Out For A Swim

Bogus Beaver Briefs…

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions April 1, 2010

Got a call from the Gazette last night as I was closing up shop, saying that being as today is April Fools they’d like to run a fake story about the beavers leaving town and then say “just kidding”. Did I object? What, you mean having a newspaper falsely print that the beavers were leaving? (CCT April 2008). Have a newspaper misrepresent Worth A Dam? (LA Times October 2009). Have a newspaper lie about the activity or intentions of the beavers? (San Francisco Chronicle 2007). Hmm. Looks like it ‘s all been done before, really. You have to get up pretty early in the morning to say something untrue about our beavers that hasn’t already been said.

So I did.

Fishermen complain beaver are reducing catch rate of bass.
Beaver breeds with housecat; creates world’s first “Catver”
After three years of close contact with people, beavers imitate human speech.
Cell phone dropped in water causes brain tumor in yearling.
Couple who got engaged at beaver dam seek divorce, blame otter.
Child sues city: “I want my Tile Back!”
Public Works declares “National beaver Day”
George Miller refuses to visit Martinez again unless he can see the beavers.
Council complains beaver ate staff’s wooden leg.
Beavers gnaw through first layer of sheetpile. Staff worries they will start on second.

Now that was fun! You should try your own. I can see it now, a National Inquirer for Beavers. Coming to a check-out line near you! In the meantime, know that it’s April Fools, our beavers are fine, I spent yesterday on the phone with a dixieland Jazz band that wants to play at the August 7th beaver festival, nailing some key research for the beaver prevalence paper, and may soon be able to announce a new sponsor for the event that makes, I am told, a dam fine wine!

Morning reView

heidi08 Beavers, Environmental, New Species March 20, 2010

This morning a trip to the beaver dam produced some unexpected treats. I was there at 6:30 and while I waited for a beaver to appear I listened to the showoff songs of the resident mocking bird. I haven’t heard one for a while, and it was delightful to remember what an extraordinary performance they can muster. Most birds learn all the songs they are ever going to sing in their first year of life. The mockingbird keeps adding and imitating sounds he hears every day. Mockingbird song surpasses even the nightingale for quality. They imitate every other bird, humans, car alarms, and traffic noises. At Rankin swimming pool there even used to be one that imitated the life guards whistle.

I also remember the misery of having one decide to sing outside your window all night.It is a something a person who has lived through will not likely forget. It’s not the volume, its the unpredictabilty. If it were the same thing over and over again, it might be possible to adapt. But mockingbird song is impossible to “get used to”. The tune repeats a just few times and then abruptly changes, with an endless repertoire of variety. Try as you might not to listen, your attention is always jarred back by a sudden shift in cadence or tune. Sadly, mockingbird song is never boring or just repetitive.

As you might suspect, sex is at stake.

Mockingbirds sing to attract a mate, and apparently females don’t want to hear just the same old tune over and over again. (Who does?) The male woos her with his variety, volume, accuracy and prowess. Look at me! I can imitate a robin! Look at me! I can imitate a lawnmower! Look at me, I have highly developed syingeal biphonation! Well, we humans understand something about showing off. I guess we can make allowances. Apparently all males sing during the day, but those that sing at night are the ones that haven’t got yet won the girl. Once love comes their way and nest building and chick rearing require their attention, they’ll stop. I promise.

At 7:15 a telltale V in the water marked the return of mom from far downstream. She crossed the secondary dam and swam steadily carrying a large leafy branch over the primary and back to the lodge. It was great to see her swim back home and know she was there and doing okay. I don’t know if the mockingbird saw her. I forgot to listen.

Well, did you go see it?

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Educational March 14, 2010

Isn’t it the prettiest bridge ever? Looks like grouting has to wait until tomorrow when Dimitry and Jon can team up again. In the mean time you should take full advantage of this gorgeous day and walk down to the beavers. It’s definitely worth seeing.

