A bill to allow Greensboro to move problematic animals instead of killing them under depredation seems to be dead in the North Carolina Senate. It seems like many places in North Carolina beavers are causing trouble in Greensboro but the city seemed surprised that the trouble causing rodents were getting sent to the big beaver pond in the sky and nowhere else.

“We didn’t realize they were being euthanized,” Dave Phlegar, manager of Greensboro’s Storm Water Management Division, told the committee. Greensboro city officials would like not to kill the critters, he told the committee. He said there’s a spot near the wastewater treatment plant where beavers could be relocated should they be trapped.

I guess there was a time when there was places where beavers were needed but those days are gone. More often than not these days’ beavers get into areas and cause damages. Even if you release them on land where the landowner will allow them there is no guarantee they’ll stay there and not go somewhere else.

“Beavers cause a lot of damage in North Carolina,” said Gordon Myers, executive director of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Farmers and city-dwellers alike consider them a nuisance. Greensboro, he said, should not be allowed simply to make its beavers somebody else’s problem.

News & Record

There is absolutely no reason that lawmakers should step into the wildlife management arena leave that to the NCWRC. If you allow one city to be exempt from current wildlife rules others will soon follow and the rules will be a mess. We already see that to some extent when you look at fox rules that widely vary from county to county.
We also need to use sound wildlife management practices that includes the taking of surplus animals to keep the population healthy and in balance.
I hope Senate Bill 1345 & House Bill 1928 just die in committee.

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