Category: Why We Care

Now that’s what I’m talking about!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Environmental, In the News, Uncategorized, Why We Care September 24, 2010

See this pretty fish? Its called the watercress darter, which is a pretty delightful sounding name. It’s endangered in the only state where it occurs: Alabama. There is in fact only one parish where it occurs: Jefferson. Even in Jeffersen Fish & Game lists only four streams where it is known to survive! The largest of these is Roebuck Springs Basin. which is dubiously located between the Youth correctional facility and the municipal golf course.

They are found only at mid-depths in dense accumulations of aquatic vegetation including watercress, in springs and spring runs.

Guess what the city of Birmingham did? I’ll give you a hint. It’s what the City of Martinez tried to do. It’s what many many cities do routinely. Its what the left hand corner of this website outlines on a daily basis.

They killed some beavers! Destroyed some dams and got the creek flowing back to normal.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (CN) – The removal of a beaver dam from the Roebuck Springs Basin killed “thousands of endangered watercress darters and around two million snails,” and destroyed half their habitat, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources claims in Shelby County Court. The agency says Birmingham employees did not consult state or federal authorities about the “consequences or wisdom of removal of the dam.”

The city “knew or should have known that removing a beaver dam and surrounding natural structures would potentially disrupt the water level of the Basin and its inhabitants,” the agency claims.It says the destruction of the dam caused a “serious dewatering event” that not only killed fish and snails, but also drained 80 to 90 percent of their habitat.

Watercress darters are protected fish that live in only four springs, all in Jefferson County, Ala. About 11,760 darters were killed when workers for the Birmingham Parks and Recreation Department removed the beaver dam on Sept. 19. 2008, according to the lawsuit.

The action charges them with five counts including negligence, wantonness, nuisance and tresspass to chattel. There aren’t very many of these fish left, and what remains of their numbers belong to the state. So doing something that destroys the largest population of them in the state is a big deal. The lawsuite demands that the court award damages equal to the cost of replacing every one of those 11,760 darters for starters. The action itself is a fun read, go here to see the complaint.

I’ll make sure I include this story in my next “it’s unwise to kill beavers because…” letter. Its been a while since we had a good beaver lawsuit. Whatever happens, lets hope the story makes the city of Birmingham a little cautious about removing a beaver dam next time and becomes a cautionary tale that makes every city think twice.

When I went to check out footage of the darters on youtube I found this, which brought me to the reporting of Glynn Wilson. Turns out Fish and Game has been trying to get some satisfaction and answers on this story for a long time before involving the courts. In fact, Fish & Game was so alarmed they asked the city to rebuild the dam out of sandbags!

It’s a fascinating tale that made the evening news many times. There were claims that the tennis courts were being flooded by the dams, and countering observations that the courts were the highest point on the property and never ever flooded. There are photos of the area before the beavers were killed and the area after the dams were taken out and concrete sink holes placed in. The whole story is such a hardy collection of lies and more lies that you can see how it got to the level of a lawsuit.

Remember this is Alabama, people. No offense, but these aren’t crazy liberals from Berkeley protesting damage of mottled newt habitat. These are hunters and fishers and people who know how to kill a beaver or two. That just makes the story much more fun, in my opinion. Sorry about your pretty fish. I hope you scare the wrasse outta the city and lots of cities near by.

Beaver Benefits

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, In the News, Why We Care September 18, 2010

There are a few things I set aside for reading later – you know truly remarkable affirming news that you can savor at leisure. I would include Summer’s issue of Defenders of Wildlife in that catagory. Particularly the article called “Eager for Beavers” by Heidi Ridgley. If you haven’t read it go do your self a favor and check it out.

“These dams act like speed bumps,” says O’Brien, a botanist and Utah forests program manager for the Arizona-based Grand Canyon Trust. “If water hits one, it wells up over the flood plain, slowing down the water. If that dam crashes and burns in the flood, the water will hit another one like stair steps. The rushing water gets slowed at every turn.”

The generous article stars two of my favorite heroes; Mary O’Brien who I first read about in the Greatest Beaver Story Ever Written, and Sherri Tippie who I talked in a panic to on November 6th, 2007 to see about getting our beavers safely relocated. It lovingly outlines the good that beavers do for the watershed, and talks about our foolish human habit of killing them. It even outlines specific tools to regulate problematic behavior, although I think she got the names reversed.

