Category: Beavers or Social Ambasadors

Here’s looking for you, kit

heidi08 Beavers and salmon, Beavers and water, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Who's saving beavers now? June 6, 2015

Capture — Beaver Grooming: Susan Tripp Pollard

Photos: Martinez beavers at home in Alhambra Creek

Springtime has brought out wildlife at Alhambra Creek in Martinez, Calif. Right at dusk, beavers were spotted swimming about and chomping on a fallen arroyo willow tree. Heidi Perryman and her husband Jon Ridler make a comfy spot with camping chairs as they wait to see the beavers. Perryman, president of Worth A Dam, and Ridler, treasurer, were perched quietly hoping to see a newborn kit. On its website, Worth A Dam describes itself as a citizens group that fought to protect the beavers and sponsors the annual Beaver Festival that will take place on Aug. 1, 2015.

This was a nice surprise after meeting photographer Susan Tripp Pollard at the dam on Wednesday night. Follow the link to see all the photos, because it won’t allow me to embed. Nice to see that she got the name WORTH A DAM and the date of the Beaver Festival correct! Of course it prompted other media outlets to contact me yesterday and say “oh the beavers are back”? I did an interview with Doug Padilla of KCBS at the dam trying to explain that the beavers never actually left, just the media did. Ahem.

Looks like the Oregon discovery was big enough to make the Smithsonian.

Mini Beavers Once Roamed Oregon

Fossils of a squirrel-sized from in eastern Oregon may be related to modern beavers; Oregon was once home to rodents of unusual size.

Paleontologists have unearthed fossilized remains from 21 ancient rodent species in eastern Oregon, including the skull and teeth of a previously unknown miniature beaver called Microtheriomys brevirhinus. At about the size of a squirrel, this particular beaver would have been ten times smaller than modern relatives, as Tara Kulash reports for The Oregonian. The finds appeared in the May issue of Annals of Carnegie Museum.

In 2012, the beaver fossils were unearthed less than a mile from the visitor’s center for the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, reports Jeff Barnard for the Associated Press. Nine other new species of rodents have been found in the area — some in the same fossil beds, most on nearby government lands. Some of the fossils are more than 20 million yeas old. The sediment surrounding the beaver fossils contains layers of volcanic ash, and by dating radioactive elements within the ash suggests the fossils are from the Oligocene period between 28 and 30 million years ago.

While the burrowing beaver’s line went extinct, it’s also possible that this ancient aquatic mini beaver has modern relatives.

You mean there might have once been many mini beavers? Hey I know what news from John Day about beavers belong in the Smithsonian and National Geographic and Time and every other magazine you can think of. It’s the news that the normal-sized beavers we have right now could save our salmon and restore our incised creeks if we could stop killing them for a while.

How about leading with that story for a change?

Fun footage from Rusty in Napa last night. That’s a yearling and adult in back and a night heron in front. Because beavers, as you know, build the neighborhood for everyone to move in.

Off to San Pedro Valley Park in Pacifica tonight to talk about the ecology of urban water-savers. Wish beavers luck!

What is in a name anyway?

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Who's saving beavers now? June 12, 2015

Beavers take over SPVP

Dr. Heidi Perryman will be at San Pedro Valley County Park Visitor Center on Saturday, June 6, at 6 p.m., for a talk she likes to call “Ecosystem Engineers in Martinez: understanding how and why to coexist with urban beavers.”

Beavers descended on Martinez in 2007, and by October of that year they had built a dam that the City Council determined could be a flooding hazard; the little dam builders were slated for extermination. Did the people of Martinez sit on their hands on this one? Come to the Visitor Center and find out about the story of the beavers in this Bay Area town.

Wow great start! So far I’m really impressed with this article that calls me Dr. and puts the story in context, making sure to give credit to the hundreds of concerned residents who made the difference! I’m sure it continues on in this wonderful vein, right?

