Join us on November 28th, the wednesday after thanksgiving, for a beaver viewing and to celebrate the full beaver moon! Look for us at the footbridge around 5 in the evening and dress warm!
What a great crowd! What a beautiful theater! What a delightful setting! About 100 Rossmoorians came yesterday to hear the exciting tale of the Martinez beavers and to learn about the effect they are having on Alhambra Creek. I can’t tell you how nice it was to just show up and have a tech plug in the sound system and everything for me. Or how charming the organizer (and my host) Robert Carlton was – standing in the huge parking lot with a “Nature Association” sign so we’d know where to go in the massive grounds – and saving me his article from the newsletter below.
We brought the scrapbook, the banners and the chew along with brochures and festival pamphlets. There was a huge movie screen, and the comfortable seats were mostly filled by people who really wanted to learn about beavers. Raging Grannie and beaver friend Gail drove all the way from Palo Alto to attend! And our own Cheryl Reynolds mom was happily in the audience. Great questions included the gestation period of beavers and why a city would install sheetpile in a creek.
Of course my very favorite was the retired biologist who wanted to know what kind of grants we were receiving from fish and wildlife?
It’s still the same old worry
The digging, damming, furry
A danger to the dry
The world will never welcome beavers
As time goes by
Apologies to Herman Hupfeld
Thriving beaver population ‘threatens’ Dutch flood banks
The Netherlands' beaver population is expected to grow from 700 to 7,000 by 2032
A thriving beaver population is threatening the stability of the Netherlands’ sea defences, a group of experts has warned. The Mammal Society has brought together other wildlife groups to work out how to protect these important water-blocking dykes from the small but potentially destructive semi-aquatic rodents.
You know, it’s a funny thing about the worry that beavers are tunneling all through your ground, and the folks in Martinez could tell you the story over a mug of bier and a kopstootor two. This might come as a shock, so sit down and get comfortable. Are you ready?
Sometimes they lie.
So far, there have been no beaver sightings in the capital, Amsterdam.But beaver expert Vilmar Dijkstra assures me it is only a matter of time.
“When people have not had beavers before they do not know how to cope when they come and that is why we need to make sure we are all prepared.” ‘In their nature’ The Netherlands’ famous dykes protect the land from being flooded: without these sea defences huge swathes of the country would be underwater.
In areas where the dykes are directly connected to the water, the beavers are starting to burrow through the ground. There have been two cases that the Mammal Society is aware of, in which the water board has been called in to repair the damaged dykes.
Two cases? Two cases in a quarter of a century where you have assumed that damage to the levies was caused by beavers and the BBC reports on it? Are you serious? You do realize that beavers don’t ‘tunnel’ right? I mean they’re not excavating mine shafts of staging jewelry heists. You might want to glance at this and think a little about the reality of beaver digging before you leap into alarm mode.
Or you could be like Martinez and spend half a million dollars to put a wall of sheetpile in front of another wall of sheetpile. That works too.
Is it possible to love a county? Sonomish County, once home to famed watershed steward and beaver champion Jake Jacobsen (now retired) who along this journey gave me more advice than any one person should be forced to share. This smart, creative, ecologically resourceful county is now teaming up with Adopt-a-Stream to show the beaver movie once again. Of course it will be introduced by Sammy the Salmon who will talk about the essential effect of beaver ponds for juvenile salmonids.
This could be one of the best dam movies you’ll ever see.
The Adopt A Stream Foundation and Snohomish County Parks and Recreation are partnering to present the IMAX movie “Beavers” on Friday in Everett.
This is a free showing and a movie the whole family can watch and learn from. “Beavers” is short, 31 minutes, taking viewers into the real-time world of a beaver family. The story is set in the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountains with pristine scenery of forests and lakes.
The stars of the film are a family of beavers, and you will watch as baby beavers, or kits, grow and play. You will see how the beavers transform the world around them by cutting down trees and making dams.
“The whole family will be able to take a virtual swim with beavers and experience the beautiful underwater habitat of one of nature’s greatest engineers,” said Tom Murdoch, Adopt A Stream Foundation director.
As part of the presentation, “Sammy the Salmon” will introduce the film by explaining to the audience the benefits that beavers provide to salmon, trout and other wildlife.
Tom! Ol’ buddy! Are we happy to meet you! Tom works for Snohomish Parks and Recreation Department and founded the Adopt-A-Stream movement to teach folks how to become stewards. What a fantastic idea!
Hey, I know some beavers who adopted a stream once. They were onsight 24/7 and made repairs every day! It was amazing what they did for it! We definitely need to talk. Come to think of it: what’s Sammy doing in August? Maybe he’d like to take a trip to the home town of John Muir for a certain Beaver Festival?
As of 7:47 a.m. my internet is restored! Whooo hooo! Obviously after things die down with Tom and Sammy I believe I will marry the wonderful technician who brought me a new modem this morning. I cannot begin to tell you how fun it is NOT to huddle over a laptop in the northernmost corner of your house. The things I do for beavers!
The CBC4Kids was launched in 2007 by Tom Rusert and Darren Peterie of Sonoma Birding and has been spreading across North America ever since. Select this link to read a BirdWatch Canada article about the program’s development and BSC’s involvement.
Participants prepare to count birds with a bird identification and binocular workshop before setting out in small teams led by experienced birders. Teams spend a morning birdwatching, recording species and individuals along pre-determined survey routes. Finally, teams tally and share results, and learn the importance of Citizen Science monitoring for bird conservation.
And check out the snazzy PDF in English and French!You should remember Tom and Darren from the last two festivals. They have been very interested in the relationship between birds and beavers since we first me in 2010. Tom is a ‘get things done’ kinda guy, and he will make friends with anyone willing to talk birds even if it means wooing the executioner. That has proven a very very powerful weapon in his struggle, as has the generous application of the word KIDS. Tom and Darren consider it very high praise when I say you are definitely both Worth A Dam!
Tom! Ol’ buddy! Are we happy to meet you! Tom works for Snohomish Parks and Recreation Department and founded the Adopt-A-Stream movement to teach folks how to become stewards. What a fantastic idea!
