By Chris Carr

Government provides money for pest control

Mar 9, 2011 | 8:45 AM

The provincial government is setting $500,000 aside to control the beaver population in rural areas.

And farmers hope the pilot project will help keep tens of thousands of dollars from flowing out of their their pockets.

President of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities David Marit welcomed the announcement today, at this week's annual convention in Saskatoon.

“We passed it yesterday, and we got the money today, so that's pretty good news,” said Marit.

With a dramatic decrease in trapping, the beaver population has thrived in recent years.

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In fact, about 11, 000 beavers were trapped last year. That's down from just over 28,000 about a decade ago.

This new money will remove beavers, and their dams, from where they are causing significant damage to farmers fields.

Agricultural Minister Bob Bjornerud said with severe flooding expected this spring, today's announcement is a timely one.

“Beaver houses, and beaver huts out there, there's a lot of blockages out there,” said Bjornerud. “We know with the water it's going to come very quickly, and as the weather warms up the problem is going to be magnified very, very, quickly,” said Bjornerud.

One delegate from the RM of Keys suspects beavers had a lot to do with roughly 12 million hectares of land going unseeded last year.

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