Mudpie…

“Made beavers” vs. “Beavers that have Got it Made”.

heidi08 Beavers, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? October 21, 2014

I came across this video the other day and thought you might find interesting too. It’s a fairly concise description of the fur trade – well, one PART of the fur trade. Calling HBC the fur trade is like calling Shell the oil industry. Remember that there were many other companies all doing the same thing at once.

It’s amazing any survived at all. Lets not think any more about ‘Made Beavers”. Let’s think about “beavers that have got it made”.

Wonderments of the East Bay Celebrating 80 years of EBRP

The East Bay Regional Parks abound in wonderments: animals, plants, sounds, geological formations, histories, and languages that stimulate our curiosity and expand our capacity for awe. In exquisite, lyrical essays, Sylvia Linsteadt and Malcolm Margolin—with help from their friends—revel in these wonderments.

Our complimentary copy arrived yesterday with 4 pages of the Martinez Beaver story. They declined to use Cheryl’s excellent photos (or my accurate writing, ahem) but gave a gallant tale of civic response and public interest. The story puts Martinez in a community-building light and says we had people from all over coming just to see our beavers. I remain fairly picky about the details. (If you’ll remember the original chapter had said Martinez brought in a “Team of engineers” to fix the flooding problem and I was terrified everyone would think it was expensively hard work saving beavers.) I managed to get that wording fixed, but sadly the chapter still said mom had three babies and we discovered the first ever tulle perch in Alhambra Creek, which makes me mortified that my name was dropped in the passage without a corresponding footnote saying, “Heidi never said this and didn’t write it.”

A reasonable woman would be content that it makes it clear that the beavers had a positive effect on our creek and grateful that they sent me a copy. I strive to be such a woman. I’m not worried about the idea of giving EBRP credit for our beavers, (since they’re on city land), because I crisply remember a lively conversation I had with park wizard Hulet Hornbeck before he died, where he told me that they had been working for 50 years to clean up the Marina so that the arrival of the beavers would even be possible. And since he was wise enough to see the beaver family as a compliment, I heartily believed him.

It’s a very nice looking book and a trove of local treasures. I know you want to pick up your own copy here, or wait for the silent auction!

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Now you’ve done your history homework you deserve a treat. R.E. from Napa sent this yesterday and it’s very lovely. I won’t even bother telling you to enjoy it, because I know you will.

And finally a HUGE thanks to our friends at Safari West. My niece just got married in the Redwoods and since my wedding present to her had been an overnight stay at our favorite wilderness adventure in the wine country, they made sure she and her new hubby had an awesome time. The highlight came last night when Kimberly Robertson met the couple after their tour and dinner to take them for a tower feeding that left my well-spoken niece speechless. Thanks so much Safari West for making so many people so happy, and don’t forget to remember them if you’re looking for the PERFECT special day for someone in your family!

Happy Anniversary, Beaver Friends!

heidi08 Uncategorized November 7, 2008

Exactly one year ago tonight beaver supporters gathered at the Alhambra High School Performing Arts building and delivered a three hour, 50+ comment sermon on why the city should do right by our beavers. It delivered enough of an impact to stop the steaming locomotive of a plan to exterminate, and even to relocate. It frightened our previous city manager into retirement, and it made 150 residents feel that maybe the people have some power after all. Keep in mind that this was before Worth A Dam, and before the existence of this webpage. The support for these creatures arose from all across town and a hundred different voices. The night is well worth remembering.

Last night’s talk on beavers to the Mt Diablo chapter of the Audubon society was also well attended and appreciated. I had expected a few scruffy retirees around a dim table. I found a huge hall with microphone and chairs for 100. The many gathered faces spanned the age spectrum and were quite knowledgeable. There was particular discussion about the poisons being used to control rodent population in Shadelands, and the subsequent impact on all animals including birds. More on that soon. These were people who were used to working hard for a cause, and I felt a certain respect that we had given so much for the beavers. There were several knowing nods in the environment-savvy group when I talked about beaver impact on the riparian ecosystem and the animals that depended on it, and cheerful speculation on whether the city would appreciate our efforts to put them on the map. It was a delightful evening, thanks Alison for inviting me.

My apologies to Nancy Skinner from the EBRP, who was the second speaker and asked to review the passage of WW. She was very grateful for the support and the opportunity, and felt that it was a good time (with the economy tanking) to pick up regional land sales. Unfortunately, she decided to try her presentation on my computer, and it wouldn’t run. She said she’d come back another time to walk through the presentation, and was pretty sanguine about it. EBRP has been very kind to the beavers in general. Over a year ago Ted Radke, Board member Ward 7, wrote me a card thanking me for the youtube videos, which he had presented to the board. (He was very surprised to see his handwriting in the scrapbook when he stopped by the beaver booth at the farmer’s market!)

