Saw an adult crest the dam tonight with a baby in tow that looked SO like Dad. See for yourself. Craggy face/lots of coloration, wild mane behind ears. Also saw a kit MUDDING the dam and reaching up for his own willow branches. Adorable footage to follow. Great night!

Whatever you were planning on reading this morning, put it aside and go check out this fantastic guide to ‘working with beaver’. It was written by Sherri Tippie in conjunction with Mary O’Brien and the Grand Canyon Trust. It has a detailed account of how to protect trees, install beaver deceivers and configure flow devices. It very pragmatically talks about the benefits of beavers and even talks about relocating the ones that just can’t be tolerated. This is the kind of smart, complete guide to dealing with beavers that 200 people attending a certain November 7th, 2007 meeting would have been very grateful for. I put a link to it on the resource section of the website as well.  If the names involved sound familiar, they should. Sherri Tippie is the top beaver relocation expert in the country located in Colorado. I called her the day before that meeting and asked about the potential hazards of relocation and what she’d charge to come out and move ours if we had to take that route. Mary O’brien is the true beaver believer from my favorite ever beaver article “Voyage of the dammed“. Honestly, you just don’t assemble a better beaver team than this. Go read it and the next time we write the city of St. Paul or Juno or Chicago trying to make them think twice about killing beavers, we’ll make sure to send them a copy!

When you’re done marveling at their good work, take a moment to consider ours. My meeting with city staff went amazing yesterday and they are undertaking the installation of the beavers on the sheetpile themselves. Check out this press release for details. It’s perfect timing, because Mom beaver died on a Saturday morning exactly two months ago today. Doesn’t it seem much, much longer? (Maybe I am just much, much older.) Well, soon there will be a reminder of her impact on Alhambra Creek forever, and that greatly heartens me. Thanks Paul Craig for your generous artwork!

If you need a reminder of how things used to be, check out our New York friend Bob Arnebeck’s lovely footage of his new kits with mom. He’s been watching for them all summer anxiously waiting for the launch and they just made an appearance. We know how that is!

12 min version: Summer Dam Removed to Create Fish Refuge - Camp Meeker Dam Removal from Ben Zolno on Vimeo.

Beaver friend Brock Dolman of OAEC’s Water Institute sends this newly launched video telling the dynamic story of creek restoration and dam removal in Camp Meeker. You probably know where this is located. Have you ever driven to Occidental from Guerneville on the Bohemian Highway? As you wind through the twisted redwood drive you see parts of a lovely creek along your right. The creek used to dead end in a swimming hole that was the center to the early community of Camp Meeker, and salmon would have to go hiking back down the water and look for another route. This video is a smart, engaging look at how to pull the community together with environmental restoration. Here’s Brock’s invitation to see for yourself.

For those who have been following the Dutch Bill Creek Dam Removal and Restoration Project, our construction partner Prunuske Chatham, Inc. has just started the implementation of Phase II to complete this project.  Today, Michael Fawcett, PhD and Sierra Cantor (GRRCD Ecologist) moved hundreds of fish (steelhead) upstream of the project to a safe refuge downstream, and construction should commence by next week.

As a kick off to this final phase of the project, I invite you to view the shortened version of the video and then come down and check out the site.  When its done, come get your feet wet – and next year hopefully come see the salmon happily spawning.

Make sure you have the sound on – the input from the community and our restoration partners really make the video into a story worth listening to. Please feel free to distribute as you wish.  The longer version (also on our website) is equally entertaining, if not more so – its just, well, longer….

Nice work all! And great soundtrack by the way. (Do I recognize the music from the Secret of Roan Inish? Gosh i loved that movie…)

Well, no cranes needed for Alhambra Creek at the moment. I’m off to meet with city staff about the mom-beaver & kits memorial by artist Paul Craig. Nearly two months have gone by since we lost our beloved matriarch. (Is that all? It seems like a million years ago). Hopefully we’ll have her image displayed before too long. Wish me luck!

Update:

Met with Bob Cellini and city staff who were enthusiastic about the beavers and willing to take on responsibolity for hanging them on the sheetpile themselves. We offered suggestions that were well received and left the adorable metal beavers in capable hands. Look for them soon coming to a sheetpile wall near you!

