Send in Adrian…

heidi08 Beavers June 3, 2011

Looks like Frontenac Ontario might get a little smarter and a lot more compassionate in the coming weeks, which is definitely something to celebrate. Now they’re discussing using Fur-bearing Defenders to come in and install some flow devices to manage dams that caused problems for the roadways this year.

Road works officials from Frontenac townships reported that beaver dams damaged more than 25 roads this spring. Trappers enlisted by Central and North Frontenac killed an estimated 300 beavers. “Municipalities hit the panic button and call a trapper and that’s it,” said Lesley Fox, executive director for the Association for the Protection of Fur- Bearing Animals.

Jake Emiston: The Whig Standard

Adrian Nelson is the young man who bought Mike’s DVD, consulted with him on the phone, did his first flow device install in October , came to the State of the Beaver Conference in February, and has been working like a beaver missionary since then. He’s also got the youthful, well-scrubbed and trustworthy look that makes him a good candidate for convincing gnarled unbelievers and 40 more years of cheerful installations.

If the Frontenac townships agree to bring in Fox’s expert, she’ll send Adrian Nelson. Nelson has advised several B. C municipalities and has personally constructed beaver deceivers and bafflers for private land owners. He recently built a pipeline leveller in Burnaby, B. C, inserting a large piece of piping into a dam to allow water flow to continue. The entrance of the pipe is blocked by fencing to prevent beavers from stopping the flow. According to Nelson, most structures cost between $150 and $300, with all materials available at hardware stores. Nelson will provide diagrams and how-to videos to any interested municipalities. If he’s asked to conduct a demonstration, he said he won’t charge any money. Nelson said the fence structures and pipelines can last as long as 15 years, allowing beavers to maintain dams without risking floods and washouts.

Pipeline leveller? Not sure if that’s the reporter misquoting or Adrian’s creation, but okay. Call it what you want just build it right and show Ontario that beaver problems can be managed without trapping. Good luck and let’s see what happens.

And here’s an ominous bit of history to end on…

: The Record Union Sacramento – 1899

Senbazuru

heidi08 Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers August 5, 2010

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{column2}The ancient Japanese legend says that any patient soul who folds a thousand cranes will be visited by a magical crane and granted a wish. The crane is revered in Japan, and is said to live for 1000 years. Traditionally 40 cranes strung on 25 strings mark either the enormous labor for a wish that is deeply needed, (like a cure for illness), or is the gift to a wedding couple as a show of love and support. Sedako Sesaki was just 2 years old at the bombing of Hiroshima. At 11 she was diagnosed with Leukemia and struggled to achieve senbazuru before she died. She finished just 644, and children still send the missing birds to her grave site. Just in case you’ve never made even one here’s a handy guide for your inspiration.{/column2}

I offer this tale, of course, because today is the THOUSANDTH POST on this website, certainly a labor of love which began in the pursuit of a wish. We got our wish. As we stand two days away from the third beaver festival I am reminded that we have reshaped our wish to include beavers in Fresno, Newberg OR, Sammamish WA, Tulsa OK, Bemidji MN, Chicago IL, Berriens GA, Nolton NJ, Thetfort VT, Medford MA, Oshawa Ontario, PEI, Scotland and Riga, Lithuania (To name a few). That’s a pretty big wish. Might need two magic cranes. Hmm…better keep folding.

Thanks everyone for your help and inspiration. In honor of the momentous occasion I am opening the comments on this post in case you have something to add. (Click at the bottom where it says ‘comments’ for a dialogue box). (Let the beaver wars, sexual puns and viagra prescriptions begin!) Writing daily on this process has been a surprisingly powerful way for me to keep track of all the new twists and turns and manage my own emotional response to what has been an enriching, frustrating, rewarding, challenging and life-changing journey. Thanks for coming along with me.

Advice for Advocates

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, Why We Care July 8, 2010

I’ve been fiddling for a while with a list of things the beavers have taught me and trying to turn it into something helpful to present at my talk at Close to Home in June. Mind you, this isn’t Letterman’s top ten list, but I’m pretty happy with it. Let me know if you think I missed anything.

1. Pick a subject that you love. Because you’re going to be stuck with it for a while.

2. Bring a camera. It helps if you can show people what you care about.

3. Offer solutions, approach the problems realistically. Find out whose famous for solving that problem and email them for help. It’s surprising how many well-known people return an email and how few will return phone calls.

4. Media. Don’t expect them to know about natural concepts like predators or tides or habitat or gravity. Provide photos, they like cute animals. Provide pithy quotes, they like easy copy. Provide video that is worth stealing and don’t expect credit.

