Uncategorized – Page 36

Revolt of the Beavers

heidi08 Uncategorized June 16, 2009

Just when you thought you’d heard every beaver story there was to hear! Turns out that the Federal Theatre Project under Franklin Roosevelt produced a bundle of theatre productions for children, including in 1937 the widely watched “Revolt of the Beavers“. It featured some children whisked away to Beaverland where an evil Beaver Chief had consigned them to hard labor to produce goods that only he enjoyed. A plucky beaver named Oak Leaf organizes his beaver brethren and overthrows the ruthless chief. Given the dislike of employers and general mistrust of wealth in the day, the play met with packed houses but its message drew media fire. Nova website reports “Theater critic Brooks Atkinson labeled it “Marxism à la Mother Goose.”

I guess even in the midst of a depression (maybe especially in the midst of a depression), the tenets of capitalism were worth protecting. Hmm, some things never change.

Paul: Hey Mary, how can he be a professor? He’s only a beaver! Right?

Mary: Shhhhhhhh. He must be a beaver professor.

Professor: Say, that doesn’t sound like a beaver! Wait a minute! Wow human beings!

Mary: Don’t be afraid. We’re not going to take you to the zoo.

Paul: Yeah, don’t be scared.

Professor: Wow, human beings! Wow human beings in beaver land. How’d you get here?

Mary: Windy blew us here

Professor: Get out of beaverland. You’d better get out of beaverland right away!

Paul: Why?

Professor: Because there’s a lot of trouble in beaverland and you might get right in the middle of the trouble!

The entire script is available for download here, though I doubt RotB is going to see a revival anytime soon. In the mean time, just enjoy the thought of beavers as communists, which I do think kind of applies. Far be it from me to mention that some of the greatest opposition to our beavers has been from big money. I’m sure its just a coincidence.

Castor Country

heidi08 Uncategorized June 14, 2009

Yesterday was a wonderous beaver-phile day. The Close to Home group was 25 of the smartest kindest environmental-friendly faces you could hope to meet. They asked intelligent questions, pulled out their binoculars to watch phoebe’s or song sparrows, and offered knowing praise for a long and sucessful civic fight. At one point an admirer asked “Wow, after such a big fight to keep the beavers, the successes you have had must be very heady!” Which made me giggle and say “Yes, very head-y against the wall-y”….

Igor Skaredoff showed them a fine day of Martinez Watershed wonders, including a visit to the Muir Gravesight. Worth A Dam tshirts were sold, donations were made, addresses were exchanged and our tenacity was praised. We were also given a portion of Igors fee for the eco-tour event. We were very uplifted by their everyone’s cheerful good will.

Then it was off to The Bone Room where a pleisticine beaver skull had my name on it. The shop owners were friendly and appreciative of our glowing-eyed wonder and beaver tshirts. In fact, I’m pretty sure I sold four others to beaver fans who would love a large toothed beauty of their own.

That night we went to Erawan downtown to hear the Muir Station Jazz Band who has graciously agreed to play at the beaver festival. They will be our closing band and even though there isn’t electricity in the park, I don’t think volume will be a problem for this banjo, clarinet, horn and bass group. They were working very hard to keep things soft for the restaurant! During one particularly lively dance number we noticed some avid beaver supporters in the conga line and urged them to give the members plenty of beaver encouragement. (They might not need it. They really wanted our shirts.)

Then finally a visit to the dam site, where visitors from the day’s eco-tourism had driven home and come back with the entire family for the full showing. The beavers did not dissappoint. There was a quintet of castor displays (mom, dad, three yearlings). No sign of our newbies. Great beaver vocalizations and a lot of shining children’s faces, especially the little girl who came down in her pj’s.

And to top it all off when I got up this morning there was an appreciative email from Felicity Bradshaw, an Australian zoologist with a specialty in marsupials. She has been particularly interested in drawing attention to the plight of the Honey Possum, a uniquely austrialian pollen-eating mammal that relies on endangered habitat. She recently published a lovely children’s book on the creatures, complete with a DVD of rare footage in the cover sleeve. Here’s the video of her and her husbands work:

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y1CjINN38Jc]

Felicity writes: I am bowled over by your magnificent web-site – in particular its energy and involvement that connects people with a special animal that needs help. Bravo!

All in all a beaver-benevolent day. Thanks to all who made it possible, and thanks beavers for letting us keep an eye on you!

