June is beaver month, and don’t let anyone tell you any different. It’s when we would start seeing kits for the first time, it’s when the mornings and evenings provide great dawn and dusk beaver watching, and this year it will be month for the largest beaver festival ever. EVER! Not the largest in the the county, or the state, or country, or the hemisphere. But EVER.

Jon picked up a proof copy of the brochure yesterday and it was stunning, I actually love the new shape, it looks more like a program and less like a children’s keepsake. Supposedly today is the day the banners go up in the park. Fingers crossed I will post pictures of their debut tomorrow.

June is also the month that Brock and Kate from OAEC will be presenting on beavers for RCD at the Napa library. Let’s hope they mention a certain FESTIVE celebration! Of course RCD decided to advertise the event with a photo from our own Cheryl Reynolds, because let’s face it. Martinez beavers are Worth A Dam.

WILD Napa ~ Beavers ~ June 13 ~ Bonus Tour @ 6pm!

June 13 – Beavers, Kate Lundquist and Brock Dolman, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center

6 pm – Special Tour – Meet behind old Napa Firefighters’ Museum

7 pm – Lecture – Napa Library

Yearling grooming 2010: Photo by Cheryl Reynolds Worth A Dam

Come learn about the fascinating history and ecology of beavers, and how they are helping both urban and rural communities across California restore watersheds, recover endangered species, and Increase climate change
resiliency. Brock Dolman and Kate Lundquist, Co-Directors of the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center WATER Institute, will share research done on the historic range of beaver in California and how you can contribute to the
Bring Back the Beaver campaign.

When: 2nd Wednesdays, 7 pm; NOTE: On June 13, special beaver tour will be held starting at 6 pm behind Napa Firefighters’ Museum

I’m sure they would welcome some out-of-towners if you want to go hear. Of course they should do the tour after the lecture so folks might get to see some actual beavers! As if this wasn’t exciting enough Rusty’s photos ran a spring series in the Napa register this morning.

Photos: Life at Napa’s Beaver Lodge at Tulocay Creek

Updated featuring photos from Spring 2018!

The Tulocay Creek beaver pond is located next to the Hawthorne Suites Hotel, 314 Soscol Ave., Napa. At the creek, you’ll find river otters, mink, muskrats and herons as well as beavers. Here are some photos of the critters taken by local photographer Rusty Cohn.

“Since Beavers are nocturnal, the heat doesn’t seem to bother them,” Cohn said. “They come out a little before sunset and are mainly in the water. During the day they are sleeping either in a bank den in the side of the creek bank under a fair amount of dirt, or inside a lodge which is made of mud and sticks mainly.”