Leave it to beaver to create a link between the township and residents of a neighbourhood.
The connection is between residents of Wymbolwood Beach and municipal staff that removed a beaver dam in the area of Skylark Road and Tiny Beaches Road South.
Tiny resident Julia Aronov took up the matter with council at a November meeting. Staff brought back an answer at a January meeting, after putting together the pieces of the puzzle.
"The Township of Tiny is an environmentally focused municipality," said Tim Leitch, director public works and interim chief administrative officer. "Unfortunately, we do have areas in the municipality that have beaver activity. It is part of our environment and we definitely do not want to do anything to disturb that."
However, he said, there are some confined areas within the township's drainage network that experience accumulation of debris due to beaver activity.
"With this blockage," added Leitch, "damage can occur to the infrastructure, private and public property, within hours. It's our responsibility to ensure these blockages are removed."
This is not something staff typically goes out to look for to remove, he said, unless it is directly affecting the drainage network.
In a recent conversation with MidlandToday, Aronov said, she had many problems with the explanation.
First off, she noted that the creek on which the beaver built its dam is between two private properties and the water flow wasn't affected.
Secondly, Aronov said the residents she had gathered signatures from were upset because the beaver had been there since May.
"The fact that they waited till September/October to remove it," she said. "The dam is what's most important for their survival. By that time of the year, they don't have time to create a dam to last them through the winter."
Aronov said she isn't sure what happened to the beaver and if it will return to the area this year or not.
And that's the third point that worries her.
Due to beaver activity, the area around it had become a nature reserve of sorts, attracting pollinators and other insects and encouraging growth of native plants and wildflowers, Aronov said.
"(We are) also worried about the abundance of wildflowers and pollinators we had in the area, because they completed gutted it," she added.
The neighbourhood, Aronov said, will be keeping an eye on beaver activity in the area and if it returns, they will talk to staff about using more beaver-friendly methods of dealing with the dam.
"We want them to involve us in this," she said. "We had so many people saying they could help build a pond leveller."
According to Nature Conservancy Canada, "pond levellers are glorified pipes that extend through a beaver dam and prevent upstream flooding. Setting the pipe at the desired water level allows any excess water to flow through the pipe to the downstream side of the dam. This allows the beavers to remain in their dam, while alleviating upstream flooding nuisances."
Aside from this, when Aronov had approached council last year, she had included myriad documents to the effect in her presentation.
"I'd like to see if the township is willing to try a more friendly method," she said.
At the council meeting, Leitch told councillors, staff were looking at other methods to prevent these blockages caused by beaver activity.
"The research we've done...the devices still require maintenance and a lot of them just make it easier for us to take away the sticks from in front of the culvert than inside the culvert," he said. "One commitment that I did make was that where we see a situation where we're able to anticipate problems occurring, we will reach out for different approaches and hopefully be able to develop some plans to minimize any impact on the beaver activity.
"A lot of times the beaver dams originate from private property, which makes it a little more difficult for the township to manage," said Leitch. "In cases where we can and do have the time, we will engage with the SSEA (Severn Sound Environmental Association) and different environmental groups to ensure we minimize the impact on our beaver population."
Coun. Tony Mintoff said he hoped this would lead to a better policy around the issues outlining clear guidelines.
