You're listening to KFI AM six forty wake Up Call with me Amy King on demand on the iHeartRadio app k f I and kost HT two Los Angeles and Orange County and you Amy Kay, good morning. It's by the clock straight up. This is your wake up call for Thursday, July eleventh. Ooh, it's seven eleven day. You know what that means. Free sir, slurpees at seven eleven. I haven't had a slurpe for years. I might have to stop buying. Get one. I'm Amy King. Thanks so much
for getting your day started with us today. We've got so much going on as always, and don't worry, We've got you covered. We're gonna get you all the latest news. We're gonna get you the traffic to help you get there, and we're going to have some really interesting talks with some really smart people. We'll be telling you about that as we move through the hour.
Here's what's ahead on your Thursday wake up call. President Biden is said to hold his first press conference since the debate with former President Trump, which has led to calls for Biden to quit the presidential race. Biden's going to close out the NATO summit in Washington, d C. This afternoon. He's expected to try to prove that he is capable of serving another four years. We're going to be talking more about the growing pressure for Biden to step aside
with ABC's Steven Portnoy. In less than five minutes, more than twenty five people have applied to be LA's top cop. The police commissions his candidates from across the country have applied for the job. Mayor Karen Bass is going to hire the new chief, possibly by this fall. Interim police Chief Dominic Choi not allowed to apply for the permanent position. Border patrol agents have seized a
million dollars worth of met at the Coleexic Port of Entry. Agents say more than five hundred pounds of meth was found hidden in a shipment of furniture. A twenty nine year old man's been arrested. The guy who has a visa was applying for admission into the US. Also, a little bit later this hour, on wake Up Call, we're going to find out how Beaver's Just may save California from wildfires. I know it sounds weird, but it's gonna
be a really interesting conversation. I love how nature can help us after we screw up nature. We're gonna find out more about that again before the top of the hour. I six, so five, it's handle on the news. Some takeaways from the first day of Alec Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter trial in New Mexico. Bill's going to share his thoughts on that. Let's get started with some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The
new La Metro board chair says safety is her top priority. Ellie Mayor Karen Bass has passed the gabble to La County Supervisor Janis Hahn, who for the next twelve months will preside over meetings of the transit agency's board. Han says one of the first things she'll start doing is riding the buses and trains, and on our board meetings, I'm going to talk about what I experience as a Metro rider. That will mean calling out problems I see as well as
praising the things that go right. Han also says protecting riders and employees is Metro's top priority, and she'll also focus on helping homeless people leave the transit system in downtown La. Michael Monks KFI News authorities in Orange County say an elderly couple allegedly murdered by their own son in San Juan Capistrano died in a
very gruesome way. Investigators with the OC Sheriff's Department say Joseph Gerdville was arrested in connection with the alleged decapitation of his seventy year old parents and their dog. Deputies were responding to a domestic disturbance call about the murders Tuesday morning when another caller reported a very bloody man had chased a maintenance worker and stolen the
golf cart. The OC Sheriff says the guy was found along a bike trail a bit later and ended up shot multiple times by a debut but the guy is expected to survive. In Orange County, Corbin Carson KFI news, a man who owned a nonprofit animal rescue in Compton has pleaded guilty to four counts of animal cruelty. Prosecutors say nearly one hundred and fifty live animals were found at two locations linked to the man, and many were severely underweight and suffering
from various illnesses. They say the man knew the animals were distressed and didn't do anything about it. Thanks Scott's Surfing. Now everybody's learning. How comes the far with me? La County Health officials say surfers can't hang ten at sixteen local beaches because of high bacteria levels. People have been urged to avoid swimming and playing at the beaches all the way from Malibu to Marina del Rey. A full list of the contaminated beaches is available on the county website.
