Category: City Reports

The End of an Era

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, City Reports October 10, 2015

Yesterday I found three messages from Bob Cellini of public works waiting for me. Seems the city is anxiously worrying about El Nino’s arrival, and feeling that the best thing they can do is rip out the flow device and remove the sediment from the beaver habitat. There is never time or money to worry about the rest of the creek, mind you. This was discussed late this week at the last city meeting, when half of our pro-beaver caucus wasn’t in attendance. You can either excuse the bizarre video quality and angle, or go watch the whole thing for yourself here.

We are saddened by this news, but not alarmed. When I managed to connect with Bob he said they would be clearing out the creek from Starbucks to the BBQ, and doing a little dredging as well. They wanted to check that there were no beavers living in the area, which there are not. I was very confused why they’d want to dredge the annex area since its hardly a threat. But then I realized that the annex is on you-know-who’s front doorstep, and they need to show their Daddy that they’re spending their pocketful of money on the right things.

So I guess it makes sense.

It won’t matter for the beavers, who haven’t tended that dam for nearly a year. But I suppose its symbolic of the city erasing their contract regarding them. The flow device was as close as the city ever came to issuing a permission slip for the beavers to stay in Martinez. And they’re eager to withdraw permission.

The irony is that our beavers will be unaffected by their rejection, because they are laying low at the moment and possibly living elsewhere for the time being. Bob said the were going to cut the low branches of the trees, which I would hate to deprive beavers of if we had any at the moment. But for once we cannot be hurt by the city’s pettiness. Because the real loss has nothing whatsoever to do with them.

And IF the beavers 2.0 come back after the storms have washed the water clean and new, (and I think they well might) I’m sure they’ll be MOST grateful that the nasty pipe was removed so all their hard work can finally pay off.

Thanks Rob.

Oh, and someone put this on continuous loop will they?

Fantastic article today from The Ecologist that I just HAD to share about the economic value of nature.

How much is nature worth? More than you can imagine

Can you put a value on nature? Today we have tried to do just that by publishing an ‘Earth Index’ in the financial pages of the Times; Wall Street Journal; Singapore Business Times and Economic Times in India. The result of several months work trying to uncover the financial value of key species and natural resources.

You’ll understand of course why THIS is my favorite part:

Also standing out for their enormous value as landscape and wetland managers are beavers, worth an annual £120,000. But given the huge annual value of the US’s coastal wetlands – $23.2 billion – maybe it should not come as a surprise.

Wow. With today’s exchange rates that’s nearly 184,000 US dollars a year. That works out to be about 15 grand a month. You would think even a city like Martinez would worry about hemorrhaging that, wouldn’t you? I mean, if they understood the value of these animals they’d be sending them flowers and chocolates, promising never to be mean again, trying to win them back, instead of taking their clothes to Goodwill the week after they leave for college and turning their bedroom into a personal gym.

HRMPH.

MMM Beavers!

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, City Reports, Creative Solutions August 8, 2020

Congratulations for having the strange fortune reading our three thousandth post! Where has the time gone? Three presents today, one for each of the thousand posts about beavers that we have endured. I’ll save the most fun for last, but let’s start with an awesome new article from Cattleman’s magazine in Canada.

In praise of water, and beavers

Steve Kenyon

Do you know who is responsible for most of the biodiversity in this country? Long before we were ever here, it was our friendly, hard-working beaver, that’s who! This country was built by the beaver long before the fur trade depleted their numbers. To make a home, he backs up water, causing his environment to flourish in biodiversity because all life needs water. Plants, animals, fungi, insects and birds all rely on water and thanks to the beaver, they can all thrive within abundant riparian areas.

Each ecosystem relies on the other and it all starts with water. It aggravates me when we decide that the beaver stands in the way of industry. First off, the beaver were here first. Secondly, his job is more important than ours. He created the environment that allows agriculture to prosper. Thirdly, water is a very valuable resource. If he provides more for you, you should be thanking him.

How’s that for awesome proof that we’re slowly changing hearts and minds around the hemisphere and beyond? Thanks for this truly visionary article delivered to the best possible audience. Go read the whole thing and leave Steve a comment in praise of his writing.

Rusty Cohn from Napa sent me this AWESOME photo of a kit the other day and I new it belonged in our celebrations.

