MARTINEZ, CALIF. — Ever since the beavers arrived here in John Muir's adopted hometown, the human residents have been divided. Some wanted to save them. Others wanted to kill them.
The first two beavers swam up from the delta in 2006 and began building lodges and dams in the creek that runs through downtown. Their construction work has caused some property owners along the creek to worry that all that burrowing will undermine their buildings and cause major damage. For Martinez, bank stabilization has nothing to do with a fiscal crisis.
After months of acrimonious debate, the city is gambling that it can shore up the creek-side buildings without driving away the beavers -- which have drawn thousands of tourists who might never have ventured to the industrial town.
On Wednesday, workers used a vibrating hammer to begin driving 2-foot-wide corrugated sheet piles into the creek bank next to the beavers' lodge. The metal wall will extend along an entire block on one side of the creek and is expected to cost $375,000. The beavers remained out of sight.
The beaver, North America's largest rodent, appears to be making a comeback in California and is driving some local governments to distraction as it moves along waterways into urban areas. Last year, public opposition stopped Bakersfield from exterminating the "bike path beaver," which was chewing up trees along a bikeway. Elk Grove, just south of Sacramento, has killed dozens of beavers in recent years to protect trees and prevent flooding.
In Martinez, the city's handling of the issue has been as messy as a pile of wood shavings. Residents complain of closed-door City Council meetings, city refusal to release documents and the alleged skirting of environmental laws.
Beaver supporters, who have formed a group called Worth a Dam, fear that one or more of the animals could be crushed or trapped when the 25-foot-long sheet piles are driven into the ground. They also worry that the noise and vibration could scare off the animals, which now number eight.
"Any city that is smarter than a beaver ought to be able to keep beavers," said Heidi Perryman, president of Worth a Dam.
Martinez, a city of 37,000 located 35 miles northeast of San Francisco and founded during the Gold Rush, has long had a split personality. It boasts that it was the home of Muir, the great conservationist, for 24 years. But it is better known for the huge oil refinery established in 1915, the year after Muir died.
