There’s no denying it anymore. I have a strange life. A beaver life. I spend three days in a mad dash to save some doomed beavers and am elated to see the effort accurately reflected in a fantastic article in the East Bay Times by Judy Prieve.. Normal people, of course, would just be saddened at the outcome. And I am too. But I am far past normal. And I see all the shades of gray that make this tragedy a step forward.
Even the title is a step forward. Yesterday this article was posted with the [mis]lead “Euthanizing beavers living in East Bay creek causes concern. Today it has a much better headline.
A county-hired trapper’s shooting of two beavers in an eastern Contra Costa County creek has triggered a backlash from animal lovers and spurred area leaders to look for ways to help the critters co-exist with humans.
Because the beavers were building dams in Oakley’s Marsh Creek and possibly eroding the waterway’s banks and gnawing on Creekside Park’s trees, officials from the Contra Costa County Flood Control Division asked the the California Department of Fish and Wildlife several weeks ago for permission to get rid of them.
The state agency issued the county permits to kill up to five beavers in the coming year, according to Allison Knapp, assistant director of county public works, which oversees flood control.
The county contracted a trapper who shot the two beavers on site, she said. Their mud-and-stick handiwork also was destroyed because they could cause the creek to flood in the rainy season, she added.
The killing didn’t sit well with Heidi Perryman of Martinez, the founder of Worth a Dam, a nonprofit focused on raising awareness for the need to protect wildlife and preserve healthy environments and ecosystems.
“I think it’s a tragedy because this is a public area, inside a park, two blocks from an elementary school,” Perryman said. “It could have been an opportunity to educate and inform and really solve this differently, but that didn’t happen.”
Gosh. That’s a pretty good way to lay out the conflict, isn’t it You can just tell which side is going to win down the line,
The beavers’ demise two weeks ago also came as a shock to Contra Costa County Supervisor Diane Burgis of Oakley, former executive director of Friends of Marsh Creek, who said Wednesday she had learned about it only a few days ago.
“With my background in creeks and restoration, I was particularly upset,” Burgis said. “This is not consistent with what flood control does.”
Burgis said Oakley city officials initially notified the county’s flood control when they learned of the dam, but after hearing what happened she told Knapp “this needs to stop immediately.”
Knapp said the channels were designed for flood protection and anything obstructing the creek could diminish its capacity and erode the banks.
“Our duty is to protect the health and safety for residents around. Our goal is flood protection,” she said. “… But this is an unfortunate situation that did happen.”
She said in the future the agency will “look for other ways” to deal with such situations, work with community groups and pursue grants to expand the creek’s flood protection capacity.
I know what you’re thinking, It’s too late for these poor beavers. Why can’t they ever do the right thing earlier? And you’re right. It shouldn’t have been too late. But it is rare that anything like this makes its way into the paper and changes hearts and policy, We have to see this for a victory of sorts,
Sarah Puckett, an American Rivers nonprofit consultant who helped widen the creek in 2012 and is now working to restore another portion a few miles away, admitted beavers can cause damage, but said there are ways to reduce that.
“There are a lot of things you can do to work with the beavers so that they cause less damage for both flooding and trees in order to make it a more friendly environment for everyone,” she said.
Burgis agreed and plans to meet with flood control, Perryman and others to discuss how to co-exist with the beavers and “allow for the most naturalization of the creek.”
Ohhh my goodness. I got a call from her office yesterday to arrange a conference call soon. So it’s really happening.
Perryman said moving or destroying them won’t solve the problem. Moving them from their habitat is illegal and if you kill the beavers, others will simply move in as long as the environment remains untouched, she explained.
“Beavers are a really great way to teach about ecosystems and habitat and really how species get involved with each other and they are really important to wildlife in all kinds of ways,” Perryman said. “They change the food available to fish, they change the fish available to birds and the mammals and that’s really what we saw in Martinez and what could be seen in Oakley if they were able to do it differently.”
Satisfied smile to be given the last word. That so rarely happens, Sometimes things really come together and I say just the right thing. It’s kind of a crap shoot. You never know what will stick with a reporter. And Judy was new, I hadn’t worked with her before and she wasn’t happy originally to be stuck with this story. But boy did she do a great job,
Final comfort? Email this morning from Colin Coffey who is on the board of directors for EBRPD and was involved with the fast moving email chain that followed this unhappy event while we were trying to stop it all from happening. He liked the article too.
I have been sharing all of this with the management of EBRPD and Mike Moran at Big Break. I sent a note to Diane Burgis yesterday thanking her for her intervention to stop this from happening again. Clearly the model for these situations is the Martinez Beavers response and organization. If it were within EBRPD jurisdiction our stewardship people would have never let this happen. I have been attending the Martinez Beaver Festival for the last 10 years as an EBRPD ambassador and am well aware of the work you folks have done. Thank you for your efforts for the Marsh Creek Beavers.
Beam. So that means that any beaver in the East Bay Regional Park District has a fighting chance. Thanks to Colin and our first dear supporter in Martinez the departed Ted Radke who watched out or our beavers from the start. Back when Martinez was being stupid the beaver “EXPERT” reporters would talk to was Mary Tappel who filled their minds with rubbish that took hours to undo. She once told the Gazette that beavers breed for 50 years. And now the out of town expert they seek out is ME.
That’s feels like something to be proud of.
And I have something very special for you if your hearts need comforting. From a beaver friend in rehab in Minnesota. It will make your heart light and ready for the next battle.
I wanted to be regaled with hundreds of beaver illustrations this morning, but Ray seems to be the only one online so far. Let’s hope his work inspires many others. 
You can see what a large undertaking it all is. One of my favorite parts of working with Amy is being there when she has Jon help her lay out the grid for her initial artwork. It’s always soo auspicious!