5. When you say something don’t expect to be able to take it back. You have to get it right the first time. There is no time for context or mitigating circumstances. Short understandable sentences that are easy to relate to are best. Be prepared for the media to give the ’powers that be’ lots and lots more chances than they give you. Understand that they will probably never call them on obvious lies.

6. Identify your ultimate goal and be willing to make temporary alliances with anyone that moves you towards it. I mean anyone.

7. Remember that ultimate goal in your heart and be willing to sever or interrupt ties with anyone that threatens it. I mean anyone.

8. It’s not about you. Officials won’t do the right thing because they like you and for the most part they won’t do the wrong thing because they hate you. Mostly they have their own goals, alliances and Faustian contracts. You don’t matter at all. Keep that in mind.

9. Bring children. Children’s Art. Children’s Education. Images of children with the animal you are trying to save. Mothers with Children! Repeat as necessary.

10. Realize that the powers that be are counting on the fact that by the time you truly learn and understand steps 1-9, you’ll be so exhausted and demoralized that you won’t have the energy or inclination to do this again for some other species. Save something for the ride home and prove them wrong.

LA-17, a female Loggerhead, has just arrived at Audubon Aquatic Center, a facility of Audubon Nature Institute.Pictured from left to right Amanda Adkins, Jamie Mullins and Melissa Tomingas. photo credit Meghan Calhoun

Other Watersheds…

heidi08 Uncategorized May 6, 2010

‘There is another shore, you know

upon the other side’

Tonight Worth A Dam will present at the Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed meeting in Oakley. FOMCW is a well-respected environmental group that does remarkable things for the area. We crossed paths with them at the Flyway Fiesta and some other functions we’ve been at over the year. Turns out they are lead by a woman I went to high school with. So, go Alhambra with the conservationists! It is a great opportunity to spread the beaver gospel, because you know they will have beavers soon if they don’t already.

Along those lines, in January the local blogger “Mayor of Claycord” posted these photos of a beaver sighting in Marsh Creek. I of course sent them to Diane to inquire. She assures me that no one in their organization has seen beaver there. Was I certain it wasn’t an otter? Ohhh looking at that picture I’m ‘dam’ certain. Looks like its a great time to have an opportunity to talk about the good beavers can do in the watershed and remind them of the resources available for solving any difficulties they might cause.

Wish me luck with the epic highway 4 commute! I’ll let you now how it goes.

Riddles and Riders

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions January 3, 2011

Photocopy of historical Fur Trade Districts Map.
R.M. Bone fonds, University of Saskatchewan Archives
Box 28. II. Stony Rapids Project. Historical material – nd, 1954-1971.

One of my favorite parts of the Lord of the Rings is the council of Elrond where the nine were chosen for the mission to Mordor. I always enjoyed the introduction and identification of power, liked meeting faces you thought you knew but now understood in a completely different way, and was comforted by the idea that Sam and Frodo weren’t going to be alone.

I mention this because yesterday was the first ever conference call for the “historical beaver presence in california” for which it looks like there are nine of us involved. It was the most natural and still surreal thing, hearing truly thoughtful strangers obsessed with the goal of showing how the reintroduction of beavers could restore the watershed. They all came from their own particular point of view; “beavers are good for meadows, beavers are good for salmon, (or me): beavers are good!’

I was so interesting hearing about the different places the archeologist sampled the historic dam for carbon testing, hearing how to identify a likely beaver site by the shape of the valley, hearing how to construct an argument against the myth by understanding the myth itself. I was dazzled when a biologist from USFS asked someone to write up something about what to look for so that she could distribute it to all their field agents in the state and find more sites for research. At that moment it was clear to me how many resources and powers were assembled in that phone call.

I was especially amused when everyone admitted they were “addicted to beavers” and required a 12-step program to help deal with their need to compulsively look up information, follow links and return email. I just smiled at that, of course, knowing nothing of the condition myself!

Clearly we needed more evidence than just one dam. Was their tribal lore adequate to establish beaver in the high sierras? Was there evidence of soil changes or step plateau sedimentation of a beaver dam? Was their evidence of castor bone in midden piles in the area? Was their trapping records that would pinpoint colony location? Is their correspondence from the time that would prove beaver range? All we really need are a few letters from squinty-eyed pioneers living in the sierras and complaining, “Pa made us eat beaver again today!”

The entire conversation is still playing over in my mind, but the most easily recognizable delight came from early in the call when one researcher said that he had given a talk in Washington the night before and ran into several people who had heard about him from this “beaver woman in northern california!!!” hahaha

It was a great, collaborative, and creative conversation. The beavers would have been proud.