Ahh memories!
I haven’t addressed such a beaver-hostile room since 2008. You forget what it’s like, the rude ignoring of what you’re actually saying while they wait for their chance to explain why its not true. The ignorant questions that come right after you answered them because they weren’t really listening anyway. Let’s not beat around the bush. There’s a REASON Placer kills 7 times more beavers than any where in the state.
The most surprising part to me. and truly this wasn’t my first rodeo, was the fact that 4 out of 5 of the commissioners NEVER EVEN LOOKED UP AT THE SCREEN to see what I was presenting. Seriously. Fancy bureaucratic leather swivel chairs never once swivelled to see the footage of beaver, otter, merganser, mink etc. I thought maybe there was another screen I couldn’t see hidden from my view. But no. They truly NEVER LOOKED. Just stared blankly at me with steely opposition.
Well, they were forced to listen anyway to 25 minutes of the best damned beaver information they ever endured. And after it was over and the stubbornest ‘old boy’ of the resistance brigade said something about how the research didn’t apply to them because THEIR salmon had to go SO far and were too tired to jump a stinky beaver dam. No really. Tired aching salmon who didn’t believe that crazy NOAA research. At this two REMARKABLE voices broke into the conversation from the back of the room: one was Damion Ciotti from Fish and Wildlife the other a reservation manager in Placer whose name I didn’t catch.
They addressed the unsootheable fears and talked about how even high beaver dams blow out and let salmon pass, and how much BETTER things were when they started to work with their beavers rather than trap them. The gave examples of specific projects in specific areas that had shown dramatically positive results. They were, in a word, wonderful beyond anything I could have hoped.
The resistance brigade coughed and asked their credentials and then asked for their card, and then coughed some more. Then one of the thugs actually asked for MY number to talk to a Roseville colleague where they were having problems. He explained that they told them they had ‘moved the beavers’ but he thought they said they could use some help for next time. I said I’d be happy to talk to them, but that was unlikely they had been moved since beaver relocation was illegal in CA.
I commented that his friend may have told them they went to live ‘on the farm’ but in that probably wasn’t true. That got my only laugh of the day which I guess was something. Then Damion talked some more, they pontificated some more, and said that Jack Sanchez of SARSAS was wrong to be so excited about beaver, and mentioned the member who I’m sure is responsible for the Mary Tappel presentation every year.
And t
hen we were finished, and I got to chat a little with the wonderful supporters there who stayed behind to address the beaver dicks more. And supporter Janet Thew who bravely attended and helps at the festival every year told me to come to her car and showed me THE most amazing bronze beaver sculpture she had recently bought.This photo doesn’t do it justice, but believe me it was the best part of a long night!
Afterwards we asked ourselves, was it worth it? It was HOT in Auburn and we passed through temperatures of 111 to get there in our 1.5 hr drive each way. I still can’t believe they never glanced at the screen. I think maybe its like when you’re a child and your mom insists you try a food you KNOW you’re going to hate. You may force yourself to swallow it – but you NEVER taste it
Here’s what I am sure of. That last night the county that kills the most beavers of anywhere in the entire state received some of the very best beaver information they ever encountered and were forced to spend time actually thinking and talking about their irrational beliefs. They listened to beaver advocates and scientists from their own neighborhood and realized they weren’t the only opinion in town. Or possibly even the most informed.
And then I got to leave and come back to a city that had actually saved its beavers, and was having a festival in 9 days.
