Remember when Amanda Parrish of the Lands Council testified at the capital building about beavers? Well the bill just passed 49-0. How’s that for successful persuasion?
The proposal, described by Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island, as a “cute, furry little bill,” allows the Department of Fish and Wildlife to set up a system in which a landowner who wants to improve groundwater or downstream flows can request beavers being captured elsewhere and removed from land where they are creating a nuisance.
Apparently the rare moment of consensus made the senate giddy for a while and they spent time complaining about liberal beavers that won’t build dams and domestic partnerships for same sex beaver couples. Whatever. It was a good bill and a great effort in what is still the best beaver state in the nation!
The bill actually represents a meeting of the minds between city and rural residents in Eastern Washington, Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said. And it has a serious purpose, as well as a long history, sponsor Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, said. He and other landowners in northwest Washington were interested in getting relocated beavers to help recharge their aquifers and help regulate stream flows, but the Department of Fish and Wildlife said there was no authority to do that.
Hopefully, the fact that its so unusual to get a vote count of 49-0 for anything these days will spur it into the spotlight and other states (like California for instance) will start to think “hey why can’t we move beavers?”.
The Legislature overwhelmingly passed a similar bill, minus the regional restrictions, in 2005, but Gov. Chris Gregoire exercised the first veto of her tenure to kill it because of objections from Fish and Wildlife. Studies were ordered, and several subsequent bills got part way through the Legislature before running out of time.
(And if you think the Department of Fish and Wildlife was once violently opposed to this idea in Washington, wait until you get a load of how the Department of Fish and Game in California is going to react! Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.)
Since then, the Lands Council has received a grant from the state Department of Ecology to trap and relocate beavers as whole families. Research shows that a single relocated beaver will usually leave its new location to return to its old home and family; a relocated family tends to stay put in the new home. That group will take the lead on the relocations.
And beaver family members will stay on the luxurious grounds of the Joe & Amanda backyard hotel during their brief relocation process! Did someone say field trip? It will take me a while to fully believe this, but in the mean time I may have to move to Washington. The bill was sponsored by a republican from Wauconda.
Kretz would still like a beaver family for a stream on his property at some point, but the issue has gone beyond that, to improving water conditions in dry parts of the state. “I’m just interested in water retention, up high.
Oh and this just came in today’s Gazette… 
