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Owl-Pal

heidi08 New Species March 17, 2011

Scott Artis, who heard the call of burrowing owls in Antioch, helped us with the website upgrade, and now is coordinating displays for the Earth Day event at the John Muir National Historic Site, posted this lovely adventure two days ago and I thought you’d want to see.

I received an email from Lindsay Wildlife Museum alerting me that a burrowing owl was reportedly trapped in a store of a nearby outdoor mall. Unfortunately, the commotion caused the owl to retreat to a secluded spot in the rafters, 18 feet off the ground.

15 minutes later I was walking through the open doors of Mainland Skate and Surf (Streets of Brentwood). And not only was the ceiling 18 feet high, but a burrowing owl was perched on the ventilation ductwork at the furthest possible point from the enticing open doors. After a period of 5 minutes discussing options with staff management, we were able to coax the little owl to fly…which for both our sakes resulted in a landing between some hanging backpacks. As I sprinted across the store I could see him jostling with the canvas until he came to rest on the ground. Without hesitation I grabbed a folded shirt from a perfectly aligned stack and covered the nervous owl.

Go read the entire story at Scott’s site and say hi from the Martinez Beavers. It is pretty wonderful when the major players start to know your name and send distress calls your way. He has done a mountain of work, and the owls are lucky to have him.

The Way Forward

heidi08 Environmental, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, History October 18, 2010

Last night there was a meeting of minds with Worth A Dam regulars and some new supporters who wanted to understand the group better. Plans were made for Earth Day, the Dow wetlands event, and early thoughts about the Festival. The clear-headed mother of our tree-planting eagle scout was interested in having another “jewelry making party” to create more beaver key chains, necklaces and bracelets to benefit our silent auction. We thought that would be an excellent idea! Our artist Fro, mentioned that she had learned how to make an amazing rooting compound using willow leaves in a blender, which she swore worked a charm and wasn’t a recipe for beaver margaritas. There was a discussion of the tiles and recent changes to the habitat, with a sneak preview of the adorable temporary tattoo we are going to make available for kids at our upcoming events.

Scott Artis, of JournOwl, who has been advocating so tirelessly for his burrowing owls, came and told his impassioned and all too familiar story: city lies, developer manipulations, and inverted priorities by Fish & Game (protect the permit, not the species). As some of you might know, Scott is a very tall fellow with an exceedingly gentle spirit; (he must have left 6 feet behind him somewhere in middle school). It was amazing, then, to see him grow even taller before our very eyes as he spoke fiercely about his struggle. Scott’s broad understanding of the issues, dedicated research, eloquent writing and passionate advocacy have pushed the burrowing owl story solidly to the conservation forefront. He recently connected with a writer from the Smithsonian magazine who will be following up with a story this year.

Our third new guest was Rick the wikipedia historian who has been doing such stellar work updating beaver entries and researching the prevalence of beaver in California. He had offered to pick me up from my conference in San Jose and come to the meeting, and of course we had lots to talk about on the way. We stopped off to view the dams and the tiles, which he found very impressive. Rick got involved originally because the 85 year-old man he had bought his house from had told him that he could “fly fish in the stream that ran there” all year long. Of course the stream now is dry for the summer and fall, and Rick wondered if there might be an inexpensive remedy. This got him thinking about beavers and when he approached the ranger he was told “there were no beavers here” which got him interested in the history. Turns out Captain Sutter bought 1500 beaver pelts in 1841 from mission San Jose, so that didn’t make much sense. This naturally brought him to us!

Rick was a veritable font of knowledge, describing the competing trapping influences in California and the different routes they followed into the state. He knew the particulars of what beavers were “(re)introduced” and where by fish and game, and even knew what subspecies. He is a solidly respectable researcher and physician who had the bemused air of a man had been completely ambushed by his overwhelming enthusiasm for this new and compelling beaver mystery story. It was clear he wished there were more hours in a day, more days in a week, more time for beaver pdfs, and more money to spend on endless historical volumes that might hold the elusive answer. Rick said several times that he wished there was a clinical term for this hopeless “beaver addiction”. but I assured him there wasn’t one.

It seemed perfectly normal to me.

A Beaver in Every Creek

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Friends of Martinez Beavers September 26, 2009

I thought today would be a good day to update folks generally on what’s been happening and what to expect in the next month. Alex is preparing his final “beaver management” summary from the conference, and while he’s busy looking up words in English (can you believe what a good job he’s done?) I can let you know some news.

First of all, I had lunch yesterday with Friends of Alhambra Creek Igor Skaredoff to talk about a project for testing the water quality at the beaver dam. He discussed tests for temperature, salinity, flow, bacteria, detergent and BMI (Benthic Macro-Invertibrates), how they could all be accomplished, and who the key players were to beg favors from to do this on the cheap. Igor knows and is loved by absolutely everyone, so I wrote down everything said and nodded gratefully a lot. The idea would be to work with Rona Zollinger and the ESA students to get the project going. She’s already expressed interest, so the next step is to contact my beaver experts and learn what’s most important for beaver health, and then shorten the list. If you’d like to be involved, especially if you have any expertise to contribute (maybe you’re a whiz with spread sheets or research?) drop us a line and I promise you will never feel more loved or popular.