To celebrate our anniversary night, I recommend you replace your latest netflick’s with this. I still am blown away by the depth and breadth of comment. Since then our beavers have made national news, a documentary, a children’s book, had a festival, won first prize at Art in the Park, worked over 50 farmer’s markets, Earth day at the Muir site, and the Bird show in Pleasant Hill . Worth A Dam has raised over 10,000 in donations, and received global support. We presented for all the elementary summer schools MUSD, ESA students, the master gardners, the MDAS audubon society and the Sierra Club. Our photographs will appear in the state wide curriculum from the EPA, in the Cornell University Bird Calendar, and in the Creek calendar for Watershed. We have been featured twice in Bay Nature & the LA Times, as well as the SF Estuary Project October issue and state of the Estuary.

Happy Anniversary! It’s been a remarkable year, Martinez. Let’s keep it up.

Collage by Cheryl Reynolds

See you in September?

heidi08 Beaver News, City Reports, Friends of Martinez Beavers June 9, 2008

The lastest word on our Job-like-patience-beaver-campaign is that the final vote may not occur until September. The mind reels, and I am enormously surprised at the delay. But I will explain to you as it was explained to me. June is apparently already full of important non-beaver decisions. July will be the first official month of our new City Manager and nobody wants to give him trial by that particular fire right away. August the council usually take off and that leaves “back to school” month for beaver decisions.

Assuming they get to it then. I can’t help but think they won’t worry about the problem until the weather reminds them there might be a problem…

The window, she is broken

And the rain is coming in

If someone doesn’t fix it I’ll be soaking to my skin

But if I wait a day or two

The rain may go away

And then, who needs a window on such a sunny day?

Manana! Manana! Manana is good enough for me.

Of course this means the beaver vote will creep closer on the calendar to the November Elections, which I can’t imagine the city is happy about. Beavers may not vote, but I’m willing to bet that beaver supporters will!

On a lighter note, yesterday’s farmers market was a sunny meet and greet that raised 92.00 dollars for our beavers. Noteworthy moments included the young boy who wanted to donate his entire 5 dollars to help the beavers, and then when Luigi asked him to put the money in the jar again for a photo he added another one and wanted us to keep it. Another delight came when Ted and Kathy Radke stopped by to offer their continued support. Ted is a director of Ward 7 (us!) for the East Bay Regional Parks District and sent me a card of support last July. I had contacted him when I was hunting info on the web and read that he had presented one of my videos at a board meeting. As fate would have it, Kathy opened to the very page where Ted’s card was displayed, and he was more than a little surprised to recognize his handwriting. (Of course he’s in the book. Everyone’s in the book) And his support was the first “official” interest I received so it meant alot. It was great to let him see that his words mattered.

Hmm…do you think the city is keeping a scrapbook?

Some didn’t stop by the table, but just looked over their shoulder as they passed by, saying “Are you Heidi? That was a great letter in the Gazette”. Nice. In case you missed it, here it is. My hope with the letter was to redefine the terms in which “Getting rid of the beavers” was equated with “Saving money” and “Keeping the beavers” was seen as “Spending Money”. I think its a false dichotomy, and wanted to challenge in particular the notion that the city spent 71,000 dollars on “keeping the beavers.”

Not One More Dime:

At the May 7^th City Council meeting, respected Martinez leader Nancy Hobert presented a petition to the city demanding that no more money be spent on “the beaver project”. It was signed by some 200 residents, many of whom were prominently connected to AAUW. Well, this particular university woman couldn’t agree more. Not one more dime should be spent trying to figure out how to move the beavers, and not a penny should be spent trying to hire hydrologists and geologists to make a case for the potential damage they might cause. No promised contract should be directed to hiring an “expert” from Sacramento to rebut work done by a three month committee the city obtained for free. No hour of staff time should be reimbursed for removing parts of the dam during the rainy season and not one jot of police salary should be paid for having a security presence at the next beaver meeting. I appreciate Ms. Hobert’s clear thinking in this matter, as it elegantly highlights where the city of Martinez has spent its alleged 71,000 dollars.

With the exception of hiring Skip Lisle to install the flow device (which, given the fact that the dam appears to wash out when we have a high storm anyway, may have actually been an expensive pacifier) the money spent from August to April was spent trying to make a case to get rid of these beavers. And I agree, Nancy:

The city shouldn’t spend one more dime.

Keep an eye out for our new kits this week! They have been filmed as far down as the secondary dam. Moses generously donated more amazing and adorable footage so look for a new video Wednesday Evening (assuming life cooperates).

Heidi. P. Perryman, Ph.D.