PERSONAL REASONS

heidi08 Festival June 23, 2018

T minus six and counting. We’ve entered the “Cancelling for personal reasons” grisly period. In the past two days I’ve had three people I was counting on tell me they couldn’t make the festival because of various personal reasons. I can only imagine more will follow. There is a certain time before the big day that I don’t even want to answer my phone or check my email because I know it will be about somebody cancelling.

Let go – Let Beaver I always say!

Yesterday we brought down all the items for the silent auction and made sure they were indexed and had bid sheets. What a lot of beautiful things we have been given! And how insane it feels to try and count them all. Just try to imagine the conversation where one says “Wait, do you mean the print of the beaver ballerina or the beaver on a sled?”.

Today Ben stops by to pick up some of his books and tomorrow Deidre and Leslie come over to tag everything for the silent auction. In the meantime there are last minute details to take care of, like making a sign for the old park saying “Hey you came to the wrong place, drive 8 blocks south up Castro Street for the Beaver Festival!”

Jon is checking the weather like a madman because we vainly hope that it will not be higher than 85 because of Amy’s very important job. Fingers crossed.

WONDERS UNFOLD

heidi08 kits June 22, 2018

Maybe you are like me and didn’t really notice when the Contra Costa Times went broke and was sold. Maybe you hardly noticed when it became the ‘East Bay Times” its slew of seasoned reporters who lived in the communities they wrote about were let go, and the youngest and cheapest were left to man the boat. After ten years of struggling to hang on for dear life I had finally begun to develop a comfortable working relationship with my favorite reporters – all of whom are lost fired. One of them I talked to was working as a substitute teacher. One was getting ready to start a blog. You can imagine.

If you wonder why the mayor of our town can say anything he wants about any policy and no one challenges him about the pesky truth its because our local paper has become a ghost town with one overwhelmed reporter and one overwhelmed editor handling the bulk of the work.

So were pretty dam lucky to get this.

‘The beavers are still around’: Martinez Beaver Festival 2018 will be full of surprises

MARTINEZ — The festival that sprung from a successful 2007 grassroots effort to save a family of beavers is coming to town this year with promises of a live painting, readings from a new beaver book, and new locations where organizers say the semiaquatic critters have moved.

The festival’s June 30 date just so happens to coincide with the West Coast premier of the film “The Beaver Believers,” which covers the struggles of the American beaver in the wake of climate change. The film will premier June 28 at the Empress Theater in Vallejo.

The festival, now in its 11th year, blossomed from a 2007 controversy over what to do with a group of beavers that had built a dam blocking Alhambra Creek. The first thought was to kill them, but community outraged ensued. Eventually, a flow device was used to move the dam.

Well, ahem. no actually. Not MOVE the dam, just move the water past the dam. But hey, Nate did a pretty nice job. Once in charge of just the court story’s in Martinez, now he has to cover everything. He started out in our conversation thinking the beavers lived IN the dam – so baby steps, right?

“I don’t think it’s an accident that Martinez is the hometown of John Muir and all these people grew up taking field trips to his house and being informed about nature,” Perryman said. “I think that really helped.”

This year’s Beaver Festival will feature a live chalk painting by artist Amy G. Hall, and a live reading by author Ben Goldfarb of his new book, “Eager: The surprising, secret lives of beavers and why they matter.”

Beaver Festival 2018 will start at 11 a.m. on June 30 and go through 4 p.m. It is at Susana Park, near the intersection of Susana and Estudillo streets.

Ahh, he liked that quote. I could feel it register in our conversation. There are a lot of parts I wished could have made it into the article. Like the fact that the Martinez beavers and the festival were actually IN the film. Or that we were also IN the book too. Or the fact that Amy will be working on her giant painting for two days. But hey we’re lucky to get that, The fun part about the article is that it has multiple mis-atributed photos – stolen equally from Cheryl, myself, and even Rusty I think! It is true that some indeed are by Susan Pollard their photographer as stated but they have no idea which, and now they never will.

They first shocked me by stealing that tail up photo in 2007 and now it’s in their vault and isn’t coming out. Never mind. We know the truth, right?

Speaking of the truth about beavers, 100 copies of Ben’s book were delivered to the house yesterday for all the events when he’s here. I told him I would be happy to baby sit. Now I’m surrounded by beaver boxes just waiting for the big day.

And speaking of really being surrounded by amazing things, our good friend Rusty Cohn sent these from yesterday morning when he had a most wonder-filled visit to the Tulocay creek beavers. Rusty bemoaned his limited lcamera and talked about the bitter choice between a new lens and a new car.

