Disagreements arise about beaver trapping alternatives

Continued discussion of beaver trapping in Beaver Creek Park sparked disagreement among members of the Hill County Park Board, who met Monday in the Hill County Court House.

Discussion of the subject began when park board member Renelle Braaten said Dave Pauli, a senior advisor with the Humane Society of the United States, whom she had brought to a board meeting last year, wanted to come back to Beaver Creek Park with a team and evaluate the area so that they could make recommendations on alternative methods of beaver removal, and how to potentially pay for it.

“They’ve got to come and look at it. And they’ve got to talk with (Beaver Creek Park Superintendent Chad Edgar) and everybody else to see where the problem areas are,” Braaten said.

She said the team would need to take a closer look at areas of the park to determine what solutions are feasible, and what kind of grant money would be available for those solutions.

“It’s an extremely good opportunity,” she said.

Braaten said she believes the board would need to be, and should be, open to this evaluation.

Hill County Park Board Chair Steve Mariani expressed concerns about that.

“As long as ‘open’ doesn’t mean carte blanche,” Mariani said.

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean said she wanted more information from Pauli before any decision was made.

“My question, before he comes in, would be, what specific plan of action can you provide that will limit population. Because that seems to be our problem right now, overpopulation,” McLean said.

But Braaten questioned McLean’s premise that beaver overpopulation was a problem.

“Maybe. Maybe not. You’ve got to give them the opportunity to look and see what’s going on here,” Braaten said.

McLean said she believes overpopulation is a visible, and obvious problem in the park.

“I mean, I see it every single day when I drive home. All I’ve got to do is look up that creek bed and I can see multiple beaver dams,” she said.

Braaten said that does not guarantee a problem exists.

“Every beaver dam is not a problem,” she said.

Mariani again said it would have to be a board decision.

“We can’t just say, ‘OK, bring your team and tell us what to do,’ because I think that has to be a vote of this board. And you know that lots of people think that the old way is good, too,” Mariani said.

Braaten continued to push for the evaluation.

“It’s a matter of, do you want to look at something different, or do you just want to do the same thing over and over, forever,” Braaten said.

“If you were putting it to me to be an ‘either or’ today, right now, this minute, I’d say leave it alone, it’s not broken,” he replied. “But that’s just me right now.”

McLean again said she wanted more information.

“I’m not unwilling to talk the man,” she said. “I haven’t heard, I haven’t seen anything specific that’s going to be able to control population.”

Fran Buell of of Gildford also gave an update on recent trapping efforts in Beaver Creek Park.

Montana Trappers Association has been helping with trapping beaver in the park.

Buell read a Montana Trappers Association report detailing the trappers’ efforts and saying that the numbers in the report indicate that 2020 will, in theory, see a rise in the beaver population.

“The MTA members removing beaver from Beaver Creek Park have completed 71 total days of trapping. “To date, the trappers have harvested a total of 56 beaver from the areas directed by the park superintendent.” Buell read from the report. “... Biologically speaking, the size of these harvested beavers indicate they were mature adults 2 years old or more. This would indicate that they were capable of producing young.”

The report said the harvest included four beaver weighing 70-72 pounds, six weighing 60-69 pounds, seven weighing 50-59 pounds, 30 weighing 40-49 pounds and nine weighing less than 40 pounds.

“The two trappers who were currently trapping have discontinued due to the dangerous ice and spring conditions. If they choose to continue until May after better conditions, they will contact the park superintendent,” she read from the report.

Buell also presented the board with a study conducted in Virginia by Stephanie L. Boyles and Barbara A, Savitzky on the efficacy of non-lethal alternatives to beaver dam destruction and population control, and as a less expensive remedy to road damage on the Virginia Coastal Plain.

Though the study indicated that such methods can successfully lower repair costs, preventative and otherwise, of the roads in that region, Buell expressed concern about the cost to Beaver Creek Park.

“One of the things I noted was the cost, and the cost was an eye-opener to me. I knew it was expensive, but I didn’t think it was as expensive as it showed,” Buell said.

She also expressed concern about the aesthetics of the devices the study looked at. This includes Beaver Deceivers, fence-like devices designed to prevent beavers from building dams in culverts, and the Clemson Beaver Pond Leveler, which is designed to allow water to flow through culverts that already have beaver dams.

“I guess my point, as park user and a cabin owner, is that I don’t know whether I want this stuff in the park,” Buell said.

Mariani said something needs to be done.

“We need a longer-term solution,” he said.

“A lot of times Beaver Deceivers are,” Braaten said. “It all depends on where you get your information.”

She proposed that board members send her questions that she would relay to Pauli, and McLean agreed that this was a good idea.

During the public comment section at the end of the meeting, Lou Hagener of Havre, submitted a request to have a discussion of the issue placed on the agenda for a future meeting.

The request said an explanation of the beaver activity management strategy has not been shared with the entire board or made public.

“Though many of us will agree that we should be managing beaver activity in the park, the ‘how’ remains a question,” he read from his request.

The request lists a number of questions that Hagener believes should be answered in the presence of the entire board and the public. These include questions including the duration of the current strategy, its goals, how it measures success, and what is being done to replace the positive effects of beaver activity.

“Are we trying to manage the activity of beavers or the population or just kill beavers?” he read.

“You know the answers to all these,” Mariani responded.

Braaten disagreed.

“We don’t really know,” she said.

The board did not vote on whether Pauli and his team would be invited back to Beaver Creek Park.