Life is becoming beaver-busy again for Worth A Dam. I will give a short phone interview today for a freelance reporter that wants to write about the bridge project. Next week I will be presenting to the Moraga Rotary club at St Mary’s College and talking about the investment Martinez made in its beavers, and illustrating how that’s paid off for the city and the habitat. Moraga is a small, wealthy town with some lovely creeks and the massive upper San Leandro Reservoir, so its a good place to preach the beaver gospel. Interestingly, it is the former employer of our current city manager, who wanted to start an RDA there as well but was forcefully re-educated. We’ll see what Martinez teaches him.

The week after that I have a interview scheduled with a New York watershed reporter who wants to do a story on beavers and beaver management. I had written her months ago trying to persuade her on the benefits of beavers in the habitat when she wrote some rather ungracious words about our beaver friend Mike Callahan. Turns out she was intrigued. She is repositioning herself as editor of the Watershed Post and feels that a story on beavers is probably a good way to start. Okay then.

The next weekend Worth A Dam will meet with our new wikipedia friend who is turning out to be a crackerjack researcher on historic beaver prevalence. He recently got interested in idea of “place names” in california with the word beaver. Might that mean that was a historic trapping area? I pointed out amusedly that there was a “Beaver Street” in Kings Beach, Tahoe. (Where they were happily killing them because “they weren’t native”, which is kinda what got us started with this whole project in the first place.) Well he contacted the historical society of Kings Beach to learn about the name, and the woman he spoke to said, that’s interesting, because my daughter discovered a beaver colony in Lexington Reservoir! Turns out she’s the mother in law of Mercury Freedom, the man who took the amazing photos of beavers in Los Gatos!

Small beaver world. But you knew that already right?

Ahhh okay, where am I. Then its April, with a second conference call for the nine and John Muir Birthday-Earth day on April 17th. The following day is a Dow watershed event that we are supposed to be at as well. Then its Wild Birds Unlimited on mother’s day and Friends of Marsh Creek which should take us to June when the Martinez Beavers will be the second monthly lecture for Close to Home’s “It’s all connected” ecological seminar series. Some where in here I think I have traded favors with a beaver friend whose involved with the preschool at the near by catholic school and will be doing the beaver dance with some perky three year olds in exchange for some leads about the history of beaver legislation in California.

Then its August and the 3rd annual Beaver Festival. Ack!!!!!!

It’s tile time!

heidi08 Friends of Martinez Beavers, Tile Bridge March 11, 2010

Today 99 children’s tiles will become a permanent memorial to the beavers in Alhambra Creek. I cherish every single one of our young (and not-so-young young!) artists’ contributions along with the help of our generous donors that made this possible. The Gazette asked me today if there would be some kind of ribbon cutting or ceremony, but I told them no, just an open invitation for people to come down and see them for themselves. Wednesday, with the measuring and taping, you could really see how the project is going to look. Art to draw attention to the creek and its famous residents, beavers to draw attention to the deserving artists. It’s a perfect combination.

I won’t get all misty-eyed about the miles we’ve travelled to get to this place, or the challenges and bitter sheetpile hardships we have endured. I won’t mention the kits that didn’t survive this year, or the long hours of worry as we watched for missing faces. I won’t talk about all the exaggerations, the lies, the accusations or the mean-spirited panic beaver supporters have faced. I’ll just think about a certain November evening 27 months ago when everything changed.

Thank you Martinez, for giving our beavers the best possible welcome and thank you beavers, for teaching a city how to listen.

At Last…

heidi08 Tile Bridge March 10, 2010

Dimitry Doronkin: Contractor: Double Quality Remodeling (925) 708-1587

Tile-Bridge work begins today, barring a weird sudden rain storm like we saw last night. I couldn’t be happier to see the treasures of last summer become the pavings of tomorrow. I’ve heard from at least two papers that they’ll be by to photograph. Taping, measuring and framing today for the five panels, laying tomorrow. Stop by and say hi, look for your child’s tile, or just send a mental good luck.

The website was terrifyingly disabled last night when the host site did an upgrade. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything more frightening than the error message. The only word I understood was “missing”. It’s back where it belongs, but we’re short 700 viewers! Come back! Come back! All is forgiven! Once again, I must say that Bluehost has the very best tech support in the known universe. Thanks guys! Whew.