So the citizens of Oshawa marched into the council meeting last night with signs and banners and stuffed beavers and demanded to keep their aquatic rodents. The experts did what experts do and defended their earlier position and said things like “beaver deceivers don’t work” and that doing nothing was not an option and that lives and property could be lost. (Martinez residents can well imagine because we were there, oh lo those many years ago, and we know EXACTLY how everyone pontificated.) But in the end the council did the right thing. By a bat-squeak of a majority they voted 5-4 to not kill the animals and look for other solutions. Hooray for our team! In the head rush of victory last night Marissa posted about wanting to do a beaver festival, so I would say the beavers of Oshawa have done their “community changing” work handily.
Speaking of our own community, Worth A Dam approached the city council regarding a memorial for mom beaver. Artist Paul Craig did some lovely metal silhouettes of mom and three kits (based on cheryl’s photos and adapted by our graphic artist volunteer, libby) which we would like to hang in memoriam. We had talked about three possible locations because we were worried they might not go for the sheetpile idea. Surprisingly, last night every member of the council said they thought the sheetpile was a lovely idea. They again thanked Worth A Dam for the work. There was smiling as the metal beavers were displayed for view and I was directed to talk to staff about getting them hung.
Go figure!
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, the vet from Lindsay Wildlife came down to meet the beavers last night and got the full show. One little fellow was on the “wrong side” of the dam at 7:30 and wasn’t seen going over during the past hour but might have sneaked by when we were talking to the council. He seemed to be trying to get back over and was blocked by all these sticks and obstacles. We were worried he had forgotten where the gap was, and just about ready to sneak over and line the path with apple peels when he decided to stop fooling around and headed straight for the gap. He obviously knew where it was the whole time, he was just trying to “discover” a new way.
Whew!
So he trotted gamely over and swam about, grabbing some branches. 45 minutes later a second kkit came over from the wrong side!!! Clearly these are BEAVERS WITHOUT BORDERS any more. They go where they please, and we had better go whereever they please too if we’re going to see them!
