Our beaver friend from Ontario writes that there was such public outcry in St. Catherines that the whole extermination plan is being reconsidered,
Dear Heidi – we have made some headway in regards to the beaver trapping, here in St. Catharines. NAfA had a meeting with The Parks and Recreation Dept. (the people that initiated the trapping), it went pretty well. They’d like to meet with us again to further discuss things. Right now they’re doing their own research. The Ministry of Natural Resources can offer them trees to plant and they have the contact info for the City of Hamilton who apparently also had a ‘beaver’ problem which was resolved peacefully. We said we’d like to work with them on this issue, perhaps by organizing a count, tree-wrapping, dropping of branches etc.
She wanted info and advice so she can come back to the table suitably armed. She sent a collection of letters published in the St Catherines Standard, and this one really stood out. I guess beavers really do change things….and people.
Hello Mr. Gill,
Let our family add our voices to the many who have been requesting the city revisit its decision to trap beavers along the Twelve Mile Creek waterway. We were horrified to read the city is doing this, especially when it appears there are alternative measures to be taken. When there were problems with Canada geese along the Welland Canal Parkways trail, did the city hire someone to just go out and shoot them? No, to its credit, the city was creative in its thinking and took preventative measures which were humane and progressive.
More and more our children are taught to respect nature. As urban dwellers, we have to co-exist with the wildlife that inhabits our shared greenspace. Beavers are in the Twelve Mile Creek watershed area because it is a good habitat for them. Surely simply killing the ones living there now will only mean more space for other beavers to take up residence there in the future.
Our family enjoyed a walk along the Twelve Mile Creek trail from Welland Vale up to Erion Rd. over the Christmas holidays. We were excited to see evidence of beaver activity in such an urban environment. Our children examined the tree shavings and marveled at the way a beaver systematically removes trees, most of which were small saplings. We looked for their dams and spent a lot of time talking about beavers during our walk. We even sought out books about them when we visited the library later that day. However, just a couple of weeks later we read the awful news in the paper about their fate and naturally, our children were very upset.
Please investigate the alternative, more humane measures of dealing with these beavers. Adopting the very “old school” attitude of dealing with wildlife (i.e., eliminating it) is, we think, failing to show progressive leadership on this issue.
Thank you, Mr. Gill, for hearing our views.
The C Family
Sarah, Kevin, Alastair (12) and Malcolm (10)
St. Catharines
