Gatherings

heidi08 Beavers July 31, 2012

Homeless beavers stir more calls for better wildlife management

Anita’s group had a successful protest yesterday in the city that believes destroying a lodge is a humane way to get rid of beavers. They had lots of media there, and inspired at least two defensive emails from the city to me explaining that there was no other way to discourage beavers than destroying their lodge because storm water ponds are special-extraordinary-exceptional cases and flow devices couldn’t possibly work no matter what those icky experts told you. Heck, I’m convinced, aren’t you?

The neighbours of a family of Stittsville beavers whose lodge was destroyed by the city at the end of June called for a better wildlife strategy Monday outside city hall.

“There’s no reason to kill the mother beaver and her kits,” said Lynne Rowe, a member of the Constance Creek Wildlife Refuge, citing the city’s current policy of trapping and killing the animals. “We need to look for other ways to deal with the issue rather than just killing them.”

Well good for Anita and all the supporters, and I hope the mayor sees pictures of dead baby beavers in his sleep, or at least in his newspaper. I made sure to forward the condescending emails to the most incendiary places so hopefully they will spark some new action down the road.

In the meanwhile I just want to say ACK-BEAVER-FESTIVAL and allow me to answer the myriad of questions I have received in the last 48 hours by saying “no you can’t be added now, move your booth closer to the restroom, have an extra tent, or get a table even though you never paid for one. No you can’t drive in after the event has started and we won’t save you a parking place or a charm necklace or give you a coupon for dinner. No we can’t put the number of your booth on the lawn where your space will be, no the park doesn’t have a name and no we don’t have free llama rides for the kids.

That about covers it. Time to watch this over and over again.

And look at this whenever I ask myself why I do this

The Countdown…

heidi08 Beavers July 30, 2012

So we’re down to the wire – time ticking away where I have to be sure to remember to call allied waste, or public works and my ‘to do’ list looks like a phone book. Dana from the times is running a nice story again for the festival and we’re hoping more folks than just my mother are there….(although she will be there). And what about you? Are you coming? It would be great to see you again! And it would also be great if you could sign up to spend an hour volunteering to hand out fliers or help us set up tents. Honestly, 423 people read this site every Monday, so if even one percent of you volunteered, we’d be sitting pretty. If you can help email me. If you are too far away, send us five dollars or a pizza for support! Be part of the Worth A Dam team. (Beaver people are the best people.)

Last night the beavers must have felt sorry for us because they granted several viewings. Mom, Dad, Reed and Junior at a high tide that turned the secondary dam to soup mix. Here’s some nice coverage of our new kits feet underwater, set to the lilting delusional rant of a passing homeless man.

I guess they were feeling a little upstaged because last week there were six (6!) otters under the Marina Vista Bridge, and everyone was busy taking pictures of them. Moses showed me amazing footage of them hauling out to rest on the bank after chowing down on whatever delicious meal has been passing through Alhambra Creek lately. All the beavers seemed determined to make an appearance last night. We even saw Dad with his massive head swimming about. And lots of this

Had a nice surprise yesterday from our good friends at Wild Birds Unlimited in Pleasant Hill, and we’re heading to John Muir Mountain Day Camp for a little beaver gospel Wednesday. We owe them because the John Muir Historic site is kindly loaning us the stage and awnings for the festival. I plan on mentioning Enos Mills trip to visit his friend and the chapter where he calls beavers “The Original Conservationists“. Maybe you all have a good idea about how to keep 15 canopies from blowing away, because it looks like it might be windy Saturday. I can’t think of anything else we forgot. Can you?

Glynnis Hood: Agents of Change

heidi08 Beavers October 30, 2014

Interview with Glynnis Hood

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Shooting the Gift Horse in the Mouth – er tail

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now? July 28, 2012

The county board of administrators in DeSoto Mississippi are mighty worried and face a gnawing problem. Mind you – they’re not worried about the worst drought conditions the state has seen in any time during any growing season EVER. Or about the fact that this declared drought has been named a national disaster by the federal government making it eligible for FEMA. They’re not worried that besides DeSoto it affects 1000 counties and 26 states. Who’s counting? The elected officials at the top of Mississippi have more pressing things on their minds.