Also, there should be warnings posted at the beaches, so be sure to look for those as you had to the beach to get out of the heat. Costco members are going to have to pay more starting this fall. The company says it's increasing annual membership fees by five or ten dollars a year, depending on the plan. It's the first fee increase in seven years. It'll take effect in September. The price of Costco stock rows two percent after the
announcement. Over the last year and a half, Costco shares have nearly doubled in value. I think that's important because of Bill Handle, who goes there like every day. Get six oh seven on your wake up call for this Thursday morning. Let's say good morning now to ABC's Stephen Portnoy. Stephen, when we talked earlier this week, it seemed like maybe the calls for Biden to step down had quieted a bit, But that was two days ago.
So what's going on now, Well, what's going on now is the drum beat has continued, and in part it's because Nancy Pelosi yesterday declined to say directly that the president should stay in the running, and that has led to a whole another round of speculation that maybe more Democrats will come out and say that he should step down. And we have an ABC News Washington Post IPSOS survey this morning that shows that two thirds of Americans that the president should drop
out. Now weighing in Biden's favor. In addition to the fact that he won all the primaries and has the delegates, there is the fact that this survey, two weeks after the debate, shows the race is still effectively tied. That the debate did not have the kind of impact that naysayers. This is the argument to Biden people would make the debate didn't have the impact on
naysayers that people think it would have. That half the country still supports Trump and half the country still supports Biden and that when more people hear the argument against Trump, they're going to come on board for Biden. And by the way, don't believe the polls, because the Poles have always been wrong, is their argument? Well, that was Trump's argument for the last uh huh, the last one. So it's turn about his fair play on this one.
Huh. Fair enough? Okay. So louder than Pelosi's voice, though, was when George Clooney came out yesterday and said he doesn't think Biden should run either. I think you're right, and I think it's highly significant that George Clooney had an op ed in the New York Times that his Southern California fundraiser within the last month, which is the largest fundraiser in Democratic history. Yeah, it was like thirty million dollars or something, right, had Joe
Biden on the stage. And George Clooney says that he simply did not see in Biden the man that he knew as Joe Biden, and that the Democrats risk losing the House and the Senate with Biden at the top of the ticket, and so it's the right move Clooney believes for Biden to step aside and have someone else take over and help save democracy. These are Clooney's words. Look, I think what will happen today is incredibly significant for the president.
He's standing at the conclusion of the three day NATO summit here in Washington to take reporters questions. This is a rare I have to underscore it because I think people take it for granted how often the president stands for questions. He does not very often, this president in particular, this president in particular, okay, and it's a shame. And those of us who cover the white and have been here a long time have been disappointed, frankly by the fact
that this president has refused our entreaties to engage. Because we ask for answers for two reasons. One so the public has a sense of where the president
is on various issues. That's obviously the main reason. And the other reason is for history, because as we write the story of a presidency, it's often told in responses to reporters questions, and when we're all deprived of that, history is deprived of an opportunity to really get a sense of what is motivating this man and his decision making and the record of Donald Trump's presidency is
pretty full as a result of his exchanges with reporters. The same would be true for Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, going all the way back to Joe Biden's youth, when Dwight Eisenhower used to have news conferences every two weeks. And so today is a good example of the president's standing for questions. Let's see how many he takes. Let's see how well he performs. The President has said, and this is news.
He's going to be sending for an interview with NBC on Monday night. So there's that. And let's see how many calls continue to come for the presidents for the president to step aside. Yep. And I think people are watching him still like they have not watched him for years. So it'll be interesting to see. Steven Portnoy, thank you so much for your time and information this morning. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of
the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Governor Newsom says he will actively campaign against Proposition thirty six, the measure that voters are deciding on in November, would reverse elements of the voter approved proposition forty seven. That one reclassified felonies as misdemeanors. Newsom said Prop thirty six is being promoted as a tough on retail crime measure, but more of a drug policy build than anything else. We'll
cost the taxpayers billions and billions of dollars over the next decade. That well, have we found impact on programs across the state. I reject the premise that it foundationally a retail bill. It's it's a lot more, and I will not be supporting. Last week, Newsom pulled a compete measure from the ballot that would have shored up the law from Proposition forty seven. A proposed
merger could put sixty three grocery stores in California under new ownership. The stores would be sold off of the proposed merger between Kroger and Albertson's goes through. Under the deal, the stores would be sold to CNS wholesale grocers. Stores that would be offloaded include Vaughn stores in La, Manhattan Beach, and Coasta Mesa. Albertson's locations would also be affected in Dana Point, Northridge and LA.
