- Evidence of beaver activity along Sylvie’s Brook in Diamond Hill Park in Cumberland has raised concerns of flooding in the area and a call for the killing of four beavers spotted in the area. Photo/Ernest A. Brown
Stay of execution for pesky beavers
CUMBERLAND – A family of beavers who faced being trapped and killed for causing tree damage and flooding at Diamond Hill Park has been granted a stay of execution.
After initially stating that he was considering having a local exterminator kill the beavers, Parks and Recreation Director Michael Crawley says that plan has been scrapped – at least for now.
Well, well, well. I was on the phone a couple times last week with Deb Smith of RI, who had gotten my number from Jake Jacobsen of Washington. Not sure how she got HIS number? She was shocked at the extent to which city officials had lied and used distortion in the media. She wondered why the big animal rights group weren’t calling back and getting more involved in the issue. I urged her to involve regular folk that used the park. Children and cyclists and science teachers. I stressed the importance of finding what they said the problem was, and talked about flow devices and wrapping trees.
Meanwhile, Dennis Tabella, president of the statewide animal-rights group Defenders of Animals says he plans to contact Crawley and the town in hopes of sitting down to discuss a more humane way of dealing with the beaver problem.
“It’s 2013 and we should be looking at more humane methods of dealing with these kinds of issues,” says Tabella. “The problem is that town managers and people in town government aren’t looking around at all the different options that are available.” Tabella says the Town of Scituate is a good example of a community that chose to deal with a nuisance wildlife problem in a “thoughtful and humane manner.”
In 2000, he said, the town agreed to work with Defenders of Animals to solve a beaver problem in Potterville Brook without killing them. The beavers had been blocking a culvert that passes beneath Nipmuc Road, causing water from the brook to flood residential property. At first, the town was considering having the beavers trapped and killed by a fur trader, but Defenders of Animals asked the town to stop the trapping and offered to pay for a network of plastic pipes that he says allowed water to pass through the culvert and deter the animals from damming the passage. The contraptions were installed near the culvert and, so far, have deterred beaver activity.
“We think that Scituate could be the model for other Rhode Island communities regarding humane systems for beaver control,” Tabella said.
Good work Dennis. I think so too.
