Have you ever seen one of those movies where someone embarks on a grand quest and has little mishaps and adventures with countless people along the way who point them towards their destination? There’s danger and upset and for a while things look bleak, but all the help the hero has gathered by then pulls them through? And at the end of the movie, once the quest is accomplished, there’s some big gathering or celebration and all those people are there? Together? Maybe they say ‘we knew you could do it’ or maybe they have no idea what all was involved but they’re just happy to see the hero and everyone have a good time?
I think that’s what this beaver conference is going to be like.
Let’s just review. Back in November 2007 when I was, (lets be honest), FREAKING OUT that the city was going to kill our beavers I made a series of desperate pleas for help. The first was to Mike Callahan who seemed to have a pretty straight forward website that actually suggested beavers flooding could be prevented without trapping. When he seemed willing to help I bombarded him with pictures and the engineering report, (poor man). He wrote back, hmm, “that’s actually more of a problem than I thought, you’re in for a real fight”, and I despaired.
Undaunted, he wrote back, don’t panic “Strange things have I in head that will to hand“, which is a quote from Macbeth and I knew we would become excellent friends. He’s presenting after me.
That same day Sharon of Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife gave me Sherri Tippie’s phone number and I called her about the steps for successful beaver relocation. We talked about her work and what the risks were of housing and caring for the animals during the process. She’s presenting before me. She suggested I contact the attorney she worked with on a Southern California case, whose letter to our mayor she had already sent me.
I wrote Mitch Wagner right away and learned that he had tried the Friends of Lake Skinner case, which had been won at the appellate level against Fish & Game, Riverside Conservation Agency and the Metropolitan Water District. Seems they removed some beavers from the area with a bunch of bogus fears and Mitch successfully argued that because the decision was ‘discretionary’ rather than ‘ministerial’ it required an Environmental Impact Report according to the standards of the California Environmental Qualities Act. Mitch has been a solid beaver supporter for us and he and his wife generously donated the funds for the children’s mural last year. Remember because they won, damages and attorneys fees were paid for. There were a couple star witnesses in that case, one was Sherri Tippie and the other was the Keynote speaker for the conference.
Donald Hey!
Donald Hey is the co-founder of The Wetlands Institute, with a doctorate in environmental engineering. He’s a big advocate for beaver wetlands and soil hydrology. At the advice of everyone I wrote him for help when our beavers were allegedly tunneling under Bertola’s but I never heard back. Now I can listen to what he has to say and ask him in person.
Joe Cannon from the Lands Council introduced himself on Mike’s Facebook page, and Amanda was going to come for the beaver festival last year. I first connected with the lands council when I discovered there were several of our photos on their web page! I wrote them with possessive interest and they apologized profusely. It seems they thought they had asked us, but mixed us up with someone else at the last conference. Now the photos all link to our website and give us credit, and Joe’s a good beaver friend who I look forward to meeting.
Then of course there’s Len and Lois Houston, who wrote me a year into the beaver battle to offer support. He admired our website and thought we should be beaver friends. Is that everyone I know? Brock who I met through Wikipedia Rick who contacted us because he liked the website and wanted to learn about beaver in his area.
UPDATED ATTENDEES: just mailed by Len include Bruce Baker (who wrote the seminal beaver chapter, chatted with me and sent me a copy when I was on the subcommittee so I could use excerpts for the ecology section AND Michael Pollock whose salmon-beaver research is going to change everything.
I think that rounds out the attendees list that I know so far…I’m sure I’ll have plenty more stories to tell on February 6th. After our particular quest, the interviews, the subcommittee, the sheetpile, losing mom and three beaver festivals, it should be a pretty remarkable celebration.
