Last night at the dam was an annoying and minimally beavered night. Lots of sassy barely teen boys, with fishing poles, one of whom responded to the request to fish elsewhere with the pithy comebacks “The beavers are ruining Martinez!” and “You can’t tell me what to do. You’re not my Dad”. I believe this is conclusive proof that ill-tempered and ill-informed people use use the logic of middle schoolers everywhere when they complain about letting the beavers stay.
Are the beavers ruining Martinez? Hmmm. They are apparently ruining it so much that the creek has gotten more attractive to more kinds of fish and the fish that were here already are happily getting bigger by eating the newcomers, which is attractive in turn to strapping lads like you with your fishing poles.
“Well if the beavers come I’ll stop” is the minimally compliant answer, but of course this concern isn’t about beavers at all. They are vegetarians and they mostly don’t care about whatever is on that hook. This concern is about snags. It’s about the piles of fishing line we find matted on the banks or in the creek, often of TUNA weight, with vicious looking rusty hooks at the end. Have you ever seen a waterbird caught in fishing line? Or a hook through its beak?
Keeping fishers away from the beaver habitat in summer is a constant, annoying and unrewarding struggle. Sometimes efforts to communicate work, and sometimes they don’t. The best we can do is keep trying to spread the word, to kids, to parents, and to little old ladies who stop at the dam. We can make it less convenient even if we can’t make it illegal. Fishing is harmful to wildlife. This is a sensitive habitat area. Fish somewhere else.
