Tag: Worth A Dam

Another Origin Story…

heidi08 City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Friends of Martinez Beavers, History, Who's saving beavers now? November 19, 2016

I am hard at work on the newsletter for our tenth anniversary, and I spent most of yesterday writing the origin story of Worth A Dam. As nothing else seems to be happening in the beaver world at the moment, I thought you might enjoy it.

It was certainly unusual to have beavers in the middle of town, as our city suddenly did in 2007. Maybe if nothing else had happened that’s all it would have been; a passing interest that eventually – passed. But when the city announced that flat-tailed residents would have to be eliminated people started talking: to their neighbors, to each other, to their representatives, and to the media.

Eventually the city was forced to hold a meeting to discuss the beavers’ fate. There were too many people interested to fit into city hall and the forum was moved to the High School Auditorium. Some 200 people showed up – coming from uptown, downtown, and out-of-town. There were representatives from the Sierra Club, the Human Society, local news and a documentary filmmaker. The vast majority overwhelmingly demanded that the city solve the flooding risk without harming the beavers.

Faced with such vocal public support, the city council agreed to form a subcommittee to study the issue further. I was thrilled to be invited aboard the task force which consisted of council members, creek professionals, beaver supporters and concerned property owners. We had 90 days to address the pros and cons of possibly living with beavers in an urban stream. We quickly recommended hiring Skip Lisle to install a flow device that would prevent possible flooding.

The success of that first big meeting originally left me with euphoric hopes for a positive outcome. I was surprised to learn that even after we succeeded in persuading the city to hire Skip and even though his device worked entirely as promised, there was still uncertainty about the beavers fate. Addressing the real (and imagined) concerns in the subcommittee soon made me realize that the fight was a long way from over. It was Skip Lisle who initially suggested that a nonprofit might be necessary to advocate for the beavers and direct funding over time. After watching the acrimony of those meetings even after flooding was averted with his help, I could see he was right.

In choosing a name for the organization I remember thinking that the struggle was too bitter for something benign like “Friends of Martinez Beavers” or “Wildlife Protectors”. It seemed the name needed to be something snappy with a little feisty backbone to get us thru the long struggle that lie ahead.

Thus “Worth A Dam” was born.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

The Path to Inevitability…

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's saving beavers now? March 4, 2016

Nice article in the Gazette might help nudge the mural forward….

Questions surround beavers as upcoming mural celebrates legacy

Although an alleged recent sighting of a lone beaver in Martinez might bring some hope for their return, it still seems no answers have been forthcoming regarding the sudden disappearance of the Alhambra Creek beaver colony late last year.

According to Heidi Perryman of Worth a Dam, a beaver was spotted near Creek Monkey Taphouse on February 18 by a Martinez resident. The sighting is the first reported since September of last year, around the time when several young beavers suddenly and inexplicably died in the Alhambra Creek. During that time several adult beavers also disappeared, leaving the creek void of beavers for months.

Perryman says the lone beaver is likely what is known as a “disperser,” a young beaver seeking territory to mark as his or her own. She explained that currently there is no evidence that the beaver decided to stay in the creek.

Months ago, the California Department of Fish and Game oversaw the necropsy performed on a young beaver at UC Davis, however tests were inconclusive. Disease, toxins, and some poisons were all ruled out as well.

While it seems no answers or progress have been made on determining the cause of the beaver deaths, Perryman and Worth a Dam are hoping to honor their legacy in Martinez.

Worth a Dam has been working with the city on a wildlife and beaver mural to adorn the cement surface of Marina Vista Bridge Wall. Back in November Perryman pitched the idea to the PRMCC of a mural located on the south facing side of the Marina Vista Bridge at Alhambra Creek.

“The beavers made a real impact on Martinez, and that’s something we want to capture with this mural,” said Perryman. She hopes the mural reminds people of the “living creek” that runs through the center of downtown Martinez.

The artist for the mural is Mario Alfaro, who has also worked on the Joe DiMaggio mural on the Main Street Plaza Bridge. The cost of the mural will be covered by Worth a Dam for a total of $6,000. The organization hopes to cover the cost with grants.

The art committee of the PRMCC approved the mural design, so the next steps come with the city council. Perryman noted that, because the city council meeting agenda is fully booked for the month of March, the project likely won’t be on the council agenda until April.

