It’s Sunday and time for a story. It will surely be the familiar kind because you’ve heard this story before many times. It’s a David and Goliath tale, where David wants to save beavers and Goliath has taken the form of the terrible development monster that is terrorizing the village. You know how it goes. They want to tear down paradise to build a parking lot sort of thing.
I can’t tell you the ending because it hasn’t been written yet. I’m hoping it ends well.
Once upon a time in a not-s0-far-away land named Rocklin there lived a beautiful and shy princess who was keeper of a magical wetland near her home. Every day she and her neighbors would walk along the many winding paths and follow the stream to see the homes of the wild creatures that lived there. The wetlands were made and maintained by two creatures that were the most magical of all because they turned a lazy urban backwater into a wilderness where herons, turtles. frogs and otters all found their way.
They were called “BE-avers” Because with their determined effort they willed wild things into BEING.
[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/r5imZtJpoIw” lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]
Very near this magical wetland was the gilded campus of Sierra College who wanted to build more housing for its many, many lords and ladies who were studying kingdom administration and graphic design. They sent foot soldiers every so often to tear out the beaver dams so that the magical wetland would be drained and it would be easier to reach all the things they wanted to develop.
This worried the princess because it was summer and getting drier and even when the magical BE-avers rebuilt their dams (Because BE-avers are very hardworking and never give up or get discouraged) the precious water they once held was lost and did not return and could not be expected to come back until winter.
Gradually the magical wetland grew more and more shallow. Until the moat around their lodge-castle receded and they had to walk the corridors instead of swim to get around. All the wildlife that relied on the pond, the dragonflies, the frogs, the turtles, the herons, and the otters all dwindled into a smaller and smaller space, or left the area entirely, or were eaten, with less food and protection to keep them safe. Soon when you walked the area you could see almost nothing except dry channels, choked streams and muddy pools where water used to be.
Now the great Sierra College needed permission from the city of Rocklin to unleash their beloved monster, and the city, like all cities, was eager for DEVELOPMENT dollars and said, go right ahead, don’t mind us and don’t worry about all those neighbors who like the wetlands just make certain you follow the gossamer rules from Great Wizard of CDFW who in its terrible wisdom requires that certain endangered species not be messed with. Or at least not APPEAR to be messed with.
(Not the BE-avers of course. It was perfectly fine to mess with them. in fact the lords of CDFW handed out permits for messing with them like confetti. And everyone in the county of Placer where this occurred messed with them as often as they possibly could. But I digress. Back to our story.)
The short list of creatures that couldn’t be messed with included a shelled fresh-water nymph called the “Western Pond Turtle” and the rules said that if this rare specimen was observed in the ‘not so very wet any more land’ they had to halt work and wait for it to crawl away on its own.
Which was very annoying. Because turtles crawl very slowly, as you know.
It was nesting season and the turtle would be laying its eggs soon and could not be encroached upon. That was the rule. And they HAD to follow it. Or at least give the appearance of following it. So they crossed their fingers and squeezed their eyes shut tightly and hope they wouldn’t find any WPTs.
Earlier this week the princess took her magical Nikon, went to the pond, and waited. She was a little afraid, because she didn’t want to make people angry, And a little soggy because she had to walk into the mud to do it. And a little bitten because there were less and less fish left to eat the mosquitoes. But she did it anyway because that is what princesses do when they need to save wetlands.
The Western Pond Turtle! And several of them!
So she sent her photo to the college and to the lords of CDFW and the city and waited for them to leap to the wetlands defense. She imagined the screeching train of development grinding to a halt, or at least losing steam. And she waited for her phone to ring in alarm as they sputtered and changed course.
And they of course put their hands up over their eyes and spilled coffee on her emails because all they could see were the dollar bills even the great Lords of CDFW hesitate before they get in the way of those.
Stay tuned.
[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/tvtJPs8IDgU” lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]
