Category: Friends of Martinez Beavers

“Don’t Cause a Nativity Scene”

heidi08 Educational, Friends of Martinez Beavers September 14, 2011

Have I mentioned that I thought CDFG does an extremely thoughtful, honest job and was very respectful of wildlife in general and beavers in particular? Sorry, just wanted to know how it felt to type that. It’s opposite day. I’m perfectly sure I mentioned the other thing.

Well RL has been working on research of the California Fur Rush to document just where beavers were historically, and came across this paper, from Factless & Guilty describing the reintroduction of beavers in the 1930’s. Brace yourself for the author’s name and tell me that’s not destiny. You see the Mendocino reintroduction wasn’t a special case, this was happening all over the state. After the fur trade killed nearly all the beavers, there were none as far as the eye could see. Seems people had started to notice that without beavers the watershed doesn’t work as well.

“It is now understood that soil erosion and shortage of water in some places resulted from the destruction of the beavers, which formerly built, and kept in repair, dams on the upper reaches of many streams. The dams were the effective means of impounding water of the spring runoff, and distributing them slowly downstream through the summer.”

Tappe 1941

That was a great sentence, Mr. Tappe. Can I just pause a moment and enjoy the wisdom embedded in that sentence? Sigh. Unfortunately he keeps writing, summarizing the horrifically greedy fur trade forrays and the loss of beaver from everwhere. He describes the historic presence of beaver, and says:

However, as far as could be learned, these animals confined themselves to the parts of the stream below the 1000 foot level.

Got that? No beavers above the 1000 foot elevation originally. No beavers in Tahoe, or the Sierras, or Yosemite. No beavers on Mt. Diablo or Mt. Lassen. No beavers but the ones WE put there. Fish and Game has spoken in its infinite wisdom, every other naturalist in the world writes down this fact and puts it in books that get quoted. So that 70 years later they are killing beavers in Kings Beach because they’re “not native.”

You know what’s funny about that “native” word? There were these people here, before fish & game, before the trappers, before the missionaries. They like to think of themselves as Native. I’m thinking there must have been tribes above 1000 feet with lore/language/artwork that proves they lived with beaver. Lets look at what they have to say:

Hmmm, A.L. Kroeber is considered the expert on California Natives, my Dad pointed me to this book, which is partially online at the Yosemite Library. Handbook of Indians of California 1919. Chapter 30 talks about the Miwok tribe, which stretches from the central coast all the way to the Sierras. The Miwok are interesting to Kroeber because of their particular spiritual/lineage beliefs

With the Miwok we encounter for the first time a social scheme that recurs among several of the groups to the south: a division of the people into balanced halves, or moieties, as they are called, which are totemic, and adhesion to which is hereditary. The descent is from the father, and among the Miwok . the moieties were at least theoretically exogamic. The totemic aspects of these moieties are refined to an extreme tenuousness, but are undeniable. Nature is divided into a water and a land or dry half, which are thought to correspond to the Kikua and Tunuka moieties among the people.

So everyone and everything belongs to either the “land” moiety or the “water” moiety, and Kroeber kindly goes on to list which animals are classified in which group. Guess what’s on the list? Beaver, (water obviously) But he also notes that for the Yokuts the assignments with regard to beaver were reversed. This means all the Miwok used the beaver’s totemic meaning. Why would they do this if they had never seen a beaver? Thanks Dad!

The Modoc used beaver teeth as dice.Many burials around this area included the addition of a beaver mandible for ceremonial purposes. There are linguistic papers documenting the vocabulary of the word beaver from the Sacramento Valley to the Klamath.

For instance, beaver is unanalyzable Yurok teguuk, Hupa chwa’, but in Karuk it is sah-pihnîich ‘by.the.river–old.man’.

(Isn’t that a great name? By-the-River Old-Man!) Okay, not convinced beaver were above 1000 feet? How about this rock painting from the Tule Reservation, located at an elevation of 1600 feet and estimated to be between 500-700 years old.

That should do it. High-five everyone! Day of Research produces! Breakout the champagne and the willow leaves! Okay, I feel we’ve successfully laid to rest the spurious clam that there were no beaver above 1000 feet. I’ll expect your retraction and apology in the morning. In the mean time what’s this? On the new Fish & Game website?

Non-Native & Nuisance Terrestrial Vertebrates

Check out the mammal section.

Castoridae (Beavers)
Castor canadensis	*Some populations were introduced into the Sierra Nevada and Southern California from stock taken from Oregon and Washington.

Sigh. Time for a class action lawsuit?

Beaver Creek and Ian Timothy

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers January 17, 2010

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{column2} Remember our beaver-friend Ian Timothy of Kentucky? He made these excellent stop motion films about “beaver creek” using clay and every ounce of patience he had. At the time he launched the first one he was just 13. Then he went on to win the AT&T science challenge with a great project teaching about beavers. Last summer I wrote this:

He’s the remarkable 13 year old (now a whopping 14) who started the claymation series “Beaver Creek” episode I of which he has already sold to a text book company in Canada! His introductory science lesson on beavers won the AT&T Science Challenge at the Louiseville Science Center.

