SANTA BARBARA IS CHALK PAINTING FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beavers May 24, 2020

This memorial day weekend is full of special treats, including an Italian Street Painting Festival in Santa Barbara hosted by the SB Permaculture network. They are opening it up to virtual participants online. Guess what their theme is?

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network joins I Madonnari Street Chalk Art Festival 2020 – Online

Please join us online over the three day holiday weekend as our featured artist Ray Cirino along with enthusiastic volunteers, creates an Ecosystem Restoration themed pastel chalk art square, highlighting our favorite ecosystem restoration hero, the beaver! The fun begins to unfold on Friday, May 23, continuing to its completion on Sunday, May 25. All three days will be available for viewing online.

Been there done that! What a remarkable showing for friends! Rotten luck that this had to be Covid-ed into the shadows. But we’ll virtually participate and wish them well. This is something we know a bit about, you see.

Or maybe this:

You know, I think you inspired me. I could go on and on…

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THE GOLDEN STATE NEEDS ITS BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and water May 23, 2020

With the dire consequences of climate change unfolding around the world, its a good time to remind everyone that beavers can help. Okay, maybe not with the virus BUT in most of the other ways. I guess beavers have some pretty important work to do ahead of them. Maybe we should think of them as allies in the fight and get the hell out of their way?

Lets start with a visit to our friends at Phys.org, shall we?

Less water could sustain more Californians if we make every drop count

California isn’t running out of water,” says Richard Luthy. “It’s running out of cheap water. But the state can’t keep doing what it’s been doing for the past 100 years.”

Luthy knows. As a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, as well as director of a National Science Foundation center to re-invent urban water supply (known as ReNUWIt), he has spent decades studying the state’s metropolitan areas.

In a new journal article, he argues that California cities can no longer rely on their three traditional water-coping strategies: over-drafting groundwater, depleting streams and importing water from far away. His analysis focuses on several strategies that, taken together, can help cities provide for their growing population with prudent public policies and investments:

Ya know, I think I heard once about this big rodent that works its entire life to save water. What was that called again?

Billions of gallons of storm water simply pour into the ocean annually. That needs to change, Luthy says. California’s coastal cities were historically engineered to flush out storm water to reduce flooding, but today cities want to capture as much as possible and put it to use. Los Angeles already gets 10% of its water from storm water runoff, and hopes to more than double that by 2035. Like potable reuse, however, storm water capture often requires big investments in pipes, storage sites and treatment facilities. The capital costs of such infrastructure vary widely, depending on local conditions. But the median project cost is often cheaper than costs to import water in the future, even assuming it will be available, Luthy says.

Wow. If only there were some way to STOP THAT WATER from flowing downstream to the ocean all over the united states in every city and town. It wouldn’t take a big dam if there were LOTS AND LOTS of little ones.

Can think of a way to get lots of little dams built in every stream in America? I can.

GUEST COMMENTARY: Leave it to Beavers: significant partners in dealing with climate change

Guest commentary by Gail Sredanovic in consultation with Heidi Perryman

Think a babbling clear stream is the only healthy one? Think again. Once hunted almost to extinction, beaver were once much, much more numerous, and their ponds and wetlands created a very different waterscape of a kind far better adapted to climate change and drought. There is abundant research to document this. Here is what the Water Institute of the Occidental Art and Ecology Center has to say:

Gail is a long time supporter and reader of this blog for many years. She’s the reason the beaver festival in 2013 was visited by the Raging Grannies from the southbay as she was their lyricist. She’s a firm believer in beaver works, and a dedicated conservationist.

“Extensive research has recently heightened recognition of the important role beaver (Castor canadensis) can play in watershed health and climate change resiliency. The species’ ecological services include enhanced water storage, erosion control, habitat restoration and creation, listed species recovery, the maintenance of stream flows during the dry summer period, and other beneficial adaptations to our changing climate conditions.

