Suit Seeks to Bar Killing of Beavers That Threaten Songbird Habitat

Charging that the planned killing of about 10 beavers that are endangering a songbird habitat is cruel and unwarranted, an animal welfare group sued the state Department of Fish and Game on Friday in an attempt to stop it.

The state’s decision to issue permits allowing the trapping and destruction of the beavers was illegal, said an attorney for the group, because it was not environmentally justified and was made without public discussion.

Attorney Mitchell S. Wagner, representing the recently formed Friends of Lake Skinner Wildlife, said he expects that a hearing on his request for a temporary restraining order will be held early next week in Riverside.

State officials, meanwhile, said they had no intention of halting the trapping, which began two nights ago near Lake Skinner, because the beavers are destroying a seasonal nesting habitat of two species of endangered songbirds.

Officials noted that in 1998 more than 500 beavers were killed in California with state or federal approval--generating none of the controversy associated with the planned trapping of beavers near the Lake Skinner reservoir.

Fish and Game spokesman Pat Moore said state game wardens are required to issue trapping permits if they confirm that animals are damaging property.

A consortium of federal, state and county conservation agencies said about 20 beavers that live along Lake Skinner are destroying cottonwood and willow trees in the wildlife reserve. The trees are used for nesting by the least Bell’s vireo and the willow flycatcher.

Twenty beavers will be trapped and the first 10 will be relocated. But authorities say they have not found qualified refuges for the rest, so they will be killed when they are caught.

Wagner contended in his lawsuit that California’s environmental laws require public hearings on actions that may substantially alter the environment. The removal of 20 beavers, he said, would do exactly that.

Beavers are not endangered, and can be trapped for recreational and commercial purposes in winter by licensed hunters.

So far, no beavers have been caught, Jud Monroe, manager of the Lake Skinner reserve, said Friday. But the trapping will resume on Monday.