And so I continue. Monday’s final subcommittee meeting also heard arguments against the classification of our beavers as a keystone species. Never mind the scads of information defining them as such; I suppose it would be a far different thing to those with other agendas should Alhambra Creek be deemed a wildlife corridor versus just a happy coincidence for one beaver colony.I am no more a biologist than an economist but I can observe the transformation of what once was a garbage strewn mud hole to a creek that now hosts and sustains wildlife. Just this morning a cormorant was filmed fishing a carp from the creek. Fuzzy logic says that cormorant wouldn’t have been down that far in the creek but for the beavers converting it to a life sustaining pond.
It was also argued that the appearance of kingfishers and egrets or for that matter every duck and goose that has paddled their way up past Starbucks are also coincidental. Obviously kingfishers aren’t named thus for esoteric reasons and I doubt a duckling could have found enough water to paddle in two years ago.
But for beavers and their subsequent pond, muskrats, waterfowl, otters, turtles and the ever elusive tourist would be suspiciously absent from downtown Martinez. If I’m not mistaken that pretty much defines a keystone species.
