Beaver Coming-Out Party!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions August 12, 2013

Beavers Set To Make Return To Habitat After Rehabilitation

(KUTV) “It’s been a long process,” says Dalyn Erickson Marthaler from the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah, “It’s nothing short of a miracle that they all survived.”

Hurray for the Utah beavers! Who have made enough progress to be released without provoking a panicked SOS across every beaver advocate’s email this time. Hurray for DaLyn and her team, and hurray for 6 very brave beavers. Only one isn’t ready for release, and I’m sorry for her, or him, but hopefully they will get there. And as they paddle back into their epic lives, I have only one question.

How will I get my fix of beavers-in-towels pictures now?

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Another touching email yesterday that you might enjoy:

Hi Heidi,

I’ve been bringing my Grandson to visit the beavers since 2010, the day after the Mom died. Now I bring his sister too and when my Granddaughter visits from Austin she always asks “Grammie what night are we going to see our beavers?”. We visited this past Friday night, there was no one around and my granddaughter spotted one of the kits within her first 30 seconds on the bridge (we got some good pix)!! We drew a crowd in no time and my two little experts 8 and 6 yrs old had to shush everyone and tell everything they knew about ‘their’ beavers.

We met you a couple of times by the primary dam before the two others were built and I just want to say “thank you” for being so kind and explaining so much to my Gkids! Because of this, I’m sure they will forever be Beaver Advocates! Hope to see you again soon so we can thank you in person!

Please let me know if you ever sell “Worth A Dam” T-shirts – we will need 4 for sure!

Sincerely,

Christine, Canyon 8, Sienna 6 and Lola 5

Aw, Christine! Your letter and photo are perfect! Since we don’t have any children sized shirts I’m sending her a do-it-yourself keystone species charm necklace. Her grandchildren always miss the festival for a family reunion, it seems. So this time they will get to participate. Maybe they could use the charms to explain why beavers are good for creeks to their friends!

Speaking of “our beavers’, Jon and I waited from 6:30 until 8 last night with nary a sighting of our furry friends. I was starting to get pretty dam nervous and imagine all the terrible things that might have befallen, Jon scouting up and down from the primary to the secondary without a glimpse. When at 8:00 on the button all three kits, mom and junior sprung as if from thin air onto the scene. We were so happy to see them and hear them again. They looked entirely ordinary and offered no explanation for their tardiness. As soon as they arrived, Gail the lyricist for the Raging Grannies arrived with her friend from Palo Alto! It was old home week while we heartily enjoyed the reunion. And in honor of her visit you might enjoy re-reading (or singing) this:

As I walked OUT on the streets of Martinez

As I walked OUT by the creekside one day

I SPIED a young Beaver all wrapped up in branches

A-BUILD-ing with branches, a-building with clay

I SEE by your FA-cial expression that you are

Sur-PRIS-ed to see me the beaver did say

We’ve COME to improve on the town’s situation

To see that Mar-TIN-ez is famous some day

We’ll FIX up the HA-bitat here in the creekbed

You’ll SEE lots of WILDLIFE will COME here to live

So CALL off the TRAP-pers and call off the shooters

You’ll See that we beavers have gifts for to give

The COUN-cil they fretted, they TEXTed O-M-G

Will there now be FLOODING to wash us away

But WIS-er folk CALLED in a manly VerMONTer

Our HERO’S in-VEN-tion meant beavers could stay

Still WE must stand UP for them, we must protect them

Though THE mama beaver is with us no more

So PEOple can COME and can see them in nature

For beavers are NOW a proud PART of our lore

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Finally, a hearty greeting to Worth A Dam’s all around man-friday, who has toured, chatted, lifted, carried, set-up, taken down, hosted and entertained every step of the way. Happy Birthday, Jon!

Threesome

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental, featured, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Video July 15, 2013

A new beaver blog has appeared from our friend Duane Nash in Southern California. He got inspired by Wikipedia Rick and the salmon gang, and sent me the interview questions a while ago. He will be in town next week to visit so if you see him introduce yourself! If there is any possible thing about how this happened you haven’t heard 8 million times already, you might appreciate the interview. Cheryl’s photos look great on another website!

Looking forward to beaver advocacy from our SoCal friends! Welcome to the beaver’hood, Duane!

In the mean time the update from the Utah beavers isn’t great news, but at least they succeeded in getting their voice to the media. Get ready for more beavers in towels.

Beavers injured by fuel spill face new obstacle to release

If they can continue to get the story out about they’re not being ready, those young beavers will have hope of a timely release. Speaking of young beavers…

Excellent beaver watching last night, with lots of kits self-directing and reaching for blackberry vines. We saw both kits and Junior toodling up and down between the dams. I was thinking that the “kit reach” seemed very July and was happy to see the date on this movie, which puts our kits four days later than their predecessors for the same exact behavior in 2007. Nice!

High Hopes from Heidi Perryman on Vimeo.

Team Beaver to the Rescue!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation May 1, 2013

Please pass this on to everyone. I would hate to miss thanking anyone that has had a hand in helping to save these guys from the immediate threat. Sorry for the slow response. My day has been crazy in more ways than one.

I cannot express in words how grateful I am for everyone that has taken the time to help. I know that we would be in a very sad place right now if it weren’t for your efforts!

We have what I am considering small success for now. The division has agreed to give more time to get these little guys back to health. We will be given the opportunity to try to introduce the beaver to make certain that they will all get along. I think that we have, a least to some extent, opened their minds to the fact that young beaver under the age of two need an adult. They are not willing however, to entertain the idea that it if they are not all accepted by the adult that keeping them past 180 days is an option. They are still convinced that they will become too habituated to be released. So for now we are happy to have the extra time and hopeful they will all get alone a family unit. We will be continuing our effort to educate the division.

We are typing up some notes from the meeting and sending them to the division for them to look over to ensure that we agree upon transpired during the meeting. Once we get their approval of the notes we will share with you.

Thanks again

DaLyn Erickson

Executive Director

Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah

Saturday Sunrise

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental March 23, 2013

Multimedia beavers? Well, you know it had to happen. This morning beavers better qualities are hitting the air waves across the country and we should enjoy it. Let’s start with this excellent radio broadcast from Michigan Radio.

The Beaver is back in southeast Michigan

›Listen

It has been nearly 150 years since the beaver has made its presence known along the Detroit and Rouge Rivers.The hardy little critters were done- in by trappers and toxic water.

It’s a nice look at the period of 5 seconds of enjoyment folks first have when beavers come back to a river. Don’t miss this glorious moment in time, but I’m sure we’ll hear from them again soon.

And this from Utah which was both adorable and thoughtful enough to unclench my purse strings to make a donation. You should too. When we think of expensive re-branding efforts and major ad campaigns, a donation is pretty cheap good-will investment. (Plus beavers wrapped in towels.)

Capture — Click for adorable footage and an excellent beaver quote

The story inflicted me with the magical memories of Dr. Seuss last night so you get my own meager version of the final stanzas of Horton Hear’s a Who this morning.

“Keystone species”, they said, “with their toothsome behaviors

Chopping trees, building dams, they’re the watershed saviors!

It is time for all folks who want rivers to flow

To recognize beavers save water, you know!

We’ve got to keep dams in much greater amounts

So, get to the watershed, for every dam counts!”

Thus she spoke and she typed until everyone knew

Beavers are working for me and for you

And that spill-

That one leaky pipe put caught the cam’ras

Until finally at last they knew what good the dam was

And beavers were seen, in all their furred glory