So last night the beavers got a pretty special visitor in the Who’s Who of environmental education. John Muir Laws (’Jack’) drove out from San Francisco for a special beaver viewing and introduction. He brought his sketch pad and board and sat under the willow trees on the bank to draw the beavers as they swam about obligingly. Jack is a firm believer that seeing and drawing nature is the best way to truly understand it, and he dismisses the commonly held belief that artistic ability is a ‘gift’ rather than a pursuit.

He heard the ‘epic tail’ of the beavers salvation and the story of the exciting sheetpile vista that greeted him.  Then he was treated to a tour and the remarkable sighting of GQ strolling over the beaver dam in all his attractive prowess. While he settled to watch the constantly unfolding story of three kits navigating the waters on their own, families with wide-eyed children poured down to watch  Jack shared his excitement with them by passing along his expensive binoculars for a closer look. Jacks illustrations are the last word of Bay Nature Magazine and his drawings of our beavers will appear in the October issue.

Every now and then as he worked and watched he would pause and then exclaim “this is SO COOL!!!” a doxology with which certainly none there would object. Jack was invited to see the beavers by some friendly docents at the Audubon Canyon Ranch who had attended my talk at “Close to Home”. He asked my thoughts about what to emphasize and I stressed two things: the impact of the beavers on the habitat (green herons and pond turtles provided backup for that argument) and the impact of the beavers on the community (for which the hushed bright faces of appreciative children provided ample proof.)

All night he remarked on seeing beavers in Tahoe and Montana or Wisconsin but never seeing them like THIS. He enjoyed my observation that these were ADA accessible beavers, which of course they are, but I pointed out the flow device and stressed that any city who is willing to use creative tools could have local beavers of its very own. At the end of the evening he agreed that this was truly a special wildlife viewing opportunity saying that “Everyone in the Bay Area should come here, watch these amazing animals, buy a burrito and visit this town!” - which I’m sure the Chamber of Commerce would love. He also remarked that this was an essential opportunity for teaching stewardship, since people don’t learn to love nature because of what they saw on the discovery channel: they love first what is in their own backyard.

For their part the beavers were in top form and brimming with artistic merit. Just look at the photo Cheryl took last night.

Beaver Kit: Cheryl Reynolds

Before you go, your help is desprately needed by the poor city of Martinez which can’t possibly think what to name the park where 2000 people have attended the beaver festival over the last three years. Gosh, maybe you have a suggestion? Unless we’re calling it “Sheetpile Vista Plaza”  or “Drinking-in-the-daytime Park” I can really only think of ONE name that makes sense, and it starts with a ‘B’. But why don’t you write and let them know yours?

The Beautiful Banner displayed at the beaver festival was the product of over 100 children’s fabric artwork from the Flyway Fiesta and Earth Day. It was the brainchild of FROgard Butler, an artist with East Bay Artists Guild and an instructor at Diablo Valley College. The children amazed us again with their delightful drawings but it was FRO who painstakingly sewed on the ribbon borders and got the whole project ready for display.

I met FRO at First Night in 2007. I was standing beaver-watch at the Escobar Bridge and she came by to learn about the animals. She was very impressed with what she saw and took some brochures to distribute at the vets where she dropped off her pet portrait cards. FRO did pet paintings and asked if I would loan her a photograph to paint a beaver. That was the start of a beautiful friendship. FRO brought that watercolor to work on that first earth day event and presented it at the final beaver meeting in April. It now hangs in my living room and not a day goes by that I’m not grateful for that happy First Night accident.

Art Projects FRO has sponsored with the Martinez Beavers;

• Earth Day 2008 Draw A Beaver
• Beaver Festival 1 2008 Clay Beavers
• Art in the Park 2008 Water color Beavers
• Earth Day 2009 Clay Beaver Diorama
• Beaver Festival II 2009 Ceramic Tile Beaver Art
• Flyway Festival 2010 Fabric Beaver Drawings
• Earth Day 2010 Fabric Beaver Drawings
• Beaver Festival III 2010 Acrylic Creek Mural

Susan Kirks is the woman behind PLAN and the badger advocate at the festival. I read about her online years ago and tracked down her contact information because I thought we might possibly have something in common. She has been working much longer at her much bigger cause to create an open space wildlife corridor in Petaluma, but we still had lots to talk about. She blogs for Petaluma 360 and wrote a fantastic account of Saturday’s event. Today she gets to be a ‘guest blogger’ but since I didn’t exactly ask permission you have to click on the link above and visit her site as well. Okay?

A Great Day for Beavers

by Open.Spaces

Saturday, August 8th, was a great day for Beavers – and for people, too.  The 3rd Annual Beaver Festival was celebrated in downtown Martinez, next to Alhambra Creek.   A walk over the nearby pedestrian bridge that crosses the creek provided a superb view of the beaver dam.  At one point, a green heron came to rest on the dam.  Beavers are nocturnal, so there wasn’t an expectation of a sighting.  What was stunning was the creek, the dam crossing it, the plant life on the creek’s banks, and the amazing quiet and feeling of peace when, just several feet away a lively celebration was in full swing.  It was like stepping from one world into another and then stepping back.  The support for beaver conservation was community wide and very alive.

