Yesterday was slightly more familiar because I had been to the intimidating downtown state building once before. Jon did an awesome job of helping me get there and get set up. The new group was dedicated and very interested in the topic. They asked all the right questions and laughed in all the right places. One waterboard member asked me how to relocate beavers to create stream heterogenity in Marin, and I of course told her that was an EXCELLENT goal but at the moment relocation was still illegal in California. One woman said she lived in Concord and wondered what she could do to protect and advocate for any dispersers who showed up there.
Afterwards Tahsa Sturgis, the water control engineer who had invited me, said that the feedback after I left was that this was the best presentation they had in a decade, which made us feel pretty worth a dam, I can tell you!
Onward and onward. How’s the mural coming, you say? Not so wonderfully, but I did find out that the assistant city manager talked the city attorney into a more simple contract on our behalf. Which was VERY nice of him. Apparently being simple and straightforward is very complicated for her and the de-obfuscations are taking her a while.
Soon, they assure me.
In the meantime we can have fun with a disperser in Colorado who apparently evaded the police and even ESCAPED their cage! I’m thinking this just needs soundtrack and a co star and its a movie. Click on the link for inspiration then come right for the unbelievable tale.
Mission Impossible Theme Song – TelevisionTunes.com
Roving beaver near GJHS causes police logjam
Grand Junction police officers spent nearly an hour Wednesday morning in hot pursuit of a beaver.
The roving rodent was spotted in the road near North Seventh Street and Kennedy Avenue — just east of Grand Junction High School — just before 5 a.m., said Heidi Davidson, spokeswoman for the Grand Junction Police Department.
“Said beaver was headed northbound, and was reported to be obeying all traffic laws, but did not yield to officers,” Davidson wrote in an email.
A “beaver catcher” responded to the scene and helped capture the animal — but detention didn’t end the drama, Davidson wrote.
“A courtesy transport for the beaver was arranged, but the beaver was able to escape the cage in the back of the car and had to be recaptured en route,” she wrote. “Ultimately, the beaver was released, without injury, back to the river.”
What kind of cage can a beaver possibly escape you are asking? Was it made of wood? And who was this mysterious beaver catcher? Inquiring minds demand to know. I’m glad the beaver made it to water, and the police got an exciting opportunity to work off all those donuts.
Now here’s a grand interview with beaver friend John Muir Laws. Who talks about the value of sketching in learning to see and remember the world. It seems like ages ago he came to sketch our beavers for Bay Nature, but I remember it as a magical night when I really felt we had ‘arrived’. He enjoyed himself so much the next night he brought his mom, who was in a wheelchair. We watched our ADA beavers joyfully and then went to dinner at Lemongrass Bistro altogether. Ahh, memories!