I scoffed and said which one I obviously thought was more important.

ANOTHER BLOCKBUSTER FROM PSMFC

heidi08 Beavers and salmon June 21, 2018

This year’s festival was the first time I was ever contacted by Dan Logan, fisheries biologist of NOAA marine fisheries in Santa Rosa. (To be honest I actually didn’t even know there was a marine fisheries arm in Santa Rosa) . Dan made me very happy by asking for NOAA to have space at the beaver festival. Yesterday he passed along this wonderful new film from the good folk at PMSFC. Go get your coffee and your relatives and come back and watch. Then watch it again and send it to everyone you know. It’s that good.

Isn’t that wonderful? Give it up for the brilliant folks at PSMFC. It’s truly amazing what the right education, some good intentions and a handful of federal dollars can do. The videos can be shared or use in educational trainings everywhere. Their website politely calls the beaver myths “misunderstandings” which is more gracious than I have it in me to be. But I admire the way they say it anyway.

Beaver Benefits and Controlling Impacts

But there is a lot of misunderstanding of beavers. Beaver do not eat salmon or other fish (they are herbivores, eating plants) and dams generally do not impede salmon passage. Salmon and beavers evolved together and are mutually beneficial.

Despite their value, beaver activities can also create problems for landowners, leading to their killing or the destruction of their dams. But there are ways to live with beaver! Join us as we begin a series featuring the benefits of beavers and the ways that landowners and beavers can co-exist.

Honestly sometimes it just feels like promotion of beaver benefits has is reaching a tipping point this summer. Yesterday I also received my official copy of Ben’s book – Eager: The surprising Secret Lives of Beavers and Why They Matter and of course like any truly self interested and shallow party, I first flipped to the back and checked the index.

Nice, Notice if you add all those pages up it makes eleven. That’s 1 page for every year I’ve been involved with beavers. Kinda makes sense really, don’t you think?

And it should be, it should be, it should be like that!

Because Horton was faithful! He sat and he sat!

He meant what he said

And he said what he meant…”

And they sent him home Happy,

One hundred per cent

LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN

heidi08 What's killing beavers now? June 20, 2018

Where do the days go? Yesterday we redesigned the stage musician sign and made 53 place cards so the exhibitors know where they set up camp. Oh and checked on Luigi to make sure sandwiches can be delivered to the park for our volunteers. Done, done and done.

Meanwhile I’m just stunned it took 11 long years for me to finally find the perfect ‘tagline’ for the festival. It finally just came to me while I was promoting yesterday’s article on facebook. I think this is beer commercial, madison avenue good. I played around with it a little yesterday, but I’m sure they could do something awesome with it.

I mean I suppose monkey festivals or rat festivals have a tail too, but they’re not here to defend themselves so I win! I never heard of a rat festival anyway but I bet there is a monkey one. Don’t you? I saw several species in Costa Rica but what I remember most about monkeys comes from a badly tended large cage when I was a teen on a spring trip to Mexico. There was a friendly adult and young monkey that would wrap their arms around you tightly if entered the cage, holding on for dear life. I guess it was boring in that cage. Or maybe they just knew that if they held on tight they had a better chance of bolting once the gate was open again,

All I know is that I quickly learned the only way OUT of the monkey cage was to get some other poor sap to come in and receive the eager primate hug so you yourself could make a break for it. It turns out there are many situations like that in life, and I remember the lesson well.

Just so we remember it’s not all sunshine and roses in a beaver life, lets take a fast visit to South Dakota.

South Dakota battles problems with beavers

MITCHELL (AP) – In the spring, Randy Becker’s workload gets busy. Busy as a beaver, you might say.

Becker is wildlife damage specialist for the South Dakota Game Fish & Parks Department. His job, otherwise known as “state trapper,” involves ridding nuisance animals like coyotes and beavers for South Dakota landowners. Yes, beavers – those little semi-aquatic rodents that can cause “a world of headaches” – are a big problem here.

“They’re an amazing animal, but they get themselves in a lot of trouble,” said Becker, who’s worked for GF&P for just shy of a decade.

In the past five years, GF&P’s Animal Damage Control program has received an average of 370 beaver calls annually statewide, The Daily Republic reported. The total funding spent removing beavers has climbed, too, and reached a peak in 2017 of $213,800. Since 2013, GF&P has spent nearly $1 million on removing beavers in South Dakota.