I’m always happy when accurate and positive information about the beavers and Worth A Dam is printed. Thanks, Joseph Bustos. You made the mural even more inevitable by linking it in the press to the loss of the beavers. Hopefully it will help nudge us a little farther along queue for getting on the Agenda for city council! Fingers crossed.

Imagine how surprised I was to come across this yesterday with the help of a friend. I don’t know how I missed it in the flurry of the holidays and retirement. But imagine how especially surprised I was to read the bold sentence from Dr. Michael Pollock himself;

Manmade Beaver Dams Save Fish

At Wenas Creek, they are putting in manmade beaver-dam analogues by pounding posts into the streambed and then weaving branches among them. A few workers can run a post pounder with biodegradable hydraulic fluid and achieve hydrological results similar to those of an imported-beaver colony. The result, says Tobin, is that, “fish and farms coexist in the same reach.”

The natural solution: beavers. In the past, “problem” beavers have been relocated to streams in need. Their dams back up the water, raising streambeds while still allowing passage for salmonids. The downside is that it costs money to trap beavers and house them prior to relocation, and despite the offer of seemingly ideal habitat, they sometimes leave. Besides, says Tobin, manager of the North Yakima Conservation District, “you can’t control where they’re backing up water.”

Enter Michael Pollock of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who pioneered the idea of reinforcing blown-out beaver dams with posts. “That’s the best strategy, because they’ve already done all the work,” says Pollock. “We’re just reducing the dams’ failure rate.”

Pollock suggested dispensing with beavers altogether.

SACRILEGE! Some one hand me the smelling salts, I’m feeling faint. And tell me, how are repairs going to be made on those dams once injury occurs? Will a team of humans be living on sight just in case? Will they also dig in the mud to encourage invertebrates? And how will the trees coppice with no one to chew them?

Of course a sentence like that could NOT go unchallenged. So I sent him this last night:

With the exception of this aberrant infraction, he’s still mostly a good guy and at his heart a beaver believer. He quickly wrote back:

You are having way too much fun with your new found skills. 🙂

Which I confess, is wholly true. That was the most fun I had all week.

Beavers with Benefits

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? December 21, 2014

Someone has finally got the beavers and water story right. And it’s about time.

Leave it to beavers: California joins other states in embracing the rodent

AR-141229981.jpg&maxh=400&maxw=667 — A beaver dam spans the length of Los Gatos Creek. (Thomas Mendoza — Santa Cruz Sentinel)

LOS GATOS >> Californians are crossing their fingers for more rain after three punishing years of drought have left streams, rivers and wetland parched.

One animal has the potential to restore these dry landscapes.

Go ahead, guess which one. I’ll wait.

Isn’t this a fabulous start to an article? Before you do anything click on the link so they get to count hits for the report. It will convince them that this interests people. We met the reporter Samantha Clark before when she covered the beavers in San Jose for the campus paper. Now she has landed a gig with the Santa Crus Sentinel. Turns out she used to go to school with my neice so maybe osmosis has something to do with her remarkably being the first reporter in the state to get the water story right.

“This state has lost more of its wetlands than all other states, and beavers can rebuild those wetlands,” said Rick Lanman of the Institute for Historical Ecology in Los Altos. “Knowing that it is native should help guide restoration efforts.”

This article reads like a who’s who in beaver doxology honestly, just wait.

Beaver dams bestow benefits to the environment that we humans can’t easily copy. They turn land into a sponge for water. Their gnawing and nesting promotes richer soil and slows down water, improving imperiled fish habitat. Their dams raise water tables, nourishing shrubbery alongside streams that stabilize eroding banks and add habitat for birds and deer. They also help the endangered California Red-legged frog.

“There’s a growing interest in using beaver as a habitat restoration tool,” said Michael M. Pollock, an ecosystems analyst with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle. “They create good wetland habitat much more cheaply than other restoration methods.”

Samantha did her homework, tracking down Rick, and Michael. They are busy men but the generally make time to talk about beavers, I’ve been very impressed.

“It would be great if we could recognize the benefit of the beaver and to resolve conflict nonlethally and manage them to continue receiving those benefits,” said Kate Lundquist, director of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center’s Water Institute, a group that is drafting beaver policy recommendations for state Fish and Wildlife.

