Beaver Tales

Massachusetts comes to Martinez

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Massachusetts Trapping Law February 12, 2013

So that tall guy in the middle is Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions in Massachusetts. He came out for some fish passage seminars and went to check out some beaver habitat near Napa and then came to Martinez for a tour and dinner. It was one of those meetings that mean so much and still seem so familiar that afterwards you are saddened to remember that he doesn’t live across the street and won’t be coming back any time soon.

I first wrote Mike in October of 2007. In case you didn’t realize that was a long, long time ago. Before Worth A Dam and before Obama and before our beaver mom died. Our contact armed me with information, made me hopeful and sometimes made me smile. It was often the thing that sustained and fortified me for the battle with the city, and gave me direction and a sense of purpose after we won.

Or, to put it another way; Mike recognized the sheetpile.

So it was entirely fitting to see him reviewing our beaver habitat. Have him scope out Skip’s installation. Spot the new lodge where our beavers are living and drive to our house for dinner. We of course handed over Alaskan Amber and a t-shirt so he would feel at home.

Lory and Cheryl and Jon enjoyed his visit and thought he was an easy-going, affable, force to be reckoned with. We swapped stories about beaver battles, massachusetts law, and flow devices. He had met Sherri and Ted Guzzi of the Sierra wildlife coalition the night before and had made good contacts at the conference.

He talked a little about his ideas for adapting flow devices to make fish passage in very low flow easier. We discussed one way gates and counters that will track the number of fish that use them. The social science side of my brain forced me to suggest that his study should include a control group so that the fish that make it over a flow device with no modifications could be counted too, and he thought that was a good idea.

And now, sitting on this side of the meeting, I notice I am wistful, and feeling like I came to the end of some chapter in my life. Mike was the first glimmer of support that I looked to for our beavers, though he certainly wasn’t the last. The story of the Martinez beavers and the teaching role they had on other communities will continue in ways I can’t even imagine today, but this part of the story is completed. The circle that I never dreamed of starting, that caused me to work harder than I ever had and do things I never had never attempted before, that took me places I could never even dream, that part of the circle has been closed.

Saving Descendents?

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions February 1, 2013

Looks like two neighboring beaver colonies will have flow devices installed to mitigate their ponding behavior. One on city land and one on private land. Since they are fairly close (as the beaver swims) I’d like to imagine they’re some of the seven yearlings we sent safely off into the world in the last 5 years, spreading beaver goodness along the Carquinez strait from Martinez. Only DNA testing would tell us for sure, but even if they’re not related, we know that their safety is directly related to the highly visible success of the home town of John Muir.

Back when our beavers were in danger, there were two pages about flow devices on the entire internet. One yellow information sheet from Beavers Wetlands and Wildlife, and one fact sheet on limitors from the Haw River Assembly in North Carolina. Now if you google flow devices, the entry on Wikipedia is the first thing to come up. It was written by our friend Rick and featuring photos from Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions.

Good fortune means that Michael Callahan will be in the area to arrange at least one sight inspection, maybe two, on his way to meet the good folks of Worth A Dam and tour our beaver ponds. Hopefully we’ll even see one of our elusive beavers, though in winter nothing is predictable.

Tick, tick, tick…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Friends of Martinez Beavers, New Species January 15, 2013

I am officially a week away from driving to Oregon for the State of the Beaver conference. I am starting to get nervous. Last week I heard from Suzanne Fouty that she won’t be attending due to another conference, and Sherri Tippie called yesterday to confer that she won’t be there either because of knee surgery. I’m very, very disappointed because listening to Sherri last time was my most inspiring moment at the conference. The moment where I felt beavers were absolutely in good hands whether I helped any or not. What will inspire me this year?

Two people that are still on the agenda that I am looking forward to meeting are John Hadidian of HSUS and Jimmy Taylor of APHIS. Kind of an unlikely combination but I’m sure if you could get those too laughing and drunk in a corner you could change the world. Well, I’ll give it my best shot. I’ll get to hear Mary O’brien, Jeff Baldwin and Eli Asarian. Worth A Dam is paying travel expenses for Michael Pollock to be there. And of course our good friends Paul and Louise Ramsay who are zipping out all the way from Scotland.

Yesterday I talked to Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions just to make sure that I could give the ‘we-want-to-save-beavers’ his contact info so they could chat about how they might install a flow device here. I’m hopeful that they might be able to work something out because Mike is traveling back to California for a beaver management workshop in Douglas City and he’s planning a visit to see our beavers on the way! (If they finally agree to show themselves, that is!)

A big thank you to Shell who just sent a $900.00 check for last year’s festival, and to Kiwanis who just encouraged us to reapply again for this year! I thought it’s a good morning for some appreciate for our old beaver friend Glenn Hori who has been keeping an eye on some river otters at Heather Farms. He photographed four yesterday, which is pretty amazing.

four otters at hidden lakes — Otters at Heather Farms (2013) - Glenn Hori

Although not as amazing as this photograph from 2007 by Sean Merrigan and recently posted on facebook by our otter friends. Yes, that’s a sea otter floating toward the golden gate.