10378537_10205350702753324_2801776248016580205_n — Tulocay beaver kit: Rusty Cohn

Finally, the beavers of the world told me to thank you for reading about them by giving you a good laugh. Back when Martinez decided to paint over the mural beaver our pettiness got national press. The best was a morning radio show in Chicago. I don’t think anything could be funnier, and believe me I listened a LOT when I was making the cartoon. Enjoy, remember this cautionary tail warning against truly bad decisions at the civic level and celebrate beavers![wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/i1HSvWopHMU” lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]

Sonoma Bound

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? September 20, 2015

Yesterday we met with Suzi Eszterhas and 5 children that were beaver regulars and did a beaver art project in Susanna Street park for possible inclusion in the Ranger Rick story. The pictures will give you some idea of how cute it looked from the outside, but you’d actually need to be there to hear how delightful it was in person. These children had been to many, many festivals and literally knew everything there was to know about beavers.

One child had brought her recent copy of Ranger Rick for Suzi to sign, since it was the issue with her incredible cheetah photos. Many of then named their beavers (B0, Violet and Jojo are some I remember.) And one girl fed hers acorns, fennel and a branch. The bags were very popular and Suzi especially liked the fork paws. If you want to make your own the patterns are here.

There’s a nice article on Napatopia this morning. I especially like the way it talks to public officials who never mention flooding or money. Life is so different on the Napa side of the creek…

Napa waterways attracting wild critters

Since moving to Napa four years go, Rusty Cohn has gotten into the habit of taking a daily walk along Soscol Avenue. About two years ago, he noticed that a pond had been created in Tulucay Creek next to the Hawthorn Wyndham Suites hotel.Observing the area more closely, he was amazed to see what looked like a beaver dam.

There was a moment of disbelief. Beavers in residence along Napa’s Auto Row?

The Resource Conservation District estimates that there are 10 to 15 beaver dams and at least 100 individuals in Napa County waterways, including the new arrivals in downtown and along Soscol. Beaver dams create mini ecosystems, according to Knapczyk. They, in turn, draw other wildlife like fish, birds, and the popular river otters, although the otter population in Napa is very small.

See those last three lines in bold text? Can you make the whole article like this next time? Go read the whole thing, and see how perilously little credit beavers get for this sudden biodiversity. We’ll work on it. In the meantime I wish we had many, many more articles pondering the benefits of wildlife in urban settings.

If you have thoughts or questions, you should come ask them yourself here. Because Martinez and Napa beavers will be shoulder to shoulder teaching how and why to coexist. See you there?

They’re still number one!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, What's killing beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now? September 5, 2015

Yesterday Robin got a clump of depredation permit records from her PRA for Placer County 2015. (Fridays are always document dump days.) I went through and spread-sheeted their gory details. 14 permits good for the death of 307 beavers. Not much improvement after our meeting with them last November. Property owners still excused their behavior saying useless things like they tried ripping out dams or “hazing” first but since that surprisingly didn’t work they needed to trap.

But there was one big difference.

One of the most unique things about Placer County that struck us in our initial review was the number of permits they issued for an “unlimited number of beavers”. They were the only place in the state that did it. In our 2 year review there were 51 permits issued for unlimited beaver. Meaning however many you kill that’s fine with us. One of things we talked about at the powow meeting was how unique this was, and how unnecessary. I also wrote it in my letter to the head of fish and wildlife and tried to rattle as many cages as I could.

Flash forward to spring and the discovery of the piebald beaver in Winters. I contacted the folks we had talked to in Placer and they directed me to the representative for Winters. Jason Holley, who was a nice guy and willing to chat by phone. Fresh from the horrors I mentioned something about unlimited trapping and he corrected me and said they weren’t allowed to do that. Since I had just reviewed 51 times where they had done just that I challenged his assertion and he defended by saying that there had JUST BEEN A BIG MEETING and they weren’t allowed to do that anymore.

Then he stopped for a moment and seemed to calculate things. “Maybe it was you?” he wondered.

Which of course was a lovely thought but not one I believed for a moment until yesterday when I saw this. I spoke to Jason in early April so their big meeting would have happened late March.March 19 was the last permit issued for an unlimited number of beavers all the way through last month. Which I have to think is a kind of victory, however small. It means that sometimes when you poke hard enough you make a dent. Something about my yammering must have at least drawn attention to their time-saving procedure of issuing permits without borders. Someone said just ‘stop it’ and they apparently did.

They are still authorizing the kill of many more beavers than they could possibly have, though. With two permits good for 50 beavers and one for a staggering 99. 99? Is placer county a beaver factory? To explain, the 99 was issued to all county parks in Placer, of which there are 66. I went through and checked how many were had water. Around 27 contained a lake, a stream or a river. Remember, the upper left half of Lake Tahoe is in Placer county.

