Yesterday I connected with a couple lost souls about the beaver festival and I may have been successful in persuading them to come aboard. Jon met with some folks who volunteered to distribute signs and connected with a possible printer. I also found out that acclaimed photographer Suzi Eszterhas will be joining us on the day, and needs one more photo shoot with kids planting trees for the Ranger Rick article. I’ll keep you posted on that. I just wish I had permission to keep you posted on the other project she’s working on at the moment which is SO COOL. Maybe you can ask her in person yourself when you see her at the festival. (Hint: This photo isn’t it, but it gives you an idea!)
Then out of the blue I got an email from a reporter at the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina who wanted to talk with me about urban beavers and whether there were any benefits to letting them live in urban settings? No really! I’ll just wait while you catch your breath. Someone in North Carolina really called to ask this!
First I looked all around the room for candid camera because this is so exactly the question I want to be asked from a truly IDEAL location. And when I determined it was legit I immediately called back and talked about Martinez, and our flow device, and the new urban beaver chapter, and how beavers can improve streams. We talked about how no one expected the flow device to work and it solved the problem for a decade. We talked about the ensuing wildlife that came to the area and the beaver festival. We talked about how cities save money by employing a long term solution rather than repeated trapping. We talked about beavers being territorial keeping others away.
I ended the conversation with “Any city smarter than a beaver can keep a beaver! And knows why they should!” To which he replied, “that’ good. I’m using that”. And then we hung up.
I’m curious what will come of it, but I’m hopeful because he seemed genuinely interested in the topic and the Observer is owned by McClatchy papers (like the Sacramento Bee that broke the USDA killing storys) so I assume he will be allowed to print the truth if I did my job. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this story, fingers crossed.
I know everyone in Napa was eager to see kits last night with the solstice and strawberry moon and all, but the Gods weren’t yet ready to be kind. An otter showed up and probably scared Mom and Dad into making them wait. Still Rusty got some cool photos of the traffic jam that ensued anyway. Ho
w’ this for a side by side contrast of beaver and muskrat? The nicely staged contrast shots just kept coming: here’s an adult and a yearling showing off the size difference. Always waiting for more, I can’t wait until he gets a kit to pose in the shot as well!
