Month: July 2015
This has been a very BEAVERY week in the news. Yesterday the Gazette chimed in.
At Home With Vivian: Vintage Beavers do Shakespeare
Yay for the Beaver Festival! The annual festival will feature live music, children’s activities, beaver tours and more than 40 ecological booths. Beavers in down town Martinez? Of course. Martinez has something for everyone.
According to my friend Wikipedia, “Now protected, the beaver have transformed Alhambra Creek from a trickle into multiple dams and beaver ponds, which in turn, led to the return of steelhead and North American river otter in 2008 and mink in 2009. The Martinez beavers probably originated from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta which once held the largest concentration of beaver in North America.”
Jeff and I enjoyed the Beaver Festival last year. There were lots of wildlife informational booths, many activities for children, and guided tours of the beaver habitat. It was a joyful place to be.
So do something out of the ordinary. Come to the 8th annual Beaver Festival on Saturday, Aug. 1, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Beaver Park (corner of Marina Vista and Castro streets). First 150 children attending will be able to collect 19 wildlife pins designed by Oakland artist Mark Poulin. The charms were purchased with a grant from the CCC Wildlife Commission. According to the Worth a Dam website (MartinezBeavers.org) “The activity will highlight the new wildlife seen in Alhambra Creek since the beavers arrived, and emphasize their role as a Keystone Species.”
To be honest, nothing makes me happier than when folks use Wikipedia to write about our beavers. Since our great friend Rickipedia is the one who wrote it, and he tells the story the exact same way I would. It’s a long column about cool things to do in Martinez and of course the peddler’s fair gets top billing, but never mind. It’s been a GRAND media week.
This morning I got an inquiry from the Martinez Tribune. Tribune? Apparently they saw a beaver near a wooden palate at Ward Street and wonder if we gave it to them to eat. (!) (Obviously they’re going to be another prescient media source in the metropolis.) Here’s the Tribune’s fun photo which is on their Facebook page this morning.
Finally a big article in the National Wildlife Federation this week about the science involved in beaver chewing trees. This has caused a little debate in the beaver world and I was waiting until there were clearer answers from the author. But in the meantime, you might as well enjoy the icing on the cake of a beaverly week.
Beavers: Masters of Downfall
How do beavers fell trees in a preferred direction? A 10-year study reveals the answer.
For the past 10 years, I have come here every summer with my research team from the University of Arizona to study the beaver’s most iconic yet poorly understood behavior: tree felling. Studies have shown that more than 70 percent of all large felled trees crash in the direction of the water where a beaver’s lodge is located, which is to the animal’s advantage. But the question I hoped to answer was: How do beavers make the complex calculations required for such accuracy? After a decade of study, hundreds of tree measurements and thousands of hours of direct observations and camera recordings, we now know the answer.
In beavers’ work, just as in human logging, the directionality of a tree fall is produced by the “hinge”—uneven cuts on opposite sides of the trunk. A tree with a cut on just one side, no matter how wide, can collapse in any direction. But an additional small cut on the opposite side will make the fall strongly directional, with the direction depending on whether the second cut is above or below the initial cut. If it’s above the first cut, the tree will fall in the direction of the initial cut; if below, the tree will fall the opposite way.
Making that second cut uneven in height to produce the hinge depends on changes in the beaver’s posture (sitting or standing) and the slope on which the tree is growing. On a tree that grows uphill from the water, for example, if a beaver starts cutting on the uphill side then simply circles the tree without changing its posture, it will produce a second cut below the first one—and a directional fall of the tree towards the water. Likewise, if the beaver starts its work on the downhill side of the tree and maintains its posture as it circles the tree, the tree will also fall toward the water.
We discovered that nearly all large trees in the area, especially those farther from water, had circular cuts of uneven heights and depths or directional hinges. In flat areas, beavers typically started their work on the side closest to water, gradually widening the cut over consecutive nights. Notably, as they circled the tree, they would rise on their hind legs, producing a second cut on the opposite side that was higher than the initial one. In just a few days, such trees would crash directly towards the water.
So beavers use directional cutting like loggers. Which surprises us not at all. But sparked a debate on whether trees fall towards the water naturally because they lean towards the open light. It seems to me that some trees don’t lean at all, and the research takes that into account in noting that they had directional cutting. Also that trees on the slope did NOT have it, because they didn’t need it to fall towards the water. It’s an interesting article, you should go read the whole thing.
