By Colleen Cronin/ ecoRI News staff

June 8, 2022

Share

• https://ecori.org/cumberland-abandons-plan-to-trap-nuisance-beavers-because-state-law-requires-they-be-killed-not-relocated/

Cumberland officials recently scrapped a plan to trap beavers. (istock)

CUMBERLAND, R.I. — A town plan to trap “nuisance” beavers to reduce the flooding they cause has been halted after a town official learned the captured animals would be killed.

Mayor Jeff Mutter said the town stopped trapping beavers after a newsarticleon the plan was published May 19, and he became aware the beavers would be killed and not relocated.

“We suspended the activity the very next day,” Mutter said. He explained that at the time of approving the action, he didn’t realize state law required trapped beavers be killed unless they were released back into the same area.

“I should have been aware,” he said. When the article was published, two individuals reached out to him about the lethal action, and the trapping was immediately…