EVERETT — About two weeks ago, Tammara Gregersen peered past the pyramid-shaped beaver fort in the pond next to the south Everett auto-body shop where she works, and spotted a man working near the shore.
Gregersen was shocked when the man, Derek Young, told her the city had paid him to trap and kill two beavers in the pond.
"I think that’s terrible," she said as she stood in a cold rain staring at the beavers’ former home. "If it’s a preserve for animals, why are they killing animals that live here and have probably lived here forever?"
Although the city long ago installed a blue and white sign that says "Environmentally Sensitive Area," the pond — just off Evergreen Way a few blocks south of Everett Mall Way — is not a wildlife preserve. It’s a storm-water retention pond that city officials said came dangerously close to overflowing earlier this month.
The culprits were two beavers that had built a dam of sticks and mud, which blocked a pipe that carries water away from the pond and eventually to Lake Washington. Everett Public Works employees cleared the dam so the water could flow freely.
For the past year, Everett has hired Young to kill beavers with underwater metal traps that the animals swim into as they try to fortify their dams. The traps kill the beavers by snapping their necks, Young said.
"It’s humane because the beaver has no idea what hit him," he said. "There is no suffering."
Young’s traps killed three beavers in two ponds last year. Young is paid about $150 per beaver.
The city used to trap beavers live and send them to a wildlife refuge. But about a year ago, the city switched to the kill policy after two wildlife refuges in the county closed, said Donald Hallsson, a supervisor for the Everett Public Works storm-water drainage division.
"After that, there was no place to take the beavers," Hallsson said.
He said he can’t remember the names of the refuges the beavers were taken to.
Kaye Baxter of the Sarvey Wildlife Center near Arlington said the city sent live beavers to Sarvey as recently as two or three years ago. She was unaware of any animal-rescue places in the county that have closed in recent years.
Baxter is skeptical that Everett Public Works didn’t know about her center. The city’s animal control department has been using Sarvey for years to send injured birds, raccoons, opossums and other wild animals, said John DeWispelaere, manager of animal control for the city.
Baxter believes the city adopted the kill policy because it takes more effort to trap animals alive and bring them to Sarvey than to kill them.
"Everett’s just kind of lazy," she said.
Hallsson said he didn’t know about Sarvey until a public works employee told him about the beaver trapping last week. He said he is developing a new policy of trapping beavers live and sending them to Sarvey.
Hallsson said he acted after receiving a complaint about the south Everett beaver trap.
Baxter said Sarvey would be happy to take in the beavers. The group releases beavers into national forests or to private landowners who want the animals because their dam-building leads to healthier ponds, she said.
Everett also will look into buying equipment that allows beavers to live in ponds while preventing dams that block drainage pipes, said Tom Thetford, the city’s public works director.
Snohomish County already uses such devices, which include a partially submerged fence and perforated pipes that take in water at numerous points rather than in just one large hole, said Jake Jacobson, watershed steward for the county.
"We see these as a better long-term solution," Jacobson said.
After beavers are removed, others often take their place and cause the same damming problem, he said. The county has installed such devices in about 20 spots, he said.
Young, the trapper, said that in the absence of such devices, kill traps are a more humane way to deal with beaver problems than traps that lure live beavers into shallow water and confine them. Beavers can contract pneumonia and eventually die if their wet coats are exposed to cold air as they wait for a trapper to take them away, he said.
There are large land-based traps, but few beavers venture onto dry land, Young said.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife requires cities to use nonlethal methods of trapping beavers if that is possible, said Sean Carrell, the agency’s problem wildlife program coordinator.
Carrell said he authorized Young to use kill traps largely because nonlethal methods were impractical in this case. Carrell said trappers complain that people often steal their land traps.
Jane Zimmerman, a senior engineer with Everett Public Works, said the city is looking into the feasibility of live traps. The hope, she said, is to install devices similar to the ones Snohomish County uses.
Reporter David Olson: 425-339-3452 or dolson@heraldnet.com.
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