Category: In the News

Half a eulogy…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Friends of Martinez Beavers, In the News February 28, 2012

Beaver-Nature’s Engineer

OUTDOORS Dave Sartwell

There is no doubt that the beaver (castor canadensis, for you Latin fans) is the master mechanical engineer of the animal kingdom. He is a nonstop builder that can create some of the most elaborate and strong dams that are able to hold back vast quantities of water. I have seen in Canada dams that are a quarter of a mile wide that have created back-ups a mile long.

Oh! Settling down to read this article was like sitting down with a nice letter from a friend and a cup of tea on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I was deliciously excited. He describes the importance of the fur trade, the softness of the pelt, the dispersal of youngsters, the building of habitat, the care of families, the defending of territories. It was all so exciting to read from beaver-war-torn Massachusetts of all places that I couldn’t wait to turn to page two and read about all the benefits that their engineering does for the entire ecosystem.

Page two….

Page two?

There is no Page Two.

No discussion of birds or fish or water tables or climate change. No reference to otter or mink or Atlantic salmon. No mention of sediment or meadows or coppicing or riparian extension. Sigh. This is clearly HALF a beaver article. Maybe the other half was cut by a space-seeking editor. But maybe it was never written.

I wrote Mr Sartwell to encourage him to work on the more important part next. You know I would provide all the ideas and references he could possibly need. Let’s hope the paper is at least curious about what all these benefits do? Does Massachusetts care about genuine trickle down benefits?

Don’t worry. A better article is on the way. I just got a phone call from a “fact checker” for the Atlantic Monthly. (Are there still such things?) Remember when the reporter came for a tour of the beaver habitat and a talk about the importance of beaver in our Urban Creek? (Um, maybe I was being discrete and didn’t post about that. I sometimes manage it. Well, it happened in early December and as it happens there were unbelievable amounts of beaver activity that night.) So the fact checker is going through the article and says dubiously, “It says he came to a town that’s a suburb of San Francisco is that right? And beavers moved right into the middle of your creek in town is that right? And he saw two yearlings from a street bridge is that right? Reallllllllllly???”

Ahh that was a fun conversation!

Well its getting ready to go to press. Including the prominent name of OUR CITY where this remarkable sighting was made possible. I asked for copies to give the city council.

Fingers crossed.

dad with tree — Dad with Tree, Photo Cheryl Reynolds

A Year to Remember

heidi08 Beavers, Friends of Martinez Beavers, In the News, kits, Newsletter January 24, 2012

Guess what came in the mail yesterday? Sherri Tippie’s 2011 newsletter that’s what! I couldn’t wait to sit down and pour through the whole thing but as soon as I looked at the cover my eyes got too blurry to read anything. Praise for beaver advocacy from Sherri Tippie is like having Picaso tell you ‘nice painting’ or Martha Stewart say she loves what you’ve done with the decorations. Okay, I’ll try not to over react, but still it’s very, very nice. Inside is a lovely article about the beaver conference (and by the way I have heard from Leonard that they have committed to a new one in 2013 and are finalizing dates) and this. Enjoy!

And if you want to read the whole thing, and support the remarkable, necessary and courageous work that sherri does and teaches others to do, sign up for her newsletter and throw something in the kitty. (Use the new address below). I promise you its worth it.

Her new address is 4905 W. Lakeridge Rd. Denver, CO 80219 303-935-4995.

Founding Beavers

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, History, In the News February 24, 2012

How Beavers Helped to Build America

Once abundant and widespread, beavers helped to forge the ground under our feet, making water safe to drink and the land an oasis for life. Yesterday’s update from the Discovery News blog was as good as we’re likely to see in this year or the next. It reviews the newly published research by some folks at Colorado State who have been using Ground Penetrating Radar to identify the effects of beaver dams on the substrata for the last 4300 years.

For the study, Wohl and colleagues Natalie Kramer and Dennis Harry used both ground-penetrating radar and near-surface seismic refraction to detect beaver-induced sedimentation.

My my my. The article is written by Jennifer Viegas who has been a benignly distant observer of the Martinez Beaver story for years. (I guess at one time we were fairly difficult to ignore).

The study determined that beavers contributed 30-50 percent of post-glacial sediments in the target area. “I think it very likely that our results are not unique to the Beaver Meadows study site, but also apply to other regions with relatively low rates of sediment yield to valley bottoms,” Wohl said.

