Dr. Seuss must have known the many adventures that would befall this beaver advocate. The weekend has been a veritable whirlwind of beaver activity. Yesterday Jon and Cheryl took the creek botany class at Heather Farms and learned many fantastic details about our habitat. We also made some important friends in creek-restoration community and were praised for the enormous visibility our beavers have lent to watershed issues. Last night and this morning we had author and publisher Penny Weigand of Bellissima Publishing down at the dam for a photo shoot. Then it was off to the Farmer’s Market where Worth A Dam collected $70.00 in donations, enjoined some new volunteers for the tree planting project, and learned several very interesting stories about which I can’t wait to share.
Our first visitor to the display was city engineer Tim Tucker who talked about finalizing the plans for tree planting and discussed tree location. We set a time of 9:00 am for the Saturday event. Then came a visit from a horticulturist and the curriculum coordinator at Heather Farms, who Jon had met the day before. She was very interested in our work and introduced her friend who explained she had been part of the Beaver Study Group coordinated between the Mt. View Sanitary District and the Lindsay Museum. The goal was to use volunteers to assess the beavers, educate the employees and deal with any problematic issues. They apparently did a great deal of work, visiting and filming, although no final report was ever issued. Apparently the woman who coordinated it for the museum is no longer there. The group worked for months on solving beaver problems. This came as a huge surprise to us, since it means that the technology of flow devices and beaver deceptions were known and available to this city ten years ago and still not ever mentioned in the initial response. The failure to learn from that effort is frustrating, and demonstrates the need for continued education. Hopefully, our completed report can stay around online for a long while to help other cities manage their beaver populations.
The next scoop of the day (and I’m saving the best for last) came from a long-time resident and Kiwanis Club member who said that a few weeks ago an effort was made to circulate an anti-beaver petition at the luncheon meeting. This was probably before I presented there, and the action was halted by those present who said that it was inappropriate to use that forum and its legitimacy in this effort. I had heard of a similar petition being circulated at Victoria’s Cafe, but can’t imagine it has gained much traction. I suppose Luigi’s many-thousand-signature petition packs some weight with the city after all. They feel they need a response. It is hard to coodindate energy for that kind of campaign— kind of like organizing a “pro-war demonstration” or a “we love our employers picket line”. Still, if their effort picks up steam the “They’re-Not-Worth-A-Dam” team can always find room for a table at the Farmer’s Market next to us.
Now for my day’s best news. In the midst of talking and explaining about the beavers we met a nice mom with a magical little daughter who explained that she was an aide for Congressman Miller. Not only was she a huge beaver fan, so were her co-workers, and they had watched the videos in the office. I can’t tell you how delighted that makes this particular beaver advocate. I respect the congressman enormously, am consistently impressed with his position on the issues, and up until November 7, 2007 his town hall meeting at Martinez City Hall was the most uplifting political event I’d ever attended. Now he’s got stiff competition. Always in the back of my mind, I wondered whether he might be interested in the beavers who’d settled into the creek in his home town.
It turns out our beavers have friends in some very high places.
