(Beavers are always busy building their damns, but this Stittsville beaver Mom takes the time to feed her baby kit at the Goulbourn Wetlands along the Trans Canada Trail. Photo: Sylvie Sabourin)
Dear Mayor and City Councillors
Protecting our Wetlands
A meeting scheduled for June 8th is sounding the alarm about the threat to Goulbourn’s Wetlands due to Bill 23. Where, however, was this concern during the last number of years when Goulbourn’s wetlands were turned into municipal drains to support development, along with the regular trapping and killing of beavers? The voices of many concerned members of the community have been largely ignored on this issue.
Wetlands supply essential environmental services to our community as well as serve as a key ally in fighting climate change, a real consequence as wildfires threaten cities and communities as close to us as Calabogie. Beavers, as a keystone species, provide the single greatest influence in maintaining and preserving our vital wetlands.
Although the City of Ottawa continues to trap and kill beavers, a number of environmentally-progressive councillors are committed to using proven ‘best practices’ from other jurisdictions to keep these ecological engineers on the landscape to protect wetlands .
We are asking for an immediate moratorium on the trapping and killing of beavers in Goulbourn. It is particularly unconscionable that beavers are trapped at this time of year when newborn kits will be left to die.
Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre
Citizens for the Protection of Wetlands and Wildlife