214,000 to kill 370 beavers? Wait, that’s like 60 dollars per beaver. Who gets paid 60 dollars a tail? If you consider 5-7 beavers per family then killing off a single colony is nearly 500 dollars a pop! You know what else South Dakota could do with 500 dollars? I mean besides open health care clinics, provide childcare and fix all the potholes. They could install flow devices that fix beaver problems for a decade, fire Mr.Becker (who will certainly never be able to take vacation in England with a name like Randy Becker) and do something useful with that million dollars every 5 years.

But hey, why FIX a problem that pays so well to stay broken?

FEELING FESTIVE?

heidi08 Festival June 19, 2018

Let the media promotion begin! The hard-working salmon spends an awful long time banging into the rock before it finally succeeds. And that is exactly how I have felt about getting attention for our whopping festival this year. Well, let this be the first sign that the tides are changing.

Beaver Festival gets new home at Susana Park

MARTINEZ, Calif. – After 10 years of annual appearances at a downtown area that became known as Beaver Park, the Martinez Beaver Festival is moving to Susana Park, organizer Heidi Perryman said.

It’s date has been shifted to the end of June, as well.

And in a fortuitous coincidence, a family of beavers have moved into the creek that runs near the park, she said.

“The 11th Beaver Festival will be full of surprises,” Perryman said.

“The improved venue has boosted interested in the festival, too,” Perryman said. This year’s edition will have more than 50 nature exhibits, making it the largest event since it was begun as a way to celebrate,. rather than condemn, the beavers that had been building a dam in Alhambra Creek in the city’s downtown shopping district.

Why is the festival so much bigger really? Is it just the nicer park? Is it the cumulative effect of being around for a decade finally making people feel like you’re for real? Is it because it’s earlier in the year and fewer people are on vacation? I just had to notify chairs for affairs yesterday that we’ll be needing twice as many tables as usual!

But the beaver dam and the nature exhibits aren’t the only things eventgoers will see.

Amy

Amy G. Hall, a noted chalk artist, will be creating a beaver-themed illustration on the concrete in the park.

Hall is a lifelong fan of beavers, and her home town, Napa, has some, too. Her chalk painting will be of a beaver pond, and it illustrates how beavers benefit other wildlife.

Children attending the festival will be invited to pick up some colored chalk and create their own artwork in spaces near where Hall is working.

HURRAY! Great job plugging Amy. Honestly in September I was worried that she and I might be the only one in the park that day. Now I’m starting to think that might not be so bad.

Ben Goldfarb, an award-winning environmental writer who covers wildlife conservation, marine science and public lands management, will be launching his book, “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Lives of Beavers and Why They Matter.”

He will read excerpts on the festival stage, and Chapter 6 focuses on California, beginning and ending with the story of the Martinez beavers.

The book is published by Chelsea Green, and will be released at the end of the month.

No more pre-orders. It’s out. I just got a notice from Amazon that its on its way. Hurray!

The festival also has inspired the west coast premiere of Sara Koenigsberg’s documentary, “Beaver Believers,” which looks at the animals in light of climate change.

The premiere will take place before the festival, Thursday, Jan. 28, at the Empress Theatre in Vallejo.

Koenigsberg and her students from Whitman College came to Martinez in 2013 to interview Perryman before filming the festival that year. The documentary also looks at how beaver damming could help prevent water loss in the west in addition to telling Martinez’s beaver story.

TAfter the article there is a nice section of how to buy tickets for the premiere!

While many new things are happening this year, those who have visited the festival in the past will see many familiar and popular things, from a day-long musical lineup that includes bluegrass and Dixieland bands, a nature-themed silent auction, the return of beaver tours and special activities for children.

This year, the first 100 youngsters to arrive at the festival will get to build a “beaver pond” of their own, by collecting wildlife stickers from exhibitors and learning how beavers help other animals, Perryman said.

This sticker adventure will mirror Hall’s beaver pond mural design, she said.

While Perryman praised the previous venue as a park that “served us well for a decade alongside our original beaver habitat, she said, “This new home is ideal for the everything we’ve become./” And since the new venue comes with its own dam a short walk away, she added, “it’s like the beavers showed us the way!

The Martinez Beaver Festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 30 at Susana Park, at the intersection of Estudillo and Susana streets. Admission is free. Those interested may visit the website www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress.

Whooohoo! It used to weirdly bug me when reporters used my wording from a press release with their name as if THEY had written it. Now I love it. That’s growth, right? There are good things in the works and hopefully the East Bay Times article will follow soon.

Oh and just to keep me feeling relevant, I got a distressed email yesterday from a woman looking for help defend beavers to her HOA in a very large, notoriously unfriendly beaver state. Because of this website my beaver rolodex is large and growing every day, so I was able to introduce her to a local ally who agreed to help her going forward.

Put THAT in a mission statement.