BEAVERS!

So just this week they sat down to discuss the problem and consider re-instituting the tail bounty that had been so popular in years past.

“There are people out there who’d like to do it,” DRCUA board member Barry Bridgforth said of collecting a fee for beaver tails. “We’re not trying to eradicate the beaver population but control it because they’re rampant in DeSoto County. If there’s a sizable body of water, they’re in there.“

See we’ll pay folks to kill beavers and at the same time take money from the federal government for drought conditions, because hand outs are only a problem when they go to THOSE people. What other choice do we possibly have?

Bridgforth pointed to a pond on the property of fellow board member Joe Frank Lauderdale: “He’s only got one tree left on his island in the pond. The beavers got rid of all his ornamentals.”

All the ornamentals! How much can one man suffer? He obviously has no choice. Certainly you can’t expect them to wrap the trees they want to protect with wire or paint them with sand. That would be barbaric! Much better to pay 10 dollars a tail and let folks kill themselves some pocket money. Times are tough. And beavers are cluttering up our creeks.You know the REALLY annoying thing they do in our creeks? They pile up all this mud and sticks and back up the water in these little stagnant ponds. They do it all over and all the time and in every stream they find! Sometimes they clutter up the creek with ponds so much we can hardly show the USDA officers how bad our drought is. We better get rid of them right away.

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I’ll tell you what. Maybe its a naming problem. Let’s not call them beavers let’s call then ‘water-savers’. See these little guys hunt down any remaining trickles you have left and hoard them into pools. They dig holes and build dams and pile mud and raise the water table so that you miserable wells have a little more water, and the hyporheic exchange through the banks cools your water temperatures so that a few of your remaining fish don’t get baked. And the deer drink from them and the turtles and frogs retreat to them, and waterbirds hang out on the banks so they have something to eat. And when this pondwater comes out on the other side of the dam its actually cleaner! Because the dam has filtered it! Oh and what price do these water-keepers charge to do this labor, live on sight, train the new workforce and make repairs onsight 24/7?

Nothing, They work for free.

But thanks to the county board of supervisors in DeSoto you can now get $10 a tail for killing them. Sweet.

The End of an Era

heidi08 featured, Friends of Martinez Beavers July 27, 2012

Gary Bogue is retiring

Can you believe it? Today appeared his very last column. All the years of good advice and hard work will end with some much-deserved rest. Gary’s done a lot for pet owners and wildlife over the years, but I cannot exaggerate in the slightest sense how important he was to saving the Martinez Beavers. It was Gary who pushed for a common-sense humane solution and Gary who was the voice of reason from the Times when everyone was ready to believe all the city’s lies about the trouble they were causing.

In fact, so long ago that I can barely remember, the wildlife biologist from the SF Chapter of the Sierra Club invited me to their board meeting because she wanted to push them to adopt a position paper on the Martinez Beavers. As you may know the Sierra Club has never made a habit of worrying about wildlife, or beavers, they are more concerned with wild spaces. I drove at night to a dingy office building on San Pablo Ave where an unbelievably large number of strangers sat in a room making very dry, foreign-sounding decisions. I showed some beaver photos and said a few words, a few folks hemmed and hawed and then they voted. Afterwards the president took me aside and said very quietly that I should thank Gary Bogue. Because he was their respected friend of many years and had pushed for this action to happen behind the scenes. They wouldn’t have gotten involved without him, and the city would probably not have halted the train without them.

I thought such an important occasion needed an important goodbye, so I sent him this last week. Enjoy it and stop by his column to comment a few words of your own. So long Gary, and thanks for all the fish!

There are ‘possums in my pantry

There are raccoons on my roof

When I come back from vacation my new kitten acts aloof.

There are ducklings in the drainpipe

There are snakes beneath the stair

We need volunteers at Lindsay to assist with wildlife there.

Never fear, the answer’s local

And the naturalist is vocal

If it’s feathered, scaled or hairy

We would send a note to Gary

There are gophers in my garden

There are foxes on the fence