Scott and the plight of the burrowing owls made the big screen last night, click on the photo in case you missed the tale. If the new year has left you full of renewed good intentions, join us Sunday and show the world where you stand on the whole protecting-property-owner-interest-versus-preserving-rare-wildlife debate. (Given that you’re reading this blog I assume I already know…) I’ve already heard from a few beaver supporters who will be in attendance, and lots of others who “Give a Hoot”. I’m sure your neighbor will carpool with you. Let’s remind the powers that be that wildlife matters.
The Gazette reported this week that Mayor Schroder was appointed to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. Reportedly he will be filling a long-standing vacant seat, and will specifically represent local government. “Each regional board makes critical water quality decisions for its region, including setting standards, issuing waste discharge requirements, determining compliance with those requirements, and taking appropriate enforcement actions.”
Just so you know, city beaver-betrayer Mary Tappel works for the waterboard. Waterboards are notoriously anti-beaver, so he should feel right at home.
Mind you, this is a man that went on national television and called historic Alhambra Creek a ‘drainage ditch’,that originally authorized killing the beavers, that approved scraping the entire habitat and allowing the silty overflow to drain illegally back into our creek, that won’t allow the planting of Riparian trees, and authorized the installation of a second sheetpile wall in front of a prior sheetpile wall, thus restricting flow by 20%.
Apparently he had a letter of recommendation from beaver-supporter Ted Radke, and the Western States Petroleum Association. So I’m just wondering…
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.)
Daylight savings is kind to beaver watchers. You can stagger out of bed at 6 and get to the dam just in time for a streaky orange sunrise. This morning gave sight of Dad at the old lodge, one yearling at the annex, another at the frat house, and a third by the footbridge. A pretty good viewing.
Yesterday I met with the director of public works to discuss our children’s art tile bridge project. City staff were there as well. They had been excited about the project back when I presented to the Parks Marina and Cultural Commission in October. Their enthusiasm for the artwork and the tiles was fairly evident and they all wanted to make their own. It was a very friendly and productive meeting, and I kept thinking I had stumbled into the wrong room by mistake. It felt like one of those weird family events, where your stepfather had never liked you, and always told everyone you were a trouble maker and would never amount to anything, but then showed up at your cum laude graduation, saying he said he couldn’t be prouder and bought you a car.
Well, maybe not a car, more like a certificate for Jiffy Lube? Or one of those Shell Gas cards. Not extravagant, but still, not what you expected. The most delightful part of the meeting was when I was asked to take staff on a beaver viewing some morning to describe the habitat and show off the dams. That doesn’t happen every day.
The beaver stone that was rejected has become the corner stone?
Anyway, Worth A Dam is officially on the agenda to present the full project to the City Council on November 18th. I have been told this is because the city wants to be included in this project and feel participatory. Beaver failure is an orphan, but beaver success has many parents. Come and support our beavers that night if you can?
So you remember how my marketing advice to Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions included the need to identify some public beaver drama and walk onto the stage with a big shirt that said “hero” on the front? (Or if you’re Skip, no shirt at all?) Well I found his action yesterday, and it has all the pathos of a greek tragedy. Ripped from the headlines of an economy in turmoil, it includes the urgency of a leaky fawcett, the humanity of country club, and the environmental awareness of a cell tower.
With Massachusetts burdensome unemployment rate of 9.3, important victims of the economy are often overlooked. As restaurants and book stores close up shop, consider the poverty we can’t see. Consider golf.
The Ledges is an 18 hole golf course in South Hadley. It boasts “Numerous holes winding through protected wetlands and rock ledge outcroppings.” It opened as a plush expensive course, but wasn’t selling enough tee time and was then taken over by the city which manages this municipal course and allows visitors to pay 36 for 18 holes on a weekend. Seems it has some beaver problems and they considered installing a beaver deceiver to fix it, but course superintendent now says that they don’t have enough money to pay for those new fangled things and they had better just kill them after all.
The good news is that since its a city managed club, with protected wetlands, the conservation commission will have to weigh in. There will be a public hearing next week November 9th at 8:30pm. Seems like the perfect place for a heroic beaver management expert to show up, offer his services and prominently flout his upcoming DVD.
Jon trotted down beneath the light of the beaver-y moon to catch sight of beavers milling about the place. Two at the old lodge, one climbing up a bank, and one chewing near the footbridge. It was too dark to tell if number four was mom or dad, but its nice to see the whole family every now and then. A pefect ending to the occasion of the 700th post on this website, which is a fairly hefty landmark to pass.Thanks many of you for making the journey with me.