The Paula Lane Action Network booth was open for Badger talk.  Many people of all ages stopped by to ask, are there badgers here? -  and to learn the story of the Paula Lane Badgers in Petaluma and South Sonoma County.   Others shared their own badger experiences.  A naturalist with the Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation knew of a badger sighting on Mount Diablo several years ago.  More recently, there’s been evidence of some burrowing near Brentwood.  I remembered this kind man from last year.  We’d discussed the benefit of building branch and brush piles among open grassland areas for wildlife cover and habitat.  A woman who used to live in Indiana stopped by and shared she and her dog had come upon a baby badger, covered by leaves, when out on a walk in Indiana many years ago.  “We got out of there very quickly,” she said, knowing the mother badger was probably nearby, possibly out hunting, and would not want to find a woman and her dog near the baby badger!  A young boy stopped by and shared he’s writing a paper about badgers for his 5th grade science class.  I told him I knew a web site that would love to post his paper if he wanted to send it to PLAN.

Next door to the PLAN booth was the Painting Extravaganza.  Frogard Butler, a talented artist, created a backgound mural of the Alhambra Creek area and Beaver Habitat, with nearby local streets.  Children were invited to imagine and creat with colored paints whatever they wanted to add to the mural.   At the end of the day, I went to see the mural.  “It’s very interesting,” the teacher/artist leading the painting process mused.  “They didn’t paint any people.”  Indeed, the mural was filled with all kinds of animals and wildlife, from a mother bird feeding her young in a nest to a nest full of eggs to all kinds of raccoons, skunks and beavers.  A lone scarecrow in a grassy area was the sole human-like expression.

At Noon, children led a procession of a beautifully handpainted Beaver Banner through the festival paths.  Throughout the afternoon, musicians entertained festival goers, culturally diverse and musically joyful.

Also close to the PLAN booth were the Mount Diablo Audubon Society, where adults and families with children shared shifts and talked about the amazing bird life in Contra Costa County; the National Park Service, with a friendly and kind Ranger who knew everything about the John Muir National Historic Monument; and the Burrowing Owl Conservation Network, a grassroots group that organized to protect Burrowing Owl habitat in Antioch, becoming a resource and advocacy group for the species.

Another activity I found charming was – the charm bracelet.  Young people visited festival sites and learned about the beaver and its influence in our environment.  They visited the Friends of Alhambra Creek booth for a dragonfly charm, the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network booth for a salmon charm, the Native Bird Connections booth for the bird charm, the Lindsay Wildlife Museum display for an otter charm, and Worth a Dam’s headquarters booth for the beaver charm – and questions and answers about what they learned – and then the bracelet to link all the charms together – demonstrating the links in the ecosystem.

Heidi Perryman, Cheryl Reynolds, and everyone with Worth a Dam (www.martinezbeavers.org) once again organized and provided, really, an incredible venue for wildlife appreciation and environmental education – with lots of fun – in support of the Martinez Beavers.  The Channel 5 evening TV news on Saturday night broadcast the day’s events and, again, elevated appreciation and awareness for Nature and the human place in it.

Isn’t that great and generous writing? Have you clicked on the link yet? Go ahead, I’ll wait. And when you come back I’ll tell you a secret. I am certain Susan became undeservedly fond of me when I told her the story of my childhood neighbor (the first female sheriff in Contra Costa County) throwing a dead stuffed badger over the fence for me to see: 3 year-old Heidi very weirdly decided that this dead fierce creature would become the treasured stuffed animal that I carried around and slept with for years. It was about 4 feet long, had very coarse fur and razor sharp claws. Ahhh. My parents knew better than to let their daughter sleep with a dead animal, but I was inconsolable without it, and my odd attachment prevailed. I am certain that it had an effect on my developing personality because I am told I can be fairly stubborn. (I say tenacious!)  Who ever performed the taxidermy did it very poorly because this particular badger was quite thin and long….I didn’t find out badgers were bunchy and short until I was 22.

Thanks Susan for the great article and the enormous advocacy you have done/are doing. I’m was so happy to see your smiling familiar face at the festival and can’t wait to see the remarkable finished project you will achieve.

It’s down to spaghetti and sangria with the in-laws in the final hours before the wedding. There are the usual misunderstandings, arguments, lost keys and overly-affectionate drunks. The groom can’t be found and the bride has put on two pounds and can’t fit into her dress. Now the park is entirely surrounded by a mote (I’m not kidding) and I’m off to find a way to get 30 tents and 1000 people safely over the threshold. Can you say ‘drawbridge’?

Nice article in the PH Record yesterday. I was relieved to learn that I was the “co-founder” of Worth A Dam because its great to know that there will be someone else to help deal with all this late stage madness. I was starting to get worried.

