Beavers build a burrow and the town gives a dam

Reporting from Martinez, Calif. — Beavers that took up residence in a downtown creek here are staying put despite a noisy three-week construction project to shore up the bank near their lodge, relieved beaver supporters say.

The eight beavers that live in Alhambra Creek near the city center have been spotted entering and leaving their lodge at dusk, even though workers drove 25-foot-long metal sheet piles into the ground a few feet from their burrow.

"The beavers are fine," said Linda Meza, a spokeswoman for the beaver support group Worth a Dam.

But a new controversy over the project has emerged since Worth a Dam uncovered a photograph in the Martinez Museum showing that damage attributed to the beavers dates to at least 1999 -- seven years before the animals arrived.

Meza said the photo proved what the group had been saying all along: The $400,000 construction project was unnecessary.

Worth a Dam has criticized the City Council for improperly meeting in private on the issue and for bypassing an environmental review by declaring the situation an emergency.

"The city was aware that the beavers were not burrowing under the retaining wall," Meza said. "The premise for this emergency work was based on lies."

Martinez, located 35 miles northeast of San Francisco, was founded during the Gold Rush.

The city of 37,000 boasts that it was the home of conservationist John Muir, but it has also been the site of a huge oil refinery for nearly a century.

The first two beavers arrived in 2006, and since then they have been busy. They produced two kits, or baby beavers, last year and four more this year while building two lodges and four dams in the creek.

After word of the beavers' presence spread, tourists began visiting Martinez to see them -- an unusual occurrence for the refinery town.

But the property owner nearest the beaver habitat complained that the rodents were causing damage by burrowing into the bank and under the retaining wall. He threatened to sue the city if it didn't take action.

City officials at first planned to kill the beavers but backed off after many residents protested.

The City Council then voted to shore up the bank along a one-block stretch by driving sheet piles between the creek and the retaining wall.

Beaver supporters opposed the project for fear the animals might be killed or driven off, but the large rodents have proved adaptable.