To the Editor:
I visit the Summit Creek Park most days and take my dog along the various trails I have come to know over the past 20 years or so. Last night, I took a trail that runs along the edge of a beaver pond that I have watched being constructed over the past year. This trail, if you were to follow it, eventually leads to Williams Creek and the falls above. There are numerous beavers in the area.
What surprised me was the sudden appearance of signage warning me that I should keep my dog on a leash as there is a trapping program on right now. The signage is lacking because anyone entering the park (especially someone new to the park), following the trail and letting their dog run ahead won’t see the warning until it is too late. There is no warning at the gate entrance. Granted, there is a notification that insists all dogs be leashed while in the park. Most people I meet in the park don’t leash their dogs. If I see no vehicles at the entrance, I let my dog run free because I know no one else is in the park and, anyway, I take the trails less used.
I am more concerned about the reasons for trapping beavers anywhere in the park. One of the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Authority’s mandates is to ensure the diversity of habitats and wildlife. I am aware of the damage done by these beavers and have noted the carnage they have created in some areas by the number of trees they have felled — and the sizes of some of these trees would astound you! But just the same, they belong in the area and are an integral part of the ecosystem. I witnessed the same trapping program several years ago when a similar tactic was used, complete with the use of heavy machinery to smash the beaver dam. The same amount of water runs through to the slough despite being slowed by a beaver dam.
The leghold traps look pretty brutal and are set beneath the surface of the water along the pond’s edge. I can imagine some poor beaver stepping on one and having to drown slowly. I don’t pretend to be knowledgeable about traps or trapping but this just seems like a pretty significant disconnect in the pristine settings of Summit Creek Park.
Creston
