Blog tracks ‘sightings’ of Jessie, a mysterious monster beneath Jamaica Pond

Now this is fun! A  blog and twitter account recently appeared on the Boston landscape reporting sighting of a lurking behemoth beneath the largest fresh water in the area. Get it? ‘Jessie’ like ‘Nessie’?

“We are quite certain that Jessie is a giant beaver, Castoroides ohioensis. It’s the only thing that scientifically makes sense, and it fits a lot of the observational data,” said an e-mail from Harden, an office worker and artist, and Roche, a doctoral student in computer science at Northeastern. “He’s about eight feet long, covered in brown fur, and has a large, paddle-like tail.”

The grad student-reporters on this fantastical discovery even have  a good reason why he hasn’t been photographed! Seems they set up night observation cameras and got amazing footage but a silly intern deleted them all!

Releasing information about Jessie via the Internet has “definitely created a bit of a buzz on Twitter, and there were an originally increased number of reports of Jessie sightings,” the e-mail said. “I think more people are out looking, and I think it may have made Jessie a bit more shy.”

Oh, that’s rich! They are having a lot of fun with this idea! I almost think castoroides might want to come to Martinez but I can’t even IMAGINE what the city council would do with that particular rumor!

The bloggers admit to having fabricated Jessie’s existence.  “Everyone wants a little magic and mystery in life,” their e-mail said. “In this day and age, we are asked to believe so many improbable tales – that Elvis is dead, that ke$ha can sing, that we are not ruled by a race of alien lizard overlords – why NOT believe in a giant, prehistoric pond-dwelling beaver?!?”

Why not indeed? If you want a fantastical tale about the REAL castoroides, you can read all about his exploits and legendary battle with Coyote here. Come to think of it, it makes sense that there would be giant beavers in Massachusetts. Given the unbelievable  amount of panic and outrage the arrival of an ordinary beaver causes – the trips to the health department for a kill permit, the claim that they are going to ruin the environment, the woeful kvetching to the media, the failure to problem-solve or think in any capacity about reasonable solutions – those beavers MUST be giant.

Certainly they couldn’t possibly be the same size as the beavers for which hundreds of other cities manage their challenges while recognizing their enormous value, right? (Like Martinez for instance?) I mean obviously Boston has got to be dealing with a problem no city has successfully faced in 150 years right?

Well check out the Jessie blog and in the mean time, keep your eye peeled for something like this.

Press Photo by Betsy Simon Dickinson resident Bradley Robertson surveys a tree in Jaycee Park on Friday, where beavers are blamed for damage to some of the trees.

“I was walking along the river two weeks ago when I noticed the trees and reported it to the person at the front desk at parks and recreation,” said Dickinson resident Bradley Robertson. “They said someone else had called before and that fencing would go up, but fencing isn’t going to be enough. They need to trap the beavers and set them loose somewhere else.

Clearly one of the limiting factors of maintaining a beaver website is plot variation. There isn’t any. Beavers build dams and cities get upset. Let’s call that Example A. Beavers block culverts and cities get upset. Let’s call that Example B. Beavers Chew trees and cities get upset.

Let’s call that example ‘C‘ – for CHEW.

Residents and users of the area along Heart River near Jaycee Park are concerned that beavers may chew down all of the park’s trees if the Dickinson Parks and Recreation doesn’t step in.

“There’s not much I can do about it. They won’t let me shoot in the city limits,” he said. “And that it’s not my responsibility anyway. It’s the park board’s responsibility.”

“I’ve reported it to our staff operation manager, who will check it out and wrap with chain link, and we’ll contact the city forester to see if they will be salvageable,” he said.

Chain link? To give it that prison-yard look? I don’t suppose you’ll leave any space for the tree to grow? With their chain link tourniquets those trees should all be dead in NO time!

