Stories

heidi08 Uncategorized March 5, 2011

This was my introduction to the “Close to Home” speech last week. I thought it would be good to mention because now that there are two kits visible we are hearing the whining sound again. Apparently, its persuasive effect hasn’t diminished.

The Accidental Advocate

If I had a plan for my life saving beavers surely wasn’t in it. I got involved in the beginning just because I was curious. Someone I don’t know and never saw again said ‘have you seen the beavers’ and I never had. I had never made a movie, never written an article, never spoken at up a meeting. The night the city announced the beavers would be killed I stopped by starbucks on the way home and saw two kits feeding on the bank. They make noise, did you know that? They kind of whine uh uh uh to eachother it happens when one has something the other wants, or whenever mom’s anywhere near. I heard that noise and my heart just clutched. When would I ever hear that sound again? Did the people who decided these beavers must die even now it existed? I know that was the moment I decided to become a beaver defender. I didn’t think about duration –maybe I’d give it a weekend, maybe a week. I figured the whole thing would blow over in a matter of months. Boy was I wrong.

Dinner for Two and Mum

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Friends of Martinez Beavers, kits June 18, 2010

How long has it been since you’ve had a side-splitting, tear-streaming, about-to-wet-your-pants laugh? Our two newbies kept us in stitches last night with their artless antics. They definitely had designs on mom’s dinner and wrestled her to get it until she had to swim out of reach. They had designs on each other’s dinner and did lots of whining to indicate their dissatisfaction with their own. They did unplanned back flips and front flips when their unsteady balance found them head over heels, as in the above video. Watch all the way to the end. You won’t regret it.

But the show stealing climax was when the kits decided to try to try and eat a buoyant food in the water. Since it was just floating on the surface, and they were just floating themselves, they had no purchase to get their teeth sunk in. This meant that they swiped at the food, fell nose over tail, and splashed hopelessly in the water. The kit would bravely right himself, shake the water out of his nose, and try again, with the same or worse results. No lion in the serengeti could have pursued his prey more diligently. Except for the fact that the prey in this case was not alive and couldn’t actually swim away. It was twenty minutes of epic national geographic footage. By the end of the tussle we were in hysterics and begging for it to stop because it hurt to laugh so hard.

Which is, just to say, I’m sure the show will repeat tonight. Plan on nine and bring a sweater. Oh, and check out our new map from beaver supporter and graphic designer Libby Corliss. Thanks Libby!

Flurry

heidi08 Beaver News, Creek Seekers Poetry Contest, Educational, Environmental, kits May 26, 2009

After the thrill of good news that we were the proud guardians of four baby beavers in Alhambra creek Once Again, there was a lot of work to be done. Linda rolled up her metaphorical sleeves and started chatting beavers with the media, which I’m sure you heard a little something about. Cheryl has been devotedly at the dam site trying to capture photos of our elusive quartet, and I have been avidly making and launching video, updating the website (In the past 24 hours we’ve had 2000 page views and web traffic from all over) and returning emails to folks who saw the story, and wanted to be involved.

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds 2008

This beloved picture is from last years brood, and I just received a copy of its appearance in the teacher’s edition of the Califonia Education and the Environment Initiative, “surviving and thriving” science curriculum which will be distributed to every 1st grade teacher in the state. Looking at this picture you can see why Cheryl should be given ample opportunity to be photographing the next generation. (So if you want to help out, go have drinks at Left Bank and tip her enormously so she can have more free time!)

Some wrote to complain that beavers should be exterminated and no city should have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on sheetpile “to protect them”. ARGGGHHH!!!! I don’t even react to the beavers-are-rodents-kill-them arguments anymore, but the sheetpile mythology makes makes my teeth hurt. Lets try this once more. The sheetpile wall was not built to protect the beavers. In fact, beaver supporters took the city to court to stop it, spent a great deal of money and time to fight it, and lost. The sheetpile wall was not even built to protect the bank, because historical photographs show us that there is another sheetpile wall directly behind it.

The sheetpile wall was built to protect the city’s relationship with a very important property owner. Period. Next question. Allow me to welcome any new visitors curious about this issue by inviting you to look at this video.

