Beavers or Social Ambasadors – Page 36

Kiwanis meets Castor

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Uncategorized May 9, 2008

Today the beavers were invited to appear before the Martinez Kiwanis club meeting where they could make their case for civic adoption. Since the animals themselves were otherwise engaged (and are generally unimpressive public speakers) I was sent along in their place. There I repeated the slide show program from the April 16th meeting, talked about their impact on a sometimes invisible city and fielded a host of interested questions. Councilwoman Lara Delaney organized the presentation and there were many friendly and familiar faces among the crowd. President Cathy Ivers and Vice President Linda Thurman extended warm welcomes and I felt entirely at home among the colorful, sometimes boisterous, crowd committed to good works and community service. There were some beaver-averse among those gathered, but everyone was willing to listen to the possible advantages of allowing our famous beavers to be Martinez Mascots for a little longer. There was even interest in including the beavers on our Benicia 680 sign…“Welcome to Martinez: A dam site better!” Thanks Lara for inviting me, and thanks Kiwanis members for making me feel like I ‘belonged in the lodge’.

Heidi P. Perryman, Ph.D.

Rusty Cohn Beaver News, Beavers, Beavers or Social Ambasadors September 20, 2023

“I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself” D.H. Lawrence

Another day of beaver sorrow ended in celebration, as regulars gathered at the creek tonight to watch four very healthy beavers enjoying the evening. There were many first timers happy for the initial glimpse, as well as steadfast beaver devotees, wiping away a tear at the loss we had today. Mom was still eager for her fennel treats, and one kit was still eating blackberries. A priceless moment occured when junior tried to steal a piece of mom’s fennel and she gave him a stern nip and chasing away. The day couldn’t have ended more differently than it began: with beavers at rest and play and a sense of calm and wholeness.

Thanks to Cheryl for spotting the dead kit, to Jon for pulling it out, to Linda for standing by with a net at the ready, to Moses for filming the recovery with somber devotion, to the Lindsay Museum for taking on yet another beaver loss, to Luigi for offering to let jon shower after cleaning the creek and to the hundreds of beaver supporters who read and emailed today. The story has always been about our willingness to care for these animals, and tonight it is also about our capacity to be touched by them.

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Beaver Buddies

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Educational, Friends of Martinez Beavers April 24, 2008

One of the best unintended consequences of our high-profile beavers is their capacity to draw interest and friends from all over the globe. From our avid supporter William Hughes-Games in New Zealand, to our much more local friends at the Bay Area Bird Blog, the story of the Martinez Beavers shines a spotlight on all the good work that is being done to protect wild things in a world with few wild places left. Our web guru is working now with Friends of Alhambra Creek to put together the best overview of the efforts they have made to study and improve our creek over the years. Our beavers will be featured in May’s Sierra Club Yodeler and shown at the public display at the Friends of the Creek Event May 10th in Walnut Creek. I have often said that our beavers have the very best publicist around, and this continues to be true. A bird tells me that the vote will likely be the second city meeting in May, so take out your calendars and draw a big beaver around the fourteenth. We’ll of course keep you posted.

Meanwhile, Linda says dad is hanging out at the bachelor’s pad and Mom is bringing home branches to the lodge. She thinks we just may be godparents, which seems to call for this Baby Beavers Film and a cigar.

Got Beavers?

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Friends of Martinez Beavers April 28, 2008

Have you checked out the children’s beaver artwork? Our web guru Michael has made these images available as epostcards to send to friends and family. I’m thinking that when children learn to care about the environment everyone’s a winner.This weekend we had several visits to the dam site from out-of-towners. Linda met some adventurers from Carmel who read about the beavers in the chronicle and wanted to see for themselves.

Yesterday I was contacted by Bonnie Eichler who works in Martinez and stopped in to see the beavers after a day of house-hunting. She took these photos of our beavers at the primary day on the evening of 4-19-08. Linda also reported seeing one kit feeding upstream towards starbucks like the old days. The beavers still look like they’re in residence to me, but don’t take my word for it…

What a day!

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Educational April 20, 2008

The beavers were a very popular presence at the John Muir Birthday Earthday Celebration today. We had a prominent display between the national parks inventory and Alhambra Creek. During the day we chatted with an array of beaver supporters and environmentalists. While swapping stories we collected contact information and invited children to do beaver artwork which will be appearing on the web page soon. People reported that distant family had seen our beavers on the news in Nevada, LA, Minnesota, Virginia and Georgia. Animal Portraitist Fro Butler stopped by to demonstrate the painting she is working on based on a photo taken of our beavers. Her artistic talent encouraged a brigade of more than 70 children to enter drawings for the contest. Our youngest artist was only three, and all were interested in the beavers and their story. Besides a collection of photos and a martinez beaver scrapbook, we displayed two large stumps chewed by the beavers. Everyone agreed that beaver dentists must be very well paid. Children were unanimous in their support for the animals; one girl reported the mayor had recently visited her school and said the beavers “might be moved.” She clearly hoped that didn’t happen.

At the days’ end we held a raffle for the Alpha and Omega beaver t-shirts. Congratulations to Alice Barlettani who won the very first shirt designed for the candlelight Vigil back in November, and also to Steve Sokol who won the latest t-shirt distributed at the April 16th meeting. The day was full of happy faces, excellent music, and perfect weather. I hadn’t been out to the Muir site in a while, and I was reminded what a peaceful, natural place it is. Ohh and John Muir himself came over to greet Worth A Dam and said in his lovely Scottish lilt….”Martinez should keep the beavers”.

Aye, Mr. Muir, that we should. Look for children’s artwork soon.