For a city that has too many beavers, there are no simple solutions.

In Elk Grove, residents have mixed emotions about the city's decision to kill the animals in recent months. Should the beavers be relocated? they ask. Should they be sterilized?

Local experts say no and no.

Longtime environmental volunteer Mary Tappel says she understands Elk Grove's need to control its rising beaver population and why it has resorted to killing them.

The city would have fared better in limiting public outcry if it had started its population control efforts before the animals' construction projects had begun to take their toll on waterways and detention basins, said Tappel, a biologist who works part time as an environmental scientist for the state Water Resources Control Board.

In addition, resident involvement would have brought a better understanding of the need to control the beaver population, she said.

Her comments came a week after reports that the city had entered into a $20,000 contract with an office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to kill beavers.

So far, 51 beavers have been killed under the contract.