Category: City Reports

Crisis Management!

heidi08 City Reports January 22, 2010

One of the most effective subtle terrors in the movie Jurassic Park (which was a not at all subtle movie) was the way that the technology and gadgets designed to protect the visitors all ended up hurting them. From the vehicle slipping over the edge and barely missing the dangling children, to the boy getting hurled off an electric fence when the power went back on, the safety measures gradually became more perilous. The idea that technology can keep you safe was effectively challenged, while the idea that technology can invent things that place you in harms way, was proven again and again.

I mention this because yesterday the cables designed to “protect” the city from massive beaver-generated flooding, came loose from the dam and traveled downstream, snagging wood and debris in an ever growing dam of their very own. Remember these were initally installed in the dam with anchors so the entire structure could be ripped out if necessary in one heroic swoop. There had always been difficulty deciding where on the banks to place this special “bathtub plug”, and Skip’s flow device made it pretty much moot. The cables eventually tangled and worked themselves into chaos. But yesterday the churning waters forced them free and they snaked down stream to catch some action. By the noon the snag was two feet higher than the dam, and we starting to get worried that the problem might make city staff mistakenly blame the dam for the problem.

After hearing from jon that the snag was impossible to dislodge, I weighed my options carefully and called Councilman Mark Ross, letting him know what had happened and asking him to call public works and explain what it needed. To his credit, he left his office and went to the dam to see for himself. By this time the cables were no longer visible, but I assured him they had been reported that morning by to Worth A Dam members. Mark called Bob Cellini who came down with a de-snagging crew.

Worth A Dam was on hand to explain and ward off unwanted solutions, but they needn’t have been. Bob understood that the snag had nothing to do with the dam, and every effort was made to remove it without disruption to the structure. Some low branches were removed that were catching debris but the dam was untouched. To a man, staff was pleasant and protective about the beavers and gracious to Worth A Dam. The director was full of good will, and the city manager showed up as well, happy for the help and scowling at all the non-beaver trash that ends up in our creek.

As they worked tens of people showed up on the banks and bridges, (worried, as we had been worried), that they were “messin’ with” the dam. It was like that scene from witness where the entire town shows up over the line of the hill, coming to help. Worth A Dam did its best to calm their fears and clarify the problem. A single beaver emerged once to check what they were up to, but the entire event went peacefully. The “filter” or roundfence closing the entrance to the pipe had been tipped by the rain, and was also catching debris. They are reported going to try to right it tomorrow using a boat.

Several people remarked on what a different feel the day had. Staff was acting like the beavers were a resource to preserve, not a problem to be resisted. They seemed to think there were much larger problems than the dam all along the entire creek and be grateful for the supportive attention to this particular area. The entire event went as well as I could have possibly hoped, and, aside from feeling weirdly like Alice in wonderland, it was pretty cool.

Of course things could change in a heartbeat. (I dreamt last night they rode up to fix the filter on a jet ski.) But this morning I am still grateful for the hard work and good energy. Oh and just in case we didn’t learn enough yesterday, here’s a great picture that will help you tell a snowy egret and a great egret apart for future reference. Thanks Cheryl!

Photos: Cheryl Reynolds

This just in: Native Americans Aren’t Native?

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? September 10, 2010

This lovely image is from the independent newspaper “Moonshine Ink”, covering Truckee and North Lake Tahoe. A letter to the editor caught my attention, outraged that a family of beavers had been killed near Kings Beach. Apparently the decision was defended with the timeless argument “Beavers aren’t native” to Lake Tahoe.

After the fit of apoplexy that resulted in my nearly swallowing my own keyboard, I coughed out a letter in response and then ran straight to our local historian to implore him to the wikipedia rescue. He kindly stopped what he was doing and dispatched a salient and heavily researched “ecology” piece pitched to all those SUV bumper stickers that read “Keep Tahoe Blue”. Check it out.

