Rosedale eyes solutions to ongoing beaver problems
At a recent Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) meeting for mayors and reeves, several municipalities in the midwestern and parkland regions raised the issue of beavers coming out of Riding Mountain National Park, where they are protected, and causing damage to municipal infrastructure. One of those municipalities is Rosedale, where Reeve Karl Snezyk reported at the April meeting of council that a joint request from those municipalities to the Manitoba Minister of Environment and Climate Change is currently being drafted to see if the RMs can get funding from the federal government to help mitigate the problem.
This has been a longstanding issue in the area, but a beaver bounty subsidy program previously run by the Province of Manitoba is no longer in effect as of 2023.
On the flip side, Councillor Jeff Henderson noted that beaver dams are part of a necessary watershed where they help manage the outflow of water into Lake Winnipeg. Parks Canada refers to beavers' ability to store water during droughts and slow the flow of water to mitigate flooding and flood peaks. When beavers aren't building their dams, it takes a crew of specialists and costly resources to recreate the effect.
"We're spending hundreds of millions of dollars because we're not letting beavers build dams," said Henderson.
Council agreed that it was only those animals that were causing damage to infrastructure that they needed to address. For those that weren't causing anyone any problems, they said, "leave them alone."
Consequently, the RM has now applied to the Province for a wild animal kill permit to deal with nuisance beaver. If and when it is approved, they will proceed to form their own mitigation plan.
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Keri Prior, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Neepawa Banner & Press