The proposed merger, announced in twenty twenty one, is currently being challenged by the Federal Trade Commission over concerns that the merger would lead to higher prices. Kroger has disputed the claim, saying that customers will see lower prices if the deal goes through. Blake Trolly k if I News San Diego Grocer's union president Todd Walters's Kroger appears to be stacking the deck when it says customers would
benefit from lower prices if there's a merger. There's nothing from Kroger in the state of California that's being divested, which I'm very surprised at Walters's overall. He's not panicking about the potential merger. The company was communicating to our members that the ones in these affected stores, there's eleven in San Diego County. The unions are going to do effects bargaining over this. If the merger gets approved, it still has to go through the court system to get approved by
the FTC. A man in Long Beach has been arrested for the deadly shooting of a neighbor. The shooting yesterday happened on East First Street near Alamedas Avenue. The murdered man had been shot several times the reason for the shooting not yet known. A federal judge is ruled schools in Moreno Valley must change their policing policies and hire an outside party to implement new policies. The decision follows a complaint filed in twenty twenty that claimed campus resource officers at a middle school
discriminated against a black disabled student when they handcuffed him four times. The family's attorney said Monday, the district's practices have allowed for the disproportionate suffering of black disabled students. Two and who went up to space and board the Boeing Starliners say they're comfortable staying up there a while longer as issues on the Starliner have delayed their trip home. I'm not complaining, Butch isn't complaining that we're here
for a couple of weeks. Sudi Williams says she and co pilot Butch Wilmore have spent some of their time photographing Hurricane Beryl in Houston, where they both live. Powers lost trees are down, but we're a big team. Everybody pulls together in Texas. She says they're not worried about the star Liner's ability to get them back to Earth. Testing is underway to ensure glitches with a
thruster are fixed before they head back, likely later this summer. And as you know, we've been talking with astronaut Colonel Nick Hagu who's going up to the space station, supposed to be later this summer, and we're not sure if those two astronauts who can't get home will delay the next mission. Right now, they're saying it's still going to go off, but hopefully we're going to be talking to Colonel Hag again in the next week or two before he
goes up. But I'm interested to hear how that all affects, because I'm thinking if they're there and then the next mission goes up, it's going to get a little crowded on the space station. When we come back. We'll be talking with ABC's crime and Terror analyst Brad Garrett about the use of weapons on movie sets, which is nothing new, and whether Alec Baldwin is really at fault for the shooting on the set of the movie Rust. Of course,
his trial is now underway in New Mexico. You're listening to Wake Up Call on demand from KFI AM six forty. Let's say good morning, now to ABC's Crime and Terror analyst Brad Garrett. So, Brad, big shootouts in movies are nothing new. They're kind of a staple in action movies. What went so wrong on the set of Rest? So it appears amy two
things went wrong. One is safety protocols, both for the armorer that's the person that's in charge of the weapons on a movie set, and the act in this case, Alec Baldwin. So, I mean, according to the prosecutor, he acted in a reckless way in reference to point in a weapon at somebody, maybe having his finger on the trigger when he shouldn't have, and some other things she cited inter opening the statement yesterday. So we'll see.
