Surrey mayor sticks up for beavers

By Ethan Baron, The Province
Published: Saturday, June 07, 2008

SURREY -- The mayor has come out swinging in defence of the beaver, after City of Surrey staff had one killed in a municipal park.

A male beaver was trapped and killed last week, to address safety and flooding risks.

"I do not support the killing of wildlife," Mayor Dianne Watts said, contacted in China. "We need to find alternatives so that we can relocate these beavers to a more suitable location."

Watts pledged to take up the matter with the B.C. Environment Ministry, "so that we can find alternatives that will allow us to address this issue in a more sustainable manner."

Surrey hires a trapping company that catches and kills an average of 14 beavers per year in the city, said Vincent Lalonde, an engineering department manager.

"We've seen an increase in beaver activity, certainly, over the last couple of years," he said.

The slain beaver's activities created a safety hazard by causing flooding that approached a path used by children walking to school, Lalonde said. The water also threatened to flood nearby residences, he said.

City workers had been dismantling the animal's dams for two years, and the trapping was a "last resort," as the animal had become so busy dams had to be destroyed daily, Lalonde said.

A radio station reported the beaver had its head crushed in a killing trap, but Lalonde said the trapping company the city uses has permits for live trapping, after which the beavers are euthanized.

"The trappers do it according to their permit," Lalonde said. Wildlife regulations prohibit relocation of problem beavers, he said.

The killing hasn't solved the flood-risk problem, a wildlife advocacy group said. "If one beaver is killed and removed, another beaver will actually move in," said Fannya Eden, a project co-ordinator for the Fur-Bearer Defenders office in Vancouver.

"That will just start the cycle of killing and cruelty."When they have family, what do you do? Trap the whole family? Do you take the parents and let the babies die?"

Eden said there are various structures made of fencing, posts and tubes that can eliminate flood risk while allowing beavers to remain in their habitat.

"It takes a bit of tweaking and care and maintenance to have the structures work," Eden said. "There are ways we can coexist with beavers. It's nice to have wildlife in our area and be able to observe them and take joy in watching them."

And beavers, she said, produce ecological benefits.

"Beavers are very important natural engineers," she said. "They preserve the wetlands."

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