So Gavin Newsome announced the new budget for California with a budget for CDFW that’s 252 million more than they usually get and guess how much of it is ear marked for beavers? Go ahead. Guess.
California wants to buy nonlethal bear traps and pay ranchers when wolves kill their cows
That evolution is reflected in the budget submitted last month by Gov. Gavin Newsom to fund the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which oversees a vast state with 33 million acres of wildland and species that range from humpback whales to endangered condors.
“That’s unheard of growth for us,” Bonham said. “This has been a many-decades journey to provide our department the capacity to do the job people have asked us to do.”
So the plan is to pay ranchers when wolves eat cattle and pay farmers not to irrigate their crops in the klamath and build a wildlife overpass for Beth Pratt’s mountain lion, but there’s not a drop left for that rotten beaver that could keep the entire state from going up in flames.
Because who cares about beavers?
The department, whose origins as a fishing and hunting regulator go back more than 100 years, is now responsible for chemical-spill cleanups, issuing renewable energy permits, managing 1.3 million acres of public wildlife areas and ecological reserves, keeping whales and sea turtles from getting tangled in fishing gear, heading scientific research and protecting endangered species.
The department recently published a report that concludes the department “is unable to fully meet its diverse mission — managing and protecting California’s diverse species and habitats and bolstering equitable public access to lands in the face of increasing population and resource demands in a changing climate.”
Just in case you’re curious the report doesn’t mention beavers either. Because really, why bother?
The governor’s budget pays special attention to one particular growing demand on the department’s staff: The conflicts that occur when animals like coyotes, bears and mountain lions wander into populated areas — a problem that Bonham said seems to get worse during droughts, as the animals head into urban areas seeking food and water.
Last year, the state responded to close to 6,500 human-wildlife conflicts alone, Bonham said.
“We’ve seen about a 300% increase in five or six years in this workload,” Bonham said.
The department’s budget proposal includes $7 million in funds for the department to buy traps and other equipment to capture and relocate animals, as well as nonlethal deterrents such as flagging and fences to protect livestock from wolves.
Bonham said that as it stands the state doesn’t have nearly the equipment it needs.
So CDFW gets thirty percent more funding next year. I’m guessing we can look forward to a healthy increase in depredation permits too! More staff means more time to kill beavers right?
