City Reports – Page 121

Ahhh Memories…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions May 8, 2009

Just two weeks after 100 people crowded into City Hall to find a solution to flooding and blocked access to a fire road caused by a beaver living at Whittemore Brook, city and state officials were expected to visit the site of the problematic dam behind Winford Way.

Seems some pesky beavers have found some pesky advocates and are demanding realistic solutions for solvable problems. Lucky for them they picked Massachusetts as their watery residence, because Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions is just a two hour drive away.

(We had to fly ours in 3000 miles!)

Read the cast of characters that inspected this problem, and fondly recall the major hoopla that we went through two Novembers ago. At least they have actually mention the word “Wildlife” in their equivalent of Fish and Game.

I was ready to watch a little must-see TV so went searching for video of their meeting two weeks ago. Unfortunately Medford doesn’t video tape and their minutes aren’t yet posted. Still its a familiar story.

I loved this part especially:

Ryan said the beaver issue has taken on a life of its own and residents far and wide are coming forward to volunteer their service.“People want to not only save the beaver, but also help the neighbors,” Ryan said. “The idea is to move quickly with professional help.”

Beavers change things. It’s what they do. Remember?

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=X7-i6MiGvbw]

PS That first image in the video isn’t a beaver, you all caught that, right?

Community

heidi08 City Reports, Creative Solutions May 7, 2009

Last night we were treated to the delivery of Mitchell Maisel’s report to city council explaining his intention to plant trees near the secondary dam to improve the watershed, protect wildlife, and augment habitat. Beaver supporters were in attendance as were his very glowing parents. Mitchell has already had two meetings with the city engineer and two with city staff, and has full permission for the planting. The biologist who is working with us to help the city engineer explain the value of this, Felix Ratcliff, came to the last one and was able to answer questions and clarify ecosystem issues. Some of our regulars weren’t able to attend last night, but it was a great, supportive community. (And what snappy dressers!)

This morning’s beaver show saw dad and a kit, with dad doing a fairly spectacular branch cutting near the primary dam. The big surprise though was the Western Grebe who was heartily enjoying a mornings mouthful at the secondary dam. The have a slender bill which they use like a spear to catch fish, and his was in top service. Western Grebes have the remarkable habit of forming floating nests anchored to plant material in the water and lay their eggs on a rafted bed on the surface. Tens of thousands were hunted not so long ago for their feathers, but there numbers have recovered and they do well where there is a stable water supply. (Like, oh say, a beaver dam).

Other exciting water developments include an aquatic version of the Caldecott tunnel leading from the first willow after the marina vista bridge to the water in the first scrape. Linda saw a muskrat commuting between water bodies yesterday, and then a beaver! I went down to photograph the engress, but our real photographer needs to catch a picture of a beaver coming out because that would make me very happy.

Couldn’t have done it without you…

heidi08 City Reports, Creative Solutions May 6, 2009

There’s a new kid on the block of this website, maybe you’ve already noticed. Check out the menu bar title third from the right labeled “consultants“. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

See that list? Those are the brilliant beaver minds around the country that I have persisted in bothering with questions over the past two years. I am quite sure that there is no more complete list of beaver experts anywhere on the web. Of all the things I have been forced to do to help the beavers stay in Martinez, this is the one of which I am proudest. Cultivating these relationships so that questions could be answered and clarified is the most useful time I have spent, and believe me I’ve spent some time.

I was a little anxious about asking them to lend their name to the website when I tentatively wrote for permission last week, but without exception each one responded positively and was pleased by the request. Each name is a link to their email, and business name is a link to their website, if they have one. If you don’t recognize a name, enter it into the search bar in on the right, because undoubtedly I have written about their sage advice in the past.

My goal is to have little Sarah from Nebraska or Michigan look up beavers because she wants to save some in her county, and find that list of professionals and be able to get her questions answered. Moving information is what the web is best at, and we have been moving information about beavers at a great rate.

