City of Regina monitoring beaver activity around town

These days, you don’t have to travel very far to see Canada’s national animal.

The City of Regina is currently monitoring around 12 beavers around town, which is normal for this time of year.

“The adults are pushing the young out of their dens and the young ones are looking for a place for over the winter,” explained Ray Morgan, the city’s director of parks and open space. “(There’s) not much water to go around, so they’re moving quite a ways to look for a home.”

Morgan said beavers are destructive; they gnaw down tree branches and use them to build dams, blocking water flow.

“That’s a liability for us — especially in the spring. If the culverts are plugged, the drainage channels plug up, water overflows,” he explained, adding the city must protect its residents’ property.

To prevent the large rodents from doing this, Morgan suggested homeowners put up metal caging at the bottoms of their trees.

“The beavers will come up to them and when they see that they can’t get through to the tree, they move on,” Morgan said.

He added the animals can be spotted in creeks, storm channels and parks around town, including the southwest dog park where Wascana Creek flows through.

Morgan reminds people to try and keep their pets on a leash when they can, and to never approach beavers as they can be aggressive when cornered.

Anyone who sees a beaver is asked to contact the city, so it can be relocated to a new home outside Regina.