Our own Cheryl Reynolds was hot on the beaver trail in Sonoma yesterday. Seems like a local resident spotted tree damage and thought it might be the result of continued human vandalism. He called out the experts and they said, no, um, beaver. There is an ominous sentence about Fish and Game being called out this week, but in general they seem to advocate a fairly sensible beaver policy.
Meanwhile, Lisa Micheli, manager of the Sonoma Ecology Center’s Restoration and Stewardship Program, said the center has been hired by landowners to protect some stands of large trees on private property south of the Ig Vella bridge. “The beavers have been very active this year,” she said, “we don’t know exactly why.” Micheli said the large-toothed rodents have been taking on some very mature trees. “They are extremely industrious and very optimistic,” said Micheli of the beavers. “We don’t know if they intend to build dams with these trees, and we don’t know how they would move them into the creek.” She said mitigation measures may involve fencing large trees to deprive the creatures of building materials.
Well, okay. Fence the trees you want to keep and make the situation sound as mysterious as you like. Just don’t argue that killing beavers is the only way to save those trees. We like Richard Dale’s observations, and respect the position that beaver behavior is something to manage, not eliminate.
The whole episode reminds me of why I want a google interactive map of beaver colonies. Enter your zipcode and find the family nearest you, and any relevant news reporting on it. Some skillful techie get to work on that will you? It would really help.
