WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS MEANS MOSTLY HEARTS

heidi08 Beavers May 29, 2020

That was a fairly bizarre day. I started it with a 2 hour interview with grad student Zane Eddy about the beavers in Martinez and I finished it with a live viewing of Beaver Believers hosted by BeaverWorks in Oregon.

Did I ever do anything else with my life? I can’t remember,

Anyway there interview with Zane was fun, just a little PTSD inducing. Mostly interesting to think about why Martinez turned out differently than most beaver tales. He wonders whether its something to do with John Muir’s influence on all our emerging spirits. I don’t know. I guess its as good a theory as any. This is what the “Human Dimension’ page has to say about the project at Humboldt State.

Zane Eddy

Project: On the management of urban beavers in Martinez, CA

Beavers provide a myriad of ecosystem benefits that can help to mitigate the damaging effects of climate change, but when they come into contact with humans, they are often viewed as a nuisance. In California, the most common management solution is lethal management, but in 2007, Martinez, CA, decided to coexist with a family of beavers that had moved into the Alhambra Creek that runs through town. My research examines the various management decisions considered by city managers and how these management decisions relate to statewide policy.

Nice to talk to someone who had watched the meetings and could comment “Public comment just kept coming like a wave!”. And also agree that Mary Tappel’s cardboard presentation at the april meeting was kind of bizarre. Anyway, he’s off to talk to others now, Fro and Igor and Cassy Campbell. Let the beaver story be told. He had a phrase for what I was in the story. I was struck by it and immediately forgot it after we talked. Something that means I was a key mover of information and the story. It’s a little overwhelming to think about it,, which is why it probably fell right out of my hear.

Speaking of key movers, this clip is from Jim and Judy Atkinson of Port Moody BC. I had told her that one thing I had never seen was a flow device doing its job underwater. And she braved lots and lots of cottonwood fluff to give it a try with the go pro.

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Isn’t that cool? Don’t you just expect to see a mermaid swimming by?

At the end of the day I got to go to the movies on my couch and attend the zoom Beaver Works meeting meeting folks involved in beaver restoration in East Oregon and watching Sarah’s great film: The Beaver Believers, I had forgotten how soon after the stark fire it was filmed in Washington and Kent Woodruff comes across much more alarmed and heartbroken than I’ve seen him. There is a wonderful healing clip though of him watching beavers emerge in their beautiful pond that survived the fire and it is just so beautiful to watch him watching them. Been there done that, you know?

Mary Obrien and Suzanne were awesome in their roles and of course Sherri stole the show. Martinez was a tiny admirable segment at the end, and I didn’t suck, so that was a relief. All in all I was really happy that its making the film festival rounds and getting itself seen far and wide.

Now I have three days left to finish four more slides and get ready for the meeting monday, Hearts and minds baby. Lets hope we win some over.

“BEAVERS ARE STILL BIG, IT’S THE PICTURES THAT GOT SMALL”

heidi08 Beavers and climate change April 10, 2018

When’s the last time you went to Missoula? Check out the lineup for the Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula Montana next week. And pay special attention to Tuesday’s showing.

The Beaver Believers – 50 min.

Tuesday, April 17th, 5PM Theater 1

KID FRIENDLY!

Director Sarah Koenigsberg
United States

This whimsical yet inspiring film captures the vision, energy, and dedication of a half dozen activists who share a passion for restoring the North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) to much of its former habitat and range. THE BEAVER BELIEVERS show us how this humble creature can help us restore streams and watersheds damaged by neglect.

SPONSORED BY CLARK FORK COALITION AND NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION

Did you see that tagline?

“A biologist, a hydrologist, a botanist, an ecologist, a psychologist and a hair dresser tackling climate change one stick at a time.”

A post shared by IWFF (@wildlifefilmfest) on Apr 7, 2018 at 2:00pm PDT

(The psychologist? Yeah mom, that would be me.)

About now you’re probably thinking “DAM, I can’t make it to Missoula next week because of Timmy’s recital but I sure wish I could see that film.”

To which I’d say stay tuned because there are exciting developments afoot. More on that soon.

When it rains it pours!

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Who's saving beavers now? March 24, 2015

And then there were three. How’s this for keeping the story in the public eye?

How Beavers Help Save Water

In the drought-ridden West, some people are partnering with beavers to restore watersheds, where, before trappers arrived, the large rodents once numbered in the millions. Film-maker Sarah Koenigsberg captures various efforts to reintroduce beavers to their former habitat in her documentary The Beaver Believers and tells host Steve Curwood why beavers are essential for a healthy ecosystem.

Congratulations to Sarah Koenisberg who’s Beaver Believer film made it all the way to living on earth of NPR this week. Sarah and her crew were the documentary that filmed at the beaver festival 2 years ago, you might remember them hanging around at the time. Her film is sure to be thirstily received in the west, and I’m thrilled the Martinez Beavers were a part of it.

