KILL LAKE PARK'S BEAVERS? ANIMAL GROUP SAYS `NO'

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 11, 1992                   TAG: 9202110274
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BURKE                                LENGTH: Medium
KILL LAKE PARK'S BEAVERS? ANIMAL GROUP SAYS `NO'
Fairfax County Park Authority officials plan to rid Lake Royal of pesky beavers by trapping and killing them, but animal rights groups say there are less drastic ways of dealing with the gnawing issue.
One of those groups, Fund for Animals, said it would be unfair to kill the beavers, which are chewing up the trees around the lake.
"It's not going to solve the problem," said Heidi Prescott, the national outreach director for the Silver Spring, Md.-based group. "People just simply have to learn to live with these animals."
There are several non-lethal measures the county can take before killing the animals, including putting wire mesh around trees or trapping the beavers alive and relocating them, Prescott said.
But Olin Allen, the park authority's environmental services manager, said the city has already explored such options. Local residents have put wire mesh around the trees, but the beavers still returned, creating barren stretches where trees once stood.
Allen said many trees are growing, but not quickly enough to make up for the trees that already have been downed.
"We just can't stay ahead," Allen said. "We've been fighting a losing battle."
Moving the beavers is also out of the question because the beavers have built homes at Lake Royal, Allen said. It would be hard for the animals to build adequate lodging elsewhere on short notice, he said.
Sometime in the next two weeks, Allen said, county animal control workers will set underwater traps for the beavers, remove them and give them lethal injections. Or, he said, the beavers will be trapped in underwater cages that drown them.
Some of the trees have fallen onto the lake's jogging trails, but the park's neighbors apparently think the chewed-up trees are better than dead beavers.
"I think if the public finds out that they are just going in and kill the beavers, there will be a lot of heartburn," said Joan Harrison, the president of the Kings Park West Civic Association. "Most people would like to see the beavers relocated."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB