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The verdict is in: Riverwalk beaver must die
| Thursday, Dec 20 2007 3:03 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Dec 20 2007 3:08 PM
The bike path beaver's days are numbered.
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Just two of several trees damaged by a beaver along the bike path, just west of the Elephant Bar, on Stockdale Highway.
A bicyclist glances at the remains of a tree on the bike path west of the Elephant Bar. This tree and others like it are being felled and damaged by beavers in the area.
State wildlife officials have issued a permit to kill the rodent that's chewed down nine trees on the bike path near the Park at Riverwalk in the past few weeks.
The beaver has not yet been killed, officials said.
Officials with California Department of Fish and Game said they don't relocate beavers because the animal’s nature is to control water and it could end up damming an irrigation canal or taking down trees elsewhere.
"It's taking a problem from one place and relocating the problem, which is not in the best interest of everyone in general," said local Fish and Game biologist Bill Asserson.
As of last week, the beaver cut down nine cottonwood trees that had been planted along the bike path. The trees, now foot-high stumps, are expected to grow back.
“It’s not a winning situation but a hard fact of nature and its conflict with residential, ornamental and agriculture endeavors,” Asserson said.
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services unit will carry out destroying the beaver.
Bakersfield parks officials said the beaver has not downed anymore trees in the past week.