Nobody tells you

heidi08 Festival July 21, 2015

Nobody tells you when you decide to save some beavers that things are going to change dramatically. I mean, how could they? We’re just talking about a handful of rodents, and the whole thing will be over in a few weeks. Or months. It’s harder than you expect. A lot harder. So you try to make the job a little easier by starting a non profit to carry the load and throwing a festival to tip the scales in the public eye. You imagine that it’s like planting a tree, lots of tending for the first 6 weeks or so and then it will lay down deep tap roots and tend itself.

Nobody pulls you aside and says, listen kiddo, you’re taking on something really, really big. I know it seems like fun now. But it will take less time than you think to completely transform the way your life looks. Down to the last detail of when you wake up, what’s in your living room and who you talk to. And you have no idea how much of you it will consume. Honestly.

And then there are these vibrating crystal days like Monday, where the first thing you do in the morning is connect with a favorite reporter who wants to cover the festival, the button project, and the importance of having a major wildlife photographer on hand to teach other people about beavers, and as the day unfolds you arrange a meeting with her editor who wants to profile your work in a feature before the festival, which is really, really good. While you’re finishing the display board for the jewelry in the silent auction, you find you have to repair a blunder you made while trying to be polite that ended up causing possible harm to people you never met, and after you fling about trying to correct the harm, you get reassured by the people who noticed the mistake in the first place that everything is fine now. the mini-crisis actually made two different forces connect that were unaware of each other and that could turn out very, very good for beavers. Oh. Okay, then. Meanwhile you manage to wheedle three companies into arranging their service for the festival more conveniently for your needs without a surcharge, call the printer about the brochures, confirm the fiddlers and the solar unit, and contact everyone you know with children about Saturday.

And finally, when the mail arrived it has a grant from Martinez Kiwanis.

I realized in the buzzy hum of yesterday, that there are parts of all this work I like. There are parts of all this that feel just right. Like I’m using every conceivable piece of whatever talent I might have in just the right way. The funny thing is that there are days like today in my professional life, when you spend all day on the phone with CPS or Probation and have to talk your way up the ladder to get your patient into a different placement, or into the hospital, or blessed with another chance. But those days, when they come, are unbelievably draining. Maybe not in the moment, but afterwards. I always feel later like I could sleep for a week. Maybe because someone’s life is at stake and in the moment you are the only one who can help.

It’s all very different. But familiar.

Anyway, I’m off this morning for an interview with the editor. I heard last night that Suzi had an excellent conversation with the freelance reporter, Jennifer Shaw, who wrote the great article last year. So I’m expecting another wonderful feed to the festival this year, and a great reminder in the public eye about the importance of beavers.

Which is the point.

Whenever there’s a good day like yesterday a part of me crouches in panic that something awful is coming. I’ll let you know if it does. But for now I have to do a thank you note for Kiwanis. They have been so very good to us over the years! I have said before and I’ll probably say again, that all the nice people in Martinez belong to Kiwanis. (Aand all the other ones belong to Rotary.)

The Best of ‘Times’

heidi08 Beavers, City Reports, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? July 23, 2014

Martinez: Beavers in festival spotlight

MARTINEZ — A segment of Martinez’ wetlands will soon be teeming with life, along with its myriad microorganisms, lush foliage and robust array of fowl and creatures that are already present.

The public will once again gather Saturday, Aug. 2, to celebrate an ever-expanding family of beavers who play a key role in creating such diversity — from one end of the food chain to the other — at the seventh annual Beaver Festival, featuring live music, wildlife exhibits from throughout the world, children’s activities and tours of the beavers’ environs.

This is a very good article. Not only does the author, Jennifer Shaw get the details right on the festival, she nails them remarkably on BEAVERS in general. The only thing this article is missing is photographs. Maybe they’ll be in the print version? But maybe there wasn’t space with all Jennifer’s awesome words. I’ll add some. Go read the whole thing. (The CC Times has a very bad habit of only keeping the article viewable for a month, so I’m making a backup right now.)

This year, an Amtrak train car of folks will be part of the coterie of beaver fans, as a retired curator of aquatic biology at the Oakland Museum of California — and self-proclaimed “chief creek snooper” at Flow Back in Time — helps to open their respective eyes about the eco-vibrancy of creek life.

Christopher Richards will lead the group out to Alhambra Creek’s inlet to put into context just how an industrious group of sleek-coated beavers have stabilized creek banks, decreased flooding risks through fostering the growth of the natural riparian vegetation, and assisted in restoring the natural function and hydrology of the stream.

“(Beavers) are the productivity, the agriculture for the critters in the creek,” he says, citing the beavers’ habitat as an illustration of how “we can manage, neglect or restore creeks in the urban Bay Area landscape.”

That should get some attention! I hope it gets picked up by a paper on the other side of the tunnel! In the mean time a huge round of applause for Deidre Martin who made the entire thing possible. She brought her children to see the beavers last summer and the furry ingrates didn’t even show up! But she decided then and there to contribute.

