Category: Beaver Art

Rewards & Awards

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beavers, Earth Day, Educational, Friends of Martinez Beavers April 20, 2012

Tomorrow is Earth day, and we’re getting ready for a very busy day at the John Muir Historic Site. We’ll be joined by several supporters and by the stalwart artist FROgard Butler who will be helping children illustrate beaver tails! FRO recently opened her own art studio in Concord and has been busy making it a welcoming space for creative and appreciative minds. She also just found out she won the volunteer award we nominated her for from the Arts and Culture Commission of Contra Costa County. Here is my nominating letter:

FROgard Butler has played a unique and significant role for the arts in Contra Costa County. An instructor, colleague and friend to new artists, for the past 5 years she has played an irreplaceable role by coordinating and implementing the art program for the beaver advocacy group Worth A Dam. At least four times a year FRO uses her creative, engaging talents to encourage children to look more closely at their watershed and represent what they see with clay, watercolors, acrylic paint and more. In small classrooms and vast open-spaces, intimate groups and fast-moving crowds, I have watched her work closely with her young artists and I never fail to marvel at her patience, encouragement and non-judgmental respect for the creative process that allows children to represent the world as they see it, not as adults might prefer it to be shown. FRO’s artwork and teaching is on permanent display on the tiles of Escobar bridge and the creek mural at the Martinez Early Childhood Center. The colorful banner she helped children draw is one of the most creative and attractive mobile works of art that I have ever seen, and never fails to melt hearts wherever we share it.

With her uniquely engaging style, FROgard has helped thousands of children experience their creativity though art – and in doing so has fostered future artists throughout Contra Costa County. Very often I have seen FRO coax amazing creations out of the most art-averse subject and I have endless respect for her capacity to teach children to value the creative process over the finished product. FROgard has been an irreplaceable asset to the Martinez Beavers Advocacy group, allowing us to impact the community and teach watershed science in a real and tangible way to children of all ages. As a child psychologist who regularly employs art in my practice, I have learned a great deal from watching her work. Although her significant contributions and events around the bay area are numerous and well known, my personal understanding of FRO’s art is the magic by which she encourages the child to create their own. I can’t think of anything more impactful for the future of art in Contra Costa County than this gift.

Please feel free to contact me regarding any questions or clarifications. In our work we have seen literally hundreds of outreach efforts and without exception every nonprofit we encounter is envious of FRO’s help and wishes she worked for them. I’m just glad we found her first!

Congratulations FRO! We couldn’t be prouder or happier for you! One of her recent accomplishments was designing a flag which she helped children illustrate at our Roots and Shoots Event at the Oakland Zoo last year, and which we finished at the Flyway Festival. We liked it so much we’re doing a second one at the Girl Scout Event at the Fairgrounds. Jon spent some time yesterday figuring how to hang a flagpole from our awning, and if you stop by the booth tomorrow I think you will be very impressed!

More accolades go to our long-time beaver friend from Massachusetts who has been steadily impressing folk with his expertise and willingness to help. Yesterday a disciple had this to say about Mike Callahan on his blog “My Sherwood Glen“

Mike Callahan Leaves it to Beavers

Those of you who are aware of our efforts to co-exist with our beaver neighbors, know that we have had the help of Mike Callahan of BeaverSolutions.com. I can’t say enough about Mike’s willingness to help and his dedication to beaver conservation.

I was considered a technology expert back in the 1980’s when the definition of an expert was anyone who was online two weeks longer than you. As I moved around the country, I found that there were two kinds of experts. First there were those who had the magic skills, but kept the skills to themselves for personal gain. Then there were those who were excited about the potential of technology, wanted to spread the word and would share freely and promote the cause for the betterment of all. I was extremely fortunate to have hooked up with a group of national technology experts who shared freely and mentored me.

Mike is cut from that same cloth. He makes his living by designing, building and installing beaver fences and flow control devices, but he shares his knowledge freely with anyone who wants to help beavers co-exist with human neighbors. He gives more than he gets.

Go read the whole delightful thing, and if you haven’t joined the beaver management forum on facebook yet you really should. Mike’s certainly given us free help on more than one occasion, (although if you sit through the credits on his DVD you will see we have definitely returned the favor!) It’s always nice to see good friends get the recognition they deserve and to see the beaver gospel spread around the globe!

You will note if you read further down that Art brought Mike a 6 pack of beaver beer. (Which I alerted them too) And both men agreed it was delicious!

This would be an appropriate time to note I am still waiting for my Beaver Beer festival sponsorship letter?

UPDATE: Remember the Roseville article describing the need to remove beaver dams to protect Vernal Polls? They published my response.

UPDATE II Our young beaver champion from Kentucky just found out that Beaver Cree 7 won a Telly Award! The The Telly Awards is the premier award honoring the finest film and video productions. Beaver Creek won a bronze Telly(the 2nd highest honor) in the children’s programming category.

