Video – Page 18 – Worth A Dam

Add the Carnegie Science Center

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Video August 17, 2009

to the list of organizations eager to benefit from the renewed interest in beavers! This month the Philadelphia based museum launches its Omimax premier of “Beavers” billed as the “biggest dam movie you’ll ever see.” What I love about the trailer is the soundtrack of a distinctly familiar noise. Listen, can you tell what that is?

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

I’d write more but I gotta go catch a plane to Pennsylania…

Never Cry Beaver

heidi08 Environmental, Video, Why We Care July 16, 2009

In the end, there were no simple answers,

no heroes, no villians.

only silence.

But it began the moment that I first saw the wolf

By the act of watching, with the eyes of man,

I had pointed the way for those who followed.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=Izb0ScZSBpk]

This movie came out the year I graduated from High School—(that’s Alhambra High School right here in Martinez California. Coincidentally the superintendent of the school then was John Searles, who invited me last month to talk about beavers for the Rotary Club, small beaver world, but you knew that already.) I was enrolled in a film class at DVC when Carroll Ballard’s remarkable animal photography was pointed out to me. My mind’s eye remembered the scene where he falls through the ice and we watch the hare’s face to follow the story. When I used the barn owl’s tilting head in the “high hopes” video that was what i was thinking of. (Not that you could tell.)

From the first five minutes of this remarkable movie I knew it was about epic challenges, personal courage, government bureaucracy and awesome, life-changing closeness to nature. For an unexplained while, before each big hurdle of my student life, (internship interviews, comprehensive exams, licensing exam, dissertation defense) I watched this movie and tried to put my nervous self in order.

I had no idea, then, that it was preparing me for beavers.

If you haven’t watched Never Cry Wolf in 26 years, (or if you sadly never watched it at all) give yourself a monumental treat. The movie is a slow, introspective look at the wilderness. Even today I’m not sure I understand how seeing the natural world in such staggering splendor can focus your vision inward in the most minute and compassionate detail. If you aren’t feeling introspective maybe you could invite your friends over to play the special Martinez Version where you do a shot each time you identify a similarity with our beaver story (faulty understanding, unreliable officials, greedy developers, exaggerated fears, lost wisdom, and wavering bassoon.) (Well, okay, there’s no bassoon in Martinez, but the rest is a direct hit!)

As a reward for struggling to keep up on a remarkable journey, you are treated at the end to the amazing footage of the main character teaching his inuit friend how to juggle. Very possibly the best movie ever made for helping you to see the world, value its beauty and wildness, unlearn all the bogus scientific mythology you’ve been taught, try remarkable new ways to test out developing theories, and advocate humane understanding of the creatures you encounter.

Hmm.

Tail slap!

heidi08 Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Recent Sightings, Video July 9, 2009

Yesterday I got only the second tail slap ever on video. I’m pretty happy about the capture. I think it was dad, who was down by the outlet of the flow device while the yearlings were wrestling about nearby. He saw me on the bridge and wanted to make sure our ELUSIVE kits didn’t wander into harms way. Cheryl isn’t sure his nose is pronounced enough for papa, but we both recognize the message “You kids quit horsing around and get off my lawn!”

If our kits turn up eventually healthy and stable, then I think it would demonstrate a very good thing — that the beavers have adjusted to their stay in Martinez by becoming more careful of their young, rather than less. It’s a good sign that they aren’t becoming habituated or taking our intrusions for granted, and that they still have all the skills to be wild beavers.

Click on the photo to view the footage:

From Tail Slap July 7, 2009

One other piece of news. A close beaver friend suggested yesterday that I might ask our beloved columnist and animal advocate Gary Bogue if he would be willing to donate time with himself for the silent auction! I thought the idea was crazy enough to work, so I wrote him and asked if he would consider it. He wrote back this morning that it works for him! So make sure you bring your checkbooks to the festival. Worth A Dam is offering veryyy rare treats.Thanks so much, Gary!

PS We were added to the Land’s Council Website this week. The are offering this fantastic list of reasons to keep beavers. Check it out!

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=wI5AjJd00cM]

Some kit footage you don’t want to miss!

heidi08 Video June 27, 2009

I want one!

Who are you calling stubborn?

Notice that she carries the kit the same way she carries mud onto the lodge in this video @1:43: Walking upright on her hind legs with the mud held between her chin and forearms.

Last check out Cheryl Reynolds photo this week of one of our three yearlings grooming. For my money its the finest beaver picture yet taken, and definitely a contender for next years t-shirts!