While this keystone species has created valuable wetland habitat across California for centuries, beaver are often overlooked or maligned. Other western states are taking a pro-active stance towards beaver restoration, but agencies and landowners in California are focused on managing beaver as a nuisance rather than stewarding them for their benefits.”

Reminding millions of climate activists that beavers save water ain’t too shabby, Thanks, Gail.

The Water Institute has a booklet which you can order or view online to gain a better understanding of the history of beaver in California and how, through better stewardship, we can partner with them to fight floods, wildfires, drought and extinction, while mitigating potential damage. Anyone concerned about the future of water in California should take this seriously. Check out also the abundant information on the website martinezbeavers.org/wordpress or consult Ben Goldfarb’s very readable, Eager, the Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why they Matter.

Thank you Gail! California needs beavers, and you did a great job reminding us why.

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IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES: IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES

heidi08 Beavers May 22, 2020

There’s no denying it anymore. I have a strange life. A beaver life. I spend three days in a mad dash to save some doomed beavers and am elated to see the effort accurately reflected in a fantastic article in the East Bay Times by Judy Prieve.. Normal people, of course, would just be saddened at the outcome. And I am too. But I am far past normal. And I see all the shades of gray that make this tragedy a step forward.

Even the title is a step forward. Yesterday this article was posted with the [mis]lead “Euthanizing beavers living in East Bay creek causes concern. Today it has a much better headline.

Hackles raised after county-hired trapper kills two pesky beavers

A county-hired trapper’s shooting of two beavers in an eastern Contra Costa County creek has triggered a backlash from animal lovers and spurred area leaders to look for ways to help the critters co-exist with humans.

Because the beavers were building dams in Oakley’s Marsh Creek and possibly eroding the waterway’s banks and gnawing on Creekside Park’s trees, officials from the Contra Costa County Flood Control Division asked the the California Department of Fish and Wildlife several weeks ago for permission to get rid of them.

The state agency issued the county permits to kill up to five beavers in the coming year, according to Allison Knapp, assistant director of county public works, which oversees flood control.

The county contracted a trapper who shot the two beavers on site, she said. Their mud-and-stick handiwork also was destroyed because they could cause the creek to flood in the rainy season, she added.

The killing didn’t sit well with Heidi Perryman of Martinez, the founder of Worth a Dam, a nonprofit focused on raising awareness for the need to protect wildlife and preserve healthy environments and ecosystems.

“I think it’s a tragedy because this is a public area, inside a park, two blocks from an elementary school,” Perryman said. “It could have been an opportunity to educate and inform and really solve this differently, but that didn’t happen.”

Gosh. That’s a pretty good way to lay out the conflict, isn’t it You can just tell which side is going to win down the line,

The beavers’ demise two weeks ago also came as a shock to Contra Costa County Supervisor Diane Burgis of Oakley, former executive director of Friends of Marsh Creek, who said Wednesday she had learned about it only a few days ago.

“With my background in creeks and restoration, I was particularly upset,” Burgis said. “This is not consistent with what flood control does.”

Burgis said Oakley city officials initially notified the county’s flood control when they learned of the dam, but after hearing what happened she told Knapp “this needs to stop immediately.”

Knapp said the channels were designed for flood protection and anything obstructing the creek could diminish its capacity and erode the banks.

“Our duty is to protect the health and safety for residents around. Our goal is flood protection,” she said. “… But this is an unfortunate situation that did happen.”

She said in the future the agency will “look for other ways” to deal with such situations, work with community groups and pursue grants to expand the creek’s flood protection capacity.

I know what you’re thinking, It’s too late for these poor beavers. Why can’t they ever do the right thing earlier? And you’re right. It shouldn’t have been too late. But it is rare that anything like this makes its way into the paper and changes hearts and policy, We have to see this for a victory of sorts,

Sarah Puckett, an American Rivers nonprofit consultant who helped widen the creek in 2012 and is now working to restore another portion a few miles away, admitted beavers can cause damage, but said there are ways to reduce that.

