Bridge-Brigade!

heidi08 Tile Bridge, Why We Care December 8, 2009

Yesterday I got word from ESA instructor Rona Zollinger (and long time beaver friend!) that our student helpers had finished with their “ascribing tiles” for the bridge art project. Would I like to come pick them up? Rona and her students were at the original beaver meeting in 2007, and told me once at the farmer’s market that it had been “thrilling” to attend and show her students first hand how all those people caring about something can make a difference. I was immediately fond of her after that! Since then I have really been drawn to learn about the academy and the remarkable way it teaches stewardship not just for the earth but for the humans that populate it. I did a beaver presentation to the class last year, and was definitely impressed.

What this means is that if the weather gives us a few dry days we can start installation. Take a moment to contemplate the distance crossed in spanning this particular hurdle. First we had to convince the donors to give us money for the pens and the tiles. Then we had to encourage copius young artists at the festival and John Muir Mountain Camp, then we had to bake all 120 tiles in the oven, (which if your oven is 100 years old will only hold 12 tiles at once), then we had to find a contractor and get him to pledge to the project, then we had to beg, plead, muscle and cajole our way onto the Agenda for the Marina, Pool, Parks and Cultural Commission, then we had to present to them and sit through their 3 hour meeting, then we had to meet with the director of public works, then photgraph every tile for their inspection, and FINALLY we had to present to the city council and get final final final approval.

Whew. I’m exhausted just typing it.

Coday, Jessica, Roger and Maddy did a stellar job with their civic art. Check it out. I can’t wait until this project is lauched! Hmmm…what will we do next year?

Youthful Helpers!

heidi08 Tile Bridge November 20, 2009

Juventud, divino tesoro,
¡ya te vas para no volver!
Cuando quiero llorar, no lloro…
y a veces lloro sin querer

Rubén Dario

Ahhh nothing ages you more quickly than the young! Wednesday night Worth A Dam advanced by many years, when we were “bless-krieged” with the high-energy enthusiasm of the ESA students pictured here, who took notes, went through every tile, and ate an entire batch of chocolate chip cookies before approaching personally every member of the city council with their irresistible charms.

The tile project was the subject of a lovely article in the Pleasant Hill record portion of the Contra Costa times (page 1) (page 2) yesterday. I can’t remember an article that had more undilutedly kind things to say about Worth A Dam and the beavers. Usually there are at least a few cringe-worthy sentences included for “balance”, but we were clearly the heroes of this piece, and I for one spent the day in a “pinch me I’m dreaming” state of mind.

For those of you needing a translation, this is a famous stanza from the Nicaraguan poet and possibly the most famous spanish poem of all time. “Youth, divine treasure. You’ve gone already and will not won’t return. When I want to cry I can’t. And sometimes I cry without wanting to.”

(It is beginning to become clear to me that “cry” in this poem, is probably a euphemism.)

Meet me in the Parking Lot…

heidi08 Uncategorized May 3, 2009

Briones students design ‘greener’ parking lot

By Lisa P. White
Contra Costa Times

Posted: 04/30/2009 05:32:52 PM PDT

Updated: 04/30/2009 07:23:11 PM PDT

MARTINEZ — It looks like any other parking lot — asphalt, numbered spaces and a pay station.

But beneath the surface, the parking lot at Ward and Las Juntas streets is doing its part to clean up the environment. The lot was redesigned to funnel storm-water runoff into planters where plants and layers of sand, topsoil and mulch filter out pollutants before the water eventually flows into nearby Alhambra Creek. The innovative layout even managed to squeeze out a couple more parking spaces.

The two-year project involved advanced mathematical calculations and rigorous adherence to a set of complicated construction guidelines.

But city leaders didn’t hire high-priced engineers to design the parking lot. They turned instead to a group of high school students from the Environmental Studies Academy at Briones Independent Study School. Students in the program work in teams on community-based projects in addition to completing regular course work.

The parking lot is a demonstration project for construction regulations the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board hopes will help clean up storm water and reduce creek bank erosion, said City Engineer Tim Tucker, who worked closely with the students. The city paid about $40,000 to rebuild the parking lot.

Make way for ducklings!

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, New Species May 2, 2009

This morning glimpsed three duckling broods in the scrape, our older set of two, a mom with four, and a sleeping clump of uncountable numbers.

Two egrets fed on the bank and a greedy cormorant gulped fish between the first and second dams.

The year I started watching the beavers there were two families of phoebe flycatchers at the dam that produced 2-3 offspring each. Now those offspring have offspring and you see phoebe families every 20 feet. This morning babies were getting fed in aerial transactions that, while not worthy of Travis, were nevertheless amusing to watch.

The dams are both full past brimming, and water is flowing over the tops. There doesn’t appear to be any ruptures, just more water than they are used to dealing with, so there is runoff while they readjust. At exactly 7:00 am we saw mom come up over the secondary dam with a branch from the recently downed willow at the corp yard, drag it over the two dams and back into her lodge. There was an brief but exciting cormorant-beaver battle and then it was time for bed.

Planning a visit to the first farmer’s market of the year on sunday? Stop by the ESA grand opening parking lot launch. There will be children’s activities and food as well as opportunities to help them meet their mural fundraising goal. Worth A Dam will be there to support the kids who have supported us.

Come say hi, enter the “baby pool” to guess how many kits mom will have and check out our brand new 2009 tshirt.

We’re looking for a few good Trees…

heidi08 City Reports, Creative Solutions April 27, 2009

Linda informs me that there were two tree casualties this weekend, and Jon saw another midweek as well. The beavers are clearly doing some harvesting. I’m not sure whether the dams need new materials, or its just time to show the little ones some gnaw and order, but trees are definitely on the menu at the moment.

Timing couldn’t be better to remind the city that we have trees to replace and its worth while letting Worth A Dam organize the replacement. Our eagle scout meets with the director of public works today to talk about our planting plan. Felix Ratcliff of Condor Coutry Consulting is finishing his report and was seen measuring tree girth with a colleague in the park last week. Jeff Anhorn, owner of the Livermore Nursery that helped us last year, is ready with specimens and our enthusiastic Environmental Studies Academy students have already offered their help.

It’s a perfect storm of tree-planting, so I expect great things.

Speaking of ESA, they have their official parking lot lauch this weekend on May 3rd. Remember their good work creating the naturally water-treating lot downtown. They are finishing their fundraising to add a mural to the project, and planning to offer a fun event. Worth A Dam will be there to support them. Looks like we will also be offering our 2009 tshirts which might even nicer than last years. Come by, see the displays, and thank the kids for all their hard work.