The Beaver Believers Kickstarter Trailer from Tensegrity Productions on Vimeo.

It’s pretty exciting when there are so many good news stories to keep up with it’s hard to update the website fast enough! This weekend I was hard at work for beavers Friday with the grant application for Kiwanis, Saturday with the grant application for the city and yesterday putting together a presentation for Derek Gow of Devon so he can build momentum for a beaver festival in England. I tried to do it in under 15 minutes so I had to leave tons out, but it’s a fun way to share with folks who’ve never seen my talk in person. And I saw almost nothing snarky about the city, so that’s refreshing. Feel free to pass it on to friends or enemies who need to hear the story.

Beaver Independence

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? July 5, 2014

Beaver Believers has hit the final 12 hours of their Kickstarter, and producer Sarah Koenisberg says she’s proud, humbled, and excited by how it’s gone! Someone has stepped forward and will match all funds raised above $15k – pretty awesome! So we have until 3pm today to make one final press to support this important film – the only film to feature our own Martinez Beavers and their festival! Please check your penny jar and see if you have anything left to spare.

Jon and I were on the bridge last night watching out for beavers with the massive foot traffic that was making its way down to the fireworks. Many surprised passers-by saw 4 beavers, including the little peanut who was taking advantage of the very high tide to get out of his playpen, over the secondary and swimming through the secondary to look for treats! This is the most horrible footage in the history of the world with all the bouncing foot traffic on the secondary, but at least he had the good sense to go back inside after this. Fun to hear so many visitors saying they saw the documentary on PBS about beavers and they couldn’t wait to come back to this years festival! Even a family from Walnut Creek who were all members of the SF Scottish Fiddlers and wanted to play this year but there wasn’t room!

It looks like Derek Gow in Scotland is thinking about a legal battle over the Devon beavers and that’s music to my ears. The sinister part of DEFRA’s decision is that the conclusion of the Scottish Beaver Trial means the final decision will be made in 2015, which means beavers will be formally back in the UK and protected. So they want to get rid of these refugees NOW while they’re still unsafe. Isn’t that rotten?

Expert may mount legal challenge to Defra’s beaver removal plan

Mr Gow said: “The Eurasian beaver is a former native species. There is significant national and local support for the restoration of this species and a wider appreciation within society of the ecological benefits that would accrue from its presence. Britain is now the last large western European nation state where the species has not been reintroduced.”

In conclusion, he said the beavers on the Otter should be captured and tested and – if clear of the EM disease – be tagged and re-released following a survey to ensure the river was a suitable home for them.

Mr Gow added that he and his colleagues would consider a legal challenge if Defra went ahead with the capture and re-homing programme.

Go Derek Go! He has been lone voice for beaver in the region for so long, but the tide is changing and he’s not alone anymore. And this is just the kind of negative ad campaign Martinez learned was so effective in raise public support for beavers! Nice work DEFRA!

I was a little more surprised to see the Austrian version of this story running Cheryl’s photo! But it’s on wikipedia so that means everyone in the world can use it. Your welcome!

And even if you had your share of fireworks last night, you HAVE to watch this because it’s a historic first that was never possible before and may never be legal again. This was filmed by drone last night from INSIDE the explosion of fireworks in West Palm Beach Florida in May. It had a couple thousand hits when I first saw it last night, now it is cresting 2 million. Aside from being the single best use of a drone ever, watch all the way through, because it will blow every part of your mind.

Apparent this amazing use of the drone caught the attention of authorties and is illegal. Check out the disapproving article on Forbes. But if Jos Stiglingh does ever get in trouble for this his attorney only needs to show the video to the jury. Because it’s awesome.

Kit and Kaboodle

heidi08 Creative Solutions, kits July 2, 2014

Well it finally happened. Our new precious member decided to show his adorable face before the sun went down. And we couldn’t be happier. The evening started with very high tide and an otter right near the bank hole at the secondary dam.

Since Cheryl had seen the kit at the secondary dam the night before we started the evening there, but dashed off to the primary when Jon saw this.

What a little peanut! We were happy to see mom and several yearlings in attendance that night. At one point uncle found a treat and the little fellow tried fearlessly to steal it from him. The adult finally slapped his foot and swam off in aggravation!

Never mind, his mother still loves him.

Turn your sound up so you can hear him whine when she swims off! What mother could leave that little voice behind? The photographer who was there that night said that this kit was bigger than the one he filmed the night before, so stay tuned. There may be another chapter to come. If you want to see how big this peanut is, watch until the end where he climbs out onto the bank. All systems a go!

Celebrate with us (and Sherri) with this delightful praise to Gaia. The Beaver Believer film is only a few dollars shy of their goal. If you haven’t pledged you have three days left to add your voice to the project.