Solutions to the diverging needs of humans and beavers do abound, though—and they come with clever names: “beaver deceivers” and “castor masters” (Castor being the Latin genus for beaver). Deceivers work by allowing water from a beaver-dammed pond—water that is about to back up and flood over a road, for instance—to escape without the beaver ever hearing it trickle away. “The sound of water running drives beavers nuts,” says O’Brien. “They will try to plug up the leaks.” The pond is kept at the desired level by inserting a pipe in the dam that allows the water to release underwater—right under the beaver’s nose. Castor masters are wire fences with strong posts. They keep beavers from plugging up culverts, which divert water under roads to avoid wash-outs. In this case, beavers hear the water but they can’t get access to the culvert to plug it.

The beaver-savvy folk of Martinez know that what we have in Martinez is a Castor Master, and that culvert defenses are beaver deceivers. Oh well, I’m sure Heidi’s head was filled with lots of ideas and questions at once. She got the idea that beavers help the environment. She got the idea that there were ways to solve problems. And she got the idea that some kinds of rhyming words were involved, which is more than most. I wish she would would have included the generic term ‘flow devices’ so the options can be more generally discussed. If someone reads this article and puts a ‘beaver deceiver’ on a dam they’ll be very disappointed.

This is my favorite part of the article and why Mary is my personal beaver hero.

“People sometimes get excited to tell me they’ve seen a beaver dam,” says O’Brien. “They have no concept that there should be 15 in that one area. We don’t have the cultural memory of how many beaver dams used to fill a stream because the beavers were mostly gone before white people settled here.” Tasha Creek is an exception with its 17 active beaver dams.

Mary was very intrigued this year by the idea of our beaver festival. I got the feeling she might just make the trip and visit some day. In the mean time the author of the article was disappointed that she never got to see any beavers on their trek. Heidi? Do I have some good news for you! The article ends with this adorable acknowledgment.

As a little girl, Senior Editor Heidi Ridgley’s favorite stuffed animal was a beaver she named Thumper.

Because that was a great article and you had a stuffed beaver named Thumper Heidi, you get my thanks and a present. Let me know when you’re in the Bay Area and I’ll take you to see some beavers that will not disappoint.

Photo Courtesy of Sherri Tippie

Together Forever

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Why We Care September 17, 2010

Let’s review. Nearly three months ago our mother beaver died. There were outpourings of support for her and the three kits she left behind. Worth A Dam wanted some kind of memorial to her remarkable life and approached local artist and UCD professor Paul Craig. Paul is an old friend of the beavers and was thinking of them when he designed the metal beavers for the library sculpture. Paul said he would happily make a mother and some kits if we could get him some silhouettes to work from.

Chapter two. I contacted the recently graduated but-as-yet-unemployed graphic artist (Libby Corliss) who designed our brochure and map and asked her for help. She said she could easily turn photos into silhouettes if we could find the right photos. Three of cheryl’s pictures did the trick, and for the fourth we filled in the drawing of our logo beaver generously donated by another graphic artist, Kiriko Moth. Paul quicky produced the metal pieces and we marched down to the city council meeting to ask permission to hang them.

Chapter three. In a down-the-rabbit-hole twist of fate we were given full approval and gratitude, told to go ahead and display them on the sheetpile wall, and to work with city staff who would help us get it done. I later met with Bob Cellini and gave him the beavers and talked about where they might work. I was surprised to learn that Bob does similar metal cuttings and has been meaning to get around to making one for his wife to display in the garden. I first met Bob in 2007 after the subcommittee had been formed but before Skip had installed the flow device. Staff had made the decision to take down the dam by a foot during the interim month before he could get here. I was standing at the bridge when he was reviewing the job and introduced himself mournfully as the man who was going to do the ‘dastardly deed’. I immediately liked him for that. I liked him even more when he said that the binder of articles I had distributed at the first subcommittee meeting was in the staff room and had become the ‘beaver bible’.

Chapter four. So tuesday I got an email from Bob that the beavers were ready to be installed and he had invited the Contra Costa Times photographer for the ‘unveiling’. When Lory got there thursday morning this is what she saw,

With the drop cloth removed, this was the display. Bob made the frame and arranged the beavers in it. Don’t they look happy together?

