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Beaver friendly Meadow Lakes starts selling season passes

Whitehorse's Meadow Lakes Golf Resort has decided to begin selling season passes for unlimited golf next season. The passes include beaver-viewing at no extra cost.
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Whitehorse’s Meadow Lakes Golf Resort has decided to begin selling season passes for unlimited golf next season.

The passes include beaver-viewing at no extra cost.

A family of four beavers currently calls a pond between the sixth and seventh holes home. As the winter months approach, they have been busy as, well, beavers building a lodge.

The beavers bravely cross fairways to take down trees, chewing through a new wood fence when necessary.

You’d think management would be ready to give them the boot, but that’s not the case.

“It’s unbelievable the amount of people that comment on them,” said general manager Johnny Enns. “Just in the last couple of weeks I’ve caught people walking down number nine and I go, ‘Can I help you?’ ‘Oh yeah, just going to show my wife the beavers.’

“I even called Copper Ridge (Place) care facility to let them know, if they want to bring some residents out and view the beavers.”

It is believed the beavers, which share their pond with two muskrats, have been wintering at the course the last three to five years.

They were originally living in the pond between holes 5 and 8, but owner Jeff Luehmann encouraged them to relocate over concerns of them harming a water fountain and damming a stream that flows through the course.

The beavers have actually made hole 9 a little more accommodating, clearing trees and making it easier for golfers to cut the corner and reach the green.

“(Luehmann) has no problem with them taking down trees on nine,” said Enns. “In fact, he helps them; he cuts them down as well and will actually throw them in the pond. He did that a lot last year for various parts of the golf course.”

Meadow Lakes has given the beavers a free pass and are selling season passes for golfers for the first time in the resort’s 15-year history. Golfers can now purchase passes for unlimited play next season at the nine-hole executive course.

“We’ve had a lot of requests and a lot of people asking why we don’t sell yearly memberships, so we decided it would be a trial year,” said Enns. “We’ll see how it goes after next year.”

“We’re going to try a limited amount of memberships for next year at $950 plus GST, and that’s unlimited golf. The early-bird special that we have running right now until the end of October is a 10 per cent discount.”

Meadow Lakes will continue to sell “non-prime” season passes for the third year. The non-prime passes offer unlimited play Monday to Friday, from open to 3 p.m. “They’ve been increasing every year and we’ll do it again for a third year in 2014,” said Enns.

For more information contact the resort at 668-4653, info@meadowlakesgolfresort.com or at the clubhouse before the end of the month.

“We do have ideas for next year that we’ll be working on over the winter and I think we’ll emphasize a few more tournaments,” added Enns.

Meadow Lakes management hopes to keep the course open through this weekend.

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com