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I was very sad to learn that the trapping-nazis at the four seasons had refused to try non-lethal solutions (even if someone else paid for it) (even if there was no danger from flooding) (even if it made their facility look bad) and had already hired a trapper to place 5 traps underwater. The Sierra Wildlife coalition fought valiantly to get even a temporary stay of execution, and Dick Parsons who had started the petition to save the beavers actually drove to Martinez with his wife, had lunch downtown and called me for a tour of our beaver habitat and flow device. Since I was at work Jon met the very nice couple and walked the dams with them. They saw a green heron and a muskrat and several mallards, and expressed their sadness that apparently problem-solving skills just aren’t what they used to be.

Later Jerry posted on facebook that he believes the beavers are dead and I could feel his heavy-hearted resignation. I tried to imagine what it would feel like to face that in a community with people you had to see every day – where you had to look across the creek in your own backyard and see the backyard of the very neighbor who wanted the beaver eliminated. Back in the drama days we had fierce opponents living nearby too, but mostly they were not voices accustomed to public scrutiny – preferring to make their influence in the background, slinking from the darkness to cast their spells and disappearing again from public view. Different from the fallout that comes from violently disagreeing with the neighbor you see every sunday in the coffee shop or at church.

The closest I could come to imagining what their loss might feel like was the horrific days after the sheet pile decision was made. I remember those days tasting like ashes and I remember the lost, falling, bereft feeling I had every waking moment. Within a day or two I managed to move into combat mode, and I found new goals to move forward, but that horrible night where the city council voted to put metal through the beaver lodge, and told me I could be on the citizen oversight committee as long as I didn’t try to alter or affect the work in any way – (and I tearfully declined) – that night was the blackest beaver advocacy moment I have ever faced.

Now on the other side, I can be somewhat grateful for the severity of that night, because the beavers weren’t killed by the decision, (although mom’s eye condition was never seen before its effects) because it released me from the need to “behave” and “make nice” and freed me to use every possible skill at my disposal to push without worrying about looking ‘pushy’ – more so because it showed me that the rules I had been playing by weren’t in fact the actual rules at all, and that the real contract driving the city had nothing to do with the one on paper. Of course, the fact that it was all for a big lie helped a great deal of course and in a way I will always be grateful for the clarity.

So Jerry and Dick and Helen and all beaver supporters at Four Seasons, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for your beavers and sorry for your hearts, which probably feel a little bruised today. You did something good and compassionate and even though you couldn’t stop the outcome you made an incredible difference. It may not feel like that right now, but you should know that you did. People will remember this story the next time beavers come to Four Seasons, or to your neighbors in El Dorado Hills, or even Elk Grove. You introduced a new way to think, and a new way to solve problems and it will make a difference. I’m going to reprint this letter which made us feel so much better so many years ago – because you deserve it. Thank you for your good effort.

This is a letter from Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions to Heidi, but we really think it applies to everyone who has supported the beavers:Dear “Beaverlady”, 😉

Your efforts are Herculean. It is so difficult to promote coexistence with beavers in an urban setting, especially one that is prone to flooding without beavers. Nevertheless, your efforts have given these beavers a fighting chance at survival.

Irregardless of the City’s final decision with the M. beavers I hope you can see that your efforts have had huge positive effects for not only the Martinez beavers, but also for beavers everywhere. Along with others, you personally have raised beaver awareness in the California masses. Not an easy task, and extremely important if our society is to evolve a better culture of coexistence with the animals on this planet.

I thought you should know how impressive your efforts and results have already been, because I know when a person is in the middle of a fight it is hard to see the entire battleground. I’m glad you are involved. Thanks.

All the Best,

Mike Callahan Beaver Solutions

I’m thinking a trip to Martinez, a cold beer and a nice bout of beaver watching would be just the thing for your spirits right now! Don’t worry, it’s on us!

From the Sierra Wildlife Coalition:

We are so very sorry, and know how awful it feels to lose a friendly beaver that you had enjoyed watching…. and for no reason. Jim is following through with DFG to see if the permit was given properly, and thought perhaps KCRA or the Sacramento Bee might be willing to do a follow-up….

You all did a great job of raising awareness of inhumane and unnecessary trapping, which as Heidi says, is not easy when your own neighbors are on the other side…. thank you. We will all work to make sure it does not happen again.

Best wishes, Mary, Sherry & Ted, and Jim

Cubby Beaver

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) — Cubby the beaver was carried out of an El Dorado Hills neighborhood on a pitchfork Wednesday morning.

Trappers caught the animal and removed it from the area.

Several traps remain, just in case there are more beavers in the Four Seasons community.

“Mock tombstones and beaver signs draped in black cloth are being erected in memory of Cubby,” said Jim Sajdak, of the Sierra Wildlife Coalition, in an email to KCRA 3. “The (coalition) has sent documentation to the California Department of Fish & Game showing that removing beavers by a depredation process has proven to be an ineffective long-term solution, as well as a degradation to a wetland area.”

