It's man vs. beaver at Canada ski resort

SUSSEX, New Brunswick, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- It's man versus beaver at the Poley Mountain ski hill in Canada and so far the beavers are winning, the resort's management admits.

The resort, located near Sussex, New Brunswick, pumps water from a pond to supply its snow-making equipment. But the pond has become home to some busy beavers, who haven't taken kindly to the water being siphoned off, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Saturday.

Poley Mountain risk manager Jamie Hare says the nocturnal, semi-aquatic rodents have foiled the staff's efforts to make snow by doing what beavers do -- damming up the supply lines at night.

"You can have it fine 1 minute, and an hour later it would be plugged up again solid," Hare told the CBC. "And the problem is, now we're getting a coat of ice over our pond so it's hard for us to work … and they can work underneath the ice.

"We had it all cleaned out once, but they moved back in. So we knew it was kind of useless for us to do it again."

Fortunately for the resort, which has resorted to bringing in water from another site at higher cost, there has been plenty of natural snow, so skiers haven't suffered.

Resort management will tackle the beavers again in the spring when it will take another shot at fencing them out of the pond.

"The Canadian beaver -- not lazy. That's my perception of beavers," Hare said in sizing up his opponent.