Beavers or Social Ambasadors – Page 32

Beaver Relief

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions October 19, 2008

“This,” cried the Mayor, “is your town’s darkest hour!
The time for all Whos who have blood that is red
To come to the aid of their country!” he said.
“We’ve GOT to make noises in greater amounts!
So, open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!”

There are weeks worth of sheetpile to be shook in the ground

The beavers are sleeping, just lying around

Skip Lisle may leave, we’ll be the ones here

To keep them all safe as the metal blades near

Come stand on the bridge, bring a camera, a friend!

Or the beavers 8 lives could now come to an end!

My apologies to Ted Geisel, but this seemed fitting for a 300th post. Assuming the missing metal will be delivered next week, the work will begin in earnest Monday, with sheet pile driven right through the lodge. Worth A Dam has volunteer watchers lined up for Monday and Tuesday, but we need helpers especially for Thursday and the following week. We’ll provide the earplugs, the binoculars, the walky talkies and a short training on what to look for, but we need your help. Open your calendars and find a space you can steal out of your week to help keep our beavers safe.

Last week, the beavers stayed holed up in their new lodge during the vibrations but there are concerns that could change as the work moves closer and the threat feels imminent. If they do we need to make sure no harm comes to them and keep an eye on where they go. If you have some time you can spare, even an hour, let us know at mtzbeavers@gmail.com. Your help really matters.

Heidi, Linda, Cheryl & Jon

Personally Speaking I Prefer Mounds

admin Beaver News, Beavers, Beavers or Social Ambasadors October 2, 2008

Martinez News Gazette

Earl Dunivan, Jr., a member of the family threatening to sue the city because the beavers were destroying a retaining wall between their property and the creek, snickered when Vice Mayor Mark Ross said he would give the project the go-ahead only if a pledge was added to the formal resolution. He wanted the City to declare in writing that this City Council is committed to keeping the beavers in Martinez and ensuring their survival and health in Alhambra Creek.

Linda Meza

In the Shadow of Life

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Educational October 1, 2008

“The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, those who are in the twilight of life, and those who are in the shadow of life,” – Hubert Humphrey

Tonight Martinez will face the question of how to treat a family of 8 beavers who live underground, in the “shadows” of Alhambra Creek. Will we make choices that protect them and demonstrate our intelligent compassion? Or choices that endanger them and demonstrate our hardened self-interests? There is a wealth of opinion being offered by those saying the beavers will not be impacted by these necessary measures. We are being told that beavers are resilient, that they will adapt to the invasive conditions we create and the food we remove. No proof is offered, though. Nor any to indicate why a report submitted in February constitues an emergency in October.

We are left with a dessert tray of bad choices, because no one took the time to give us better ones. Here’s Skip Lisle’s letter to the city.

My bleak day of beaver doom was interupted yesterday by a delightful email sent to me by beaver-friend Paul. He was forwarding an article by Seth Adams about his work with EBRPD chief land acquisition guru, Hulet Hornbeck. He told the story of the 50 year land recovery project that gave us the marsh and brought us the beavers. His story brilliantly emphasized the fact that the beavers were nature’s stamp of approval on the work we had done before.

Hulet comes into my office one day. It’s not one of our regular oral history sessions but he’s excited about the beavers in Martinez’s Alhambra Creek and how the history of the creation of the Martinez Regional Shoreline led to them being there. He shows me one of the ‘stuffed’ beaver dolls the Chamber of Commerce is selling.

Martinez Regional Shoreline: Crisis is reality, not recognizing crisis is dream land.

I’ve been going down to the Chamber of Commerce and buying these little stuffed beaver dolls to give to people. The beavers moved down from the Delta some number of miles and a new family built a beaver dam. The Martinez city council immediately, unanimously decided that they’d kill the beavers and tear down the dam, and they got the support from the State of California Fish & Game immediately so it wasn’t on their shoulders. The public realized the beavers were there and took a look at them day and night between the bridges in the outfall of Alhambra creek and getting into the Bay, and protested.

