Category: Festival

Looking Forward…

heidi08 Beavers, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers July 10, 2012

Cheryl had the presence of mind to snap these delightful glimpses of our 2012 model kit on Sunday after the festival planning meeting. As the minutes ticked by while we waited for the impossible she kept saying “I have to leave, I can’t stay, I have to get up so early tomorrow”. International Bird Rescue is being inundated with pelicans at the moment which means she’s working around the clock trying to get volunteers to care for them and she certainly doesn’t have time to spare trawling around beaver ponds waiting for a cute picture. But of course she did anyway.

new kit in the dark1 — 2012 Kit Swimming - Photo Cheryl Reynolds

Look how little he is! Aren’t beaver kits wonderful? Maybe if you donate some Pelican bucks to help take care of the problem she’ll have more free time and take some more lovely photos for us to enjoy! Yes that’s kind of blackmail, but it’s for a very good cause, right?

: 2012 Kit peeking: Photo Cheryl Reynolds

Things are really looking good for the festival. The charms are being mailed wednesday, we got confirmation for the trash can donations, and the brochure is officially at the printers. Check out the list of whose coming.

In addition to our usual beloved friends, we are blessed this year to have some brand new displays and guests that I thought I’d introduce you to over the next couple weeks. The Marine mammal Center will be joining us for the first time ever. Now this is high-power wildlife advocacy. Enjoy!

Seems like old times…

heidi08 Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Recent Sightings, Video June 11, 2012

Last night on the footbridge we were treated to a beaver show with a cast of at least three characters. It all started with a visitor from the ‘new’ bank hole under the cottonwood tree. He sauntered around picking choice willow and brought the branches back to eat or share. Then a second beaver emerged, who (not to be outdone in offerings) took a lovely choice branch OFF the dam and brought it back to the second lodge. Before a third beaver came from upstream and crossed over the secondary before making his ambling way downstream.

It has been a long time since we saw three beavers at once! While this one was coming down another was eating a strawberry under the bridge!

Because our beavers have excellent timing, a family of three generations just happened to be together walking on their evening stroll. Grandma, Grandpa, Mom and Dad, and a charming little girl watched in awe. When I described what was happening and invited them to the beaver festival they said they had been last year and had a wonderful time! Were beavers nocturnal? Could beavers hold their breath? Did they ever eat fish? After watching one beaver mud the dam the child soberly announced that she wanted to BE a beaver, and clarified to mom that this aspiration exceeded even her decision to be a fairy.

I of course understood exactly what she meant.

All in all, it was excellent beaver viewing. Warm and with primarily benign homeless sightings. The most threatening was a thuggy youth who left his other thuggy friends to come stand with us on the bridge and ask questions. Did that pipe they put through the other dam work? Will we need another one? Is their a nest somewhere? He was particularly surprised to see a tail slap because he had never witnessed one before. After the excitement he wasn’t so thuggy, and he and his friends didn’t bother anyone. Before the solstice steals our evening sun away, I would definitely advise making the trip to watch for yourself.

The Worst Beaver Festival Ever…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Festival, History June 10, 2012

Fur trading days make a comeback at 4-H Center

Men made fortunes during those boom times. Few people realize that John Jacob Astor built his multimillion dollar empire by outfitting trappers and buying and selling animal pelts and hides. Fewer folks know that 13 of the 16 recognized rendezvous were held west of the Continental Divide.

Six of the gatherings took place in territory belonging to Mexico and six more at Horse Creek near what is now Daniel, Wyo. The sites were chosen to accommodate almost 2,000 men and were named for the site area.

Fast forward to the present day: the lost tradition gets reborn June 14-16 at The Furtakers of America Rendezvous at Evansville’s Vanderburgh 4-H Center. Trappers, traders and woodsmen will gather to conduct demonstrations of woodcrafting, trapping, hide preparation, root and herb identification, skinning techniques, nuisance animal control, predator calling and much more.

Talk about reliving the glory days! Evansville Indianna is having a three day rendezvous extravaganza to teach families and children all about the glories of beaver trapping – and no I’m not kidding. Tickets for all three days are 10 dollars each. That’s a bargain at twice the price! Remember that historic rendezvous combined some of the most dangerous, greedy men without social skills in an open space with gunfire and alcohol – you can see why they’d want a rerun to teach the kids about!

It was fur, not gold, that opened the American West.

After the United States acquired the massive Louisiana Purchase in 1803, fur trappers began banding together for sojourns into unknown territory. They risked their lives in quest of beaver pelts.

European fashion dictated that “gentlemen should wear top hats made only from beaver plews (pelts).” Europe soon ran out of beavers, so the task fell to American trappers to fill the orders. However, it was one thing to get the pelts and a different matter to sell them and obtain supplies without lengthy journeys back to civilization.

To solve the problem William Ashley staged the first Trapper-Trader Rendezvous in 1824 on the Green River near the Wyoming-Utah border. It was an uproarious success, and for the next 16 years trappers, traders, Native Americans and mountain men eagerly awaited these rowdy encounters.

Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate our greedy heritage of slaughter and unintended consequences! No word yet on whether Evanston plans to hold a similar ‘draught festival’ or corresponding ‘silent spring jubilee’ later in the year.

The general public is invited to join in the scheduled outdoor activities, games and crafts designed to interest children of all ages and women who are interested in participating in things like trap setting, turkey calling, knife sharpening and wildlife identification.

Beaver Festival-MAINE!!!

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers May 28, 2012

Lega Medcalf is a retired science educator from Bridgeton Maine. She called me at the office one day in March to say that some beavers had moved into her local city park and she was interested in helping them. She had been checking out the website to figure out where to start. At the time I posted the letter she wrote to her local paper. Here are some images she recently sent of the local beaver-rama.

