You may have heard something about the successful re-release of beavers in Scotland this week. The home of Robert Burns hasn’t seen a beaver in close to 400 years, and their reintroduction is part of a study to see how the environment responds. (i can hazard a guess.) This has been a huge undertaking that has faught and cajoled and nudged and poked the salmon industry every step of the way. You see, the salmon-ites are concerned that beavers will block fish passage, and went to great lengths to research the issue at the very crowded “Library-of-articles-that-agree-with-my-position”. (LATAMP) For the record, this is a much more crowded research facility than its sister institution “Library-that-presents-all-the-facts-whether-they-agree-with-me-or-not”. (LTPATFWTAWMON) (In fact, it is often so crowded at LATAMP with goverment officials trying to justify invasions, city attorneys attempting to violate CEQA and bitter university professors marking down their student papers, that you can’t find a table!)

Of course if our Scottish Salmon-Sheiders had visited LTPATFWTAWMON they would have learned that beaver dams make important winter habitat for juvenile salmonids, and that these two species co-evolved and benefit eachother.  Our New Zealand Friend William Hughes Gaines has been working hard to persuade some of the more vocal and unpersuadeable elements. This week the kilted land just got a little bit closer.

In honor of the auspicious event we are looking for a bagpiper to play at the beaver festival! Know any?

Nae man can tether Time nor Tide,
The hour approaches Tam maun ride;

Robert Burns Tam O’ Shanter

Having used up California’s noble Fish and Game in securing the right to “shoot” 50 woodpeckers, Rossmoor went after USDA/APHIS for more help in the “Styrofoam Saving Campaign”. Sensitive to the delicate fact that the permit to shoot woodpeckers runs out in two days, the USDA has issued a second “scientific collection” permit to remove 20 more birds next month as well. Perhaps this will allow them to use “enhanced interrogation techniques” on the offending birds, to find out why they chose this particular granary target. Or perhaps the mutual owners have suddenly become researchers and will be sponsoring a large scale avian factor analytic model. We’re told that they agreed to “build” three artificial granaries to the tune of 895/each, spending money on their favorite contractor while Audubon would have done it for free.  The important thing is that USDA agreed with F&G and ruled that that endangered styrofoam needs protecting.

Look for the pied pipers of woodpecker removal to ride in sometime after this month. For more information keep an eye on Cheryl’s blog Bay Area Wildlife or the Mt. Diablo Audubon Society.

Not just any chair, mind you. Sometimes you need just the right seat to toast beaver successes. And I know just the place to do it. Why not cap tonight’s beaver viewing with something cold and a little Delta Blues?

Tell Roy the beavers sent you.

One of the things I love about days like yesterday, is meeting with people who understand all the footnotes without even glancing down to the bottom of the page. I’m talking here about the inherent recognition that the living things in an environment are valuable, that the habitat is worth saving, that the good will of a hundred volunteers with a sense of community is irreplaceable, and that a myopic and concrete-lined city council could fail to see this again and again.

Last night Lisa Owens Viani of the San Francisco Estuary Project, who organized a very demanding day with lots of bumps in the road, who cut her environmental teeth saving Baxter Creek in El Cerrito, and who now pals around with buddies like Ann Riley who wrote “Restoring Streams in Cities“, this very Lisa wrote me a quote from her eco-advocate friend in Portland.

“Endless Pressure, Endlessly Applied.”

Turns out this is a famous quote from Brock Evans, ex-marine, environmentalist and highly successful attorney who is now in Washington DC. His list of publications is impressive, and he is recognized as one of the most successful environmental attorneys in the nation. He practiced for a long time in Washington State (beaver mecca) and even ran for congress. Although he didn’t win, his campaign manager is now a US senator. (Maria Cantwell). In a recent blog post he discusses the thunderdome match between the environment and the redeveloper, and how much still has been accomplished.

How could all this happen, given the wealth and political clout of developers?

Answer: the same way as it has always been. By small bands of determined individuals who personally knew and loved the places, or the values, about to destroyed. The enormous public support came a bit later. First it was necessary to speak out, to challenge and take action — to show the way. The vast majority were volunteers. All they really had was their courage, their determination to never back down. Ordinary folks like the rest of us. They are the ones who did it.

Well this I am starting to believe. From Susan Kirks  with badgers to Heidi Perryman with beavers, just ordinary folks doing what they knew was right even when they felt discouraged or hopeless or slighted. Endless Pressure, Endlessly Applied.

