A family of Scaups out for a swim was spotted near the dam the other day.
Photo: Cheryl Reynolds
Author: bruce85@mac.com
This morning’s visit to revealed at least two kits, one carrying a branch to the dam and one milling about the lodge entrances. The willow above the lodge is just beginning to sprout new leaves and I’m sure our beavers are eagerly awaiting their arrival. Cheryl saw 25 scaups below the dam, and struggled to photograph a very fast but ostentatious ruby-crowned kinglet. A lovely common yellowthroat sang his song to the morning atop the lodge. The water is still churning brown from the night’s rain, but nature doesn’t seem to mind. Didn’t hear the frogs this morning, I wonder if the scaups had anything to do with that?
Often I am asked whether we can make donations to help the beavers, and where they should go. This has encouraged us all to think about a non-profit where tax deductible donations could be made and later used for habitat restoration, planting willow, printing costs, or even legal consultation. Starting your own non-profit is a huge task with forms and boards to set up. You can start a simpler “unincorporated association” but then donations aren’t deductible. One answer is to use an already existing nonprofit as an umbrella destination, donations could be specified for the beavers and that organization would send them our way with a cut removed for their expenses. This was pointed out to me first by Igor Skaredoff because its what Friends of Alhambra Creek does. Then again by Maria Billingsley of the Martinez Opera.
She noted it was important to think of an umbrella organization whose interests matched the beavers, such as the Lindsay Museum.As for name….I started by thinking along the lines of “Friends of Martinez Beavers” but there are already friends of alhambra creek and how many friends does one person need? Sharyn Fernandez of Friends of PH creeks dubbed us the “stewards” of Alhambra creek but I’m not sure I’m stewardess material either. I’d like a name with a little more oomph to communicate what we’ve all had to struggle with.
This came to me the other night and I’m wondering how it sounds to you… Worth A Dam: Beaver Keepers – with a mission statement something like Maintaining the beavers through responsible stewarship, creative problem-solving and community involvement.I like worth a dam, because it’s a little feisty, and that’s what we’ve all needed to be to accomplish this, the second part could be friends or stewards or whatever works best for people. I really want to hear from you though if this works. Please email me your thoughts at mtzbeavers@gmail.com.
Sean Dugan lives near Nethy Bridge, Inverness-shire, Scotland and was 11 years old when he completed this project. Sean is to be congratulated on this excellent piece of research which he worked on as a project at Abernethy Primary School, Nethy Bridge. See the complete project at www.scotsbeavers.com
One of Gary Bogue’s readers wrote in reporting that during a recent visit to the dam he spotted a city truck with a “huge” cage in back at the site. What’s up with that?
Beaver supporters who would like an explanation can get city contact info on the city’s website, just in case the city government is forgetting how many voters and taxpayers want the beavers to stay in Martinez.
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