How is our old friend doing in Lyme? When last we visited authorities couldn’t find the beaver dam causing the problem so they were planning to use drones. They were certain the culprit must be a beaver, because the guilty party must ALWAYS be a beaver, The old man’s house was sinking farther and father below the floodline.
Old Lyme — The man whose property on Black Hall Pond is being flooded by nearby beaver activity is again calling on town officials to finally step up and help him solve his beaver woes.
Dave Berggren said with time running out to save his property at 17 Boughton Road, he is prepared to take legal action against the town now that he’s discovered a state statute outlining municipal jurisdiction to relieve such flooding.
But town officials say they aren’t so sure if Berggren is interpreting the law accurately, or even correctly pinpointing where the problem dams are, causing more confusion in what First Selectman Tim Griswold described as a tricky property issue that may need legal intervention, but which he said he has been trying to address.
Ahh it’s so delicate to settle an unknown cause with some known tax dollars, isn’t it? And once homeowners start slinging around those accusations everyone gets nervous. Remember how Martinez hopped to it when a certain creek property owner alleged his walls were cracking because beavers were tunneling under his home?
(Of course they weren’t. Because beavers are not gophers or jewelry thieves planning a heist, They have no need for a tunnel that goes AWAY from the water. But facts didn’t matter. A respected citizen and his lawyer were involved. Ahh those were good times!)
Berggren says he has lived on the pond for more than 50 years, battling the persistent flooding for more than four years. He says water levels have risen more than two feet during that time, turning his yard “into a soggy mess,” causing his house to slowly sink and damaging his septic system, among other issues. The flooding has been a problem for other residents living near the pond, who also recently have complained to the town.
The Department of Energy and the Environment has confirmed that beaver activity is causing the issues.
Over the years, Berggren said he’s tried contacting both DEEP and the town for help, specifically asking town officials to take action and help locate the dams, without any success.
In June, former First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder told The Day that because beaver dams were being built on private not town property, the town had no jurisdiction or power to resolve the issue.
“The town shouldn’t do anything about dams that are on private property,” Reemsnyder had said. “I can’t get a trapping permit for someone else’s property, but I can for town property.”
Since The Day last spoke to him in June, Berggren said the problem has gotten worse.
“Now, there’s black mold growing, and I’m having breathing issues,” he said. “This house isn’t beautiful, but I’ve liked it for all these years. But now I have to tear it down, because you can’t repair this. I have to tear it down.”
No word yet on how Deep KNOWS its beavers causing the problem but doesn’t know where the dam is. Or whether we might expect an 82 year old man to have breathing issues even without beavers. But hey. What do I know?
On Jan. 2, Berggren said he received what he thinks is the golden ticket to his relief in the form of a letter from DEEP, which included a copy of a state statute outlining that towns have the authority to clear waterways causing flooding, even if those waterways are not on town property.
“DEEP is telling us there is now a state law that the (town) can’t do what they’ve been doing down here,” Berggren said. “It’s now spelled out.”
Griswold says he isn’t sure Berggren is reading the statute properly. The law doesn’t say the town “will” help, it says the town “may,” Griswold said. “I think you would want to be a good neighbor and help him out. … You can argue the town can help, but the law doesn’t say it must help.”
Ha ha ha. There isn’t a single part of this article that doesn’t have at least some wool being pulled over some persons eyes. He tries to wheedle the city to pay for his problem and the city pays their attorneys to weasel out of it. It’s Martinez all over again. It’s Every City Ever.
The good news is their talking about bringing in the Callahan Calvary.
Griswold said if the town is forced to take action, he prefers to install “beaver deceivers” through the dams to divert water to other side of the dam, rather than find trappers to kill the beavers. He said that’s because it’s difficult to be sure all the beavers in an area are killed. He also said it would be a matter of time before other beavers inhabit the area and start the problem again.
“I suppose if there is a good dam and you had a massacre there, then other beavers might say, ‘Hmm, look at this. Abandoned dam. Let’s go,’” Griswold said.
Griswold said he’s been in contact with a drone flyer. If the drone flight doesn’t work, he said, he is considering hiring Michael Callahan, owner of Beaver Solutions LLC of Southampton, Mass. — whom the town previously hired to help with other beaver flooding issues — to assess the area and suggest solutions.
Callahan agreed by phone Friday that “beaver deceivers” are typically the most effective way to eradicate a beaver dam flooding issue while helping preserve the environment, and he typically suggests installing such devices in 75% of the cases he is called to address.
“About 25% of the time I will recommend trapping, because the devices we use won’t be feasible,” he said. “… But for trapping to work, (trappers) can’t even leave one beaver. That one beaver can rebuild. And in our experience, new ones will take over the area. Beavers are territorial, so they have to find their own places. Young ones will eventually be moving in.”
Callahan said “beaver deceivers,” on the other hand, can cost about $2,000, take about a day to install and the piping will last for 10 years or more before fencing around the pipe needs to be replaced.
“We are not yet exactly sure how this situation will be addressed,” Griswold said. “But we, at the very least, think we can get in there and do something about it.”
I’m happy that the city has decided if the gun is pointed directly to its temples it will consider hiring Callahan to solve the problem. Good luck with that. Weasels are very slippery and it can be difficult to keep them in a corner.
Now for something you’ll really love! This picture was posted on a French friend’s FB page. In case you don’t recognize it right away that’s a hunting platform. It was posted with the brilliant epitaph:
Hunting regulates wildlife,
Wildlife regulates hunting. 
