The Guadelupe River takes its short jaunt from the headwaters in Santa Cruz to its outlet in the San Francisco Bay, winding its way through the heart of San Jose. It is surrounded by many parks, and trails, including Almaden winery. It was once important to the gold mining trade and like all such rivers is now burdened with more than its fair share of mercury from those days. The entire 3 mile downtown stretch, from Interstate 280 to Interstate 880, is part of the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens, one of the largest urban parks currently in development in the United States. Also, the Guadalupe River Trail runs along 11 miles (18 km) of the river bank.
What does this have to do with beavers you ask? Nothing yet.
Leslee Hamilton is the executive director of the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy. She attended Saturday’s creek conference and was very excited by the talks about beavers. She immediately wondered whether beavers could play a role in the Guadalupe system, augmenting water flows, restoring wildlife and serving as a teaching focus for children’s watershed education and stewardship.
Yesterday we scheduled a ‘chat’ about beavers, which turned into a conference call with Rangers and interested biologists. There are no beavers currently in the Guadalupe, they assured me. And relocation is illegal in California. Could they go about getting a scientific permit to do a specific project locally? What kind of habitat would support them best? What tools are useful for beaver management? How do beaver populations grow? How have we involved children’s education with our beavers? What have we noticed in our watershed since the beavers came?
Quite the conversation. Silicon Valley Beavers? It’s possible
Reader JR points out that the Dell graphic must be a mistake since beavers are so fond of ‘apples’.
