Now I’ve been alive a long, long time. And I’ve been waiting for the state agencies to pick up the beaver gauntlet like a puppy with her tongue hanging out watching the Purina box shake. But I honestly never thought I’d see this. Wade Crowfoot, Secretary of Natural Resources talking about beaver as if the were — well — a natural resource.
My favorite part is when he says the GOVERNOR has asked him this several times.
“A Great question and one that Gavin Newsom asjed me about and continues to ask me about”
Color me all kinds of happy. Now I’m very demanding. Immediately after throwing a party that he said this at all I became very dissatisfied that he doesn’t say more. That the first thing he thinks of doing with them is throwing them out of airplanes. That he relies on these mealy mouth tropes that beavers don’t belong everywhere.
Of course they don’t. They should only be where people need to drink water.
But it all makes great timing for this article to emerge. I heard this week that the Marin Municipal Water District was voting on this issue in their last meeting, and by the looks of things the measure passed,
Marin interests make push for beavers in Lagunitas Creek
A coalition of biologists, ranchers, public agencies and environmental groups is exploring the idea of reintroducing beavers to lower Lagunitas Creek as a way to improve habitat for endangered salmon and provide benefits to nearby landowners.
While the idea of reintroducing beavers to Marin is by no means new or close to being implemented, it recently has gained a broader range of supporters who are now endeavoring to bring state wildlife officials on board.
Two ranches near Point Reyes Station that include sections of the creek have given their support for allowing beavers on the land. The Marin Municipal Water District, which is responsible for monitoring Lagunitas Creek and its endangered fish runs, is preparing a letter to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to begin more seriously evaluating the idea.
“At this point, more people are involved in the discussion than used to be involved,” said Eric Ettlinger, an aquatic ecologist with the district. “I think more people are going to be brought into the discussion including the public. We are closer, but there is still a long way to go to work out all of the details of reintroducing beavers.”
I’d definitely involve the public, because they’re the ones that are going to be dealing with these beavers on the front lines. I’m really interested in how this issue plays out, because Marin County is chock full of money and influence. At the California table, they usually get what they want.
While beavers do reside in nearby counties, there has never been a beaver relocation project in the Bay Area, according to the state.
“I am not aware of any beaver relocations in the state since the 1950s,” said Greg Martinelli, lands program manager with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
But many questions and issues would need to be resolved before the semi-aquatic mammals would arrive in Lagunitas Creek. The state would want to know whether there is suitable habitat, what residents think of the idea, whether there is a risk to human health or safety, whether there is an urgency to take action, how disease transmission would be prevented and what the intended benefits would be.
One of the main drivers in the push to bring beavers to Marin is the benefit their dams could provide to endangered salmon runs and other wildlife on Lagunitas Creek.
The creek has the largest population of Central Coast coho salmon from Monterey Bay to the Sonoma-Mendocino County line. The salmon population, once believed to have been in the thousands, dwindled to the low hundreds as the creek was dammed and other land-use changes occurred.
Well well well. You know Jerry Brown’s water guy lives in Marin and has been ringing this bell for some time. Things are finally shifting a little. Good, I’m sure Marin has all the skills to make this happen, if it can happen.
One of the main strategies biologists are using to restore salmon populations throughout the state is working to recreate their historic habitat, mainly by anchoring large wooden logs in the creek and restoring lost floodplains. The logs were often removed from the creek without an understanding of their benefits to the salmon, including habitat, food and refuge from predators.
The Marin Resource Conservation District has been working with landowners to make these habitat improvements, which often come at the cost of millions of dollars. Nancy Scolari, the district’s executive director, said the same benefits can be achieved through beaver dams.
“They essentially do all the work that we do to help with the environment, but they don’t have to do any of the paperwork,” Scolari said.
Additionally, some ranchers in different parts of the state have found that floodplains created by beavers helped irrigate their pastures longer, providing more forage and better livestock distribution, Scolari said.
Other benefits include groundwater recharge and removing silt from streams, Martinelli said.
Here that clock ticking? It’s time. It’s Time. It’s TIME.
At the same time, Scolari said, there are potential drawbacks that continue to concern ranchers and property owners. For one, beavers introduced to one area could end up establishing themselves in other parts of the county. Other issues include disease transmission, bank destabilization, flooding, agricultural damage, depredation and property damage.
“There are still many questions,” Ettlinger said. “These are still early days. I think we’re far from requesting that beavers be relocated.”
The Black Mountain Ranch and the Gallagher Ranch, which both have sections of Lagunitas Creek running through the properties, have expressed support for reintroducing beavers on their land. Black Mountain Ranch owner Marcel Houtzager said he has worked on other habitat restoration projects and learned about the potential benefits of beavers.
While he said his cattle likely wouldn’t benefit from the project — the nearly 2 miles of the creek running through the property mostly go through wooded terrain — the bees, birds and other animals likely would.
“I have zero commercial incentive to be excited about this,” Houtzager said. “The habitat around the creek is important.”
‘Nuff said.
