Because the beaver isn't just an animal; it's an ecosystem!

Tag: Doug Louie


Are you having flashbacks or is it just me? Mark me. This is just the first – the others will follow like moths to the copy machine. What really gets me, beyond the necessary alliteration of ‘B’  words and repeating of obvious lies, zero sense of history or context – beyond all this – is the way that the beavers’ imagined potential to cause problems is unquestioned and somberly treated as if they were causing ACTUAL problems. Sheesh, cities lie and the press just reports it verbatim.

Been there.  Done that. Have many tshirts.

But wasn’t Caitlin awesome? She did a fantastic job giving the impression that support was being rallied. She even got to film the interview at home! How convenient, (why didn’t I ever get to do that?) She showed that she was watching and following closely the random lies being sprayed like poppies to put people asleep in the Wizard of Oz. Continuing to pay attention when they command “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” is 70% of the beaver-saving biz, (believe me I know).

More coverage in the paper. Staff lies and obligatory alliterations. “Get it? Their both B words! Isn’t that  funny?

Beaver bother

MOUNTAIN HOUSE — A family of beavers in Mountain House Creek may have captured the hearts of residents — but not the sympathy of the Community Services District, which is considering killing the animals.

“I really enjoy the beavers,” said 19-year-old Caitlin McCombs, who created a Facebook group in February to support them. “It’s kind of the reason we moved to Mountain House, for the wildlife. I’d be sad to see them go.”

The problem is the damage the beavers are causing to the watershed. Operations and Maintenance Superintendent Doug Louie told the Mountain House Community Services District Board of Directors on Wednesday that something must be done to restore the creek and retain its flood control capabilities in the wake of changes due to the beaver activities.

The areas with the worst damage run parallel to Central Parkway north of Main Street, which is the site of five wet detention ponds, Louie said.  At the Central Parkway Bridge, one of the largest and oldest dams in the creek has created a large marsh, which broke down the berm system, he said.

The beavers have created public safety liabilities with unstable trees, flood potential with their dams and violations to the community’s storm water permit, he said.

I read his name ‘Doug Louie’ and I can’t help it, I see Dave Scola. Public works collects a hefty salary and pension, but its not for filling pot holes or rescuing kittens from sewers. Its for services that include lying in the right way on camera when the city needs it. I was re-watching this video yesterday and thinking about Dave brazenly standing in front of that camera DIRECTLY in front of the flow device that the city had just spent 10,000 dollars on and being completely believable as he says their are magic cables under the dam that could rip it all out  in an instant if they needed to. How is that even possible? Did that long pipe get tangled in them when it was installed? He is flat out lying, and he knows it. But he does it in a fully respectable way.

He is the city’s sincerity costume. And he wears it so well.

Nothing to report on the mural. The city Attorney is still dragging his or her heels about whether the term can be waived, and if it is, then we can be insured through ISI and the process will cost us less. I am forcing myself to be patient. I amused myself yesterday with trying out some old silver spacers I happened to have lying around. What do you think of Beaver history as an necklace?

Five

 


Admittedly, all that happened on the mural yesterday was that money changed hands and discussions about first steps were made. The good news is that we have our ‘Whereas‘ contract which Mario  needs to sign and return, and public works is supposed to contact me today regarding the power-washing. Nothing gets done without starting I guess, so I’m not complaining.

CaptureWhat absorbed my day primarily was the PTSD flashback triggered by the release of a very negative staff report from Mountain House discussing the fate of the beavers and their water-ruining ways. You know how it is: 15 pages of alarm and acronyms so that the whole problem sounds so complex you really shouldn’t worry your pretty little head about it. And an obviously manufactured possible ‘compromise’ offered with such a HUGE price-tag on it that everyone will want the beavers killed. Honestly, I thought the days of panicked research were behind me – but after an afternoon of labor I managed to issue a fairly intelligent response to their ministerial hysterics. This sentence was, of course, my chief motivator:

“It is clearly evident that in controlling the sequence of repairs and the financial burden that follows, beaver removal is the only option.”

It’s actually in moments like these that I’m happy that beaver relocation isn’t legal in California. The only real power that can motivate enough public backlash to get this staff report challenged is the distaste people feel about killing things that are in their way.  If there was an option to just ‘move’ them into someone else’s way, and folks could fantasize that they’d done the right thing because the beavers would be happier in the forest or whatever –  support would dry up pretty fast. Here’s my response if you’re interested. I’m sure there are all kinds of typos. Their report was given to me at 3 pm and I was pounding out my response until 7.

mh

The MOST interesting part of this report to me was the part where they say staff already had an ‘expert’ come out and advice them about the beavers in 2011. Hmm. I’m laying a finger aside my nose and predicting that we can GUESS who that ‘expert’ was. The same ‘expert’ that advised our public works that flow devices always fail.

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