Beavers or Social Ambasadors – Page 27

Just in time!

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Environmental, Festival, New Species January 27, 2010

I was getting ready to announce Worth A Dam’s presence at the Flyway Festival the 6th and 7th, when two very fine events coincided to assist. The first is that we had a fantastic new bird visitor at the damlet site yesterday, caught by Cheryl here:

Clearly there is going to be a housing boom. This is a common merganser. Avid beaver fans will remember that a hooded merganser was filmed at the primary dam last February, so its obviously the time for visitors. Like wooduck, these birds are what’s known as “obligate cavity nesters” which means they lay their eggs in holes they cannot dig themselves. (“much obliged!”) And bird boxes. Like the one Mitchell installed three days ago. Cheryl saw him check out the area up stream and downstream. Expect to see more of this pointed face!

Today I noticed a little surge of activity on the webpage and went to see where it was from. I discovered that the Flyway Festival has put our information and program on the schedule!

1:30pm – 2:00pm

Why Beavers are Worth A Dam

Slide show presented by Heidi Perryman, Ph.D.
The Martinez Beavers have been the center of controversy, environmental growth, and community action since 2007. This presentation will use footage and stills from a collection of local photographers to show the beavers’ unique impact on the habitat, including birds and other wildlife. It will outline tools used by the city to manage their continued presence. Heidi Perryman is a child psychologist who became an accidental beaver advocate when the family moved into the urban creek near her home. She began filming the beavers and writing articles for the local paper. Eventually serving on the “beaver subcommittee”, she formed the group Worth A Dam (associated with the 501.3 (c) Land for Urban Wildlife) to advocate for their continued care and teach others about the value of this Keystone Species. Learn more at www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress Join an artist from their team for a kid’s “beaver art” project on Saturday at the Wildlife Expo.

The entire roster of events is dazzling. They get 7500 people in a weekend. This is the BIG BIG BIG bird and watershed event of the year. And it is safe to say, in the history of the known world, they have never had a beaver display before. How exciting is that? Getting thousands of avid birders interested in the relationship between beaver dams and birds, and talking about the resources for beaver management? I can’t think of a better investment of a weekend. Come by and say hi and help us with our “build a banner” amazing art project!

A Day Of Riches

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, featured January 6, 2010

Yesterday was several days of wonder layered into one. Our artist, Kiriko Moth, released the final edits to the Worth A Dam Logo, and we couldn’t be more happy with it. Now its off to the printers to have it placed on a banner and display tablecloth, and maybe some teeshirts! Hopefully I can figure out how to switch it for that alarming orange rodent in the address bar that Michael installed years ago. In the mean time, I offer you a closeup for your viewing pleasure.

One thing I love about it is that even if you are ignorant of the concept of a “Keystone species” it is clear that the beaver is the key to the river, and the key itself is a kind of dam, which couldn’t be better. Any local henna artists might think about adding this to your stencils and joining us for the beaver festival this year!

The second grand layer of news was that when I came home from work there was a DVD from Don Bernier of the trailer for the Concrete Jungle. 12 minutes of introduction to the series and three of them about the Martinez Beavers. Mayor Schroder was there, sounding deceptively reasonable, Al Turnbaugh was there to be the villian of the piece, and Skip Lisle was clearly the hero. At one point there was a very intelligent female voice describing researching the statistics of rainfall and dam washouts and I thought, hey, she’s stealing my data! Who is that theif! And then saw that it was me! Ack!

All in all it looks like a unbelievably useful program and I know it will get bought up quickly. And Martinez, to be honest, was the hub of the story. With massive crowd shots, and the sweetest images of kits paddling past Starbucks. I can’t wait to see the whole thing.

Such a rich day. You would think that would be enough for any woman. But the highlight was an email from Cheryl Reynolds who snapped a photo of Mom beaver in the am. She was eating the untouched tree from yesterday’s IBB. Ahhh, it never fails to cheer me to see her. Enjoy.

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds 1-5-2010

Busman’s Holiday

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Environmental December 14, 2009

The phrase “Busman’s Holiday” is an English saying referring to a vacation during which you engage in activities very like what you do for a living. Reading Lily Pond is somewhat like that for me, since pretty much every dramatic thing that happens in the book has happened for our beavers. For example, when vandals “destroy” the dam and the pond collapses, I remembered several similar actions to our colony’s real estate. Of course it was never vandals: (at least not by strict definition standards). It was always someone with a paycheck from the city, and it was always done on purpose, even if it was denied later.

