Daylight savings is kind to beaver watchers. You can stagger out of bed at 6 and get to the dam just in time for a streaky orange sunrise. This morning gave sight of Dad at the old lodge, one yearling at the annex, another at the frat house, and a third by the footbridge. A pretty good viewing.
Yesterday I met with the director of public works to discuss our children’s art tile bridge project. City staff were there as well. They had been excited about the project back when I presented to the Parks Marina and Cultural Commission in October. Their enthusiasm for the artwork and the tiles was fairly evident and they all wanted to make their own. It was a very friendly and productive meeting, and I kept thinking I had stumbled into the wrong room by mistake. It felt like one of those weird family events, where your stepfather had never liked you, and always told everyone you were a trouble maker and would never amount to anything, but then showed up at your cum laude graduation, saying he said he couldn’t be prouder and bought you a car.
Well, maybe not a car, more like a certificate for Jiffy Lube? Or one of those Shell Gas cards. Not extravagant, but still, not what you expected. The most delightful part of the meeting was when I was asked to take staff on a beaver viewing some morning to describe the habitat and show off the dams. That doesn’t happen every day.
The beaver stone that was rejected has become the corner stone?
Anyway, Worth A Dam is officially on the agenda to present the full project to the City Council on November 18th. I have been told this is because the city wants to be included in this project and feel participatory. Beaver failure is an orphan, but beaver success has many parents. Come and support our beavers that night if you can?
So you remember how my marketing advice to Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions included the need to identify some public beaver drama and walk onto the stage with a big shirt that said “hero” on the front? (Or if you’re Skip, no shirt at all?) Well I found his action yesterday, and it has all the pathos of a greek tragedy. Ripped from the headlines of an economy in turmoil, it includes the urgency of a leaky fawcett, the humanity of country club, and the environmental awareness of a cell tower.
With Massachusetts burdensome unemployment rate of 9.3, important victims of the economy are often overlooked. As restaurants and book stores close up shop, consider the poverty we can’t see. Consider golf.
The Ledges is an 18 hole golf course in South Hadley. It boasts “Numerous holes winding through protected wetlands and rock ledge outcroppings.” It opened as a plush expensive course, but wasn’t selling enough tee time and was then taken over by the city which manages this municipal course and allows visitors to pay 36 for 18 holes on a weekend. Seems it has some beaver problems and they considered installing a beaver deceiver to fix it, but course superintendent now says that they don’t have enough money to pay for those new fangled things and they had better just kill them after all.
The good news is that since its a city managed club, with protected wetlands, the conservation commission will have to weigh in. There will be a public hearing next week November 9th at 8:30pm. Seems like the perfect place for a heroic beaver management expert to show up, offer his services and prominently flout his upcoming DVD.
Just sayin’.
