14th Annual Beaver Festival Promises To Be A ‘Dam’ Good Time

MARTINEZ, CA — Longtime Martinez Beaver Festival organizer Heidi Perryman is excited to once again hold the beloved event that celebrates the unwelcome beavers who came to the city in 2007 and whose offspring are now thought to be thriving throughout the Bay Area.

“We haven’t had local beavers for five years, but I do think they transitioned to Fairfield and they are living their best lives,” Perryman told Patch. “We also have beavers in Napa and beavers in Sonoma; we had beavers show up in Pleasant Hill and in Walnut Creek this year.”

The original beaver father — called Buster Beaver by many — lived with two consecutive mama beavers in Martinez for 10 years and should have around 27 children and grandchildren, Perryman said. These descendants are now living in urban waterways throughout the Bay Area, she said.

“I think some of those kits [beaver babies] actually come back now that they are grown up and when they don’t see anyone here to connect with, they keep going,” said Perryman, who founded the volunteer group Worth A Dam in 2007 when a family of beavers moved into Alhambra Creek and built a lodge that some feared would cause flooding. The effort to protect the beavers grew into a yearly festival.

I forget sometimes what it’s like to be quoted and referred to as Perryman Perryman Perryman over and over. I feel so used to just being Heidi or even H that I feel a bit like I’ve been drafted or playing for the yankees.

Volunteers from Fairfield and the Beaver Brigade from San Luis Obispo — where a beaver festival was held earlier this year — will be in town to help with the 14th annual Martinez Beaver Festival.

Perryman invites people from throughout the Bay Area and beyond to come and learn why beavers are superheroes when it comes to climate change and why more cities should be teaming up with them like Martinez did.

The festival, which has become one of the most-attended nature events in the Bay Area, is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 24, at Susana Street Park at Susana and Estudillo streets in downtown Martinez. There will be live music, wildlife and conservation exhibits, children’s activities and a silent auction.

The East Bay Regional Park District is bringing its lifesize mobile fish tank, and festivalgoers can see native predatory birds and a selection of bats and reptiles.

Renowned chalk artist Amy Gallaher Hall of Napa will create a sidewalk mural, and children are invited to watercolor the inside of a beaver lodge.

Goodness she’s making it sound fun! Doesn’t it sound like it’s going to be fun? Sometimes I am so worried about all the details I forget to notice what a truly fun day it is. Unlike an other.

For the first time ever, the festival starts with a performance by the acclaimed children’s choir VOENA from Benicia, followed by a packed lineup of bluegrass, Irish folk and Dixieland. Children can join a superhero treasure hunt and adults can learn from various exhibits or bid on donated items including a luxury safari for two.

“Come learn why beavers matter and why California is working harder to cooperate with them,” Perryman said. “We are hoping to teach other communities how and why to coexist with beavers.” For more information, go to Martinezbeavers.org.

That’s it in a nutshell. Nicely done Maggie.

Can’t a beaver die in peace anymore?

I guess not. Yesterday morning my inbox was cluttered with alerts that folks had seen a dead beaver in the creek. One of the emails came from old friend at the contra costa times who had bought himself out of its demise and wound up at Bay City News. He and his wife had been saddened to see the beaver on their walk that morning so he wanted to write a story which appeared later in the day on SFGate.

Beaver Found Dead In Downtown Creek

A beaver found dead Monday in Alhambra Creek in downtown Martinez is prompting efforts by a local preservation and tracking group to see whether that beaver was part of a resident family, or an individual in the area short-term, a local preservationist said Tuesday.

A beaver had been photographed swimming several days earlier, said Heidi Perryman, president and founder of Worth a Dam, a Martinez-based advocacy group.

“So the question is, is it the beaver that was photographed? Or his partner? Or a stranger?” Perryman said. “We will look for a live beaver and try to see if we have an answer.”

Of course Jon went and checked the beaver which was a yearling on the bank of Escobar street area which we always called the ‘annex’. No obvious signs of injury that he could see. I called animal control to retrieve it but they weren’t enthusiastic about the job and didn’t come for a long time.

By then I had already had several more emails, a long question and answer with Patch and an interview for Channel 7. I guess it was a slow news day and every one was eager to think about something without a virus in its name. The patch article was really well done and I like the new reporter a lot.

Beaver Found Dead In Martinez Just Days After Sighting

MARTINEZ, CA — In any other city , the sighting and subsequent death of a beaver would not make the news. In Martinez, home of the annual Martinez Beaver Festival, it is a different story.

“The beaver is a very high-profile animal in Martinez; it is part of our history,” said Heidi Perryman, who founded the volunteer group “Worth A Dam” in 2007 when a family of beavers moved into Alhambra Creek and built a lodge that some feared would cause flooding. The effort to protect the beavers grew into a yearly festival.

It’s always nice to remind reporters about the history. They like the story too and people enjoy remembering the bright time in their lives. Well, maybe not the mayor. But other people.

The beaver family was living happily ever after — and the festivals were growing larger and larger — until 2016 when the flow device was removed. The beavers scrambled upstream and soon, they were out of sight.

The festivals continued, and in the years since, Perryman said there have been many “drive-bys” of beavers from the Carquinez Strait, which she described as a freeway for beavers.

But none have stuck around.

That is why she was so thrilled when she saw the photo of a beaver posted to Martinez Patch. The photo was taken April 27 by Douglas Pierce, an employee of the Conta Costa County Public Works Department. The beaver was munching on a branch in Alhambra Creek near Main Street.

So by the afternoon I was told that Dunivan called about the ‘sick or dead beaver’ which was a kind of relief because it made it even more unlikely that one of his people had been asked to kill it. Of course, the thought of foul always crosses ones mind in a case like this, but I remind myself that if the city of Martinez had the skill set needed to quietly kill beavers ours would have been dead years ago.

She believes the live beaver in the photo and the one found dead were likely one and the same. The beaver appeared to be a 40-pound male yearling — or teenager — who may have been looking for food, a place to live and maybe even a female beaver to start a family with, she said.

There were no outer signs of trauma to the beaver, she said, so she does not think it was hurt or attacked. Animal Control was notified, Perryman said, in the hopes they will come and retrieve the deceased beaver.

That doesn’t mean Perryman is slowing down. She is slated to give an online lecture at 7 p.m. Tuesday for Napa County Resource Conservation District’s “Wild Napa: A Free Lecture Series,” during which she will talk about “Beavers in our Ecosystems.” To view the lecture on Zoom, sign up here. Napa RCD is also streaming the lecture on Facebook Live.

Well, sure. I figured if folks were sad about the beaver they might want to tune into the story tonight and hear about the family. That’s what I’ll be doing. And it always helps to remember the story of a thriving family.

So the last interview of the day was on camera for ABC7 and supposed to be that night on the news. We did it outside and he used a mask and a stand mic from 6 feet away. Kind of strange to be televised during a pandemic but when he went down to see the beaver he called and said it had been picked up. So I’m not sure if it ever made the news.

Maybe hearing the story will help you, too. Register for the zoom talk or watch live on facebook. And let’s have a beaver memorial. Come wish me luck.

Oh and if you need more hope than that, watch this amazing video from Moses early footage of the family in happier days.

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