Our 2006 Parkway Advocate Award winner, Mary Tappel, helps us understand the beaver problem in Elk Grove; a few are great, too many aren’t, a principle true for more things than not.
Beavers' fate gnawing at Elk Grove
Residents seek gentler options in wake of decision to kill them.
By Loretta Kalb - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, May 22, 2007
For a city that has too many beavers, there are no simple solutions.
In Elk Grove, residents have mixed emotions about the city's decision to kill the animals in recent months. Should the beavers be relocated? they ask. Should they be sterilized?
Local experts say no and no.
Longtime environmental volunteer Mary Tappel says she understands Elk Grove's need to control its rising beaver population and why it has resorted to killing them.
The city would have fared better in limiting public outcry if it had started its population control efforts before the animals' construction projects had begun to take their toll on waterways and detention basins, said Tappel, a biologist who works part time as an environmental scientist for the state Water Resources Control Board.
