Category: City Reports

History Lesson

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions August 9, 2013

Unsettled waters Fitzgerald Lake stewards say vandalism mars shared use of water body

NORTHAMPTON — A small number of visitors to Fitzgerald Lake in Northampton are causing big problems, including interfering with beaver habitat, ripping down posted warnings and inadvertently causing the lake level to rise, swamping its dock.

The most apparent and consequential damage is to a metal fence surrounding a drain near the dam on the lake’s east side designed to keep the water level in check.

The fence was designed to keep beavers, which are drawn to the sound of rushing water, away from the drain and to prevent them from packing it with branches, saplings and other debris in an attempt to dam it, said the coalition’s president, Bob Zimmermann.

Once a section of fence was cut away, Zimmermann said, beavers began trying to dam the drain, causing water to back up, raising the water level in the lake by about 15 inches.

Other spots around the lake have been damaged or interfered with in apparent attempts to land prime fishing spots, said Zimmermann, who met a reporter at the lake Friday along with coalition vice president David Herships and board member David Ruderman.

Oh drat! Beavers are fairly easy to control but fishermen are notorious! Sounds like Northampton could use a beaver festival stat! Some education and good cheer to keep all those restless fishermen in check. Maybe a display about how beaver activity changes the invertebrate community which make for more and fatter fish. Don’t worry about the ripped fence, I heard the cavalry is on its way soon.

Once the new fence is in by the city’s contractor I’ll be installing a Flexible Pond Leveler through their fence. Interestingly, the second flow device I ever installed was on this lake, back in 1998.

Mike Callahan Beaver Solutions

Alright then, good luck revisiting history! 1998, wow that was 8 years before the beavers came to Martinez. I wonder what I was doing with my life then?

Oh and I loved this photo of Greg’s wife which ran yesterday in the CC Times Record. Greg is the man who’s been photographing the beavers in San Jose and helped with mom’s rescue. His wife was a star!

When do I duck and cover?

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Festival, Who's Killing Beavers Now? July 26, 2013

A week before the beaver festival, things are usually looking panicked. Often I’m scrambling to finish details, pick up tshirts, answer last minute questions or make changes to the program. Someone now needs two tables although they didn’t pay for even one, the bagpipe player has a cold and we need to find an alternative. The charms aren’t delivered and the John Muir site just found out they can’t loan the stage or someone irreplaceable has a family emergency and can’t make it that day.

But sometimes things just flow into this eddy of calm where everything is working out – in fact much, much better than we deserve. We have the attention we want, the attendees we want, the participants we want, and the volunteers we want. I get emails from San Francisco, Reno and Australia (true story) from folks wanting to come this year. Most of the preparations are finished, the brochures are back from the printer, three new donors suddenly agreed to be part of the silent auction and the weather looks perfect. All this satisfaction makes a nice Catholic girl like me very, very nervous.

Which should explain the graphic.

Never fear, we will cope with the grueling strain of success and march onward. And in the meantime you will enjoy this article about our beaver friends in Rhode Island, who I have been chatting with. Things are looking promising for a Martinez-style standoff and only the wind knows which direction it will blow.

Diamond Hill neighbors sign petition against filling park’s pond

Instead, according to spokesman Chris Ratcliffe of Fisher Road, the residents are asking for repairs to the pond that include a new pump to maintain the water level and a planned spray fountain to aerate the pond and help eliminate algae and mosquitoes.

About the beavers downstream from the pond, he suggests the animals offer a “unique educational opportunity for residents” while “adding to the overall natural character of the park.”

Cumberland’s Director of Parks & Recreation, Mike Crawley, took issues with some of the assumptions of the petition and told The Breeze this week that he wishes “people would ask more questions first.” About the beavers, Crawley says they have created a second hut downstream from the first and he’s expecting the growing family to begin intruding on residential land.

About the beavers, Crawley said, “We haven’t made a decision. We’re waiting to see how much damage they do downstream.”

Good luck R.I. on your beaver journey! And don’t hesitate to let us know if you need any advice. Now as for that piano…

Operation ‘Momma’ a Success!

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Educational July 17, 2013

Last night they trapped ‘momma’ beaver with solme netting and cut the restrictive strap off her waist. I just talked to Leslee Hamilton of the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy. She was the ‘lookout’ and there were several others on the team headed by Rebecca Dmytryk of Wildlife Emergency Services in Moss Landing. Rounding out the team were 5 volunteers from Happy Hollow Zoo including one vet tech. Imagine them all, dressed in black, crouching on the bank in silent readiness.

7-16-13 Beaver Rescue-Beaver cornered with boards — Momma beaver netted – Photo Greg Kerekes

Momma beaver came early and very obligingly walked onto the bank in their wall of netting and into just the right position to catch her and cut the strap free immediately. She was moved to a dog carrier and taken to a San Jose wildlife center for quick check up. Everyone did their jobs so well she was back in the water at the same exact spot by 10:00 that night and then the team went out for drinks to celebrate! What an excellent bit of beaver rescue and I’m so happy that everyone came together to do the right thing. Channel 5 filmed the whole thing but it isn’t on line yet.

7-16-13 Beaver Rescue-Just cut the plastic strap — Cutting the strap – Photo Greg Kerekes

Congratulations team beaver! If you want to say ‘thank you’ for all their hard work, you can offer a donation to WES here and don’t forget to mention the beavers!

