Beaver-themed merchandise – Page 26

Beaver Central

heidi08 Beaver News, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors November 24, 2009

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:

Little Beavers with Big Plans

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, pictures July 8, 2009

Look at those outstretched fingers! Our yearlings have grown much more persistent lately. Cheryl Reynolds took this photograph last week of one standing tippy toe on the dam to get a low hanging willow branch. This morning two were wrestling by the flow device until Dad came and gave a tail slap to get them to pay attention. I assume he’s watching out for our incognito kits, but would sure like to see them.

An unknown county worker walked by on her way to work. “Are they out this morning?” She asked amiably, and when I nodded replied, “They’re alot of fun to watch!”

I couldn’t agree more.

The Beavers of Mendenhall Glacier

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions June 9, 2009

This lovely photograph was kindly shared by photographer Bob Armstrong and appears in his remarkable book “The beavers of Mendenhall Glacier“. He and his colleague, Mary Willson, spent a summer waking up at 4 in the morning to be there at first light and catch these glorious images. You remember that he was involved in the heroic citizen effort to manage destructive beaver behavior without killing in Juneau, Alaska. I tracked down Bob and put him in touch with Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions, who will be heading out there this fall to help with a comprehensive beaver management plan.

While I was devouring Bob’s detailed descriptions and lovely photos, I came across this shot of a newly started beaver dam facing the breathtaking Mendenhall glacier. I was prepared to beg, purchase, plead and cajole for access to this lovely image, but Bob kindly volunteered and promised to send me a hard copy as well. One of the nicest things about the book, (besides its advice about photographing beavers, its keen awareness of their habits, and an amazing tailslap shot that has our own Cheryl Reynolds green with envy), is its photographic documentation of varietal feeding in beavers. He offers images of them eating pondweed and horsetail, and its great to see the complexity of the beaver diet.

After you consider the beauty of this photo (and get off the phone with your travel agent) you might enjoy this video I made after our helicopter glacier trip two years ago. (mybluehouse is my nonbeaver-youtube account…) At the time it inspired me to think that in traveling home from Juneau to Martinez I was retracing the steps of John Muir!

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=0v28YCLlJgA]

Worth A Dam

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Festival March 30, 2009

The remarkable beaver-guardians of Worth A Dam gathered last night to finesse plans for Earth day and our tree planting project. Our intrepid potential eagle scout was there boldly getting ready to go before the council to offer our tree-installation plans. It was a lively meeting, but one of my favorite parts was our brainstorming session about the art project we might offer at earthday.

Artist and teacher Frogard Butler has been helping us with these activities since she generously volunteered to paint a portrait of one of my beaver photographs and gave it to me in support. We decided that since clay was such a huge hit at the beaver festival, we would try it again, inviting children to help us build a diorama representation of the beaver habitat in miniature. Jon volunteered to make the landscape/box that could get us started, and of course we’ll be putting dams and lodges and tiny peices of sheetpile.

I can’t wait.

Beaver people are good people. We signed our 2009 executive agreement, with two additions who will become official worth a dam-ers. Lory will record donations, and Linda will track down research questions. Hard to believe only a year has passed since Worth A Dam was formed. In that time we’ve given presentations to the Elementary and High schools, Audubon, Sierra Club,and all of downtown Martinez. We’ve held a festival, applied for a grant, and expanded our web page. We even found time to work over 20 farmer’s markets and take the city to court. During our first year we raised more than 7,000 in donations.

Not bad for 365 days work.

Maybe all this talk of our accomplishments has inspired you to offer your own. We’re looking for a new tee shirt design for 2009 and would love to encourage you to fiddle with the concept. We want our name and web site address on it, but other than this we are open to suggestions. Why not try your hand at graphic beaver design and give us a couple ideas. If we love your design will make it into 100 shirts this year, and we’ll give you yours for free!