Well it’s happened. It’s finally here. And you should definitely come see for yourself what all the fuss has been about. Come celebrate beavers, learn about wildlife and remember what it’s like to stop city hall in its tracks. Pick up a wildlife trekking scarf for your next hike and outbid your neighbor at our AWESOME silent auction. Help your child or grandchild earn charms for the keystone species necklace, see the world’s first mechanical tail slapping beaver, then stop by and introduce yourself. We’d all love to meet you in person.
Look for everyone here:
And with our brand new solar-powered audio system, 5 bands from bluegrass to dixie land to highland reels that would make Muir jealous, get ready for some toe-tapping, tail slapping fun!
Still not convinced? Just remember this sage advice:
The works of the beaver have ever intensely interested the human mind. Beaver works may do for children what schools, sermons, companions, and even home sometimes fail to do,- develop the power to think. No boy or girl can become intimately acquainted with the ways and works of these primitive folk without having the eyes of observation opened, and acquiring a permanent interest in the wide world in which we live.
Enos Mills, In Beaver World (1913)
And if 101 year-old advice doesn’t convince you, try this.
MARTINEZ — A segment of Martinez’ wetlands will soon be teeming with life, along with its myriad microorganisms, lush foliage and robust array of fowl and creatures that are already present.
The public will once again gather Saturday, Aug. 2, to celebrate an ever-expanding family of beavers who play a key role in creating such diversity — from one end of the food chain to the other — at the seventh annual Beaver Festival, featuring live music, wildlife exhibits from throughout the world, children’s activities and tours of the beavers’ environs.
This is a very good article. Not only does the author, Jennifer Shaw get the details right on the festival, she nails them remarkably on BEAVERS in general. The only thing this article is missing is photographs. Maybe they’ll be in the print version? But maybe there wasn’t space with all Jennifer’s awesome words. I’ll add some. Go read the whole thing. (The CC Times has a very bad habit of only keeping the article viewable for a month, so I’m making a backup right now.)
This year, an Amtrak train car of folks will be part of the coterie of beaver fans, as a retired curator of aquatic biology at the Oakland Museum of California — and self-proclaimed “chief creek snooper” at Flow Back in Time — helps to open their respective eyes about the eco-vibrancy of creek life.
Christopher Richards will lead the group out to Alhambra Creek’s inlet to put into context just how an industrious group of sleek-coated beavers have stabilized creek banks, decreased flooding risks through fostering the growth of the natural riparian vegetation, and assisted in restoring the natural function and hydrology of the stream.
“(Beavers) are the productivity, the agriculture for the critters in the creek,” he says, citing the beavers’ habitat as an illustration of how “we can manage, neglect or restore creeks in the urban Bay Area landscape.”
That should get some attention! I hope it gets picked up by a paper on the other side of the tunnel! In the mean time a huge round of applause for Deidre Martin who made the entire thing possible. She brought her children to see the beavers last summer and the furry ingrates didn’t even show up! But she decided then and there to contribute.
Deidre Martin, a San Francisco resident and volunteer natural sciences docent at the Oakland Museum, is among those beaver enthusiasts who will board the Wetlands Express, already championing the sanctity of this native animal.
“We need to dispel the notion of beavers as pests … They’re a keystone species. They create habitat for other animals,” she says.
Can I get an Amen? Deidre came to our planning dinner and was a delightful contributor -and that night she got to see the beavers before catching the train home. A San Francisco resident, Deidre first heard of our beavers from Kate Lundquist of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, and decided she needed to come see for herself.
Jennifer also talked to Worth A Dam pillars Cheryl and Fro.
“They’re a family unit. They all work together,” says Cheryl Reynolds, a Worth A Dam board member, describing the beavers’ lodge-dwelling digs, vegetarian diet, and their average 35-pound size.
New mom and Kit – Cheryl Reynolds
And, Pleasant Hill resident and artist Frogard Butler will once again facilitate a hands-on, experiential learning opportunity for the younger set.