But clearly this is the case of I think mistakes, clearly huge mistakes made by the armor who's already been convicted and got the maximum sentence you and get into Mexico eighteen months. So we'll see if it holds true for mister Baldwin despite the fact that he may have violated some safety protocols in handling the weapon. But is that enough to actually convict him of involuntary manslaughter? Well, that remains to be seen, and that he maintains that he didn't pull
the trigger. But the prosecution and is saying, and analysts have said it would be impossible for that gun to have gone off if someone didn't pull the trigger. Well, that's certainly what the FBI analysts, the firearms analysts are saying that that test fired the weapon. So, you know, is that you know, disagreement, Obviously it is. But I guess the question, aby is is that enough one way or the other? Because clearly in movies
people are pulling the trigger of the weapon. Now they're shooting blanks in most of these movies because you've really got to use a blife to get the most realistic you know, smoke, fire, ejection, all that stuff to make it look like you're literally shooting like rounds. You clearly aren't, you know,
so does We'll have to see the whole thing on the trigger. I know they're making the big deal out of I don't know how much weight that would really carry with the jury since he believes Alec Baldon believes that despite the fact he is the figure and maybe pulled the trigger, that nothing was supposed to come out the end of the gun. Well, and then yeah, I mean, that's the biggest question for me is why was there live ammunition on that set? Because you've got an incompetent armor. I mean, I
can't say anything else but that, I mean the idea. I mean, could they conceivably amy have live ammo on a set to go to a not on the set, but go to a separate range to help train actors in what it feels like to shoot actual live rounds. The answer quite well, yes, However, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to be able to separate the two. And how she intermixed or somebody intermixed live rounds with
blanks or dummy rounds. You know, it's just beyond me, and clearly it doesn't happen from the standpoint I think about all of these shootings that you mentioned. I mean's thousands of shootings that happen in movies every year that people don't get hurt. So I know you people are following protocols. Despite the fact there's no mandatory universal protocols, by a large these movie makers are following
safety protocols. Well, that's what I was going to say. Like, I'm watching The Mayor of Kingstown right now, and there's a lot of shooting in that show every single week, and I mean this is just so unheard of. So overall, I would say that movie sets are pretty safe. So what kinds of precautions do they take. They have the armor on set, they only have the you know, they only have blanks on set. But what other things do they do to make sure that everybody stays safe?
Well, first of all, they train the actor. They have professional fire arms experts, which is actually is not uncommon. I mean it's my understanding. Like in the movie Heat that Michael Mann hired former sas officers, they actually trained Pacino de Naro and everybody else who had a gun. How do you shoot it, how you hold it so you look professional, you know,
you know what you're doing. And then all the safety protocols you don't put point the weapon in anybody despite the fact that you're shooting blanks, and all of the safety protocols that you would have in place that you respect a weapon. This like a law enforcement as supposed to respect their weapons that clearly do have live rouds of them. Yeah, So do we know if Alec Baldwin was actually trained like other actors have been in on other sides, I
don't know. And you two questions will come out. A did that occur? And B did he follow what they trained him? Now, according to the prosecutor, he clearly didn't follow some of the safety protocols if in fact what she's saying is accurate. So some of that's going to come out and testimony. I guarantee you, if she's going to put she be in the prosecutor, he's going to put somebody on saying I did train him, I didn't train him. I'm going to ask to train him whatever the correct answer
is. I do think that that's going to come out in this trial. And the armorer is gonna who's already been convicted, she's going to testify. Isn't that correct? Yeah? But my understanding is she may plead the fifth because she's probably concerned about additional liability in some former fashion and maybe civil liability. Who knows, But yes, she is. Apparently they moved her to from whatever prison she's in to someplace close that if she is called, they
could bring her to the courthouse. We'll be we'll be watching. It's an interesting case, and thankfully it doesn't you know, it's not a common case, so ABC for sure. Yeah, Brad Garrett, always a pleasure to talk to you. Thanks so much for your information and insight this morning. Take care Amy. All right, let's get back to some of the stories
coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. A study from Northeastern University has found President Biden's debate performance has had almost no impact on voters preferences, despite reports claiming otherwise and calls from lawmakers for Biden to drop out of the race. The study shows ninety four percent of Biden's supporters say they'll continue to support him, which is one percent switching to Trump and three percent of Trump