Speaking of which, our own Cheryl Reynolds has started a Martinez Beavers Twitter. Sign up for latest alerts and sightings, or just mark the page to check from time to time. As of this inaugural morning she has 11 followers, but I’m thinking that will at least double by sunset.

Remember, come tonight to support our eagle scout candidate in his presentation on tree planting to the city. See you there.

The Third Threat

heidi08 Beaver News, City Reports May 5, 2009

To date the beavers have endured a massive scrape of the lower floodplain, and the installation of sheet pile through their lodge, but that is not the last injury the city of Martinez intends to offer. Since October there has been an outstanding grant application to widen the creek between Escobar and Marina Vista, and to lower the road so that high waters can overflow across the street and re-enter the creek just after the Marina Vista bridge. Like the sheetpile, the plan is a long overdue opportunity seized with beaver momentum.

Here’s the problem: Their new lodge is on the remaining bank slated for removal.

Obviously the beavers needed a new home, and thank goodness they had enough foresight to sneak one on the west side of the bank. It is hidden under sparse trees whose tops were cut when the crane needed to reach over them, but it is a secure location that the beavers have learned to call “home”. If the plan is executed as outlined in the grant, it, and the few remaining trees that shade it, could be threatened.

We haven’t heard anything about the status of the grant since way back in October. I was hoping the shrinking economy would put that particular plan on a back burner for now. Yesterday our eagle scout candidate met with city staff and the city engineer to discuss the location for 18 new trees, but every single one was on the park side, none were near the lodge. This despite the fact that their own biologist, Skip Lisle, told them that the lodge needs to be shaded, and we have asked permission to plant specifically on the west bank. My guess is that they are seeing down the road the need for that bank to be removed and they want to resist planting trees in an area that is going to be demolished.

It’s not hopeless. The grand widening scheme could still take place and the beaver lodge and trees could be left in island formation in the middle of the creek. But for that to happen the city would have to have a sense of responsibility for their well-being and at least a commitment to their care, which they have resisted every step of the way without massive public pressure.

So, the honor of your presence is requested once again, at the Wednesday night city council meeting where our eagle scout candidate will present the tree planting plan to the city council. and we will specifically ask for a few trees near the lodge. Come do the right thing for your beavers.

Again.

Are we there yet?

heidi08 City Reports, Educational, featured May 9, 2010

How many miles to babylon?

Three score miles and ten

Can I get there by lantern light?

Aye, and back again.

I was thinking of this nursery rhyme today in terms of where we in the process of getting the city to accept/embrace the beavers. It’s been a year and a half. This is almost my 500th column. We’ve had the top watershed minds in the county working on this problem, and the top beaver experts in the world finding solutions. We have vast public interest, an active volunteer group, constant outpourings of good will. All these things should have fitted together and convinced even the most waivering of minds that these beavers belong in this city.

We should be in Babylon, and back again, already.

Instead we are still arguing with public works about the right to plant trees, explaining how our drought has nothing to do with the fact that the beavers haven’t made it flood yet, and getting snapped at by council members who would rather not have to deal with us.

Every time I think we have earned the last necessary support or found a “game changer” so compelling that the city will not be able to ignore the valueable role that these beavers have in this community, things snap back into tension state with elastic zeal. It seemed like the beaver festival changed everything, but it is clear that isn’t true when the city manager tells me over breakfast that the habitat shouldn’t be replaced so that the beavers will just move on. It seemed like my being on the board of directors for the JMA would cement the beavers respectibility for the city, but of course that isn’t what happened at all.

At first night this year, when we were officially “on” the city schedule, Linda asked me happily “did you ever think this day would come?” And I answered without hesitation. Honestly? I thought it would come ages ago.

Babylon isn’t any closer it seems. It has greatly saddened me to think that we might never get there, but this morning I thought, maybe that’s the point. Maybe its the journey, and not the destination, that matters. For the city, and for myself personally.

Maybe we’re not talking about Babylon, but Ithaka.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

C.P. Cavafy