Showtime!

Everything delivered and things ready for the big day. Amy worked all day yesterday on her mistresspiece an the plan is to finish everything and the beaver last. You can already see where he’d fit.

Film crusader Cristina Valverde came yesterday to interview for a beaver project she’s working on and then got inspired by Amy’s art and used Jon’s ladder to stopmotion the entire day from atop a lamp post. That’s going to be cool to see when it’s completed.

I just recorded the beginning.

If you want to see the end, solve the mystery of the missing salmon, and find out who wins all those stuffed beavers, you better come to the festival yourself.

It’s a dam good time.

Hey want to know a funny funny joke? The second shipment of beaver shirts was going to be shipped  to us this weekend and when they weren’t I called to investigate and was told they were “LOST”. I guess stuck on the Ever Given in a canal somewhere. So I filed a claim which means UPS has to pay for them and guess what!!! Then they were “found”. Just like magic. And scheduled for delivery.

On Monday.

That’s convenient. We’re off this morning to help Amy get started on her chalk. This will be the calm before the storm.

The Martinez Gazette comes to the rescue.  The 170 year old paper might not be printed anymore, but it still tells town members what they need to know.

Beaver Festival XIII coming Saturday, June 25

Beaver Festival XIII

It was 15 years ago that Martinez made room for the beavers that moved into Alhambra Creek. It wasn’t an easy – or unanimous – decision. The advocacy group “Worth A Dam” was formed to make sure the beavers ended up on the right side of history. The end result was a happier community, a more vibrant creek that teamed with wildlife and an annual beaver festival that has become famous around the state.

June 25th will see the 13th annual event (Covid prevented events for the past two years.) The free, family friendly outdoor event offers live music, wildlife exhibits, nature education, children’s activities and a wildly popular chalk artist that will be completing her beaver mural while the delighted crowd watches.

Every year the festival focuses on a central message: this year is how beavers can help California. By storing water, reducing fires, and increasing biodiversity beavers can really be an asset to the Golden State. One highlight of the day will be the “Giant beaver Giveaway” – made possible by Dr. Mark Troyer from Washington D.C., who after 35 years of collecting stuffed beavers wanted to donate them for an educational purpose. He gifted several hundred of the figures to Worth A Dam and this year children at the festival can “earn” the stuffed beaver of their choice by stepping up to the mic and reminding California how beavers can help.

I always appreciate when a paper uses my release entirely because I know it’s going to say the right thingI

In addition to their time on stage, children are invited to become Nature Detectives and help solve the “The case of the missing salmon” by using animal tracks to help solve the mystery at the beaver pond and earn a prize. Attendees can also paint an animal spirit flag with a local artist or help with the chalk art in the plaza. Grown-ups will find bird, plant or wildlife information, and  unique deals at the always popular silent auction, which this year includes donations from Safari West, Silverado Vineyards and many downtown restaurants.

The popular event takes place in Susana Park in downtown Martinez at the corner of Estudillo Street and Susana Street from 11 a.m. – 4 p,m.  Bring your friends and family and wildlife questions and get ready for a dam good time!

What city wouldn’t be proud to offer a DAM good time? I ask you.

Solstice must be the hungriest day for beavers. They get the fewest night time hours to fix the dam, fell the trees, and patch up the lodge. Hardly any time at all left over for munching willow in their spare hours. And if you’ve eaten willow bark you know it takes a LOT of branches to fill up your tummy. Hard day for them.

But great for farmers and ranchers. Thank goodness Ben will tell them what they need to know.

Beavers & Why They Matter: A Ranch Talk with author Ben Goldfarb

Please join us at South Park’s Buffalo Peaks Ranch as author Ben Goldfarb discusses the world of beavers and the landscapes they create. Ben is the author of of Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, the winner of the 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and named one of the best books of 2018 by the Washington Post. This special event is FREE for all who register!

Buffalo Peaks Ranch will stay open after Ben’s talk,until 3pm. We’ll be offering a Ranch Tour, and the opportunity for you roam the ranch and river, with time to sketch, take photos, and add to the ranch’s Bird List. Bring a picnic lunch if you like. You’ll also be able to explore the ranch’s new beaver pond — but be sure to bring your boots for that!

This is in Fairplay Colorado so I’m thrilled ranchers there are catching on. It’s ironic really. Ben once asked me who else to interview for his book and I remember him saying, “I don’t think Sherri Tippie because she’s been talked about so much already, everyone already knows“. I said he HAD to include her but he did not. So he never went to Colorado for his interviews. And now he lives there.

So let that be a lesson to you! Although I’m sure there are worse consequences.

In Eager, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb reveals that our modern idea of what a healthy landscape looks like and how it functions is wrong, distorted by the fur trade that once trapped out millions of beavers from North America’s lakes and rivers. The consequences of losing beavers were profound: streams eroded, wetlands dried up, and species from salmon to swans lost vital habitat. Today, a growing coalition of “Beaver Believers” – including scientists, ranchers, and passionate citizens – recognizes that ecosystems with beavers are far healthier, for humans and non-humans alike, than those without them.

“A marvelously humor-laced page-turner about the science of semi-aquatic rodents… Goldfarb has built a masterpiece of a treatise on the natural world.” — The Washington Post

Our thanks goes to The Summit Foundation and to Park County’s Land & Water Trust Fund for their support!

Great work team Ben! Gosh on July 16 the festival will be over, my house will be back in order and I’ll be living like a king. Or at least without an event to plan. We’re in SF FUN & Cheap today, so that’s another arrow in the quiver.

And we are truly. Really. Fun and Cheap.

Bay Area “Beaver Festival XIII” (Martinez)

The Martinez Beaver Festival is a beloved community event with national recognition. Now in its 13th year, it began as a celebration of the famous beavers in Alhambra Creek and became a showcase for citizen science and urban wildlife in general. With education, family fun, live music and an unique silent auction, the festival promotes nature conservation and teaches everyone how to live with beavers and why they matter.
Attendees agree “It’s a dam good time!”

I don’t know about you, but once all those ranchers have seen the Beaver Truth, they might just want to change their career.