I am so happy to read an article that’s actually promoting beaver benefits in California! (And not complaining about methane emissions.) But there seems to be one voice missing. Rick, Michael, Kate, hmmm now who could it be?

Since beavers moved to the Alhambra Creek in downtown Martinez, the area has seen new species flourish. By moving mud, the beavers create a haven for bugs.

“Because we have an insect bloom, we have a bloom of all the different fish and animals up the food chain,” said Heidi Perryman, founder of the beaver advocacy group Worth a Dam and who led the effort to save a Martinez beaver family from extermination. “We’ve identified three new species of fish and seven species of bird. And we see more otter and mink than we ever saw before.”

Ohhh that’s who was missing! Someone whose learned how to live with beavers and seen it first hand! Not bad. Samantha doesn’t do enough to talk about HOW to live with beavers, but she nails WHY.

In San Jose, a beaver has taken refuge in the dry Guadalupe River. The critter’s dam outside a dripping storm drain created a tiny oasis.

“They can get by with very little,” Pollock said. “In a number of cases, they’ve built on streams that have run dry and because they have built the dams, water flows again.”

Because beavers are so good at recharging ground water, they can make streams flow when they would otherwise run dry such as during the summer months.

If I were a state facing drought for the past 3 three years, I’d be thinking about this article and these plucky rodents and re-examing my policies. Wouldn’t you?

Happy Solstice Everyone! Beavers get easier to see after today!

Could Fish Victory become Beaver Victory?

heidi08 Beavers and salmon, Friends of Martinez Beavers, History June 12, 2014

Salmon win court ruling that ‘sets aside’ Marin countywide plan

In a sharply critical decision that leaves Marin’s planning document in legal limbo, an appellate court ordered more analysis of how development affects San Geronimo Valley’s endangered coho salmon.

The ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco reversed a Marin Superior Court decision, “sets aside” the 2007 countywide plan and its environmental report pending study of the impact of creekside building on salmon, and declared that a building ban was improperly imposed in San Geronimo.

Did you read about the Marin appellate decision protecting salmon? Our friends at SPAWN took the powers that be to court with the backing of some 22 conservation organizations and won a decision that is making no friends among the developers.

Fishery activists at the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network of Forest Knolls, which contested county compliance with state environmental law and sued to get tougher creekside building rules, hailed the ruling as a triumph. “We hope that after this decision, county supervisors are ready to work together so we can save these species from extinction,” said Todd Steiner, head of the salmon network.

“The judges agreed with Spawn that the county acted unlawfully because the environmental impact report provides no help to decision-makers or the public to understand the likely consequences of allowable build out,” said Deborah Sivas of Stanford Law School’s Environmental Clinic, which represented the salmon network along with attorney Michael Graf.

If that name sounds vaguely familiar, it should. Michael Graf was the attorney who represented Worth A Dam in the failed effort to stop the sheet pile from going through the beaver lodge. Remember? He generously charged us very little and got his friend the geomorphologist to walk our creek and do the same. The city didn’t mind breaking the law anyway, but that’s blood under the bridge now. Seems like eons ago that I was worried the sheet pile would kill the beavers or drive them away. Congratulations Michael and SPAWN for a fight well won!

All this lays the foundation for the NEXT lawsuit to appear in Marin. One where trapping ‘nuisance’ beavers is considered a threat to the salmon population. What’s that you say, beavers weren’t native to Marin? (Or Alameda? Or San Jose?) Guess what was published and went online yesterday?

Here’s the abstract, but you really need to go read the whole thing. Eli’s graphs are stunning.

The North American beaver (Castor canadensis ) has not been considered native to the watersheds of coastal California or the San Francisco Bay Area. These assertions form the basis of current wildlife management policies regarding that aquatic mammal, and they date to the first half of the 20th century. This review challenges those long-held assumptions based on verifiable (physical) and documented (reliable observational) records. Novel findings are facilitated by recently digitized information largely inaccessible prior to the 21st century. Understanding that beaver are native to California’s coastal watersheds is important, as their role in groundwater recharge, repair of stream channel incision, and restoration of wetlands may be critically important to the conservation of threatened salmonids, as well as endangered amphibians and riparian-dependent birds,

The timing on this could NOT be better, as we head off to the Salmonid Restoration Conference this week. It ends with a piercing reminder of how important beavers are to salmon, which I’m hoping the timing of the Marin decision bumps into the news cycle. There are a lot of parts I love about this paper, and Rick’s son did a stunning job of pulling the whole thing together, but you’ll pardon me if this is my very favorite part:

Today California’s coastal beaver are widely regarded as the non-native survivors of twentieth century translocations, and when they cause flooding problems or fell trees, depredation permits are often provided. Understanding beaver as native to coastal ecosystems may impact this decision-making.

