beavers_under_oakleaf

Autumn Approaches

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Educational, Environmental September 16, 2013

If you were standing on the bridge last night you could feel that little nip in the air that told you autumn is approaching. You would have heard the shrill chirp of the circling osprey who is counting his days before migration. You would have seen a handful of yellow leaves fall into the water and thought briefly of the Hau flowers in Kauai, that begin their hyacinth morning dressed in yellow and then drop gracefully into the water where they ripen first into orange and then a deep scarlet by nightfall.

And you would be marking your calendars so you remember to join us for this: 1240459_10151846003023958_1177210572_n Cornerstone is a magically elegant place just about 40 minutes from Martinez at the easy edge of Sonoma. It’s artistic shops have amazing things that we probably can’t afford to buy but are very fun to look at, and its lush gardens might be the sight of a wedding for a politician’s daughter or some important corporate event. But on October 20th it will be the home of the SECOND ANNUAL NATURE & OPTICS FESTIVAL, planned by our good friends Tom Rusert and Darren Peterie of Sonoma Birding. Naturally minded folk will travel from the edges of the earth to see the 40 nature exhibits, 8 artist displays and 10 sponsoring Optic companies who will teach you personally what binoculars or equipment would best suit your needs. And in addition to sponsoring the event, the good people of Pentax, Zeiss or Swarski will pay the sales tax of any optics purchase you make that day. You can bet Worth A Dam will be there talking beavers to the wine tasting crowd and we couldn’t be happier to see yet another nature festival in the Bay Area. Last year they expected about 300 attendees and wound up with a thousand. This year who knows what could happen?

Oh, and when you see Tom and Darren be sure to tell them congratulations. The great state of California allowed them to get married this year, and I’m thinking that their continued happiness is a very good thing for beavers.

Yesterday was “beaver madness at the dam”, with a almost full cast of six characters on stage including the three new kits, our 2012 kit (who’s now a yearling), the ever-attentive new mom dad brought home in 2011 and an uncle (step-uncle?) who is one of the three 2010 kits our original mom had before she died. This uncle beaver is apparently less eager than most, and stayed behind after his siblings had dispersed. Here’s he is coming to see what’s going on. Only dad didn’t make an appearance last night, but he is a cautious beaver and we never known when he’ll show. If you can steal an evening some time in the next few weeks before it gets cooler, I wouldn’t miss the chance to see the family in person.

2 Weeks and Four Days

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers February 25, 2011

Last night in Sonoma a group of wide-eyed and rained upon listeners were introduced to the tale of the Martinez beavers. It was an excellent setting and reception and Tom Rusert, who organizes the talks was charismatic and gracious. The crowd was a eco-savvy group, who understood exactly what it meant to get a city to do the right thing, or try to stop a city from doing the wrong thing! They laughed in the right places, gasped at the same things and thanked us profusely after it was over. We heard at least four rumors of beaver colony locations in the area and beyond, and Cheryl is ready for her fieldtrip to find beaver neighbors. Several pairs of inspired folk came up at the end, ready to advocate for beavers in the creek behind their house if any showed up, and challenged to think in new ways. Sonoma, as always, was a fairytale of a destination with cobbled alleys off free-parking streets and an excellent dinner for the crew at Taste of Himilaya before dashing off to the talk.

The title of this post comes from the fact that I am very pleased that I have two weeks and four days before my next talk in Yosemite. It was three weeks ago that I was presenting in Oregon and slightly less time before the State Parks Conference. It’s the four days I’m looking forward too, since it will take two weeks to figure out how to squish a talk I stretched from 40 t0 75 minutes, back into 35 minutes again while still saying what I want the park rangers to know. The four days are mine to squander and I plan on staring blankly at things for a good long while.

In the meantime, you should watch this PBS video of beaver reintroduction to improve arid habitat for fish runs. It features Michael Pollock who has confirmed he will be joining us in Yosemite. It’s a great look at the way beavers affect fish populations and I’ll try figure out how to keep it in the margins of this site for good.

Sonoma Bound!

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions February 24, 2011

Ready or not! Here we come! A cast of Worth A Dam characters journeys to Sonoma tonight to talk about beavers in Martinez, flow devices, protecting grapevines and letting beavers make homes for juvenile salmonid. The weather is not being polite and will likely rain very soon, keeping many potential attendees by their cozy firesides. Ahh well, it can’t be helped. We’ll have fun talking to each other anyway! And remember that ecology center in Ohio that advertised a beaver talk with a trapper? I am confident that this will be WAY better than that! (Sorry Josh!)