Beaver Festival II

heidi08 Uncategorized June 11, 2009

The plans for an exciting new beaver festival this summer just got a lot more tangible. This week I turned in the Talmud-length application for a special event using the downtown park. When I say that the paperwork was 19 pages, you will think surely I exaggerate, but it takes a committed and self-employed civic person to host an event in our fine city. (For comparison, the application for special event in San Francisco is 18 pages less.)

With the application in, the insurance purchased, the restrooms booked, the vendors invited and the park paid for, we can focus our attention on getting your attention. Save the date! August 1st, 2009 from 12:30 to 6:30. So far we have arranged the Alhambra Valley Band, (which is composing a special beaver song!) and the Muir Station Jazz Band, and are looking for a middle group. Anyone have a great Mariachi contact? We also want a bag piper to play and mark the return of beavers to Scotland after 400 years.

So far our line-up of vendors and activities looks prodigious. I’ll keep you posted as the numbers grow, but we’re planning to do individual tiles for the children’s art project, so that they can be fired and added eventually to a “children of Martinez beaver wall”….

The perfect adornment for one of the dull cement bridges. We already have the tiles, the glaze, the training and the firing paid for, just need to work on the city permission part. I’m thinking after each child’s art tile is completed, they can sit down and jot a quick note to the mayor.

Repeat as necessary. Whadya think, too much?

“Endless Pressure, Endlessly Applied”

heidi08 Uncategorized May 9, 2010

One of the things I love about days like yesterday, is meeting with people who understand all the footnotes without even glancing down to the bottom of the page. I’m talking here about the inherent recognition that the living things in an environment are valuable, that the habitat is worth saving, that the good will of a hundred volunteers with a sense of community is irreplaceable, and that a myopic and concrete-lined city council could fail to see this again and again.

Last night Lisa Owens Viani of the San Francisco Estuary Project, who organized a very demanding day with lots of bumps in the road, who cut her environmental teeth saving Baxter Creek in El Cerrito, and who now pals around with buddies like Ann Riley who wrote “Restoring Streams in Cities“, this very Lisa wrote me a quote from her eco-advocate friend in Portland.

“Endless Pressure, Endlessly Applied.”

Turns out this is a famous quote from Brock Evans, ex-marine, environmentalist and highly successful attorney who is now in Washington DC. His list of publications is impressive, and he is recognized as one of the most successful environmental attorneys in the nation. He practiced for a long time in Washington State (beaver mecca) and even ran for congress. Although he didn’t win, his campaign manager is now a US senator. (Maria Cantwell). In a recent blog post he discusses the thunderdome match between the environment and the redeveloper, and how much still has been accomplished.

How could all this happen, given the wealth and political clout of developers?

Answer: the same way as it has always been. By small bands of determined individuals who personally knew and loved the places, or the values, about to destroyed. The enormous public support came a bit later. First it was necessary to speak out, to challenge and take action — to show the way. The vast majority were volunteers. All they really had was their courage, their determination to never back down. Ordinary folks like the rest of us. They are the ones who did it.

Well this I am starting to believe. From Susan Kirks with badgers to Heidi Perryman with beavers, just ordinary folks doing what they knew was right even when they felt discouraged or hopeless or slighted. Endless Pressure, Endlessly Applied.

The journey really is to Ithaka, not Babylon.

Happy Mother’s Day!

heidi08 Uncategorized May 10, 2009

Mother beaver seemed to be celebrating in private this morning, maybe getting willow delivered in the lodge for breakfast in bed? We had a nice event at Wild Birds Unlimited yesterday, made some new friends and reconnected with old ones. The baby pool generated some interest and our tally currently stands at

# Kits	Votes
6	2
5	3
4	9
3	5
2	1
1	2

As you can see, four is the biggest entry, and I’m hoping we can verify within the month. If you need a little beaver “mothering” on this mother’s day, check out this footage from the Philadelphia zoo. Mom has six kits, and is trying to keep an adventurous one out of the water. Of course as soon as she does the other five come to explore and she pretty much abandons the idea.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=unTSwZzvKcw]

(Nice footage, but I hate seeing all that concrete.)

If you’re celebrating with your own non-castor mother today, you might thank her for that similar lovely moment in your own growing up, when mom had been trying and trying to stop you from doing that risky thing you loved, and finally used an “aha moment” to realize you were probably going to do it anyway, and it was better that you start practicing now while she could still help. Thanks Mom!