There are a few pieces of beaver news this morning, so I thought you’d enjoy a miscellany. First, Jon is off to Cordelia to make bird cages for IBRRC and generally offer a helping hand. Wish him a squaky, pecky, helpful day! Cheryl has been there from dawn to way-past-dusk every day since Saturday, and asked him to lend a hand. Their recent shipment from the coast guard had some 500 birds, so they need all the help they can get.
Photo: Paul Kelway IBRRC
Last week the remarkable Marin Watershed project S.T.R.A.W. (Students & Teachers Restoring A Watershed) saw its documentary screening in San Francisco. I’d been reading about them and was encouraged to make first contact. Were the children interested in letting beavers help them with their restoration work? Would they like to have some conversations about the role of beavers in the watershed? I got a lovely email back from education director Laurette Rogers, who notes that beavers are one of her favorite animals. She described getting a giggle when some restoration willows they were working on for a project in San Joaquin suddenly “disappeared”. She never saw the culprits but they slapped their tails at her!
A Simple Question Trailer from Trent Boeschen on Vimeo.
Meanwhile, I got a call from the president-elect of the Rotary club in Pleasant Hill, saying she had heard from a friend how delightful the beaver presentation was last week and would I come and talk to them? My Rotary club experience in Martinez was hardly the most heart-warming moment of my beaver adventures, so I am eager to replace that memory with a better one. Plus my head was buzzing when I noticed that the letterhead of her email said she worked for the Pleasant Hill Parks Department. I can’t think of anyone I’d more like to convince about beaver benefits, so of course I agreed!
Long time beaver friend and Food Bank Coordinator Kathy Gleason dropped me a note that someone had donated a large beaver stuffed toy of mother and baby, and would I like to add it to the display table? Thank you very much, Kathy. It’s been a week of odd fortune. Monday I got an email from a physician in the South Bay, telling me too look up the exciting Utah beaver reintroduction, and incidentally telling me about beaver history in San Jose.
did you know that Captain John Sutter bought 1,500 beaver pelts in 1841 at Mission San Jose! This means they clearly were distributed throughout the Bay Area.
He let me know that he’d been doing research about the area in the 1800’s and would be happy to share other related pieces.Of course we’d love to hear them.
Finally, this morning, I got a call rom a woman who had enjoyed our “charm bracelet activity” and who wanted information about where to buy the charms and how to implement it. Seems her daughter is a girl scout leader in North Carolina and she wants to encourage her to do it there. Ahhh, disciples in beaver-killin North Carolina. Nothing could make me happier. I will write back immediately! If you’re interested, I added the curriculum to the “teachers” part of the website. The charms can be purchased cheaply here:
