We have visited the town of Franklin, Massachusetts before. The town is th
e site of the very first library in America, created by the donation of books from Benjamin Franklin himself. It has a beautiful 136-acre nature reserve that it recently decided to turn into a formal park. And guess what’s there mucking up all that nature? Obviously the town is unaware of it’s patron’s affection for the animal. Or how he cast them as the noble creature that bravely fought the British. I wonder if someone like me will write them and tell them.
FRANKLIN — Local officials are weighing what to do with a colony of beavers whose natural handiwork threatens an earthen berm at DelCarte Reservation off Pleasant Street.
An expert from ESS Group, an environmental engineering firm, walked around the ponds and other parts of the reservation on April 7 looking for signs of beaver busywork. After discovering that the critters were indeed making themselves at home, ESS installed a motion-activated camera for 13 days.
Four beaver lodges were found along the shoreline, two of which appear to be in use. One dam in the area is blocking water flow from the upper basin to the southern basin. The dam is flooding trees near a berm on the upper basin, or pond, according to an ESS study. That could be a problem if the berm continues to flood.
“There are undesirable conditions which, over time or during a large rainfall event, could lead to erosion of the earthen berm and potentially impact its structural integrity,” ESS reports.
ESS recommends removing the dam but first clearing trees from the berm. Beavers would use those trees to rebuild their dam. If the problem continues, experts suggest trapping and moving the beavers elsewhere.
The study also suggested the town employ a dam safety engineer to inspect the berm to ensure it does not erode.
“Keeping a berm stable is not too much money,” said ESS Vice President Carl Nielsen. “Building a new berm is very expensive.” The Conservation Commission will discuss the results beginning Aug. 10.
“From Mass Audubon’s prospective, unless there is a direct conflict, the general message is to leave them alone,” Lautzenheiser said. “Beavers are a keystone species in our ecosystems. A lot of the other animals would not be in the landscape without beavers.”Trapping beavers without a license is illegal in Massachusetts, however trappers can perform emergency trapping at any time if authorized by the town. Beaver populations in the state have fluctuated , and their numbers are now back up where they once were.
“When beavers returned to Massachusetts and other places, it was heralded as a conservation success,” Lautzenheiser said. “I think the negative interactions they have with roads and development, greatly overshadows the value that they have ecologically, which is a shame.”
Mass Wildlife furbearer biologist, Dave Wattles, said that since a regulation was passed in 2001 to give municipal conservation agencies the power to grant emergency beaver trapping licenses, Mass Wildlife has not been able to keep any sort of record on beaver populations. Wattles said his department also has little to no control over trapping license administration. He said he hopes towns will consider non-lethal and practical methods.
The best and most effective method is water diversion pipes, he said. The pipes, also known as “beaver deceivers,” are placed through the dam and into the middle of the pond, allowing water to flow freely through the pipe. This method effectively confuses the beavers, while the water evens out on both sides of the dam.
The pipes require regular maintenance and care to ensure they don’t become blocked. The town of Medfield used that method in 2015 to divert water at the Fork Factory Reservation to prevent flooding on Rte. 109.
In Franklin, flooding has yet to be a problem, and some residents, like neighbor, Karen Baumgartner, of 7 Matthew Drive, are enjoying the natural view from their own backyards.
“Honestly I go down there pretty frequently and I’ve only seen a beaver once,” she said. “Frankly, we love it. We’ve never had any flooding. They kind of joined the ponds together, so we have a water view. … We love the land, and I think that any creature that wants to live there, should.”
The study also suggested the town employ a dam safety engineer to inspect the berm to ensure it does not erode.
“Keeping a berm stable is not too much money,” said ESS Vice President Carl Nielsen. “Building a new berm is very expensive.”
The Conservation Commission will discuss the results beginning Aug. 10.
Conservation Agent George Russell said, “We had a study done that shows there’s a significant beaver population out there, and as usual they’re extremely industrious.”
Options for beaver problems that other municipalities have used including lethal and non-lethal trapping, said Tom Lautzenheiser, central western regional scientist for Mass Audubon.
Kill traps spark an ethical chord for Lautzenheiser, while live-trapping seems nonsensical because once beavers are released, they just dam up some other river.
“From Mass Audubon’s prospective, unless there is a direct conflict, the general message is to leave them alone,” Lautzenheiser said. “Beavers are a keystone species in our ecosystems. A lot of the other animals would not be in the landscape without beavers.”Trapping beavers without a license is illegal in Massachusetts, however trappers can perform emergency trapping at any time if authorized by the town.
Beaver populations in the state have fluctuated , and their numbers are now back up where they once were.
“When beavers returned to Massachusetts and other places, it was heralded as a conservation success,” Lautzenheiser said. “I think the negative interactions they have with roads and development, greatly overshadows the value that they have ecologically, which is a shame.”
Mass Wildlife furbearer biologist, Dave Wattles, said that since a regulation was passed in 2001 to give municipal conservation agencies the power to grant emergency beaver trapping licenses, Mass Wildlife has not been able to keep any sort of record on beaver populations.
Wattles said his department also has little to no control over trapping license administration. He said he hopes towns will consider non-lethal and practical methods.
The best and most effective method is water diversion pipes, he said. The pipes, also known as “beaver deceivers,” are placed through the dam and into the middle of the pond, allowing water to flow freely through the pipe. This method effectively confuses the beavers, while the water evens out on both sides of the dam.
The pipes require regular maintenance and care to ensure they don’t become blocked. The town of Medfield used that method in 2015 to divert water at the Fork Factory Reservation to prevent flooding on Rte. 109.
In Franklin, flooding has yet to be a problem, and some residents, like neighbor, Karen Baumgartner, of 7 Matthew Drive, are enjoying the natural view from their own backyards.
“Honestly I go down there pretty frequently and I’ve only seen a beaver once,” she said. “Frankly, we love it. We’ve never had any flooding. They kind of joined the ponds together, so we have a water view. … We love the land, and I think that any creature that wants to live there, should.”
Poor beleaguered Massachusetts, it’s just Franklin’s bad luck that they ended up with those rare INDUSTRIOUS beavers. And that they are a fully 88 miles away from the man that could fix this in a moment. (Mike Callahan at beaver solutions) And that they are so penny wise and dam-foolish that they think that the law requiring LIVE traps means that the beavers get to LIVE. Hahaha, foolish little children. They don’t realize that live trapping in the bay state means you have to trap them live and then kill them immediately after. No relocation is allowed. And finally, poor little Massachusetts that thinks the beaver population is what it once was.
I wish I had time for more sustained mocking because everyone but the Audubon fellow deserves plenty. But there are things to pack and beavers to festival! And yesterday we got a last minute addition to the silent auction from Johnna Eilers of Utah at Wild Unforgotten. She’s such the artist she even sketched the envelope, as you can see left. The necklace is a simple beaver of hammered silver with tiny cascading turquoise beads and among the most lovely we have ever been given. Go check out all Johnna’s hand stamped, hand sawed creations, because they are breathtaking. She’s a wildlife biologist in the field by day and a talented jewelmith by night! Thank you Johnna!
I’m still trying to put my finger on why yesterday’s beaver festival felt different. Attendance was smaller than in past years, but more cheerful and appreciative. People came from longer distances specifically to be there, and were more appreciative of the event. No one was surprised about the beaver in Martinez, but people were earnestly eager to see their children focus on nature and learn more about the good work that beavers do.