Beaver Rescue! 7-16-2013

Mama Beaver has been Rescued! Thank you to all who helped out: Wildlife Emergency Services from Moss Landing, City of San Jose Park Rangers, Guadalupe River Park Conservancy, Urban Wildlife Research Project, Happy Hallow Zoo Staff, Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley, Worth A Dam Martin.ez, and to family and friends who volunteered. What a great colaboration!!!!! After 9 days of attempting to trap the Beaver, last night we ditched the trapping method and used a series of nets. Once Mama Beaver was on the river bank we pulled up a screen net behind her. Volunteers went in with 3 large hand nets and secured Mama Beaver to the ground. The plastic strap was quickly located and removed, she was then crated and taken to Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley for a check up. The Center examined her and found no wounds so with in the hour she was released back in to the water at Beavertown 🙂 Videos coming soon! Champagne all around tonight

Which will be perfect, because guess where I’ll be tonight? Safari West has invited me to come up and be there guest and talk beavers to visiting families! Tent cabin and dinner on them with me talking to families after dinner and taking their incredible tour the next day. Jon will be coming with me and Cheryl is being kind enough to watch our own Wild Animal while we’re gone. Of course I had to make a new graphic for the occasion. Safari West has been so generous to us since I found the courage to ask for a donation. If you’ve never been you really should plan a visit, and bring your check book to the silent auction at the beaver festival!

Martinez Beavers Visit Barbary Coast

heidi08 Beavers, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental July 12, 2013

Last night was a pretty magical Night-at-the-museum kind of beaver presentation. The Randall Museum is in a lovely location on a hill in the middle of Victorian apartments in San Francisco towards golden gate park. The museum was a user friendly wonder who’s watchman asked me about the Belarus beaver attack. The theater was an actual lecture hall with raised audience and screen. And the hosts, Patrick and Jill Schlemmer have been running the naturalist talks for fifteen years and knew exactly how to do everything!

I had expected a handful of attendees but it was nearly full and the audience was attentive, intelligent, receptive and very pro beaver. A few old friends like Megan of the Otter Ecology Project showed up. They asked excellent questions about meadow succession and gestation period and I felt the blossoming of beaver seeds taking root in very fertile soil.

Afterwards a young woman from the audience came and introduced herself as the Senior Exhibit Content Developer for the California Academy of Sciences who said they were working on a beaver exhibit and were particularly interested in the Martinez Beaver story, and would I be willing to talk?

Go ahead, I’ll wait while you guess what I answered.

Food for thought…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions July 8, 2013

Swede bloodied in surprise beaver attack

Taking advantage of the first truly hot summer weekend in Stockholm, Sofie Adde was blissfully unaware that a casual dip would end in blood and stitches after a beaver mistook her thigh for lunch.

Sofie Adde from the Gröndal neighbourhood of Stockholm was enjoying her first swim of the summer in the Mälaren Lake when the beaver pounced.

“I went out for a quiet dip and had swum out a few meters when I noticed something underneath the water. Next thing I felt a pain in my thigh and up came the head of the beaver,” Adde, 40, told The Local.

“It gave me quite a surprise,” the startled swimmer added. “I wasn’t sure what was going on as the beaver (dived) back down and I got scared and swam away immediately.”

Brace yourselves for the next fortnight of inflamed beaver articles in which Swedes cower to avoid the terrifying rodent menace. Of course this beaver got away so we can’t actually be sure it was a beaver and not an otter…but at least Adde was a good bit braver than the fishermen from Bellarus.

Following the attack, Adde had to have stitches and a tetanus shot. She doesn’t harbour any ill-feeling towards the beaver, however, whom she claims she has seen before.

“I’ve been down to the lake several times and I’ve seen this beaver in the past. There are a couple of beavers there and it is very unusual for something like this to happen.”

“The bite wasn’t particularly painful and to be honest it was more funny than anything else.”

Now there’s a heroine with a sturdy heart and a pretty plucky constitution. Adde send us your address because you get a beaver tshirt.

Didrik Van Hoenacker, a biologist at the Natural History Museum, laughed when he heard of the attack. “She must have had bad luck and collided with the beaver. It’s not like they normally lurk in the water,” he told Aftonbladet.

Ahh Didrik! You are such an amazing counterpart to the panic button all the world wants to push when it comes to chomping terrible beaver-sharks! Nicely done. Are you and Adde the only level heads in the country or is this a national thing?

Beavers are just like other wild animals as they get defensive but it is rare to even get that close to them,” Magnus Enquist, a professor in animal behaviour at Stockholm University told Aftonbladet.

Sigh. Maybe I will move to Sweden. Maybe we all should.

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And if you’re not too busy packing thursday, maybe you should do this?

Thursday, July 11

Beavers of Martinez

Join Heidi Perryman, Founder of Worth A Dam, for a talk on the Beavers of Martinez. Dr. Perryman shares the story of how one beaver family won over the hearts of the people of Martinez. This North Bay community took a crash course in beavers when a mating pair moved into a downtown stream. Concerned that their dam would cause flooding, the city proposed killing the beavers, but resident outcry encouraged them to try humane solutions instead. A flow device was installed at the dam and this controlled pond height, allowing the beavers to safely remain. Heidi Perryman is part of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) WATER Institute California Working Beaver Group, whose mission is to promote understanding of the importance of healthy watersheds. Dr. Perryman recently co-authored a paper on the historic range of the North American Beaver.

Click here to read the current Bay Nature article on the resurgence of Bay Area beavers.

For more information about Perryman and Worth A Dam, please visit www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress.

Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way, San Francisco, CA 94114. For more information, go to www.sfns.org or contact Patrick Schlemmer at jkodiak@earthlink.net or (415) 225-3830.

Sure would be nice to see some familiar faces in the audience!