And if you want to JOIN the National Wildlife Federation and maybe sign up for a subscription to Ranger Rick, you can do that tomorrow because Beth Pratt of the California chapter will be exhibiting there.
You’re coming tomorrow, right?
Martinez Beaver Festival promo 2015 from Tensegrity Productions on Vimeo.
Join us Saturday, August 1st, 2015 for the 8th annual Martinez Beaver Festival!
Is this what it looks like when you dominate the news cycle?
Nature photographer chronicles Martinez’s urban beavers
MARTINEZ — The city’s renowned downtown family of beavers has caught the rapt eye of a nationally acclaimed wildlife photographer, who has been capturing their comings and goings for several weeks.
Suzi Eszterhas, who has followed elephants in the African wild and penguins in Antarctica, has turned her lens to the lodge the beavers have built in Alhambra Creek — her first time photographing wild animals in an urban setting.
Capturing the Martinez colony’s quirky behaviors, distinct personalities and ingenuity has been a creative cornerstone for Eszterhas.
“It’s a lot easier to photograph lions in Kenya,” she said, referring to the beavers’ inherent illusiveness and shyness.
Yet they performing their nocturnal activities next to a busy bar and eatery, with motorcycles vrooming by, and the public viewing them from several bridges over the creek.
“These beavers are coming back to their home and tolerating us being here,” said Eszterhas, a Petaluma resident. “We have this unique window to see into the lives of these creatures … There’s this oasis of peace in the midst of chaos. Not all species can do that.”
Eszterhas, whose images of the Martinez beavers will be published in an upcoming issue of Ranger Rick, a children’s nature magazine, has donated one of her wildlife photographs to this year’s silent auction at the eighth annual 
Worth a Dam Beaver Festival on Saturday, Aug. 1.
The annual festival — started as a way to “throw a party for (local beavers) to make it harder to kill them,” says Worth a Dam’s executive director Heidi Perryman — has become a nexus for wildlife advocates and artists to congregate and network.
Thanks Jennifer Shaw! The article shied away from using these excellent photos, but did talk to artist Mark Poulin and promote the festival nicely. All in all we can’t complain about media coverage this year. I’m hoping that will translate into abundant attendance potential. And that folks will think of beavers differently for a while.
Here’s a wonderful story about a smart man whose mind doesn’t NEED changing one bit.
Beaver tales: Alberta homeowner enlists local wildlife to engineer a dam
Pierre Bolduc’s background as an aeronautical engineer and Hercules C-130 pilot wasn’t enough of a resume to prepare him for the task of constructing a pond next to his Alberta property.
He’d made a few attempts to build a dam over several years, but after a downpour washed out his latest earthen structure he turned to nature’s expert dam builders, a family of local beavers, to do the job right.
“There were beavers living further down the valley that had been building dams at a culvert running underneath a dirt road,” says Bolduc, who lives on an expansive property near Bragg Creek, about 50 kilometres southwest of Calgary.
Bolduc reckoned that the gentle lilt of running water played from an outdoor sound system placed above the intended site would attract the animals to the location where he wanted to build the dam. His neighbour, a sound engineer, offered to mix a CD featuring an appropriate aquatic aria.
“I don’t know what the sound of rushing water does to the psyche of a beaver, but based on the results I witnessed, I think it could inspire them to build a dam right in the middle of a sandbox,” he says.
“They went straight to work.”
How much do we love this story! And Pierre for that matter? I’m not as convinced that the sound brought beavers (otherwise every waterfall would be cluttered with failed dams) so much as his own failed dam gave them a good base to work from. But, never mind, I am crazy about this way of thinking and it provides a nice way to show what beavers are good for.
Since labour was being provided at no cost, Bolduc provided them with plenty of free food and construction material. He cleared poplars located on his property that might eventually grow to interfere with power lines. He then placed the cut logs to float in the rising water around the dam construction site.
“I gave them so much wood that they soon developed a 20-beaver condo,” he says. “They built an absolutely huge mansion and a powerful dam.”
The dam was completed in the summer of 2014 and Bolduc’s pond slowly expanded to a body of water measuring about 175 metres by 200 metres. The pond has since become home to numerous trout and the water has attracted muskrats, nesting loons and moose to the property.
