Victory in Cornwall! Last night in Ontario this woman and a few hundred supporters pushed the city council into agreeing to remove the remaining trap for the Guindon beavers and look into humane solutions. It’s a pretty lovely accomplishment and those of you who supported the Martinez Beavers should recognize just how much enthusiasm and energy it takes to stop that particular train.
Rebecca Sorrell launched her campaign against the practice a couple of weeks ago, collecting hundreds of names on a petition and marching to city hall with signs and supporters on Monday.
But it was a meeting with parks and recreation general manager Stephen Alexander on Wednesday that brought progress. “The meeting went really well,” said Sorrell. “The traps have been removed from Guindon Park.”
I have been hearing a bit about this case for a while, and its our featured “who’s killing beavers now” which, I’m happy to say, will no longer be featured. (Another year of pushing and we’ll be ready for a “who’s saving beavers now” segment!) The funny thing is that I was browsing through the incredible comment section of our own famous beaver-saving meeting (November 7, 2007) and found these remarks recently. They didn’t even register at the time and I didn’t know the woman who spoke them, (although I now can give credit for them to Linda Aguirre, who ended up helping us keep watch during the sheetpile debacle.)
The beavers have succeeded where city council and their politically correct friends could not: They brought people downtown. What a magnificent gift to have been given. We could use our beavers to promote downtown activities We could advertise our city as the beaver capital of CA. We could use these lovely creatures as an example of how we can co-habit with nature. We could host a beaver festival, promoting beaver and nature-related arts and crafts, windows on the lifestyle of the beavers and other wildlife, and yes even TShirts depicting our furry friends. You get the idea, capitalize on the beavers being here to make Martinez a destination, a concept that this city council claims to support. Yes we could do these things, if the beaver stay.
The majority of people want the beavers to stay, yet the council wants them to go, if you the council insists that the beavers must go, then maybe come next election I and others will insist that you go to.
Now for anyone following along from out of town THAT was the story. Not the beavers. Never the beavers. But the massive civic response they provoked. Congratulations Cornwall, and welcome to the beaver-saving club! I’ll write Mr. Alexander today.
This morning there were no beavers in sight but the creek held ample compensations. 11 newly hatched residents, with both mom AND dad in protective watch. Near as I can tell the three blondies are just color variations. (Or maybe there’s some kind of cuckoo duck who lays her eggs in unsuspecting neighbor nests and hopes for the best?) We’ll, let’s keep count and see if having an intact family unit makes things safer and if yellows really DO have more fun?
