on the hillsides and rushing down the mountains. Without the caretaker to plug leaks and capture silt the watershed changed and steepened, so that the flowing water took much of the land’s richness away, and floods and droughts became a problem for the Emerald Pool. Without the rodent the land became vulnerable and untended, like the minds of the people, who forgot, in 200 years, what a massive difference a rodent could make.

They even forgot the caretaker used to call the Emerald Pool home.

Now at the northern end of the pool was a beach of Kings where at least once a year the residents worried that the rodents (who they had forgotten belonged there) would eat all the trees (whose numbers their pools actually increased) and block the sock-eye salmon (whose nursery’s they tended) and flood their homes (that didn’t belong there) and low-lying roads to make it harder to drive their SUV’s and launch their powerboats. The rodents were subsequently snared in silver wire and squeezed until there was no air left in their powerful lungs. And the people rejoiced.

In October of 2010 the residents again were worried about their houses and the silver snares were readied and drawn. A brave woman of the wilderness wondered if there might be a different way: a solution that protected the homes and the roads and the caretakers and the watershed. She contacted a wizard from New England who gave her magic instructions for controlling the water and letting the rodents stay. She talked to the men with snares and asked them to try another way. To celebrate, she called hundreds of children and men with cameras who gathered there beside the Emerald Pool to ask for merciful solutions that would protect the rodent and the land.

I was told last night that the children learned yesterday that four of the beavers had already been killed, even though public works had agreed to meet with the Cheryl of Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care. I cannot say how this story will end, but it is likely that there are more than four beavers in the colony and some will survive to take care of this year’s kits. In the meantime, the brave woman has Mike’s DVD and is meeting with Auburn Public Works to talk about real solutions. I have asked them to ‘guest blog’ when they can, and they assured me they would try.

If you would like to write them your thoughts why not try

Peter Kraatz of Placer County Public Works

The Board of Placer County Supervisors

David Bergnaud Reporter

A final note: Many, many, many thanks to our friend Scott Artis who worked on the website upgrade from 11-6 yesterday. While there is a pile of fingernails under my desk this morning, Scott was as steady and good-naturedly reassuring as you could possibly hope for. Thanks for our reader’s patience and THANK YOU SCOTT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beaver News Round-up

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Friends of Martinez Beavers, kits October 8, 2010

Looks like the LA Times just realized baby beavers are adorable. They ran this video on Wednesday and wrote the following:

We’ve never before heard a baby beaver complain.

Now we can say we’ve had that strange and distinct pleasure, thanks to the good folks at Nebraska Wildlife Rehab Inc. The Omaha-based center for the care of orphaned and injured wild animals took in these two cute but noisy little guys after their parents were killed in 2005.

The babies were cared for at the facility until they were old enough to be released into the wild.

We bet their caretakers missed them after their release — who wouldn’t grow attached to two adorable beaver babies? — but we suspect they didn’t miss their “ehn! ehn! ehn!” noises too much.

— Lindsay Barnett

Video: Nebraska Wildlife via YouTube

Hey I know where you can get some other adorable footage! Check out Bigonegeorgegrace and mtzbeavers on youtube! Speaking of which, I had the weird honor of being contacted by public access channel in Fort Brag this week. Turns out they wanted to run some of my video of canoeing the area in from the Mybluehouse account. I tried to sell them on beaver footage and talked about how badly the Noyo needs beavers, but they were committed to only using local footage. Well, otters will get fame, anyway. Can beavers be far behind?

In other news, our friend Mike Callahan has worked out a deal with AWI to sell his beaver management DVD for less, which I’m happy about. They want it as accessible to the public as possible and don’t want price to be prohibitive. I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that. He also mentioned he was approached by Fur-bearer Defenders in British Columbia to do several consults, but its a bad time of year for him to get away and he didn’t think he could manage it. Hopefully they’ll get somone else.

Don’t forget there will be web changes this weekend. Fingers crossed it will all be for the good!

Hi-chi-hi-nem

heidi08 History October 18, 2010

So beaver-friend Brock Dolman gathered with some Nevada-city beaver friends in preparation for this weekend’s indigenous people celebration “calling back the salmon‘ event. There he had the fortune of meeting Farrell Cunningham, one of the only living speakers of the Tsi-Akim Maidu language. Guess what they talked about?

“I asked him his Maidu opinion about pre-contact occurrence of beaver in their territory and he said that they have a word for beaver: Hi-chi-hi-nem and that it is a pre-contact original word vs. a post-contact newer word and thus he was confident that they were familiar with beaver in their territory, the majority of which is well above the 1000’ elevation on the West slope of the Sierras.”

Certainly good news for the continuing struggle to prove that beaver were native in california at higher elevations too. We will keep gathering stories.In the meantime you might enjoy this video of Farrell keeping the language alive through teaching.

A final note to regular readers of this blog is that our good friend Scott Artis of burrowing owl fame is going to be taking on the job of upgrading this site. What it means is that the look of the site will change while we get situated, especially the sidebars which will need to be disabled and updated. Don’t panic, www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress will be back and better than ever very soon. Fingers crossed and thank you, Scott!