You would think that Christmas is the time to relax with your family and not think about beaver troubles for a bit. But if you thought that, you’d be dead wrong. Because on Christmas eve it came to my attention that Port Moody BC had updated their city website to deal with the steady stream of emails they were receiving in protest after their ‘plan’ to empty the culvert of beavers lead to the drowning of a kit in a live trap.
When I settled in to review the changes I found that they had released the blatantly erroneous report from the consultants they hired, AND a very long list of “Questions and Answers” that made it seem like their bogus decision had been the wisest and only thing to do.
Here’s just a little of their justification and misrepresentation. I admit, just looking at it gave me a total PTSD flashback to the nightmare we faced in Martinez when we first read through the PWA memo our city paid for to justify killing our beavers lo these many years ago. 
I fought off the climbing screams as long as I could but in the corners of my mind I remembered how the PWA hydrology report classified our beaver dam as a ‘concrete weir‘ and how they had said it would reduce the carrying capacity of the creek and cause the city to flood if the beavers weren’t killed right away.
Grr memories.
This report starts out with the same coma-inducing formulas for 10-year versus 100-year flooding that made me have to hit myself in the head repeatedly just to keep my eyes open. But then it quickly got VERY interesting very quickly.
As you can see, it lists among the harm that beavers can cause by naming the ‘damage to the environment‘ and the ‘reduction in fisheries‘.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As you know this was the equivalent of raising a red flag at a cranky bull who was trying to enjoy a peaceful Christmas with his family. I just HAD to respond right away. Obviously.
Comments on Technical Memo
The technical memo was wrong on SO many levels. It referred to the beaver home as a ‘nest’. It said the population could grow to 15. It claimed that beavers ruin their homes even in a natural setting by eating up all the available food in 5 years. And the questions and answers were WORSE if that’s even possible.
Everything I’ve heard from the ground there is even more alarming. Poor Judy felt like giving up and moving after everything she’s faced. They are currently only seeing a single beaver who is acting disoriented and coming out in the daytime. She think’s he’s searching for his family. The demons have built themselves a fortress of lies and paid consultants to reinforce their structure.
And it just might work.
I sent my comments to the city and the mayor and the reporter on Christmas eve. Because a girl has to try, right?