Young artists will be making leather, textured, crisscross-patterned beaver tails in three sizes — adult, yearling and kit — and decorating them. Some participants have been known to return to the festival, sporting attached beavers tails.”
I love to see how everything comes together. I sure hope this article seeps outside the Record, But shhh this is my very favorite part!
The Martinez resident quickly segues from cute descriptions to basic science, always lobbying for the beavers that play a key role in creating the overall health of the ecosystem.
“The beavers are changing the invertebrate community; they’re forming nooks and crannies; and constantly moving mud,” says Perryman, noting that different insects flourish at different elevations of the terrain, and thus account for an ensuing “fish bloom,” and a greater diversity of birds.
I love segueing from cute to science! And I ADORE being called a beaver lobbyist. Let’s face it. When she’s right, she’s right.
I give up. It’s impossible to prioritize or organize today’s beaver news into one well-rounded serving. I’m just going to have to lump them together like a very disorganized (but tasty) potluck. Enjoy. Of course I’ll start with what’s most important:
So as part of the city’s Beaver Management Program, two pond leveling devices were installed on July 9 in two beaver dams located near the Augustana Campus by 48th St.
Two 20 feet long High Density Polyethylene, or HDPE, pipes were installed through the dams to allow water to flow through the ponds. The pipes are placed at a level that will allow water to balance out between the ponds. Each end of the pipe has a cage made from hog fencing to ensure blockage will not occur.
The devices are the first of their kind to be installed in Camrose.
“Essentially, it is a piping system that acts like a syphon,” said Glynnis Hood, associate professor in environmental science at the University of Alberta – Augustana Campus, who is spearheading the project.
“Anytime the water gets above the level of where the pipe is placed in the dam, the syphon system starts to work and keeps the water at a consistent level rather than having the pond flood above its banks,” Hood said.
Hurray for Glynnis and her merry band of [burly] students! Hurray for Camrose and flow devices in Alberta! And Hurray for beavers who will stabilize that stream and improve conditions for fish and birds.
Hood added that her research shows the leveling system will result in significant time and monetary savings because there is less need for ongoing maintenance compared to traditional methods such as a dam removal or beaver trapping.
Each pond levelling system cost approximately $600 in materials and about $200 for labor.
Hood said, “It seems like a large initial cost but what we’ve found is that very low maintenance is required thereafter and it makes up for the rental of a backhoe which is about $200 to $300 an hour, not to mention the staffing that goes into it.”
The new pond leveling system will also allow the ecosystem to thrive as there will be fewer interruptions to the area in the form of dam removals.
Hood said, “The beavers can stay. They tend to just pack more material on top of the pipe and that actually helps our installation because it protects the pipe even more. These devices are designed to keep the pond intact, albeit at a lower level than beavers probably want them to be.”
Dr. Hood is one of the brightest stars in the beaver firmament. Every time I read about her successful persuasions with science I get a glorious feeling that one day we might actually cross the finish line. In the meantime, we still have some laps to do in our Martinez relay. Audubon enjoyed a very successful field trip last night and we have a festival to plan.
The brochure is finished (Thanks Amelia!) and the charms are done (Thanks Mike!). I had a great interview with the CC Times tuesday and we are in Patch today.
The Seventh Annual Beaver Festival in historic downtown Martinez is set for August 2, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Beaver Park, at the corner of Marina Vista and Castro Streets.
Bring the family to this free, unique Bay Area landmark event.
The Beaver Festival features live music, wildlife exhibits from seven counties, children’s activities and beaver tours.
Learn how and why every city should co-exist with beavers. The first 100 children earn a Wildbryde charm necklace.
Everyone will find something special at this one-of-a-kind celebration of local nature and its most famous grassroots civic success story! To learn more about Worth A Dam (MartinezBeavers.org), follow this link.
Thanks Patch! Oh and just in case you wondered about DEFRA, England is still woefully stupid, but their feet are getting closer to the fire. The story was on British TV last night and in Indian newspapers this morning.
