NORFOLK OKS BEAVER PLAN BUT WON'T TOSS LETHAL TRAPS YET

Published: Friday, January 22, 1993
Section: LOCAL , page D1
Source: By Tony Wharton, Staff writer

© 1993 Landmark Communications Inc.

The city softened its stance on killing beavers in Lake Wright and Lake Whitehurst and said Thursday that wildlife groups may trap the animals live and move them outside the city.

But the city will not remove its lethal traps until the beavers' defenders are ready to install live traps and arrange for new locations, said Assistant City Manager Shurl Montgomery.

``I see our policy continuing for the moment, because it's a motivator,'' Montgomery said. ``If we say we're going to stop trapping, we don't know how long it might take them to get their volunteers and live traps lined up.''

The live traps are boxes with a spring-loaded plate that shuts the door when the animal is inside. The lethal trap is called a Conibear 303, city officials said. It works only underwater and breaks the beaver's neck when it swims in.

Dozens of people across Hampton Roads and even in North Carolina have called City Hall and newspaper reporters since Tuesday, when the City Council decided to allow lethal trapping to continue. The callers have uniformly criticized the city's action.

Save the Beavers, the group formed by the city's critics, will meet today at 7 p.m. in the Virginia Marine Science Museum in Virginia Beach.

The city believes 15 to 20 beavers live in four dens in Lake Wright and Lake Whitehurst. The animals have toppled dozens of trees along the lakes' shorelines. Since the city began trapping beavers in December, seven have been killed.

When the city relented Thursday, wildlife groups and local defenders of the beavers applauded but wondered why the lethal trapping has to continue.

``Why don't they suspend trapping while we all jointly agree on a policy?'' said Michael Rau, a director of Wildlife Response Inc., a Chesapeake group that specializes in rehabilitating injured wildlife.

Rau said the compromise was available all along. The city only backed down because it came under fire, he said, not because it cares about the environment.

``They could adopt a very broad pro-environmental stance, an attitude that their environment matters to them,'' he said. ``But they have been very unresponsive. It's an appalling way for a government to behave.''

D.J. Schubert, an official with the national conservation group Fund for Animals in Maryland, said, ``The difficulty is in finding a place to put the beavers because there are so many in this part of the country.''

A farmer in Chowan County, N.C., offered to take some of the beavers. Kathy Ward said her family's 60-acre farm includes about 5 acres of swamp. ``If you can get a good stand of water, you can get some irrigation going,'' she said. ``Two years ago we had some beavers move in and start building dams, and the water level has risen 3 feet since then.''

Rau said that offer is worth looking into, but there may be state laws against taking the animals across state lines.

Rau and Schubert both said they would prefer the beavers stay in the lake, but that the live trapping is the next best thing. The live trapping can't start immediately, Rau said, because his group is still trying to find a trapper to do it, preferably at reduced rates.

Guy Hodge, an expert from the Humane Society of the United States, will meet with city officials today to help resolve the dispute.