Tag: Beaver Festival

August 7, 2010

heidi08 Beaver News, City Reports, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers March 25, 2010

It’s official! Yesterday I turned in the application for this year’s Beaver Festival which will be August 7th from 11-4. We are hoping for an “estuary awareness” car to bring passengers on Amtrak from the Jack London Square with the watershed appreciation of Lisa Owens-Viani. We are hoping for five hours of remarkable music, face painting, beaver tours and naturalist walks with Doc Hale. We are hoping for the children’s cloth drawings to be converted to a flag that we unveil at the festival. We are hoping for an excellent silent auction with donations from Safari West, Wild Birds, Six Flags, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Marine Mammal Center! We are hoping for the best attendance ever and the entire event to be sponsored by Castoro Cellars.

We dream big.

We are also hoping for YOU! So if you plan to be in town that day, would like to help out in anyway including transport, setup, take down, organization, musical delights, children’s activities, manning the book table, helping with sales, recruiting attendance, hanging up signs, taking down signs, having your daughter’s swim team sell water bottles, or offering a service so valueable I haven’t yet thought of it, drop me a note! It takes a VILLAGE to make a beaver festival.

Yesterday I had a very exciting chat with Julia Reischel of the Watershed Post. I had contacted her after reading her review of Mike Callahan’s presentation at the state house. Apparently I came close to giving her a “Road to Damascus moment” and she is now very interested in the role beavers might play in watershed restoration. She was delightful on the phone, and wanted to know who the “big names were” in beaver research so she could follow up. Why hadn’t she heard about the effect beavers have on birds? the effect beavers have on salmon? the use of beavers to combat climate change?

Sigh.

I honestly have no idea. Talk about hiding beavers’ light under a bushel. With the exception of Michael Pollock there really are no “big names” associated with this important research, and his name isn’t NEARLY big enough to make a dent in all the ridiculous lies that are being told about beavers by the salmon industry in Scotland. Research gets done, but its done by doctoral candidates because no one else wants to step into that mire.I sent her in the direction of Dietland Muller-Swarze who teaches right down the street.

Still, start with the dissertations. Its a great beginning. The rest will follow.

It’s tile time!

heidi08 Friends of Martinez Beavers, Tile Bridge March 11, 2010

Today 99 children’s tiles will become a permanent memorial to the beavers in Alhambra Creek. I cherish every single one of our young (and not-so-young young!) artists’ contributions along with the help of our generous donors that made this possible. The Gazette asked me today if there would be some kind of ribbon cutting or ceremony, but I told them no, just an open invitation for people to come down and see them for themselves. Wednesday, with the measuring and taping, you could really see how the project is going to look. Art to draw attention to the creek and its famous residents, beavers to draw attention to the deserving artists. It’s a perfect combination.

I won’t get all misty-eyed about the miles we’ve travelled to get to this place, or the challenges and bitter sheetpile hardships we have endured. I won’t mention the kits that didn’t survive this year, or the long hours of worry as we watched for missing faces. I won’t talk about all the exaggerations, the lies, the accusations or the mean-spirited panic beaver supporters have faced. I’ll just think about a certain November evening 27 months ago when everything changed.

Thank you Martinez, for giving our beavers the best possible welcome and thank you beavers, for teaching a city how to listen.

Consider the day seized!

heidi08 Festival August 2, 2009

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=vGAArAIKb0Q]

The Beaver festival yesterday was a rousing success on so many levels I am still listing them in my head. We made great connections with the community, woed many friends, found some unexpected helpers, and had were once again far too busy working on our individaul “trees” to catch a glimpse of the festival forest! Carolyn Jones’ fantastic article in the chronicle brought interested visitors from San Mateo, Santa Rosa and even Davis, There was channel 5 coverage and a nice photographer from the Record, and best of all there was a SECOND MINK SIGHTING!!!! During one of Jon’s much praised beaver tours he (and a 100 of his closest friends) actually saw the mother mink.

The silent auction was an excellent fundraiser and gave everyone a great opportunity to snap up some really excellent gifts and certificates. We even had a bidding war on a few items, including the Safari West Tour. Lory and Linda helped cooler heads prevail. Our membership table was even a bigger hit than last year and everybody who was anybody wanted a beaver tshirt of their very own. Thank goodness Kathi volunteered to help Linda at the membership table. Author Penny Weigand did some book signings and our child authors came by after swim practice to help out! So many kids painted tiles we had a hard time figuring out how to get them home. Thank you Fro and Erika for helping our budding artists. My beaver information booth was constantly full of questions, (thanks jean for the relief) and the new beaver skulls were a huge hit. Thank you to all our remarkable vendors and displays, and our truly outstanding group of musicians.

Did all this help beavers? You bet it did. Not just our wonderful beavers, but beavers in general. Every single person there, who looked at those mink photos and toured the creek, now knows first hand the definition of a Keystone Species. We love what we understand, and Worth A Dam did an excellent job making visitors understand the pivitol role of beavers in the habitat.

Two favorite tiles out of many loved ones:

Music to Your Ears!

heidi08 Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Uncategorized July 31, 2009

As promised, I will give a preview today of the live music and talented performers that will join us tomorrow at the beaver festival!

