SONOMA COPIES MARTINEZ IN EXACTLY THE WRONG WAY

heidi08 Who's blaming beavers now? December 21, 2019

This was the SOS I received yesterday afternoon.

The Sonoma County Water Authority took a chain saw to the Beaver Dam behind Bettencourt St., between 2nd St. West and the walking path. They claim to have been given “verbal permission”. These beaver’s have pups…please help protect them. Please notify what ever agency can help spare our wildlife. These are the only Beavers in the City of Sonoma. Help!

I was surprised because these are beavers I’ve never heard of an the message was sent by someone I didn’t know. I eventually turned over enough rocks to learn that SCWA had been worried about the dam for a while and was hoping that the recent rains would take it out. When it didn’t they got permission to do it themselves.

Kind of.

A series of emails were forwarded basically explaining that SCWA was concerned about the obstruction of the dam, the possible blockage of culverts down the road and the increase in mosquitoes in the summer (!) so they talked to CDFW who advised them to notch the dam.

A self justifying account was sent by SCWA to folks at Sonoma ecology Center whose phones were ringing off the hook when this all went down. That list is pretty much all bogus official-speak designed to make people not argue with them, except for the first one about obstruction which I’m sure is the whole reason they did it

It seemed stupid to me at first to do this on the first day of christmas vacation when children and parents are home and watching. But the thing is it when you think about it friday was EXACTLY the kind of day they would choose to do this. The last act before heading off for a 2 week vacation so all the public attention and yelling wouldn’t bother them. And don’t think for a moment there wasn’t yelling. Lots of people mistakenly think beavers live in the dam. So cutting into one with a noisy chainsaw probably got some attention.

Of course SCWA could have notified residents that this was going to happen. And explained ahead of time that they weren’t going to harm the beavers. They could have notched the dam with a silent clam rake instead of a chainsaw. They could have put up a little sign to let folks know what they were doing. They could have written the Sonoma Ecology Center BEFORE they got caught and let them know and asked for their help getting the word out.

But – I ask you – where’s the fun in that?

Better to throw a live grenade into the crowded foxhole and then go on vacation for two weeks. It is so exactly what our public works would do – and DID do – that it almost takes my breath. But then I remember how very differently this all feels when I’m not in the front lines protecting OUR beavers.

So I passed on what I could to the right players. I made sure folks knew what had happened and who to talk to, and then I went to make 72 mushroom and leak raviolis for the upcoming beaver dinner. Because, even I, eventually remembered this wasn’t my circus. And those weren’t my monkeys. So to speak.

Sonoma has very smart people who care about this. They will figure it out. But even people who know better can be stupid about beavers.

Case in point: made last year in CANADA for Chrissakes,

Ontario Power Generation “Dammy the Beaver” from Nathan Love on Vimeo.

“HAVE YOU NO DECENCY, PRIMGHAR?”

heidi08 Who's Killing Beavers Now? December 20, 2019

Primghar Iowa is in the upper left hand corner of the state – almost touching Minnesota. A small county seat of less than 1000 people it’s primary claim to fame is its most famous resident Joseph Welch the head counsel for the United States Army, who asked Joseph McCarthy, incredulously what we no longer bother to say in the current administration “Have you no decency, sir?”.

Well apparently they’re not content with simply being first to pick the president anymore. Now they want to kill all the beavers. In fact they want to kill 90% more beaver than they actually have.

I’m not kidding.

O’Brien County establishes beaver bounty

PRIMGHAR—O’Brien County is leaving it to beaver trappers to take care of cutting down the large furry rodent’s numbers.

On Tuesday, Dec. 10, in Primghar, the board of supervisors established a new countywide beaver bounty policy effective with the beginning of beaver trapping season through one week after the end of the season.

“The price doesn’t change based on the age of the beaver,” said board chair Sherri Bootsma. “They’re going to have to indicate where the beaver was harvested,” Bootsma said. “It is kind of an honor system, but they do have to map out where it came from.

A bounty of $35 will be paid per beaver until a maximum of $5,000 from the county’s rural services fund for the season has been paid out.

Just so you understand what we’re dealing with here, at 25 dollars a head -er a tail- pays for 142 beavers to be slain. Iowa has been subject to plenty of flooding and I suppose those dislocated beavers could be swimming about trying to find a home, but when I check wikipedia it tells me that the entire county has .2 square miles of water to its name. That’s about three football fields of water if they’re lucky. And there is zero fucking chance of finding 142 beavers in 3 football fields.

So basically what they’re done is create a dead beaver import business. Good luck with that.

“The theory is, it’ll start a decrease in their population,” said supervisor Dan Friedrichsen. “Then they get harder to trap and their population is where maybe it needs to be.”

He noted he does not want to see the county’s beaver population totally wiped out.

“If it’s a lake, they deserve to be there; they should be there,” Friedrichsen said. “Certain systems — they need to be there.”

“We have a pond that has a family of beavers there,” Friedrichsen said. “We like to take two a year out of that family, and then that keeps the damage low. It keeps them from spreading.”

