Neighbors battle over beaver
So the Four Seasons Active Senior living community of El Dorado Hills Ca. last week got an anxious email from a resident there that the board of directors had made the decision to hire a trapper to kill the resident beaver(s) in their creek. When I saw where El Dorado Hills is located (right next to Elk Grove) I wasn’t exactly hopeful. But I gave her arm loads of information and told her to come back if she needed more.
Two days later I received a second email from a second person who didn’t even KNOW the first person cared about the beavers. I put them in contact with each other, gave him additional armloads of information after spending some time looking up media contacts in the area.
This morning it’s beginning to pay off. I’ve been told two news stations are coming out to film the big meeting tonight.
A homeowners association decision to remove and destroy the beaver that’s set up shop in the Four Seasons Active Adult Community in El Dorado Hills has residents collecting signatures to save the creature while an intransigent HOA general manager insists the beaver’s fate is sealed.
The beaver lives in Grassy Creek, a headwaters tributary of Deer Creek that winds through the Four Seasons, serving as both flood control and a scenic wetlands corridor for the planned development.
The Grassy Creek beaver, as residents have taken to calling it, has turned the formerly well-defined, narrow creek into a shallow marsh between Covered Bridge Way and Monte Mar Drive.
Hmm. It’s almost March so I suppose it’s theoretically possible that this wayward beaver is a disperser and on his own, but given that they’ve been watching him a while it’s much more likely that he has a family or at least some help. Both emails described the creek as ‘ephemeral’ and I assured them that if the beaver stayed it probably wouldn’t be any more! Apparently there’s a big meeting tonight
Four Seasons Owners Association General Manager Scott Jefferson notified Parsons by e-mail on Friday that the eradication of the beaver was “in the best interest of the community” and was moving forward despite his petition.
“The membership lacks the necessary authority to overturn or postpone the implementation of an operational/maintenance decision of the board of directors,” he said, “regardless of the number of completed petitions that may be submitted.”
On Saturday a frustrated Parsons conceded that barring a miracle, his efforts to save the beaver had failed. “People here in our little community find this marsh and its inhabitants life affirming,” he said. “We want to live and let live.”
He lamented that his HOA board acted hastily and “entered into this with their minds made up.”
The next board meeting is 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 29 at the Four Seasons Lodge.
I love the idea that they have the authority to MAKE the decision but not to CHANGE it. That’s rich. Well I guess the managers want active adults but NOT active wildlife. I told my beaver-protecting buddies to bring some grandchildren to the meeting and try to get them on camera maybe holding a picture they drew of a beaver, so we’ll see if anything slows this killing campaign. Apparently there’s a retired forester in the area who wants the beaver eliminated because some oaks are getting flooded.
Apparently the reporter took this whole story seriously enough to do his homework. He called Fish & Game who had this to say.
State Fish and Game Warden Patrick Foy, reached by phone, reported that beaver problems in semi-rural subdivisions are common. “We can’t really take a problem beaver in one area and move it to another,” he said.
Beavers are routinely removed and destroyed, trapped underwater to drown or simply shot, he said, often over the loud objections of animal lovers.
He said the species is not endangered or protected, and is well-established along waterways in western El Dorado County, with known beaver communities along Deer Creek and Carson Creek.
Urban beaver dams can be breached with combinations of pipe and screening that lower water levels and might save some of the trees along Grassy Creek, he added.
Now it may not seem like much but that last sentence is the VERY FIRST TIME in the history of beaver watching that I have heard a quote from Fish and Game recommending a flow device. Think about that, and think about their constant refrain to interested parties that ‘those NEVER work’. I would argue that that sentence can be directly attributed to the success of Skip’s Flow device and the televised drama of the Martinez Beavers.
Of course, no gift comes without tarnish…
The so-called “beaver relievers” prevent flooding but create frustrated beaver who often go to great lengths to clog the breach and restore their habitat, or simply move on.
Beaver Relievers? I can only assume this is a direct quote from the warden and not a misunderstanding by the reporter. Beaver Relievers! Its sounds like some kind of pain killer for rodents referring to the Salicin properties in willow! Maybe fish and game hasn’t evolved at all. He’s basically saying “I don’t know its name and I know they don’t work anyway.” Sigh.
Well good luck tonight in stopping your HOA from making the beavers DOA. Of course they will say they have no choice. It’s people who don’t want to be blamed for their choices always do. Tell them about options and benefits and otter and fish and heron.Tell them about solutions and say that Worth A Dam will help with information, referrals and a possible scholarship. Remind them that if they put up with
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