Heidi Perryman
In recent weeks I and others have been visiting the dam at peak viewing hours to serve as “Beaver Docent”. There have been many visitors, some who have never even been to Martinez but simply heard about the beavers on the news, others who come for a family dinner at Bertola’s and are curious about the crowd. I have begun displaying a “beaver guest book” to collect signatures from attendees and this has produced some interesting conversations.
Visitors have come from Napa, Sacramento, San Francisco and Half Moon Bay. People bring out-of-state house guests or meet with friends down on the bridge. With the beavers shifting their schedules from evening to morning viewing, they are getting up and going to bed later. This means on many evenings there might not even be a beaver sighting at all. Still, it has been remarkable to see the excited response to just the *idea* of the beavers: the lodge, the dam, the footprints in the mud, all produce visible expressions of wonder. There is a general amazement that anything that natural can exist in such an urban setting.
A park ranger at the “Friends of Alhambra Creek” meeting I attended described driving across several states without seeing anything wild and commented insightfully on what she thought of as people’s “hunger for nature”. I realize how true that is when I see that “hunger” being “fed”. Seniors and teens and children and business men and power-walkers stop to watch earnestly for signs of ripples in the water. The beavers give us a window into the natural world, and we in turn give eachother a reminder that people from all walks of life can care about things and help make a difference. Remember tonights meeting with the Friends of Pleasant Hill Creeks www.land4urbanwildlife.org. Hope to see you there.