But, don’t worry, the English aren’t always foolish. This, for example, was a brilliant decision.
Good job team beaver, the Beaver Believers project is now fully funded, which means we can all look forward to a fantastic beaver-lovin film in the near future. In the mean time I read that the Taipei zoo is celebrating its first beaver kit birth ever, and you can just imagine the rich concrete life this little guy is going to have!
A North American beaver pup, born at Taipei Zoo on June 19, plays in water in this undated photo. It was the first reproduction of the species at the zoo. Photo courtesy of Taipei Zoo July 7, 2014
We just finished reading a detailed response from expert beaver rehabber Cher Button-Dobmeier to the Alberta Wildlife Rescue about how kits need to have water they can fully immerse in to drink and urinate – and that if they don’t they will hold it in and get UTI’s which are a one way ticket to worse infections and possible death.
(And I for one, know that to be factually true!)
The map for this year’s festival is done and it took three days to finish with a million changes and details during which I greatly hated everyone in the world including beavers. So if you happen to notice that I spelled your name wrong or you can’t possibly be next to those people, I would think very carefully about drawing it to my attention.
And something for beaver cheer this morning we look to the brits, who are so delightful when it comes to loving wildlife. Even if DEFRA is evil.
“Tussocky and Clumpy!” – imagine that on an american program!
Next wednesday from, 1-2 Pacific Time Earth Guardians will be sponsoring a webinar on beaver effects on streams. You can bet I’ll be sitting in the first virtual row. Thanks Mary Obrien for send this my way!
Abstract – Beaver are known for their engineering abilities and their impact on water resources. Water is a valuable resource in the arid southwest, and the focus of this study was to evaluate the impact of beaver re-establishment on the water resources of the Jemez Watershed in New Mexico for future state-wide management planning. The Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT) was used to evaluate the current capacity of the watershed based on vegetation, baseflow, and flood stream power. The model demonstrated that the watershed is capable of supporting a re-established beaver population and identified the suitable stream reaches for dam building activities. Using HEC-HMS, we captured the hydrologic response of the Jemez River to precipitation by calibrating it to historic hydrographs. Once calibrated, 42 reservoir elements representing beaver dams were added to the Rio de las Vacas region to simulate an initial re-established population of beavers. The results indicate an attenuation of 5-30% of peak flows and an increase in baseflow of 5-15%. Additionally, we calculated the increase of aquatic and riparian habitat from dam construction and pond formation. It was determined that 15 special-status species in the watershed could potentially benefit from beaver activity and habitat creation. The Rio Grande cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii viginalis; state-sensitive) could utilize ponds as habitat and take advantage of dams as barriers to non-native trout movements and the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius luteus; state-endangered, federally proposed) could utilize the increase in riparian habitat bordering ponds. It is possible that the re-establishment of beaver to the Jemez Watershed would allow theses species to expand into previously extirpated portions of their range, highlighting the positive impacts of beaver on water resources in this area of the arid southwest.
Who: Bryan Bird, Wild Places Program Director, WildEarth Guardians
Alexandre Caillat, Bren School Masters Candidate
Bret Callaway, Bren School Masters Candidate
Drake Hebert, Bren School Masters Candidate
Andrew Nguyen, Bren School Masters Candidate
Shelby Petro, Bren School Masters Candidate*
Oh and guess what? Beaver Festival VII is officially a reality. We’re approved!
Well it’s happened. It’s finally here. And you should definitely come see for yourself what all the fuss has been about. Come celebrate beavers, learn about wildlife and remember what it’s like to stop city hall in its tracks. Pick up a wildlife trekking scarf for your next hike and outbid your neighbor at our AWESOME silent auction. Help your child or grandchild earn charms for the keystone species necklace, see the world’s first mechanical tail slapping beaver, then stop by and introduce yourself. We’d all love to meet you in person.
Still not convinced? Just remember this sage advice:
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
