The property next to the Val Caron home of Danette Hillier and her family has flooded and overflowed each year for several years, and she thinks it is due to several beavers living on the land.

“There's been standing water on the city land beside us that is an eyesore, is a breeding place for mosquitoes, and is full of brown scum that is disgusting,” Hillier said.

“I've had enough of this city property flooding each year and harbouring germs and posing multiple threats to our children, the aesthetics of our property and the money we could lose upon sale of our property.”

Hillier said she phoned the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) to have the beavers humanely removed from the property, but was told it was a city problem because it is not provincial land.

When she phoned the city she said she was told a city crew came out to break the beaver dam, but no effort was made to trap the beavers. She said she had difficulty finding a trapper to deal with the nuisance.

“We were told by a water testing company and the Ministry of the Environment that this water is undoubtedly filled with E.coli, coliforms and countless other bacteria, fungi and potential viruses that would cause a number of illnesses,” she said.

Hillier said her husband and her children's nanny both came down with a bacterial infection she said she believes is linked to the standing water outside. She also was concerned that her septic field was not operating properly.

“I am now smelling sewage in the basement,” she said. “The septic system liquids must be backing up toward and under the house.”

Hillier said when she and her husband bought the Maple Street house more than four years ago, they knew it was located on a flood plain.

“We had to sign papers absolving the city of any liability,” she said. “But this is not an act of God we are dealing with. This is a city drainage issue. It is perfectly preventable. Just trap the beavers.”

She said in a recent property evaluation, the value of her home had dropped because of the condition of the property beside hers. It may make it impossible to sell the property if the septic system has been compromised, she added.

“I believe it's high time the city permanently stops this from happening,” she said. “It's affecting too many aspects of our lives, our priority being the health and well-being of our children.”

According to the staff at the MNR's McFarlane Lake district office, there is a dispatcher who deals with nuisance beavers by linking the homeowner with a trapper.

If the problem is on private property, the homeowner must pay a registered trapper a fee to trap the beaver, the amount depending on the number of trips the trapper has to put in to solve the issue. If the problem is on city land the dispatcher informs a foreman at the city to contact the homeowner and arrange a solution.  

Beaver deterrents

• While beavers do contribute to a healthy ecosystem they can also be pests. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources has some suggestions:
• a beaver baffler is a long-term solution, as it drains water from an area until beavers give up and go away. It's constructed of one or two large diameter drain pipes (7.5 cm to 10 cm, which is then installed through the dam itself. One end in found in the deep part of the pond and the other downstream far away from the dam, allowing water to filter away.
• trees can be protected by wrapping heavy mesh hardware cloth, sheet metal or a few layers of chicken wire around the tree base to a height of one metre
• trapping is a quick but temporary solution — a new beaver will move in unless the habitat is not inviting