Well it looks like ALL THREE parts won a Gold Key in the regional scholastic competition, and will now go to New York for consideration in the national prize.

This is a huge opportunity for Ian as the prize includes recognition, scholarships and exhibition. I can’t imagine what his resume is going to look like when he graduates. {/column2} You can leave words of encouragement on Youtube or Facebook, and spread the word to friends. Ian is a powerful talent, but also a talent who cares about beavers. Remember, too that this is still only his Freshman Year of Highschool. I can’t wait to see what he’ll do next.

Weather Watch:

Jon says the dissent in the weather community has moved into assent and things are looking more and more windy and damp. He is still primarily concerned about the the rain later in the week. There is a reasonable chance that the worst of it will push South and bother Santa Cruz instead. Looks like washouts for the Los Gatos Creek beavers too. Sorry Mercury.

Updates and Storm Warnings

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers January 16, 2010

I have been getting a bundle of anxious emails from folks alarmed by the upcoming series of rains and worried about the beaver dams. Obviously the city was concerned as well and dragged the recently felled willow out of the creek Friday. (You silly beavers didn’t eat fast enough. Languid beavers, who knew?) Main Street Martinez is sending out messages warning where to get your sandbags, and reminding everyone of all the “hard work the city did to widen the flood plain” (and remove the beavers food). Remember that beavers are used to rebuilding and not looking foward to an early retirement any time soon.

One of the unique benefits of having an english husband is that he is obsessed with weather reports. At last count the treasurer of Worth A Dam had 35 weather sites bookmarked on this computer. He reads conflicting reports, like a hedge fund investor reads the pros and cons. He even insists on tapping the barometer in the living room several times a day. We naturally put him in charge of monitoring storm conditions and letting us know when the beavers are going to be in trouble.

Jon writes:

It seems there are going to be three storms, the worst one will be the last from Wednesday into Thursday, and this will be the one to watch. The good thing about it is there will be a break between each one. The other thing is that not all there forecast models are in agreement, some are saying dryer conditions. The NWS is still saying wait and see they have not issued any warnings yet.

So we’ll sit tight and see what happens. One of these days our little Victorian is going to get washed right down Castro Street into the beavers. I’m sure they’ll waive as we float by. “We told you to build more dams,” they’d shout over the noise of rushing water.

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Other news updates: First remember beaver friend Gail in New Jersey who wrote about the situation in Franklin Swamp? We managed to send a little attention there way and make some new friends around the country. I heard yesterday this update:

I just spoke with Nancy, the Mayor’s secretary about the latest beaver news. She told me that DC has been in touch with Laura Simon from HSUS about doing a presentation about the beavers to the schools. She was working it out with the Board of Education. I can’t believe they would teach kids about the beavers if they were not going to make an effort to keep them here. I’ll let you know when I have more info.

Hurray! Go Laura and go Gail! Teaching children about beavers is the single sneakiest way to secure their safety. Just look at the slide show at the left of this post, which contains drawings by not one but two of the daughters of a certain anti-beaver city councilman.

New Jersey successes not enough for you? Things look better for the Lincoln Park Beavers in Illinois, too. You might recall the beavers were the special concern of our wikipedia friend, who went to med school nearby and had connected with a current med student who was similarly pro-castor.

Back in the early part of this year the parks department and the Conservancy wanted those beavers out. (Beavers eat trees. Lincoln Conservancy Protects Trees etc.) They hired the mirthlessly-named company “On Target Wildlife Control” to live trap and relocate the beavers, except mom beaver didn’t read the “live” label on her trap and subsequently drowned.

Ring a bell? Well, the beavers are back in the limelight and their supporters are the subject of a recent article on “Lincoln Park Now“. It mentions the widespread good feeling towards the beavers, the facebook page, the wikipedia page, and then notes that “Our beaver even gets mentioned in this California beaver fan blog that’s totally and completely serious about celebrating and supporting beaver welfare.”

Totally and completely serious about celebrating and supporting beaver welfare! Gosh I have to find that blog! Maybe I can email the author and we can collaborate and combine resources. I’m so glad to learn that there is another active website following beaver welfare in California!

Oh. Its Us.

Well, yeah for the coverage. And boo for being the only one. Now lets talk content. I couldn’t help but notice that you refer to the beaver as “he”. I’d like to clarify that beavers are social animals and that any beaver who has built a lodge has a family or is expecting one. Do what you can to start describing this as a family unit, because I believe the “bachelor language” is used to make it easier to justify beaver death and removal. (As I said before, everyone understands that young men living on their own can get into trouble, but no one wants to think of a child left alone because daddy never came home.)

