We’ve had some great interest in this year’s festival. A lovely article by our friend Dana Guzzetti ran yesterday in the Pleasant Hill Record part of the Contra Costa Times. Just look,
Wildlife experts, artists, entertainers, teachers and scientists will be at the sixth annual Martinez Beaver Festival in Beaver Park with guided creek tours, games, hands-on projects, 41 display booths, music and information on the beavers, fish, otters, birds and vegetation surrounding beaver construction sites.
“The festival brings together many groups that have the same mindset of education and awareness of our environment — the flora and fauna and the animals that share it,” said photographer Cheryl Reynolds, who is vice president of Worth a Dam
“We can solve problems in new ways and get a huge benefit from it,” Perryman said. “We have new species of fish and birds, all because of the beavers. It is really a nice lesson of how a city can do something different and reap a tremendous reward.”
Yes it is! Thanks Dana and Cheryl! Another story ran in the Martinez Patch, by Derek Wilson.
The festival is scheduled for Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at “Beaver Park.” A group from Whitman College will be at the festival filming a documentary entitled “Beaver Believers.” The short film is expected to make the rounds at film festivals and competitions. Another documentary, “Beaver Whisperers,” is expected to be released soon.
“Martinez has worked hard to get that good relationship with the beavers,” Peryman said. “More than 200 people were at that meeting to decide what would happen to the beavers. Our beavers are so uniquely visible, so that helped. Everyone can see them on the way to Starbucks in the morning for coffee.”
Perryman states the beavers are actually helping the health of the wetlands. Their dam creates a hospitable place for small bugs that feed fish. As fish populations grow, more birds come to the area to feed on them.
Derek does a nice job for his first time on the ‘beaver beat!’ although there is a strange passage in the article where he quotes me as saying they are “CUTE”, which I cannot believe ever came out of my mouth. Although, let’s be honest, they’re adorable!
Perryman’s idea for a festival seems to have worked beyond all expectations. This year’s fair welcomes the Marine Mammal Center and groups trying to raise awareness of coyotes, mountain lions, endangered species of frogs and other animals native to Northern California.
Perryman also notes that there have been other festivals around the country and in Canada based on the Martinez Beaver Festival. “It’s been a hard road to get here,” Perryman admits of the festival’s success, “but it’s been worth it.”
Goodness! Beaver ambassadors are spreading like communism in Asia, furry environmental Nazi’s marching their way throughout Europe. We’re coming to your town soon. The hand that saves the beaver rules the world!
A package arrived yesterday from Oregon. It was a gift from Renee and Patrick Russell. Patrick has become a devoted fan of beavers and this website. He has been doing a stalwart job of teaching his watershed friends on the Clackamas why they whould care about beavers. Renee his wife accepted his interest bemusedly – as wives will do. She decided on supporting his obsessive new beaver interest by embroidering a gift for me of a beaver dishtowel – see for yourself.
Isn’t she beautiful? As you may or may not know, Beatrice was Dante’s guide out of purgatory and into paradise, which I suppose could be considered a symbol of teaching someone something new that changes things. Like beavers, for instance. You might think that I would be nobly tempted to selflessly include this gift in the silent auction but if you thought such a foolish thing you’d be dead wrong because its mine and I love it! Thanks so much Renee. And Patrick for really taking on the beaver mantel!
Now for more news of yesterday, I had lunch with the good folk of Kiwanis yesterday and gave a talk on the Beavers in Martinez. Honestly the very best, brightest and kindest folk in Martinez are all in Kiwanis, and shhh… just between us…the other ones are in Rotary.
Then I rushed home and met Phil Brick and Sarah Koenigsberg for the Beaver Believer’s documentary. They spent some time searching about and deciding where to film, then settled on the back yard and got everything ready: A sun shade, some cameras on tripods, a big fuzzy boom microphone and some other odds and ins. Then Phil did the interview and Sarah took the video. We had to stop and restart for interruptions like church bells and icecream trucks in the background, and I stopped for water after an hour. I must have taken quite a while, because Jon was pacing about with dinner by the time we were finished.
After we enjoyed a lively dinner and conversation with some lovely beaver creek wine, of which my favorite part was when they talked about being in the bar last night in Berkeley where they mentioned they were in town for the festival and having a man say he knew all about it because he heard it on KCBS! Then we all went to see the famous animals themselves (who did not disappoint) before finishing with a last bit of audio.
The whole process was uniquely pleasant and affirming. Often in interviews I am achingly aware of the razor thin attention-span and the need to whittle what I want to say into the smallest appetizing sound byte. This time I got to say whatever I wanted. In the order I wanted. And as precisely as I wanted. If I coughed or said a word wrong we could do it again. And if I thought of something I wanted to add that was okay too. For the first time in my life I can honestly say I got to talk about beavers ENOUGH.
In fact, when they left I was reminded of the old Paula Poundstone routine, where she’d end her night of standup with a wistful,
“I did a hour and a half last night and I would have done more, but the club had really bad security and lots of the audience got away!”
See you tomorrow! And sorry about the server crash. Big conspiracy in anti-beaver lobby to take down Blue Host this morning.
