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The rascally ‘escaped’ Scottish beavers continue to divide the wildlife community. Scottish National Heritage (Independent monitors of the official beaver trial) was responsible for the original idea. But trapping the free beavers is rapidly becoming one of those decisions that no one wants to be associated with. Scottish Wildlife Trust (who’s running the beaver trial) has been trying very hard not to offer an opinion, but several of its workers are open opposed to it and see the wisdom in studying and observing the free colonies as well as the million dollar colonies. The buck is being passed all around and now that they have caught the first beaver they are dangerously close to admitting that there probably isn’t space for all the others in zoos and they might need to be killed.

River Ericht beavers doing well at Edinburgh Zoo

ERIC the Ericht Beaver is “doing well” according to keepers at Edinburgh Zoo but there is confusion as to the future of his relatives with a prominent environmentalist disputing Scottish Natural Heritage’s claim to be capturing and rehoming the outlawed species. SNH has stated that the only acceptable introduction is one sanctioned by Government. Leaving these animals in the wild, it says, “would mean choosing to ignore well-established wildlife legislation… not something SNH, or any other Government organisation, can do”.

So Eric is spending the new year alone in quarantine in some back bin of the Edinburgh Zoo and SNH is spending it likewise alone, busily scrubbing the logos off their vehicles and cocktail napkins to avoid worse press. Paul Ramsay, one of the beavers’ staunchest advocates and owner of the beaver-famous state house in Bamff is coming halfway around the world to attend the State of the Beaver conference to get more information and meet some like minds across the pond. I can’t wait to meet him. You are invited to send Eric some good cheer. Heck, have your 3rd grader or your grandson draw something for him and mail it off. I’m sure if the zoo gets BAGS of mail SNH will be so humiliated that they’ll magically think of a better idea.

In the mean time, the paper is interested in your opinion about what should happen, so go Vote Here tell them that trapping these hardy beavers is ridiculous and a waste of an excellent opportunity to observe the natural effects of reintroduction. And while you’re at it tell them that a single beaver alone without a colony is truly less than HALF A BEE-aver.

News of a Friends Fundraiser: Anne Mobley of White Rabbit sends this press release

Martinez Downtown Retailers Focus Group Raised $1,048 For the Martinez Early Childhood Center

The Downtown Retailers Focus Group had its Second Annual Downtown Christmas Party Fundraiser on Sunday, December 19 at the new Ferry Street Station and this year it was to benefit the Martinez Early Childhood Center (MECC). One Thousand Forty Eight Dollars ($1,048) was raised from the dinner and silent auction.

Big thanks to Tony LoForte of Zio Fraedo’s Restaurant in Pleasant Hill for providing the delicious main meal of Chicken Cordon Bleu, Hal Logan and Holly Burgess for salad and dessert, and the following for donating items for the silent auction: Joyce Cid, Eloise Cotton, Pat Corr, Worth A Dam (Heidi Perryman), Mary Ann Stites (Ambiance Boutique), White Rabbit Boutique, Karen Van Tyle (Wellness 101), Gay Gerlack, Liz Sandovalm & Marty Flores, Hal Logan, Catherine of Beauty Source, and Bill Edgers.

The Martinez Early Childhood Center has been offering quality child care and development since 1974 and serves low-income families with quality, full time child care and development. Parents must be working or in vocational training and are subject to fees according to their income and number of family members. The Center is concerned with meeting the needs of each individual child and their program offers enriched developmentally appropriate curriculum to prepare children for Kindergarten. The program is accredited by the National Association of the Education of Young Children

Worth A Dam donated a ‘his and hers’ tee shirt and bumper sticker to the auction. As a “My God, you live in a small town” aside, I started volunteering at MECC on July 3, 1979 when I was 13. I was hired as soon as I was legal and worked there every day after High School, every long hot summer and during undergraduate. My ten years experience at MECC got me into graduate school and planned much of my life. If the blond woman in the bus doorway looks familiar, it should. That’s Cassie Campbell, now the director, who wore the kilt to help the bagpiper with the children’s procession at the Beaver Festival two years ago. Her husband is the string base player in the Alhambra Valley Band that’s appeared every year. Cassie used to be the director of the infant-toddler program. The second Martinez Beaver story I ever read in the Gazette a million years ago was about her entire class inviting the mayor for a visit to see the beaver lodges children had made out of paper mache. They wore their beaver hats and paper tails, and sang him the beaver chant while thanking him for working hard to save the beavers. Mind you this was before Worth A Dam, before I was involved, and before the November 7, 2007 meeting. It was, I like to think, the beginning of the end for the ‘beaver kill campaign’.

Can’t you just imagine the look on his face?

I thought I’d start out with some images this morning of varietal feeding demonstrated by the Martinez Beavers: this is a yearling eating grass. And don’t worry, it’s not because he’s starving or can’t reach the high branches. Beavers eat a variety of plants, shifting their diet with the seasons. We’ve seen them enjoy tule, fennel, sow thistle, blackberry, and now grass.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=yha7cgsnMRI]

Now for the real news…

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Association is the respected name in news that is too big to ignore. When there’s a hurricane approaching or a tornado warning or a sudden snowfall in the sierras, NOAA is the best predictor of what’s to come. It was report from NOAA that indicated to Louisana that Katrina was making her angry way to the coast. It’s NOAA that’s tracking newly formed “Bill” now and whatever Carley or Catherine that comes next.

I was surprised, then, when beaver friend Lisa Owens Viani sent me their new report on restoration measures for creeks. Its slick online tool “River rat” has everything you need for getting your tired, littered creek back to “Ship-shape” standards. It has advice on all the various tools you need to repair your watershed, and talks about the multiple hazards for our dwindling salmon population,

Guess what the NOAA recommends for increasing the numbers of salmon in an urban or rural creek? I’ll give you a hint, it starts with a “B”. It’s those crazy dams that everyone’s talking about! Apparently they make habitat for juvenile salmon in the winter, and the more salmon that survive early life to try their tails in the open ocean, the bigger crop your likely to have down the road.

Guess what they DON’T say is a problem for salmon? Beaver dams! NOAA is no fly-by-night, crazy beaver-luving organization. They are the arguably the single most trusted government agency in the world, so if they say beaver dams don’t hurt salmon I think we should probably isten. Apparently our very smart salmon can wait until high water periods and hop on over. Hmm, I think we might know this tune. Hum a few bars and let’s all join in! Afterwards maybe we can play a drinking game and do a shot for all time times we heard someone pretend to be worried that saving beavers will “hurt” the salmon population.

The loss of beavers, and subsequent degradation and failure of their dams and associated wetlands, has dramatically affected the hydrology and sediment regimes of many western streams. Impacts associated with beaver decline are particularly pronounced in semi-arid regions and likely contributed to impacts associated with grazing, resulting in accelerated channel incision and associated lowering of groundwater levels and loss of summer base flows (Pollock et al. 2007).A recent comprehensive literature review of the effects of beaver impoundments on fish (Pollock et al. 2003) illustrates that loss of beavers in all probability was directly related to significant population declines of virtually all native fish species cohabiting with beaver.

pg 70: Science based tools for evaluating Stream Engineering Management and Restoration Proposals. Prepared for NOAA Fisheries and US Fish and Wildlife Services. April 2009

Scratch that idea. No drinking game. We need to be sober to spread this good news. Who wants to break it to Scotland?