A SIGN at the entrance of Royal Oaks subdivision on Michigan Avenue Road states, “The Bradley County Commission would like to welcome you to E. coli Bottoms.” Banner photos, DAVID DAVIS
The Royal Oaks Housing Association in Tennessee is a posh set of homes near a golf (of) course. It has beautiful views, desirable margins and one pesky reoccurring problem. (I bet you can guess what.) Beavers! Eating their trees and flooding the area with their dams. So of course the association did what associations do and charged residents to hire trappers last year.
“I’ve been working with the Royal Oaks Homeowners Association to resolve the beaver issue,”Alan Lowe of the Bradley County Commission said Thursday. “My understanding is that the property owners adjacent to the creek have given the homeowners association money to resolve the issue. Late last year, eight beavers were trapped. A new crew of beavers have moved in.”
8 beavers were killed. So far so good. In less than a year more came back. How much can one home owner’s association take? What’s to be done? They met with Dr. Dick Urban from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and were told, the only solution was the final solution.
Destroy the beavers AND the trees!
Since then, Gilbert said she spoke with two trappers who both confirmed everything has to be removed — all the trees and roots.“Small trees are (beavers’) favorite food source and construction material,” she said. “They have a paradise there.”
Take out all the trees and all the roots? Knowing how sarcastic I have a tendency to be, knowing that its nearly April 1st and knowing that the land association is actually named ROYAL OAKS, one might assume I was making this up. Sadly, no. This is really what the ‘experts’ recommended. I have to ask myself, why stop with the trees? Why not remove the creek entirely? Maybe the oxygen? Pour concrete over the entire area? You never know when living creatures might suddenly turn up. County Attorney Byrd has this to say about whether the conundrum merits county interference:
He said Americans believe in limited government intrusion into their lives and that’s what exists and the county cannot get involved until it reaches the right of way, which varies along county roads. He said if even the water reaches the right of way after a rain and then recedes, that is still not enough for the county to intercede. He said if it becomes a jurisdictional wetlands, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would become involved and the site might have to be mitigated in another location. Byrd said there is no indication bird strikes by aircraft would result at the neighboring airport because of an increasing population of waterfowl.
You’d better be careful, Royal Oaks, Royal Stumps, Royal Desert. That’s some beautiful wetlands. if you’re not careful you’ll end up on the flight path and then what will you do? I will write a letter to Dr. Urban Wildlife and Alan Lowe-lying wetlands, explaining how beavers don’t carry e coli or cause disease, pointing out how pond height can be inexpensively controlled with flow devices and that the wetlands will attract invaluable wildlife to the properties, augmenting fish and bird populations, but what’s the point? I’m afraid the only advice they’re likely to follow is to fill in the whole area over with concrete. Maybe someone’s grandson needs a basketball court?
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