Last night we saw not three but FOUR kits marking their adventures at the dam. Like last year they are not all exactly the same size. The smallest climbed up onto the lodge after dark and a friendly flashlight revealed his stocky little body to be mostly head and a tiny afterthought of a flat tail. Others were up and over the dam without a second thought, foraging with parents and following around their bigger siblings. Also like last year, the little ones seem to be feeding upstream, and are still in evidence at the Escobar bridge. I’m sure it was a little one that took Luiza’s tree (“Tom”) which now only exists only in video and our memories.
Lots of Beaver related news this morning. Beloved beaver friend Luigi Daberdako and his wife Brixhilda will be attending tonight’s city council meeting to ask for fair treatment by the city and could use your support. The 500 block of Martinez, where his store is located, was instrumental in hiring the attorneys that threatened the city into initially saying the beavers must be exterminated. They worried understandably about a repeat of the flooding that damaged their shops before. Luigi was the first to notice that the beavers increased business and did not support their action. This prompted a host of difficulties, and Luigi has been told to remove signs from his window many times as a result of complaints from neighboring buisinesses that he says resent his pro-beaver stance. Recently he was approached by the city with the infomation that his patio “pocket” was going to be removed and replaced with parking spaces since it wasn’t being used. Luigi responded by installing some lovely patio furniture and plants. Now the city is saying that since he is not a restaurant he must remove them or pay a fine of 100.00 dollars a day. A nice article in yesterday’s Gazette tells the Hatfield/McCoy-like tale. Suffice it to say that some of the businesses who sell beaver merchandise downtown are not beaver friends. He will be addressing the council tonight, but is not on the agenda. This means his comments will be early, so come at 7:00 to 525 Henrietta and offer your support.
Other news involves our friends in Surrey British Columbia. Remember the Deja-Vu story of Beaver extermination in Martinez North? Well it turns out that our beaver friend from New Zealand is in Canada for a vacation and will be stopping by Surrey to have a little chat with the mayor. I contacted the beaver-advocates up that way Fur-Bearer Defenders and put them in touch with each other. I also invited the program coordinator , Fannya Eden, to guest blog and her post will be appearing tomorrow. Isn’t it nice when beaver supporters come together?
A final beaver-development was noticed by our own Cheryl Reynolds who tagged this yesterday. It’s the Discovery Blog of author Jennifer Viegas who was writing about the reintroduction of beavers to Scotland which we have discussed before. She emphasized beavers important restorative role on habitat, and this was a welcome reminder of the work of our furry environmentalists. I was surprised to check out the video at the end of her post: it looked strangely familiar! I had to write as she apparently has a local office, and she directed me to the new research covering beavers ameliorating effect on drought. Thanks Jen for the link and the beaver support.
Beavers Beavers Everywhere: They’re bigger than you think.