At long last Mike Callahan’s instructional DVD is available to make the techniques and tools of beaver management accessible to every property owner and township. Having reviewed my own copy last Wednesday I can testify that the instruction is offered in pragmatic, easy-to-understand language, and will contribute substantially to the welfare of beavers and landowners for decades to come. A second clip of testimonials is viewable on his updated website, and purchasing information can be found by clicking here. Attentive beaver watchers will soon recognize our very own Martinez beavers featured in section two, which couldn’t please this particular supporter more!

There are lots of parts of beaver advocacy that are frustrating, disappointing and tiring. This isn’t one of them. I am eager to see this DVD in every public library across the country. I am impatient to see every city manager forced to watch it at breakfast twice a year, and hopeful that it will become regular fare at Fish & Game or the Department of Transportation soon. Do your part to help spread the word that any city smarter than a beaver can manage a beaver and let’s make doing the right thing harder and harder to avoid.

Thanks Mike! And congratulations!

This has been quite a week for beaver advocacy. Dad beaver made an important tree removal decision so mom has been hanging around eating the remaining branches. She’s coming out around 7:45 so its a very civilized time for beaver viewing. Taryn of Wisconsin writes that there was a town meeting last night with a lot of good feeling and an engineer stepped forward to volunteer his services to protect the culvert and keep the beavers. I also got three confirmations this week for our musical lineup for the beaver festival!

On Wednesday I got a package from Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions containing an early copy of his soon-to-be-released beaver management DVD. Of course you now I dropped everything and got out the popcorn for a preview. I was so pleased and impressed at how clear and understandable he makes this work. Every part of the process is explained in a step-by-step, easy to understand, how-to video. And guess whose lovely beavers frolic in the background!

My footage of the Martinez Beavers is sprinkled throughout the first chapter - Mom coming over the secondary dam and our 2008 yearlings working at repairs. Ahhh what a treat to see them put to such good, beaver-saving use! An impressive testimonial section at the end is filled with burly, public-works-types, saying how they were doubtful at first but now they are grateful it saves them such time and money! At the end is a reference section with other documents about beavers and beaver management, including the ‘what good are beavers’ we collaborated on.

Truly it was a thrilling and affirming moment to see that this work will get easily done by beaver advocates for generations. The package also contained a generous donation to Worth A Dam which I will surely find good use for. All in all it was like one of those graduation moments where you sniff at your child growing up, remember all the late nights and know in your heart how importantly they’re going to contribute. I have it on very best authority that Worth A Dam will get a few copies for auction at the festival, so you can share the moment.

Yesterday I received a lovely thank you note from powerhouse Diane Burgess of Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed for the talk I did there last Thursday. Truly the very best friends beavers could have. Monday I will be giving the same presentation to the Environmental Alliance at the John Muir House and Tuesday our artist Frogard Butler will be helping me tell the beaver story to St. Catherine’s preschoolers. “Once upon a time there was a mommy beaver and a daddy beaver and they looked and looked for just the right place to make a home for their family” Ahhh, that’s going to be fun.

Always an adventure, up on beaver creek!

My very first beaver friend, Bob Arnebeck, posted video this winter of he and his wife helping a deer stuck on the ice. It’s lovely to watch, enjoy!

Show me the man, woman or child who can watch this without thinking of this magical scene….

Beaver City, USA from Ribbon Made Productions on Vimeo.

Richard Parks was the editor of the Martinez News Gazette who first published my beaver articles way back when. He is now a graduate student at the UCB school of Journalism. He chose to cover this story for some quirky reason. It appeared yesterday in the East Bay Express. The beaver/muskrat footage should be familiar. It’s mine.

The Martinez Beaver Dilemma Cute and cuddly or a flood threat? By Richard Parks In Martinez — the hometown of baseball hero Joe DiMaggio and naturalist John Muir — a family of beavers has made its home in a downtown creek. Some love them because they’re cute and snuggly; some hate them because they allegedly add to the flood threat in downtown.

Watch that leap after the beaver crosses the street! Now there’s something I’d love to see!

Ian, Ian, Ian. When are you coming to Martinez so we can brain storm about what to do next? How about a Public Awareness campaign for the entire state of Georgia?

Love the pantry stocking. Love the snowball fight. Love the ducks in V. I was just sorry I didn’t get to see your beaver break the ice though, because I was curious how you’d pull it off.

Enjoy all of Ian’s brilliant (now fifteen year old) artistry.  That’s his dad playing the banjo and we SO need him at our beaver festival. Look for “beaver creek” on youtube. Apparently just because every episode has been nominated for a national scholastic award he isn’t taking a break.  Keep them coming Ian, we love you!