Up in Martinez, California the lodge of beavers that inhabits Alhambra Creek is doing just great after facing extermination due to anti-beaver sentiment back in 2007. Last month, three beaver kits appeared in the creek and suddenly we know what to call baby beavers. This weekend, the kind, animal-loving people of John Muir's adopted hometown will celebrate all things beaver at the sixth annual Beaver Festival, but you can celebrate them in photos and video right this moment.

Although Martinez city officials originally ordered the heartless elimination of the beaver clan because their dam threatened the city's precious flood improvement project, the beaver lodge actually proved to be more beneficial to the area than anything the city had done. By rehabilitating the creek from a tiny trickle into a series of ponds, the hardworking aquatic rodents have made the area an attractive habitat for a variety of other fauna that now call Martinez home. River otters, steelhead trout, mink and a variety of fishing birds and waterfowl now populate the area.

Also, having beaver kits living in your downtown must do wonders for the local tourism industry. (Look at those tails!)

The sixth annual Beaver Festival takes place Saturday, August 3rd in "Beaver Park" at the corner of Marina Vista and Alhambra Avenue in Martinez and will feature friendly folks from a variety of local wildlife conservation groups. Everything from Project Coyote to the Pond Turtle Project will be in attendance.