This weekend acclaimed wildlife photographer Suzi Eszterhas posted about her work with the Martinez Beavers on her facebook page. She told the story of their arrival, protection and untimely death, and checked with me first to see if she had gotten everything correct, accompanying the post with my June video of her working.
June was so complicated because we were bursting with joy to have four kits, but Suzi asked me not to post about them or her so there would be more time for undisturbed photos. She has A LOT of photographers who follow her in the hopes of taking pictures of whatever she’s taking pictures of. And she wanted them not to be summoned. So I kept my mouth closed for a month which was really hard to do.
And then in July they started dying, which is a very unjust cosmic reward for my patience.
Not surprisingly, there have been a lot of responses to the story on her much-trafficked facebook page, and it has been surprising to me to see so many people react to the story with “How sad” or “That’s awful”. “What a tragedy.” Which has been unsettling not becauset I’m UNSAD about this turn of events -(I’m sure I wept more tears than anyone) – but I just don’t think of the Martinez Beaver story with “How sad!” Its a joyous, fierce, dynamic, hopeful, tragic, EPIC story. It’s the story of civic pride and a big money battle leading to David beating Goliath. It’s the story of urban renewal and a polluted creek awakened from the dead. And I’m not sure we’ve reached the final chapter yet.
It made me think of this iconic scene from Northern Exposure which I loved when it was on a million years ago. The technology is sooo old I can’t embed it, so you will have to click on the photo to see Ed and Marilyn discuss our beavers’ fate this summer at the laundry mat. She tells the perfect tribal story for our situation. You’ll have to watch a short silly ad, I can’t help that, but I believe it will be worth it.
