Martinez beavers

Best known as the longtime home of famed 19th/20th-century naturalist John Muir, Martinez has become a national example of urban stream restoration utilizing beavers as ecosystem engineers.

[1] In late 2006, a male and female beaver arrived in Alhambra Creek,[2] proceeding to produce 4 kits over the course of the summer.

[3] Subsequently, wildlife populations have increased in diversity along the Alhambra Creek watershed, most likely due to the dams maintained by the beavers.

Within three days of the announcement of the decision to exterminate the beavers, downtown Martinez was invaded by news cameras and curious spectators.

[5][6] Examples of the impact of the beaver as a keystone species in 2010, include a green heron (Butorides virescens) catching a tule perch (Hysterocarpus traskii traskii), the first recorded sighting of the perch in Alhambra Creek, and the December arrival of a pair of hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) (see photos).

Flooding, following heavy rains, washed away the beaver lodge and all four dams on Alhambra Creek in March 2011[10] In September, 2011, Martinez officials ordered Mario Alfaro, a local artist commissioned to paint an outdoor mural celebrating the heritage of the city, to paint over the depiction of a beaver he had included in his panorama.

Historically, before the California Fur Rush of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Delta probably held the largest concentration of beaver in North America.

It appears that the beaver (species: Castor canadensis, subspecies: subauratus) was one of the most valued of the animals taken, and apparently was found in great abundance.

[15] In 1840, explorer Captain Thomas Farnham wrote that beaver were very numerous near the mouths of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and on the hundreds of small "rushcovered" islands.