East Bay Regional Parks

So tomorrow will be the ceremony for the John Muir Association Conservation Award. It will take place downtown, at the Campbell Theatre and be hosted by Lee Stetson, the actor who played the affirming voice of John Muir in the Ken Burns documentary series. Awards will be presented for best organizational contribution (East Bay Regional Parks) best education contribution (David Loeb, publisher of Bay Nature), best business contribution (T. Marzetti Co in Ohio) and best individual contribution (Jeff Alvarez of the Wildlife Project).

Regular readers of this blog will recognize Jeff’s name as the biologist who had volunteered to help us with our interpretive signs grant way back when. Jeff has been an enthusiastic supporter for beavers and Worth A Dam, and will be joining our meeting this weekend to talk about upcoming projects. We couldn’t be happier for him or more excited about our work together. Here’s the press release regarding his much-deserved win:

Named Conservationist of the Year, Jeff Alvarez will be recognized for his lifelong advocacy for wildlife and habitat conservation. Alvarez is the owner and Chief Biologist for The Wildlife Project. His prodigious volunteer work on behalf of wildlife and the environment goes well beyond his business interests. As a volunteer, he has trained professional peers in federal permitting issues for special-status species in order to increase the number of qualified biologists able to work towards the conservation of threatened and endangered species in California . He has lent his expertise, as a volunteer, to assist the Agricultural and Natural Resource Land Trust of Contra Costa County, the Biological Field Studies Association, the Mt. View Sanitation District, and many others. He has created and published techniques for surveying wildlife that minimize impacts on the wildlife. His articles on special-status species have been published in scientific journals, and he shares his expertise by providing gratis presentations on natural history and wildlife management to public agencies and nonprofit organizations. Alvarez is currently fulfilling a ten-year volunteer commitment to assist CASA Avian Support Alliance in Belize with the assessment of reforestation and avian populations. He also assists with wildlife rehabilitation and environmental education, including The Resources of Belize Coloring and Activity Book to be distributed to children in Belize . Alvarez is one of those individuals whose wide-ranging enthusiasm on behalf of wildlife and the environment influences others to care about the natural world around them.

Alright, an award ceremony, a Worth A Dam meeting with brilliant new minds, aren’t you doing anything else this weekend, you lazy beaver advocates? How about a display at the Trail Adventure to benefit Save Mt. Diablo at Castle Rock park in Walnut Creek? Well, okay. We’ll be at the expo from 9-12 where you can learn all about the various advocacy groups in the Bay Area.

The Save Mount Diablo Trail Adventure presented by Chevron offers a Half-Marathon, 10K Run, and Family Hike beginning at Castle Rock Park in Walnut Creek, climbing the fire roads up the slopes of Mount Diablo and finishing at Castle Rock. The event includes post race entertainment by a live band, expo and lunch for all participants.

Save Mt. Diablo is the big leagues in non-profit baseball. It takes big money to save a mountain, especially when you are saving it from being sold for even bigger money. They invited us after seeing how enormously popular our site was at the Flyway Fiesta event. We will be there to talk beavers, make friends and find out some excellent ideas for next years beaver festival! Stop by and say hi!

Thinking your love should be true to you forever? Beavers agree. They take a single mate and stay faithful for the duration of their lives. Although after a mate dies they may seek another, they are not tempted nor do they wander during the 5-10 years they stay together. Beavers have such demanding lives (raising kits, building and maintaining dams) that they don’t have time to squander on recurrent courtship. They make a choice and stick with it, and they are understandably careful about that choice. Sharon Brown of Beavers Wetlands and Wildlife, writes that rejecting a “unsuitable” suitor is definately part of a beavers life experience. They pick carefully and then honor their decision with a lifetime of hard work.

Why am I telling you this with a large 75 in the corner?

You may have heard about it being the 75th anniversary of our East Bay Regional Parks. Think about that for a moment. In 1934 while Hitler was sending out the long knives and American was terrified about the great depression and the huddled masses were hoping the recently elected FDR could bring them out of it, public lands were being set aside for our use today. (It’s no secret that public land is often most easily purchased during a tanking economy, and all the wild creatures that depend on EBRP may thank you very much for your recession if the trend holds). Still, the ability to see down the road to a time when there would be few farms and wild spaces in Contra Costa, required real vision. What will Californians need 75 years from now? What will be in short supply, besides clean water and moderate temperatures?

So on Valentines Day, EBRP will be celebrating at the Martinez-Contra Costa Museum, (the one on Main Street, not Escobar) with our own ward 7 member of the Board of Directors, Ted Radke. Ted will say a few words, thank some friends and then lead a walk from the museum, through the beavers and down to Grangers Wharf. He invited myself and Igor Skaredoff to come along and talk beavers and watershed.

You can bet I’ll be mentioning monogamy.

Ted has high regard in my book, as he was one of the first “big names” to show support for the beavers. I read in an EBRP newsletter nearly two years ago that he had shown my beaver videos to the board, and quickly wrote him in appreciation. I got back a lovely handwritten card, thanking me for my work and saying that he and his wife, Kathy enjoyed visiting the beavers from time to time. I was so tickled the card went straight into the scrapbook. One farmer’s market Sunday he strolled by and flipped through the book appreciatively, and was startled to find his own handwriting.

(It had to go in the book, was all I could say. Honestly his support was the first indication I got that we might prevail.)

So if you’re around Saturday, and looking to encourage a little monogamy in your loved one, you might drop by. I think the walk will begin around three, and the presence of many beaver supporters can only a good thing. Remember that our two yearlings will soon become “Dispersers” and the odds of their ending up in EBRP lands are pretty high.

Always make nice with your potential landlords, is my motto.