Milton Massachusetts is an affluent suburb south of Boston. It’s a fair bet that its residents are more educated than most and their city leaders tend to respect that. The area hit the climate sweet spot with terrible winters, hot humid summers and the most wind of literally anywhere in the country.

So if folks are going to walk around a beaver pond every day in that city you know they’re committed.

Leave it to the beavers

Although it sounded dire for a while when an emergency order about them appeared on the Board of Health’s agenda, it turned out to be a good day in the end for the Turner’s Pond beavers.

A pair of elusive beavers who have built a lodge around a bend at Turner’s Pond have apparently won over the hearts of many of Milton residents who make a circle around the pond part of their daily walk.

When the Board of Health’s March 19 agenda listed that the emergency order which could have led to the pair’s removal was posted, many on social media sprang to their defense, while most said they had never seen them, only the occasional gnawed tree.

Springing to beaver defense on social media! I like the way that sounds. Remember that in Massachusetts the board of health has the final say on whether beavers can be killed. And lethal trapping is only allowed when special circumstances have met.

Of course the list of exceptions is as long as your tallest brothers arm and people routinely live trap beavers and then shoot or gas because relocation is illegal. But hey, they tried to be humane., Turns out its really hard.,

A handful of residents showed up for the hearing with copies of the state regulations and ready to testify that the beavers were not causing any public health emergency and should be left alone, at least for now.

But just prior to the meeting, Health Director Caroline Kinsella said she and other town officials had visited the site and separately determined that since there was no dam causing flooding, sewage backup or other issue, the rodents were not a problem.

The item, which is a new one for the board, would have been withdrawn for the meeting if there had been time to do so, Kinsella said.

Oh we didn’t mean anything by it. We were just kidding. No need for alarm. Put the cameras down and back away slowly. Can’t you tell when a man is joking?

Neighbors Nick and Buffy Gray said they have definitely seen two beavers several times in their walks around the pond every day, particularly at dawn or dusk.

Nick Gray said that while there was flooding in the area recently from heavy rains it was generalized and had nothing to do with the beaver lodge.

“I just want the beavers left alone, Nick Gray said.

Buffy Gray agreed. “It’s fascinating. It’s a wonderful thing to watch.”

I like these people. Something tells me we would get along really well.

Brendan McLaughlin of Milton, who is on the board of the Neponset River Watershed Association, said the growing number of beavers in Eastern Massachusetts is a sign that the waters here are getting healthier.

Um. Good try Brendan and we’re always glad when river folk like beavers. but no. Beavers aren’t drawn to healthier water. They MAKE it healthier.. They can move into skanky toxic water. Like Chernobyl and Mt St Helens where they were some of the first species back,. And their dams start to clean the water for everyone ELSE. They are do gooders.