Do you remember Robert Rust? He’s the kindly beaver friend who took that photo of mom in 2006, baked the beaver bread for the festival, and regularly removes tires from the creek. I got an email from him yesterday saying that he cleaned the west bank of the creek all the way from the park to the train tracks, and removed many bottles & cans, a large roll of carpet, piles of plastic bags, cardboard and abandoned clothing.

Look how lovely the place looks now! This is the third dam behind the corp yard, a ways down stream. If you’ve never been to see it, visit now while it has had its spring (autumn?) cleaning. The dam is looking more successful lately, and was actually holding back water last night. If you see Robert (aka: Bob the tire guy) THANK HIM!

(On a more personal gratitude note, I owe him an even bigger thanks! I was on the bridge last night enjoying beavers, and then pulled myself away to go check out his handiwork. Thus I escaped the storm of angry yellow jackets chasing the boy across the bridge. Can you imagine how lucky I feel?)

Tonight an unsuspecting boy disturbed a yellow jacket nest near the footbridge and was chased into the park and stung 11 times. I have let city staff know to take care of the nest, but in the mean time use caution around the Amtrak side of the footbridge and let others know to be careful too.

(I guess it would be wrong to just leave the nest there to welcome the deconstruction crew who comes to scape back the beavers’ foliage, right? Just asking…)

There must be a reason that they use the same name for “beaver families” and for “newly-forming democratic enclaves combining a sense of individual agency and collective responsibility”.

Ever since that dramatic November meeting I’ve been particularly interested in the role our beaver family has played in involving Martinez residents more actively in local politics. How many of us had even attended a city council meeting, (let alone spoke up at one), before that night? Turns out I’m not the only one intrigued.

Last week at the Farmer’s Market I met Dr. Trevor Stack, Anthropologist and Professor of Hispanic Studies at Aberdeen University in Scotland. Interested in the how different communities come to understand their role as citizens, he is doing a summer project on how Martinez residents view citizenship. We struck up a conversation about the beavers and their success at getting ordinary people to gather and disseminate facts, campaign and persuade their neighbors, learn more about their natural surroundings, and challenge their leaders into new ways of thinking.

Let’s call it “beaver democracy 101″

Dr. Stack met me at the dam this week to talk about the process of awakening that happened for the town, as residents became more and more aware of the challenges and solutions. We talked about how it was initially an organic movement, with no web page or non-profit to focus it. One of the things that struck me at that meeting was how it elegantly it represented a cross-section of Martinez; the cynical folk who no longer believe the city represents their interests, and the more trusting ones who expected them to do the right thing. It is probably fair to say that a third of the people there that night felt certain that their speaking up would make no difference at all, and a third were sure the city would try and listen.

In a way, we were both wrong.

Forming a subcommitee to study the issues, (and selecting members that could really help solve them), was far more responsive to the concerns of Martinez residents than many ever expected. By the same token, delaying a vote and misrepresenting the on-going threat of flooding was far less responsible than the trusting voters expected. None of us got what we anticipated. We have all learned new things about the city:

(Some of us learned that they can listen. And some of us learned that they can lie.)

In the mean time, there has been a lot more attention paid to the way decisions are made and financed in this town. Our own Linda Meza started the campaign to organize a fourth of July parade for next year, and started “The Spirit of Martinez” blog and column for the gazette. I became involved with a group of citizens who were interested in fleshing out issues for the council candidates this year and will be working to make their individual differences clearer with a “Seeking Council” column and a debate. Along the way I’ve spoken to teachers, parents, refinery workers, shop keepers, environmentalists and Kiwanis club members and I can’t be the only one who has noticed beavers broadening my social circle.

Beavers change things: It’s what they do. Thanks Dr. Stack for noticing and asking the right questions. Now that beavers are being reintroduced to Scotland, maybe you can document their civic impact in your own frontyard.

And Build: Signs of a Healthy Estuary

Today’s guest blogger is Lisa Owens-Viani from the San Francisco Estuary Project. I met Lisa when she contacted me for photos of our beaver family to include in the 2008 State of the Estuary Report. Since then I have been bothering her with questions, which she very kindly answers when she can, or sends them along to others who might know. Read her post in its entirety; she’s a science writer who really understands the relationships between healthy waterways and healthy habitats.

When the beavers first appeared on Alhambra Creek in late 2006, I thought it was a quirky anomaly, probably not a long-lived phenomenon, but hopeful and interesting. Yet almost two years later, they are still here, managing to survive amid humans, flood control, and politics—and even reproducing. I can’t help but wonder if the restoration projects the city, creek advocates, and flood control folks have engaged in over the past decade at the mouth of the creek as well as upstream weren’t part of the enticement for the beavers, particularly the delicious willows planted as part of biotechnical bank stabilization efforts. Now that the paddling, diving, yellow-toothed critters are here—and seem to be content and thriving—we face a challenge: to see whether, even in an urbanized landscape, we can restore these ecosystems for the creatures that once lived in them, and co-exist despite challenges. The high level of public interest in the beavers is certainly a vote for peaceful coexistence, and regulatory and flood control agencies are trying as well, with Martinez City staff helping beaver expert Skip Lisle install a pipe to lower the dam height in a way the beavers wouldn’t object to.

