Way back when Martinez was scrambling to save our beavers, several frantic and well-meaning people called Fish and Game and said earnestly, “I saw this TV program about some pipe they put in the water that prevents flooding, do you guys do that or know anyone who does?” Literally the question was asked 15 times by 15 different people. And to a man, every single answer came back;
“Oh those things never work.”
Flash forward to 2014 where we recently learned that beavers were causing a problem in Sonoma. Through several carefully placed contacts we were able to discover on whose property they were eating grapevines and contact the Fish and Game warden who had been asked for a depredation permit. Guess what she said. Go ahead, guess!
She said “I didn’t issue a permit and I sent them to Mike Callahan’s website.”
And before you say, “Wow that’s great that Mike has an put up such an informative website”, I will remind you that 7 years ago when our beavers were slated for killing he had pretty much the same informative website. It was one of three places on the entire internet that talked about beaver mitigation. The information was out there in 2007. The difference is that we flooded the market with information. The game changer was that Martinez made livingco-existence a household name, and has proven to CDFG for 7 years that these devices work.
The playing field has now changed so much that CDFG preaches flow devices to land-owners. Thinking, about it all I remember that when we were in Utah Mary Obrien said wisely that real change happened on a slower scale than her Whitman students could imagine. In her experience it almost aways took at least 7 years. Honestly, she said that. 7 years ago they said it couldn’t be done, and we did it. I like to think Worth A Dam played some part in the change that made beaver mitigation a real option. So congratulations to all of you reading this website. You helped tip the scale.
