Success of Friends

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Earth Day, Educational, Friends of Martinez Beavers January 10, 2013

Do you remember the character of ‘Slapper’ the giant beaver from the exciting young adult tale of climate change from Leaf and the Rushing Waters? The author Jo Marshall is publishing the next volume which will reportedly have my endoresement on the back cover, and she just wrote me with the exciting newsflash that the character of ‘Slapper’ was so popular it has been picked up by a comic book company in Chicago and they want her to write the first episodes. We wish her and slapper all success!

And of course our other rising star, the now-18-year old Ian Timothy, is getting ready to transcend our trajectory entirely. He recently asked me for a letter of recommendation for college, so I know well the heights he is marching towards. This week he is in Miami at the YoungArts Week immersed in more creative youth than you can imagine. That’s him holding the camera, and watch the short film for an introduction to what’s going on.

Ian you are definitely not in Kansas Kentucky any more. Gosh, we are so proud of you. Have a wonderful time, make remarkable inspiring friends, and broaden and deepen every one of your dreams.

Other successes? Well, in the past three days I’ve got Michael Pollock interested in a beavers-and-salmon article for Bay Nature, which has done a great job about reporting on salmon, but not yet picked up the beaver gauntlet. I may have been able to lure science writer Joe Eaton into pursuing it and the difference it will make for salmon (and Beavers) all over the state. Joe is a free lance writer/naturalist and the editor of SFEP newsletter who has written my favorite articles about mom beaver, ever. He would be the very best man for the job, if we can just get him intrigued enough! On a related note research Rick says we’re two weeks away from the rough draft of the historic prevalence of beavers in the coastal rivers article, so things are moving in a very good direction!

Beavers & Moose

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Creek Seekers Poetry Contest, Earth Day, Educational December 29, 2012

When the wall crumbles and the polarities shift (and they will shift) and folks across the country start to advocate for beavers because they are so good for wildlife and wetlands and habitat and climate change and salmon and drought and you know-EVERYTHING. The very first federal agency to change their stripes won’t be fish and game, or the secretary of the interior, or god forbid USDA. The first ones to the ‘reasonable stewardship table’ will be these guys. USFS. The forestry people who say things like this:

A unique relationship exists between moose, beaver and willow communities, with each component influencing the persistence of the other. Browsing of willow communities by the inflated moose population of the 1960s and 1970s was detrimental to willows at that time, especially in the absence of beaver. Today, a more vigorous beaver population has helped willow communities proliferate, and the Forest Service is interested in maintaining the health of these communities in order to benefit the declining moose population, which is highly dependent upon willow, especially in the winter months.

It was the Best of times and, well you know…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Earth Day, Educational, Environmental, Who's Killing Beavers Now? November 27, 2012

There’s wonderful and terrible news in the beaver world this morning and I don’t want you to miss any of it. Let’s get the dirty work outta the way before we settle down to enjoy ourselves. Brace yourselves, these are the first two lines of the article:

GREENVILLE, S.C. —

A notice was recently sent to tenants living at Hampton Forest Apartment warning if they heard gunshots not to call the police. The complex is fighting to keep its property safe from a colony of beavers.

Got that? If you hear gunshots, screaming and breaking pottery coming from the living room don’t call the police. I’m just fixing a marital problem. Okay, then. I’m glad the Hampton Forest Apartment has tried Every Other possible solution for resolving this conflict. I mean first destroying their homes and dams, then hiring a trapper and only now when all other murderous options have been employed turning to the fearless sharpshooter.

What’s this thought? At the very end of the article?

Two non-deadly tools for reducing beaver damage without removing the animal is a water control device. It helps maintain the flow of water. Another option is using wire barriers to protection against gnawing.

Remember, here at beaver central we’re grading on a curve and this is South Carolina so the fact that this sentence made it into the article is sorta amazing.

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Now because it’s that time of year and you’ve all been very good, check out this Recovery Plan for the Central Coast Coho put forth by our good friends at NOAA (and you can bet the California part was heavily influenced by this year’s winner of the Golden Pipe Award, Brock Dolman!)

Restoration- Habitat Complexity

3.1.1. Recovery Action: Improve habitat complexity

3.1.1.7. Action Step: Utilize non-lethal methods to manage beaver depredation issues (e.g. flooding, crop damage) within the range of CCC salmonids such as flow devices, fencing, and beaver re-location and enhance habitat complexity.

3.1.1.8. Action Step: Where non-lethal methods prove unfeasible to resolve depredation issues, relocate beaver populations to remote CCC coho streams where habitat enhancement is needed and resource conflict is low.

