Photo: Jeffrey Rich
The current issue of Bay Nature Magazine has an eye-popping account of mountain lions (puma concolor) in the East Bay. It is deftly written by Joan Hamilton and follows the observations of naturalist, archeologist, historian (and martinez beaver friend!) Jim “Doc” Hale. It’s a breath-taking account and well worth reading in its entirety. For me, though, the most helpful pieces were the emphasis on the need for wildlife corridors. We are pretty good at maintaining open spaces in the Bay Area, but animals rely on precious strips of land and water to get from one to the other. Like beavers, puma face their most dangerous time as juveniles when they leave their mother and go out to find territory of their own. A startling number are hit by cars trying to get to the next open patch on the “wilderness quilt”.
After tramping through the back regions of the wildest parts of the East Bay, he takes the author to the middle of Walnut creek: Broadway plaza, dense with cars, shoppers and human activity. She is incredulous until he points to a quiet stream behind an office building.
As we drive through the crowded streets, I’m wishing I were back on Rocky Ridge. But Hale is undaunted. He parks the Jeep next to a high-rise office building overlooking a small, tree-lined ribbon of water. It’s San Ramon Creek, looking at first like a token swath of greenery. But Hale calls it “one of the county’s best sections of riparian habitat, right here in the city. It serves as the only natural environment in a suburban/urban interface. Therefore it’s extremely important for wildlife movements in the county. We’ve got oaks, buckeyes, alders, cottonwoods, and all the classic riparian species. We still have chinook salmon and rainbow trout, mink, beaver, turtles, and river otter. I’ve also documented coyote, bobcat, gray fox, mountain lion, and red fox–all using this creek.”
Joan Hamilton: Bay Nature
If there is a more compelling paragraph about the importance of our urban waterways written anywhere, I have yet to read it. What better reminder could there be to us that our creeks our not just places to put street runoff or discard trash or even waystations for water on its journey to the bay. They are passage ways threading essential islands of wildness together on a precious and vulnerable necklace across the land. The precarious routes of the Spice or Silk Roads could not be more significant. Like the Ottoman empire, developed land blocks these vital routes with concrete and culverts, choking the arteries of a living ecosystem.
Jim will be leading two nature hikes on the grounds of the John Muir House for Earth Day. When we spoke about his plans and his “portable museum” I was very intrigued and couldn’t help but ask if he might consider doing the same for the beaver festival? Absolutely! He said. He was also intrigued by our paper on historic prevalence of beaver and has asked all his archeologist/anthropologist friends to send tribal info on beaver his way. Thanks ‘Doc’ for your enthusiastic support. If you’d like to hear him for yourself, his work tracking puma will be the first lecture for this years “Close to Home” nature series. Hmm…guess who will be the second?
Oh and beavers in San Ramon Creek, read that? We need some photographs soon!
