Roger MacKinnon woke up Monday morning to discover a group of beavers near his home on Solana Key Court in Osoyoos had chewed through and destroyed a 40-year-old fruit tree in his front yard, as well as another newer tree and gnawed the branches off a third tree. MacKinnon said none of the steps he and neighbours have taken to get rid of the beavers has worked. (Keith Lacey photo)
Another homeowner on Solana Key Court in Osoyoos has found out just how much damage some hard-working and committed beavers can cause.
Roger MacKinnon and his wife Brenda awoke Monday morning to discover a 40-year-old plum tree and four-year-old pear tree had been destroyed and several branches had been removed from a four-year-old nectarine tree.
All of the trees were in perfectly good shape when they went to bed Sunday evening, said MacKinnon.
A family of beavers took down another apricot tree on their property several years ago, he said.
MacKinnon purchased the house on Solana Key Court five years ago from his father, who has owned the house for 35 years and still lives with him and his wife, said MacKinnon.
The MacKinnon’s live next door to Ted Azyan, who complained to the Osoyoos Times three years ago after several beavers destroyed numerous fruit trees on his property.
Azyan said beavers have been destroying fruit trees on his property for close to three decades, adding numerous other neighbours have also have fruit trees damaged on their property for close to 30 years.
“You could see the beaver tracks in the snow in the front yard,” said MacKinnon. “They are very industrious, tenacious, but destructive creatures.”
His father, now age 85, has taken great pride in planting and growing different varieties of fruit-bearing trees on his property for more than 30 years and to see two trees destroyed and another badly damaged in a matter of hours is very disheartening, he said.
“I’m upset and I know Dad is very upset,” he said. “The beavers tried to eat through the wooden fence we installed to keep them out of the front yard, but they couldn’t get through, so went around the neighbour’s yard to get to our front yard.
“They are determined and tenacious little buggers. The one pear tree had finally produced fruit this past summer for the first time. To see it destroyed overnight is quite upsetting.”
Another neighbor who lives across the small inlet on Solana Key leading to Osoyoos Lake has observed the family of beavers for years and reports there’s one large adult male and several smaller beavers that are causing most of the property damage in the neighbourhood, said MacKinnon.
Over the past 15 years, he and his father have dug up numerous beaver dens and filled them in with rocks with the hope the beavers would get discouraged and move away, he said.
“They simply move to another location on the banks and start building another den,” he said. “These aren’t small dens either. They’re roughly seven feet in diameter and four or five feet deep.
“We thought filling them in over and over again would discourage them, but they have another one built within days.”
The only good news is the beavers didn’t touch a 50-year-old pear tree, said MacKinnon.
Like his neighbours, MacKinnon has implemented a practice of installing chicken wire at the bottom of the fruit trees on his property.
“But it obviously didn’t work as they either chew the chicken wire or climb above it and start eating away,” he said.
He and his father have called Ministry of Forests, Land and Natural Resources on numerous occasions over the past several years, but they are told there’s not much that can be done.
“It really does get frustrating,” he said. “I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but all I do know is beavers don’t belong anywhere near a residential neighbourhood.”
MacKinnon believes Ministry officials do have the tools and resources to trap these beavers and take them away from the area, but he fully realizes another family would likely move in quickly thereafter.
“We’ve been told on more than one occasion that once one family is taken away, they would be replaced almost immediately,” he said. “It’s frustrating to know there’s not really anything we can do about it.”
All he can do is buy more chicken wire and hope this keeps the beavers away from his remaining fruit trees, said MacKinnon.
“I’m going to go and buy more chicken wire and place it higher at the base of the trees and hope that will keep them away,” he said.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
