By Erin Bosetti

On June 20, Windermere Realty Ballard gave back to the community in a big way by giving Golden Garden’s beaver problem some much needed attention.

Twenty years after the beautiful wetlands area at the north end of the park was constructed, a group of beavers moved in. In theory, having beavers inhabit our parks seems exactly what parks were meant to be, a harmonious habitat where both humans and rodents can dwell in peace. In reality, the beavers, confined to such a small habitat, have been decimating the area, cutting down trees and changing the wetlands, causing some Golden Garden lovers to become outraged. Calls for the beavers to be removed were made even though they were once almost driven to extinction in the area by fur trappers and hunters.

Golden Gardens wetland habitat is very small compared to normal beaver habitats. The large scale decimation is a product of the fact that beavers must continually gnaw through trees in order to keep their incisors trimmed. They also use the logs to build shelter and dam ponds.

Windermere Realty Ballard believes it can help maintain an equilibrium with Ballard’s beavers.

“Every year we pick a project for our Community Service Day project, and we picked this project because we love the beavers and Golden Gardens,” said project leader, Georgia Selfridge.

"A lot of us at Ballard Windermere are Ballard Beavers (Ballard High School) and we hope a solution can be found that will allow for the Beavers, who have been around Ballard longer than any of us, to co-habitate.”

Windermere’s valiant volunteers cleared fallen trees and debris. Then they put mulch over the top of the area in order to foster unencumbered new growth.

“We hope this clean up will ease a little tension and allow some breathing room while the community works on solving the problem."