Griff Creek, the death camp featured in yesterday’s article where pointless beaver slaughter near a daycare started the Sierra Wildlife Coalition, is a Placer county park. Small world.

So all the county parks were issue a single permit good for any problem that might arise over the coming year, with authorization to kill 99 beavers or around 3.8 per water-containing park. That sure seems like a sneaky time-saving device to me. This kind of mass issue didn’t show up in our last review, I wonder if it’s a new invention? It’s sort of like getting a depredation permit for Contra Costa County, and any beaver that shows up from Antioch to San Ramon can be dispatched without the burden of paperwork.

One thing it made me realize is that all those little aspen-lined clear mountain streams pouring into Tahoe are actually a death trap for beavers, I mean people assume Martinez is a terrible place for a beaver to be, and think the beavers in the sierras are lucky- but that just isn’t true. Any beaver showing in any county park in the entire green section of this map can now be reliably dispatched without even the minor inconvenience of getting a permit – because a kill-beaver wildlcard has already been issued and can be used everywhere it’s needed.

The California Beaver Coalition

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? September 4, 2015

Great news from our beaver friends! I love opening the paper to read an article about beaver advocacy that isn’t in Martinez. We just need 100’s more of these. It’s a big state.

Sherri Hasenfas — Sheri Hartstein Sierra Wildlife Coalition

Beaver population thriving at Lake Tahoe thanks to local volunteers

TAHOE-TRUCKEE, Calif. — Beavers at Lake Tahoe are faring better than they were just a few years ago, thanks to the efforts of Sherry Guzzi and her posse of volunteers, collectively known as the Sierra Wildlife Coalition.

As is the case with many people who become passionate defenders of wildlife, Sherry’s involvement began with the death of a beaver family that had become dear to her and countless other residents and visitors to Kings Beach during the fall of 2010.

This family of four beavers, two adults and two young, had built themselves a lodge in Griff Creek, which runs near Highway 267 in Kings Beach, before flowing beneath the road and into Lake Tahoe.

Obviously, we can’t allow homes, roads or businesses to be flooded so what is to be done? Sadly, in this instance, authorities decided to remove the lodge and kill the beavers.

Even more sadly, this particular dam did not threaten any structures, as the dam was only one foot high and any resulting overflow would have gone into the nearby culvert.

The killing of the beavers did not sit well with the humans who had become enamored with the animals from watching their daily activities.

Sherry, along with co-founder Mary Long, created the Sierra Wildlife Coalition with the purpose of serving as champions of wildlife, and particularly beavers.

Ooooh I love a good creation story! I remember the Griff creek beavers especially because Worth A Dam donated our first beaver management scholarship towards fixing the problem and our own Lory went to Tahoe to educate support. Ahh memories. Seems like yesterday.

sherryandted — Sherry and Ted Guzzi in their native habitat.

Go read the whole thing which ends with a touching poem by Mary’s daughter. SWC under Sherry’s leadership has done outstanding beaver work, with Ted installing flow devices, teams exhibiting and educating at events, and all making sure beaver decisions are made with the right information. Sherry just gave her first beaver presentation for the public at Taylor Creek the day before the beaver festival! It was extremely well received and she still managed to drive down and exhibit in Martinez the next morning. Now that’s dedication!

It’s not only in Tahoe where beaver friends are at work. Nearby in Napa they’re busy too.

‘Wild Napa’ lecture series to focus on beavers

The “Wild Napa” lecture series continues this month with a special presentation on beavers. Hosted by the Napa County Resource Conservation District, the event will be held next Wednesday, Sept. 9.

Covered will be the history and ecology of beavers and how they are helping urban and rural communities across the state to restore watersheds, recover endangered species, and increase climate change resiliency. Brock Doman and Kate Lundquist of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center will share their research to re-evaluate the historic range of beaver in California, and discuss how you can contribute to the Bring Back the Beaver campaign.

Optional guided tour of the active beaver dams on Napa Creek. To join this tour, meet behind the Firefighter’s Museum at 1201 Main St.

Following the tour, the talk will start at 7 p.m. at The Black and White Collective (enter through Napa Bookmine at 964 Pearl St.). Attendance is free and no registration is needed.

Napa is in for a treat. And Napa beavers should get ready to have their virtues extolled. I think Rusty and Robin will be there for sure. And Cheryl said she was planning to try and attend. It’s a great opportunity to spread the word and learn about beavers from the folks that are working closely with Fish and Wildlife to nudge our beaver policies forward. Just in case you can’t make it, here’s a nice introduction to Brock, who has a dynamic, biologic and stream oriented speaking style that you just can’t mistake.