Friends with Beavers

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Behavior, Beaver Conference, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Who's saving beavers now? February 21, 2017

Did you see Bob’s post yesterday? His debut as a beaver blogger and it was PERFECT! Great margins, great links and proper search words. I was impressed and suggested a full time gig but he shrugged his shoulders and said he was happy to help when needed but he had other mountains to climb.

So you get me.

I spent yesterday working laboriously recording the audio for my talk and then trying to sync it up with the video so it can be played in my absence. It was a ton of work because it’s like trying to sew a seam from both ends at once, but it’s finally done and I’m fairly happy with the result. I’ll post it on Thursday which is the day it will air. Today I saw that a new logo announcing the conference is much better, and thought I’d would share.

Yesterday I saw on Facebook that Caitlin was worried about her Mountain House beavers in all the flooding – for obvious reasons. Apparently she went down with her father in the evening to make sure they were okay. It filled me with strange affection to think that there were other people in the world afflicted with my odd concern for beavers. And when I heard the charming audio that accompanied the video my heart nearly burst. Turn the sound wayyy up.

Beavers love Caitlin AND her Dad.

Big Brother Berates Beavers Badly

heidi08 Beavers April 16, 2016

Are you having flashbacks or is it just me? Mark me. This is just the first – the others will follow like moths to the copy machine. What really gets me, beyond the necessary alliteration of ‘B’ words and repeating of obvious lies, zero sense of history or context – beyond all this – is the way that the beavers’ imagined potential to cause problems is unquestioned and somberly treated as if they were causing ACTUAL problems. Sheesh, cities lie and the press just reports it verbatim.

Been there. Done that. Have many tshirts.

But wasn’t Caitlin awesome? She did a fantastic job giving the impression that support was being rallied. She even got to film the interview at home! How convenient, (why didn’t I ever get to do that?) She showed that she was watching and following closely the random lies being sprayed like poppies to put people asleep in the Wizard of Oz. Continuing to pay attention when they command “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” is 70% of the beaver-saving biz, (believe me I know).

More coverage in the paper. Staff lies and obligatory alliterations. “Get it? Their both B words! Isn’t that funny?

Beaver bother

MOUNTAIN HOUSE — A family of beavers in Mountain House Creek may have captured the hearts of residents — but not the sympathy of the Community Services District, which is considering killing the animals.

“I really enjoy the beavers,” said 19-year-old Caitlin McCombs, who created a Facebook group in February to support them. “It’s kind of the reason we moved to Mountain House, for the wildlife. I’d be sad to see them go.”

The problem is the damage the beavers are causing to the watershed. Operations and Maintenance Superintendent Doug Louie told the Mountain House Community Services District Board of Directors on Wednesday that something must be done to restore the creek and retain its flood control capabilities in the wake of changes due to the beaver activities.

The areas with the worst damage run parallel to Central Parkway north of Main Street, which is the site of five wet detention ponds, Louie said. At the Central Parkway Bridge, one of the largest and oldest dams in the creek has created a large marsh, which broke down the berm system, he said.

The beavers have created public safety liabilities with unstable trees, flood potential with their dams and violations to the community’s storm water permit, he said.

I read his name ‘Doug Louie’ and I can’t help it, I see Dave Scola. Public works collects a hefty salary and pension, but its not for filling pot holes or rescuing kittens from sewers. Its for services that include lying in the right way on camera when the city needs it. I was re-watching this video yesterday and thinking about Dave brazenly standing in front of that camera DIRECTLY in front of the flow device that the city had just spent 10,000 dollars on and being completely believable as he says their are magic cables under the dam that could rip it all out in an instant if they needed to. How is that even possible? Did that long pipe get tangled in them when it was installed? He is flat out lying, and he knows it. But he does it in a fully respectable way.

He is the city’s sincerity costume. And he wears it so well.

Nothing to report on the mural. The city Attorney is still dragging his or her heels about whether the term can be waived, and if it is, then we can be insured through ISI and the process will cost us less. I am forcing myself to be patient. I amused myself yesterday with trying out some old silver spacers I happened to have lying around. What do you think of Beaver history as an necklace?

Funnest Beaver Puzzle Ever!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? March 13, 2016

This is a Waterwheel.
This is a Water wheel on Beavers.

Busy as beavers, really, in Rehoboth, MA

REHOBOTH – In North Rehoboth, where the Palmer River is barely a brook, scattered trees are suddenly being cut down along the banks. What had been a small dam dating to colonial times is being built higher – with sticks and wattle.

The changes, and the gradually rising water in a pair of small ponds, isn’t the work of rural vandals. It marks the return of the North American beaver, a stranger to the area since before the Revolution.

E. Otis Dyer, landowner and longtime authority on local history, sees in their comeback the story of nature renewing itself after centuries of human dominance.

At Stony Brook, environmental workers had to install a bypass pipe called a “beaver deceiver” to dissuade the animals from expanding a dam that threatened to flood a foot bridge.

Dyer says he doesn’t take umbrage at the beaver, who are only reclaiming a piece of their natural environment. Still, he said the animals’ presence is gradually causing the water in his ponds to rise.

I love Mr. Dyers calm historical perspective, and I love the fact that the article mentions a flow device solving a similar problem. Rehoboth is about 100 miles from Mike Callahan and beaver solutions, but something tells me this might get him to take a road trip. Think of what an interesting puzzle this is since the water is already directed into a narrow channel to run the wheel. That means the beavers are damming it and when the dams blow out they send debris into the wheel. I can’t imagine their damming the actual wheel itself, but who knows? It probably is going to require something more like culvert protection than what we had in Martinez. Maybe even a diversion dam.

I nominate Mike for the job!

Speaking of nominations for the job, I’m also nominating Caitin McCombs for the job of educating citizens about the mountain house beavers. She’s done an amazing job so far. She confronted some council members on the bunk they were passing at this week’s meeting. Now her article has appeared in the local paper. And don’t think I love this for a minute only because it praises what Martinez did! (Although that doesn’t hurt.)

MH-Matters

Wonderful job Caitlin! You are doing fantastic work to raise awareness and get folks attention in Mountain House. We are thrilled little Martinez could inspire you to try and coexist with these important water savers. Rumor is she is coming to help us at Earth day so you can congratulate her in person then!

One final outstanding graphic from Elizabeth Saunders at Cows and Fish for you to share. Isn’t this brilliant?