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

In the middle of this very busy beaver drama, we are trying to get ready for Wednesday’s creek seekers express visit. Martinez is hosting 50 visitors who will arrive on Amtrak, eat lunch and tour the habitat, and then come to Armando’s for a talk on the watershed by Igor Skaredoff, and a talk on the beavers by me. I’m still madly trying to add last minute footage to the powerpoints, and make arrangements for whose picking up lunches, drinks, and reminding the city to turn off the sprinklers. i’m fairly certain I have the basic talking points down pat, but there will be media and significant environmental players in attendance, so I want to make sure my beaver pitch is tuned to its most convincing

Congratulations also to Chuck who is the winner of our “baby pool”. Along with 9 others he guessed that mom would have four kits, and his name was drawn at random. He will be getting a Worth A Dam tshirt and the envy of all his neighbors. If you’d like a tshirt of your very own, drop us a line or come see us June 7th at the REI environmental fair.

Once we just get through wednesday then we can worry about the following week, when we have tree planting, a beaver class and REI to keep us busy….

Creek Cove Hides Baby Beavers

News10.net – ‎14 hours ago‎

Four new beaver kits were spotted in a downtown Martinez creek, bringing the colony to a total of nine beavers, a spokeswoman for the beaver advocacy group …

Four More Baby Beavers Spotted In Martinez Creek

CBS 5 – ‎15 hours ago‎

Read more in our Privacy Policy A baby beaver, like the ones found in Martinez. AP Four new beaver kits have been spotted in Alhambra creek in downtown …

KCBS

Four Beaver Kits Spotted in Martinez Creek

KCBS – ‎15 hours ago‎

MARTINEZ, Calif. (KCBS) — Four new beaver kits have been spotted in Alhambra creek in downtown Martinez, bringing the colony to a total of nine beavers, …

MARTINEZ: FOUR BEAVER KITS SPOTTED IN ALHAMBRA CREEK

CBS 5 – ‎16 hours ago‎

Four new beaver kits have been spotted in Alhambra creek in downtown Martinez, bringing the colony to a total of nine beavers, a spokeswoman for the beaver …

Martinez Beaver Family Adds 4 Fuzzy Babies

NBC Bay Area – ‎16 hours ago‎

Four new beaver kits have been spotted in Alhambra creek in downtown Martinez, bringing the colony to a total of nine beavers, a spokeswoman for the beaver …

Baby beavers born near downtown Martinez

KGO-TV – ‎16 hours ago‎

A video from a beaver advocacy group Worth A Dam shows four new kits, or baby beavers, in Alhambra Creek. That brings to the total number of beavers living …

NEWS FLASH

heidi08 Beaver News, Creek Seekers Poetry Contest, kits May 30, 2009

Confirmed sighting of FOUR new kits near the lodge. Footage here from Moses Silva.Have a cigar, Martinez. It’s a beaver!

Christening Party at the beaver dam and everyone’s invited! Worth A Dam’s core gathered at the water last night to see if it was really true. We were treated to a beaver display of grand proportions, Mom, Dad, three yearlings and two very persistent muskrats. There were even two tail slaps by Dad, although we never figured out what he was warning about.

Stalwart and intrepid videographer, Moses Silva, sought us out bearing a camera brimming with news. In the wee hours of the morning he had donned waders and strode through the water to find four new kits in a cove near the beaver dam. He filmed them with a flashlight taped to his camera. They had obviously been left outside in a protected area to get used to their surroundings. Click on the video above to see what he saw.

The group was giddy and celebratory. After all the “sheet” these beavers have been through this year, we wondered if there would even be kits, or if there would only be a few. Instead there is photographic evidence that there are four chubby and healthy little fuzzballs. In the video you can see them practicing grooming and nuzzling each other. Their teeth are very prominent, possibly because they haven’t yet started gnawing much to wear them down.

For those of you keeping track at home, this brings our current colony total to 9: two adults, three yearlings, and four new kits. Somewhere out there are two dispersers trying to set up life on their own. That makes a total of 9 healthy offspring mom and dad have brought into the world, and I got to watch. The notion that this is the third time I’ve been here makes me a little misty-eyed.

What better way to welcome wednesday’s creek-seekers train journey than with brand new babies?