Activists Jubilant as State Says All Lake Skinner Beavers Will Be Saved

The beavers of Lake Skinner--notorious for destroying the habitat of endangered birds--are no longer in danger themselves.

State officials said Thursday that they will not kill any of the beavers they trap at the Temecula-area lake, relocating them instead to approved facilities in California or Texas.

The announcement by the state Department of Fish and Game brought elation and relief to activists who have worked for weeks to save the furry rodents’ lives.

“That’s great, absolutely great,” said Gidget Thompson, a Murrieta woman who led the grass-roots charge to save the beavers after her 6-year-old son expressed anxiety when the state issued death warrants for the toothy tree-gnawers.

The beavers, which are not native to the area, need to be removed because they are destroying lake shore trees needed for nesting by two species of endangered songbirds, the least Bell’s vireo and the willow flycatcher, state wildlife officials say.

The state issued permits to allow up to 20 beavers to be trapped and killed. A consortium of federal, state and county wildlife agencies and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California operate the wildlife reserve alongside Lake Skinner.

So far, 14 beavers have been trapped. Two of them were killed in the traps--one by a larger animal and another by injuries sustained when it was caught, said Pat Moore, spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game.

In response to a public outcry over the trapping, the other 12 beavers already have been moved to approved facilities, and Moore said the remaining beavers will be spared once caught.

“We’ll have homes for all of them,” Moore said.

He said it was unclear where the last beavers will be housed permanently, but that in the interim, they will be taken to Moorpark College in Ventura County, the home of a zoology program.

If qualified facilities for the remaining beavers are not found in California, they probably will be shipped to a nonprofit animal sanctuary near San Antonio called Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, Moore said.

That facility was lined up by Thompson and fellow activists. “The animal rights workers have done an awful lot of the legwork and should receive a lot of credit,” Moore said.

Jud Monroe, who manages the Temecula preserve on behalf of the consortium, said Thursday that transporting the beavers to Texas “appears to be a go,” as long as the sanctuary has proper permits.

Texas officials already have said that they do not object to sending the Temecula beavers to the San Antonio refuge.