uncle-sam1

I’m bursting with good beaver news this morning, so thought I’d tell you everything all at once. First, Happy Birthday to Worth A Dam’s treasurer and “Man-Friday” Jon Ridler! Another year whirred by under the weight of beaver madness. Jon was the hard working soul who helped our boyscout plant trees, has been watering the trees, kayak cleans the creek, borrowed the tables for the beaver festival from the powerplant where he works, set up the festival, gave tours at the festival and took down the festival– well you get the idea. In his spare time he’s married to me, so Happy Birthday Jon! Never a dull moment!

Secondly, thanks to our new friend Scott at the smart website JournOwl. Our photographer connected with him around his interest in burrowing owls and lured him to the festival, where they met, swapped stories, and she introduced him to our other newish friend Susan Kirks of P.L.A.N. and Badger fame. He wrote a lovely piece about the ecological interconnections, so thanks Scott and thanks, Cheryl!

And to my surprise the Worth A Dam event was indeed a happening place as we wandered from booth to booth, talking with the likes of the National Parks Service and the Mt. Diablo Audubon Society chapter. But, the Twitter connection that put JournOwl.com on Worth A Dam’s radar was suddenly converted to a face to face meeting with Cheryl. From our conversation I quickly gathered that Cheryl was more than a conservationist and the VP of a non-profit, but a wildlife advocate completely willing to further a cause beyond that of her local Martinez beaver population. The dialogue was a sharing of ideas and thoughts from someone who has been there to someone, myself, who is just beginning the journey; it was a coming together of mutual values for a common goal.

Speaking of friends old and new, do you remember Ian Timothy of Kentucky? He’s the remarkable 13 year old (now a whopping 14) who started the claymation series “Beaver Creek” episode I of which he has already sold to a text book company in Canada! His introductory science lesson on beavers won the AT&T Science Challenge at the Louiseville Science Center. In his spare time Ian is starting High School this year, and yesterday wrote to let me know that Part 3 of beaver creek is available for your viewing pleasure. It features exciting beaver-otter conflict resolution.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=JF0fcGLfGPM]

Beaver friend, fellow blogger and superhuman activist, Susan Kirks from Sonoma360.com writes that they are hard at work in Petaluma taking care of these guys on Paula Lane. With much labor, cajoling, inspiring and “badgering” they are in the last stages of an openspace deal that will purchase the land where these little fellows hang out.

Beavers and Badgers Part 3

The badgers have been on Paula Lane since the early 1900s. Long-time residents will share stories of seeing several badgers slithering across the land of the existing City of Petaluma water tank site. One resident who’s lived along the lane since the 1970s says a badger once chased his daughter on a bicycle (likely a threatened female), with of course no harm done. But, seeing a badger these days is a rare occurrence, if at all. Somehow, the badgers have remained, adapted and still have, thanks to the efforts of many concerned citizens, a protected movement corridor and protected habitat. Just recently, new burrows were seen in land on Paula Lane where the presence of badgers had not been known for 15 years.

The Paula Lane Action Network (PLAN) is a 501(3)c nonprofit with a dream for an open space preserve on the land. Like all cities, in 2000 the edges of Petaluma were rapidly growing, and Paula Lane was once farmland that went up for sale. The idyllic curve of land is a beloved spot for watching the last rays of sun on the city, so it has been dubbed “sunset hill”. I’m sure the city had dollar signs in its eyes and said something like “Badgers? We don’t need no stinking badgers!”, but PLAN had vision of open space that was part of the ring trail that circles the city and makes a wildlife corridor.

You think it takes a long time to save beavers? PLAN has been hard at work on this goal since 2003. The issue has been pushed back and pushed forward again and again, but in 2006 the family that owned the land took it off the market and indicated a willingness to sell it for open space. The two 1800’s farm homes on the site will be rented by “caretakers” who keep an eye on the land, and adjoining schools will have environmental classrooms in the region. Hiking trails and inviting open space will make room for the badgers and the people who need to breathe open air and see the sun set at the edge of their community.

From Corey Young: The Argus Courier

From there, things began looking up for the preserve’s supporters. That year, the city included the Paula Lane site as one of four properties on a list of requests for matching grants from the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District.

Although unsuccessful, the project was back for consideration this spring, and ultimately won support from the Open Space District. This fall, the county Board of Supervisors agreed to give $1 million toward the city’s purchase of the site, if the city and PLAN would take on maintenance and operation responsibilities.

Still to be determined is the final purchase price. A 2005 appraisal pegged the value of the land at $3 million, but the drop in property values has likely reduced that.

A new appraisal is under way and the city’s latest estimate of the property’s cost is $2 million, according to a recent application for a $990,000 grant from the California Coastal Conservancy.

Are you noticing those dates and numbers? This is a huge undertaking that makes me positively dizzy to consider. Susan is an acupuncturist by trade who also started a wildlife rehabilitation center. I am so thoroughly impressed with what she has inspired I could just sit with my mouth open for weeks. Honestly I thought that having your life completely taken over by an issue so that there are traces of your advocacy efforts leaking into every day and visible in every room of your home was occasionally necessary but very, very weird. It turns out that there are amazing people making space to make a difference all around us.

Find something outside yourself that is yourself, and devote yourself to it with all your heart, said Bob Walker the EBRP photographer who is credited with saving much of the open space in the Bay Area and beyond. I guess you found yours, Susan.

I know the beavers would want me to thank you so much for all the hard work you have done to leave a legacy of badgers on sunset hill.