THE ART OF SAVING BEAVERS

heidi08 Beaver Art May 18, 2019

Yesterday an ancient oak split off a third of itself downtown and fell on two telephone polls (and several cars) severing power for all of Martinez for a very long while. This meant no internet, no lights and playing scrabble by the fire which Jon won by a cool 16 points. Power was restored by bedtime, which works out because I had become obsessed by trying to find information about this artist.

Not only is this piece gorgeous – it is accurate! Look at the inset text in the corner.

Apparently it’s by Fiona Bearclaw, an artist who attended the state of the beaver conference and lives in Oregon. This is a linocut that she recently made and hasn’t even made many prints yet. Isn’t it amazing? The beavers are beautiful and the intricate work amazing I was not surprised to learn she was at the beaver festival. Apparently Fiona has an Etsy shop offering a few other amazing pieces and is also a talented embroiderer and artist.

Her partner is also an artist (Lance E. Pants) because he’s the one who posted the image on facebook and when I asked specifically about the text told me they had been to the beaver conference and were both inspired by what they heard.. I was significantly fan-girled and asked him a million questions about the her. Knowing that the conference was hosted by the Cow Creek tribe and having attended several opening ceremonies and morning blessings given by tribal members I asked about her name. Fiona Bearclaw. Was she herself a member of the tribe?

His answer makes me laugh even now if i think about it, and I dare say will probably never stop being funny. I can’t help hearing it delivered in a very matter-of-fact way in my head by the character Ed Chigliak from Northern Exposure.

“No,” he said. “She’s just very fond of the pastry.”

Now as if this story wasn’t good enough, here’s the very best part. Lance said that she would be selling at an art show this weekend in Weeds, and I when i said how very much her work would be appreciated in Martinez he said they had actually thought about coming to the beaver festival!

Thinking about that I realized I wasn’t at this conference plugging the festival like I usually do, but Ben Goldfarb and his book were and Sarah Koenisberg’s film on climate change included an interview about Martinez and the festival in it, so I guess that might have peaked their curiosity.

Fingers crossed this can come to pass. Now just in case you don’t know what a huge ordeal it is to do a linocut, watch this short video and gain some respect for the 19th century technique based on the 13th century woodcutting developed in china.

BEAVER FESTIVAL TRINKETS

heidi08 Festival May 17, 2019

Okay, I’m not entirely done being gloomy quite yet. But Leslie went to meet with Kiwanis yesterday and they were supportive and cheerful, which was good. Also we got the pastels for Amy’s amazing creation, which we will keep safe until the big day. This is how it will look when it’s all done.

Imagine how nice that will look in the plaza! Since we were given a promotional offer for coasters at sticker mule we thought we’d do this image as a coaster and give them away free to any person who closes out his or her silent auction bid at the festival themselves instead of making me chase them down in the exhausted week that follows,

Our auction is definitely coming along, too! Which is just as well because I just got the bill for the Community Focus ads and throwing a festival ain’t cheap. Who knew?

THAT SURPRISINGLY HEAVY THING WITH FEATHERS

heidi08 Beavers, Environmental May 16, 2019

I don’t know about you but the world is seeming pretty grim at the moment. With Alabama deciding women should be broodmares and the Bolton gunning for iran. There’s horribly grim news about Scotland with farmers having killed all the beavers they could before May 1st, and now there’s a headline saying that Koala bears have been determined to be “functionally extinct“.

KOALAS BEARS!

I ask you, how much bad news can this old woman take? Apparently not that much, because when I read this article yesterday it made me cry. Margaret Renki writes with a poignant and terrifying attention to detail. She didn’t overwhelm me with the list of horrors so much as the very last few crushing lines.

Surviving Despair in the Great Extinction

One million species of plants and animals are heading toward annihilation, and it’s our fault. How can we possibly live with that truth?

Last week, the United Nations released the summary of an enormous report that broke my heart in more ways than any backyard-nature observations ever have. The Times article about the report, “Humans Are Speeding Extinction and Altering the Natural World at an ‘Unprecedented’ Pace,” called it “the most exhaustive look yet at the decline in biodiversity across the globe and the dangers that creates for human civilization.”

Whole expanses of the natural world are disappearing. It’s not just poster animals like polar bears, tigers and elephants; it’s life on earth as we know it.

I hear a truth like that and succumb to despair. I look around at all the ways I’ve tried to help — at the reusable grocery bags and the solar-field subscription, at the pollinator garden and the little meadow of wildflowers, at the lawn mower blades set high enough to harm no snakes or nesting cottontails, at the recycle bins and the worm composter, at the nest box for the bluebirds and the nest box for the house wrens and the nest box claimed this year by a red wasp — and it all strikes me as puny, laughable, at best a way to feel better about myself. How is any of this a solution? Or even the path to a solution?

it’s a heart-wrenching and well written article, but it isn’t the panicked hopelessness that upset me. its the grim resolve that comes at the end. it’s not the giving up that makes me cry – it’s the stepping up that follows. like weak soldiers in a hopeless battle that you know you are going to lose, but you stand there anyway, at the front lines with your fists clenched and your eyes squinting uselessly into the smoke.

The odds are completely against us. This is a terrible, hopeless battle to fight.

