Someone’s been beavering away on North Vancouver’s Keith Creek, gnawing down trees and jamming up the urban waterway, dam it.
Dozens of young trees have been felled along the banks of the creek, which runs parallel to the new Mountain Highway on-ramp to eastbound Highway 1. And a beaver (or beavers) have been hard at work building two small dams and a lodge.
The Ministry of Transportation and Transit recently realigned and restored the creek, and replanted the riparian area with native trees and shrubs as part of the $200-million Lower Lynn Improvement Project.
When ministry contractors did an environmental assessment on the creek, there were no signs of the industrious rodents living nearby, according to the province. In 2023, they first started seeing signs of “light” beaver activity, which ramped up significantly in the fall of 2024.
“The ministry has not had active sightings of the beavers, as these animals are most active at dawn and dusk, prior or after the typical presence of maintenance crews. However, the level of activity would be consistent with one beaver or a mating pair,” a statement from the ministry read. “The beavers are building a lodge near the middle section of this creek, on the north bank, between two small beaver dams. Once the lodge is ready, they will live inside it.”
District of North Vancouver and ministry staff are both monitoring the situation but for now, the beavers’ infrastructure does not pose any concerns for the nearby human infrastructure, the province says.
The surviving trees in the riparian area, however, will need a little extra protection.
“Trees that could be cut down by beavers have been fenced with wire to prevent further damage. The beavers will not damage conifer trees, which now have more room to grow and are the trees that will form the mature forest in the future for this creek,” the statement read.
Neil Fletcher, director of conservation stewardship at the B.C. Wildlife Federation, said he was pleased to see the province taking a mostly hands-off approach to the beavers. Some organizations and people turn to lethal trapping as soon as beavers become a nuisance, he said.
“People love them or hate them,” he said.
Felling beloved trees and blocking creeks does re-engineer the environment, Fletcher acknowledged, but the mostly aquatic beavers need places to swim away from predators.
“They suck at walking,” he said. “They kind of wobble around. They’re like a walking hamburger. If there’s a coyote or a wolf or a bear, they’re easy meat.”
Beavers provide ecological value
Scientists believe there might have been as many as 400 million beavers in North America prior to the arrival of settlers who trapped them for their pelts and redeveloped their habitats, Fletcher said. Those numbers have been reduced by as much as 98 per cent. But conservationists are striving to reintroduce beavers into areas where they won’t be a source of conflict because they create other ecological values.
Beaver dams provide natural moderation for droughts in the summer and floods in winter, and the ponds they create become habitat for other species, including ideal rearing space for juvenile coho salmon.
“They really do help ecosystems thrive in many ways, and we’ve lost so many of them. Beavers are one of the animals that are trying to bring wetlands back,” he said. “Consider the value they’re providing, and if there is an opportunity to keep them on the land base.… Sometimes they can make it work, depending on the location and if the community or the landowner can tolerate it.”
Fletcher said he “absolutely” understands the damage that can be done to human assets when beavers move in, so he often advises on ways to coexist with them.
If a newly created pond is getting out of hand, crews can install a “leveler” – a pipe that bypasses the dam and prevents the water level from raising any higher. And he said, if the deciduous tree trunks are all fenced off, it’s likely the beavers will move on. A study done in Alberta found it was cheaper to use those methods than it was to try to remove them constantly, as new beavers tend to show up not long after the previous ones have been trapped.
“There’s ways of moderating the enthusiasm of the beaver,” Fletcher. “If they’re fencing off the ice cream, so to speak – the easy, yummy food – they probably won’t stick around too long.”
[email protected]
twitter.com/brentrichter
brentrichter.bsky.social
Want to stay updated on North Vancouver and West Vancouver news? Sign up for our free daily newsletter.
