After reading over yesterday’s Detroit news a few times, I started to get a familiar and uneasy feeling. Sure Edison is happy about their “single” beaver now, but what happens next? I find it very unlikely that a lone beaver would even build a lodge. I also find it unlikely that a beaver, who can effortlessly travel for miles, would move because the few trees near the lodge are gone. And, most ominously, as the wife and daughter of river-based power plant operators, I find it a little unlikely that down the road Edison’s only reaction to this beaver will be filial.
It got me thinking about the different layers of civic manipulation “the powers that be” use to manage public opinion about beavers. I had thought they were unique to Martinez, but after reading two years worth of reporting on the issue, I can see there’s a handbook somewhere, (or at least a shared instinct pool). Castor Machiavelli? I assume you’re all familiar with what they call in Poker a “tell“. Well, this is a three-piece “Tell” and I would bet that whenever you see these three in action the colony is headed for trouble.
Part 1: Secrecy
In yesterday’s article the power plant made the decision not to disclose where the beaver was even though it is a secured location. The city manager in Robeson Pennsylvania didn’t want to “give away the beavers location” and cause a media circus. Same for the beavers in Devon apparently swimming the Tamar. This is no accident. Keeping the beavers out of the public eye is essential to their speedy dispatch. In the over 50 beaver cases I’ve been involved with since this started, public awareness was the number one way to keep them from being killed once their behavior becomes inconvenient.
Part 2: Failure to Acknowledge Family Structure
Part 3: Impending Departure
Martinez should certainly recognize this one. The article quotes “reliable” sources saying that “the beavers have used up their food supply and will move any day now.” This is what expert Mary Tappel told our city council nearly a year ago (although the beavers apparently didn’t get the memo.) The message is that the community should expect the beavers to leave, so any action taken that subsequently encourages the beavers to leave (oh say scapping away their food or hammering sheetpile through their lodge) is not really significant because they were going to leave anyway. This sets up a conditions where problems can be quietly managed out of the public eye when their behavior becomes (you know) inconvenient.
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And there you have it! Hours of Exhaustive research on the “Trifecta Tell” for your disposal. I’m not going to include SSS here (Suspect Salmon Sympathies) because I think that falls into a different catagory. That is stage two of beaver public opinion management, when the cat’s definitely out of the bag and the reporter is asking you about your concern for wildlife while the cameras role. This is clearly the initial assault. To cross validate my findings, I suggest you all make little tic marks on your newspapers the next time you read an article about beavers.
If you get all the way to three strikes those beavers may soon be outtttttttttttttttttt.
