Yesterday we were very excited when these came back from the sign maker GLT signs in Martinez. They were made specifically to fit the 7 lamp posts in Susana park where the event will be held. James the owner was so nice he even made us an extra one for free, and three blank banners which children will decorate at Earth Day.
The street lamps where they’ll be hung look like this. You would think a city would have street lamps that are all the same so that banners could be hung in any venue. Of course you’d think that the banners on main street and the banners on Pacheco street would be the same.
You’d be wrong.
These lamp posts match no others in the city. Because. Martinez. Still they’re going to look awesome!
Amelia Hunter did the designs again, before hopping onto a plane to Mexico for her winter vacation. We are so grateful! Have a margarita on us, Amelia, and thanks for your wonderful work!
Back when Martinez was in the throws of whether to save our beavers or not, one of our biggest winning arguments came in the form of the Sierra Club: the head of the Wildlife Committee of the Sierra Club to be precise. As I was to learn it was highly unusual for the powerful advocacy group to take a stand on behalf of wildlife at the time. The major push for this came from two sources. Columnist Gary Bogue, who was a highly respected member, and Terri Preston, who was the head of the Wildlife Committee and wanted to push wildlife more into their view. As I understood it the Sierra Club preferred to focus their resources on saving lands and resisting degradation rather than specifically defending species that depended on those lands.
It was December 2007 when I received a very unexpected call at the office. Terry had negotiated time for the beaver issue to be discussed at the local chapter meeting, and if I could be there that evening it would help. I remember shuffling some patients around so I could have the night free and driving to Berkeley in a bit of a panic having never done anything like that before.
The meeting was in an older shabby office space on San Pablo Avenue and I had hunt hard for parking among the homeless. I remember Gary was there, although I didn’t know him then and only recognized hm from his photo in the paper. Terry was very reassuring and said quietly what she hoped I could focus on. And then the, to my surprise, the board asked my thoughts and talked about the Martinez Beavers, whether they were good for the environment, and whether they should risk annoying anyone to get involved.
It was so early in the process that I didn’t know much about the research or the stakes. I had barely started my time on the beaver subcommittee and I hadn’t been the one to reach out to them in the first place. I just knew the beavers mattered to me and to the community, had read a few articles about their value, so I gave it my best shot. The positive response I received turned soon into a letter of support.
All this comes to mind this morning when I read over one of the articles Fran Recht sent me discussed in the hydrology film released yesterday. Apparently the Sierra Club in Colorado has some ideas about beavers too.
The American beaver, a nuisance to some and an afterthought to others, may in fact be Colorado’s most effective tool to improve watershed health and regulate the state’s water supply.
According to The Lands Council (Spokane, WA; 2010), in their study conducted in Eastern Washington State on water storage by the beaver, they estimate that 10 acre-feet (ca. 3.26 million gallons) of water storage can be attributed to a single beaver due to its dam-building prowess. According to the authors, this is a conservative estimate of the amount of surface water and groundwater water held back by the average beaver included in their study. If this is an accurate figure, then it would take about 40-million beavers to store the equivalent amount of water that the entire United States used for all sectors – public and domestic supply, irrigation, livestock, aquiculture, self-supplied industrial, mining, and thermoelectric power – in the year 2010 (129.6 trillion gallons; USGS.)
The beaver is largely absent from Colorado’s discussion on water issues. These statistics alone show that beavers should be central to the state’s plans going forward.
According to The Lands Council (Spokane, WA; 2010), in their study conducted in Eastern Washington State on water storage by the beaver, they estimate that 10 acre-feet (ca. 3.26 million gallons) of water storage can be attributed to a single beaver due to its dam-building prowess. which include beaver dam analogs that mimic natural beaver dams, should not be overlooked (Pollock, 2015.) Potentially, the easiest, cheapest way to accomplish this end is to allow nature to regenerate where practicable to its previous state with the mighty ecosystem engineer, the American beaver, breaking the trail. In fact, restoring and protecting the beaver population is consistent with the intent of the Colorado Water Plan – store water, conserve aquatic resources, and close the approaching water supply gap – and goes further to deliberately enhance ecosystem productivity and resilience.
Now those are very nice sentences to read from the Sierra Club. I can’t believe every single chapter hasn’t adopted their position, because an abundance of clean fresh water is important everywhere. (A person struggling to find meaning might point out that the Sierra Club was, you know, originally founded by John Muir, who happened to live in this town, the town of the MOST FAMOUS BEAVERS EVER and which btw also happens to be the site of the grave of on the most famous beaver trappers ever.)
I’m sure it’s all a coincidence. But sometimes it kinda seems like destiny.
Did you see it? That’s a reference in a legal document to a paper linking to THIS WEBSITE. Because that particular article wasn’t available anywhere else on the web, which describes this website very nicely, thanks. You know sometimes I wonder whether anyone actually reads this site and then I see our name appear in court! Back in 2013 I had just befriended one of the authors of the paper at the State of the Beaver Conference, so I asked if she could share her it.
Fran Recht works for the Habitat program for the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission which means they happen to be very interested in the habitat beavers create for fish. The habitat arm “is involved in programs on the West Coast that further habitat protection for anadromous, estuarine, and marine fish species. Program efforts are focused on watershed and estuarine conservation and restoration, work with regional science and policy bodies and marine debris and pollution abatement.”
