While later this year there will be an in depth Muse Ecology series on the beaver, in this episode we hear one one the more inspiring beaver stories I’ve come across: the tale of the Martinez Beaver. When the beaver moved in to downtown Martinez, CA, the city originally intended to exterminate them, but thanks to community involvement, the Martinez Beaver became protected and celebrated as a cultural icon. In this episode, we hear this story from beaver advocate and founder and president of Worth a Dam, Heidi Perryman.
Important Announcement: If you are anywhere near Martinez tomorrow (Saturday, June 29th), it’s the 12th annual Martinez Beaver Festival! Warning: beaver enthusiasm is highly contagious!
You can find more information on the beaver and Worth A Dam at martinezbeaver.org
The feautured image for this episode, of a beaver mother and her kit, was taken by Cheryl Reynolds in Martinez, CA.
The Ballad of the Martinez Beaver in this episode was written by Mark Comstock.
The theme song in the Muse Ecology introduction is The Old Ways Restored, by Peia. You can find her music and tour schedule at peiasong.com
Thank you for highlighting Heidi and the beavers! Once you come to love them there is no going back!
My pleasure! Thanks for listening! The martinez beaver story is great indeed. So cool how the town rallied for the beaver. Plenty more in the upcoming beaver series too, where we’ll dive alot deeper with various experts. Sounds like you may know some of the folks in the beaver series too 🙂 I’m also in the Beaver Institute’s beaver conflict mitigation professional course with Mike Callahan now too (who will be in one of the beaver episodes), so you could say I’ve caught the bug. 🙂 Beaver have been a fascination of mine since I saw their amazing restorative handiwork on a friend’s ranch around 7 years ago, but I’ve been learning alot more since 2017 when I met Jakob Shockey, who cohosted the interviews that will be in the beaver series. Cheers to beaver and all the folks aiding their return to our waterways!