One of the sighs of relief I can breathe now is that since we’ve fully entered November the odds of vast foolish being planned for the beaver section of Alhambra Creek have gone down considerably. We are now in the “stay away from the creek by order of F&G” zone of winter, which, mind you, doesn’t preclude a sudden “emergency” decision, but does mean that the massive work they want to do on the east bank won’t come this year. Hurray! No new tragedies! This weekend I read idly through the posts for last october of the sheetpile-palooza. I had forgotten how horrifically demoralizing and upsetting that period of time was. No wonder I breathed easier when we hit November.
On related notes I am told that bird-foam-weary Cheryl actually has the day off today, so maybe she’ll get some rest and be able to relax. RL is hard at work finding out about the black mountain beavers, and tomorrow I have a meeting with the city staff about the children’s art tile project for the Escobar Bridge. This weekend we’re supposed to be at the Save Mt. Diablo event at Castle Rock.
Every now and then a post gets a little flurry of attention, and Sundays “Descant on a foolish connecticut land-trust” managed to be this month’s entry. A couple feisty beaver friends wrote Mr. Peterson and sent me his responses. I sent my own very polite letter, along with the link to my less polite column. I thought you’d want to see his response.
Thanks for your thoughts. I also appreciate the exposure related impacts of an email such as the one i sent could have. I was actually expecting reactions similar to yours. The best suggestions for solutions have come from those opposed to this type of action as a proposed stewardship plan. That said. I still did recieve several others promoting it as a sound stewardship practice when combined with good design or when there is an overpopulation for a given ecosystem.
My email was expected to identify other alternatives and resources suggested by a broad distribution to a variety of groups on all sides. The strong emotions against trapping as an option brought forth the best alternative ideas, resources and possible solutions that had not previously been brought to our attention. Those that support trapping were not as quick to offer solutions rather quick to support this as a sound stewardship practice.
The PR aspect was to help me express to our entire board that thier are strong views on both sides and to find out the positive and negative impacts of this type of action in other communities. Most of the public views expressed are in opposition of the overpopulation of beavers in this area based on the damage they have caused. I was expecting more land trusts that permitt hunting, in general, on thier properties to provide feedback on how it is percieved by the public. I then reflect on some of the insightful comments by the anti-hunter contingent to this inquiry and maybe those land trusts would prefer to leave those practices less public.
This ecosystem can not support the beaver population current here and they are instinctively converting the wetland to a pond to support thier presense. This location, altered by man has given the beavers an opportunity to further change the landscape. With a connected and healthy 5 acre pond, this affected area needs to see the emergent vegitation restored and wetland grasses return to make a riparian buffer of an appropriate size for the area and restore the area to its condition when donated to us. Again some of these problems are caused by poorly designed roads over the years and overdevelopment – which are not in under our control.
I conceed and agree that suggesting our Town share in the blame (for this type of actions) may not be the most appropriate tact to take. Again to inappropriately throw stones – our Town has not been overly helpful in modifying the roads or storm water systems to mitigate the requirement for a healthy riparian buffer to this pond. The Town actually has permitted (under enacted ordinaces) the volume of water traversing this property by some pooly designed storm water systems, increased impervious surfaces and riparian buffer desruction.
We have other properties that have a cycle of beaver activity that are naturally regulated by them moving in and out to permit the property to recover. We let these alone and exist in harmony. Qe are going to impliment one of the suggested hybrid designs for now and see if this can decieve the beavers for now to get us through winter. I will post our progress of the project and our actions taken when it is completed.
Thanks,
Guy
Ahhh, where to begin. How about by noticing that this is a man who is very happy to have learned the word “Ecosystem” when his daughter was in fourth grade. Like many before him, he believes it is a magic shield and if he clutches it convincingly to his chest he can ward off all challenges to his motives or compassion. “The ecosystem can’t support that many beavers!” Gosh. I wonder why those beavers didn’t get the memo? I mean birth rate is determined by caloric intake which is determined by available food source. So can it truly not support them? Or are you referring to the ecosystem of your internal tolerance, which I agree, appears strained?
You do realize beavers are territorial right? Your yearlings will disperse, by hook or by crook, over land or over water to find their new homes. The beavers you are enduring right now are keeping others away. If you get rid of this “batch” of beavers, you will get another one.
“And makes us rather bear those ills we have, than fly to others that we know not of”.