In other news, beaver friend Mike Callahan was invited to the State House in Massachusetts thursday with the MSPCA to present on beaver management. One of the interested parties in attendance was the chief of staff for Senator Antony Petruccelli who, as it turns out, is the chair of the committee for the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture (in charge of beavers!) and vice chair of the committee on climate change. The chief of staff was very very interested in Mike’s presentation, stayed to ask questions, and invited him back for another presentation. Given the hit job the Department of Fish and Game got the New York Times to do on beavers earlier in the year, it would be excellent to have a key player on our side.

Scott of JournOwl has been very close to some good news about his burrowing owls, and posted about it here. Looks like the developer and the city are starting to take the owls seriously, so that’s a great achievement.

Our calendar for October is looking fairly insane but the beavers surely appreciate the advocacy work.

October 3: Wild Birds Unlimited, Pleasant Hill

October 6: Presentation to Parks, Marina and Cultural Commission, City Hall

October 10: Jugband Jamboree, Martinez Marina

October 11: Native Plant Fair, Tilden Park

October 17: Girlscouts Amazing day, Flyway Fiesta Sugar Loaf, Walnut Creek

October 22: Presentation to the Kiwis Club, Martinez

Get the picture? We’re gonna be busy.

By the way, I just got back from a trip North and saw these wonderful interpretive signs at MacKerricher state Park in Fort Bragg. They were conceived, made and designed by Sea Reach, an Oregon based Company, so I just had to call and ask how they felt about beavers. Great conversation and ideas, and definately got me rethinking the idea of our interpretive signs.

A related note about my conversation with Dave: In the commercial breaks we chatted about woodpeckers and badgers and I tried to get him interested in the stories. He knew about these stories from Carolyn Jones’ articles in the Chronicle, so step one is get her attention!

Finally, Cheryl did some great sleuthing and sent me this last night. It’s the blog from Jenny Holden of Scotland, Field Officer for the Scottish Beaver Trial. Check out her pictures from the conference. Sadly, I don’t see our t-shirt, but we’ll work on them for next year.

Antioch Burrowing Owls

heidi08 New Species September 1, 2009

Photograph: Cheryl Reynolds

Beaver friend Scott from the birdblog JournOwl has spotted several families of burrowing owls on a semi-abandoned RDA site in Antioch. Just like the pond turtle they are a species of Special Concern and their numbers are carefully watched around the state. He is working with city officials to get them protected but has had better luck getting the abandoned project to lock up than he is likely to have setting asside habitat for these feathered cuties. An update from Scott follows.

August 28 I am a bit overdue for a burrowing owl update so here’s the latest scoop… YAY! An email to the Director of Community Development , Police Chief, and Project Manager/Property Owner resulted in an immediate response. In the letter I outlined all of the issues that have befallen this semi-developed property and my concern for the safety of the surrounding neighbors, including myself. Shielded from prying eyes during day and evening hours, the area has become the perfect place for drug deals, graffiti, drinking, off-roading, garbage dumping, etc. I received a response within 10 minutes from the Chief of Police indicating that he will look into the matter and have someone contact me for further details. Within a day I received a separate note from the Director of Community Development letting me know the owner will be contacted to barricade the property. And while I was away my wife informed me that a number of Patrol Officers called and left messages confirming my observations. They also indicated the owner will be contacted by their department to erect temporary fencing. And wrapped within this mess are burrowing owls, California Species of Special Concern, that returned to the area after building was put on hold. With fencing scheduled to return to the area and temporary protections in place, I will be able to move to step 2 and push for the owls’ ultimate protection. Taking it one step at a time…

Tripple Play

heidi08 Beaver News, Friends of Martinez Beavers August 12, 2009

I’m bursting with good beaver news this morning, so thought I’d tell you everything all at once. First, Happy Birthday to Worth A Dam’s treasurer and “Man-Friday” Jon Ridler! Another year whirred by under the weight of beaver madness. Jon was the hard working soul who helped our boyscout plant trees, has been watering the trees, kayak cleans the creek, borrowed the tables for the beaver festival from the powerplant where he works, set up the festival, gave tours at the festival and took down the festival– well you get the idea. In his spare time he’s married to me, so Happy Birthday Jon! Never a dull moment!

Secondly, thanks to our new friend Scott at the smart website JournOwl. Our photographer connected with him around his interest in burrowing owls and lured him to the festival, where they met, swapped stories, and she introduced him to our other newish friend Susan Kirks of P.L.A.N. and Badger fame. He wrote a lovely piece about the ecological interconnections, so thanks Scott and thanks, Cheryl!

And to my surprise the Worth A Dam event was indeed a happening place as we wandered from booth to booth, talking with the likes of the National Parks Service and the Mt. Diablo Audubon Society chapter. But, the Twitter connection that put JournOwl.com on Worth A Dam’s radar was suddenly converted to a face to face meeting with Cheryl. From our conversation I quickly gathered that Cheryl was more than a conservationist and the VP of a non-profit, but a wildlife advocate completely willing to further a cause beyond that of her local Martinez beaver population. The dialogue was a sharing of ideas and thoughts from someone who has been there to someone, myself, who is just beginning the journey; it was a coming together of mutual values for a common goal.

Speaking of friends old and new, do you remember Ian Timothy of Kentucky? He’s the remarkable 13 year old (now a whopping 14) who started the claymation series “Beaver Creek” episode I of which he has already sold to a text book company in Canada! His introductory science lesson on beavers won the AT&T Science Challenge at the Louiseville Science Center. In his spare time Ian is starting High School this year, and yesterday wrote to let me know that Part 3 of beaver creek is available for your viewing pleasure. It features exciting beaver-otter conflict resolution.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=JF0fcGLfGPM]