Letter: Solve Southborough's Beaver Problem Non-Lethally

SOUTHBOROUGH, Mass. — The Southborough Daily Voice accepts signed, original letters to the editor. Letters may be emailed to bmatthew@dailyvoice.com.

To the Editor,

Your Sept. 19 story, Southborough Board Of Health OKs Beaver Trapping, missed one important point. Most conflicts between humans and beavers can be solved non-lethally; trapping is usually not necessary. 

If they continue to pursue trapping, Southborough officials will soon learn the hard way that it’s impossible to permanently solve problems with beavers by killing them; more beavers will return, plug culverts and rebuild dams repeatedly if the habitat suits them. Fortunately, it is possible to out-smart beavers by using water flow devices, which maintain enough water to allow territorial beavers to remain but keep the level low enough to avoid conflicts. The devices protect culverts from being blocked by beavers and/or create permanent leaks in the dams that beavers cannot repair, and therefore control the water level, maintaining it at whatever depth has been set by the placement of the device. Unlike trapping, flow devices are long-term solutions — they have a 98-99 percent success rate and can last as long as a decade; they’re also cost-effective, humane and environmentally-friendly. 

Trapping has never controlled the beaver population and it is, at best, a temporary, local solution. There are more than 800 properly installed and maintained water flow devices, designed for each location’s topography and water flow, working successfully all over Massachusetts to resolve beaver flooding conflicts. Southborough should join the communities across the Commonwealth that are using non-lethal solutions to address beaver-related conflicts whenever possible.

For more information, see www.mspca.org/beavers.

Linda Huebner

Deputy Director, Advocacy

Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Boston, Mass.

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