GO AHEAD, GUESS!

heidi08 Beaver News June 13, 2018

Hurray for June! Guess what our Napa beaver friend saw yesterday morning for the very first time! Go ahead, guess!

Ohhh so beautiful! When I was done being ravenously jealous (and it took a while) I was very, very happy for him. i remember that breathless feeling very of kit discovery so well. It will stay fresh in my mind until the very last thing is forgotten. It was something that happened annually for nine years, and every single time was different and magical in its own way. 2007 was such a surprise I hardly believed it. 201o was wrought with heartbreak.

2013 is probably my favorite, though.

There was so much more. Yesterday was a wild swarm of wonders, starting in the morning when city staff came to the park to hang the banners. I can’t tell you what an awesome feeling of pride it gave us to see them go up – both because they were amazing looking AND because the city of Martinez was spending manpower hours to benefit a beaver festival. After the all the hours they spent trying to get rid of them! There are 14 in all, and he carefully hung them and ziptied along the bottom to secure.

It turns out that winning the argument is the best revenge.

Doesn’t that look wonderful? Amelia did such a fine job! The ones the children colored at earth day were especially beautiful hung in place. We put all those in the center of the park so that folks could sit and study them,

While we were hanging them a man strolled by with his son to ask about the festival. He said that his son went to Creekside Montessori – the daycare right beside where the beavers live that happens to be run by someone who is not a fan, The man said his son and all the kids knew about the beaver dam and the beavers and loved them! They would be sure to make it on the day.

(If there are better ways to put pressure on the adults to do the right thing I surely can’t think of any.)

Just to give you an idea of how bizarrely fluttery my day felt yesterday, I later got a note from Ben’s publisher saying the book was being released and they were sending me a copy. Then I got a note from Ben himself, asking very politely if he could have 100 copies delivered to the house for the events he is doing when he gets here. And posters too. Could we just put them in the garage of something until he arrives?

100 beaver books delivered to my house? Guess what I said! Go ahead, guess!

JUNE IS BEAVER MONTH

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact June 12, 2018

June is beaver month, and don’t let anyone tell you any different. It’s when we would start seeing kits for the first time, it’s when the mornings and evenings provide great dawn and dusk beaver watching, and this year it will be month for the largest beaver festival ever. EVER! Not the largest in the the county, or the state, or country, or the hemisphere. But EVER.

Jon picked up a proof copy of the brochure yesterday and it was stunning, I actually love the new shape, it looks more like a program and less like a children’s keepsake. Supposedly today is the day the banners go up in the park. Fingers crossed I will post pictures of their debut tomorrow.

June is also the month that Brock and Kate from OAEC will be presenting on beavers for RCD at the Napa library. Let’s hope they mention a certain FESTIVE celebration! Of course RCD decided to advertise the event with a photo from our own Cheryl Reynolds, because let’s face it. Martinez beavers are Worth A Dam.

WILD Napa ~ Beavers ~ June 13 ~ Bonus Tour @ 6pm!

June 13 – Beavers, Kate Lundquist and Brock Dolman, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center

6 pm – Special Tour – Meet behind old Napa Firefighters’ Museum

7 pm – Lecture – Napa Library

Yearling grooming 2010: Photo by Cheryl Reynolds Worth A Dam

Come learn about the fascinating history and ecology of beavers, and how they are helping both urban and rural communities across California restore watersheds, recover endangered species, and Increase climate change
resiliency. Brock Dolman and Kate Lundquist, Co-Directors of the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center WATER Institute, will share research done on the historic range of beaver in California and how you can contribute to the
Bring Back the Beaver campaign.

When: 2nd Wednesdays, 7 pm; NOTE: On June 13, special beaver tour will be held starting at 6 pm behind Napa Firefighters’ Museum

I’m sure they would welcome some out-of-towners if you want to go hear. Of course they should do the tour after the lecture so folks might get to see some actual beavers! As if this wasn’t exciting enough Rusty’s photos ran a spring series in the Napa register this morning.

Photos: Life at Napa’s Beaver Lodge at Tulocay Creek

Updated featuring photos from Spring 2018!

The Tulocay Creek beaver pond is located next to the Hawthorne Suites Hotel, 314 Soscol Ave., Napa. At the creek, you’ll find river otters, mink, muskrats and herons as well as beavers. Here are some photos of the critters taken by local photographer Rusty Cohn.

“Since Beavers are nocturnal, the heat doesn’t seem to bother them,” Cohn said. “They come out a little before sunset and are mainly in the water. During the day they are sleeping either in a bank den in the side of the creek bank under a fair amount of dirt, or inside a lodge which is made of mud and sticks mainly.”

Beaver lifts stone onto dam: Photo by Rusty Cohn

Isn’t that an amazing photo? Go to the article to see them all. Such a nice flat stone. Do you think he’s looking for a skipping rock?