That’s pretty charitable if you, sir. Only killing off a few family members every year. Pretty dam charitable. Bless his heart,

Apparently you have to bring in the WHOLE beaver with tail attached because they don’t want to shell out money for someone who just goes to a fur dealer and buys up a bunch of tails. You know?

THE SUN SETS ON THE MORNING NEWS GAZETTE

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, In the News December 19, 2019

This isn’t strictly Beaver News but I’m going to go out on a limb and say the Martinez Beavers could never have existed without the Gazette that first promoted them. This a great report from KQED on its demise which I think is profoundly relevant and worth sharing.

I learned to read making out letters from the headlines on my dad’s lap. Now I am a mere 54 years young and the Gazette has been part of my life as early as I can remember. because my mom worked there once I started preschool. In fact when I started Kindergarten it was on Jones street which was the very same one the Gazette office was located on. Early in September I terrified her by ditching the neighbor and walking all the way to her office by myself at age 4. She had left for the day so I then had to walk home. I think today that it is stunning that nobody insisted on driving me or called the police.

54 years is a long time. But it’s pretty dam humbling to think the paper existed for an entire century century before that.

After 161 Years, An Era Of Local News Ends In Martinez

BEAVERS RUINING THE PLANET AND OTHER NEWS

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Who's blaming beavers now? December 18, 2019

It’s impeachment O’clock. There were more than rallies supporting accountability last evening that you didn’t get a chance to see on your teevee. They looked like this.

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES – 2019/12/17: Protester holding a giant banner with impeacment articles at the rally in Times Square. The night before the House of Representatives takes a somber vote to impeach Trump, hundreds of thousands of Americans joined the “Nobody Is Above the Law” coalition at more than 500 rallies planned around the country, calling on the U.S. House to vote to impeach President Donald Trump. In New York City thousands of protesters took to the streets, gathering at Father Duffy Square in Times Square, and marched down Broadway to Union Square. (Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)

This morning Ben’s on the radio trying to be nice to beavers while all of National Geographic says they’re ruining the ENTIRE PLANET. No really.

Enjoy?

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

heidi08 Beavers December 17, 2019

Look what’s happening in a town so important they named a whole disease after it. They have a watery problem. They aren’t sure what’s wrong but they are certain that killing beavers is going to solve it.

Doesn’t it always?

Old Lyme Board of Selectmen Talk Beavers, Sewers, Reviewing Roles of Commissions

OLD LYME — Several town boards — including the Open Space Commission and the Flood & Erosion Control Board — have been made aware of problems posed by beaver dams in the area around Black Hall Pond, First Selectman Tim Griswold said. The dams block water flow and cause water levels to rise, which has left one resident unable to do laundry and worried about showering in his own house.

The problem is at “something of a gridlock,” Griswold said, because officials have not yet been able to identify a specific dam causing the problems. The responsibility to remediate the dam would likely fall to whoever owns the land underneath the water that the dam sits on, Griswold said. This could be a town entity, such as the open space commission, or it might be a private property owner.

We don’t know what’s to blame but we’re SURE it’s beavers. Because its always beavers. Don’t argue with us.

“If it’s not town property it wouldn’t be our problem, but we do want to facilitate the solution,” Griswold said. Griswold said that the affected homeowners and officials are considering flying a drone up the stream that feeds into the pond to try and identify the dam.

“If we could figure out where they are and who owns what, then we could hopefully corner a corrective action and then we could get that water down,” he said. Griswold said that whoever is tasked with removing the beavers will have the option to choose between lethal and non-lethal methods to remove the animals.

“I know trapping might get people excited, but we need to figure out a better option than what we have now,” Griswold said.

So Bob has a drone and we’re gonna fly it over everyone’s private property until we find a beaver dam and then blame THEM, does that sound like a good solution? Don’t get upset about it until we find out who to blame. And then you can protest their wives in the grocery store.

We’re just doing our jobs.

One thing we need in this epic beaver struggle of ours is an organization like “Indivisible”. Something that outlines all the tools and techniques most persuasive arguments for how to deal with the challenges they cause and the best most effective way to get your message across to the people that can do something about it. This has been a powerful invention of 2016 desperation that has given people across the means to nudge their local representatives in the right direction.

To this end, the following chapters offer a step-by-step guide for individuals, groups, and organizations looking to replicate the success in getting Congress to listen to a small, vocal, dedicated group of constituents.

Except we need it not for politics. But for BEAVERS.

There is in fact something like this happening right now in the UK called the Beaver Trust, which seeks to teach people across the country the tools they need to advocate and educate for beavers in their local landscape. They want to use local watershed and conservation groups already in place already aware of the particular challenges of the region to give them the tools to educate their people on the benefits of beavers and how to live with them.

Think of it like giving each child wishing to go to camp a set of questions and answers about how to talk to their own parents into it.

The Beaver Trust is the brain child of a bunch of faces we already know in England and some knew ones behind the scenes.They are working hard to undo 500 years of extinction and deserve our support.

Oh and one of their leaders asked for a call with ME tomorrow because they want to learn what we have figured out about education and persuasion.

Truly all roads lead to Martinez.

Introducing Beaver Trust