Residents of Calgary has joined the number of cities that would very much like to stop killing beavers please. City officials just aren’t so sure the can quit.

Calgary urged to adopt better co-existence program with beavers after animals killed

Over the summer, a pair of beavers were an attraction for people walking by a storm water pond just north of Country Hills Boulevard. However, in October, the City of Calgary hired a contractor to set traps that killed two beavers.

“When we found out they killed two beavers that we had been watching all summer, it was a lot for everybody to take in,” said Andrew Yule, president of the Nose Creek Preservation Society.

The city says the beavers had to be removed because they created a dam that was blocking an outlet that controls water levels in a storm water pond east of the community of Coventry Hills by Coving Road N. E. It resulted in high water levels in the pond, posing an increased risk of flooding in the area.

You know how it is. Beavers build dams and that just naturally leads to killing. It’s nothing personal you know.

“It was really neat to watch how beavers help wetlands but at the same time you don’t want that in your infrastructure … Understandably, something had to be done.”

He’s concerned that since the beavers were destroyed, it may make people reluctant to report them to the city or to citizen science apps, which help with conservation work.

“Having the concern that if you report a beaver, it’s going to get killed is counterintuitive to what we want people to do,” Yule said.

What do they know anyway! People want to save everything if you put a hastag by it.  These things have to be done by grownups.

The city says relocating beavers to other areas is not an option.

Alberta Environment and Protected Areas does not support moving beavers because there is a low rate of beaver survival and an increased risk of the transfer of diseases. Relocation can also upset the balance of ecological functions and can potentially create future human-beaver conflicts, a City of Calgary spokesperson explained.

Lets hope they get a few hundred residents like the one in the video a solid dozen of them know how to use the internet to look up tools for coexistence.

Because you know if they have to wait for city officials to figure it out there may not be any wetlands left.