Rural residents near Prince Albert shocked by RM-approved beaver dam, lodge explosions

Residents of the Rural Municipality of Garden River say they were shocked to hear multiple explosions along the river the morning of Jan. 26.

Hanna Depeel, who lives on her family farm in the RM located 40 kilometres northwest of Prince Albert, said they first believed someone was firing a rifle on their property, potentially to poach a deer or moose, which live in the back pasture. 

But Depeel’s family soon learned the booming sounds were explosions detonated by RM-sanctioned contractors.

She said there was no notice given to residents that the work was being done on the river, or reasons why it was being done. 

“I feel like as a community member, I should be able to go on to our website, look at the meeting minutes and very clearly see who these contractors are, what their insurance is … and not be here at 9:00 in the morning trying to do my homework and hear massive explosions right outside my window and learn there is detonating dynamite on our river,” Depeel said. 

Ryan Scragg, reeve for the RM of Garden River, said the decision to blow up the beaver dams and lodges was made after neighbouring RMs upstream did the same in November and December. 

“And since we're downstream we were concerned about a huge influx of water. And, you know, it kind of pushed our hand and having to deal with it in a really short timeline,” said Scragg.

Beaver dams raise the water level, and Scragg said that leads to more ice damming in the springtime. There are numerous bridges along the river, and fixing any damage to those can cost upwards of $50,000. He said the decision to explode the beaver dams and lodges was "preventative maintenance.”

Scragg admits the RM failed to communicate with the public, and should have posted details about the coming explosions on both its Facebook page and website. 

“It’s our day-to-day work. It's an infrastructure type thing. So, you know, we don't make notice of when we're going to grade roads, so I guess it kind of probably just slipped by us in terms of this might be something that people want to know about prior because it's out of the ordinary," said Scragg. 

Depeel said the detonations were inhumane to the beaver population as well. 

Her family has trapped beavers along Garden River for a long time, selling their hides and turning in the tails to the RM for bounties. She said they believe in sustainable management of wildlife. 

When beaver lodges are blown up, the animals often have nowhere to live, especially in the middle of winter when temperatures can drop to the –30s. 

“Some of them will go into the bank if there's channels established, and maybe they'll make it through the winter if their feed bed’s intact. But a vast majority don’t,” said Depeel.