Well, well, well. The Fairfield beavers had a fine news day yesterday – akin to one of the many enjoyed in Martinez. The first was the local paper which launched into the story directly on their front page. Click the photo for a link to the online version.
It’s a nice article with of course plenty of airtime for city officials to say how they only did it to SAVE the city and would never kill beavers. Of course we know that isn’t true. Because we have the depredation permit obtained for city hall in 2015. But you know how they are. The dust they throw is magical and makes reporters obedient.
Less easily intimated was the report in the SF Gate by Jeremy Hay. He’s the reporter who was sent the story by a friend of mine in Martinez. I’m super impressed with the thorough job he did talking to Virginia, the city, me, and the Sonoma Water District about the flow device they just installed,
Something tells me Fairfield might be discussing this right now.
Removal Of Beaver Dam In Laurel Creek Draws Criticism From Residents
What happened, said Bill Way, a Fairfield city spokesman, is that the dam was removed last Wednesday as part of “routine preventative maintenance work ahead of the rainy season.”
The city “has experienced numerous instances of flooding due to debris blocking the culverts, which run beneath our roadways,” Way said. He acknowledged that the dam location had not been a flooding problem “in recent years,” though the dam is believed to have been only 10 months old.
Way said the beavers swam away unharmed.
Now, because this is my website and not at all my first rodeo, I get to play the cross examining beaver lawyer and comment that last sentence was odd. Go read it again. Obviously the dam wasn’t destroyed in the middle of the night and most likely the beavers didn’t rush out of their safe-hole when the water level dropped. So they could not have bee seen swimming away unharmed. It’s a pat on the head, and we are being told not to worry. In my considered opinion Bill Way said that because he is lacks basic knowledge and thinks that beaver live IN the dam. Which if he doesn’t know that simple fact how can we believe anything he says? And my god if you thought the dam was full of beavers how could you possibly hack it apart with tools?
Neighbors and others who have enjoyed the beavers and the wildlife that gravitated to the pool created by the dam say the city decided to take action without considering the ecological value of the dam and the beavers that created it.
“It just seems like it would be a very simple thing for the city to say, ‘Hey, we have a problem, we think this is the way to solve it. And have a discussion about alternatives,” said Noah Tilghman, who lives about 150 feet from the site of the former dam.
“It’s my hope that they (the beavers) will reestablish the dam. There are some real benefits to having it there,” Tilghman said.
Outstanding. Man on the street stuff and neighbors watching and wanting the best thing for the creek. I could barely have cast a better screenplay for real change. Fingers crossed.
Beavers are fast in water but, because they are heavy with short legs, they are slow on land. So they build dams to create a safe space for themselves where they can raise families, said Heidi Perryman, founder of Worth a Dam, a Martinez-based nonprofit that advocates for beavers.
The dams raise the level of the water — in this case, Laurel Creek — above the entrance to the beaver home, keeping predators at bay.
When a dam is destroyed, “the first thing that happens is that habitat is lost, their protected space,” said Perryman.
The second thing that happens is that the pond created by the dam washes away and with it the ecosystem that developed around it. In Laurel Creek that included tule reeds that the beavers ate, which now, Perryman said, will die because their roots are exposed, plus otters, turtles, cormorants, muskrats, and herons.
The problem with getting rid of beavers is you get rid of a ton of habitat,” Perryman said. “Beavers build kind of a neighborhood and everyone moves in. So it’s not just that you’re losing beavers, you’re losing a ton of species that are benefiting from beavers’ habitat.”
My my my. What a great quote if I do say so myself. I’m really pleased with how our interview came out. It was one of those perfect clarity moments where it feels like you have infinite time to get things right. And Jeremy was a great listener.
Way, the Fairfield city spokesman, said, “We agree that beaver dams do create ecosystems. However, when taking into account the damage caused when neglected within an urban setting, the responsible decision is to remove them.”
Ahhh that’s fantastic. He’s already on the ropes. Yes what you’re saying is true but we HAD to! Our job is to protect the city and the infrastructure. We had no choice.
Now it’s time to give him a choice.
Holsworth, Perryman and others say that there are viable alternatives that the city could pursue instead of dam destruction — essentially channeling water around, under or over the dam, thereby preventing it from backing up on one side of the dam and reducing the likelihood of flooding.
Way said the city has looked into such alternatives.
“We have considered multiple devices which have been brought to our attention, and in all cases, they require routine maintenance,” he said.
The “unnecessary risk” to city workers outweighs the other options.
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If it please the court could you clarify some of the multiple devices you looked into? I’ll wait while you pretend to look through papers. Hmm…The Clemson Pond Leveler? Yes that was a big invention back in the when Reagan was president. I’m curious, did you look at anything more modern? I mean did you for example pick up the fricken phone and talk to public works in Sonoma which just installed or your across-the-strait neighbor Martinez where one worked for 10 years? Did you ask them how much maintenance it took?
Holsworth thinks the city is just stuck in its ways.
“I think it’s just the process that has been going on for a long time, just like someone who has some behavioral routine, they don’t see anything wrong with it,” Holsworth said. “They’re not being open to solutions that can maintain our ecosystem and keep our infrastructure safe.”
Communities from Martinez — home to an annual Beaver Festival — to Diablo to Sonoma County have installed alternatives to destroying dams.
“It was a successful project,” said Barry Dugan, a spokesman for the Sonoma County Water Agency, which installed three levelers at dams on Fryer Creek, south of the city of Sonoma.
You were saying Mr. Way? Speak up the court can’t hear you.
In Fairfield, the issue of the Laurel Creek beaver dam has quickly acquired a political tone. Holsworth is leading a petition drive to get the city to install a flow device, and urging residents to contact Mayor Harry Price who, she said, hasn’t yet responded to repeated calls and messages.
And Kam Holzendorf, a City Council candidate in District 4, which includes the stretch of Laurel Creek in question, has adopted the dam’s removal as a campaign cause.
“I’m very concerned about the actions taken by our city and I’m going to go ahead and look for answers for the constituents to ease their frustration or find solutions to keep our ecosystem safe,” said Holzendorf, a Fairfield High School English teacher who recalled playing in the creek as a kid. “I don’t appreciate the fact that there was no heads up about this or no warning.
There is almost nothing I like better than politicians looking over their shoulder and seeing looming beaver support. It is the very definition of the old saying “Let the people lead and the leaders will follow“.
Another neighbor to the former dam, Linda Elkins, said once she saw it she expected it would be removed.
“I understand the necessity of it,” she said, “I’m not happy about it.”
But she said she would like to know about — and would like the city to explore — different strategies for the future.
“It would be interesting to hear about other alternatives,” she said.
In the meantime, Elkins said, “I think if nothing else, this brings awareness to people that right in our backyard we have nature that we should appreciate, and I’m glad to see that so many people are concerned. Maybe this will ultimately help our neighborhood.”
Oh man. This article has ALL the voices. The reasonable neighbor who understand the city but wants to consider options. The devoted neighbor who wants the wildlife in their creek to thrive. The weasily city official who is made to answer to these charges because HE will never have to be elected and the cowering mayor who is not available for comment until he figures out which way the scales will tip.
Now they just need a documentary filmmaker. And the scene is set for beaver resilience 2.0!
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