Beavers On Myspace

If there were any question before, it is becoming more and more clear that the Martinez Beavers are leaving their footprint on the community, and far beyond it. If yesterday’s EPA post needs to be corrected that its CalEPA and not the Feds (and the environmental curriculm for K-12, not a free calendar) then look beyond our borders at the city of Surrey British Columbia. Remember them? They got a whole lot of attention for their beaver killing spree, and our friend from New Zealand stopped by for a chat with the council. Now the city has decided to hire an “expert” about behavior management. Some areas will be altered with flow devices and some beavers will be relocated to carefully selected sites.

Its almost a victory, although Carrie Baron drainage manager is still no friend of the beavers. One report said that they were paying the consultant 15,000 dollars and she hoped “some of the beavers could be saved“. Some? They also said that they’re going to keep these desireable locations a secret from other communities so they don’t try to dump off their beavers first. The mind reels. How about using the 15,000 dollars to do an EIR and learn which areas would benefit from habitat repair and water management, ranking the need for beaver introduction? How about using the beavers to increase the salmon runs and wildlife homes and working with neighboring cities to introduce the position of Watershed Steward that can manage these issues over time?

Surrey, it’s possible that your first plan for the secret killing of beavers, and now your second plan for the secret saving of beavers, lacks some of the transparency that your ecologically minded residents require.

So what does Surrey have to do with Martinez? Well lots of us wrote Ms. Baron, and we get a steady stream of traffic on the site looking up information for them. Like Kern county, it’s another example of beaver visibility forcing better beaver decisions, and we are a large part of that. If you need to be reminded, check out Mike Callahan’s letter on why we fight. It seems like it was written a hundred years ago, but its worth reading over now.

More evidence of our beaver footprint comes from the Chowhound of all places. If you’ve never heard of it you should know it’s a National website reviewing local eateries and foodstuffs. A couple of weeks ago their SF blogger stopped by the Farmer’s market and really appreciated what s/he saw. Apparently we chatted about beavers, although there is no way to know which conversation sparked this. (I’m reminded of the old myths of Zeus visiting villagers in the disguise of a tattered old man, so that he could test the hospitality of his followers.) Anybody can be a visiting blogger with a national following: it’s a good idea to answer all their questions and be polite!

I agree the beavers are every bit the tourist attraction that the sea lions are at Pier 39. It made me stop. At the farmers market there is a stand with beaver info and pictures of where to look and what to look for … main dam, secondary dam, beaver lodge and beaver deceiver (to keep the stream from flooding). It was very interesting. Martinez is much more beaver educated than it once was. There is much more info and cute beaver pictures in the next link. An amusing page is Beaver Myths: More dam rumors.” rworange Chowhouds

Once you start following the footprint left by the Martinez Beavers, you see that the ripple effect is all around us. Even Vacaville, with their prehistoric beaver-beliefs, is feeling the effects of our effort and enthusiasm. We should comfort ourselves with the fact that for every colony we preserve, we are also helping countless, fish, heron, otter and muskrats who benefit from the habitat the beavers create.

That’s a return on investment everyone of us can get behind.

The Canadian press is all a buzz with talk about the town of Surrey and its extermination of 40 beavers last year. They plan to take 40 more this year. Apparently there are complaints about them blocking streams, causing flooding and taking trees. Their city staff has said that there are no alternatives to killing the animals and originally reported they were being live trapped and euthanized. They later admitted they were being killed with conibear traps, which they insist cause no pain and kill the animal instantly.

Wrong three times out of three.

Information on alternative beaver management is readily accessible. Cities like to say they have no choice but extermination. Remember in November when our city manager reported that there was no other way to control flooding? He did this even though I was sitting in the audience holding his return email from August thanking me for describing flow devices and saying he would discuss it with staff.

The second lie? “We’re live trapping the beavers then euthanizing them.” What? Who even thought of that ridiculous lie? You, Surrey, desprately need a better spin machine. I don’t know which animal activists you figure that idiotic story would pacify, but it’s silly, wasteful and pointless. No one should have believed that story, ever.

The third lie: Conibear traps are painless. This is the most grim. I suppose if a beaver is lucky enough to stick his head all the way through and position it correctly they probably are painless. That rarely happens. Instead what happens is that the animal gets a foot or a tail stuck in the thing, can’t get free and just slowly drowns. There was a youtube video of this filmed underwater by an activist. It was horrible.

Surrey officials note (without any insight at all) that the beaver population seems to be increasing inspite of their best killing efforts. Hmm. Could it possibly be that mass killing causes a rebound effect when there is suddenly abundant food and broad territory for remaining animals? I won’t even mention the gentleman’s name from the “Environmental Consulting Firm” hired to do the trapping, but go look it up: the similarities are eerie.

So lets see, we have flooding fears, alarm bells and the expressed inability to do anything else. If my predictions are correct the next article should mention flow devices, say they’ve tried them but they didn’t work, and name a new concern: something eco-friendly sounding. Maybe salmon.

Carrie Baron, Surrey’s manager of drainage and environment, said she’ll be speaking with West Vancouver and King County about bringing a similar system here. Her initial concerns with the system were how salmon would pass through the fencing. But fisheries biologist John Werring, of the David Suzuki Foundation, told The Leader earlier this week that even beaver dams don’t serve as an impediment for spawning salmon.

Right on cue! You do remember the famed “salmon monologue” from the November 7th meeting, don’t you? Salmon provide the uneducated a useful reason to complain about dams. Turns out beavers help salmon as we and others have written about again and again. Dams are essential in making habitat for little salmon. Bring on the next complaint.

Mayor Diane Watts says she wants the killing stopped, and has approached the B.C. Ministry of the Environment regarding relocation, which they do not allow.

However a ministry official told The Leader this week relocation is no longer a preferred option by the province. “Basically it’s very stressful for the creature, and almost all the habitat around the province is already (populated by beavers),” she said. “And if you take one beaver and put it into other beaver territory, you’re just creating beaver competition, and stressing it more.” She added the animals cause “millions and millions of dollars” damage per year from the dams they build.

Are you having complete Deja Vu yet? Relocation not allowed. “Millions and Millions of dollars damage.” Those darned beavers. Wickedly outsmarting hard-working city staff and foiling their every move. Thank goodness Surrey doesn’t have some smart-ass animal lover making videos and starting a non-profit.

Beaver-weary community of Surrey: we can help. Download the subcommittee report and the powerpoint presentation. Read the articles on creative solutions. Write us with any questions you have and we’ll hook you up with the top beaver minds on the continent. You are not alone, and you can face these issues with creativity and compassion.

Any city SMARTER than a beaver, can manage a beaver.