The decision on what to do with the beaver had previously split the community.\

KILLING FIELDS IN EL DORADO HILLS (Letter to the Editor by Resident)

Cubby, the Beaver and family, are being trapped and drowned in the quiet, pristine community of Four Seasons in El Dorado Hills, just off White Rock Road. This morning at 8:07 I witnessed an employee of Dept. of Fish & Game carrying Cubby’s dead body! What’s worse is that my husband and I, along with other members of our community, had staged an effort to get our Homeowners Association Board to slow down, to study, to educate themselves about beavers and their habitats. But, they voted three to one to kill the beaver. That was one week ago to the day!!! And now, looking out that same window I see a vulture poised on a rock, eyeing the open space. He smells death and so do I. The killing fields of El Dorado Hills. And here I am living in it.

Sandra Parsons

I promised I would offer Cheryl’s adorable otter picture from Friday night, when he snorted at her and demanded she leave the area in his “I’m an otter” manner. Look at the teeth on that charmer and tell me he isn’t eating well! With our kits long past danger-size its easier to just enjoy this unexpected visitor. Lots of water movement. Lots of noisy eating and satisfied crunching. Otters are fully prepared to enjoy everything they do — and you just ruin it. They make sure you know.

Let’s see what else. Well, the city of Oshawa promised their beaver-saving residents they’d find a non-lethal solution. They pointedly ignored the names and suggestions of every single professional we sent them and went back to the same environmental firm that said killing them was the best option in the first place. Then they awarded them a contract of 60,000 dollars to do a few tweaks and monitor the situation. 60,000 dollars! You could bring Skip, Mike and Sherri in dancing costumes for that kind of money! (Hmmm…that sounds kinda fun. Next years festival?) The paper is calling it a ‘temporary solution’ which it may well be. (I of course wrote and asked if they used the same headline when they recommended trapping, which is also a ‘temporary solution’.)

Oh and the council did keep their promise and try to find out the gender of the beaver that was ‘accidentally’ trapped after the trapping had been halted. Guess what they learned? The trapper, a seasoned and pragmatic animal culler with years of experience, told them that “you couldn’t know the sex because beaver sex parts are all on the inside.” No, I’m not kidding. (Mind you, I’m fairly certain that delicate condition describes half of any species ever discovered). He means of course that even male beavers have no external sex characteristics. They do have a different anatomical structure but it takes a moment (and an ounce of training) to identify and by then the body was already tossed in the incinerator and he was off for his next job. For the record, I am wholly certain that sexual organs would be of no use to any species whatsoever if they all remained inside…just saying.

Which brings us to Riga, Latvia where the city kept its promise to hold a ‘contest’ to solve the pesky beaver problem which gave them an excuse to let maintenance slag while tires and crates clog up their culverts. It rained a massive amount a while back and now their streets and parks are flooded and of course its the beavers fault. Go watch the video and tell me whether you think a few beaver dams created that problem. Apparently 90% percent of the population thinks they did, which was obviously the point of this machiavellian delay. One article says that the items seen here, ripped from a culvert were “used by beavers in their dam making”. (Ahh many’s the morning I’ve watched mom and dad beaver painstakingly laying tires on the dam. I just start to worry when they take them directly off the cars.)

Now before we in Martinez get full of righteous indignation at those Northern European Neanderthals, I must keep my other promise, which was to talk about sheetpile and what I learned from Alex’s Riga photos. The city park has a series of canals that are lined with sheetpile for stability. Alex sent some lovely pictures for us to ponder including this one:

Click on the picture to see it larger. Look at those lovely manicured banks. Gosh, I would like to go there. Look at that even line along the waters edge. It almost makes the sheetpile invisible. I wish our sheetpile ended at the waterline like that. Wait a minute. Wait just a worthadam minute! Why doesn’t it? Why on earth does the sheetpile wall in Martinez continue 8 feet up the bank? Um, because of the beavers? Nope. Beavers only dig holes they started under the waterline, not into the bank like badgers. Are you sure about that? I mean they are pretty darn destructive. Yes I am sure. When beavers dig their massive caverns under the ground they enter from below the water line. Look it up.

So what’s all that sheetpile there for? Why is their concrete poured behind it? Why doesn’t ours end at the water or a foot above it (to account for tides) like Riga’s? Why isn’t it like the historic sheetpile wa ll at the waterline Worth A Dam discovered in historical photos? Because, dear readers, the sheetpile wall was never put there to stop beaver damage. It was put there to stop water damage. So that in the high flow months, when water pours down the gutters and streets and floods the creek like it did last winter (when the beaver lodge was completely under water), it won’t erode the bank and cause damage to the property. This is what the city of Martinez promised to do way back when they made creek businesses pay a special assessment into the flood abatement project 10 years ago. This is what Martinez ran out of money for by the time they got to Escobar Street. This is what that particular property owner always resented and why he wanted meeting after meeting about the beavers. And this is how the beavers gave them all an excuse to solve the problem once and for all.

(Beavers change things. It’s what they do.)

So we get 8 feet of sheetpile, lose half a million dollars, turn one of our most visible and visited stretches of creek into a scene from “cannery row” and the floods are averted.

I guess cities do keep promises – just not in the way you’d expect.