Bringing its unique brand of Urban Bluegrass to California and Nevada since 1986, The Alhambra Valley Band is as good as it gets. Lynn Quinones is an award winning song writer who told me this year she was working on a piece about the mother beaver! When I cajoled her into bringing the group to play last year she cautiously said, I don’t know how the whole group feels about the beavers. How surprised were we to find out that her bass player is married to a Martinez Early Childhood Center teacher who happens to be an avid beaver supporter! In fact, the teacher didn’t even know where her husband was playing that day and was surprised to see him at the festival! Lynn’s original song, “Willow Pass Road” is the soundtrak for the video letter to the mayor posted in the frame.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=8B0TV1qy0ws]

With over 30 years exerperience, Jeff Campbell has played for the queen, the Cheiftans, and the odd beer comercial. He keeps busy with a demanding schedule of wedding, processions and funeral appearances. He might have done it all, but I bet he’s never done a gig like this before! When I spoke to Jeff he told me he had brought his son out to see our beavers last year and was excited about being part of our festival. You might have heard him on our Cafe Spot on KGO this week. Jeff will lead the children’s procession to honor the return of beavers to Scotland after 400 years. He’s generously donating his time, so think about whether your next four weddings or funerals need a piper!

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=tLNoiWbq6Lg]

A utopia of Flutes! Flutopia is the creative produce of gifted musician Tracy Durden, a long time Martinez resident and friend to the arts. Her musical strains will be familiar to visitors of the Farmer’s Market, where she somtimes graces the city streets with her talents. Tracy is an accomplished flute instructor and Flutopia often plays at weddings and gatherings. Tracy and I went to Alhambra High School together, and regular readers of this blog will not be surprised to discover that we were in a “Shakespeare” reading group. For at least 37 weeks we gathered in each other’s rooms to read through the plays together. (I of course was industriously researching quotes to use at a later date in a ground breaking beaver-blog. I don’t have any idea what those other nerds were doing there!) I remember at one point in her life Tracy had the letters to spell her name on her bedroom wall. Times being what they are the “C” and the “Y” fell off and her room was left with the unusual promient letters spelling “TRA”. Friends asked about this, and I mark it as the first obscurely witty thing I ever said, when I replied airily “Oh she believes in TRA for TRA’s sake”.

Looking for some toe-tapping music that makes you want to wiggle up to the one you love? The Muir Station Jazz band will fit the bill. The Muir Station Jazz Band is named after the passenger train station that was once located at the eastern end of the AT&SF train trestle located near the historic John Muir Home in Martinez, California. In 1877 the Central Pacific Railway built a rail line through the property that Naturalist and founder of The Sierra Club, John Muir (1838-1914), received from a land grant. In exchange for the rail line going through his property he requested that a station be built by the trestle to ship his crops and other goods around the country. The station was removed when the California Zepher passenger service was discontinued by AT&SF and today there is no evidence today that it ever existed. In rememberence of that bygone era band we named the band after the long gone and forgotten train station. Larry promises me that he will end with the favorite tune, “Down by the riverside” because we beaver friends will need to “study war no more”.
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=xbJ-OGX_lrQ]

Festival Displays

heidi08 Environmental, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Uncategorized July 30, 2009

I wanted to take some time this morning to introduce you to some of the beaver-friends that will be displaying at the festival. Carolyn Jones of the chronicle asked me yesterday, “what happens if you get bored of beavers”. I explained that I seemed to be fairly immune from that particular ailment, but that for others with less hardy constitutions there will be plenty to keep your attention. Such as….

Native Bird Connections:

We are a group of professional interpreters and educators who work with live wild birds while sharing educational messages with groups of all ages. Native Bird Connections maintains a daily commitment to three goals: Respect: For animals and people, accepting them for who they are, not who we wish them to be. Responsibility: We are obligated to walk our talk and accept personal responsibility as well as responsibility for the lives of our wild partners. Reverence: We are thankful for the people and animals that influence our ability to continue providing unparalleled nature experiences.

Noah’s Wish:

Noah’s Wish came into existence in 2002, not to duplicate existing efforts to help animals during disasters, but to expand on what was already in place. Too often, efforts to help animals during life threatening situations have been gravely inadequate. We recognize that animals need and deserve an organized, consistent and professionally managed national disaster relief program. They will, otherwise, continue to pay for human indifference with their lives. How animals are managed during disasters is to implement well thought out, field tested policies and procedures that are practiced in all disasters. Relief efforts for people are managed this way and we feel they should be for animals too.

Lindsay Wildlife Museum:

Connect with wildlife and learn about the animals found in our backyards and open spaces. At Lindsay Wildlife Museum you can have close encounters with many live, non-releasable wild animals such as an eagle, hawk, fox, snake or coyote. An on-site wildlife hospital treats more than 6,000 native California animals every year. The museum also features changing art and natural history exhibits, classes for children and adults, and a discovery room with hands-on activities for children.

Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation:

The Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation works to preserve and enhance Walnut Creek’s nearly 3000 acres of open space and to educate area residents so that they can enjoy this wonderful resource. In cooperation with the California Bluebird Recovery Program (www.cbrp.org), Foundation members including Brian Murphy and Bob Brittain have been constructing, installing and monitoring nest boxes for bluebirds in our open space.

Paula Lane Action Network:

Badgers in Petaluma? Plan on it! P.L.A.N. is a nonprofit organization, dedicated to preservation of rural land and open space, wildlife habitat and historic resources. Preserving areas where there are inter-relationships – history, open space, critical habitat and movement corridors, grasslands, trees, and seasonal wetlands – creates a setting where multifaceted health-producing life experiences can occur. Such interactive experiences of life with Nature and Community character, we believe, contribute to our sense of well being and ability to give to others.

Intrigued yet? Add the Native Plant Society, the Friends of Alhambra Creek, and the good NPS folks at the John Muir Site. Learn about the new fishing pier designs or the effects of pesticides, or how to prepare for a charity marathon. Check out the amazing designs from Wild Bryde Jewelry and get your copy of the Come Back Kids, “The Martinez Beavers” signed by the author, Penny Weigand of Bellissima Publishing.

Join us for a dam good time!