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Oct 14, 2008 5:07 pm US/Pacific
Martinez Creek Repairs Move Ahead Despite Beavers
MARTINEZ (CBS 5 / BCN) ―
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On of the beavers that has made its home in Alhambra Creek.
CBS 5
Despite efforts to stop it, construction is scheduled to begin Wednesday to shore up the bank of Alhambra Creek at the beaver dam in downtown Martinez.
The city has hired contractors to install large slabs of heavy-duty sheet metal along an eroded section of the bank from Escobar Street to Marina Vista starting Tuesday.
Beaver advocates tried to stop the work by filing for a temporary restraining order against the city, but Contra Costa County Judge Barbara Zuniga denied the petition late Wednesday.
Jon Ridler with the beaver advocacy group "Worth a Dam" said he fears the work will mean death for at least some of the eight beavers that built their lodge against the creek bank.
According to Ridler, workers plan to drive the beavers out of the lodge before they begin work, but since the beavers have multiple exits, it will be difficult to tell if they have all evacuated.
The more likely scenario is that the noise and vibrations from the construction will drive the creatures deeper into their burrows, where they will either take a direct hit from a piling or get trapped behind the sheet metal and slowly starve to death, Ridler said.
"All we can do is watch. We can't effect what they're doing. We'll just be arrested," Ridler said.
Martinez City Councilwoman Lara DeLaney, who was a member of the city's beaver subcommittee, said the city was taking every precaution to make sure the beavers would not be injured or killed and to reduce their stress levels during the project, which is expected to last a couple of weeks.
"There will be no deaths to the beavers," DeLaney promised.
The city has hired Skip Lisle, a beaver expert from Vermont, to monitor the impact on the beavers throughout the construction. Lisle will also be feeding the creatures to reduce their stress.
"We're trying to strike this delicate balance of stabilizing the creek bank, maintaining the functionality of the creek and preserving the habitat for the beavers," DeLaney said.
But she wanted to assure beaver advocates that the city is not undertaking the construction as a way to evict the beavers.
"We are very much in favor of keeping the beavers here," DeLaney said.
Even the beaver advocates were glad to hear Lisle was coming look out for the beavers during the construction, but feared there would be little he could do if the beavers were underground, according to Ridler.
Meanwhile, the beavers have begun some construction of their own. They took down a willow tree last Wednesday night and began work on a fourth dam downstream near the Amtrak station.
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