Geographically, the beavers have lodged themselves not only near the mouth of Alhambra Creek, but also mid-Estuary, in the Carquinez Strait “chute” that connects the Bay to the Delta. This area, where the fresher waters of the Delta meet the saltier, ocean-influenced waters from the Bay—the San Francisco Estuary—is the end point of a vast watershed: the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, which flow into the Delta, drain approximately 40 percent of the state. The San Francisco Estuary Project, where I work, is one of 28 estuary projects throughout the United States that are part of the National Estuary Program. Mandated by Congress in 1987 to improve the quality of estuaries of national importance, these programs each establish a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan to meet the goals of Clean Water Act Section 320.

In 1993, the San Francisco Estuary Project completed its Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP). When the CCMP was signed in 1992, 44 signatories representing hundreds of stakeholders pledged to “achieve and maintain an ecologically diverse and productive natural estuarine system.” Like the 27 other national estuary projects, the San Francisco Estuary Project is a forum where region-wide issues are aired, a source of support for policy development and project work on a watershed/ecosystem basis, and a provider of up-to-date information on the San Francisco Bay Delta watershed and the many sub-watersheds that comprise it. Every other year the Estuary Project convenes a “State of the Estuary” conference at which scientists and policy makers present the latest information on the Estuary’s condition. The latest State of the Estuary report—“A Greener Shade of Blue”—can be downloaded at www.sfestuary.org under “Documents.”

The Estuary Project partners with environmental organizations and non-profits, local, state, and federal agencies, and businesses and industry from the 12 counties surrounding the Bay-Delta, and the public to implement the CCMP. Over the Estuary Project’s 20-year history, the Project and its partners have implemented many of the actions in the CCMP and fostered an environment out of which an array of new programs and partnerships have hatched and flourished. The Estuary Project provides funding and technical assistance to agencies, municipalities, and organizations to implement the recommended actions contained in the Management Plan. Each year Estuary Project staff, in partnership with the Implementation Committee, made up of representatives of the Project’s many partners, develop a work plan directing activities for that year. The Friends of the Estuary is the Project’s non-profit partner; Contra Costa Public Works Department’s Mitch Avalon and Friends of Alhambra Creek’s Igor Skaredoff are both active members of its board. The Friends are charged with helping develop public involvement, education, communication, and advocacy programs for the Estuary and serving as a watchdog for CCMP implementation.

Other Estuary Project partners include the state Coastal Conservancy and the Bay Area Open Space Council. In July, after conducting a public survey, the agencies chose the slogan “Nature Within Reach” for a new Bay Area license plate. The money from license plate purchases will go towards more open space preservation, trails, and wetland restoration. More wetland restoration in turn will hopefully mean more protection against climate change and sea level rise, and more habitat for more wildlife. “Nature Within Reach” won the survey, I think, because so many of us in urban areas value living near the Estuary and its wildness—with opportunities to see wildlife like the beavers close to home.

Alhambra Creek’s beavers may be a sign that the Alhambra Creek watershed is healthy enough to support creatures like this, at least in part due to the restoration work done by the city, Public Works Department, and Friends of Alhambra Creek. The Urban Creeks Council and others have spotted steelhead in the creek as well, another sign of health. The beavers and the steelhead show that restoration efforts can pay off: that one watershed can make a difference, and that we can restore the Estuary by restoring its watersheds, large or small. As Mitch Avalon puts it, “The local watersheds feed the Bay. It’s like a human body—if you’re eating poisoned food, your system isn’t going to be healthy. These watersheds provide rearing habitat for species that go down and live in the Bay—you’ve got to look at it as a whole system.” For more on the restoration work that has taken place on Alhambra Creek see http://sfep.abag.ca.gov/pdfs/newsletters/insert_june06.pdf.

Watch for an in-depth story on the beavers by well-known local natural history writer Joe Eaton in the October ESTUARY newsletter (download past issues at www.sfestuary.org). Every other month, ESTUARY presents the latest news on Bay-Delta water issues, restoration efforts, and the many programs, actions, voices, and viewpoints that contribute to implementing the CCMP. To receive the October issue as part of a free, three-month trial subscription of ESTUARY, contact Paula Trigueros at the Estuary Project ptrigueros@waterboards.ca.gov.

Jennifer Viegas of the Discovery News Blog “Born Animal” was happy to learn about our Mink Sighting. Check out her post for August 27, 2008 which has some nice things to say about the footage by Moses Silva.

