July 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 6

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A Message from NRPA's Leaders

Wild Animal Stories From The Field

W

hether you are a professional, citizen board member, or a stu-

dent interested in public parks and recreation, you will accumulate
your own share of animal stories from the field. In the past six years
as the Director of Recreation and Parks in Bakersfield, California, I've had to move
turtles, rescue ducklings, and build " condos " for burrowing owls. I've even seen
a coyote chasing a road runner. However, one incident just kept gnawing at me...

When my sister called me from Ohio saying
that she just saw me on CNN News, I knew the
wild animal story I am about to tell just got bigger, and was not going away. It all started with staff
calling to say that a beaver, or beavers, chewed
down a couple of trees along the bike path. The
next night, the beaver(s) got busier and took down
10 more trees. I called the Department of Fish and
Game, since that agency regulates such critters in
California. By the time they called back, six more
trees were down. They said it was a nuisance and
needed to be trapped and killed, and they would
send the trapper. I signed the " extermination order " and it became a public document overnight.
Three more trees were felled, for a total of 21. By
the way, the trees were planted with state grant
money by volunteers not long ago.
By this time, the local media was on beaver
patrol in the daylight, even though they were told
these are nocturnal creatures. Media teams set up
camp. PETA has my name with a target on it. I am
receiving hate mail from as far away as Australia and England and several states. Mr. and Mrs.
Bakersfield Beaver decide to flaunt their celebrity
status by coming out in broad daylight to swim in
the park ponds, to the delight of the entire city. So
much for being nocturnal creatures... In the meantime, staff wrapped orange plastic fencing around

the remaining trees that needed to be saved in
the park and along the bike path to prevent further damage.
My options were to rescind the " death warrant "
and just leave them alone, or hire an independent
trapper to re-locate them because the Fish and
Game Department only traps to kill. However, if we
hired a trapper, Fish and Game had to approve the
relocation site. We found a trapper, and a new location about 30 miles away on private property. Fish
and Game said no to our new location, because a
state politician had enough property to accommodate the Bakersfield Beavers. It was my turn to say
no, thanks anyway.
Soon afterward, it was reported that a beaver
was hit by a car. Contrary to much teasing from
staff, I was not in that car. A few days later, another
beaver was found dead in the weeds, apparently
attacked by a coyote. Other beavers have returned
to the general location each year, so we keep the
trees wrapped and let nature take its course. Over
a three-year period, 46 trees have been replaced
for a cost of over $30,000.
Share your wild animal stories on NRPA Connect
in the forum discussion (www.nrpaconnect.org). I'd
love to hear some of them. You can't make this stuff
up-in parks and recreation, anything can happen.


Dianne Hoover
President

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Parks & Recreation

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July 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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