Letter: Solve Southborough’s Beaver Problem Non-Lethally
Linda Huebner
Your Sept. 19 story, Southborough Board Of Health OKs Beaver Trapping, missed one important point. Most conflicts between humans and beavers can be solved non-lethally; trapping is usually not necessary.
If they continue to pursue trapping, Southborough officials will soon learn the hard way that it’s impossible to permanently solve problems with beavers by killing them; more beavers will return, plug culverts and rebuild dams repeatedly if the habitat suits them. Fortunately, it is possible to out-smart beavers by using water flow devices, which maintain enough water to allow territorial beavers to remain but keep the level low enough to avoid conflicts. The devices protect culverts from being blocked by beavers and/or create permanent leaks in the dams that beavers cannot repair, and therefore control the water level, maintaining it at whatever depth has been set by the placement of the device. Unlike trapping, flow devices are long-term solutions — they have a 98-99 percent success rate and can last as long as a decade; they’re also cost-effective, humane and environmentally-friendly.
Trapping has never controlled the beaver population and it is, at best, a temporary, local solution. There are more than 800 properly installed and maintained water flow devices, designed for each location’s topography and water flow, working successfully all over Massachusetts to resolve beaver flooding conflicts. Southborough should join the communities across the Commonwealth that are using non-lethal solutions to address beaver-related conflicts whenever possible.
Linda HuebnerDeputy Director, Advocacy
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Boston, Mass.
Nicely done Linda! Pointed, clear and passionate! I love to see a letter in defense of beavers that I didn’t write! I connected with Linda through Mike Callahan of beaver solutions. They have worked together for many years and if you watch the testimonial section of his DVD she is the last commenter. It occurs to me that I’m not sure why beavers get such a resounding defense from the SPCA in Massachusetts and so little outcry everywhere else, but I’m guessing it has to do with the 1996 trapping law. I honestly wish I saw 50 letters like this a year from every state.
Still, I may have to take issue with this one sentence, “If they continue to pursue trapping, Southborough officials will soon learn the hard way”. Since the town did the very same thing last year and probably the year before that, I very much doubt that its reasonable to assume they will learn anything from this experience whatsoever.