Beaver (Castor canadensis) were re-introduced to the Tahoe Basin by the California Department of Fish and Game and the U. S. Forest Service between 1934 and 1949. Descended from no more than nine individuals, 1987 beaver populations on the upper and lower Truckee River had reached a density of 0.72 colonies (3.5 beavers) per kilometer.^[21] Despite controversy that beaver are not native to the area, the historic range of beaver included all areas of the United States, excepting southern Florida, and even reached the deserts bordering Mexico on the Rio Grande and Colorado Rivers.^[22] Until recently, beaver were considered pests who caused flooding and impaired the passage of spawning trout and salmon. However, water levels in beaver dams can be easily controlled with flow devices;^[23] and it has been shown that trout and salmon move freely across beaver dams.^[24] In spite of the published literature, all of the beaver dams in Taylor Creek, which flows from Fallen Leaf Lake to Lake Tahoe, are destroyed annually each fall by the U. S. Forest Service in order for Kokanee salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) to spawn. A recent study of Taylor Creek showed that the beaver dam removal decreased wetland habitat, increased stream flow, and increased total phosphorus pollutants entering Lake Tahoe – all factors which negatively impact the clarity of the lake’s water.^[25] In addition, beaver dams located in Ward Creek, located on the west shore of Lake Tahoe, were also shown to decrease nutrients and sediments traveling downstream (United States Geologic Survey 2002). Beavers increase wetland areas which trap sediments and improve water quality. The presence of beaver dams has also been shown to either increase the number of fish, their size, or both, including a study of brook, rainbow and brown trout in Sagehen Creek, which flows into the Little Truckee River at an altitude of 5,800 feet and is a stream typical of the eastern slope of the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains.^[26] Unfortunately, in November, 2009 a beaver family was caught in snares underwater and drowned in a King’s Beach, California stream when Placer County Fish and Game ordered their removal for fear that the beaver would cause flooding.^[27]

Ahh it’s great when friends come to the rescue. Does anyone from the area have a photo of these beavers? He’s looking for a family portrait to add to the text. I know we have a beaver supporter in truckee, just can’t remember their name. If you’re reading this, write and remind me? In the meantime, my meager skills can only offer this:

Updates and Storm Warnings

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers January 16, 2010

I have been getting a bundle of anxious emails from folks alarmed by the upcoming series of rains and worried about the beaver dams. Obviously the city was concerned as well and dragged the recently felled willow out of the creek Friday. (You silly beavers didn’t eat fast enough. Languid beavers, who knew?) Main Street Martinez is sending out messages warning where to get your sandbags, and reminding everyone of all the “hard work the city did to widen the flood plain” (and remove the beavers food). Remember that beavers are used to rebuilding and not looking foward to an early retirement any time soon.

One of the unique benefits of having an english husband is that he is obsessed with weather reports. At last count the treasurer of Worth A Dam had 35 weather sites bookmarked on this computer. He reads conflicting reports, like a hedge fund investor reads the pros and cons. He even insists on tapping the barometer in the living room several times a day. We naturally put him in charge of monitoring storm conditions and letting us know when the beavers are going to be in trouble.

Jon writes:

It seems there are going to be three storms, the worst one will be the last from Wednesday into Thursday, and this will be the one to watch. The good thing about it is there will be a break between each one. The other thing is that not all there forecast models are in agreement, some are saying dryer conditions. The NWS is still saying wait and see they have not issued any warnings yet.

So we’ll sit tight and see what happens. One of these days our little Victorian is going to get washed right down Castro Street into the beavers. I’m sure they’ll waive as we float by. “We told you to build more dams,” they’d shout over the noise of rushing water.

__________________________________________________

Other news updates: First remember beaver friend Gail in New Jersey who wrote about the situation in Franklin Swamp? We managed to send a little attention there way and make some new friends around the country. I heard yesterday this update:

I just spoke with Nancy, the Mayor’s secretary about the latest beaver news. She told me that DC has been in touch with Laura Simon from HSUS about doing a presentation about the beavers to the schools. She was working it out with the Board of Education. I can’t believe they would teach kids about the beavers if they were not going to make an effort to keep them here. I’ll let you know when I have more info.

Hurray! Go Laura and go Gail! Teaching children about beavers is the single sneakiest way to secure their safety. Just look at the slide show at the left of this post, which contains drawings by not one but two of the daughters of a certain anti-beaver city councilman.

New Jersey successes not enough for you? Things look better for the Lincoln Park Beavers in Illinois, too. You might recall the beavers were the special concern of our wikipedia friend, who went to med school nearby and had connected with a current med student who was similarly pro-castor.

Back in the early part of this year the parks department and the Conservancy wanted those beavers out. (Beavers eat trees. Lincoln Conservancy Protects Trees etc.) They hired the mirthlessly-named company “On Target Wildlife Control” to live trap and relocate the beavers, except mom beaver didn’t read the “live” label on her trap and subsequently drowned.

Ring a bell? Well, the beavers are back in the limelight and their supporters are the subject of a recent article on “Lincoln Park Now“. It mentions the widespread good feeling towards the beavers, the facebook page, the wikipedia page, and then notes that “Our beaver even gets mentioned in this California beaver fan blog that’s totally and completely serious about celebrating and supporting beaver welfare.”

Totally and completely serious about celebrating and supporting beaver welfare! Gosh I have to find that blog! Maybe I can email the author and we can collaborate and combine resources. I’m so glad to learn that there is another active website following beaver welfare in California!

