Worth A Dam – Page 6

Beavers See Green

heidi08 Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers August 18, 2009

The startlingly atypical radio hour talking about the role of beavers in the watershed of one little Northern California Community got some nice attention. I thought I would share a little with you this morning, so that we could all bask in the well-received delivery of this particular bit of beaver gospel. It’s a nice reminder that fellow beaver supporters have become friends after 2+ years of contact, and sometimes old friends have in turn become beaver supporters!

Great finish – getting in that plug about the effect on salmon. If anything will engender support, that will be it. You came across cool, calm, competent and most sympatico. It’s 3:04AM. I’m going back to bed. Great to hear your voice. William Hughes-Games New Zealand

Great to hear you on the radio! I didn’t know that beavers can help restore salmon habitat, and was delighted to learn this. I also didn’t know that there are other beaver groups so close by “our” group. You sounded very cool and knowledgeable, but you probably knew that too. Good job! DJS Attorney San Ramon

I listed to your radio talk show and liked the way you were performing your efforts – without showing any anger towards the city officials. What you wrote afterwards on your blog meets it best :Encouraging listeners to sustain beaver families looking forward to smart solutons of what appeared unsolvable at first sight. Carry on! Alex Hiller Frankfurt Germany

Well done! Mark Ross Martinez

You should have a radio show! Nice strong, clear smart! Great laugh…perfect! It’s amazing you are clear and strong…you are doing a great great job. Expert…talking about the history of beavers and how streams are affected and then tying it into warming. Great plug for Worth a Dam and your blog! You just went on a break. Sensational job! Can’t wait for the next portion. PJ Tampa Florida

wow he really spent time with you and brought out some great issues and I hope you get some more national attention as biodiversity should be our number one goal to a sustainable future, great job Heidi I am going to send this to a couple of the Native Bird gals as it is worth listening to …take care Diana Granados The Native Bird Connection

You did such a great job! How fun. You sounded clear, smart, calm and fun. I also loved it when you laughed—made me giggle out loud. A great show and a great job. You should be proud. I loved the story about the farm land and the plug for the salmon that was very cool. And didn’t know that two kits have launched. Wondered what happens to them etc., glad that they are on their “way to college”… loved how people comment on the beavers when you are presenting the research you did too.EBG Psychologist Lafayette

Very nice downtown Mtz plug!
Thanks for sharing. Leanne Peterson

That was cool…. (but we all know, that the Chair of Friends Of Alhambra Creekis Shirley, not I:-) No worries – this is not causing any marital strife. Cheers,Igor Skaredoff

nice job!!!!! Lisa Owens Viani, SFEP

Congratulations on a stellar performance. I managed to listen to you on the radio live! we listened to your interview in the garden with a nice cup of tea. How cool is that? I have to say you were a natural, very cool and assured and knowledgeable, brilliant!I was filling Jo in on some of the beaver tales and was astonished at how much beaver knowledge I have gleaned just from your web site. From how flow devices work to water tables, and what a keystone species can do for a once littered little creek and cute mink families getting in on the action and bogus burrowing rumours and how the beaver family have stuck with Martinez through sheetpile upon sheetpile – well, what an amazing educational tool your site has been. The one thing Jo had trouble understanding was the actions of the council…how could they not see the benefits??? Hmmm. MBG Kent UK

you came across really well on the audio! Calm, confident, informative, reasonable. Very well done! The host was good too. Obviously a like minded soul.Great job, Mike Callahan Beaver Solutions, MA

Oh and this one, which just came this morning.

Thanks so much for appearing on Living Green Radio! I really appreciate it! It was an incredible segment.I have a Green Special we air each month for another network and I would love to invite you back to talk on that show. The next show is Monday, September 21st at 8am for one hour. Can you do it?

Dave Egbert

The morning after my birthday? I’m supposed to be in Mendocino staring blankly at the ocean as I contemplate what it means to have made it another year. Hmm…I guess they have phones in Mendocino…it’s not impossible, and I guess I could let the beavers give me one more present.

