Team beaver was victorious. Oshawa city council voted to permanently suspend beaver trapping at a pond in Goodman Creek on Wednesday night.
City officials will now monitor and manage the water levels until they come up with an an engineering solution.
“It really was electrifying to see the council chamber full of people holding ‘Save the Beaver’ signs,” Marissa Kata, a community advocate, wrote in an email to the Star.
The motion carried by a slim 5 to 4 margin. Councillor April Cullen voted in favour of suspending the trapping.
“Some times we have to take calculated risks,” Cullen said, “and hope that we don’t have a 100-year storm in the next few years.”
The pond was initially built to alleviate flood risk at a cost of $3 million in 1992. It acts as a reservoir, holding excess water from storms and spring runoff, from about 400 downstream homes. And it has worked well.
But then the beavers moved in. They built a dam that compromised the engineering integrity of the pond and left homes vulnerable to flooding, according to Brian Greck, a consultant with a water resources engineering firm.
“Our recommendation was to maintain the pond,” Greck said, “which means to remove the beaver dam.”
The city hired a trapper, who killed six beavers, beginning last November. A public outcry ensued. Up to six beavers live in the pond and the city was about to give the green light to another culling in June. But councillors asked for a stay-of-execution in order to discuss the matter.
The council’s vote, which brought out about 50 beaver lovers, disappointed Oshawa Mayor John Gray.
“The dam continues to exist, the threat of flooding continues to exist and no one can predict when we’re going to get a big storm,” Gray said, “and then we’re in trouble.”
Moving the beavers is not an option, a biologist said at the meeting, as they are only allowed to be relocated up to one kilometre away due to Ministry of Natural Resources regulations.
City staff will now examine how to accommodate the beavers, manage water levels and mitigate flood risk.
“I just hope we’re not in to hundreds of thousands of dollars to save a little colony of beavers,” Gray said.