The worst and most obvious was the night Skip Lisle took the dam down by three feet to install the flow device. That stressed our colony horribly. It was heartbreaking to remember how all 6 beavers worked all night, ripping up tules and mud and pulling sticks off their own lodge, to make repairs. The following day one of our kits nearly collapsed with exhaustion and had to go to the lindsay museum where he later died. The necropsy found lesions from roundworm parasite, that had even made him blind, but I’m sure the panicked night(s) of hard work didn’t help.

A lot of the author’s “discoveries” are common knowledge to us. Maybe because we were such novices to begin with, we didn’t have years of “PROVEN THEORY” to combat. We just watched and learned. Beavers make use of varietal feeding. Check. Beavers work on dams from both up and down stream. Check. Beaver kits are taken care of by the whole family. Check. Beavers solve arguments and assert their power though “wrestling” in the water which doesn’t result in bloodshed. Check. Muskrats live in and around beaver lodges. Check.Beavers vocalize while feeding, but also to socialize. Check. Beavers repair holes and leaks under the water, not just at the top. Check. Beavers are adaptive in their thinking and problem solving. Check.

One thing I love about the book, is reading about things we observe all the time, but never had a “name” for. Hope Ryden describes the beavers water wrestle as a “Push Match”, which is exactly what it looks like. She says of it

I have watched these matches many tmes and thought a lot about them. Any species that posses sharp teeth with which to obtain food must avoid using those hazardous tools against its kind, for doing so could bring about its extinction. Moreover, it is certainly not in the interest of an animal to kill a close relative whose hereditary make up (being similar to his own) offers a backup means by which his own genetic material may be propagated. Finally, only a colony that is able to live in peace is assured the help of many hands and jaws in the creation and maintenance of its waterworks. This it is not surprising that the beaver has evolved strong inhibitions against biting, together with a ritualistic means by which to safely settle disputes.

Hope Ryden: Lily Pond page 167

Martinez Beaver Push-Match:

In some ways, reading Hope Ryden’s book is like finding a loveletter written by your grandmother. It’s wonderful to know what went on in her head, and to see the parallel’s in how she was feeling and thinking. But its also confusing to realize that someone else had these feelings, allowed their life to be shaped by them, and ultimately moved past them. It’s like seeing a familiar production from back stage. You know the plot and how it ends, but its delightful to see how the cast puts it all together.

Is there a copy under your tree yet? You can get one here.

Down the Rabbit Hole

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Tile Bridge November 20, 2009

Have you ever had one of those dreams where find yourself back at your locker in junior high only now you’re an adult and have a car and a job but still only a few minutes to get to English and you notice that everyone else seems really, really different than the last time you were there? Smaller and less intimidating?

Last night didn’t in any way resemble one of our familiar earth-nights. Everything had been transformed, mutated, or turned into something else. I gave the bridge art presentation to an enthusiastic council, (yes, you read that right) who loved the idea and couldn’t wait to support it. There was much oohing and aahing about the general cuteness of the children’s art work and I believe Ross actually thanked Worth A Dam for its continued hard work. I’ll have to see the video, because I was feeling too surreal to notice.

(Gazette page 1) (Gazette page 2) Our student helpers from Rona Zollinger’s ESA class came early to walk through their role in helping the project and were fantastically motivated and savvy. One had made a tile at the festival, another already had the Worth A Dam shirt, and a third was the son of a contractor who had helped lay tile and granite in the past and wanted to assist installation. The fourth was interested in writing about their role in the upcoming Worth A Dam newsletter. All were very smart about the visual impact their presence was going to have on the council, and volunteered to carry tiles and stand at the front during the presentation.

Two years ago after our dynamic November meeting, I left full of elevated hopes for the council’s role with the beavers. The sky was the limit. I dreamed big. 18 months ago, their refusal to vote on the subcommittee report turned me more wary and suspicious. I learned how to expect the worst but appear to hope for the best. One year ago their decision to put sheetpile through the lodge left me devastated and betrayed, and I honestly felt all bets were off. Last night, their reaction was again entirely unexpected. i would call it almost genuine enthusiasm with an element of quasi-amnesiac disconnect from their earlier cautions.

(If it hadn’t been for the fact that council woman Kennedy pointedly was the only member to say nothing whatsoever about the project, I would have thought I was in the wrong zip code. Thanks for making me feel at home.)