REGINA – The beaver may be Canada’s beloved national animal, but the buck-toothed rodent is also a pesky problem in Saskatchewan.
The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, known as SARM, says beavers are damaging rural infrastructure and private property. The association says beavers made flooding across the province worse last year by building dams that swamped farmland and roads.
SARM president David Marit said Wednesday that part of the problem is the exploding beaver population.
"There’s really no value in the beaver fur anymore, so nobody’s trapping or hunting them. There used to be, but there isn’t anymore," said Marit.
"Now we have to find a way that we can remove some of the population because what’s happening is that they’re building such huge beaver dams now, that they are backing up so much water that it’s become a huge issue."
The Saskatchewan government says the number of beaver pelts taken by licensed trappers has fallen dramatically in recent years to 11,250 last year from about 28,500 in 2000. The drop is primarily due to lower pelt prices, the province said.
The government said Wednesday that it will put up $500,000 to help rural municipalities remove beavers and dams in areas where they’re causing damage. It will be a one-year pilot program administered by SARM.
Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud said the number of beavers is "dramatically higher than we’ve seen before."
"I know in my home area, I live east of Yorkton, and we had to get (the department of) Highways out last year to clean out the culvert on the highway even – the beavers had blocked that up. It floods back for maybe 10 or 15 miles and this is the kind of issue that I think the RMs are also dealing with," said Bjornerud.
"What I’m talking about is RMs, where it’s an RM road and they back it up and then all of a sudden the road washes out."
Bjornerud said he’s particularly concerned because of the potential for flooding this spring.
The Saskatchewan Watershed Authority has said there will be above normal runoff in the entire southern half of the province this spring. The runoff will be even higher – what the authority considers well above normal – across many agricultural areas.
That’s because the ground is still saturated from the wettest summer on record and there has been above normal snowfall to date.
Manitoba also has a Problem Beaver Management Program so that rural municipalities in designated areas can have licensed trappers remove beavers whose dams are causing flooding that damages roads or fields. The subsidy is $20 per animal.
Manitoba municipalities must employ trappers experienced in humane trapping methods and trappers must use approved trapping devices to remove problem beavers.
Delegates at SARM’s annual convention in Saskatoon had suggested the province pay $40 a beaver to help cover bounty expenses – similar to a coyote bounty pilot program introduced by the province. That program offered hunters, farmers and ranchers $20 per dead coyote if they brought in all four paws.
But the coyote bounty drew criticism from across the country and some said it may have contributed to shootings elsewhere. More than 30 coyotes were found shot dead with their paws cut off on a roadside in Cypress Hills Provincial Park in southeastern Alberta near the boundary.
Bjornerud said at the time that the coyote cull was necessary because the animals had become a threat to livestock and farm families.
The minister acknowledged Wednesday that he took "a lot of flack" for the coyote bounty. He may face more criticism for the beaver control program.
"I might but it had to be done," he said.
Merit said the beaver program will be a lot more controlled than the coyote bounty program.
The dams can be physically removed with backhoes or blown up with dynamite. Municipalities will have more control over who traps the beavers, he said.
"They know the people that can either go and trap or hunt them because they’re not the easiest animal to hunt. They’ve got the expertise that way," said Marit. "We think whoever they hire should be signed on by the RM, by the reeve and the administrator. And those people will be the only ones that would receive any funding out of the fund for beavers."
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