From Napatopia to Napageddon

heidi08 Beavers October 10, 2017

Yesterday was a day of unveiling unthinkable horrors. The fires ravaged the homes of friends and wildlife all across Napa, Sonoma, and Santa Rosa. Every advance had some fresh horrors, friends or family or folks we care about. Safari West has been an on again off again nightmare. I heard initially from Marie that the fire was stalled, then that they were assessing what to do, then that the Oakland Zoo was standing by to take rescued animals, then this report of the owner, Peter Lang staying at the site and putting out spot fires with attached garden hoses to make sure the animals were safe, while his home burned to the ground.

I still haven’t heard from Rusty or Robin, or Tom of Sonoma Birding, there are so many people we care about in trouble. This morning there were mandatory evacuations not far enough from IBR where Cheryl works. I heard from Amy the artist who will be working with us this summer that they live right at the border of trouble on the Silverado Trail in Napa. She was staying with friends and filled with concern. It has been the same for everyone all day, all night, all over.

And is still.

This was unbelievable footage of them evacuating Kaiser Hospital in Santa Rosa.

Just one story, and you know there are thousands of them. Pets and horses in shelters, schools closed or burned down, downed power and broken cell service so families can’t even know if each other are safe. Not to mention all the millions of dollars tied up in wineries all across the burning landscape. (Whatever California Wine you own you better set it aside for safe keeping, because the next bottle you buy is going to cost a lot more.)

There is, in all this gloom, a single bright spot. I saw county supervisor Brad Wagenecht on channel 5 talking about what was evacuated in Napa and thought I’d express my condolences and ask one impertinent question. We have had contact over the years because he sometimes visits the beaver pond in what used to be Napatopia (and now seems more like Napageddon). He even came to one of our festivals a few years back. Of course you know exactly what I asked.

He wrote this morning to answer the beavers in Tulocay creek are fine.

wrestling Rusty — Beaver Kits in Tulocay Creek: Taken by Rusty Cohn whom we are worried about.

Fire everywhere

heidi08 Beavers October 9, 2017

We woke at 1:00 smelling smoke and it wasn’t any better when the sun came up. It seems like everything is burning, with fires in Marin, Sonoma, Santa Rosa and Napa. There were mandatory evacuations just a mile from the Napa beavers and our beloved Rusty Cohn is apparently in a shelter awaiting news. Maybe Robin Ellison too? I read on FB that wildlife photographer Tom Reynolds was also evacuated and I am waiting to hear back on our friends at Safari West. Not to mention all the others we care so much about in harms way.

Here’s hoping the fire crews do magical work and they are assisted by sudden rain.

LATE BREAKING:

Still haven’t heard from our Napa friends but Safari West evacuated staff and guests last night. Marie just wrote and thanks to some awesome firefighters they are spared, hurray for our heroes and some lucky animals.

What is in a name?

heidi08 Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? September 29, 2017

Yesterday I handed in the goliath special event application necessary for the new beaver festival which felt great to do. You can’t imagine what the response was. (I’ve attached the map and short description they ask for). Description-of-proposed-event

We have gotten to be very good friends with Parks and Rec folk after 10 years and they give us quiet pieces of invaluable advice when we need it. (Psst you forgot to do this or sign this…) This time it was whispered that when we advertise f or the event we should be careful to call it SUSANA PARK and not SUSANA STREET PARK because some were sensitive about the issue.

!!!!!!

I will call it anything you like if it means I get to have a beaver festival there, of course. But who on earth calls it SUSANA PARK? Even the listing of parks on the city website calls it Susana Street Park, the Gazette calls it Susana Street Park, and it’s known locally as Susana Street Park. But I guess Art in the park [and that squatter] Shakespeare in the park called it Susana Park as they’ve been advised, and it’s offially listed on google and map quest as Susana park, so I guess like everything else in Martinez, it’s complicated.

Meanwhile in the normal beaver news Rusty Cohn’s Photo Essay reappeared in the Napa Register today, and I am always very happy when people get to look at his awesome photos.

Photos: Life at Napa’s Beaver Lodge at Tulocay Creek

The Tulocay Creek beaver pond is located next to the Hawthorne Suites Hotel, 314 Soscol Ave., Napa. At the creek, you’ll find river otters, mink, muskrats and herons as well as beavers. Here are some photos of the critters taken by local photographer Rusty Cohn.

“Since Beavers are nocturnal, the heat doesn’t seem to bother them,” Cohn said. “They come out a little before sunset and are mainly in the water. During the day they are sleeping either in a bank den in the side of the creek bank under a fair amount of dirt, or inside a lodge which is made of mud and sticks mainly.”

This is my favorite of course, but go and look at the rest, they are all wonderful.