Please Stop Trapping Our Beavers
After catching up on emails from the Board about their planned “beaver management” program, I decided to research information on how beavers were actually “bad” for our community. Apart from the commonly held (and misguided) belief that “beavers are bad” there is actually little proof that supports that damage caused by beavers is greater than the benefits that a beaver can provide to a community, especially one that has some of the issues that ours does within the creek area.
For example, some of the benefits in having beavers in the community include:
- decreased erosion / increased flood water control (the dams beavers build help slow the flow of water, and assists in erosion control)
- healthier waterways (the beaver dam actually helps filter nutrients that are flowing into our waterways, creating a healthier waterway)
- helps manage our water-lily issue (beavers love water-lilies which tend to grow at the bottom of creeks and ponds, perhaps this is the reason we didn’t need to drop those bombs in the water to manage these this past year)
- reduction in other beavers (beavers are territorial, and they mark their areas to warn other beavers)
Given that the main focus of our protected green area is the maintenance of a natural preserve, I was astounded to read that beaver “[d]am building can be very beneficial in restoring wetlands.” Again, this appears to fly in opposition to what my general belief was about beavers. I can’t understand why the USACE would approve the removal of beavers, when there is a longer term benefit to leave the beavers in their home, and subsequently decrease the potential for greater erosion in those areas, as well as increase the quality of the water and ecosystem in the areas surrounding the beaver’s home.
One of the major reasons cited for removing the beavers is the destruction that is caused to trees in the area. While this is a valid concern, most of the trees that a beaver will bite into are soft wood trees like the willow, birch and poplar trees, none of which are approved trees for the green belt area under the mitigation plan.
Right now we are in the mating season for beavers which is why they are more active building dams (nests) right now, and the new baby beavers ("kits") will be born in May or June. Just like many in our community get upset when one of our ducks gets hurt or killed, we should be feeling the same way for our beavers. Our community is not overrun with beavers, and nor will it be if we leave them alone. What if the HOA caught a mother beaver out tending to her young, and the young beavers starve and die in their nest because the mother never returned because the HOA trapped it?
While there are some in our community who care less about these little creatures, there are many of us who do. I’m asking the board and the USACE to reconsider this practice of trapping (an expense that we as a community really don’t need to be incurring right now). As the following reference suggests, trapping and removing beavers is a short-sighted approach (to improve aesthetics) that does nothing to correct one of our long term problems (erosion control, and flood control).
Dam building can be very beneficial in restoring wetlands. Such wetland benefits include flood control downstream, biodiversity (by providing habitat for many rare as well as common species), and water cleansing, both by the breakdown of toxins such as pesticides and the retention of silt by beaver dams. Over the eons, this collection of silt produces the rich bottom land so sought after by farmers. Beaver dams reduce erosion as well as decrease the turbidity that is a limiting factor for much aquatic life. While beavers can create damage, part of the problem is one of perception and time scale. Such damage as the undermining of a roadway or the drowning of some trees is very visible shortly after the beginning of beavers activity in an area. The benefits may be long-term and unnoticed except, for example, by someone monitoring a catchment. (WikiPedia)
The board will only change their mind if they hear from people within our community. We need to let them know that we don’t support trapping, and we are willing to live with our furry riparian neighbors. Email the HOA Board at theboard@plantation-springs.com today, and ask them to remove the traps, and cease the unnecessary expense that we as homeowners are incurring through their actions.
Regards,
James Nunn
469-287-8488
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