Hundreds of residents rally to save beavers that made a home in suburban neighborhood

CHICAGO — They’re making protest signs. They’re signing petitions. They’re holding rallies.

And they’re doing it all to save the beavers.

Residents are protesting the possible trapping and killing of a couple of suburban rodents after a homeowners association board said it planned to remove beavers that have posted up in the retention ponds of a Glenview development.

In recent days, more than 600 people have joined a Facebook group: Glenview Residents Against Drowning Beavers in Underwater Traps! Dozens have gathered near the den with protest signs featuring phrases like, “Leave the dam beavers alone.” An online petition to save the beavers has received nearly 2,000 signatures.

Rachel Siegel, a Glenview resident and organizer of the effort, said some dogs were wearing “Save the beavers” shirts at a recent rally.

“It is heartening to see that people care about these two little sentient beings who are just minding their own business, being beavers, living their best lives,” Siegel said.

For now, the beavers’ fate is unclear. The Concord at the Glen homeowners association board and its management company, Cagan Management Group, said future action is on pause.

“Concord at the Glen homeowners association and its board of directors is continuing their due diligence in this matter and after thorough research and careful consideration a decision will be made,” the board said in a statement. “At this time, any planned action has been postponed.”

Cagan supports the humane treatment of wildlife, the company said in a separate statement. “We trust that after the HOA’s Board of Directors research and investigation into all possible options is complete, an amicable solution will be presented and this situation will be resolved in an ethical manner,” the statement said.

In the meantime, the beavers’ advocates are hoping a peaceful fix prevails.

“They’re building this environment here, yet when the wildlife shows up that they’re encouraging, they come, and what? They want to kill it now? It just makes no sense,” said resident Kara Busiel. “I just don’t think a beaver should be killed simply for acting like a beaver.”

The homeowners association petitioned Glenview in 2007 to landscape the ponds to “enhance the native landscaping, to improve the esthetic quality of the area and to provide an increased natural traffic noise barrier for the neighborhood,” according a letter from the board, sent over the weekend. The homeowners association is responsible for maintenance of the ponds, according to the letter, and is required to replace damaged or deteriorating landscaping.

Busiel said she received notice last week from Cagan that the beavers were damaging trees and would be removed. ”Trapping to remove the beavers from the grounds” would begin April 5, according to the notice.

Cagan manager Kathleen Markland did not respond to questions, including if “trapping to remove” the beavers involved drowning the rodents.

Busiel said she called to ask about the removal and was told underwater traps would be used. She alerted neighbors to the potential drowning of the beavers and posted on social media, which led to a groundswell of support and an organized effort to save the animals.

Busiel said she was walking her dog Monday when a police officer pulled over to check the rodents out.

“Everybody wants to see the beavers,” Busiel said.

The weekend letter from the board offered residents further information about the beavers but said no decision had been made. The board said it had two main responsibilities to homeowners: safety and managing financial resources wisely.

The board, with Cagan, turned to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the village of Glenview and two wildlife removal contractors for recommendations, according to the letter. Wrapping trees with wire mesh, grating tributaries that lead to the ponds and removal of the beavers were among suggested options.

The letter said relocation was not recommended by the Department of Natural Resources because it can be a difficult process.

There are a few options for dealing with beavers, which are protected wildlife and have to be removed per state statute. Trapping and relocating beavers is an option with a nuisance animal removal permit, but that comes with meeting specific criteria, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

“Essentially, relocating nuisance animals is often a less-desirable option because those animals can easily continue destructive behavior in a new area, spread disease to healthy populations, survival of transported and relocated animals is usually low due to stress and the animals’ inability to find established resources, and suitable habitat is already saturated or difficult to find,” the department’s spokeswoman, Rachel Torbert, said in a statement.

Additionally, deterrents like wrapping trees “only go so far,” according to the department, and beavers are capable of causing significant damage.

“Beaver populations in Illinois are very healthy, so removing animals which are causing damage does not harm the overall population,” Torbert said.

A nuisance wildlife control operator, permitted by the state, can also be hired for “removal” — which includes lethal and nonlethal options. But most “work with homeowners, businesses and HOAs to educate landowners if they see other ways to reduce conflict with wildlife rather than removing problem animals,” according to the Department of Natural Resources.

In the weekend letter, the homeowners association board estimated costs of wrapping and replacing trees, and removing stumps, at about $25,000, and said the costs would reduce funds available in annual assessments and recur without further action.

Organizers found the estimate to be extreme, and said efforts were underway to raise funds or encourage local nurseries to donate trees. They also worry that even if the beavers are trapped, more beavers could eventually move in.

Organizers say they’d like to expand the effort to educate the public about alternative courses of action when dealing with nuisance beavers.

The Glenview beavers are not the first in the Chicago area to draw crowds. A family of beavers on the Northwestern University campus became a welcome sight for some visitors, who posted photos of the rodents on Instagram and left them willow branches.

Beavers were likely once nearly extinct in Illinois. In the lower Great Lakes basin, beavers really returned in the 1970s, Chris Anchor, a wildlife biologist with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, previously told the Tribune.

“The water quality in general has improved dramatically in the last 40 years,” Anchor said. “So because these species are generalists, it has improved their ability to live amongst us, and they took advantage of it.”

By Monday night, there were signs of hope for the Glenview beavers, as residents spotted a vehicle from Suburban Wildlife Control. Owner Brad Lundsteen said he was working on a bid to capture the beavers alive and relocate them.

Siegel, the Glenview organizer, said she has “an affection toward beavers,” dating to “Paddy,” a book she read growing up about a Canadian naturalist who ends up raising a kit — baby beavers that start arriving in spring after the winter mating season.

“The thrill you get when you see a bald eagle in the wild is sort of similar to the thrill you get when you see a beaver swimming around a pond,” Siegel said. “It’s just kind of magical.”