Ahh, who can read the mysterious minds of city staff? Or understand the workings of what goes on at the murky coffee-stained meetings where marching orders are issued? I’m just a lowly beaver advocate who can’t hope to infer what would make a city chop out all the willow trees along its bank, and ONLY the willow trees, leaving all the others untouched.
All we know is that by lunch time yesterday they had hacked along the fence line near the corp yard, cutting out every willow that stood along the banks. And leaving some scrubby un-willow trees and the large oak.
I’m sure there’s method to what looks like pure madness. The cut willow was just strewn along the banks or thrown into the creek. (Which is kind funny, because when the beavers were here they always hauled every scrap away after trimming). Maybe the fact that the new bridge to nowhere means more people can see this neglected path. Especially parents of soccer families from walnut creek and they complained they wanted it cleaner.
Sure looks a lot cleaner to me.
The pile on the right is the part of the creek where the beavers were living last summer. Ahh memories. I guess we should just be grateful that beavers aren’t there now, with all their cover and food source destroyed – barraged by machinery and harassed by the intrusion.
Rumor is that the homeless man who ‘officially’ lived there (And I say officially because I’m told the Martinez police knew and protected him because he kept them supplied with information) that particular homeless man is currently in an apartment downtown. Don’t know why or how. But maybe the city just didn’t want some OTHER unsanctioned homeless to move in. So they eliminated the cover?
(Or at least the willow part of the cover.)
You know me. I can’t possibly see a targetted willow genocide and not think it’s a message to any other beaver that approaches, MOVE ON, nothing to see or eat here, we don’t need your kind in these parts. But I guess this would be a lot of work just to keep beavers away, which they never did in the last 10 years and they easily might have. So I don’t know why this happened.
But if there’s ONE thing I know for sure, it’s that willow grows back. Whether you cut the top, the branch, or the roots. Something tells me it’s not the last we’ll see of them. And who knows what that will bring?
