Category: kits

Kit and Kaboodle

heidi08 Creative Solutions, kits July 2, 2014

Well it finally happened. Our new precious member decided to show his adorable face before the sun went down. And we couldn’t be happier. The evening started with very high tide and an otter right near the bank hole at the secondary dam.

Since Cheryl had seen the kit at the secondary dam the night before we started the evening there, but dashed off to the primary when Jon saw this.

What a little peanut! We were happy to see mom and several yearlings in attendance that night. At one point uncle found a treat and the little fellow tried fearlessly to steal it from him. The adult finally slapped his foot and swam off in aggravation!

Never mind, his mother still loves him.

Turn your sound up so you can hear him whine when she swims off! What mother could leave that little voice behind? The photographer who was there that night said that this kit was bigger than the one he filmed the night before, so stay tuned. There may be another chapter to come. If you want to see how big this peanut is, watch until the end where he climbs out onto the bank. All systems a go!

Celebrate with us (and Sherri) with this delightful praise to Gaia. The Beaver Believer film is only a few dollars shy of their goal. If you haven’t pledged you have three days left to add your voice to the project.

Praise Gaia from Tensegrity Productions on Vimeo. It won’t let me embed but GO WATCH IT!

Little Beaver Orphan Annie

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, kits, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? June 27, 2014

Orphaned baby beaver saved from being ‘snack’ in downtown Dayton

That’s when Michael Enright and Grace Cochran of Five Rivers MetroParks conservation team rescued the stranded baby beaver from a river bank at RiverScape MetroPark in downtown Dayton.

“He was so small that he would have been an easy snack for a predator if we hadn’t helped him out,” said Enright, the conservation manager.

The tiny furball was taken to Brukner Nature Center Wildlife Rehab Unit to be cared for until he is old enough to be returned to the wild.

“We’re hoping he will grow,” Enright said.

I’m no rehabber but I’d like to think a wildlife rescue facility sets its goals a little higher?

I’m glad this little guy is going to rehab, it’s better than being tossed like a football or eaten by a coyote, but do you really think he’s orphaned? Or that Brukner Nature Center is going to keep him for 2 years? That’s how long it takes to learn what a beaver needs to know. More than likely they’ll give him a few more fundraising photo ops and then put him in a nice local zoo. The beaver trapping rates for Ohio are fairly staggering, and I bet there are lots of ‘orphans’ to go around.

Mind you the trapper that picked him up with huge eagle-talon proof leather gloves waited around a bit in broad daylight to see if the nocturnal parents came looking for him. He must be really knowledgeable about the habits of these animals. At least he understands they’re dangerous. You have to be really careful when handling them.

Good lord! Aren’t they afraid about being bitten by this terrible menace?

Don’t worry. They’re beavers. Not soccer players.

Guess who we saw last night?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, kits June 22, 2014

Yesterday was solstice and I couldn’t imagine spending it without the beavers. I remembered how every solstice for the past 8 years we have watched our kits swim into the world, usually unsupervised. I couldn’t bear the thought that things were different this year, so off we went.

On Friday I had been contacted by Sheri Harstein, a wildlife photographer and friend of Sherry Guzzi’s and the beavers in Taylor Creek. She and Ted showed me her video project of beavers through the seasons when we were in Santa Barbara for the salmon conference. Some of our visitor’s lovely photographs can be seen here. She was a regular reader of the blog and said she wanted to meet me and bring a donation to the silent auction: Two BEAVER cutting boards with her beautiful photographs embedded in them! (Honestly, you need to bid on these.)

We sat at the primary dam and talked about how she knew of the beavers. She had first connected with our story when Thomas Knudson interviewed me for our historic paper in the Sacramento Bee, and since then had becoming an avid reader. She said ridiculously gratifying things like what a lovely writer I was and how remarkable it was the the website was always updated by 10:00 am every single day! We told her urban beaver tales of city battles, false legs in the dam, homeless holding lights for Mooses and the dead body floating in the creek in 2011. At one point she went off in pursuit of a Great Egret and Jon trotted off to the secondary to check what was going on. And I was left alone in amiable silence with this:

Did I just see what I thought I did?

When they came back they were disbelieving. It couldn’t be the new kit. He was too big. He dove too well. It had to be the small yearling. But we had watched all the yearlings and Dad go over the primary dam earlier. I reminded that maybe this kit was big for a first sighting, but he was exactly the right size for late June.

There was a little more disbelief until he swam close enough for everyone to see his tail, which was the final convincing factor necessary to confirm his kit status. Finally we get to see the sneak! That and the fact that he was a little more playful than the other beavers. Just look at how he handles the water stream through the gap from the rising tide.

Yup, that’s a baby. The 7th year of beavers born in Martinez (no kits in 2011 after mom died).

Were there more to be seen? Will we get footage of mom and the kit playing? Will the yearlings befriend him? Will we get to hear him whine? A million adventures waited. What a great way to start the summer! I promise we didn’t drive home singing this song – but we might as well have been.

Sheri’s much more polished video from last night:

The best thing you’ll ever see…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, kits, Massachusetts Trapping Law, Who's Killing Beavers Now? June 13, 2014

Last night I got a visit from Beaver Santa Claus Moses Silva who gave me this footage he shot on June 7th at 3:00 am. Tell me that is not the cutest thing you have ever seen? Look at the size of that head! Babies really have crazy proportions. Now just because we’re only seeing one doesn’t mean there IS only one. Last year it took us a month to spot all three. Consider it a very good start!

