Volunteers swamp city park to save beavers
By Greg Kielec
Donna Dubreuil watched with a keen eye as a group of volunteers assembled an un- wieldy mixture of wire cage, a large plas- tic drain tube and a cement block together next to a pond on Guindon Park on Thurs- day. The president of the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre had good reason to take in first-hand the work of a small group of vol- unteers from across North America trying to convince the city of Cornwall to permanently abandon its practice of trapping and killing beavers. It took Guidon Park neighbour Wyatt Walsh and Rebecca Sorrell, the founder of Cornwall’s populist Save the Beavers groups just weeks to convince city officials what wildlife advocates in Ottawa have been try- ing to accomplish for years. “We’re hoping to use this to embarrass Ot- tawa,” Dubreuil said matter-of-factly as vol- unteers toiled in the sweltering heat to install their final pond leveler, a contraption created byMike Callahan, founder of Massachusetts- based Beaver Solutions in the United States. Callahan was one of about a dozen volun- teers toiling in Guindon Park last week to in- stall non-lethal pond levelers designed to allow beavers to do what they do naturally without flooding adjoining roads and lands in the park at the western edge of the city, bordered by County Road 2 to the north and the huge Ontario Power Generation Dam to the north. “I think it’s important because it will be a working example of what can be done and hopefully inspire other people to do the same thing,” Callahan said. “What I find gratifiying by doing things like this I feel like I’m solving problems for peo- ple, but also helping the environment by keeping the beavers on the landscape and all the bio-diversity and other benefits that beaver dams have for people and the envi- ronment.” Also pitching in was Adrian Nelson, com- munications director for B.C. based The Fur- A Cornwall city councillor is incredulous after some members tried again to gang up on him during an in camera less than three months after adopting a report forbidding the practice. Councillor Andre Rivette walked out of an in camera session preceding Monday night’s open council session after some members of council raised an interview he conducted with The Journal and Cornwall Free News on July 4. Rivette conducted the interview to com- plain about how a retirement deal for Paul Fitzpatrick, the city’s chief administrative officer, was never brought to full council for approval, despite assurances from pro- ponents of the deal that would happen. Sitting in last Monday’s in camera session, he heard talk of preparing the projector to By Greg Kielec
Photos by Greg Kielec Rebecca Sorrell, above right, of Cornwall’s Save the Beavers group watches as Mike Callahan, top right, of Beaver Solutions inMas- sachusetts and local resident Wyatt Walsh install a leveler in a beaver pond in Guindon Park. Bottom left, Kate MacNeil of the Ot- tawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre digs away at the remants at the dam in a stream east of the large beaver pond. Bottom right, Adrian Nelson of B.C.-based The Fur-Bearer Defenders pulls large drain pipe with MacNeil to complete the final pond leveler at the park.
Bearer Defenders which offered its services free of charge to the city in an effort to con- vince the city to abandon kill traps it had been using in the park. “I know that these are a really simple to build and I think these will act as an excellent model for the city staff to follow for future problems,” said Adrian, who met with city officials before and after the project to brief them on the work by volunteers. A beaming Sorrell was exuberant as volun- teers gathered for a roadside break after in- stalling the final pond leveler Thursday afternoon. “There was a lot of bumps and bruises along the road to get us here,” she said. But she is optimistic the levelers will work well enough to convince the city to abandon beaver kill traps in the park altogether. greg.kielec@eap.on.ca
Councillor walks out of closed session over media interview
closed meeting investigator Stephen Fournier which faulted council for dis- cussing the media interview in camera and set guidelines for what can be discussed be- hind closed doors. “I’ve pushed. I’ve tried to do right the last 11-12 years,” Rivette said. But he concedes he may have finally hit a wall. He does not want to call for another probe by council’s closed meeting investigator Stephen Fournier because of the cost to tax- payers. The investigation by Fournier this spring cost the city $2,832, including the $125 fee charged to Rivette. “There’s not much I can do on this issue,” Rivette said. Follow @gkielec on Twitter and the Cornwall Journal page on Facebook. For breaking news, go to www.editionap.ca and click on The Journal.
agenda for the in camera session, Rivette said. He walked out of the session around 6 p.m., about an hour and fifteen minutes before council finally exited the closed meeting. Mayor Bob Kilger, in an email to The Jour- nal last Tuesday, refused to comment on the incident, citing the confidential nature of the in camera discussion. “Any ‘In-camera’ meeting subject matter must remain confidential. I will continue to uphold my obligations in this regard,” he wrote in his email. Kilger conceded at an April 23 meeting that he dropped the ball in allowing coun- cil members to gang up on Rivette during a closed council session on Feb. 27 in re- sponse to an interview he did complaining about the burgeoning cost of payouts and legal fees relating to former staff. Council subsequently adopted a report by
“I think other people have to
take the lead, ba- sically the taxpay- ers of Cornwall.” Andre Rivette City councillor
play the video of his most recent interview with The Journal and The Cornwall Free News. His fears were confirmed when Mayor Bob Kilger said Rivette’s interview was the next thing to be discussed in the closed session. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard it,” Rivette said in an interview last week with The Journal. “I just could believe what I was hearing.” The interview was the last item on the
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