She explained that beaver dams interrupt the flow of a stream, creating a backwater effect of reduced velocity. Sediment deposits in the backwater zone of the beaver pond, with this material remaining “in storage” until river erosion may mobilize it and carry it downstream.

The process is beneficial to humans, she continued, because “wet meadows associated with beaver dams have higher habitat and species diversity for plants, insects and other invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals — pretty much all forms of life.”

Can I get an Amen? Astute readers of this blog will already know immediately where my mind headed the moment I read this article: If historic beaver dams can be identified from above ground in Colorado why not in the Sierras? Why not use GPR to prove what we’ve been struggling to document with painstaking ethnographic & archival research?

(Odd aside. I stumbled into GPR during the great sheetpile panic of 2008 when I was unsuccessfully imploring the city council they didn’t need to stick steel plates through the beavers’ living room. I suggested that they use GPR to find those alleged “tunnels” and make sure there was actually any problem in the first place. I even raised a few eyebrows when I suggested that they take a lesson from family court and if the study FOUND holes the city could pay for the radar, and if there WERE NO HOLES the property owner could pay. Of course you all know how that worked out.)

Never mind. This is an EXCELLENT article. Go read the whole thing. My very favorite paragraph comes at the end, and it kept me grinning for much of the day.

Due to intense beaver hunting, habitat destruction, pollution and other problems, the beaver population has plummeted by the millions in recent decades. Since beavers can impact human activities, their presence in areas remains controversial. Conservation groups such as Worth a Dam in Martinez, California, however, work hard to maintain beaver dams through responsible stewardship and to educate the public about the many benefits associated with beavers.

Thank you Jennifer for dropping our name at the end of such a bountiful list of beaver beatitudes! And thank you University of Colorado for showing us the beaver foundation beneath our feet! Next time you hear folks talking about our “Founding Fathers”, spare a thought for those Founding Beavers who laid rich soil across the united states, shaped our waterways and were trapped and made into hats as a thank you.

Maybe we can do better?

From Sea to Shining Sea

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, In the News December 2, 2011

Today’s beaver business takes us from the latte strewn streets of Seattle to the briney lobster traps of Maine. We are coast to coast here at all-beavers-all-the-time. Check out this delightful up “aren’t we noble” update from Seattle’s publicly owned power company. Apparently in addition to providing electricity City Light also purchases and preserves wetlands to protect salmon AND BEAVER!

With this acquisition, the Endangered Species Act Early Action Land Program is now responsible for over 2,712 acres to date, protecting fish habitats (mostly for Chinook salmon, but also protecting beavers, bull trout, steelhead and other species) and from pollution and destruction.

Take a moment to remember the trouble we had keeping LADWP from helicoptoring in to scrape out all the beavers in the Owens Valley and imagine what it would be like to have a power company bragging about saving beavers! The mind reels.

As we pass over the united states at a great speed I will just stop briefly over Minnesota to say that the reporter of the Humongous beaver article wrote me a kindly letter yesterday, ( which was surprising since I am fairly sure I was not trying to be kind). I thanked him and wrote back that there are precious few beaver advocates out his way and if he ever wanted to join the club we’d save him a seat.

Okay now onto Maine, where they celebrated the end of leftover turkey with the charming old trapper who never did it for the money and just wanted to be out in nature. Remember him?

Maine Meets Martinez Beavers

It is unfortunate that Maine doesn’t know any other way to teach its children about nature; how to make them responsible and manage wildlife, other than by trapping. Since beavers create wetlands, augment fish and bird populations and increase wildlife, allowing these animals to maintain their habitat would improve the region’s game count rather than deplete it.

For the record, there are plenty of old-time trappers who have learned new tricks about humane wildlife management, and who make a better living solving problems than killing them.

Heidi Perryman, Ph.D., president and founder, Worth A Dam, Martinez, Calif.

Happy Anniversary!

heidi08 Beavers, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, featured, Friends of Martinez Beavers, History, In the News November 9, 2011

I have been very remiss in not wishing you all a very happy anniversary! November 7, 2007 was the night the Martinez Beaver meeting happened at the high school and 200 people stopped an impossible train. Remember? How has your life changed in four years? There were 11 police officers and an array of city staff as well as someone from Fish and Game. Don Blubaugh was the city manager and Janet Kennedy was in China. Other than that the council looked remarkably the same.