supporters switched to Biden. Northeastern's David Laser says he hopes the report shows the dangers of making a mountain out of a mole hill when it comes to the media interpreting data. Biden says the pressure on him and to end his reelection campaign is coming from Democratic Party elites. He says they're the same kind of people who have doubted him throughout his time in public life. But Biden says
the voters will still have his back in the end. One of three men charged with killing a tourist at Fashion Island in Newport Beach was on probation for a similar armed robbery before Leroy McCrary and two others allegedly dragged a woman to death under getaway car. Santa Monica Police Union president Cody Green says McCrary got probation for holding a gun to someone else's head for their watch in twenty twenty two. It's on video. We have DNA evidence, but La County DA
Gascon said the case lacked evidence. If the DA's office has a policy to let people who commit armed robberies go, then own up to it. But the idea that the Santa Monica detectives didn't have enough to move forward is absolute fantasy. The charges for last week's robbery murder could carry the death penalty in Orange County. Corbin Carson kf I news, the IRS is it's collected a
billion dollars in back taxes from wealthy tax cheats. The agency got more money for staffing last fall from the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act to collect from wealthy people who hadn't paid what they owed. The IRS identified at about sixteen hundred taxpayers with more than a million dollars in income and more than two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars in tax debt. And speaking of big money, a Mega Million's lottery ticket sold in southern California isn't worth the jackpot, but it is where two hundred eighty thousand dollars. The ticket sold at a gas station in Redlands hit five of the six winning numbers from Tuesday nights, drawing No. One hit the one hundred and eighty one million dollar jackpot. Dang, and
I had a ticket for that one too. When we come back, when it comes to safety, ABC's Jim Ryan is going to tell us about the best and the worst places to be driving around the US. You're listening to Wake Up Call on demand from KFI AM six forty right now. I can't wait to talk to ABC's Jim Ryan. Good morning, Jim. Why Hi. So it's always a risk when you head out on the highway, but
it's more of a risk in some areas of the US than others. Yeah, And folks on the West Coast, for example, tend to handle their phones while they're driving a lot more than people in the rest of the country. Really bad idea, yes, But people in the Midwest, though, are less inclined to slam on the brakes, and people in the Pacific Northwest drive at safer speeds than to the rest of the country. This all comes from the latest report on the Safest and Riskiest places to drive, based on
data to from all State. All State, the insurance company, and this year is a little different amy and a little more precise, potentially because the numbers are not based on insurance claims that all State has processed related to accidents. And you know it's based on data coming out of your phone and out of your car. Wait a second, yeah, I know, I know. There's a company. All State in twenty sixteen purchased a company which compiles
data based on what your smartphone is doing. Right, it's getting them jostled around, or if you're looking at it, if you're speeding in your car, if you're breaking fast, that that all can be picked up by your devices. Okay, I got to interrupt you for just a second, because we're talking about cars spying on us exactly. I had to rent a car a couple of weeks ago because my car was in the shop because I got rear ended at Disneyland. But that's a whole other story. Okay, So
I rent this car and on the dashboard it says how much. Basically, it gives you a meter of how much attention you're paying, So it says attention level is high or attention level not high. But most of the time it was at high. But there was one time when and I didn't notice it at first, but I looked down at my phone just for a second, and then I glanced back up and it like the meter had gone all the way down to low. I was like, it's watching me and where
my eyes are looking. Yes, your car knows what you're doing. I don't like that. Well, yeah, I mean, and in a rental car you probably have no choice. But in your own car, if you don't want your car keeping tabs on you, if it's a newer car and it's connected saying with your phone, you can turn those things off. You have to opt out. It's not a matter of opting into those features.
You have to opt out. Otherwise. Companies like this one called Arity, which is the subsidiary of All State, can monitor your data and can sell it to other companies. And that's what they do with this, with all
this data, and so I mean there is an upside to this. If you have the All State app, for example, and it includes all those features that we're talking about here, and you can prove that you're a safe driver by not exceeding the speed limit, by keeping your eyes off off the screen, by not slamming on the rags, then you'll get a lower insurance rate. That's the carrot in this carrot and stick equation. Yeah. I
think Progressive Insurance has something like that. They've advertised that. Yeah. Okay, So anyway back to the study about where it's safest to drive, where's the safest place first, or at least risky, that's the best way to put it. Honolulu, Hawaii is the best place or the risk of the most risk free. I suppose has the safest drivers in the whole country. The other safe cities include Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Portland, Oregon.