Of course, I would have phrased less subtly, like STOP PRETENDING YOU’RE KILLING BEAVERS BECAUSE THEY AREN’T NATIVE, IDIOTS, but this paper and the sierra ones should permanently bury the myths about beaver absence from most of California.

49 other states never believed it anyway. I’m glad we finally tackled the 50th.

Food for thought…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions July 8, 2013

Swede bloodied in surprise beaver attack

Taking advantage of the first truly hot summer weekend in Stockholm, Sofie Adde was blissfully unaware that a casual dip would end in blood and stitches after a beaver mistook her thigh for lunch.

Sofie Adde from the Gröndal neighbourhood of Stockholm was enjoying her first swim of the summer in the Mälaren Lake when the beaver pounced.

“I went out for a quiet dip and had swum out a few meters when I noticed something underneath the water. Next thing I felt a pain in my thigh and up came the head of the beaver,” Adde, 40, told The Local.

“It gave me quite a surprise,” the startled swimmer added. “I wasn’t sure what was going on as the beaver (dived) back down and I got scared and swam away immediately.”

Brace yourselves for the next fortnight of inflamed beaver articles in which Swedes cower to avoid the terrifying rodent menace. Of course this beaver got away so we can’t actually be sure it was a beaver and not an otter…but at least Adde was a good bit braver than the fishermen from Bellarus.

Following the attack, Adde had to have stitches and a tetanus shot. She doesn’t harbour any ill-feeling towards the beaver, however, whom she claims she has seen before.

“I’ve been down to the lake several times and I’ve seen this beaver in the past. There are a couple of beavers there and it is very unusual for something like this to happen.”

“The bite wasn’t particularly painful and to be honest it was more funny than anything else.”

Now there’s a heroine with a sturdy heart and a pretty plucky constitution. Adde send us your address because you get a beaver tshirt.

Didrik Van Hoenacker, a biologist at the Natural History Museum, laughed when he heard of the attack. “She must have had bad luck and collided with the beaver. It’s not like they normally lurk in the water,” he told Aftonbladet.

Ahh Didrik! You are such an amazing counterpart to the panic button all the world wants to push when it comes to chomping terrible beaver-sharks! Nicely done. Are you and Adde the only level heads in the country or is this a national thing?

Beavers are just like other wild animals as they get defensive but it is rare to even get that close to them,” Magnus Enquist, a professor in animal behaviour at Stockholm University told Aftonbladet.

Sigh. Maybe I will move to Sweden. Maybe we all should.

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And if you’re not too busy packing thursday, maybe you should do this?

Thursday, July 11

Beavers of Martinez

Join Heidi Perryman, Founder of Worth A Dam, for a talk on the Beavers of Martinez. Dr. Perryman shares the story of how one beaver family won over the hearts of the people of Martinez. This North Bay community took a crash course in beavers when a mating pair moved into a downtown stream. Concerned that their dam would cause flooding, the city proposed killing the beavers, but resident outcry encouraged them to try humane solutions instead. A flow device was installed at the dam and this controlled pond height, allowing the beavers to safely remain. Heidi Perryman is part of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) WATER Institute California Working Beaver Group, whose mission is to promote understanding of the importance of healthy watersheds. Dr. Perryman recently co-authored a paper on the historic range of the North American Beaver.

Click here to read the current Bay Nature article on the resurgence of Bay Area beavers.

For more information about Perryman and Worth A Dam, please visit www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress.

Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way, San Francisco, CA 94114. For more information, go to www.sfns.org or contact Patrick Schlemmer at jkodiak@earthlink.net or (415) 225-3830.

Sure would be nice to see some familiar faces in the audience!