Their team held all the cards. The had the big money support. The backroom deals. The power and most of the media. A ten page glossy hydrology report with aerial photos. We were just an uncoalesced, shuffling group of strangers who hardly knew each other. And one after one we got up and walked up to that rickety microphone in front of everyone and challenged their thinking. There were 51 speakers. One at the beginning and one at the end recommended getting rid of the beavers. The 49 in the middle had other ideas. Some of you were creative, some polite, some pleading, some brusque, some confrontational. Here’s how the city clerk summarized your comments but you can always watch the original here again.

Captain David Frey commented on the natural tourist attraction of the beaver colony. He expressed appreciation for the engineering abilities of the beavers and recommended building a viaduct around the dam.
Charles Martin suggested changing the high school mascot from bulldogs to beavers.
Douglas Van Raam noted there are ways to build walls that beavers cannot penetrate. He expressed support for letting the beavers stay, agreeing they are a good tourist attraction.
Donna Mahoney commented on the wonderful amenities in Martinez and businesses. She discussed the history and studies of beavers in the natural habitat. She suggested sterilizing the beavers but letting them stay.
Jack Feldman said there was flooding even before the beavers came. He asked Mr. Krause whether a concrete culvert would prevent them from building. Mr. Krause said nature has a way of surprising people, and the beavers would likely prevail. Mr. Feldman suggested a new industry for Martinez – beaver hats.
Curt Ransom, Humane Society of the United States, said they were prepared to work with the City on various solutions. He presented a report to the Council, and he noted that other municipalities are finding solutions other than removal. He urged a win-win-win solution to the problem.
Janet Andronis discussed research she has done on flow devices that can control the height and size of dams. She urged the hometown of John Muir to come up with a better solution.
Katherine Myskowski agreed with solutions proposed by Mr.Ransom, and she also agreed the beavers were a good tourist attraction.
Linda Kozlowski commented on the positive effect the beavers have had on the community -including greater involvement. She asked the Council to slow down the process and find a better solution.
Jon Ridler also asked that the beavers be allowed to stay. He thought that the dam could be removed in minutes if heavy rains come.
Heidi Perryman mentioned she was the one who put beaver video on the internet. She also commented on information lacking in the staff analysis and report, especially the need for environmental impact analysis. She asked the City to contact a relocation expert who is willing to come. She suggested the Council agendize the item and form a committee to study the issue further.
Linda Aguirre said beavers have succeeded in bringing people to the downtown. She mentioned several ways the City can capitalize on the beavers’ presence. She said if the Council insists the beavers must go, perhaps the voters will insist that Council must go in the next election.
Nancy Berrkowitz gave the City information on a tribal association that would like to take the beavers and give them a home, if they must be relocated.
Bob Ryan disputed information given in the staff presentation, noting that a 2nd generation of beavers will go downstream to make their homes. He presented a petition to the Council from residents who just want the beavers to be left alone.
Jennifer Brennan expressed appreciation for the natural habitat in Martinez, and she said the beavers coming is a tribute to the habitat restoration. She expressed that removal would send a bad message to the children of the community as to how to solve a problem.
Maryetta Falk discussed natural abilities of the beavers; she also mentioned people impacted by flooding in the downtown in 2005 and how few people turned out to help them. She asked them to consider the health and welfare of its citizens.
Rich Verrilli asked whether it would be possible to move the beavers to a steeper portion of the creek with fewer impacts. He was opposed to removal of the beavers.
Students of the Environmental Studies Academy commented on the need for restoration and respect for the natural environment. They also said the school district has offered to finance whatever measures were necessary to keep the beavers and to incorporate them into their study program.
Moses Silva said his observations of the beaver habitat disagree with information presented by staff – the dam is not as high as reported, and there was no flooding of the habitat on October 12th. He also commented on the increase in wildlife in the area as a result of the beaver dam. He urged the Council to allow co-existence between the species. He also asked why the creek restoration project has not been well-maintained. He said he had removed some trees that were a hazard, not to help the beavers but to remove the hazard.
Ken King disputed the conclusions of the hydrology report and the impacts of the dam. He said the beavers would create a better downtown destination than redevelopment.
Michele Sohl thanked supporters of the beavers for her t-shirt sales, noting that if the Council removed or killed the beavers, she would order t-shirts that reflect that action as well.
Guy Jett also disagreed with the hydrology report and its conclusions, since it never addresses what happens if the dam is lowered. He questioned whether the size increase is really likely. He felt that the Council should consider the financial impact from people coming downtown to see the beavers. He also indicated that the community will have long memory at election time if the beavers are removed.