This article makes me insanely happy. I already heard from several beaver folk that are deeply jealous they can’t let beavers build a pond where they live. Let’s hope Pierre starts a fad among land-owning engineers. He might, just look at his next goals:
While he’s satisfied with the pond, Bolduc is breaking out his rushing water CD and outdoor speakers for another construction project, courtesy of Castor Canadensis (the North American beaver).
“There are new neighbours along the valley and when I want to visit them, I pretty much have to drive the distance to their place,” he says. “If I place those speakers just right, by next year I should be able to canoe to the neighbour’s house.”
That lovely article is in the Santa Cruz sentinel this morning, and debuted on the front page of the Contra Costa Times yesterday, which was fun. Especially when I think about the still-unhappy beaver grumblers who do things in Martinez like tell public works to rip out willow shoots before they grow or paint over beavers in a popular mural. Ahh memories!
I thought you’d want to see this fun morning of kit wrestling from Rusty Cohn in Napa.
We’ve only seen yearlings do this, so this is fun to find. And you deserved to read this poem from Deidre’s friend Marcy Beck who works with Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods. (I’m thinking they need to exhibit at the beaver festival next year, by the way). Try reading it aloud because it has great sounds.
Marcy Beck
This was what I had been anxiously waiting for. Turns out I was nervous for no reason at all. Thank you Sam Richards for writing something so kindly and thoughtful. I promise no money or beaver merchandise exchanged hands. A beaver festival article will follow on Thursday. I’m posting the whole thing here and on my mother’s refrigerator, but please CLICK on the link so they know you read it okay?
‘Weekend project’ to help local beavers turns into labor of love for Martinez woman
By Sam Richards
MARTINEZ — Heidi Perryman had no idea her “weekend project” was going to last the better part of a decade — or have such wide impact.
But creating public awareness of the importance of beavers to the ecological health of the streams in which they live and championing the toothy rodents that have made Alhambra Creek an unlikely destination for environmentalists has become almost a second career for this 49-year-old child psychologist and lifelong Martinez resident.
She takes pride in the degree to which she and those whom she has influenced have spread the message that beavers are good for the ecosystem. She also knows the work is far from done.
“It’s constantly surprising to me how successful we’ve been but also how much subtle backlash there continues to be,” said Perryman, who remains a driving force behind the local Beaver Festival, its eighth annual edition happening Saturday.
The festival has grown from a small gathering of 200 in 2008 (“We figured it would be bad to kill the beavers if we had just had a party for them!” Perryman said) to an event that drew more than 2,000 visitors last year to the small open parcel — called “Beaver Park” by some — adjacent to the creek, a stone’s throw from the Amtrak station.
My goodness, what a fantastic start to an article! Sam asked so many questions about me, the beavers and the community they inspired I didn’t know what to expect. I certainly didn’t expect this. Honestly, this article is much nicer than I deserve. I was really just hoping it wouldn’t make people LESS likely to come to the festival. (Although, I’ve heard a rumor that a certain Martinez cabal meets for breakfast every morning downtown to discuss city plans for the day. I would dearly love to be the fly on the wall when they see this in their morning paper.)
Perryman said she was walking downtown in 2007 when she ran into a friend who told her beavers had recently migrated to Alhambra Creek. “I thought it was funny, and I came down to see them,” she said.
Not so funny was learning the beavers were going to be killed, as downtown property owners feared flood damage caused or exacerbated by the rodents’ dams.
She then joined the Martinez City Council’s “beaver subcommittee,” diving into what had become an emotional, divisive debate.
“Heidi was less excitable than some of the people on the other side of that issue, which was a good thing,” said City Councilman Mark Ross, who favored researching the matter.
Perryman has been credited with leading the drive to research the impacts of urban beavers, both good and bad, on their surroundings.
Harriett Burt, a former Martinez councilwoman, initially wanted the beavers gone, fearing flood damage to nearby buildings. But she said the research done by Perryman and her fellow Worth a Dam beaver advocates turned up viable options for preserving the beavers when official sentiment was going the other direction.
“She was clear, competent, articulate, well-informed and thorough,” Burt said. “She did have to win me over, and she did.”
The Worth a Dam group, she added, forced the City Council to look at other solutions.