Fran wrote yesterday saying they had just posted a new video and asking that we share it around. Over the years they have championed some wonderful stuff, like the landowner film in the right margin. This one is even better! She needn’t have asked me to pass it on, because it is outstanding and I couldn’t resist. Give yourself a wonderful wednesday and watch this all the way through.
Guess what I was just sent from a friend who snapped this photo from the current issue. Beavers in O Magazine that’s what! Have they officially arrived? Who knows? Maybe they’ll donate to the festival and Ben’s book could be book of the month! I’m EAGER for that to happen. Check out page 32 of the April Issue!
I cannot wait until beavers are literally the thing everyone talks about. And every city decides to coexist with them for their own good.
“You get a beaver! And you get a beaver! Check under your seat bridge! Everyone wins!”
Once in a great while you come across a story that suddenly makes everything worthwhile. All the hard work and early mornings, every ridiculous nutria photo, all the awkward city planning, suddenly dissipates while one shining headline puts the entire thing in perspective, leaving you trembling with joy and purpose down to you very toes and fingertips.
A Canadian trapper claims he has survived a brutal sexual assault by what he calls the “biggest beaver he has ever seen.” Bill O’Connor, 63, was checking his beaver traps near Lake Winnipeg when a large bear-like creature attacked him out of nowhere.
O’Connor, who first thought he was being mauled by a small bear or wolverine, soon realized it was, in fact, a very large-sized beaver“I had never seen a beaver of this size in my entire life,” he told local reporters.
The beaver, apparently bruised by one his traps, was extremely aggressive and even managed to knock the sixty-three-year-old man unconscious before he awoke minutes later.
“I woke up, my face in the snow and gasping for [sic] hair. The beaver was crushing me with its weight and doing a humping motion on my head and neck while making a strange guttural sound. It must’ve weighed at least 200 pounds,” he recalls.
Moments later, the large-sized semiaquatic rodent eventually ejaculated on O’Connor’s head and neck, before leaving the area.
“I had warm beaver semen all over my hair, face, eyes and mouth, but man was I glad to be alive,” he said, visibly grateful.
‘Wiping tears’. I’m sorry, are you serious? That photo is too much. The violated trapper pointing indignantly. I would say this is parody but of course we’ve read crazier allegations from trappers all the time.. Remember the one in Yellow Knife that said they could bounce off their tails like a pogo stick and lunge at you?
.
I have to ask though. What does beaver semen even look like? I mean, how did you recognize it? And 200 lbs? Beavers mate in the water and the females all have a built in a flat leathery chastity belt so rape is kinda out of the question. To do something that complicated almost requires consent.
The fact that your story takes place on land is just ONE of the reasons I don’t believe it. I’m going to call it a STORY. And a funny one at that.
Conservation officer, Tom McGreary, says visitors at the nearby Kinwow Bay Park Reserve have reported multiple sightings of an unusually large-sized beaver in the area. “We have also had several reports in the area by local residents of excessively large beavers but until now it had been more of a local legend,” he said when reached by phone.
“Beavers are usually not an aggressive species unless they feel threatened or are injured, although sexual predation on other mammals, especially humans, is unheard of,” he adds.
Beavers continue to grow throughout their lives and adult specimens weighing over 25 kg (55 lb) are not uncommon. The largest specimen ever recorded was captured in Red Lake, Ontario, in 1897 and weighed an impressive 107 kg (237 lb).
Wow this story even has the obligatory warden quote saying beavers aren’t normally like that. Hahahaha! Is there anything else these professionals do besides answer ridiculous questions from reporters? Did anyone have the nerve to honestly ask this question out loud?
And HEY equal time, where are the otter rape stories? Inquiring minds want to know.
Gosh that is one hilarious story. There is almost nothing that can top this allegation. I mean I don’t expect to EVER see anything as outrageous or as hard to believe as a trapper saying he was raped by a beaver.
The meeting was in an older shabby office space on San Pablo Avenue and I had hunt hard for parking among the homeless. I remember Gary was there, although I didn’t know him then and only recognized hm from his photo in the paper. Terry was very reassuring and said quietly what she hoped I could focus on. And then the, to my surprise, the board asked my thoughts and talked about the Martinez Beavers, whether they were good for the environment, and whether they should risk annoying anyone to get involved.
According to The Lands Council (Spokane, WA; 2010), in their 
Sunday I did a little research for my upcoming SARSAS talk by checking out the references listed in the salmon-steelhead summary of the 
Fran Recht works for the Habitat program for the 
Guess what I was just sent from a friend who snapped this photo from the current issue. Beavers in O Magazine that’s what! Have they officially arrived? Who knows? Maybe they’ll donate to the festival and Ben’s book could be book of the month! I’m EAGER for that to happen. Check out page 32 of the April Issue!
attacked him out of nowhere.
Wow this story even has the obligatory warden quote saying beavers aren’t normally like that. Hahahaha! Is there anything else these professionals do besides answer ridiculous questions from reporters? Did anyone have the nerve to honestly ask this question out loud?
