This is Keenan, one of the students of the Semester in the West group who are working on the “Beaver Believer” documentary. He is editing some of the miles of footage they shot this year with beaver professionals around the country (including here in Martinez). Oh, look what they posted on Facebook he’s editing now. He even dressed for the occasion. Gosh, I hope he doesn’t take out all the swear words. It won’t be the same story without it.
Let’s be candid, and you may not be at all surprised. I am not the kind of person who does well with being edited. (Think of me like that plant that doesn’t blossom when pruned, but does best when completely ignored and left alone to grow in the sidewalk.) Because I forced myself to travel through the howling caves of graduate school I have learned to appear to cooperate with the process, but all I ever really manage is to “endure” it. I hate it when someone snips out one word or inserts another. Hate it when that red pencil slashes its way through my carefully planted word garden.
Learning that they were editing my footage yesterday was much, much more disturbing. Like being a recently sketched comic book character chased by a giant eraser. Keenan was very gallant, and said that I was so eloquent theren’t were very many “ums” or swear words to edit. But I can do the math. This is supposed to be a 30 minute documentary. And they filmed heavy weights like Mary O’brien, Suzanne Fouty, and Sherri Tippie. That leaves about 1.5 minutes for Heidi, half of which will be the beaver festival and 45 seconds will be of me talking.
And what pithy one liner did I manage in an hour interview that was worth including? I can’t imagine. You see my dilemma.
Well, I did ask for the cutting-room floor leftovers and Sarah the producer said no problem, so maybe I’ll find use for the bulk of the interview yet. In the meantime another very fun thing happened to take my mind off the digital amputation. A student from UCB contacted me when I was on vacation because she needed to do a paper for a class called “Environmental Problem Solving” and thought of the Martinez Beavers as her topic. Brita came yesterday for an interview with me and to meet some Worth A Dam folks while watching beavers on the footbridge.
Earlier she had been invited to the Alhambra Watershed Meeting and met Mitch Avalon and Igor Skaredoff from the beaver subcommittee. Now I love Igor and Mitch but the beavers made sure we were wayyy more interesting. She got to see all three kits, Junior and Mom before the uncle paid a visit. You could see that this particular term paper research was the most fun research she had ever done, and we filled her with beaver good news before she left. She is a senior finishing up a double major in the field and hoping to head to graduate School in the fall.
The future for beavers just got a little brighter.
ESPM 100 Environmental Problem Solving
Analysis of contrasting approaches to understanding and solving environmental and resource management problems. Case studies and hands-on problem solving that integrate concepts, principles, and practices from physical, biological, social, and economic disciplines. Their use in environmental policies and resource and management plans.
Don’t you just love that this class exists in the world? Let’s read the syllabus. There should be a whole section on beavers.