There are three things I’m proudest about in my work on the committee, keeping my temper (most of the time), convincing Igor Skaredoff and Mitch Avalon that beavers are good for creeks, and persuading Harriet Burt that Beavers could belong in Martinez. I’m so happy he talked to her and she was kind enough to give such a quote. Harriet was my vice principal in middle school and the mayor of Martinez when I got my last degree. She was the planning commission forever and welcomed us when we bought this old house downtown. This really means a lot coming from her.
While Perryman had to stand up to beaver opponents, she also had to get to know their advocates.
“She knows how to engage other people who are themselves involved with that issue and make them all part of the same coalition,” said Igor Skaredoff, who since 1990 has been a member of Friends of Alhambra Creek.
In an effort to coexist with the paddletail swimmers, the city employed a version of a flow device, called by its inventor Skip Lisle the “beaver deceiver.” It’s a plastic pipe that carries water under the beavers’ then-main dam between Escobar Street and Marina Vista. It ensures the water level behind the dam never rises too high and that the beavers can’t tell water is getting through, which could send them into a damming frenzy.
Perryman said that now, seven years after the “beaver deceiver” was installed, the beavers appear to have finally realized the deception. That’s probably the biggest reason their main dam is now several hundred feet farther downstream, adjacent to that small park near the train station.
“Seven years, I would say the ‘beaver deceiver’ was a success,” said Perryman.
There are no plans to move the pipe to the new dam, as any flooding there would only inundate an adjacent floodplain and not endanger buildings.
Oooh nice PS for the council, “don’t worry about the new dam, Everything will be fine”. Could there be a better fortune hidden inside this cookie?
Walking slowly one recent morning onto the footbridge, using a cane, Perryman looked out over a creek more alive than eight years ago, an ecosystem largely restored. More fish, plus muskrats, river otters and other species, come (and go) now almost certainly because of the beavers’ activity, Perryman said. They stir up the creek bed, exposing insects and other creatures, which attract the fish that eat them.
The fish, in turn, attract otters and mink, which also have been sighted. Even the largely vegetarian muskrats eat some of these critters. The beaver dams also help keep more water in the creek longer, lessening local effects of the drought on surrounding trees and plants.
But there’s more to do; on the Worth a Dam agenda is work to change California fish and game laws to allow relocation of beavers to where they would be a good ecological fit.
Perryman also wants to continue to be a resource to the other beaver advocacy groups; their numbers are growing, and such units from San Jose, Napa and Lake Tahoe are expected Saturday at the Martinez festival.
The festival and the beavers themselves have helped give Martinez a little publicity. There are bumper stickers and T-shirts touting “Mtz. Beavers,” and those who gather on that footbridge are a mix of locals and out-of-towners.
“It’s rare to find a beaver dam so close to a parking meter,” Ross said.
HEIDI PERRYMAN Age: 49 Hometown: Martinez Claim to fame: Child psychologist who fought starting in 2008 to keep beavers in Alhambra Creek; lead organizer of Martinez’s annual Beaver Festival Quote: “I thought I’d work a day, or a weekend, on helping the beavers. But it really sort of took off.” MARTINEZ BEAVER FESTIVAL VIII When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Where: Marina Vista and Alhambra Avenue, downtown Martinez Cost: Free Information: www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress
What a wonderful article, Sam Richards. I am totally grateful AND relieved. The child in me is pretty proud, so I’m including this photo of young Heidi showing off my crafting talents with a “little house on the prairie inspired” corncob doll while camping.
One thing that didn’t make it in was the fact that I gave a TON of credit to the people of Martinez who marched to that meeting and demanded to live with beavers. And to the beavers themselves, who oddly decided to live in a very public area where people could see and care about them. Maybe he thought I was just being humble, but they really deserve the credit. Honestly, save this article for my eulogy. I am way prouder of the beavers than my dissertation. (The article says so exactly what I secretly wished it would that I am weirdly worried that something terrible will happen now.)
What the heck. This poem-alteration seems totally fitting this morning. (Apologies to Leigh Hunt.)
I saved beavers in our creek Kept them safe from traps and trials Whatever else I couldn’t do They were spared the city’s wiles Say I’m weary, say I’m sad Atheist among believers Say I’m getting old but add Add that I saved beaversDONATE
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