State removing ‘nuisance’ beavers near Exeter dam
(Translation: ‘Nuisance beaver’ = Beaver).
EXETER — The state has hired a wildlife control operator who began trapping a group of beavers that built a dam off Brentwood Road and caused water from Little River to spill onto nearby properties, according to town and state officials.
Town officials asked for the state’s help in dealing with the beavers as Brentwood Road/Route 111A is a state road. If the town had to pay to have the beavers trapped, it could have cost as much as $3,000, Town Manager Russ Dean said.
Neighbors have complained about the flooding since they noticed the waters of Little River rising. In a letter sent to town officials in November when the problem first began, Dr. Thomas Oxnard, a Greenleaf Drive resident, said the water level “has been approaching the road for the last few years.”
The dam is in the woods across from Greenleaf Drive.
“In the past, heavy rain storms have flooded over the road and at times closed the road to traffic,” Oxnard wrote. “I fear this will happen again.”
He also noted the beaver dam has caused large areas of “standing water on both sides of the road and the woods.”
I know it is uncharitable of me to refer to concerned citizens of the Granite State as “Whining” but I can’t help it. This postage stamp of a state is surrounded on all sides by beaver experts who could fix that flooding with a flow device in less time than it takes to wash the license plates where their snappy motto appears. (Did you know, in 1971 the legislature mandated that ‘Live Free or Die’ would replace the boring old motto SCENIC – which explains a lot.) If you lived in New Hampshire you could barely walk out your door or swing a dead cat without hitting someone who knows how to handle this problem much smarter. Vermont fits together snugly with the state like horses stand nose to tail, or some other well-known numerical positions. Skip Lisle, the inventor of the beaver deceiver, with more than 30 years of expertise in this area is 122 miles a way and could fix this problem in his sleep.
(For problem-solving comparisons: Martinez brought Skip 3000 miles to handle our flooding concerns. New Hampshire can’t stroll across the dam state line to find answers?)
More than 90 percent of the time, trappers set up the traps to kill the beavers, Tate said. “In my experience there’s no sense relocating them because they just cause problems somewhere else,” he said.
Exeter Highway Superintendent Jay Perkins said it’s far from unusual for beavers to cause problems by damming up a stream or a river. “It’s New England,” he said.
Tate said despite efforts to address the Exeter situation, the problem statewide is not going to go away. “Beaver nuisance situations have been occurring since the presence of beavers,” Tate said. “They’ve always been present in New Hampshire and they’ve always caused problems.”
Yes beavers have always caused problems. Except for the during friggin’ fur trade when they made the greedy bastards come here in the first place. Honestly, this story just steams my cup. The reporter’s name for this story happens to be Jeff McMenemy. Which I can really, really believe.
He’s certainly no McFriend of beavers.
Graphic: Schematic Drawing from Mike Callahan’s Flexible Leveler.
