Some serious issues in political circles can pass by with nary a whimper. But put animals into the equation, and an outpouring of sympathy is all but assured.

Such was the case when The Standard learned the city is paying a trapper to help control a pesky beaver population in Martindale Pond.

If the flow of letters to the editor is any indication, this is the biggest issue to hit St. Catharines since somebody dreamed up the idea of building a high-rise tower in the middle of Port Dalhousie’s business district.

City council should hold a full and public discussion on what to do with the critters

City taxpayers are paying a Niagara Falls trapper $15 per day plus $50 for each beaver caught. The trapper, in turn, gets the proceeds from selling the pelts of the beavers he kills.

On the fiscal ledger, it’s a minimal cost to control a wildlife problem.

But the principle of the matter is another issue entirely.

Hunting is a controversial, polarizing activity. While some see value in it for food and clothing, or even for sport, others have serious ethical issues with the willful killing of an animal — especially if it is done only for sport.

City council, with its decision to trap and kill beavers in Martindale Pond, has planted itself right in the middle of this controversy.

That the public only learned about this nearly a full year after the city began the practice — trapping began last spring and is slated to continue this year — only adds to the discontent.

City council needs to have a full public discussion on this issue, complete with statistics detailing the beaver population in St. Catharines and quantifying the damage done to private and public property by the animal that graces our nickel.

And with the city citing a Ministry of Natural Resources policy restricting the movement of beavers more than one kilometre away, St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley should join the conversation, adding a provincial voice to help the city develop a feasible relocaion program.

While private homeowners who have lost trees to the beavers are understandably miffed, it is incumbent on them to take measures to protect their property in a way that allows people to live harmoniously with nature.

As for the city’s concerns about losing trees around Martindale Pond, it should be remembered that deforestation is a uniquely human activity. While beavers are like people in that they significantly alter their environment, they also do so with the innate realization of the symbiotic relationship they have with their surroundings. They are managers of nature as much as they are users of it.

There is a tale in the United States about vandals cutting down prized cherry trees near the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D. C.

After an investigation that included the D. C. police, the Park Police, the Capitol Police, the FBI, and possibly the CIA, the culprits were found and apprehended: they were a male and female beaver.

The sentence: they were moved to a federal wildlife preserve to live the rest of their lives the only way they know how.

Surely St. Catharines can find a similar humane answer to this “problem.”

Keep your paws off the beavers, city told

Former resident offers to take in ‘intelligent creatures’

If St. Catharines doesn’t want its beavers, a former city resident says she’ll take them.

Audrey Tournay, who taught history and art at Lakeport Secondary School in the 1960s and who founded the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Muskoka near Rousseau, said the City of St. Catharines should leave the beavers alone.

But if the city is determined to get rid of them, Tournay said they should be live-trapped and released somewhere else.

“Leave them alone,” Tournay implored. “They are tremendously intelligent and responsive creatures. They express affection. They show their affection. They are tremendously intelligent animals.

Tournay joins many other people in St. Catharines who are upset with the city’s new practice of killing beavers.

Last spring, the parks and recreation department hired Niagara Falls trapper Stewart Frerotte to kill beavers in Martindale Pond because they are damaging too many trees — on both public and private property.

So far, he has killed three beavers, and plans to continue trapping in the spring.

But Tournay said beavers are actually good for a forest. She said beavers focus their harvesting on short-lived softwood species such as aspen, willow and poplar, and the removal of those trees allows sunlight to penetrate the canopy to reach oak, maple and other hardwood trees.

Property owners who are determined to ward off a hungry beaver can wrap trees in heavy-gauge chicken wire, she said.

Mike Callahan, the owner of Massachussets- based Beaver Solutions, has posted a recipe for abrasive paint on his website, but said he recommends light gauge fencing, loosely wrapping it at least a metre up the tree, and twisting the cut wire ends together to form a circle around the trunk.

“It works 100 per cent,” he said. Acting manager of parks services Jerry McLaughlin, who hired Frerotte, said he doesn’t like the idea of killing beavers either, but it’s the city’s only option.

“The beaver is our national animal; it’s as recognized as the maple leaf,” McLaughlin said. “But we can’t let them destroy all our trees.”

After beaver-damage complaints started coming in to city hall last spring, Frerotte checked with colleagues in other cities and with the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The ministry told him trapped beavers can only be moved one kilometre away and they’ll always come back, while the Conibear trap used by Frerotte is one of the most humane ways of killing them, McLaughlin said. Wrapping or fencing trees is impractical and expensive, he said.

“It would be like trying to put chicken wire around every tree in a forest,” McLaughlin said. Other cities are dealing with similar issues, and they, too, are using killing traps.

But Tournay said beavers can be moved. She has 1,000 acres of land in the sanctuary, and access to many other wild areas. She is careful to choose release locations where the beavers will be safe, and won’t encroach on another beaver colony’s territory.

Acting parks and recreation director Jim Benson said the city has been getting “tons” of calls in defence of the beavers, but McLaughlin said there are also calls from people who are glad the city is taking action.

“They are thanking us for finally doing something and saving the trees,” McLaughlin said.

Beavers “are deemed to be a nuisance rodent,” McLauglin said, but Tournay disagrees.

She said there is no danger of complete deforestation, because beavers regulate their own population, Tournay said.

Other residents also want the city to consider other options.

“Conibear traps are far from the humane kill method,” wrote Sheila White and Shimon Burstyn in an e-mail to The Standard.

“Beavers thrash and struggle underwater for up to 20 minutes before drowning.”

“We are killing beavers because they’ve cut down a couple of trees and used them to make their houses?” asked Denis N. Maheu. “Don’t we as people do the same?”

Peter Wassill said people have been polluting and destroying beaver habitat for so many years that he was happy to hear they are making a comeback in an urban area.

“I was surprised we have beavers living so close,” Wassill said. “We should leave our beavers alone; that’s their natural way of living. They are part of our habitat. I don’t think they should be harmed.”

Jacob McNamara said he was “deeply disturbed” by the decision to kill the beavers.

Kimberly Costello said beavers play an important role in our ecosystem, and Robert Sewell said he has successfully used chicken wire, which weathers to a dull grey that’s not visible, on trees at his camp in Temagami.

Callahan said studies have shown trapping beavers actually serves to increase their reproductive rate.

McLaughlin said he’s willing to consider other options.

He has been contacted by Niagara Action For Animals, and has agreed to meet with members of the group to hear their suggestions.

“We have to learn to live with wildlife peacefully,” said Kristin Beach of Niagara Action for Animals.

And if all else fails, there’s always Tournay’s offer.

“Just bring them to me and I will look after them,” she said.

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Beaver biology

Beavers are monogamous and mate for life. They do not breed until they are two to three years old. The female becomes pregnant during the winter and gives birth in May or June. The beavers in St. Catharines are most likely bank beavers.

Beavers will have one litter of one to six kits per year, with the availability of food appearing to affect the size of the litter. Each established beaver colony consists of adult parents, and two years of offspring. Only the adult female breeds. The average number of beavers in an established family is typically six or seven. Once a beaver reaches the age of two it will usually leave the colony to find a mate and establish a colony of its own.

The dams, canals and lodges beavers build have gained them the reputation as “Nature’s Engineers.” No other animal with the exception of humans so significantly alters its habitat to suit its own needs and desires. Native Americans revered the beaver and referred to them as “Little People.”

source: Mike Callahan, owner of the Massachussets company Beaver Solutions