Maybe I should keep form letters for the three predictable solutions. I’ve been writing them all individually but why bother? They all require exactly the same advice. Get that man who wants to help but can’t “use his gun in the city” and put a paintbrush in his hand. Take some latex paint that matches the color of the bark and toss in some mason sand – (about 5 oz per quart of paint). Stir it up right before painting about three feet up the trunk on all sides. Voila! The gritty texture will discourage chewing and your trees will be safe. You’ll need to repeat it in about two years but visually it will look much less ‘penal’ than chain link.

If the trees are not salvageable, Kramer said they would be taken down but didn’t know how soon the issue would be resolved.  He said it has been two or three years since a trapper was called to the area around Jaycee’s Park and the baseball field.

“The thing is we can’t chain link or wire mesh around every tree,” he said. “Obviously, one of these trees is probably past the point of being salvageable, but we have some years where we go without any issues. It’s not like it is a problem we see coming. Typically, we don’t see activity until after the damage is done.”

Sigh. Example C – corollary 1. Don’t rush to take the trees out that the beavers cut down. The roots will still prevent erosion for a good long time – and depending on the species they’ll provide energy for the tree to recover its ‘root/shoot ratio’ by stimulating a natural coppicing effect when shoots grow back. Maybe you could put a little park sign to explain it to visitors. I know you’re in North Dakota but look what your next door neighbor is teaching today in Montana:

Home / News / Montana & Regional / Montana & Regional Montana tribes hold annual honoring of Flathead River Story Discussion Video Image (3) By VINCE DEVLIN of the Missoulian | Posted: Tuesday, May 8, 2012 9:30 pm | No Comments Posted Font Size: Default font size Larger font size buy this photo TOM BAUER/Missoulian Tim Ryan explains to fifth-graders from Ronan Middle School how a fish trap was made and used at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ annual River Honoring on Tuesday. The event brings hundreds of fourth- and fifth-graders to the lower Flathead River for two days of education.

When beavers take down willow trees to construct their dams and lodges, Ryan said, what is left eventually sprouts the fairly thin shoots that are the perfect material for fish traps.

Longer shoots were used to make the cone-like enclosure, while short ones were shaved into sharp points on one end and bound to the opening at an angle. Fish could enter unscathed, but would run into the sharp points if they tried to exit.

“Every time I do one, I thank the beaver for helping make my ribs for the fish trap,” Ryan said.

Well, I’m glad we had this little chat. Just remember example C – corollary 2: beaver chewed trees create ideal nesting habitat for migratory and songbirds. You like those things, right?

That’s why Kramer looks to users of and residents around the city’s parks to be additional eyes and ears for him and his staff.

Fair enough. Can we be the brains too?

The news of Maurice Sendak’s passing has left me very sad this morning. I can only say how fiercely I respected the way he saw the grim, audacious, carnivorous, generosity of children. I learned from the New York Times article that his partner of many years was a child psychiatrist, which makes perfect sense. There are not enough words to say how much he changed the way we write for children, the way we see them and the way we admit the sacred and profane memories of our own childhoods. No therapist or teacher I know could list the number of children’s voices they have heard shaping and reshaping his fearless words. If you haven’t seen this interview you will enjoy it. At 83 years old this man still knew exactly how to cope with the grisly combination of friendly charm and breath-taking cruelty.

You know he would have loved beavers.

Here are some additional comments to go with your viewing pleasure. If you would like to add your own email them to me.

Twig Stories by Jo Marshall You wrote a beautiful and meaningful tribute to Mr. Sendak’s art and life, Heidi. It would have been wonderful to see his story about beavers. So sad to lose such a great and honest illustrator.

Longtime beaver support JD-Please, pretty please with sugar on top…post Pt. 2 of that extraordinary Colbert interview with Maurice Sendak. I am in love with them both.

LB-Loved the interview this morning on the website. What a delightful and interesting person.

Now before we get started today I have some housekeeping to attend to. Yesterday I received an email from Joe Eaton, a fast friend of the Martinez Beavers and the author of my favorite article ever on the death of the mother beaver for the Berkeley Daily Planet.  He said he stopped by to see the dams and thought they were abandoned (very high tide) and when he checked the website didn’t see any discussion of the Martinez Beavers since March! Were they okay?

