Any beavers’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in beaverkind;
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.
Why are all beaver victories Pyrric and sad? Because beaver death happens so fast, faster than beaver alarm and concern. Yesterday I was sent a beautiful photo of the little dam the beavers had made in Marsh Creek. And then I cajoled my Oakley sister to paying it a visit and learned it had been ripped out. The little dam was on a public path, next to a park and two blocks from an elementary school. It was in the perfect place for a teachable moment. But it was too late.
I heard from the woman from American Rivers working on a large project in the area that CDFG had granted a depredation permit at the beginning of April good for up to five beavers taken over the year, and I knew that we were probably too late.
Later that night supervisor Burgis called to say she had talked to the head of flood control and learned that two beavers had already been dispatched. Weeks ago. Probably the only beavers there which is why the dam hadn’t been repaired. Unless God forbid there were kits already born and they just starved to death in their little bank hole.
It makes me SO SAD. That was such a tiny beautiful dam. It wasn’t hurting anyone.
We had seen the bosses name on depredation permits over the years. I remembered her because it always frightened me that the address was Martinez. But it was the county address, where the head of flood control manages flooding all over Contra Costa. Not our little sleepy creek.
The good thing, and there IS a good thing, is that the supervisor told the head of flood control that killing beavers wouldn’t be a option anymore. For any city, and definitely not for Marsh Creek. She then said that the head of flood control needed to have a meeting with herself, the project manager from American Rivers and that woman from Worth A Dam to learn about options for keeping the creek flowing and still saving the beavers.
So that’s being set up. And its very good news for the next beavers that come to Marsh Creek. I cannot stress enough how entirely rare and unheard of it is. And what a fluke of all forces known to God and man it relied on. Victory happened. And we’re grateful for it.
But its no reprieve for these beavers. Because beaver victories almost always come too late to make a difference. It’s like the governors pardon arriving three minutes after the switch on the electric chair has already been pulled. It’s always too late.
Except for in Martinez.