In the mean time, if you’re looking for a new way to see the world, may I suggest the winners of the beautiful Science Competition presented by the BBC. These fantastic microscopic images offer a breath-taking reminder that nature is awesome to behold at every scale. Click on the photo to go to the audio slideshow of the winners.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour

(from Auguries of Innocence by William Blake)

Beaver Truths and Untruths

heidi08 Beaver News, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Recent Sightings February 22, 2011

Ahhh, good beaver news in the Sonoma IT. Aside from one jarring typo and the what appears to be a photo of stuffed beavers on a pretend dam this is some good beaver reporting from Sonoma. It starts with a discussion by Caitlin Cornwall about the value of beavers to the watershed and the good they do to the ecosystem. Not sure why they deserve the label “seldom seen”, because they certainly aren’t wolverines! She ventures that the valley isn’t ideal habitat because of the ‘flash’ streams and urban density. (I would argue that since we killed all the beavers everywhere in California has ‘flash’ streams and urban density, and suggest that what we need are MORE beavers to mitigate the flow and more riparian border between homes and waterways – but that’s just me!)

Last night we met friends of friends from the beaver conference for dinner and showed them around our very trashed beaver habitat. Honestly the water level is so low everywhere I can’t imagine where the beavers could even swim to make repairs. We’ll see what happens – some folks said they saw them last night and cheryl and jean saw one or two kits early in the evening. Fingers crossed. At dinner we saw congressman Miller and our host ran after him to make sure he knew about the beavers! He assured her that he did and he had even seen them before.

two tails — Two Tails & A City - Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

.Alright, I have a radio interview this morning at 9:30 although my hopes of making myself understandable are fairly dim after being quoted as saying beavers aren’t active at night…sheesh….I only want to add…of course they only come out in the daytime so they can see all the FISH they eat!!! That is before they tunnel under entire cities, collapse buildings and fight to the death to mate with the herd…

Update: Radio interview went well. Lots of good news for beaver believers and some plugs for the city of Martinez. Hopefully will get more than a handful of attendees and change some hearts and minds!

Valley of the Moon

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, In the News, Uncategorized February 20, 2011

“What a coincidence!” Mrs. Hale exclaimed. “For this is the Valley of the Moon.” “I know it,” Saxon said with quiet confidence. “It has everything we wanted.” “But you don’t understand, my dear. This is the Valley of the Moon. This is Sonoma Valley. Sonoma is an Indian word, and means the Valley of the Moon. That was what the Indians called it for untold ages before the first white men came. We, who love it, still so call it.”

Jack Lonon: The Valley of the Moon

So I’m off to Jack London country this week, apparently the Miwok and Pomo thought the moon (or moons) rose from this region. Makes sense to me. I spent yesterday coaxing my Martinez Beaver presentation from its whittled 40 minutes-slot in Oregon into the 90 minutes I’ll have in Sonoma. I hope to spread the beaver gospel to the curious and disbelieving in attendance. I hear it will be a challenge. A few years back some very California beavers ate the grapevines in the area and caused quite a stir among the community. The reporter from the tribune and Tom Rusert my host asked me specifically to address issue this so I spent some time on the conundrum and did some investigations while I had the chance!

At the conference Leonard Houston and the Oregon folk said exclusion fencing > Mike Callahan offered the idea of electric fencing installed at a 6 inch height> Skip Lisle by email suggested maybe having it on a solar panel>and Brock Dolman said that solar paneled livestock fencing was used all the time. He pointed out that electric wire comes in different thicknesses for the different livestock you’re trying to control, and recommended poultry wire for beavers. Everyone liked this idea provided that care was taken to watch that beavers, who do not climb, don’t dig under the fence!

So there you have it. The benefit of many experts in one room. Hopefully we can persuade a few brave and humane souls to try it out.

Speaking of experts at the conference, Dr. Ursula Bechert, DVM, Ph.D. from Oregon State University asked me to post the description of her upcoming study using beavers as an indicator species to measure Persistent Organic Pollutants at higher elevations, where they are observed to accumulate. Beavers are studied because they are exposed twice (land and water) and provide a useful read of the data available. Hmmm I knew beavers had a harder job than humans! On a related note I heard from Dr. Glynnis Hood yesterday that she was pleased with the article in the Globe and Mail but disappointed that the temperature in Alberta that day was -36C degrees. (!!!) I think I will stop complaining right away. Still I’m thinking she may have to add some seasonal soap-bubble experiments to her extensive beaver research.