I though that since a friendly faced didn’t know, you might not know either! You can always check for new sightings under the “sightings” tab on the menu bar on the top of the page. It will tell you what was seen, where, what time, and by whom. Just in case Joe is not the only one who doesn’t know! The sightings page is managed by Worth A Dam champion Lory Bruno whose friendly face you will see at the silent auction booth this summer. Here’s today’s update

May 7th – 6:15am – One beaver was seen above the primary dam and possibly a sighting of another beaver. Not sure if the same one came out but the second one was a bit smaller it seemed.. It came up to the lodge area and went underwater. Seems like there is something going on at the old lodge and there looked like new branches were on the lodge site, which was heavily mudded Saturday morning.CR

Next, our Kentucky Derby watching friends might find it interesting to know that the logo for the Derby was created by none other that the mother of our beloved Ian Timothy (creator of the beaver creek series).His father of course wrote and performed the music for the series. Here’s photographic proof of a very talented family!

You may remember that last week I wrote about the beavers at Silver Lake in CT which Councilman Thorpe described as “wreaking havoc” on the ecosystem. Of course I wrote him about the good that beaver do for the birds and fish and wildlife and he wrote back (in a manner I can only describe as ‘clipped‘) and said he knew all that but that this area was special because of a sewer line. Which, if true, you might have thought he’d mention to the media. Anyway, there’s a nice rebuttal to his alarms this morning

As the Record-Journal’s Richie Rathsack reported, there’s also evidence that the pond, larger now thanks to the beaver work, is more attractive to other wildlife. He also described dozens of trees along the shore with signs of beaver gnawing, as well as small trails left by beavers dragging trees through the woods to the water’s edge.

My strong suspicion is also that the proprietors of this so-called beaver hut are not paying their proper share of property taxes, and the beavers should probably be told that if there’s any vehicle involved that in Connecticut we tax you when you buy one, while you own one and once again when you sell one. Those trails the beavers are building should also be candidates for some sort of review and taxation, I’d wager.

It’s a clever bit of writing. Go read the whole thing.

Now let’s head even farther East for our final update. With beaver advocates chipping away at the resistance in the United Kingdom, check out this mornings BBC report on beavers in Wales!

It is thought that beavers, while common in medieval Wales, became extinct by the 16th Century.  But Ms Girardi said she believed the beavers remained “keystone species,” whose re-introduction would increase biodiversity.

On a final note it’s Monday so if you’re very, very good you can watch this video from Peter Smith at the Wildwood Trust in England. A very stalwart, enthusiastic member of the Save the Free Beavers of the River Tay died two weeks ago, Mike Johnston. So Peter very nobly made sure that one of these kits was named after him. I guess its theoretically possibly you might see something cuter in your entire lifetime, but it surely isn’t likely! Enjoy!

What we did today!

Yesterday was a rocket ship of explosive activity! Wild Kingdom and Cockpits and Squid Disection and Duct tape wallets and Zip Lines and Rock Walls and Scuba Diving and Girl Power and lots and lots of pink! Rows and rows of tents, many of them pink, in the fair grounds where camping was allowed. Face paint and s’mores and llamas and circuit boards and floating sharks and astronauts in spacesuits. Words fail me. In the middle of all this someone came to invite us to display at Green Kids day on the Microsoft campus and I honestly wanted to laugh, “are you kidding?”

There was a moment in this massive wave of a day where I looked at Cheryl in a panic and said “THEY JUST KEEP COMING!!!!!!!” And it seemed liked that most times, clusters of girls in matching shirts with badges and bracelets and eager faces. Most of them enormously polite with thank yous and questions, with an endless stream of exhausted moms (and a few dad’s) shepharding them to through the many booths, waiting patiently while they painted with pine needles or drew in black lighting or added wildlife to a flag.

Imagine this scene over again at least a thousand times….