Deidre Martin, a San Francisco resident and volunteer natural sciences docent at the Oakland Museum, is among those beaver enthusiasts who will board the Wetlands Express, already championing the sanctity of this native animal.

“We need to dispel the notion of beavers as pests … They’re a keystone species. They create habitat for other animals,” she says.

Can I get an Amen? Deidre came to our planning dinner and was a delightful contributor -and that night she got to see the beavers before catching the train home. A San Francisco resident, Deidre first heard of our beavers from Kate Lundquist of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, and decided she needed to come see for herself.

Jennifer also talked to Worth A Dam pillars Cheryl and Fro.

“They’re a family unit. They all work together,” says Cheryl Reynolds, a Worth A Dam board member, describing the beavers’ lodge-dwelling digs, vegetarian diet, and their average 35-pound size.

kit and mom — New mom and Kit – Cheryl Reynolds

And, Pleasant Hill resident and artist Frogard Butler will once again facilitate a hands-on, experiential learning opportunity for the younger set.

Young artists will be making leather, textured, crisscross-patterned beaver tails in three sizes — adult, yearling and kit — and decorating them. Some participants have been known to return to the festival, sporting attached beavers tails.”

I love to see how everything comes together. I sure hope this article seeps outside the Record, But shhh this is my very favorite part!

The Martinez resident quickly segues from cute descriptions to basic science, always lobbying for the beavers that play a key role in creating the overall health of the ecosystem.

“The beavers are changing the invertebrate community; they’re forming nooks and crannies; and constantly moving mud,” says Perryman, noting that different insects flourish at different elevations of the terrain, and thus account for an ensuing “fish bloom,” and a greater diversity of birds.

I love segueing from cute to science! And I ADORE being called a beaver lobbyist. Let’s face it. When she’s right, she’s right.

Rehearsal Dinner

heidi08 City Reports, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers August 6, 2010

It’s down to spaghetti and sangria with the in-laws in the final hours before the wedding. There are the usual misunderstandings, arguments, lost keys and overly-affectionate drunks. The groom can’t be found and the bride has put on two pounds and can’t fit into her dress. Now the park is entirely surrounded by a mote (I’m not kidding) and I’m off to find a way to get 30 tents and 1000 people safely over the threshold. Can you say ‘drawbridge’?

Nice article in the PH Record yesterday. I was relieved to learn that I was the “co-founder” of Worth A Dam because its great to know that there will be someone else to help deal with all this late stage madness. I was starting to get worried.

Thanks for the generous eulogy-worthy comments yesterday. 7 truly kind things and only 5 offers to purchase cialis which I promptly deleted. It’s unexpectedly touching to feel like what I write gets read and appreciated. When I find the other co-founder I think I will send her/him down to meet with public works so we can do something about that mote – you know the city is just dying to put in alligators!

Rotary Moraga and Beavers

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports March 17, 2010

Yesterday I drove through the winding wilds of Moraga to my undergraduate campus of St. Mary’s where I gave a presentation on beavers and Worth A Dam to the Rotary club of Moraga. That’s Martinez, Pleasant Hill and Moraga where I’ve been a rotary guest, the third experience by far was the best. Great facilities, beavers on a huge (IMAX-huge!) screen, and very nice people. I emphasized creative solutions and the effect beavers had on the habitat, and the room was at full attention. There was a invitation to the Orinda Rotary club at the end, and some very appreciative promises to come see the beavers soon for themselves. I had a couple volunteers mention they would drop a line to the mayor to say how much they enjoyed the presentation. All in all, an excellent beaver lunch!

In the afternoon, there was this article in the Contra Costa times to delight in. Jennifer did a great job collecting quotes from Dimitry, our artists, Cheryl and myself. I missed the print copy though so if someone has it and wants to share I’d love to see what photos they ran. I was able to put Jennifer in touch with Jill Harcke who was able to track down the kids who drew tiles at John Muir Mountain Camp.

Annie Tejada, 11, featured a beaver clad in a baseball cap to reflect the Pleasant Hill resident’s affinity for the animal and love of the Great American pastime.

“Everybody put something that represented themselves on the beaver,” said the student at Strandwood Elementary. “They wanted to show their personality.”

Lindsey Marie opted to paint her tile featuring a beaver surrounded by hearts and a rainbow, while other artists wrote such uplifting messages as: “Help Me Help You” “Beavers Rock” and “Guess Which Beaver Stayed in School?”

It’s lovely writing. Cheryl took Jennifer all around the habitat and gave her the full view, so I think that helped softened her heart to our beavers. The only thing I’m not sure about was this:

One tile depicts a mom gently instructing her kit.

Jennifer Shaw: Beaver tiles installed on Escobar Street

I know exactly which tile she means, but our Director of Public Works looked at that same tile and said it was a Dad teaching his son how to build, and since it is the first charming thing I have heard him say about our beavers I’m inclined to protect it. Beavers are monomorphs, no external sex characteristics, so unless the artist tells us herself, we’ll never, never know.