'Hero beavers' released into wild

'Hero beavers' released into wild


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UINTAH MOUNTAINS — Five of the six beavers rescued from an oil spill at Willard Bay last March have been released back in the wild. Volunteers and state wildlife officers drove them to a new home in the Uinta Mountains Tuesday morning.

Around 7 a.m. each of beavers were loaded into crates to get ready for the two and a half hour drive.

Dalyn Erickson-Marathaler is the executive director over the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah. She was part of the team that released the beavers Tuesday.

""It's kind of like your kids," Erickson-Marathaler. "They go out and you get a little bit nervous. Can they handle it? Can they handle the big world and do well?"

Erickson-Marathaler said releases like this one are bittersweet.

"Letting them go is amazing," she said. "It's a good thing."

The six so-called ‘hero beavers' were found after an oil spill in Willard Bay left them drenched in black liquid. They were credited for stopping some of the flow of the March oil pipeline spill at Willard Bay.

Wildlife rehabilitation workers built small houses for the beavers in the Uinta mountains. The temporary lodges were filled with fresh food and one by one each beaver was placed inside their new homes.

The beaver's new home is close to a hundred miles away from their original habitat in Willard, but the pond in the Uintas, according to the division of wildlife, used to be home to other beavers. It seemed to them like a good place to rebuild.

"We expected to lose at least two of them," Erickson-Marathaler. "To have all six survive and be able to release them back into the wild is pretty remarkable."

As the beavers came out to explore, Erickson-Marathaler and a team of volunteers watched them.

"They're all a little bit nervous for them," she said.

Erickson-Marathaler and her husband Buz Marthaler have both worked with wildlife for several years. They said the six Willard beavers were their most taxing project yet, taking up to 16 hours of care each day.

"I would not recommend this for any couple," Erickson-Marathaler said laughing.

Still, they said it's rewarding to finally reach this point. The last beaver will be released after recovering from a foot surgery. Even then, there's no guarantee that any of them will survive.

However, Marathaler said while it's hard to let the beavers make it on their own, he knows it's an important part of their rehabilitation.

"It's like letting your kids go out the door."

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Mike Anderson

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