Worth A Dam

And on the day after the festival they rested…

heidi08 Festival August 3, 2009

Worth a Dam-mers worked hard on saturday to pull the festival together. Setting up, taking down, carrying heavy things, tying down lighter things, it was three full time jobs falling hard upon the heels of months of planning. Time and effort well spent, and we were rewarded with new energy and enthusiasm from our many visitors. On Sunday we scrambled to take back the awnings, upload the photos and count the earnings, and noticed how much slower our brains were working from all the effort. I was delighted to get GTK’s videos saturday night, but when I stared at them sunday morning I couldn’t remember how to extract audio or make a clip. Our mighty treasurer Jon counted and recounted the earnings 17 times and got a diferent number every time. I heard similar complaints from Lory, Linda(s) and Cheryl. We were all a little dazed and confused yesterday. We knew we had done something very, very good, but we just couldn’t remember what to do next!

Which is unfortunate because we’re still baking tiles at my house and I am presenting for the John Muir Mountain Day Camp on wednesday. Here’s hoping there is a little cerebral recovery between now and then. How long does it take for the grass to spring back up after deer were laying on it? You know you can see the depression they made for 6 hours after, maybe 12. Then the grass bounces back to its standing height and there’s no record at all of the lovely organic pressure that once weighed there. I need that to happen to my gyri and sulci.

Everything you wanted to know about the Martinez Beavers….

heidi08 Beaver News, Educational June 4, 2009

Have you been wondering how many beavers are in the colony now? Why beavers teeth are orange? How long they can stay underwater? How old they are the first time they slap their tails? How Martinez got beavers in the first place?

Boy, are you in luck! Get your questions answered and curiosity sated this Saturday at the very first of its kind Beaver Class at Wild Birds Unlimited in Pleasant Hill. I’ll be showing original footage of our beavers, and talking about their habits and value in the environment. I promise you will see or hear things you never knew before about our beavers, and you will never once look at your watch.

The class is free and upstairs at the Pleasant Hill store, refreshments are provided and Mike and Cecil will assure you a single bird question will not go unanswered either. Stop by and gape at their amazing aviary, pick up some thistle for your goldfinches, make a few new friends and do your part to get up to date on our amazing beavers and their story.

Attentive readers will be scratching their heads thinking, wait, isn’t saturday the tree planting? And you will be right. If you crave some outdoor activity to help beavers, definitely come help Mitchell at the creek. If you are looking for more sedentary fun, come join me at Wild Birds Unlimited. We picked this date ages ago because of the timing of the new kits, and the planting just fell this weekend because of our boy scout’s schedule. We’ll march on bravely, but as always, things work much better if you help.

Our hosts would like you to R.S.V.P. at (925) 798-0303 if you would like to join this class. Don’t be shy. Have your saturday morning coffee with friends of the beavers.

Aix Sponsa

heidi08 New Species May 17, 2009

The Wood duck is an easy candidate for “best dressed”. The name aix sponsa literally transelates into “Waterbird in bridal dress”, and it ain’t no boring old white, either. Wood ducks have many unique qualities that make other ducks hang their feathered heads in shame: they nest in cavities, they have claws and the eat acorns! Our eagle scout candidate will be adding three wood duck boxes to the creek, and I thought you’d want to learn a little about the neighbors we’re trying to attract. This isn’t a “pipe dream”, because Ted Radke of EBRP board of directors observed 3 wood duck this winter near the beaver dams. In fact beaver dams are known for providing the best possible habitat to encourage wood duck.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=qd3SqLpdHdg]

If you’re a woodworker with a passion for beavers, drop us a note, because I’m sure our scout would appreciate some support.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=h9u01gA-mFA]

Beaver Flurry

heidi08 Beaver News, Educational April 10, 2009

Worth A Dam’s calendar is officially over booked. We are struggling to finish our amazing beaver habitat diorama for John Muir’s Birthday/Earthday next weekend. We were invited to attend the “Parking lot launch” for the Environmental Studies Academy students two weeks later, and we’re at the environmental fair for Wild Birds Unlimited the weekend after that. That takes us to Mother’s Day weekend and gives us two weeks off before the big train trip and beaver presentation May 27. Don’t ask about June.

In the middle of which I promised the John Muir Association I’d offer some guided beaver tours for the silent auction and have to design some certificates for them. I wanted to be dying eggs this weekend, instead I will be trying to make miniature cattails and tiny beaver chews. These pictures might be the closest I get to egg festivities, but they’re not bad. I assume you all got the identity theft warning email? If you didn’t go here: I don’t know what massive ad agency crew took these pictures but they are amazing and must represent hours and months of hard work. The email is titled “This Easter Beware of Identity Theft”.

Imagine the scope of this project: first you have to select the animals for matching and then get them to tolerate each other like old friends. I can only hope they weren’t medicated…and that the photographer was, because that must have been one stressful, animal stained photoshoot.

Anyone want to volunteer their dog or cat that looks like a beaver?

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Festival March 30, 2009

The remarkable beaver-guardians of Worth A Dam gathered last night to finesse plans for Earth day and our tree planting project. Our intrepid potential eagle scout was there boldly getting ready to go before the council to offer our tree-installation plans. It was a lively meeting, but one of my favorite parts was our brainstorming session about the art project we might offer at earthday.

Artist and teacher Frogard Butler has been helping us with these activities since she generously volunteered to paint a portrait of one of my beaver photographs and gave it to me in support. We decided that since clay was such a huge hit at the beaver festival, we would try it again, inviting children to help us build a diorama representation of the beaver habitat in miniature. Jon volunteered to make the landscape/box that could get us started, and of course we’ll be putting dams and lodges and tiny peices of sheetpile.

I can’t wait.

Beaver people are good people. We signed our 2009 executive agreement, with two additions who will become official worth a dam-ers. Lory will record donations, and Linda will track down research questions. Hard to believe only a year has passed since Worth A Dam was formed. In that time we’ve given presentations to the Elementary and High schools, Audubon, Sierra Club,and all of downtown Martinez. We’ve held a festival, applied for a grant, and expanded our web page. We even found time to work over 20 farmer’s markets and take the city to court. During our first year we raised more than 7,000 in donations.

Not bad for 365 days work.

Maybe all this talk of our accomplishments has inspired you to offer your own. We’re looking for a new tee shirt design for 2009 and would love to encourage you to fiddle with the concept. We want our name and web site address on it, but other than this we are open to suggestions. Why not try your hand at graphic beaver design and give us a couple ideas. If we love your design will make it into 100 shirts this year, and we’ll give you yours for free!