I was worried that they’d be spread apart or scattered, but I love this family grouping which clearly shows mom taking care of them. Obsessed beaver fans like myself will no-doubt note that the notch in mom’s tail is on the wrong side, because the metal has been reversed. Never mind. I like her approaching the bridge, almost as if she’s coming to ask us for something. I am incapable of avoiding the thought that she’s bringing the kits to meet us and asking us to take care of them when she goes.

I am so grateful for everyone’s help in pulling this together. I love the idea that somewhere on a sheetpile wall, mom beaver and her last three kits will be together forever.

The Untold Story

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Why We Care June 7, 2010

So I’ve been scrambling about this weekend to get ready for my presentation tonight at Close to Home. There’s aren’t many beaver-speaking events I get nervous about. The Flyway Festival…the April council meeting….and this. It’s partly because it’s a paid event. Worth A Dam gets a 100 dollar donation for the talk. It’s partly because these are smart compassionate people who are for the most part well educated and ecologically minded.They’ll know what I’m talking about, both the advocacy and bureaucracy. If there is a “choir”, tonight I’m preaching to it. And I don’t know about your church, but when I gathered to sing in choir the priests act terrified around us.

This arrived today on my google alerts for “Martinez Beavers”. No pressure.

It’s also because I plan tonight to tell the full story of the sheetpile saga, and I haven’t really done that before. Mostly because the layers of lies are so convoluted and tangled trying to tell it leaves listeners glassy eyed and confused. Even my very kindest documentarian said to me gently, when I tried to explain on camera, “No. Just try to make it simple, okay?” I WISH. But tonight I’ll try, and I’m very interested in how I’ll do.

I’ll repeat the invitation to come. I would love some familiar faces in the audience. Hopefully they’ll be some heartily persuaded friends there as well. I’m fantasizing about a wordpress technician, an environmental lawyer, and a regional head of Fish & Game, who hear the presentation and just can’t wait to help. Dream big, I say.

Advice for Advocates

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, Why We Care July 8, 2010

I’ve been fiddling for a while with a list of things the beavers have taught me and trying to turn it into something helpful to present at my talk at Close to Home in June. Mind you, this isn’t Letterman’s top ten list, but I’m pretty happy with it. Let me know if you think I missed anything.

1. Pick a subject that you love. Because you’re going to be stuck with it for a while.

2. Bring a camera. It helps if you can show people what you care about.

3. Offer solutions, approach the problems realistically. Find out whose famous for solving that problem and email them for help. It’s surprising how many well-known people return an email and how few will return phone calls.

4. Media. Don’t expect them to know about natural concepts like predators or tides or habitat or gravity. Provide photos, they like cute animals. Provide pithy quotes, they like easy copy. Provide video that is worth stealing and don’t expect credit.

5. When you say something don’t expect to be able to take it back. You have to get it right the first time. There is no time for context or mitigating circumstances. Short understandable sentences that are easy to relate to are best. Be prepared for the media to give the ’powers that be’ lots and lots more chances than they give you. Understand that they will probably never call them on obvious lies.

6. Identify your ultimate goal and be willing to make temporary alliances with anyone that moves you towards it. I mean anyone.

7. Remember that ultimate goal in your heart and be willing to sever or interrupt ties with anyone that threatens it. I mean anyone.

8. It’s not about you. Officials won’t do the right thing because they like you and for the most part they won’t do the wrong thing because they hate you. Mostly they have their own goals, alliances and Faustian contracts. You don’t matter at all. Keep that in mind.

9. Bring children. Children’s Art. Children’s Education. Images of children with the animal you are trying to save. Mothers with Children! Repeat as necessary.

10. Realize that the powers that be are counting on the fact that by the time you truly learn and understand steps 1-9, you’ll be so exhausted and demoralized that you won’t have the energy or inclination to do this again for some other species. Save something for the ride home and prove them wrong.

LA-17, a female Loggerhead, has just arrived at Audubon Aquatic Center, a facility of Audubon Nature Institute.Pictured from left to right Amanda Adkins, Jamie Mullins and Melissa Tomingas. photo credit Meghan Calhoun