Oh. Its Us.

Well, yeah for the coverage. And boo for being the only one. Now lets talk content. I couldn’t help but notice that you refer to the beaver as “he”. I’d like to clarify that beavers are social animals and that any beaver who has built a lodge has a family or is expecting one. Do what you can to start describing this as a family unit, because I believe the “bachelor language” is used to make it easier to justify beaver death and removal. (As I said before, everyone understands that young men living on their own can get into trouble, but no one wants to think of a child left alone because daddy never came home.)

The primary concern your article mentions is birds. Beavers will take trees, and birds need trees, so that means bird lovers aren’t beaver lovers. Ahhh, its nice to have this chance to talk. First take a moment to look at the post from two days ago. It contains reference to a publication by Audubon in 1940 about the way that beavers make habitat for birds. How about this August 2007 article from the National Audubon magazine about how a beaver outside the Bronx zoo helped the bird population there.

“The beaver is nicknamed Jose after US representative Jose Serrano who secured 15 million in federal funding for restoration of the formerly garbage-clogged waterway…Here is nature doing what we couldn’t even imagine, says Eric Sanderson, an ecologist with the wildlife conservation society that overseas the Bronx zoo. The rebounding Bronx river is now home to 45 species of fish and serves as a migratory corridor for birds.”

That fly-by-night researcher was working on a project to generate a program for identifying what a habitat looked like based on the presence of a single species. He called it the Muir Web. He used this web to create an ambitious reconstruction of what what New York looked like 400 years ago. The “Manhatta” project became a major exhibit in the Museum of the City of New York and was the subject of this September’s cover issue of National Geographic.

If you still need convincing that beavers are good for birds, read about the study released this year by Hilary Cooke of Alberta Canada. Science Daily summarize the findings here, but the article is in the October 2008 issue of the Journal of the Western North American Naturalist. And when your done looking it up, wrap your most important trees with 2×4 steel gauge wire or paint the trunks with sand. We’d be happy to help if there are any questions.

Alright, that’s enough beaver news for one day. Stay dry and stay tuned!

Friends Underground

heidi08 Burrowing Owls, City Reports January 15, 2010

Beaver friend and science writer Joe Eaton has a powerful article in the Berkeley Daily Planet. In it he highlights the failure of Fish & Game to take regional scarcities into account in deciding that the Burrowing Owl wasn’t “endangered”. Apparently if we have a pile of them on crop lands in Fresno that means that species is doing fine. Kind of like taking the bald eagles off the federal list because there are so many in Alaska.

Some context first: As recently as the 1920s, this small semi-diurnal ground-dwelling owl was described as a “fairly common resident in the drier, unsettled parts of the [bay] region; most numerous in parts of Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties.” Whatever their status may have been in the other Bay Area counties, they’re mostly gone. Surveys in 1992-93 found no breeding burrowing owls in Napa, Marin, and San Francisco counties, and only a few in San Mateo and Sonoma. The Santa Clara County population is declining and restricted to a few breeding locations. That leaves Alameda, Contra Costa, and Solano as the remnant breeding range.

Got that? “Help me Contra Costa County! You’re my only Hope!” Time is running out for the owls. The Mayor of Antioch is sticking his heels in and taking care of the developer. I wrote him an imploring letter asking him to do the right thing and just happening to mention that Antioch has been in the news cycle for exactly two reasons this year, and wouldn’t he like to forget the other one by doing the noble thing this time? Funny what gets a mayor’s attention. He wrote back within seconds saying that Jaycee Drugard had been held on unincorporated land so technically it wasn’t an Antioch story. Gosh, I guess he told me.

Although their presence would appear to require a fresh environmental analysis, Kiper is now moving to clear the site by blocking the owls’ burrows with one-way doors. Once the birds are gone, the burrows will be collapsed and backfilled and the burrow architects—the ground squirrels—will be gassed. There’s a standard protocol for passively relocating burrowing owls from development sites, which involves providing alternate habitat nearby. Kiper is not following the protocol. This is eviction pure and simple, not relocation. One of the developer’s hired guns told the Contra Costa Times the owls “will all find happy homes.” That’s nonsense. Burrowing owls are remarkably site-tenacious. The displaced birds will probably hang around until they’re picked off by predators.

Cheryl’s lovely photo adorns the article. If you want to support the owls in their increasingly less likely quest for salvation, drop a note or a phone call in the Mayor’s and council’s direction.

Mayor James D. Davis (925) 757-2020

Mayor Pro Tem Mary Helen Rocha (925)207-7220

Councilmember Brian Kalinowski (925) 584-5430

Councilmember Reginald L. Moore (925)706-7040

Councilmember Martha Parsons (925)890-2665

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.