Yesterday I found three messages from Bob Cellini of public works waiting for me. Seems the city is anxiously worrying about El Nino’s arrival, and feeling that the best thing they can do is rip out the flow device and remove the sediment from the beaver habitat. There is never time or money to worry about the rest of the creek, mind you. This was discussed late this week at the last city meeting, when half of our pro-beaver caucus wasn’t in attendance. You can either excuse the bizarre video quality and angle, or go watch the whole thing for yourself here.
We are saddened by this news, but not alarmed. When I managed to connect with Bob he said they would be clearing out the creek from Starbucks to the BBQ, and doing a little dredging as well. They wanted to check that there were no beavers living in the area, which there are not. I was very confused why they’d want to dredge the annex area since its hardly a threat. But then I realized that the annex is on you-know-who’s front doorstep, and they need to show their Daddy that they’re spending their pocketful of money on the right things.
So I guess it makes sense.
It won’t matter for the beavers, who haven’t tended that dam for nearly a year. But I suppose its symbolic of the city erasing their contract regarding them. The flow device was as close as the city ever came to issuing a permission slip for the beavers to stay in Martinez. And they’re eager to withdraw permission.
The irony is that our beavers will be unaffected by their rejection, because they are laying low at the moment and possibly living elsewhere for the time being. Bob said the were going to cut the low branches of the trees, which I would hate to deprive beavers of if we had any at the moment. But for once we cannot be hurt by the city’s pettiness. Because the real loss has nothing whatsoever to do with them.
And IF the beavers 2.0 come back after the storms have washed the water clean and new, (and I think they well might) I’m sure they’ll be MOST grateful that the nasty pipe was removed so all their hard work can finally pay off.
Thanks Rob.
Oh, and someone put this on continuous loop will they?
Fantastic article today from The Ecologist that I just HAD to share about the economic value of nature.
How much is nature worth? More than you can imagine
Can you put a value on nature? Today we have tried to do just that by publishing an ‘Earth Index’ in the financial pages of the Times; Wall Street Journal; Singapore Business Times and Economic Times in India. The result of several months work trying to uncover the financial value of key species and natural resources.
You’ll understand of course why THIS is my favorite part:
Also standing out for their enormous value as landscape and wetland managers are beavers, worth an annual £120,000. But given the huge annual value of the US’s coastal wetlands – $23.2 billion – maybe it should not come as a surprise.
Wow. With today’s exchange rates that’s nearly 184,000 US dollars a year. That works out to be about 15 grand a month. You would think even a city like Martinez would worry about hemorrhaging that, wouldn’t you? I mean, if they understood the value of these animals they’d be sending them flowers and chocolates, promising never to be mean again, trying to win them back, instead of taking their clothes to Goodwill the week after they leave for college and turning their bedroom into a personal gym.
HRMPH.
