Salt Lake City, thank your local beavers. Were it not for them, you might be drinking/watering/irrigating with diesel fuel this morning.
a Chevron pipeline’s 8,000-gallon diesel fuel spill from spreading into a reservoir in Willard Bay State Park, which supplies water to Salt Lake City. The two beavers in the dam were soaked in diesel fuel and are being treated at a local wildlife rehabilitation center.
鈥淭hey are doing fairly well. One is coping better than the other,鈥 DaLyn Erickson, executive director of the rehabilitation center, . 鈥淭here is some evidence they did at least sample some of the food left for them overnight. We are doing what we can and hoping for the best.鈥
The benign beavers are thought to be yearlings and possibly siblings. Wildlife rehabilitators are cleaning the fuel from the beavers鈥 fur with dish-washing liquid, a standard and effective means of removing oil products from fur, feathers, and other animal parts.
Locals can donate 鈥渇resh willow and cottonwood branches鈥 to feed the beavers during treatment.