We had some nice surprises. I started the morning with a visit to the dam and saw a few yearlings mudding about. At one point there looked to piece of dark hard debris on the secondary dam- right in the gap the beavers use to cross over. How surprised was I when the trash sprung legs, a head and a tail and proceeded to crawl over the dam, using the depression the beavers provided. It was a western pond turtle! He musta’ been moving fast or I would be able to share a picture of my walking waste.
Later a couple of very nice emails arrived, sent to the beavers (care of me), one from a supporter in Oakland and one from the Orange County couple we met at the dam last week. The woman from the EPA that included our beaver photos in the curriculum of every first grader in the state wrote to get updates and addresses. And we heard from Worth A Dam member Lory (on vacation in alaska) that she was in Denali park excitedly watching beavers swim around.
At the meeting there were more beaver supporters in one place than I have seen since the festival. Robert Rust (the kayaking creek cleaner) was there, along with a bunch of beaver supporters I had never met but who wanted to thank me. Ken Dothee came to tell me that his performing son (Nick Dothee) was wearing one of our 2008 beaver t-shirts on a youtube video and we should check it out. Of course I came straight home to investigate.
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=96lnu7q3yOI]
Oh, and what happened at the meeting last night? Here’s the short version:
Sometimes Goliath wins.