So far the city hasn’t reacted to the beavers, but that will change soon. This week she gave presentations to the Bridgeford Selectman Committee on Tuesday and the Rotary Club on Thursday. You can guess which one went better. She sent me her beautiful powerpoint presention and I was thrilled to see that she had even used quotes from the VERY recent Altantic Monthly article as well as lots of hard science from various sources.

Her presentation was sharp, persuasive and engaging. But this was this slide that took my breath away.

Lega Medcalf: Presentation to the Rotary Club

BRIDGETON BEAVER FESTIVAL JUNE 16, 2012 !!!

When she had talked on the phone about starting a beaver festival I assumed she meant a hypothetical festival in the distant FUTURE sometime. I had no idea that she was going to march against the wind, head down, fists clenched and staunchly get this done in a matter of months! Amy Macdonald invited to sign the most famous beaver book ever. Done. Presentation to the selectmen. Done. Presentation to Rotary. Done. Poster and DVD of Stephen Low’s the Beaver Movie. Done. And featured at the festival? A Presentation by Sharon and Owen Brown of Beavers Wetlands and Wildlife.

I have Owen and Sharon Brown of Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife coming to make a presentation at the Beaver Daze mini-festival on June 16. The only time the local movie theater was available to show the movie Beavers was June 16 and 17 ( all booked up otherwise through the fall) so I am in rush mode to be ready and will have to scale back the activities. The library is the setting for the Brown presentation and the movie theater is just one block away with Shorey park another short walk away.

Lega! This is astounding. Just astounding. I don’t know where to begin! This is your idea of a mini festival? Beaver Daze sounds like its off to an AMAZING start and I can’t believe you’re having it in June. (I’m panicking over details for ours and its two months away!) To say that I am very, very impressed would be a massive understatement.

The truth is, if I were anywhere near Maine, besides making you president of Worth A Dam, I would be working enormously hard to keep all the vulture nonprofits from snatching you up to write their newsletters or organize their events, getting you to save owls or foxes or whatever. You are a rare find, Lega. You are a water cannon of energy and everyone will want you. But, as I would remind you over coffee many, many cheerful mornings because we’d be the best of friends;

Beavers need you more.

Thank you for your enormous hard work. We will talk about the uncooperative selectmen and brainstorm about ways to open closed minds. In the mean time, I dedicate this memorial Saturday to YOU and your amazing hard work. Now all you budding beaver advocates might enjoy taking this beaver quiz from Amy Neff Roth of the Observer-Dispatch in Hamilton NY. My answers are listed here but the paper says Spring Hill Farm Cares (also friends of Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife) will post theirs on Sunday.

1) Although mostly herbivores, beavers sometimes eat small fish.

2) Beavers mate for life.

3) Beavers warn each other about danger by slapping the water with their tails.

4) Beavers can swim underwater for up to one hour.

5) Once beavers colonize a stream or river, the colony will remain forever unless the beavers are forcibly removed.

6) Water is cleaner downstream from a beaver pond than it is upstream.

7) Beavers are closely related to weasels, minks and fishers.

8) Beavers can walk upright on their hind legs.

9) Beavers hibernate for the winter.

10) Beavers may spend years working on dams and lodges, which keep getting bigger.

First things first

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers May 15, 2012

“First, the fish must be caught.“

That is easy: a baby, I think, could have caught it.

“Next, the fish must be bought.”

That is easy: a penny, I think, would have bought it.

Lewis Carroll: The White Queen’s Riddle

I woke up this morning to two breathless emails today proclaiming the successful formation and recognition of the New 4-season Wildlife League at last night’s home owners meeting in El Dorado Hills. I’m not exactly sure why being in a club requires board approval (obviously if Worth A Dam needed permission from the city to exist we’d all have a lot more free time.) But it did, and they worked hard to get it and after some whining about mosquitoes and mean media attention, permission for the club passed by 3-2. If I get their permission I’ll post the emails which are an exciting read.

Now that there an official club, they’re off to the races to try and get rid of those nasty trappers. As we said all along ‘cubby’ was never a bachelor, and they have seen as many as three beavers at a time since his death. One beaver friend wrote that she’s heard noises, so I’m sure that kits are on the horizon. Hopefully they’ll join us for the festival and you all can meet them and extend your congratulations on their new league recognition!

And while we’re on the subject of bureaucracy and all its splendor, it’s that time again where the nice people at the Parks, Recreation, Marina and Cultural Commission consider permission for the Beaver Festival this summer. The first year it was a rocky night. Then it was a begrudging pagaent with an inevitable conclusion. Last year it was a friendly breeze of recognition and respect. Who knows what will find this year? The good news is that our application was approved. If you want to come lend your support we’re at the front of the agenda at city hall 7pm tonight.

On a related note the Journal of Fish and Game had a very positive response to our initial paper about the historic prevalence of beaver in California, asked us to divide into two and submit by today for possible publication in the next issue. Rick made sure they were mailed with final tweaks last night, so now there’s just waiting to see what happens.

A final word about the website, which has been sluggish and protesty lately. I got rid of some favorite old plugins this am that seemed to be slowing things down. Fingers crossed everything will run better now. I hated to let go of our 2008 and Earthday slideshow, as it really seemed like the beginning of everything, but I’ll mark its memorial with one of my favorites.

Cheryl sent this lovely photo of the beavers in Benicia last night, and I knew you’d want to see it. Here’s hoping that’s GQ or one of his relatives all grown up and on his own!