Now the state of Washington has a lot of wetlands, and has learned a thing or two (often the hard way) about water management. I wonder what they recommend for managing creeks and streams in urban and rural areas? Check out this report, sent to me by our beaver friend Jake Jacobsen, Watershed Steward of Stillaquamish County. It lists a series of techniques for restoration of streams, channel modification, salmonid spawning gravel, and nutrient supplementation.

Check out technique 8 on the list: “Beaver re-introduction.”

This exhaustive report, offered by the Washington department of Fish & Wildlife (notice the difference already?) documents the postive effects of beavers on waterways;

2. PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS

Successful reintroduction of beaver has demonstrated: 1) an elevated water table upstream of the dam, which in turn improves vegetation condition, reduces water velocities, reduces bank erosion, and improves fish habitat (increased water depth, better food production, higher dissolved oxygen, and various water temperatures), 2) reduced sedimentation downstream of the dam, 3) increased water storage, 4) improved water quality, and 5) more waterfowl nesting and brooding areas. These effects, at the landscape level, influence the population dynamics, food supply, and predation of most riparian1 and aquatic species. Beaver dams on coastal streams increase landscape-scale habitat diversity by creating a unique wetland type for that area.

Beaver ponds can alter water chemistry by changing adsorption rates for nitrogen and phosphorus, by trapping coliform bacteria, and by increasing the retention and availability of nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon1. Beaver-altered streams also cause taxonomic and functional changes in the benthic macroinvertebrate community due to the effects of impoundment and subsequent alteration of water temperature, water chemistry and plant growth. Beaver can also influence the flow regime within a watershed. Beaver ponds can improve infiltration and ground water storage by increasing the area where soil and water meet. Headwaters can retain more water from spring runoff and major storm events and release it more slowly, resulting in a higher water table and extended summer flows. This increase in water availability, both surface and subsurface, usually increases the width of the riparian zone and, consequently, favors wildlife communities that depend on that vegetation. The richness, diversity, and abundance of riparian-dependent birds, fish, herptiles, and mammals can increase as a result. Beaver ponds are important waterfowl production areas and can also be used during migration. In some high-elevation areas of the Rocky Mountains, these ponds are solely responsible for the majority of local duck production

In addition, species of high interest, such as trumpeter swans, sandhill cranes, moose, mink, and river otters, use beaver ponds for nesting or feeding areas3. Beaver ponds also provide very important salmon habitat in western Washington and Oregon. Juvenile coho and cutthroat are known to over-winter in beaver ponds and the loss of beaver pond habitat has resulted in the loss of salmon production potential.

Oh where was all this information when I was writing my part of the subcommittee report? Well, now you know I wasn’t making that stuff up. Just a reminder that our beavers are not available for relocation. You other cities will just have to find your own.

As if all that wasn’t reason enough to invest in the beavers, check out the new prominent campaign issue for Martinez City Council.

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I know I’ve posted far too many videos lately, but we’re getting a host of activity at the beaver dam that can’t be ignored. Take this fish which was filmed behind the primary dam this weekend. He’s definately not one of the sacramento sucker we saw earlier. When I saw this footage I thought incredulously he actually looked like a rainbow trout. Doubting my eyes I sent it around to the experts.

Friend Mike Vukman of Urban Creeks Council sent the video to Dr. Alice Rich of AAR, and she wrote back the following:

It looks to be a rainbow trout (i.e., resident steelhead), although I would have a better idea if I saw it in person. As you know, NOAA Fisheries doesn’t differentiate between the rainbow trout and steelhead unless there is a geographical barrier, which there would not be for this creek down so low. So, by default, it looks to be a steelhead. The only other large fish that I know of in that system would be pikeminnow (a cigar-shaped minnow which this is not), Sacramento sucker (which this is not). And, someone had said they had sighted carp in AC, but this is certainly not a carp.

So there you have it. Steelhead back in Alhambra Creek! Interesting thing about the Rainbow trout is that there are two species: one that lives its life in fresh water, and one that’s “anadromous” meaning it has to make it out to the ocean and returns to fresh water to spawn. The anadromous version of the Rainbow trout is better known as the Steelhead.

There was some discussion of whether this particular fellow looks like he’s moving slowly or working hard to breath, perhaps because of the water temperature. He is sitting in the shallows, (I suppose to feed) and the cooler water is down deeper. There is research saying that Beaver dams can negatively impact trout by raising the water temperature. Hmm. Take the good with the bad, I’d say. When’s the last time that anyone took photos of steelhead in Alhambra Creek? Surely its been decades.

Keep looking! It’s worth a dam.

From the dedicated beaver videographer Moses Silva. This rare glimpse of two 2008 kits practicing “mutual grooming” was filmed at night in August. We’ve been waiting for a glimpse of this behavior and thrilled to have access to such a sustained session. Enjoy! 

I think we might have found our corporate sponsor?