What do you know? It’s dead beaver Christmas. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has, in their infinite wisdom, deigned to release copies of all the depredation permits they issue for beaver in 2019. There are 143. With a healthy portion being good for ‘unlimited’ beaver once again. After eight hours I am about half way through making them into a spreadsheet that will let me see the big picture. I look forward to many more keystrokes and miles to go before I sleep.
What I can see straight away is that Merced is a VERY bad county to be a beaver in, Placer is looking much better, one was issued in Contra Costa and there was even at least one permit issued for Riverside down south. There are WAY MORE permits issued for USDA trappers, I guess to give them something to do after the salmon lawsuit.
The best new development so far is that the records include longitude and latitude numbers for ever single permit, so you can see EXACTLY where the wicked beaver in question was living. It has allowed me to spot some insane problem areas where the attending officer wanted to cover all the bases by issuing permits good for 99 beavers on both sides of a stream so that any beaver passing through could be easily killed without more paperwork all year.
Take these issued for the Sacramento District of Water Resources. Two permits issued on the same day and time within six blocks of each other.
You can see my day is fun, fun, fun. So many beavers to kill. So little time. Hopefully I’ll have news soon.
murietta
