Amazing what these little critters can do, but suburban life obviously isn’t for them.
Beavers on the hit list
Elk Grove officials say gentler efforts to stop animals' dam building have failed, but some city residents object to the new tactic
By Loretta Kalb - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, May 17, 2007
The water is filled with reeds. Trees and some stumps dot the shoreline. Ducks swim. Frogs croak.
This is detention basin No. 3 in Elk Grove. And it is Exhibit A -- the city's evidence for seeking to control its population of beavers.
It is why the city has a $20,000 contract with an office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to kill beavers. It is why, in recent months, 51 have died.
The city has tried for years to discourage beavers from their incessant construction projects. Occasionally, beavers were killed, but mostly dams and blockages were removed.
"Those attempts ... pretty much failed," said Vince Cudia, maintenance superintendent for city public works.
Now the population is larger, he said, so the city has turned to the five-year contract with the USDA.
That's reducing the population. But it's raising resident angst.