That is Portland. Yeah, that's because the traffic is gridlocked. Like you said, it's gridlocked here, but there it's gridlocked because they only have two lanes on the freeway. Oh right, so you can't get up to get
up to speed. But at the same time, if you're a gridlock, you're probably playing with your phone or looking down and you know, looking at emails and text messages, which you shouldn't do right right at the other end of the of the scale, Albuquerque in Mexico is considered the least, say for the riskiest place to drive. And why did they they have the kind of the list of factors. Yes, yeah, they show you exactly what this is about. Honolulu has the overall best rating, and they have the
people are least inclined to slam on the brakes. They're also driving at high speeds the least in Honolulu, so they scored you know those two, those two categories quite well. That makes sense because you're you're in Hawaii, you're on island tournaments, like, yeah, I'm on just like chill out, chill. I know that sounded like a Jamaican accent, but it meant it was meant to be, like everybody's just more chill on Hawaii. I wasn't
gonna say anything about it. The people handling their phones to the least though in San Jose. But if you look at the riskiest drivers by category, the overall riskiest drivers are in Albuquerque. The people who slam on the breaks the most are in Bakersfield. California. Okay, people driving at high speed the most are in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, and the ones handling their phones the most are in Providence, Rhode Island. Does La top the list
anywhere? It doesn't, which is good, right, look at how good we are any of the list. But it does show up on some the list. People are slamming on their brakes there in Los Angeles. You show up at number ninety four, in the place where people are slamming on their breaks the most. All right, okay, So Honolulu, if you want to be face the least risk and stay away from Albuquerque in Mexico. Yeah, okay, we'll do. Jim Ryan, thank you so much. All
right, all right, Tucson, right carefully. You're listening to Wake Up Call on demand from KFI AM six forty. Okay, remember that song you used to sing at camp Bear with me the other day? The other day, I met a bear. I met a bear out in the woods, out in the woods, A great big bear, A great big bear. Yeah, well it came true for an ultrarunner at Yosemite. Pretty scary stuff.
But the guy's okay, Bill's going to tell you about that right now, let's say good morning to the Assistant Professor of Geography in the Department of Geography, Environment and Society at the University of Minnesota, Emily Fairfax. Hi, Emily, Hi, good morning. So we wanted to talk to you because beavers just may save us all. Yeah, I would say that. Okay. So the answer to and when it comes to wildfires is what I'm
talking about. So the answer to the risk of wildfires in California may not be more water storage or more firefighters, better defensible spaces around homes, but it might be beaver's. Can you tell us why? Yeah, So it is more water storage and more defensible spaces, but it doesn't necessarily have to
be us building them. It can be the beavers. So beavers are ecosystem engineers, and when they go around and represent streams, their number one goal is to build a great, big, wetland and to make sure it stays wet and full of water, even during droughts, even during floods, and even during wildfires. And so they're constantly out there maintaining these super soggy patches
and lines across the landscape. And what I've seen over and over in my research is that when you have a big wildfire comes through, these beaver wetlands are too wet to burn. Okay, And so now the problem now in California at one of the problems in California is that they were hunted to almost extinction in California. But they're trying to reintroduce them now, right, Yeah, there used to be a lot of beavers in California. The Central Valley
was full of them, The Sacramento area was full of them. They were from the mountains to the coasts, the north end of the South end, and during the seventeen hundreds and early eighteen hundreds, we trapped them basically to local extinction. There were very very few left in the state of California, and it stayed that way for a long time. For about one hundred plus years, just weren't very many beavers. And slowly they're coming back, but
it doesn't feel fast enough. So the state CDFW is helping to conserve beavers, bring back beavers, and even reintroduce beavers to places that they used to live a while ago but haven't been back to quite a long time. So how do you do that? Do you pull a beaver from somewhere else and then just put them in a new house. Or do you take beavers that are like in zoos? I mean, how is that process done? Definitely easier said than done, for sure. The beavers are pretty fussy when it
comes to relocating them. You have to get the whole family and move them all at once, and a family could be up to eight, nine, even ten beavers that live together. You do take them from the wild, not from zoos. Usually they're sourced from a place where they're in conflict with landowners. Maybe they're chewing on trees or flooding the field that we don't want
