Beavers are under siege in Surrey

40 of Canada's national animal killed since October
Ethan Baron, The Province
Published: Sunday, June 15, 2008
Surrey has killed 40 beavers since mid-October in an unprecedented slaughter.

"It's inhumane, it's cruel, and it's unethical," said former Vancouver parks commissioner and animal advocate Roslyn Cassells. "The city has failed in their wildlife management and their environmental management."

Surrey officials are taking the easy way out, when effective methods exist to mitigate beaver-related flooding, Cassells charged.

"Beavers are engineers, surely the human engineers with their larger brains are able to outsmart the determined little rodents," she said.

Twenty-four beavers were killed in the lowlands near the south end of the Pattullo Bridge, said city drainage and environment manager Carrie Baron.

"They come in off the Fraser every year," Baron said.

Another 14 beavers were put to death in agricultural lands, she said, adding that the city doesn't track the number of beavers farmers themselves kill.

Two other beavers were terminated in Cougar Creek Park, where flooding was putting homes at risk, she said. This season's 40 beaver kills is "the highest we've ever done," Baron said.

"It's a high number but there's so many [beavers] throughout Surrey right now, because we haven't been doing anything, we have been leaving them."

In the season ending in spring 2007, the city, which hires a trapping company to kill the animals, eliminated six beavers. In 2006, 15 were killed, and 26 were executed in 2005. From 2002 to 2004, Surrey killed an average of 15 beavers a year.

Destroying beaver dams to prevent flooding can be costly, and large-scale removals require permission from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Baron said.

"Trapping is very cheap, actually, but that's not why you do it," she said. "It's a last resort."

Beavers are eliminated from farmland, home areas and the commercial, industrial and residential zone around the Pattullo when their activities threaten to flood homes and buildings, Baron said.

"We're trying to live with nature as best we can," she said. "People don't want their houses flooded, either.

"We have lots of good habitat for beavers in Surrey. In most places we don't even touch them."

City staff have not had much success with alternative control methods such as putting pipes through dams, she said.

"They jam those up real quick," Baron said. "It's part of what they do."

Cassells said such drainage methods can work, but require city officials to approve the necessary staffing for regular maintenance of the flood-control devices.

Members of the public have sent information on other techniques, which Baron said she plans to try out this summer.

Some residents have offered to take trapped beavers in ponds on their property, and Surrey officials plan to ask the B.C. Environment Ministry for permission to do relocations, she said.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts has declared her opposition to killing beavers.

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