Add the Carnegie Science Center

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Video August 17, 2009

to the list of organizations eager to benefit from the renewed interest in beavers! This month the Philadelphia based museum launches its Omimax premier of “Beavers” billed as the “biggest dam movie you’ll ever see.” What I love about the trailer is the soundtrack of a distinctly familiar noise. Listen, can you tell what that is?

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

I’d write more but I gotta go catch a plane to Pennsylania…

What I learned on the Radio

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere August 16, 2009

Yesterday’s interview was much less surreal than I expected it to be – partly because I had so little sleep the night(s) before I was feeling too unreal myself to notice! Still I did learn a few things from the experience. I had a strange sense of freedom to say whatever I wanted, but another equally powerful feeling of responsibility for the interview. Dave was an enthusiastic interviewer, but I realized when I listened again that he often asked me several questions at once, so it was up to me to decide what to answer. In the commercial breaks I would pause and think about what I most wanted to emphasize with the remaining time, and since his questions were very plentiful, I could pick and choose, or, as I did with the salmon issue at the end, just interject.

Hearing Mark Ross on the other line was also interesting, partly because I think he did a really nice job, and partly because I (surprisingly!) didn’t feel angry at him. Since the sheetpile-palooza I have (at the very least) rolled my eyes at the mention of any council person’s name. Yesterday I was just felt happy we were there, and happy the beavers had given him this new experience.

Which leads me to the MOST important thing I realized yesterday, and of course its personal. Given that I understood fairly early on that I could steer the interview where ever I wanted, and that Mark Ross would have to deal with my fall out, I could have spent the whole 40 minutes blasting the city for their stupidity or explained why the tunneling issue was bogus, or explained how we had been harassed even about planting trees, but I didn’t.

Why not?

It wasn’t because I was afraid the city would retaliate against the beavers or me personally. (They do constantly.) It wasn’t because I thought if I was nice they’d be nice, because even I have had ample time to realize that doesn’t work. It wasn’t because I didn’t care anymore or it didn’t upset me anymore, because it still does and I can still do a pretty feeling rant about it.

It was, strangely, because I was more interested in helping ALL beavers than in hurting the city.

I was very aware of the possibility in the interview that someone, somewhere, in Idaho or Maine or Utah, was dealing with similar issues and could be helped by hearing that there are actual solutions that work. I imagined him or her wondering whether this was worth doing and arming them with a list of reasons why beavers are an investment in the watershed. Maybe I imagined myself, three years ago, and what it would have meant for me to hear that interview before I embarked on this “epic tail”.

Anyway, it was a learning experience on many levels. If you’d like to listen, I’ve put it on youtube without comercials. Part I tells the story of the historic importance of the prominence of beavers in the watershed. Part 2 tells how I got involved with our beavers and the way they’ve changed the habitat. Part 3 about the city’s response and the unintended political effects, and Part 4 let’s call “don’t forget the salmon!”

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=vSeIprK4vMc]

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=u5qcmMtT1t8]

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

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

Tripple Play

heidi08 Beaver News, Friends of Martinez Beavers August 12, 2009

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]

Beavers at the Adobe

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers August 6, 2009

Yesterday Worth A Dam headed over to the John Muir Mountain Day Camp to give a presentation on our Martinez Beavers. 35 children came for a slideshow and presentation, given in the cool, thick-walled adobe where Muir’s daughter lived for many years.

There were plenty who said their parents or grandparents had taken them down to see the beavers, and plenty of awwws about the adorable baby mink photo. We answered questions, introduced the beaver chew and the skulls (Wishpoosh you were a hit!) and then headed outside to invite them to draw pictures of things that lived in the creek on the cermaic tiles.

In addition to great questions and enthusiasm there was amazing artwork, 35 6×6 amazing artworks to be exact. One of our favorites was this finely scaled fish leaping to catch a dragon fly dinner. Wouldn’t these look lovely, framed in blue tile, and laid on the cement of the Marina Vista Bridge?