The Department of Natural Resources is investigating after some Fredericton-area residents have raised concerns about the recent destruction of beaver habitat along the New Maryland Highway.

Colleen Tayler says she saw a crew using a backhoe last week to tear down a beaver dam and lodge and drain a pond located between the Costco, on Wayne Squibb Boulevard, and the Trans-Canada Highway.

She calls the destruction "shameful and needless".

She says at least two beavers have since been struck and killed on the road.

Tayler believes the animals were trying to cross to other nearby marshy land.

Now she's worried there may be beaver pups left to die without their parents.

"I am furious," Tayler said in an email to CBC News.

"Every day as I drove by the pond, the children in my school bus and I looked for the beavers and watched their daily activity with interest," she wrote.

"Sadly, one early morning a few days ago, for reasons I just can't fathom, I watched with disappointment as someone went alongside the beaver pond, and using a backhoe, totally destroyed the beavers' dam and lodge.

"Why the unnecessary encroachment?"

Tayler is waiting to hear back from the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environment.