So the city council said we have to rethink ourselves but we still have to kill the beavers. Then this guy shows up from Vermont and he has a niche dealing with these beavers. He was in the water the other day to his waist, and there were secretaries watching him, this hulk of a man and his shirt off, and the secretaries thought this was great entertainment. Six months later the dam’s still there and the city council is going into hiding on the issue. School kids go out there, writing essays. It has had international TV coverage.

Why did this happen in 2008? I think the beavers represent success on the part of a creation of a park forty something years ago

We’ll get the history up later, but for now just think about the fact that our beavers are the reward for a half century of other people’s hard work. Come support them tonight.

Do we want this?

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=0E57SFVjAj0]

Or This?

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

And you can take that to the “Bank”

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Educational September 16, 2008

Have you ever heard the saying “Take care of the Pence and the Pounds will take care of themselves”? It’s an old english addage that means worry about saving the little money and it will add up to big money. Lewis Carroll altered it with his brilliant “Take care of the Sense and the Sounds will take care of themselves”, expressing (as only he can) that you should worry about what you’re saying, not how you’re saying it.

I often find myself struggling for a creek-beaver variation, which could communicate “put your resources into a healthy beaver colony and they will maintain the habitat for you.” Maybe “take care of the kits and the ‘kreek’ will take care of itself” Doesn’t rhyme though, but the point is there. Invest in a healthy creek and everyone reaps the reward.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=aIYS7g_sNwY]

SIGNS OF A HEALTHY CREEK

Water quality and flow

Cool, clear water free of contaminants and excess algae

Varied flow cycles

Creek bed and banks

Stable vegetated banks with minimal erosion

Presence of both slow pools and fast water running over shallow, rocky stretches

Abundant rock and clean gravel of various sizes (critical for fish spawning)

Plants and wildlife

Native riparian tree canopy, which stabilizes banks, provides habitat for birds and small mammals, and keeps water temperature cool for fish populations

Abundance of native riparian vegetation, providing cover for wildlife and root systems which stabilize banks (riparian refers to the land adjacent to creeks and rivers, where the vegetation is influenced by the presence of water)

Thriving fish, amphibian, and aquatic insect populations

Leaves, small branches, fallen logs and other natural vegetative debris within the stream bed and along banks, which support the aquatic food chain and provide hiding places for fish and invertebrates.

Beaver ROI is very profitable indeed: you can take that to the bank!

“Always an Adventure, Up on Beaver Creek”

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Video September 10, 2008

Well last night there were several interesting things-both furry and bipedal. The kits were out (and the bees were not!) which is just the way I like it. There were many new faces at the bridge, some whom had never seen the beavers before. One couple from Brentwood explained that they hadn’t known about the beavers until their family member in LA saw them on the news and told them to come check it out. That made me smile until another man said that his daughter had read about them on the website from her home in Georgia and told him to come look for himself. That’s quite a spread.

When I got home there was an email from Ian in Kentucky who says he loves beavers and has made this claymation of them. Amazing quality, the ‘Wallace & Grommit” of beavers.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=UEtKPSS1DRs]

I’m thinking maybe Ian can help us with a “beavers in city council” video…can’t you see it now? A beaver with a gavel and picketing animals in the audience? Hmmm.

A final unexpected pleasure of the evening was meeting a woman who is involved with the local 4-H chapter. She said the girls loved the beavers and wanted to organize an “adoption” of them, but weren’t sure who to ask. I told her we would have loved for them to come to the festival, and that we would welcome any input on the website. Of course Worth A Dam would be happy to meet the girls and do a docented tour of the area, bring display items and answer questions. Maybe “adopting” a beaver means becoming a docent themselves. A few girls at each bridge answering questions and pointing out behavior. If any of that happens you can be sure that you’ll read about it here.

Always an adventure, up on beaver creek.