“There are a lot of things you can do to work with the beavers so that they cause less damage for both flooding and trees in order to make it a more friendly environment for everyone,” she said.

Burgis agreed and plans to meet with flood control, Perryman and others to discuss how to co-exist with the beavers and “allow for the most naturalization of the creek.”

Ohhh my goodness. I got a call from her office yesterday to arrange a conference call soon. So it’s really happening.

Perryman said moving or destroying them won’t solve the problem. Moving them from their habitat is illegal and if you kill the beavers, others will simply move in as long as the environment remains untouched, she explained.

“Beavers are a really great way to teach about ecosystems and habitat and really how species get involved with each other and they are really important to wildlife in all kinds of ways,” Perryman said. “They change the food available to fish, they change the fish available to birds and the mammals and that’s really what we saw in Martinez and what could be seen in Oakley if they were able to do it differently.”

Satisfied smile to be given the last word. That so rarely happens, Sometimes things really come together and I say just the right thing. It’s kind of a crap shoot. You never know what will stick with a reporter. And Judy was new, I hadn’t worked with her before and she wasn’t happy originally to be stuck with this story. But boy did she do a great job,

Final comfort? Email this morning from Colin Coffey who is on the board of directors for EBRPD and was involved with the fast moving email chain that followed this unhappy event while we were trying to stop it all from happening. He liked the article too.

I have been sharing all of this with the management of EBRPD and Mike Moran at Big Break. I sent a note to Diane Burgis yesterday thanking her for her intervention to stop this from happening again. Clearly the model for these situations is the Martinez Beavers response and organization. If it were within EBRPD jurisdiction our stewardship people would have never let this happen. I have been attending the Martinez Beaver Festival for the last 10 years as an EBRPD ambassador and am well aware of the work you folks have done. Thank you for your efforts for the Marsh Creek Beavers.

Beam. So that means that any beaver in the East Bay Regional Park District has a fighting chance. Thanks to Colin and our first dear supporter in Martinez the departed Ted Radke who watched out or our beavers from the start. Back when Martinez was being stupid the beaver “EXPERT” reporters would talk to was Mary Tappel who filled their minds with rubbish that took hours to undo. She once told the Gazette that beavers breed for 50 years. And now the out of town expert they seek out is ME.

That’s feels like something to be proud of.

And I have something very special for you if your hearts need comforting. From a beaver friend in rehab in Minnesota. It will make your heart light and ready for the next battle.

BETTER CHANGE THE NAME TO “RIVER-BROKE ESTATES”

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? May 21, 2020

Now this is just the kind of story I like best. A family that loves their wetlands built by beavers and a mean old developer who wants it drained for his parking space. If I hadn’t been so immersed in Oakley shenanigans lately it would have been all we talked about. But everything comes in good time. And they still get a letter.

Beaver dam battle pits Sandown family vs. developer

SANDOWN — Jeff and Heather Blake have always enjoyed sitting with their kids along the edge of the wetlands in their backyard and watching the wildlife, but their slice of serenity is in jeopardy.

A large portion of the wetlands on the Blake property vanished without warning last Friday when a local housing developer who owns neighboring property hired an excavation crew to tear out a small beaver dam and remove a section of a larger dam.

Jeff Blake watched in horror as the acre of wetlands quickly drained. He said the water and silt “rushed out like whitewater” as he scrambled to transfer about 40 baby turtles to the nearby Exeter River as their habitat was suddenly disturbed.

Hey I bet some baby beavers were disturbed too. Or maybe a pregnant mother since this is New Hampshire. I bet a whole lot of birds and frogs didn’t like it either. It’s hard to believe their aren’t rules about ripping out a wetland in New Hampshire. Art?

Developer Bob Villella, a Hampstead resident and owner of Boemark Construction, said he wants to sell the land for a new house lot, but the beaver dams, which are located on his property, had flooded a small roadway in an area that’s planned to be used for a driveway.