The primary concern your article mentions is birds. Beavers will take trees, and birds need trees, so that means bird lovers aren’t beaver lovers. Ahhh, its nice to have this chance to talk. First take a moment to look at the post from two days ago. It contains reference to a publication by Audubon in 1940 about the way that beavers make habitat for birds. How about this August 2007 article from the National Audubon magazine about how a beaver outside the Bronx zoo helped the bird population there.

“The beaver is nicknamed Jose after US representative Jose Serrano who secured 15 million in federal funding for restoration of the formerly garbage-clogged waterway…Here is nature doing what we couldn’t even imagine, says Eric Sanderson, an ecologist with the wildlife conservation society that overseas the Bronx zoo. The rebounding Bronx river is now home to 45 species of fish and serves as a migratory corridor for birds.”

That fly-by-night researcher was working on a project to generate a program for identifying what a habitat looked like based on the presence of a single species. He called it the Muir Web. He used this web to create an ambitious reconstruction of what what New York looked like 400 years ago. The “Manhatta” project became a major exhibit in the Museum of the City of New York and was the subject of this September’s cover issue of National Geographic.

If you still need convincing that beavers are good for birds, read about the study released this year by Hilary Cooke of Alberta Canada. Science Daily summarize the findings here, but the article is in the October 2008 issue of the Journal of the Western North American Naturalist. And when your done looking it up, wrap your most important trees with 2×4 steel gauge wire or paint the trunks with sand. We’d be happy to help if there are any questions.

Alright, that’s enough beaver news for one day. Stay dry and stay tuned!

Bridge over troubled waters…

heidi08 Environmental, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Tile Bridge January 13, 2010

Part II: Public Outcry becomes Public Art!

Tomorrow morning Escobar bridge will be taped off by city staff and our contractor Dimitry Doronkin will begin the task of laying the ceramic painted tiles on the bridge surface. He will be helped by Roger of the Environmental Studies Academy, a student of Rona Zollinger and the son of a tile & granite contractor himself. Worth A Dam will be there, handing out water, picking up trash and making sure the right tiles go in the right places.I heard from Lisa at the Contra Costa Times that we might even have a photographer stop by to record the moment.

Dimitry tells me they will lay tiles on thursday, and grout them on friday. The tile will be sealed for graffiti and UV protection, and will need to dry 72 before the last layer can be applied. Maybe you’d like to stop by and honk your support? The blue trim tile was purchased at Laufen tile in nearby Pacheco, and they kindly gave us a “school” discount for beavers. The trim pieces will be cut today by Chris Johnson at Bullnosing by Craftsman on Nardi Lane in Martinez. Jon is meeting Dimitry at the Home Depot in Martinez to buy supplies. All in all it couldn’t be a more local project.

Back in July, Worth A Dam was able to land an interview plugging the beaver festival on KCBS. The beaver-weary radio man made a series of veiled remarks bemoaning their presence and said “I guess Martinez has decided to turn its lemons into lemonade“. Sigh. What can you do to combat that kind of prejudice?

Now I think I would smile very indulgently and say, “Gosh I don’t think its entirely fair to call our city council “lemons“. Sure they’ve been difficult, but we have managed to work with them.”

Fish Identification

heidi08 Friends of Martinez Beavers, New Species, Why We Care January 12, 2010

So I sent Cheryl’s lovely photo to Lisa Ownes Viani yesterday and she sent it around to her fish buddies, Bruce Herbold, Ph.D. and Robert Leidy. Ph.D. of the EPA. They got out their detective skills and set about counting fins.

well, Rob Leidy and I both think that it is probably a tule perch. We both also first thought that it was probably some sunfish, but magnification clearly shows the line of scales along the dorsal fin that make it an Embiotocid rather than a Centrarchid and the absence of barring on teh body and the fact that it is in or near fresh water would make it most likely the tule perch Hysterocarpus traskii.

Bruce went onto say that a tule perch was his favorite because of its unique reproduction. Mom bears all the young live! That sounded pretty wild to me, but after learning that our snipe engage in joint custody arrangements, anything was possible. The UCB California Fish Website had this to say about tule motherhood:

Young perch then begin to develop within her, slowly at first, and more rapidly in the final two months. In around May or June the female bears 10-60 live fish. The number of young produced increases with body size and may vary from one environment to another.

It also pointed out that these perch require “cool well-oxgenated water”, a description that many beaver-phobic biologists have warned would never happen because of the beaver dams. But my favorite message came from Robert Leidy, who added this little tidbit:

By the way, I think this is the first record for tule perch from Alhambra Creek, as I am not aware of any historical collections or records!

The keystone beaver strikes again! Let’s just take a moment to enjoy the series of connections necessary for this to happen. Cheryl took the photo because she was out watching for the beavers. I sent the photo to Lisa because I met her through the beavers. Lisa sent the photo on to the top fish biologists in the state who worked to agree on its identification. Robert recognized it was a first sighting. And our wikipedia friend immediately recorded the find on the Alhambra Creek pages.

That’s what I call successful cooperation! And the beavers get the credit for it, which they genuinely deserve. Keep your eyes out for new species down at the dam! A team of experts is standing by….