Teaching 30 children about beavers and helping them make necklaces in 95 degree weather is inspirational and tiring work. The bright shiny faces had just finished a hike up Mt. Wanda and were eager to learn about beavers and their habits. My favorite part was watching the children teach OTHER children. Some power-mad ‘charm captains’ were very hard instructors. “She didn’t say that beavers help birds by making trees coppice so she doesn’t get one”. Don’t worry, the loving and attentive instructors made sure everyone got one. We received copious thanks for our efforts and a John Muir tshirt that says this on the back
“When I was a boy in Scotland I was fond of everything that was wild and all my life I’ve been growing fonder and fonder of wild places and wild creatures.”
John Muir
Onto the nice article in the Pleasant Hill Record this morning, which follows a good lead in the Martinez Gazette on tuesday.
At noon, a children’s procession with Joyce Macpherson of the San Francisco Scottish fiddlers is followed by the debut of an original beaver ballad by musician Mark Comstock and his “lovely Beaverettes.”
Children will be able to earn “free” charms by learning how beavers help other species — creating a “keystone species necklace,” thanks to the Martinez Kiwanis Club.
The complete necklace tells a tale of beavers and their habitat and the festival itself, is the story of a community coming together, according Heidi Perryman.
Perryman is a founder of Worth a Dam, the beaver-friendly nonprofit that began when city officials fearing floods, began removing the home of beavers who had taken up residence in a downtown section of Alhambra Creek.
Well, that’s interesting though not exactly true in a number of ways. The city never tried to get rid of the lodge, and beavers don’t live in the dam. They tried to get rid of the BEAVERS, as in first they tried to kill them, and when that got difficult they tried to move them. But, hey, that’s all blood under the bridge now.
The 2012 festival includes representatives of the Marine Mammal Center, the Delta Science Center, Project Coyote, and the River Otter Ecology project, rangers from John Muir National Historic Site, and John Muir Association day campers.
Project Coyote is all about peaceful coexistence with man’s furry cohabitants, and River Otter Ecology is dedicated to habitat preservation and restoration on behalf of North American river otters in the San Francisco Bay Area. Otters have been seen in Alhambra Creek with the beaver family.
The industrious beaver is the only animal that changes the face of the earth more than man. Reportedly their dams can be seen from outer space.
Perryman said, “Folks from Alberta to Maine are starting to understand that beavers really are Worth A Dam, partly because of all the good work here in Martinez.”
What a great last line! I so rarely get the last word but that is an excellent last word to have! Thanks Dana Guzetti, for another beautiful article, and thanks Catherine Jacobsen (ed) who called me yesterday about sending a photographer to the festival. I hope you get our good side.