Mom is obviously doting on the youngster and I can see why. Healthy and cute as a bug. And look at that dive! He’s already the top of his class. Swimming off into the sunrise together I know he’s going to have a great beaver life. No conjunctivitis,no trapping and a festival!

I love this time of year! We’ll be out tonight to watch for Junior and meet visitors from Georgia who wanted to combine their stay in SF with a Martinez Beaver Sighting. Remember this from February?

I was contacted by the Executive Director of the Blue Heron Nature Preserve in Atlanta Georgia yesterday who happened to have beavers on their wetlands and wanted help presenting good reasons to keep and protect them! We agreed that Georgia was a hard place to be a beaver. Nancy Jones is the founder of the preserve and interested in applying for grant monies to keep beavers on the land. I gave her all the resources I could and put her in touch with beaver friend BK from Georgia so they could work together.

Hopefully it will be a full house tonight and maybe a little kit debut?

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And lest you forget that mass doses of BEAVER STUPID still exist in the world, here’s a stunning reminder from (I’m starting to think where else?) Hopkinton Massachsetts. Just for the record this website has written about the city an alarming 8 times this year already! I’ve even chatted with the council. Apparently the villain of the piece hasn’t changed his spots.

Hopkinton builder must come up with plan to solve beaver woes

HOPKINTON – The developers of the Legacy Farms housing development must come up with a beaver management plan after a dam was dismantled without Town Hall’s OK, according to Donald MacAdam, the town’s conservation administrator.

MacAdam said the developers had permission from the proper boards to trap beavers earlier this year, but not to dismantle any of the dams.

If you were me (and for your sake I hope you’re not) you would read that sentence and think WTF? Permission to kill beavers but not take out dams? That’s like the pope giving permission to kill saints but not interfere with miracles! It’s like giving permission to kill superbowl players but not interfere with advertising!

It get better.

MacDowell said beaver dams all over the state alter waterways which destroy forests and threaten homes and roads. He said a plan is needed because it is a continuing problem.

Here’s a plan. Pick up your cellphone Mr. MacDowell and dial (405) 527-6472 for Beaver Solutions. Mike will fix this problem and increase your beaver IQ by several points.

Then maybe I can write about something else for a change.

New kit filmed by Moses!

heidi08 Beavers, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, featured, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, kits June 7, 2014

Cheryl and Lory were down on kitwatch last night and met Moses Silva who proudly displayed footage of Mom beaver with her new kit from 3:00 am that morning. He had been out at 1:00 all week and seen nothing so decided to stay all night! He was happy to share the news, but apparently not the footage. We’ll get the little tyke (and his brother or sisters?) soon. In the meantime, congratulations Martinez, it’s a beaver!

As if that wasn’t good enough news, an amazing workshop will be making its way down the Pacific Coast with the help of NOAA, USFW and PSU.

Using Beaver to Restore Streams — the state of the art and science

1-day workshops for practitioners, landowners, land managers and regulators

Nov. 20, 2014 – Juneau, AK

Jan. 14, 2015 – Seattle, WA

Jan 21 &22, 2015 – Portland, OR

Feb. 12, 2015 – Weed, CA

To Register go here.

Course Fee: $50

Presenters:

Michael M. Pollock, Ph.D. Chris E. Jordan, Ph.D. Janine Castro, Ph.D.

Gregory Lewallen Ecosystems Analyst Mathematical Ecologist Fluvial Geomorphologist Graduate Student

NOAA Fisheries NOAA Fisheries US Fish & Wildlife Service Portland State University

NWF Science Center NWF Science Center & NOAA Fisheries

These workshops will be offered for a nominal fee through a partnership with US Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA Fisheries, and Portland State University, Environmental Professional Program.

Using beaver to restore streams is rapidly gaining acceptance as a cost-effective technique to improve aquatic habitat, especially for salmonids. Regulatory and institutional obstacles are being reduced or removed as scientific advances continue to demonstrate that beaver can restore stream habitat far more effectively, and at a much lower cost, than many traditional stream restoration approaches.

Join us for an intensive 1-day workshop symposium for the beta release of a state-of-the-science manual regarding the use of beaver to restore streams. Workshops will be interactive with the audience as we walk through the manual and describe its use to facilitate the restoration of streams. We will provide assessment tools for determining how, where, and when to use beaver in stream restoration. Also included will be a discussion of the regulatory process and how to maximize the probability of successfully obtaining permits.

As a leader in aquatic habitat restoration, your feedback on this document is very important to us and necessary to create an effective tool for restoration using beaver. We encourage you and your colleagues to attend a workshop and to spread the word. Please let us know if you would like to join us and/or if you know of particular groups who may want to attend by responding to this announcement, so that we may adjust the number of workshops as necessary.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing back from you.

For more information contact: Mary Ann Schmidt, maryanns@pdx.edu 503-725-2343

Michael Pollock contacted me a few weeks ago about how to get the word out. (he actually introduced me to Mary Ann as a kind of ‘beaver Maven‘ which ignorance forced me to go look up! After the initial glow wore off, I and lots of others implored for a Northern California appearance.

Yesterday Mary Ann wrote me that they are looking at just such a venue. Did I have any suggestions about a meeting place that could accommodate up to 50 attendees? I introduced her to Jeff Baldwin at Sonoma State who is very interested in the idea. And also suggested to the head of SRF that it might be worth combining it with the salmonid conference in Santa Rosa next year. Dana Stolzman wrote back very interested in the idea and I think everyone’s talking, which means if we just sit tight the conference may come to US!

(Maven!)

Meanwhile I’ve been working hard to get the word out about the festival. Hopefully we’ll have an fullhouse in the park that day, and a full cast of new beaver kit characters to feature! Stay tuned.