Villella said he needed to address the damming problem and insisted that he did nothing wrong as state law allows property owners to remove beaver dams on their land if done properly.

“The beavers built it up. I have the right to take it down and that’s what I did,” he said Monday.

It’s always the developers. Have you noticed this? It’s always the almighty dollar that is willing to rip out beaver dams even when very photogenic children want to protect them. I see a battle coming on. I see a million preschoolers in beaver tails on the evening news, Don’t make me come over there.

“I just felt like it was gone. It’s a piece that was so relaxing to us, especially now. I’ve been home with the kids with daycare closed (due to COVID-19) and we spend a lot of time outside. That’s what we’ve put a lot of focus on lately, just enjoying the simple parts of life,” Heather Blake said.

While the wetlands have filled up again, the Blakes say they’re still about two but he said he has no plans to completely drain the wetlands on the Blakes’ property and the several more acres of wetlands behind other homes.feet lower than they were before the dams were disrupted.

Villella has built several homes in the Riverbend Estates development and is planning more, but he said he has no plans to completely drain the wetlands on the Blakes’ property and the several more acres of wetlands behind other homes. Villella said his only goal is to reduce the flooding on the land he wants to sell, which may mean lowering the wetlands to a depth of about two feet.

“I understand they’re upset, but the beavers are doing damage to other properties,” he said.

You are fighting progress sweet family. You are demanding the right to be in nature against a well funded landloard. It’s a hard struggle. It takes stamina. Courage. And a firm belief in that a brighter future is possible. And there’s only one way to do it, With an army.

I’d advise you to fight as dirty as possible from 6 feet away. Maybe get every child in her preschool to mail the judge a hand drawn picture of their favorite animal that once lived in the wetlands. And a photo of themselves in a beaver tail.

That’s a start.

THE GOVERNOR’S PARDON ARRIVED TOO LATE

heidi08 Beavers, Who's Killing Beavers Now? May 20, 2020

Any beavers’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in beaverkind;
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.

Why are all beaver victories Pyrric and sad? Because beaver death happens so fast, faster than beaver alarm and concern. Yesterday I was sent a beautiful photo of the little dam the beavers had made in Marsh Creek. And then I cajoled my Oakley sister to paying it a visit and learned it had been ripped out. The little dam was on a public path, next to a park and two blocks from an elementary school. It was in the perfect place for a teachable moment. But it was too late.

I heard from the woman from American Rivers working on a large project in the area that CDFG had granted a depredation permit at the beginning of April good for up to five beavers taken over the year, and I knew that we were probably too late.

Later that night supervisor Burgis called to say she had talked to the head of flood control and learned that two beavers had already been dispatched. Weeks ago. Probably the only beavers there which is why the dam hadn’t been repaired. Unless God forbid there were kits already born and they just starved to death in their little bank hole.

It makes me SO SAD. That was such a tiny beautiful dam. It wasn’t hurting anyone.

We had seen the bosses name on depredation permits over the years. I remembered her because it always frightened me that the address was Martinez. But it was the county address, where the head of flood control manages flooding all over Contra Costa. Not our little sleepy creek.

The good thing, and there IS a good thing, is that the supervisor told the head of flood control that killing beavers wouldn’t be a option anymore. For any city, and definitely not for Marsh Creek. She then said that the head of flood control needed to have a meeting with herself, the project manager from American Rivers and that woman from Worth A Dam to learn about options for keeping the creek flowing and still saving the beavers.

So that’s being set up. And its very good news for the next beavers that come to Marsh Creek. I cannot stress enough how entirely rare and unheard of it is. And what a fluke of all forces known to God and man it relied on. Victory happened. And we’re grateful for it.

But its no reprieve for these beavers. Because beaver victories almost always come too late to make a difference. It’s like the governors pardon arriving three minutes after the switch on the electric chair has already been pulled. It’s always too late.

Except for in Martinez.