“The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, those who are in the twilight of life, and those who are in the shadow of life,” – Hubert Humphrey
Tonight Martinez will face the question of how to treat a family of 8 beavers who live underground, in the “shadows” of Alhambra Creek. Will we make choices that protect them and demonstrate our intelligent compassion? Or choices that endanger them and demonstrate our hardened self-interests? There is a wealth of opinion being offered by those saying the beavers will not be impacted by these necessary measures. We are being told that beavers are resilient, that they will adapt to the invasive conditions we create and the food we remove. No proof is offered, though. Nor any to indicate why a report submitted in February constitues an emergency in October.
We are left with a dessert tray of bad choices, because no one took the time to give us better ones. Here’s Skip Lisle’s letter to the city.
My bleak day of beaver doom was interupted yesterday by a delightful email sent to me by beaver-friend Paul. He was forwarding an article by Seth Adams about his work with EBRPD chief land acquisition guru, Hulet Hornbeck. He told the story of the 50 year land recovery project that gave us the marsh and brought us the beavers. His story brilliantly emphasized the fact that the beavers were nature’s stamp of approval on the work we had done before.
Hulet comes into my office one day. It’s not one of our regular oral history sessions but he’s excited about the beavers in Martinez’s Alhambra Creek and how the history of the creation of the Martinez Regional Shoreline led to them being there. He shows me one of the ‘stuffed’ beaver dolls the Chamber of Commerce is selling.
Martinez Regional Shoreline: Crisis is reality, not recognizing crisis is dream land.
I’ve been going down to the Chamber of Commerce and buying these little stuffed beaver dolls to give to people. The beavers moved down from the Delta some number of miles and a new family built a beaver dam. The Martinez city council immediately, unanimously decided that they’d kill the beavers and tear down the dam, and they got the support from the State of California Fish & Game immediately so it wasn’t on their shoulders. The public realized the beavers were there and took a look at them day and night between the bridges in the outfall of Alhambra creek and getting into the Bay, and protested.
So the city council said we have to rethink ourselves but we still have to kill the beavers. Then this guy shows up from Vermont and he has a niche dealing with these beavers. He was in the water the other day to his waist, and there were secretaries watching him, this hulk of a man and his shirt off, and the secretaries thought this was great entertainment. Six months later the dam’s still there and the city council is going into hiding on the issue. School kids go out there, writing essays. It has had international TV coverage.
Why did this happen in 2008? I think the beavers represent success on the part of a creation of a park forty something years ago
We’ll get the history up later, but for now just think about the fact that our beavers are the reward for a half century of other people’s hard work. Come support them tonight.
Do we want this?
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=0E57SFVjAj0]
Or This?
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=tOxBeOBcbjU]
