Well Monday night the city council in Belleville Ontario revisited the beaver issue and got an earful from its residents demanding the city stop their failed trapping program. I heard from Doug that they were adamant there were no other alternatives and can see from this article that it was a frustrating repeat of prior efforts.

Belleville beavers lose fight with City Hall despite calls for change

It’s been written countless times, “You can’t fight City Hall.”

Local beavers who can’t read unwittingly lived and died the adage in 2022 the hard way.

According to a new city report submitted to city council Monday, 18 nuisance beavers were trapped by the City of Belleville this year before the animals could do any more shoreline damage or flood wetland areas near city homes.

There was no official confirmation at the council meeting that all of the creatures met their demise although city officials indirectly said there was unfortunately no way to properly relocate them long term to safety after trapping.

The report by Joe Reid, city general manager of transit and operations, follows several years of attempts by Members of Friends of Bell Creek to lobby the city to deploy alternative ways of saving beavers through new methods without killing them.

Well sure we tried but you know how it is with old habits. They’re hard to break. You might be calling for change. But we’ve blocked your number, have a nice day.

New measures such as flow pipes to de-flood beaver dams were brought in by the city to save the animals after international headlines condemned Belleville municipality in 2018 for not doing enough to prevent euthanizing of trapped beavers.

Pressed by city councillors Monday if all beavers trapped this year were euthanized, Reid did not confirm all were disposed of after conventional trapping and removal.

Instead, he informed council mitigating measures introduced by the city in response to Members of Friends of Bell Creek concerns in 2019 to release water from flooded wetlands was a failed exercise despite best intentions to save the animals.

“What is the policy on our removal of beavers? Are they to be euthanized and relocated and if relocated where do they go?” queried Coun. Lisa Ann Chatten.

Yes I have a few questions about that too,

Reid replied, “through best practices that were provided as a guideline through the Ministry of Natural Resources, unfortunately beavers can only be relocated up to one kilometre in distance. So, they are very territorial. What happens is that if they are moved to another beaver’s area, they are unfortunately going to fight to the death.”

In remote areas where there is no flood concerns of built-up area, Reid said the city can sometimes leave the beavers in peace “and let Mother Nature take its course. But there are other places that unfortunately we can’t.”

For example, at South George Street along the Bayshore Trail, Reid said beavers were “cutting down trees and so forth. We did try to put some fence up to try and mitigate that. It was becoming quite hazardous, trees were falling. We were worried about somebody walking and using the trail and a tree coming down on them.”

So you wrapped the trees with wire to protect them and the trees were still falling down on peoples heads even though they were protected? Did new trees grow in the interim or did beavers use pliers to cut through the wire? Or are you maybe lying and wrapped on or two and then had to do something else and forget about it?

It sounds very hazardous.

“Unfortunately, it got to the point it was unmanageable,” Reid said, and the beavers had to be removed from the area.

Reid said beavers were also removed this year from Stanley Park Marsh, 502 College Street West, Mudcat Lane and Harmony Road.

Naturalists in the city say the city is not living up to its wildlife policy that prescribes the municipality take a hands-off approach to animals such as beavers unless last-resort measures such as trapping are needed.

Heavy criticism of the city has been ongoing since September 2018 when residents Doug and Carolyn Knutson and Chris and Susan Finkle appeared in a delegation to city council to present a video of their July 2018 rescue of a beaver in a leg-hold trap set by the city.

Oh those crazy naturalists with their nature demands. You know how they are. Always asking cities to do the right thing even though it takes 5 minutes more than doing the wrong thing over and over. They are so demanding.

At the time, the residents said beavers in Stanley Park Marsh were being trapped inhumanely and drowned triggering a www.change.org petition that garnered more than 70,000 signatures internationally.

In 2019, the city approved its revised wildlife policy to end indiscriminate trapping to save beavers.

Documentary filmmaker Doug Knutson and friends penned a letter to city council ahead of Monday’s meeting expressing concerns more beavers are being killed.

“The report claims that, ‘Over the last year, 18 beavers were humanely trapped and moved.’ We very concerned about what ‘moved’ actually means. Where were these beavers moved to – and what happened to them once there? Moving beavers at certain times of the year or at certain ages can be very detrimental to beavers. Besides, Ontario law prohibits moving beavers more than 1 km away – so a pointless effort. We believe that the fate of these “moved” beavers is far more grim,” the friends wrote.

Okay. You got us. We didn’t actually mean removed. We meant killed. You finally got the truth out of us. Feel better now?

“We highly suspect that “moved” simply means taken to some location and killed. What does “humanely euthanized” mean? These are difficult things to consider but they are being done continuously on our behalf. Adding 18 beavers trapped (killed) this year to the 10 beavers trapped (killed) in the previous two years, gives a total of 28 beavers trapped (most likely killed) since the policy was adopted! It’s hard to conceive how this could be construed as a success story – rather it is a mark of shame on Belleville’s reputation,” wrote the friends.

“We call on you to look again at the Humane Wildlife Conflict Policy/ Trapping of Nuisance Animals policy. We feel that it needs a complete overhaul with input from experts being considered. The issue is NOT (sic) going away and killing our way out of it is NOT (sic) acceptable. Belleville can do better. Belleville NEEDS (sic) to do better!” Knutson and friends said.

Oh Doug and everyone. You are doing SUCH a great job of keeping the pressure on. I know it is beyond frustrating and you feel demoralized and enraged every time you limp off the field. We’ve been there. I have left city meetings where it felt that my entire mouth and throat was filled with ashes. It is hard soul draining work. But just you remember this.