Perryman is the president of “Give a Dam“, the citizens group that fought for the beavers. She is a child psychologist who’s probably naturally attracted to the problems of little creatures and says that she is used to speaking to a mixed age group; so bring your older children with you–probably age 10 and above. Dr. Perryman is part of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, where she helps investigate and implement social action for ecological health. She was also on the committee that first responded for action for the beavers after meeting with the city council back in 2007, and which eventually gave rise to the Martinez beavers’ website.

ARRRRRRRRRG! What a paragraph. Easily and verifiably wrong in so may ways. Why does the world seems so quick to change our name? When I contacted them about the press release the author explained she saw on the OAEC website this sentence:

“In 2012, Perryman, Lanman and Brock Dolman from the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center’s Water Institute wrote their first paper reviewing the evidence for beavers in the Sierra Nevadas.“

To wish I can only say, sheesh. Don’t colonize me with those your dangling participles! Rick and I were not from the OAEC (and by the way there was another author listed too). And as for the name of our ACTUAL organization – we aren’t stupid in Martinez. We know our city will NEVER give a dam. I have Ann Cameron Siegal to thank for this apt musical response.

On the “Worth a Dam” internet location you can investigate more about this industrious engineer: just how it contributes to the health of any area in surprising ways, why beavers are valuable to all of us, and where their original distribution was in California before these large rodents were devastated by the fur trade and habitat loss.

It’s a nice article and should bring a good turnout, which is good because Pacifica will have beavers of its own soon enough. And I can take a few moments to correct the misunderstandings. Of course I sent copies to the mayor last night, so he can see their publicity in action. Wish me luck. I HAVE to practice today. I’ve spent too much time lately mooning of the images of the Napa kits and wondering when ours will show. And yesterday I had an useful burst of beaver begging for the silent auction, where I found THIS wine label that made me laugh as hard as I can remember doing in a long while. I sure hope they donate.

Beaver magnets

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Who's saving beavers now? May 21, 2015

This is filmmaker Marcy Cravat, who’s working currently on a new documentary about soil. She is particularly interested in the way beaver ponds capture carbon and how important they are to dealing with climate change.

Marcy and her husband paid a visit last night to the worlds easiest to see beavers. And the beavers did not disappoint. We saw four, with only one coming from above the primary dam. The others all in the bank hole near the footbridge. During the day Jon very heroically kayaked the pond and cleaned every bit of trash out of that creek, although he was most annoyed when high tide brought a floating soda can downstream right back to center of the dam.

Marcy was treated to several lovely beaver moments, and only 1 tail slap. Including the smallest family member working on the dam with excellent developing skills. I think she left with enough beaver sightings to have her interests thoroughly peaked.

No kits yet in Napa either, although there have been nice photos from the folk who are waiting for them. Rusty Cohn sent this turtle train a couple days ago,

turtle RC — Turtles in Tulocay beaver pond: Rusty Cohn

And Robin watched this beaver last night and wanted to know if we were dealing with an elder?

FSCN6576 — White-whiskered beaver in Tulocay pond, Napa: Robin Ellison

We are still trying to track down that lovely plant the beaver is enjoying sticking out of the water. The closest we’ve come is Ludwigia, which is a very common invasive aquatic plant in the napa river watershed. I’m not so sure. Because our beavers almost never eat anything people wish they would. So I’m still holding out for more information. Robin’s white whiskered beaver reminded me of this film though, from so long ago, which was fun to revisit.

What do other people do on the weekend?

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? May 11, 2015

How was your Mother’s day? Thanks Rusty for the nice recap of your year of beaver watching in Napa. Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife aptly posted this on their Facebook page and I feel it’s something we should all see. If you’ve ever had your mother hold your chin while scrubbing something off your face that shouldn’t be there, you know EXACTLY how this feels.

Saturday night at Safari West saw a bouncing crowd gathered for the beaver talk, many families with young children including a few of the attentive serious kind, and a few of the boisterous crying kind. It pretty different than the last few talks I gave and I did my best to adapt. We had dinner in the lodge with Marie Martinez (in charge of carnivores) and Danny Cusimano director of education and research. He was a paleontologist finishing his thesis and talked about their work (currently doing a study on hand-rearing vs parental rearing) and looking at population successes. He also seemed very interested in hearing about our work and the primary challenges facing beaver in urban settings. A few others dashed in and out during our dinner, updating them both or asking questions. It was definitely a dynamic place to be.