flooded. And so those beavers get trapped and alive, trapping and round it up and checked for their health, and then as a family unit, you bring them to a new place where more wanted and where they have a better chance at survival. Where are there a lot of beavers. The highest beaver populations in California right now are mostly up by Tahoe and Truckee and then through
Sacramento down towards the Bay. Sacramento River has a pretty decent population on it, Okay, And you mentioned that they were hunted to near extinction they were trapped, and for like one hundred years we haven't had a lot of wild beavers in the in California. Why is it because? Was it because of their fur? Or is it because like farmers and ranchers didn't like that they liked to build dams. It was for a few reasons. Fur was definitely
the earlier trappings. When the seventeen hundreds or so, they were trapped mostly for fur that could be traded back to Europe. After that, they were also trapped for castrium, which is an oil that comes out of glands inside the beaver that is used in perfumes. Then they've also been trapped pretty heavily since then for nuisance reasons. So when we do have conflict with beaver and to it was a decision to try to control westward expansion through beaver trapping to
stop there from being for more people to come out. So they were a political tool, they were a resource, they were a lot of different things, and we just really took it a bit too far, as we tend to do. Okay, So now the effort is to get them back. What kind of successes have we had. We've had a lot of successes. One of the biggest successes that I think is out there that maybe doesn't get the attention it deserves is just the public attitude towards beavers in California is shifting.
There's more people that understand what they do, what they don't do. Some of the myths about beavers are slowly being dispelled, like beavers don't deep fish, Beavers are not massive disease vectors. They do a lot of really good things. Other big successes were the state reintroduced beavers up in the Mountain Meido Consortium lands back last fall, and then they just reintroduced beavers to the
Tuley River Tribe the spring. And so these are really big movements to not just bring beavers back, but to bring them back to the indigenous people that have lived alongside them successfully for thousands of years and who do know how to manage the species correctly. Okay, and the places that you mentioned where are those? One of them is up in northern California, it's within the Dixie fires car and the other one is in south central California by the giant sequoias.
Oh, we got to keep the lands near the giants. Sequoia is nice and wet i think that's important. Yeah, we don't want those to burn. Okay, And Emily, you say that even after a wildfire, which we've had, our share are more than our share, the ecosystem could benefit from beaver's How is that. Yeah, So when the beavers prevent these wetlands from burning during wildfire, after wildfire, the areas around them that did burn, they do need to recover, and that requires there to be mature
plants and mature animals to help repopulate the rest of the landscape. So these beaver wetlands, they're like a great big storage bank of adult trees that can flower and that can feed, and grasses and reeds and native plants and fish and frogs and turtles and all the things that normally can't really outrun a wildfire. They're there and they're alive, and they're able to reproduce after fire as long as they were able to sort of hunker down for that brief moment in
the beaver wetland. And we've seen this multiple times, lots of expansion of greenness and recovery that really does center at these beaver ponds. So the beavers are saving everybody. I love it. They're doing their best. I mean, they just want to protect themselves and it's sort of a secondary thing for them, but they do a good job at it. Like there's definitely a
keystone species and support a whole host of other organisms besides themselves. I think it's so interesting because you don't think of like, you know that beavers make dams and that kind of stuff, but like to hear that they are, you know that they're so key to the whole ecosystem, the whole circle of life thing. You know, each species plays a key part, and if we would just get out of the way, maybe nature would act a little better. Yeah, I mean, I get it. They are like sixty
five seventy pound rodents. People have issues with normal sized raps. I can imagine a beaver being difficult for some folks to want to like. But the more you learn about them, the more they grow on you. Okay, Emily Fairfax, thank you so much for the information. I love that the beavers are saving the day, and I hope that we get more of them in California. All right, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Isn't that cool? And you know, I went to Oregon State,
so I'm a big beaver believer anyway. But I love this and I love watching how each Like I said, each species plays a key role in the whole circle of life. You've been listening to Wake Up Call with me, Amy King. You can always hear Wake Up Call five to six am Monday through Friday on KFI AM six forty and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.