But it’s our fight. The one we inherited from Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold and John Muir and Cady Stanton. It’s the one the pioneers gave us and our ancestors pledged at Ellis Island or Plymouth Rock or Wounded knee. Hopelessness is horrifying and hard to bear. but it’s pre-determined, unsuspenseful, grim and simple to understand.

it’s the hope at the end of this beautiful eulogy that made me cry.

And I can remind myself, all day long every day, that there’s a difference between doing something and doing nothing. That “something,” small as it might seem, is not “nothing.” The space between them is far apart, limitless stretching distances apart. It’s the difference between a heartbeat and silence.

I feel at this particular crossroads, we should all be reminded of this terrifying invitation to redemption:

DECEIVING THE BEAVERS IN IDAHO?

heidi08 Beavers and Culvert Protection May 15, 2019

If you live long enough, they say, you will see things that surprise you. Like this report from the Idaho Transportation District in Montpelier. It was even in the local news!

State agencies team to create a “beaver deceiver”

MONTPELIER, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) – Two state agencies have teamed up to create what they’re calling a “beaver deceiver” at a wetland project near Montpelier.

An access road crosses a wastewater canal and creates a prime location for beaver dam-building, which in that location, creates roadway flooding that has become a recurrent problem for Montpelier based maintenance crews.

The team believes the fence shape increases the length a beaver would need to create a dam, making the location less desirable for building. Biologists hope that will encourage the beaver to build somewhere else.

They plan to monitor its effectiveness and durability over the summer. If successful, it could provide an inexpensive option to protect road culverts in other areas, while allowing beaver to remain in the area.

Whoa! If this is for real it’s a pretty big deal – Fish and Wildlife teaming up with the department of transportation to install culvert protection. but we’ve been fooled before. Just because some one calls it a beaver deceiver doesn’t mean it is one. I wish they showed a photo of the finished product, because I can’t tell whether they’re actually doing this right.

It certainly sounds right.

D5 installs trial culvert-fencing exlosure to deter beaver-dam construction

Because funds are not currently available to replace the culvert with a different structure, ITD asked for advice on the problem from Idaho Fish & Game biologists. After discussing possible strategies, the two agencies decided to join forces to install a ‘beaver deceiver’ fence as an experimental project.

On April 17, the Montpelier shed crew and IDFG staff met at the site to install the trapezoid-shaped fence exclosure and discussed plans to monitor the effectiveness and durability of the structure over the summer.

Members of the Montpelier crew installed the ‘wedge’ fence and IDFG will add wire panels around the culvert inlet to complete the exclosure. The fence shape increases the length needed for the beaver to create a dam, which makes the location less desirable as a choice for building, so ideally, the beaver will move elsewhere.

If it works, the “beaver deceivers” would provide an inexpensive option to protect road culverts, while allowing beaver to remain in the area.

This is amazing. It sure sounds like they have the thinking down on this one. Even though we can’t see it I’m assuming it may have a chance. Stranger things have happened. And besides Mike Settell is just an hour a half away in Pocotello, so I’m assuming accurate information could be shared. I went hunting for more details in the DOT newsletter. This is my favorite part. Imagine this being in the Caltrans newsletter!

Beaver are important components of healthy stream-wetland systems in North America, yet they tend to dam culverts and can cause roadway flooding. The Montpelier maintenance shed spends much time and effort to keep the culvert clear.

Isn’t that very, very intriguing? So they installed a trapezoidal fence and are going to monitor to see if it protects the culvert and saves DOT money, and if it does the technique might be more widely used. That’s sounds so logical. What am I missing here?

i guess sometimes the big players really do the right thing?

Robin Ellison of Napa recently championed her way into the 2018 depredation permits for California beavers. 209 in all. I thought you’d be interested in the summary. Surprising findings include beaver permits issued for Monterey and San Diego Counties for the first time. Also the news that CDFW is officially keeping a spreadsheet of permits issued, although they either didn’t include the number of beavers allowed or they edited that part out before they sent it to her.

Looks like we still have a lot of work to do.

For those of you keeping score at home, Placer is still #1.

BEAVERS: BOTH SIDES NOW

heidi08 Video May 14, 2019

Everything should be this easy, Wildlife photographer Suzy Eszterhas talked her talented boyfriend Jak Wonderly into doing some underwater video of the beaver in rehab at Sonoma Wildlife Rescue. I’m not wild about the audio, but It’s pretty dam special

Talk about adept in the water! You really start to understand how beavers swim for a living when you watch this immersive look at their lives. I love how the back feet and tail work together. And this is just a youngster. imagine how skilled an adult beaver would look! love the whisker shot too, you can really see how those sensitive vibrasae provide all kind of information about any unexpected water movement or leaks.

Yesterday I worked on the protest signs for the children’s parade at the festival. Eventually they’ll be double sided with a pole for children to carry in the march. I was happy with this one and was racking my brain for another clever rhyme and laughed out loud when this next slogan fell into my mind.

i couldn’t help it. I HAD to send that photo Michael Pollock at NOAA, who immediately wrote back that it was excellent. Tell me you won’t be hearing that rhyme on some lips from now on! this of course goes on the other side.