Thanks for the generous eulogy-worthy comments yesterday. 7 truly kind things and only 5 offers to purchase cialis which I promptly deleted. It’s unexpectedly touching to feel like what I write gets read and appreciated. When I find the other co-founder I think I will send her/him down to meet with public works so we can do something about that mote - you know the city is just dying to put in alligators!

I offer this tale, of course, because today is the THOUSANDTH POST on this website, certainly a labor of love which began in the pursuit of a wish. We got our wish. As we stand two days away from the third beaver festival I am reminded that we have reshaped our wish to include beavers in Fresno, Newberg OR, Sammamish WA, Tulsa OK, Bemidji MN, Chicago IL, Berriens GA, Nolton NJ, Thetfort VT, Medford MA, Oshawa Ontario, PEI, Scotland and Riga, Lithuania (To name a few). That’s a pretty big wish. Might need two magic cranes. Hmm…better keep folding.

Thanks everyone for your help and inspiration. In honor of the momentous occasion I am opening the comments on this post in case you have something to add. (Click at the bottom where it says ‘comments’ for a dialogue box).  (Let the beaver wars, sexual puns and viagra prescriptions begin!) Writing daily on this process has been a surprisingly powerful way for me to keep track of all the new twists and turns and manage my own emotional response to what has been an enriching, frustrating, rewarding, challenging and life-changing journey. Thanks for coming along with me.

With five days left to go for our beaver festival, things are either falling into place or ducking for cover. Beaver-friend Susan Kirks wrote a nice article in Petaluma 360 this morning urging attendance, and Jon & I did an interview with a report for the times this weekend. There are tshirts and brochures to fold and final touches for the silent auction to throw together.

Our young genius (who will begin his sophmore year next month), released episode V yesterday. It’s possible the timing may not have been in honor of our festival, but lets celebrate it just in case.

Oh, and for the worried among us who haven’t seen GQ for a few days, he was seen swimming back from the secondary dam this morning by Jon and Moses. Whew!

Mind you, this is the same case where the trapper got the memo that there was a temporary hold on the killing but wasn’t able to disable the traps because he was too busy. So one beaver died “by accident”. There are regulations about the frequency of checking traps but of course these are KILL TRAPS not snares so they only need to be checked like every two weeks. This horrible photo from the site shows the complex and advanced technology of 600 years of beaver killing: Rip out the dam and kill the beaver when he comes to fix it.

Good luck Jack! This is a media opportunity! March in with your supporters and a few dozen children and say that you were protecting the council from the massive bad press they were going to get if someone got hurt. How far away from the homes were these traps? It might be worth checking out the regulation. If all else fails hold an auction or a fundraiser so that the community can “purchase” your citation. Frame it and donate it to the local library along with a couple articles from the Toronto Sun.

These adorable silhouettes are the work of our map-creating friend Libby Corliss. We scoured through Cheryl’s photos to find the right images. Libby is helping us get the images to artist Paul Craig who will be making a metal two-dimensional sculpture of mom and kits as a memorial. Originally we were planning to have the artwork adorn the very un-artistic sheetpile wall, but in talking with flood expert Mitch Avalon we learned that there would be more concern of debris getting stuck behind it in high flow. Now Paul is leaning towards the upstream side of the Main Street bridge, which would be visible and water-safe.

Paul is the artist behind the metal sculptures at the Martinez library and has been a great friend of the beavers. Because this is truly a small town, his wife was my PE teacher in 7th grade. Go figure.  We have already had some expressed enthusiasm from the council for the project. It’s probably the most visible place for it, and Starbucks is where the public interest in beavers really began. It’s where we picked up mom on her very last day, curled weakly in the weeds and grasses. We’re excited about the project and hopefully we’ll have more to report soon.

I also heard yesterday from the retired supervisor of Sunol Regional Park who knows about several ‘remnant beaver dams’ in and around the area and beyond. Hopefully he will lead us on an expedition to get some samples for carbon testing! This is useful because the current mythology says there were “no historic beavers in Alameda Creek” and so of course you’re completely justified in killing the ones there now. Looking forward to changing that myth. I’ll keep you posted.

This was the parting comment from an appreciative visitor to the dam last night. She and her family had come from out of town for the evening to watch the beavers, have dinner downtown, and then return to the waterside for a final glimpse. She thanked us earnestly for pushing the city into allowing the beavers to stay and said that the sight had been amazing, “like a temple”. And it is true, every single member of the family had stood and watched reverently as three baby beavers paddled around the main pond.

(Finally, a religion I can understand!)

The sense of entering a sacred space is powerful and certainly one I have had visiting the beavers at times. I can remember particular moments in nature - an oxalis carpeted redwood grove, a cathedral of bay lining both sides of a leaf-covered canyon, standing in a blanket of snow while broad flakes fall all around you, a quiet moment watching a mother deer with her fawn - these are truly ‘temple’ experiences and I’m grateful for every one. It touches me deeply that the visiting family found that kind of peace and wonder in the presence of our beavers, and was generous enough to share it.

Finding the same feeling in manmade structures has been more elusive, but here is a place I was lucky enough to glimpse it:

Photo: Heidi Perryman

the hypostyle hall at Karnak in Egypt.