Kristen Mealiffe ran the fantastic booth for the Western Pond Turtle program by the Oakland Zoo at the Beaver Festival. She recently posted a lovely “Turtle’s-Eye View” of the festival on the Zoo’s website. Here’s a glimpse but you will really want to go read the whole thing!
Why was the Oakland Zoo at the 4th Annual Beaver Festival in Martinez? No, the Zoo doesn’t have beavers, but it does have Western Pond Turtles which rely on beaver habitat. The event was a wonderful opportunity to create awareness about the Zoo’s Western Pond Turtle Head Start Program and the conservation efforts involved to protect the only aquatic turtle native to California. The Oakland Zoo along with many other environmental organizations participated in this festival to create awareness about native species in the Bay Area and the fragile ecosystems where the animals live.
Thanks so much for making our festival better and helping people learn about the importance of native turtles!Our own turtle population is getting alot better now that the dams are back in residence.
Lory found more kind words that came all the way from Massachusetts. This article about the benefit of beavers was written by Stephanie Kraft of the Valley Advocate in Northampton, MA. It mentions in passing the work of the Lands Council and Grand Canyon Land Trust and they mention US!
People in Martinez, California learned what beavers can do after a pair of the passionate chewers built a dam 30 feet wide in Alhambra Creek, felling willows and other decorative vegetation. But local residents got the City Council to put a pipe through the dam to prevent flooding and let the beavers stay. The creek grew into a rich wetland habitat that within three years was hosting river otter, steelhead trout and mink.
Wow, thanks Stephanie. I assume you didn’t come to the beaver festival, but what a nice plug! Folks can go read the whole article here. The only explanation I can come up with for appearing in a Massachusetts paper is that the town of Northampton is directly above Southampton which is where Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions operates. Maybe he dropped our name somehow.
Or maybe we’re just FAMOUS.