Beaver Summit

heidi08 Beavers, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Why We Care October 11, 2012

This film was made by last night’s dinner guests. The narration is by Sharon Brown and the filming by her husband Owen. Owen is a doctor of Chemistry and Sharon a biologist, who became friends with Dorothy Richards of ‘BeaverSprite’ and inherited her preserve and work to form Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife. Amongst their many adventures teaching, writing, and advocating for beavers they once adopted orphaned set of four kits and raised them for two years before setting them free on their own. You can see it was a fairly memorable experience.

Jon, Heidi, Owen, Sharon, Kate, Lory (and Cheryl taking the picture!)

The couple came first to our house for lemonade and beaver talk, and then came with us down to see Junior and Mom swimming about the dams, before joining us for dinner at Lemongrass. Most of Worth A Dam was there, and Kate from the OAEC water institute drove down from Sonoma to meet them. It was a strangely familiar meeting, in which many beaver tales (tails?) were swapped. I tried to put Owen to work finding a scent mound for us, because he has a great nose for castor! But sadly none were forthcoming. They are off for an adventure in the city today and heading next for the sierras to meet Mary and Sherry and check out their flow devices. Worth A Dam is thrilled they made the trip and wishes them the happiest of trails!

Martinez has now had interstate beaver pilgrimages from Washington, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Kentucky and New York. Not bad for a small town! (Still waiting for Alberta and Colorado!)

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Now its off to Canton PA where some beavers are willfully rebuilding their dam even after a backhoe has generously removed it three times. The nerve! It’s like they think they have a right to exist and feed their family or something!

CANTON – There’s some persistent beavers in the borough. At Canton Borough Council’s meeting this week, councilman Kurt Bastion, the street superintendent, spoke on the issue during the street department report. The problem isn’t new. State officials have been involved in the past, trapping the beavers, but they keep coming back. The dams are a danger because they can exacerbate flooding.

He said a beaver dam was torn out three times with a backhoe, and “the next day it was right back there again.”“We’re going to have to address that issue some other way,” he said.

Ooh, I know, I know! call on me!

“Mike Lovegreen from the Bradford County Conservation District had talked to one of the residents on Lycoming Street about this, I want to say maybe at the beginning of summer or end of spring,” she said. “There is a grant available to the residents that the municipality would apply for, but the residents need to come up with a plan, prior to us being able to apply for that.”

Well, okay, you tried “Quint” and it didn’t work. How about trying Mike or Skip? Beaver Solutions is 5 hours away and Beaver Deceivers International is 7. Either one could install a flow device that controls dam height and prevents flooding but keeps a pond high enough for these beavers to store food for the winter freeze. Gosh you could even buy the DVD and do this work yourself! Maybe get the community to volunteer and have a potluck with the rest of the grant money that night?

Or you could keep doing the exact same thing over and over again and acting surprised when it fails? Lots of folks choose that option.

Kind Words

heidi08 Beavers August 25, 2011

Keeper Kristin at the Oakland Zoo’s Western Pond Turtle Table. Photo credit: Cindy Margulis

Kristen Mealiffe ran the fantastic booth for the Western Pond Turtle program by the Oakland Zoo at the Beaver Festival. She recently posted a lovely “Turtle’s-Eye View” of the festival on the Zoo’s website. Here’s a glimpse but you will really want to go read the whole thing!

Why was the Oakland Zoo at the 4th Annual Beaver Festival in Martinez? No, the Zoo doesn’t have beavers, but it does have Western Pond Turtles which rely on beaver habitat. The event was a wonderful opportunity to create awareness about the Zoo’s Western Pond Turtle Head Start Program and the conservation efforts involved to protect the only aquatic turtle native to California. The Oakland Zoo along with many other environmental organizations participated in this festival to create awareness about native species in the Bay Area and the fragile ecosystems where the animals live.

Thanks so much for making our festival better and helping people learn about the importance of native turtles!Our own turtle population is getting alot better now that the dams are back in residence.

Lory found more kind words that came all the way from Massachusetts. This article about the benefit of beavers was written by Stephanie Kraft of the Valley Advocate in Northampton, MA. It mentions in passing the work of the Lands Council and Grand Canyon Land Trust and they mention US!

People in Martinez, California learned what beavers can do after a pair of the passionate chewers built a dam 30 feet wide in Alhambra Creek, felling willows and other decorative vegetation. But local residents got the City Council to put a pipe through the dam to prevent flooding and let the beavers stay. The creek grew into a rich wetland habitat that within three years was hosting river otter, steelhead trout and mink.

Wow, thanks Stephanie. I assume you didn’t come to the beaver festival, but what a nice plug! Folks can go read the whole article here. The only explanation I can come up with for appearing in a Massachusetts paper is that the town of Northampton is directly above Southampton which is where Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions operates. Maybe he dropped our name somehow.

Or maybe we’re just FAMOUS.