I guess before things get better anywhere they start by getting very slightly less bad. Nova Scotia isn’t famous for their progressive views on beaver, or their deep understanding of flow devices, but at least one property owner didn’t want them trapped – and that’s something.
Beaver killing over home flooding prompts complaint
Neighbours in a small Annapolis Valley community are at odds over the provincial government killing a beaver.
The beaver had built a dam that, for six weeks, caused one homeowner’s well water to be undrinkable, and blocked the drain pipe, making it impossible to use water without flooding the basement.
“It’s nice to see the wildlife, but they’ve really hindered my lifestyle by interfering with my water supply, my septic drainage and my sink drainage,” Brenda Potter said Thursday.
Her neighbour Karen Enright says she owns the land surrounding a brook, in which a beaver had built a dam. Enright says she explicitly forbid the Department of Natural Resources to set foot on her land.
A man with permits from the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources set traps earlier this week to kill the beaver — and it worked.
“We were so angry, on many different levels, mostly that we had given explicit instructions that they did not have our consent to cross our property,” Enright told CBC’s Maritime Noon.
“They did not have our consent to set kill traps — and they did it anyway.”
Tuesday morning, her husband found the beaver dead in a trap in their marsh, she said. Enright said she’s been disappointed by the government’s responses to her complaints — despite being clear with her wishes.
“We understand there was an issue with the beaver building a dam. It was causing some property damage to the road and whatnot, but we asked for other solutions,” Enright said.
According to a staffer at the local DNR office, the couple could pay to relocate the animal live, she said, but he indicated it could be difficult due to a surplus of beavers. Enright said he could not provide a report showing the over population.
“Live trapping is a difficult, time-consuming and costly process,” a department website on beaver control says. “Due to high beaver populations an
d limited free habitat into which trapped animals may be released, it is seldom justified in Nova Scotia.”
The site also suggests culvert guards, protectors and cleaners, and pipes and electric fences to control water levels against beaver dam damage.
Well, I’m going to describe this as an “at least” article.
At least there was single woman in 
a particularly grim region of a 100,000 that didn’t want beavers killed. And ‘at least‘ the Ministry of “earth things we can exploit” mentioned flow devices when she asked for solutions. I’m sure the information they sent her wasn’t cutting edge by any means, and I’m sure it made them sound highly unlikely to succeed, but at least, (and I’m using ‘least’ in the literal sense here), that’s something. Maybe someday soon there will be a handful of people who don’t want beavers killed, and maybe Nova Scotia will install an actual flow Device that works. And maybe people will notice that beaver dams actually make things better.
A girl can dream, can’t she?
Meeting tomorrow for Beaver Festival IX. And we’re starting to get most of our ducks in the stadium, if not yet ‘in a row’. We have made about 5 each of every tile and had this sign made so folks could choose which one they wanted. I think along with the kids tshirts and the silent auction we should be able to generate some funds for the mural, don’t you? Click twice on the descriptions to enlarge.
I actually love them all so much I think I want to make a quilt.