After dinner we came back to our luxurious tent, sat on the beautiful deck and drank a glass of wine while the light dimmed and the animal sounds took over. All night we heard the whooping lemurs, grunting flamingos and lowing whatevers in the distance. It was wonderfully cold at night in those beautiful hills, and the beds were unbelievably comfortable and warm. We both slept like children.

In addition to the excellent overnight and jeep tour Safari West generously made a donation to Worth A Dam and presented a certificate for our silent auction. I made sure to bring a list of wildlife friends I thought would be great speakers for the future and we swapped stories and ideas for how to engage people about nature.

Then it was home to meet Greg Kerekes for an interview. He was hired by the Guadalupe RCD to produce five videos on urban wildlife. The first was on Grey Foxes which you can see here.

The next is supposed to be on beavers. I expected a ten minute interview but our conversation lasted nearly two hours. He hadn’t really known the Martinez story before and he found it very interesting. His wife had an injury that meant she couldn’t climb the stairs so she was waiting in the car outside the whole time! ( You might remember her as the dancing beaver from our festival two year’s ago.)

Greg said he was surprised that I never seemed to say “um” or seemed at a loss for word like the others he interviewed. (Ha – plenty of practice!) We talked about beaver challenges, beaver benefits, beaver nativity, beaver depredation and the history of Worth A Dam. They were excellent questions and he was a great listener but I was exhausted by the end. Not sure how much of our conversation will find it’s way into his short film, but he said he was interested in doing a bigger project too and it would help down the road.

Fortunately for me (and the people I work with in my day job!) I’m off today, so I can rest and enjoy NOT talking about beavers. Then I can start focusing on the festival. (Eek!) The application that Lory was kind enough to fill out (all 19 pages of it) goes to the city just as soon as I can get the event insurance taken care of.

Getting ready for Beaver Mother’s Day

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? May 4, 2015

What a headline!

5 pesky animals you might see this spring around Calgary

Spring is here, and BBQs and flowering gardens await. But just as we are waking up from our — albeit mild — winter slump, so is nature. So be prepared to see some furry, not-so-welcome visitors.

While it’s unlikely for someone to have a problem beaver in their backyard, the critters still can cause problems with their tendency to flood an area. To create their homes, beavers will build dams that block water flow, sometimes flooding pathways and other public infrastructure. There is also the issue of tree management, since their food of choice is bark and leaves. Calgary Parks management deals with this by wrapping wire around trees, to stop them from chomping on them. Also, since the flood in 2013, the beaver’s environment has changed, and can now be seen in places they weren’t before.

When near a beaver dam, be sure to keep your distance if you see a beaver. These are territorial animals, and though they will leave you be if you extend the same courtesy, they have been known to attack dogs and humans and to hold up traffic.

Seriously? Keep your distance because beavers might bite or hold up traffic? You know I’m a busy woman, it’s Monday and I have to get ready for another presentation. But this is too good to resist. I literally can’t help myself.

There are more things to mock in the article, but this is most glaring. Now we have other things to talk about. Greg Kerekes from the Urban Wildlife Research project in San Jose is coming to interviewme for a short film about urban wildlife this weekend. I mention it because he went to Lexington Reservoir this weekend and took this amazing photo of a beaver moving a kit:

moving jr — Beaver moving kit – photo Greg Kerekes

Look at that adorable face! When I first saw it it almost looked like a koala bear! Greg a great job of sitting patiently and even waited behind a blind to get this shot. In Martinez, our new mother has moved the kits every year but we’ve never gotten lucky enough to film it.

Yet?

Saturday we’re off to Safari West where I’ll be presenting after dinner to the families staying there. Then we get to stay overnight in the luxury tents and tour in the morning. Since Sunday’s mother’s day I’m going to talk about beaver mothers and the way that beavers act as “Fairy Godmothers” to the creeks. I had a lot of fun making this, and any excuse to download new fonts makes me happy!