76 New Beaver Researchers!

heidi08 Beaver Art, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers April 7, 2012

Yesterday’s fieldtrip was the kind of absorbing delightful fun such that it is only after you have had it you realize how truly exhausted you are. Both of Alhambra Creeks protectors were there as Igor ditched the salmon conference for the morning and came to assist. We took everyone out for a gratitude lunch at Lemon Grass Bistro afterwards and there was lots to be grateful! There were bright shiny faces, enchanting questions, delightful observations and new discoveries. I talked to small groups at a time about the Martinez beaver story and how the ‘special pipe’ we installed allowed the beavers to stay and ‘make a neighborhood’.

But the best part was when I asked the children to help us by becoming ‘junior beaver scientists’ and helping research an important beaver question. Each child drew a question out of the basket – such as ‘how do beavers help fish?’ or ‘how do beavers help frogs?’ and their job was to find the two OTHER children with the same question and figure out the answer. Then we asked all our research teams to share results so everyone else could learn from them. Sitting back and hearing 76 8-year-olds explain to me how beavers make habitat for fish or birds or turtles was the very best part of the day and I highly recommend it!

Rumor is that Leonard and Lois Houston of the Beaver Advocacy Committee might come to town today to see the dams, so we’ll keep an eye out!

Meanwhile I thought I’d let you know that next week the International Bird Rescue group in Cordelia is having their volunteer training and needs good people like YOU to wash ducks coated in oil or raise baby chicks. Our own VP Cheryl Reynolds is volunteer coordinator and would love to have you aboard. Here’s the information:

International Bird Rescue Volunteer Orientation

Do you love helping wildlife? Then come be a part of our dedicated team and learn how you can help. International Bird Rescue is a non-profit wildlife hospital for injured and orphaned aquatic birds. Volunteers are needed to help in our wildlife hospital, transportation of wildlife and facilities support.

International Bird Rescue has been saving seabirds and other aquatic birds around the world since 1971. Bird Rescue cares for over 5,000 birds every year at its two bird rescue centers.

Our upcoming orientation is: Sat Apr 14, 2012, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

For more information please visit our website at or email us. Registration appreciated

One final note is that tomorrow’s very special Easter Sunday Podcast will feature a certain beloved young stop-motion filmmaker from Kentucky. This year it seems like everyone wants to talk to Ian, but only on Martinezbeavers.org will you learn the startling truth about how this

started out as this:

I knew I forgot something! Today is International Beaver Day! How will you celebrate?

Beavers Make Friends…

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions March 2, 2012

This has been a good week to be a beaver advocate, and Friday is no exception. We are, apparently, still in the “good beaver news’ eddy. This first example is from this month’s issue of the Estuary Newsletter. I asked our friend Lisa Owens Viani who USED to be the editor how it got in there. Apparently Riley (That’s Ann Riley of the most famous creek restoration book ever written) nudged it into the attention of the new editor.Ahh thanks for the nice mention. I can’t wait for there to be a regular beaver column describing where colonies are on the move!

Then this morning I read a reminder on facebook that Beaver Creek will be featured at Kentucky’s Wild and Scenic festival. Amazingly, Ian had this to say about his work. I’m still blown away by the quote.

“Beaver Creek” episodes tell gentle stories about Twigs the beaver and his friends. Timothy’s inspiration for the series came from his interest in beavers and their beneficial effects on Kentucky waterways.

“I’m showing what happens in nature and being an advocate for the beavers, which some people don’t seem to like even though they’re such good animals,” Timothy said. “They do a lot for our watersheds, creeks and wetlands.”

Oh Ian, you are such a fantastic white knight for beavers! I am so happy that our paths crossed and grateful to know you. The entire three page article is an excellent look at the festival which will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. Great work as always Ian!

This next story means as much to me as any I think I’ve ever written about. I would have embedded the video for you to watch but KCRA apparently doesn’t want me to. Click on the picture to go to a video of the meeting and the story of how residents of the four seasons are in conflict about the beaver(s). (I don’t think there’s any way we’re just talking about one beaver!) See if you can identify the very moment where I burst into happy tears.

Isn’t that amazing? Must see TV! And the reporters jibe at the end means that he has learned a lesson or two from Martinez. Did you find my moment? It’s from Jerry and it refers to the useless massacre at Elk Grove just 5 years ago. That was happening at the same time our own beaver story was getting complicated, and I was literally heartbroken when a story in the Sacramento Bee linked to a website that showed tens of trapped dead beavers. Would that happen in Martinez? El Grove was where I first read the name of Mary Tappel, who after advising them that sterilizing beavers stresses them out so it was much better to kill them, eventually came all the way to Martinez to tell our mayor and public works director that flow devices never work, that beavers breed for 50 years and that the father beaver should be killed so that the mother would have to mate with her sons and slow the population growth that way.

Elk Grove was the beginning of everything for me, and having this nearby beaver story unfold, with so many good people involved is full circle in a way I can barely describe. Honestly, nothing would make me happier than to award Worth A Dam’s second beaver management scholarship to someone that learned from Elk Grove that killing beavers doesn’t make them go away.