The journey really is to Ithaka, not Babylon.

This was one of those deceptive days when it felt like FINALLY the beavers will be recognized as valuable and the city will wisely become their biggest advocates. The most respected environmental names in the bay area were in attendance, waterboards, estuary and state parks. You know the saying “preaching to the choir”? Well this was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Their vocal range runs the entire Bay Area and beyond. There was a host of media and authors amongst them. Poor Igor wasn’t able to join us because of a sudden heath issue. A colleague from the urban creeks council filled in instead.

My favorite part of the day had to be THIS from the Oakland Museum. A pleisticine era beaver skull from the ice age when beavers were the size of BEARS. I looked at that and thought that is soooooooooo how the city imagines our beavers. Meddlesome and larger than life.

Sweetest part of the day? It had to been when music and beaver affianado Roy Jeans of Armando’s displayed the lovely chair he had painted for the occasion, with the words Worth A Dam, and Igor and Heidi emblazened on the surface. He gamely proclaimed he was selling it for 50 dollars and would donate the entire proceeds to Worth A Dam.

Exquisite day. Very tired, must rest now. Thanks Lisa for organizing it and Cheryl, Jon and Linda for being stalwart volunteers. Thanks also to our lovely beavers for being so photogenic.

2009 River of Words Youth Poetry & Art Contest
Creek Seeker Grand Prize

Misunderstood

In a sacred place, a creek is alive,
Shallow, murky, moving water.
A water-strider walks along the water.
“Look closely, follow our movements,” the green water whispers.
A misplaced turtle bobs up and down, swimming gracefully.
Its striped shell and red head floats near the surface and then disappears.
Ripples spread over and over again, like a never-ending secret.
A wilted tulip drifts by.
Water springs out creating unforgettable ripples.

And if you look closely, you can see the copper glow of pennies, the
creek hopelessly misunderstood for a fountain. Dead leaves drift upon the
water.

The turtle observes this silently.

While the only spectator in the creek is Abe Lincoln’s copper face.

Caroline María Woods-Mejía, age 12
Berkeley, California
Poetry Inside Out
Teacher: John Oliver Simon

Tickets √

Lunches √

Beaver Video √

Projector √

Screen √

Speakers √

Presents for contest winners √

Tables for lunch in no-name park √

Thank you tshirt for Armando’s √

Losing my mind√

After the thrill of good news that we were the proud guardians of four baby beavers in Alhambra creek Once Again, there was a lot of work to be done. Linda rolled up her metaphorical sleeves and started chatting beavers with the media, which I’m sure you heard a little something about.  Cheryl has been devotedly at the dam site trying to capture photos of our elusive quartet, and I have been avidly making and launching video, updating the website (In the past 24 hours we’ve had 2000 page views and web traffic from all over) and returning emails to folks who saw the story, and wanted to be involved.

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds 2008

This beloved picture is from last years brood, and I just received a copy of its appearance in the teacher’s edition of the Califonia Education and the Environment Initiative, “surviving and thriving” science curriculum which will be distributed to every 1st grade teacher in the state. Looking at this picture you can see why Cheryl should be given ample opportunity to be photographing the next generation. (So if you want to help out, go have drinks at Left Bank and tip her enormously so she can have more free time!)

Some wrote to complain that beavers should be exterminated and no city should have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on sheetpile “to protect them”. ARGGGHHH!!!! I don’t even react to the beavers-are-rodents-kill-them arguments anymore, but the sheetpile mythology makes makes my teeth hurt. Lets try this once more. The sheetpile wall was not built to protect the beavers. In fact, beaver supporters took the city to court to stop it, spent a great deal of money and time to fight it, and lost. The sheetpile wall was not even built to protect the bank, because historical photographs show us that there is another sheetpile wall directly behind it.

The sheetpile wall was built to protect the city’s relationship with a very important property owner. Period. Next question. Allow me to welcome any new visitors curious about this issue by inviting you to look at this video.

In the middle of this very busy beaver drama, we are trying to get ready for Wednesday’s creek seekers express visit. Martinez is hosting 50 visitors who will arrive on Amtrak, eat lunch and tour the habitat, and then come to Armando’s for a talk on the watershed by Igor Skaredoff, and a talk on the beavers by me. I’m still madly trying to add last minute footage to the powerpoints, and make arrangements for whose picking up lunches, drinks, and reminding the city to turn off the sprinklers. i’m fairly certain I have the basic talking points down pat, but there will be media and significant environmental players in attendance, so I want to make sure my beaver pitch is tuned to its most convincing

Congratulations also to Chuck who is the winner of our “baby pool”. Along with 9 others he guessed that mom would have four kits, and his name was drawn at random. He will be getting a Worth A Dam tshirt and the envy of all his neighbors. If you’d like a tshirt of your very own, drop us a line or come see us June 7th at the REI environmental fair.

