THE WORTH A DAM STORY

Otter in the Water

heidi08 New Species December 27, 2010

Consider the River Otter (Lontra canadensis). Cheryl snapped this photo of the visiting fish-eater near Starbucks yesterday. Otters have huge territories so he/she has lots of different feeding spots to choose from but the Martinez Beaver Ponds are definitely on the short list. Since beaver dams trap organic material that insects break down, they increase fish populations and become feeding grounds for lots of wildlife. Remember that in the fall we saw mom and junior visiting the area so that she could show him where to find easy fishing once he was on his own. Observers say the otter was showing his/her talents with fearless aplomb yesterday, popping out of the water to savor each victory.

otter2010 — River Otter Fishing Beaver Pond - Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

I dearly wish we’d see an otter family someday, with little pups. Otters start out life much more slowly than beavers, not learning to swim until they’re 8 weeks old! Pregnant females raise their pups entirely by themselves, with no help from Dad, who will fertilize anything he gets his paws on. Otters can’t dig their own den, so rely on other animals to do it for them (hint, hint). Once an otter is impregnated it can delay implantation of the fetus for up to 8 months, timing the birth for the spring. But in the mean time we are always delighted by an otter vist. A special benefit of this photo is the glimpse of his curving, tapered fur tale. If you’re still not sure you can tell them apart from beavers, this might help:

In solidarity for our frozen East-Coast friends today I thought the website should snow, too. Enjoy!

Much Obliged

heidi08 Environmental, New Species, Uncategorized December 26, 2010

Breaking news!

beaver cartoon — Beaver Guru Mary O'Brien sent this this morning

Cheryl went looking for our ‘fancy ducks’ this morning and sends this photo of last nights beaver-chew party. She says everyone enjoyed the otter putting on a show at Starbucks and up and down the creek, catching big fish each time he dove. Photos to follow!

Hooded Merganser at beaver dam: Justin Watts 12/23/10

Check out our new Christmas visitors to the dam site! It’s a male (left) and female (right) pair of hooded mergansers. These are obligate nestors who may have come to inspect the wood duck boxes Mitchel installed. If we’re lucky they just might stick around. A trio of young birds came on valentine’s two years ago I’m guessing they were emissaries checking the place out. Apparently they liked what they saw.

Here’s hoping we see these someday….

Fall Colors

heidi08 Beaver News, Massachusetts Trapping Law, New Species December 2, 2010

The third grade classes of Las Juntas have some wonderful artists and very inquisitive, young naturalist minds! 60 children and other helping adults were divided into four groups so everyone at Worth A Dam did their job 4 times, which meant that by the end we were fairly well and truly spent. We put the lovely children’s banners above the tile bridge and they fit in perfectly, inspiring some great chalk art which spread from the ground to the benches, (I’m sure there will be some annoyed county workers with chalky bottoms for a day or two, sorry about that). There was a reporter and a photographer from the Pleasant Hill Record, so hopefully they’ll be a nice write up soon.

Here’s a sample of their work, we used one of the metal cutouts donated by Paul Craig to trace the outline of a beaver, but some children just made their own.

I especially like the Egyptian-looking ‘pink beaver’ in the middle of the collage. The children were really attentive and interested, and I was surprisingly merciful to them (and the mayor) and didn’t say that the city at first wanted to kill the beavers just that the city wanted them to go away. It must be the holiday spirit because I was also merciful to a certain sheetpile-protected property owner who was trying to walk through the sea of children and passing up the opportunity to have 60 children ‘boo’ at the same time is easily the most noble act of self control I’ve ever demonstrated.

Still, when the teacher asked if, for a followup project, she should send have the children send letters to the mayor about naming ‘beaver park’ I smiled widely. ( The holiday season only transforms a girl so much.)

Here is FRo’s picture of the afternoon visitor on the lawn! ”

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And in case you need some less child-focused intellectual stimulation for the morning, check out the article by Mike Callahan in the AWI magazine.

When Massachusetts citizens voted overwhelmingly in 1996 to outlaw steel jaw leghold traps, other body-gripping traps, and snares for capturing fur-bearing animals, critics of the law loudly proclaimed that disaster was imminent. Many claimed that the trapping restrictions would cause the state to be awash in beavers and flood waters because they mistakenly felt that trapping was the only effective beaver management tool.

Human/beaver conflicts occur across North America. To understand why, it is important to have an historical perspective. The North American beaver, Castor canadensis, has existed for millennia. Native Americans referred to beavers as “Little People” because beavers are second only to humans in their ability to modify their environment to suit their own needs. Beavers were revered by Native Americans who understood that beaver dams and the ponds they created support a vast array of wildlife.

Curiosity peaked? Go read the rest of the article. It even mentions us!

Now Showing…

heidi08 Beaver Art, Creative Solutions, New Species November 13, 2010

So this is the video splice that’ll be shown tonight at the John Muir Association Conservation Awards, followed by Mike’s acceptance speech. I’m particulary happy with my arteless efforts to combine Part I with the Introduction because it features our beloved beavers. Those are two of our 2008-born yearlings working on the dam – there is a 33% chance that one of them is GQ, which is nice to consider. I’m hoping that the video will perch in Shelton’s consciousness and follow him back home to Yosemite where he’ll tell his fellow rangers about these successful long-term solutions for beaver management.

It should be a grand night, and I learned yesterday that Susan Kirks (of PLAN and badger fame) will be coming so she may want to finish the evening with a little beaver viewing. I already invited our guest speaker but he isn’t sure they’ll be time. I’ll keep nudging and see if that changes.

Last night we saw all three kits at the primary dam and enjoyed the audio of excited little girls watching them from the bridge. “Ohh, daddy that was a beaver!” The other exciting noise of the night was a frogish-toadish ribbet coming from the landscaping on the street. I’ve been hearing it the past few nights so I know it’s local. It isn’t the massive chorus of pacific chorus tree frogs we get after a rain. I only hear it at night, and about 20 feet away from the water. I guess its a toad, but it certainly sounds nothing like the California toad I find when I try to research it. I’ve written a host of creeky experts and I’ll let you know what they say.

For now, shh. Don’t tell the Green Heron.

Beaver Magic

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, New Species, Video October 17, 2010

Last night at the beaver dam was a fairly joyous occasion. All three kits and GQ in view, as well as some pretty spectacular fish-jumping. (I’ve already had a couple votes for ‘bass’) It’s been a week of highs and lows, with long nights of very little to see. But last night reassured us that all was right in beaverland.

Jack Laws came back with his mom, sketched some more and marveled at the aquatic display. I encouraged him to think about maybe doing a beaver field-sketching workshop at the festival next year. He thought the idea might be irresistible. He said he had lectured recently in a class room on the Eastern Sierras and noticed that the room was full of all things beaver. He stopped and showed the teacher the hat which we had given him when he came last and saw her face launch into such delight he generously had handed it over. Somewhere on the Eastern Sierras is a unknown teacher with a Worth A Dam hat. How cool is that?

Weirdly good things seem to be happening, and its been hard to catch up. I was thinking yesterday how truly synergistic it will be to present Mike’s award at the JMA night, surrounded by NPS Rangers including one from Yosemite. It would be awesome to help nudge these skills into the National Park Service. I can’t think of a single thing that could make a bigger difference to the well being of beavers from Yellowstone to the Smokey Mountains.

Speaking of education and life-changing events, will there be a “State of the Beaver Conference: 2011”? You bet there will. And I have some pretty exciting news about it. I’ll tell you tomorrow.