Preaching to the Choir….

heidi08 Beaver Art, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Earth Day, Friends of Martinez Beavers February 13, 2012

This weekend’s flyway festival saw a couple thousand birders exploring Mare Island’s hidden treasures and rows of environmental displays from wildlife groups around Northern California. There was deliciously expensive optic equipment for sale, mountains of federal employees charged with protecting wild spaces, every conceivable Audubon incarnation and, oh yes, the good folks from the Martinez Beavers!

What surprised me wasn’t that all these many birders were so primed to hear the message that beavers improve birding habitat, or that very few people strolling by hadn’t heard the story of the famous beavers, or how many people crowded together for my talk on Saturday, or that lots of folks were still giggling about the chronicle story of the disappearing beaver in the city mural – what surprised me was how many USFS employees stopped by to thank us for our work, express a real interest in restoring beavers, and scoff at the idea that they didn’t belong in every single waterway in the state.

There were lots and lots of these who came by to draw residents of the beaver neighborhood on our new flag. It was designed by our resident artist FROgard Butler who ended up being too sick to come help this weekend. Lory and Jon bravely filled in for her and we ended up with many young artists engaged in the task while I was busily making friends for the beavers, chatting about beaver benefits, explaining how to wrap trees or install a flow device, and plugging this years festival which will (unbelievably) be our FIFTH.

You can see we found many young artists to volunteer! Once it is finished being readied for hanging by FRO we will think about its display. Maybe we can get NPS to fly it at Earthday? Or Public Works to fly it at the beaver festival!

Hopefully lots of good stories will follow this weekends contacts. I’ll be sure to keep you posted! In the meantime, I would just say that the author from the book featured Thursday has arranged for me to receive three copies of ‘the three little beavers’ as a donation for the silent auction of this years festival! Our senior author and wikipedia friend sent off the historic prevalence paper this weekend for eventual publication, Brian Murphy sends this STUNNING photo from his wooduck box project in downtown walnut creek and San Ramon Creek,

and our European beaver friends tipped me off to this bit of beaver delight from Belgium.

Friends and Family

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beavers elsewhere, Friends of Martinez Beavers February 10, 2012

Three Little Beavers by Jean Heilprin Diehl, Illustrated by Cathy Morrison

These siblings, who live with their parents in the lodge on Beaver Creek, work a great deal. Bevan is an expert – he is what you would call a ‘master’ beaver. He can twist and alter those twigs and mud into perfection every single time. His sister, Beverly, is amazing, too. She can do underwater somersaults and all kinds of fancy tricks. These are two beavers who will grow up to be masters at their craft.

Unfortunately, Beatrix just can’t seem to get the hang of anything. Her mud patches fall apart, she’s not all that good with building, swimming, and, frankly, she’s tired of being around siblings who are better than she is. Sometimes it’s difficult to know what it is that we’re good at; after all, we all have a special skill, but Beatrix just cant find hers. So, off she goes.

Oh what a lovely start to a story! We all need a copy of three little beavers right away! The author is apparently from New Hampshire (not the friendliest beaver state in the nation) so its surprising that when the search for her talent gets Beatrix caught in a trap it happens to be a live trap from folks who never wanted to hurt beavers in the first place!

Not a scary trap, mind you, it’s a trap set by kind people who are just trying to make sure that beavers don’t rip apart their lawn, but they would never hurt an animal. Unfortunately, Beatrix can’t get out of the trap and when her ‘superstar’ siblings come along to save her – they get trapped, too. Who has to save the day? Beatrix, and all of a sudden she knows exactly what she’s good at.

Yeah Beatrix! Well….not really sure what kind of ‘trap’ keeps beavers off your lawn or come to think of it why a beaver would want to bother your lawn anyway…BUT still…great ending and nice moral to the story. The Seattle Pi review makes it sound like a delightful read and I can’t wait to get mine, but I confess to feeling a little apprehensive about this;

And the ‘fun’ extras in the back of the book teach everything from beaver facts to building dams with your hands!

Okay, but if it says they live in the dam and eat fish I’m going to demand a retraction!

Oh and a followup from Wednesday’s post about the Beaver Count in Idaho. I wrote the event organizer Mike Settell and he wrote back, delighted to find fellow beaver friends! He will guest blog about his work in Blaire County soon, but he gave permission for sharing this email:

Thank you so much for the note! I know that I’m not working in a vacuum, but when I see work like Martinez Beavers, well, I just well up.

Right now, I am in the midst of an event, not a festival, but HEY what an idea. Someone wanted to have a conference, but a festival sounds so much more fun. Can we borrow your ideas? Can we pirate your beaver tales and educational materials?

Please keep up YOUR good work and stay in touch.

Happy beavering!

Mr. Settell says that outside his county beaver policies are a little less informed. He says his work can be frustrating because of all the bureaucracy!

Ya don’t say….