Three top conversations of the day would have to be

• the mom who grew up in Sonoma who said her Dad had tried to save beavers on their land 10 years ago and is going to send me a photo of him standing by tree stump they chewed.
• the woman who had gone to the beaver festival and said her daughter had painted a tile and STILL HAD HER TAIL!!!!
• The woman from the San Joaquin watershed council in Fresno who said that she had called fish and game many times about protecting trees and was outraged that they had never told her about wire wrapping or sand painting!

I’m sure there are others that will come back to me as the sensation creeps back to my vocal cords. In the meantime, this came when I got home. The entire issue is about beavers and wetlands.

And an excellent conclusion to Thomas Knudson’s piece on Wildlife Services this morning with information about non-lethal methods. Other than the fact that I am fiercely disappointed that it doesn’t mention flow devices to control beaver problems, its a very good read! Next time, right Tom?

Looks like the fairly pricey Girl Scouts One Hundred Fun Hundred event today is sold out. That means we’ll be talking about beavers to 20,000 girls and their families. We’re in a building with 60 other natural science displays. There are at least 8 other buildings. When I think of what it would take to organize an event like this I have to breathe in a paper bag.

Just in case your daughter is one of the lucky girls with tickets, here’s where we’ll be, booth 58 right next to passport station where every girl will visit. I imagine my vocal cords will be blown for a good week, so you’d better stop by and say hi today!

The instructions say I must coach my team to take the pledge and follow the rules of conduct. No problem, with a very little adjustment they fit the situation just fine.

I will do my best to be honest and fair,

Do you remember the condominium group in New Hampshire that worked to solve their culvert problems without killing beavers? They had at least one retired engineer on board who was fascinated by the puzzle. He worked with Mike Callahan to chisel out solutions, and recently brought him a donation of Beaver Beer as compensation. Well, encouraged by his success he has now started a beaver blog! It’s called “Sherwood Beavers“. Here’s the story and the first blog entry.

It’s May, so I can’t think of a better time to start a beaver blog. The story is about to get very, very interesting! Art’s profile says he recently retired from teaching schools how to better teach technology. Lets hope he is inspired to keep teaching how to live with beavers! Welcome aboard Art. Great first act! Here’s a sample of what you’ll see soon.

Now for the ‘foe’ part of the title there’s this headline from the BBC:

‘Secret Tay beaver cull plan’ claim denied

Wildlife campaigners have said they fear landowners may be planning a secret cull of beavers living in the wild on the Tay, with the approval of the authorities. The Scottish government insisted the claims are untrue, but said the animals do not have full legal protection.

Ugh. So our hard working champions in Scotland are worried that even though the government has said ‘lets not kill them and study them for now’ they’ve had secret contact with worried farmers and given consent to kill them anyway. Let the farmers take the heat and get the government outta the crosshairs to put the beaver firmly back in the crosshairs where it belongs.

Louise Ramsay of the Scottish Wild Beaver Group said: “The Scottish government’s official position is that it doesn’t consider the beavers to be protected, although it wants landowners and farmers only to use lethal control as a last resort.

“But we have had two separate reports that the Scottish government wants the beavers dead and would like landowners’ support in conducting a cull, but keeping it quiet.”

First horror and then praise! GO LOUISE!!! She is doing such a remarkable job! They’ve been worrying about the protection issue for a while. See native wildlife is protected in Scotland, but evil criminally released beavers are NOT. That’s why I’ve been worried about the meme that the they know the beavers were deliberately released (not escaped) which suspiciously appeared at the very same time the ‘beavers have been spared’ announcement came.

So the original beavers were the result of a criminal act and all the subsequent generations of beavers are therefore not subject to the same protections as innocent wildlife. The sins of the father shall be visited on the sons.

To say this article has created a stir is an understatement. But the Ramsays are being so clever here I honestly can’t tell if they’re terrified or getting ready to say ‘check mate’. I know I’d feel very threatened if I were in their situation, but I’m not from a 1000+ year old prominent family descended from the physician to the king. With the recent panic in Devon when they learned that the discovered beaver wasn’t the LOST beaver, I would expect this to get more complicated before it gets less. We’d better all stay tuned!