Middle School Voyageurs

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Earth Day, Educational, Environmental May 17, 2012

Linus Pauling Middle School students Nick Hentzel, center, and J.D. Pinion, right, join parent-volunteer Tessa Hanover as they paddle through the waters of Clemens Mill Pond while taking part in the 2012 Newton Creek Wetlands Stewardship Field Day on Tuesday morning

Learning afloat

By Raju Woodward, Corvallis Gazette-Times

Students use canoes to learn more about beavers and habitat

PHILOMATH — If you want to learn about beavers, you want to be able to take a close look at the semi-aquatic rodents and their habitat. So what better way to learn about the creatures than by canoe?

So it was on Tuesday that sixth-grade students from Linus Pauling Middle School donned life jackets, grabbed paddles and made their way around Clemens Mill Pond in canoes. They weren’t disappointed.

“We saw like six beaver lodges!,” said sixth-grader Julia Harrington. “It was cool to see them up close instead of just hearing about them in a classroom.”

Can I go to school there? What a great idea! One is so rarely jealous of sixth graders, but this does the trick! Gosh did you ever think about having a beaver festival in Corvalis? We could maybe have coffee. Apparently this is part of the Mary’s River Watershed Wetland Stewardship Field Day event. Kids spend 45 minutes at 12 different stations!

But the most popular station appeared to be the beavers and canoeing station, especially with Tuesday’s sunny and warm weather. “This one was my favorite because it involved so much activity,” said Rosa Mendoza. “We were always moving and doing something.”

Also, for some students it marked the first time they had been in a canoe. In addition to studying beaver habitats, students learned canoe safety procedures and how to use paddles to move canoes effectively.

“The hardest part was sitting down inside the canoe,” said Zack Plawman. “It felt like we might tip over into the water. But after that it was fine.”

Ahh the tippy canoe! Nothing quite replaces it. Congratulations for learning so much about canoeing and beavers! Of course the french vouyageurs used canoes to ruthlessly pursue millions of beavers while bellowing out jaunty songs to regulate paddle pace…

But as a woman who has traversed many, many river miles by canoe over the past two decades I can tell you that it still happens to be a great way to understand beavers.

Post Earth Day Collapse…

heidi08 Earth Day, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Podcast April 22, 2012

There will be no podcast today, just the remaining buzz of good feeling as we try to recover from our massively successful earth day event. We brought 200 tails and they were all gone by noon. We spent the day describing the Martinez Beaver story and the good that beavers do and the impact this little colony had had on the ecosystem (and really around the world). I think I described that “beavers build a neighborhood” 500 times – at least.

On reason our tails were so successful is that every single adult, teen or child who beheld them wanted one of these:

Which, who can blame them? Thank you SO MUCH to our donor! And I’m hoping we can manage them again for the festival. If you’re feeling altruistic you can write Woodluck and tell them they really should donate to the Beaver group that has shown off their product to 5000 people so far. I tried, but have not been successful YET.

The other remarkable thing about yesterday, besides all the old friends, new friends, beaver supporter Igor Skaredoff as a perfect John Muir, memories of beavers, grandson of Muir supporting a beaver tail, and the 86 year old woman who said she saw beavers with her father in Martinez when she was 7 (c 1933) there was this…..

Now if you’ve had quite enough Beaver-Rama and you want some serious ecological news, check out this lovely article from the Massachusetts Eagle Tribune!

A brighter view for herons

Birds thriving in North Andover due to protection of beavers

Beaver ponds cause trees to drown, but the dead trees attract the great blue heron, which often return year after year. Over time, a beaver pond can attract more than 50 nests in a colony, called a rookery.

Chris Leahy, an expert with the Massachusetts Audubon Society who wrote a major report last year on Bay State fowl called “State of the Birds,” said that the resurgence of the area’s beaver population has led to a subsequent revival and expansion of the great blue heron population.

Once they saw the plot of land, they saw a lot of ecological value in the beaver pond, which even then had dozens of active heron nests and a lot of activity.

“It’s a very large wetland, which supports a lot of wildlife, everything from terrestrial animals like beavers and muskrats to all kinds of amphibians and reptiles, turtles and frogs and those species,” Rimmer said. “At that time, there were old nests there we could see. That’s pretty impressive, and we were interested in protecting it.”

Go read the entire breath-of-fresh-air article. It’s the best beaver reporting I’ve seen out of Massachusetts since – well – let’s just say a long, long time!