By W. F. ROBINSON
Our first canoe trip of the '76 season couldn't have had better weather if we had personally ordered it from Norm Grohman. Not a cloud in the sky and very little wind made ideal water conditions for paddling about in the Pitt marsh. We had a pretty good turnout, with 16 people in six canoes. It’s a bit difficult to see or hear very much with that many people all together, so we separated into two groups. That way, the wildlife disturbed by the first group had time to resettle before the next group arrived.
On our way into the marsh, we had a rather unnerving experience. Noticing little flourescent tags tied to the brush every few feet along the side of the small waterway leading to the main slough, we stopped to investigate. They were marking the location of strategically placed steel traps set at the entrance of every little muskrat burrow along the shore. We were told, a few weeks ago, that the muskrat population was too high in the Green Belt, so it would seem they are being killed simply as a “population control measure" by the Fish and Wildlife Branch. Some of the traps were the Conibear type which kills instantly, but the others were the old leg-hold style which must be set in the water or on a float so that the animal drowns in an attempt to escape. Many of these traps were out of the water, the water levels obviously having dropped since the traps were set out, which leads one to wonder how long they had been left unattended. Several of the Conibear traps contained dead muskrats, some of them looking as though they had been there for some time. Further along, as we dragged our canoes over the small beaver dam, we saw two large beaver traps set into the sides of the lodge. Apparently they are practising population control on the beaver, too.
Still further out, in the main marsh, we saw that the large muskrat mounds had traps set at every entrance. None of these traps were set off, which seems to indicate that the muskrat family which built and inhabited these mounds has probably been wiped out. Or “removed”, as the F&W phrase it. - Looking over the open spaces of the main marsh, we counted 17 bald eagles, mostly immatures. Some were sitting on the muskrat mounds, some flying low over the marsh and others sitting in the bare poplar trees along the old ditchlines. At this time of the year, one of the main food sources for the eagles would be the muskrats. A raptor count the day before had listed 31 bald eagles for the Pitt Meadows area. The same count revealed 33 red-tailed hawks. Since both these raptors feed upon muskrats and since, as the F&W themselves stated, the mink were also preying upon them, the installation of the trapline would seem to be an unnecessary additional “control”. - At this point, I would like to inform the public at large that, as members of the Advisory Committee for the management of the Pitt Polder Green Belt(or the Pitt Management Area), the Alouette Field Naturalists were told nothing about the “control” of muskrats or beaver in the Pitt marsh. Had we been consulted, we would not have given our approval for either move. Whether it would have made any difference or not, is debatable, but it would have been on record. I think we, the Public, must decide whether we are going to allow wildlife in the Green Belt to fluctuate normally from year to year, or whether we are going to enforce man's own ideas of “proper population levels” by shooting,trapping, poisoning whatever. Naturalists, I am sure, abhor the idea of this type of interference, but there are others who condone it and prefer the ordered regulation of current management practises. A sort of wildlife “farm” where “crops" are raised and “harvested” and the “noxious weeds” removed in favour of “productive plants”. To use this area for “nature education” of school children, under these circumstances, would be meaningless. What they would be learning would be wildlife management, instead. There is a difference. Apart from our disturbing discovery of the traplines, we had a very enjoyable field trip with everyone turning up, eventually, at the landing. Some sunburned faces and a few aching muscles are mute testimonials to a day well-spent.
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