Deborah Jett read a letter from the United Nations Director of the World Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals regarding possible ways to preserve the habitat and promise to donate funds for the formation of an oversight board. She asked the Council to reconsider their options.
Joey Piscitelli thanked Council for removing the “death threat”. He asked them to listen to the people and keep the beavers. He agreed a committee should be formed to study the matter.
Michele Mattson commented on the heart of Martinez, noting that the beavers have brought more people to the downtown. She asked the Council to consider some of the options presented.
Virginia Pursley discussed the community’s reception of the animals and the necessity for citizens to show responsibility for taking care of the beaver habitat etc.
Tim Platt said the beavers have been the best thing to help the downtown in years, focusing on nature, history, and recreation. He asked that the beavers not be removed. He also suggested improvements to the creek to allow below-water viewing. He thought this issue was a good opportunity to bring the community together.
Sara Carter commented on the community spirit generated by the beaver habitat, noting that “beavers bring business.” She expressed willingness to work for the beavers, and she corrected the Contra Costa Times article that said “defiance” was present at the rally last night. She also noted that the beavers have a positive effect on the habitat that should be considered also.
Julian Frazer discussed information he had provided the City about the beaver issue. He expressed that Martinez is a park, and the Park and Recreation Commission should be the primary decision-maker on development issues, with decisions based on park impacts. He commented on the need to wait and see whether the dam will hold, and he discussed ways it could be removed quickly if necessary.
Rona Zollinger, teacher at the Environmental Studies Academy, echoed comments by her students that the school district superintendent will fund research and maintenance by and for the students.
Luigi Daberdak commented on the improvement in downtown business from beaver watchers.
Sheri-ann Hasenfus agreed the beaver colony has brought the human community together. She agreed it would be a bad lesson to teach children that if there is a problem you get rid of it rather than try to solve it.
Bill Wainwright expressed appreciation for the community spirit that has developed, and he cautioned the Council about the spiritual void that will result if the beavers are removed. He also said the flooding is caused by development upstream with improper drainage.
Hope Savage expressed concern that the Council is so out of touch with the constituency that they would recommend euthanasia of the beavers. She urged the Council to represent all of their citizens.
Mayor Schroder read a card from Richard Smith – volunteering to buy beaver birth control.
Beth Rainsford expressed appreciation for the support shown for the beavers. She urged the Council to decide tonight to keep the beavers.
Mike Alford agreed that the beavers have brought the community together. He noted that only Councilmember Ross attended the support rally last night. He agreed that the beavers have done more for the City than the Council, Chamber of Commerce and developers.
Kent Strom agreed it was good to see that unification of the citizenry can occur. He offered $20 to contribute towards building community and preserving nature.
Julie Willson asked why not install a 24-hour video feed to the internet – “a dam cam”.
Carol Baier asked the Council to consider widening the creek and restoring the marshlands, which are unsuitable for development.
Robert Shelley was impressed with the sense of community demonstrated on behalf of the beavers.
Anne McEntorffer, Sierra Club, said the local chapters are asking the Council to wait for at least 30 days to allow them to analyze and make recommendations. She offered to email the information to the City Manager.
Christian Frederickson commented on the world movement toward green, noting that the beavers coming to an industrial town makes a positive statement.
Roberta Alford said she was ashamed of the message that has gone out nationally and internationally on this matter. She asked that the Council rule in favor of the people rather than developers.
Paul Wilson asked what happens with the next set of beavers if these are removed. He commented on the dumping into the Alhambra Creek that comes from City streets. He also indicated that the hydrology report should mention the likelihood of flooding on Alhambra Ave with any significant rain.
Gay Gerlack said there are viable alternatives and many people willing to help. She felt the Council has really only one option – keep the beavers.\
Fiji Walker asked staff if they had considered all the alternatives; if so, why they weren’t presented to the public?
An unidentified speaker mentioned improvements to the ecology, including the beavers. Michael (last name inaudible) said students of the district are willing to help with creek cleanups, if the beavers are saved.
Mayor Schroder read a speaker card from Natalie, 9 yrs old, who was sad about the beavers’ future.

One comment is missing and I have no idea who said it. He was visiting family in Concord I believe and was from out of state. A youngish man very clean cut and polite. He spoke towards the end and I will never forget what he said:

“I hear a lot of talk tonight about worrying what will happen to the bridge if the water rises. But if I were sitting on that stage I’d be worried about a different bridge. I’d be worried about the bridge between you people (and he pointed to the city council) and all these people (and he pointed to the audience) because that’s the bridge that’s in trouble here if you aren’t able to listen.”