Once we just get through wednesday then we can worry about the following week, when we have tree planting, a beaver class and REI to keep us busy….

Creek Cove Hides Baby Beavers

Four Beaver Kits Spotted in Martinez Creek

Confirmed sighting of FOUR new kits near the lodge. Footage here from Moses Silva.Have a cigar, Martinez. It’s a beaver!

Christening Party at the beaver dam and everyone’s invited! Worth A Dam’s core gathered at the water last night to see if it was really true. We were treated to a beaver display of grand proportions, Mom, Dad, three yearlings and two very persistent muskrats. There were even two tail slaps by Dad, although we never figured out what he was warning  about.

Stalwart and intrepid videographer, Moses Silva, sought us out bearing a camera brimming with news. In the wee hours of the morning he had donned waders and strode through the water to find four new kits in a cove near the beaver dam. He filmed them with a flashlight taped to his camera. They had obviously been left outside in a protected area to get used to their surroundings. Click on the video above to see what he saw.

The group was giddy and celebratory. After all the “sheet” these beavers have been through this year, we wondered if there would even be kits, or if there would only be a few.  Instead there is photographic evidence that there are four chubby and healthy little fuzzballs. In the video you can see them practicing grooming and nuzzling each other. Their teeth are very prominent, possibly because they haven’t yet started gnawing much to wear them down.

For those of you keeping track at home, this brings our current colony total to 9: two adults, three yearlings, and four new kits. Somewhere out there are two dispersers trying to set up life on their own. That makes a total of 9 healthy offspring mom and dad have brought into the world, and I got to watch. The notion that this is the third time I’ve been here makes me a little misty-eyed.

What better way to welcome wednesday’s creek-seekers train journey than with brand new babies?

My all time favorite memorial weekend (so far) happened a couple years ago. We were in the sierras and took a drive up to the lake and were crowded with people who had driven up from the valley with their hopeful bathing suits and floaty devices. There were boats and picnics and beach towels at the ready. All of the sudden the towering broken mountain behind the lake shook her shoulders and called in massive cloud cover. There was a patter of rain, and then it started snowing heavily.

There were squeals and swear words and some claps of snow thunder. All the floaties and the swimsuits and the boats packed up and flew down to lower elevations. We were left there in the silence, with only a chorus of very confused frogs croaking at the falling lace. The weirdly sudden freeze snatched all the fallen water into heavy crystals and soon their were giant chandelier dangles at the ends of branches. It was truly a memorial.

Not to be outdone, last night brought a flurry of beaver activity to the dams. First there were conversations with strangers who wanted to know what the “cage-like thing was” in the water (OHHHHHHHH beloved interpretive sign, whence comest thou?) and then some very familiar beaver-fan faces. One kit (yearling, I must call them yearlings, sniff) was out by 8:00 pm and had developed a new habit of taking food into the hidey-hole on the other side of the creek. By 8:30 all three of them were in proud display, and mom came from time to time to get reeds for bedding.

Our yearlings are soo much bigger now, but there is one that’s still small. Maybe 45 lbs and 35 respectively? I did get a good look at mom’s right eye, which contines to look affected. Yesterday I sent cheryl’s photos to a beaver vet tech in New York who will be passing them along to the vet. One thing she wanted to know is if it was the same eye (yes) and if any of the other beavers were affected (no). It was nice to get great views of everyone last night, feeding, wrestling, and reaching for branches, so we could check all pairs.

The very badly bitten muskrat made an appearance and snagged a charity fennel bulb from the dam. Have you seen this little guy? A huge chunk was taken out of him and has since healed. I can’t imagine it was a beaver, because whatever it was he obviously got away from, and I that must mean it was something stuck on land and he managed to pull away and dive. It’s amazing he was able to survive. Last night we all held our breath at his fennel audacity, because of course two yearlings immediately started following him. He dove into the cove and they dove after him and we listened very closely but couldn’t hear cartoon scuffle noises, so I guess he did okay and the risk was worth it.

It was a delightful almost summer beaver evening. What better way to launch memorial day weekend than a visit the beaver dam? You never know what might happen.