Looks like South Carolina pulled a ‘Martinez’ – with fairly predictable olefactory consequences. Seems something was wrong with the dam and they decided that beavers were digging holes in the 40 year old bank and endangering it. They must have used the same underwater psychic team as our city council did to know that those holes actually existed. Since they couldn’t afford a block of sheetpile, they just dropped the water level to repair them by hand.
How far down were these alleged holes? Well, when they dropped the water level all the fish in the lake died off and have been laying around in a smelly puddle for birds to poke out. Here’s Skip Lisle’s thoughts on beaver holes. Being as its summer that lake won’t be refilled any time soon, and folks are upset that their favorite fishing hole has been taken out of commission for a generation.
Of course the brilliant minds at work here used the ‘blame-the-beaver-defense’ to justify their decision. Never mind that even if the beavers WERE DIGGING BANK HOLES they wouldn’t have been more than a foot or two below the water level.
The commission warned residents in November the lake would slowly be drained in May, but Pate says it was like pulling a plug on a bath tub. Pate was told the lake would be drained just 9 feet so engineers could repair the holes. He said from Friday night to Saturday morning the lake went from almost full pond to nearly dry.
They were just aiming for nine feet but needed to go the whole thirty? Gosh, I hope those dangerous beaver holes were repaired! You know how destructive those deep underwater beaver caverns can be for a lake.
Surely the good minds of York couldn’t have killed off all those fish for some other reason! Like a need to do some structural repairs that had nothing whatsoever to do with beavers? Maybe some engineering error they were hoping could be fixed with just a nine foot water drop? Or maybe someone lost their wedding ring in the process and just had to get it back? Or found a map suggesting there were some of these at the bottom?
Oh and the best part?
The beavers that caused the trouble in the first place have been trapped and relocated. Repairs on the damn [sic that is really their error] are to begin this week.
Call me a cynic, but If those beavers have been ‘relocated’ anywhere other than the ‘AFTERLIFE”, I will eat a bug.
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The plot thickens, I wrote the reporter and the coordinator of the Watershed responsible for this decision, and sent them both skip’s article.
Your remarkable story about the draining of the lake in York should be full of question marks. How did the commission know that beavers had made holes in the dam? How did they know that they were causing a structural problem? More importantly any reporter should investigate the claim enough to find the documented fact that when beavers dig holes they are rarely lower than a FOOT below the surface. The proposed ‘nine foot drop’ would have been more than sufficient for observing AND repairing any beaver damage. The fact that they drained the entire lake means that the damage had nothing whatsoever to do with beavers, and this deception should have been your real story.
Barbara wrote back to set the record straight…
Heidi,
I don’t know who you are or why you are under the false impression that this lake was drained. It was only drained enough to expose the portion of the bank where the beaver dams are and provide enough dry land around the damage to get equipment to the site. I just returned from an inspection of the bush hogging that has just taken place there in preparation for a site showing for potential contractors who wish to bid on the work. There is plenty of water in the lake –(looks like it only was taken down 5-6 feet) and there are 19 beaver holes flagged. That much damage on the bank of the dam constitutes a threat to the integrity of the dam for flood control. Local and state officials inspect the dams regularly and have noted the beaver damage and prescribed the repairs necessary. There was no deception here – our Watershed Board has the responsibility of maintaining these flood control dams and are doing their job. The fact that some carp died (which the buzzards cleaned up in less than 48 hours) and one property owner’s grandson was upset because he spent money to stock the lake with fish (which no one even knew about) was blown out of proportion by the reporters. There is no story here – no beavers were harmed, the fish stock is renewable, and the 22 property owners around the lake will be glad that the dam will prevent future property damage from flooding.
Barbara O’ConnellDistrict Coordinator
York Soil and Water Conservation District
1460 E. Alexander Love Highway York, SC 29745 803-684-3137 x 101
barbara.oconnell@sc.nacdnet.net
Hmm. Thanks for your prompt response and since you were mighty hard to find I can’t image you’ve gotten many letters besides mine. That’s a pretty big discrepancy. Apparently either the lake was drained or it wasn’t and either a lot of fish or killed or they won’t. Since we’re in California and Barbara didn’t include a photo of either the lake, the holes or the beavers I can only wonder.
