Arthur K Draut pary – Worth A Dam

Experts Say Beavers No Threat to St. Matthews Park

By Erica Peterson

The City of St. Matthews is struggling with how to deal with beavers that have made their home in a local park.

Ian Timothy is seventeen years old. He’s been coming to Draut Park—a small park behind Mall St. Matthews—for four years, watching the family of beavers. They’ve built a dam and lodge near a culvert. He points to the lodge. “It kind of just looks like a pile of sticks, but they’re living in the lodge.”

But Draut Park isn’t technically a park…it was meant to hold water and prevent flooding in nearby Beargrass Creek. And besides gnawing on ornamental trees, the beavers built a dam that kept the water level higher than usual. This drew the attention of City Council members; the damage was unsightly and they worried the park couldn’t effectively prevent flooding if the beavers stayed.

So, in March, the City of St. Matthews removed the dam and lodge. After several weeks, both were rebuilt, and Timothy started a campaign to get the city to leave the beavers alone.

Go Ian! Beaver champion extraordinaire! When last we heard about the Draut park situatation Leonard Houston of Oregon nudged Stephanie Boyles of HSUS in Virgina to see if they could get involved. And guess what?

In a committee meeting, council members heard from the city engineer, who told them the beavers likely wouldn’t exacerbate flooding or cause further damage, if the dam is left alone. They also heard from Stephanie Boyles, who’s a wildlife scientist with the Humane Society. She deals with communities across the country, working to help them find ways beavers can coexist with flooding infrastructure, and recommended several devices the city can use to do this.

“Basically sneaking water through the dam, so the dam sort of acts as a diversion dam, keeps the beavers busy, but does not allow the water level to continue to rise, so the pipes continue to perform their function, which is moving water from their retention basin out into the creek,” Boyles says.

Hurray for Stephanie too! Wow, the big guns are out in force in Kentucky, which is still reeling from getting emails based everywhere from Utah to New Zealand. I got a fantastic update from Ian this morning saying that the council was very impressed with Stephanie and has definitely moved from ‘its not a beaver park’ to ‘beavers are excellent lets keep them!’ There is a decision to tolerate dam height, notch it if it gets to high or install a flow device if needed, but never bother the beavers again. Here, he just wrote that I can print it and I’d rather let him explain,

I was going to email you, but I guess you already saw the article, but I can fill you in on some details.

I guess you know Stephanie Boyles Griffin from HSUS? She flew into Louisville and I showed her all around the park and then the next day she came to the St. Mathews parks committee meeting. They really listened to her and it was fun to see the comimitee almost embrace having the beavers at the park. It was about 6 of the council members and the city engineer. This meeting was a total flip from the last meeting, it went from “It’s not a beaver park” to “we love the beavers in the park”

We talked about the different solutions and they were actually very open. Stephanie said that if they wanted to a small pond leveler would be good, and after some discussion she asked the city engineer if the beavers could actually cause flooding. The city engineer said that where the beavers are right now they are causing no flooding threat. So the decision was made that the dam is never going to be ripped out again. We are going to be watching it the next couple months and they are going to establish a height that they like it. If it gets too high they will take some off the top of the dam or if they decide we will put a small pond leveler in place. The one thing for sure is that the beavers will not be ripped out again.

We also decided to protect the trees, it is my job to go out and count the trees that we think should be protected We also talked about putting some signs around the park saying what beavers do, and what a wetland is and all of that stuff, and they really liked that idea. I will keep you in touch, but the beavers are pretty much saved at this point. And they have been very active lately, they seem very happy and are coming out more.

The person in charge of the park committee was named Stuart Monohan and he was really great! they definitely were listening and really wanted to do the right thing, and once they knew that there wasn’t a risk for flooding, all of them really seemed to think that having the beavers is great. I also think this meeting was the first time they really understood that the beavers are one of the reasons the park has so much wildlife, and once they understood that they really wanted to keep the beavers.

Now that was a VERY NICE JOB team beaver, remarkable coordination and effort and you all know who you are! I am so delighted to have watched this come full circle and couldn’t be prouder of our stop-motion beaver friend!

Speaking of our very own beavers, Cheryl and I were treated to a tail slap this a.m. from a beaver who had sauntered near the secondary dam to enjoy a secret snack. I absolutely love this photo as it captures the grand beaver nose perfectly and shows how very, very grown up our offspring are.

Just in case case you have trouble remembering how small they used to be, here’s a helpful nose comparison…lets say from the size of a dime to the size of a silver dollar?

St. Matthews gains attention over beavers in Draut Park

UPDATE: The courier Journal has very politely invited me to pay them for the privilege of quoting their article, which seems odd considering they were allowed to quote me for free. However, since I am burdened with a massive super-ego I will comply by removing the quotes and summarizing the content in red. Those of you that are highly motivated to read their sylvan prose may click on the link yourself.

The article describes young Ian Timothy and his concern about beavers at Arthur K Draut Park where the lodge was recently bulldozed. It introduces readers to Ian the naturalist and explains his award winning films. Then says he emailed a ” beaver protection activist” in California about the situation.

Nice invitation to the story and into Ian’s award-winning films! Hmm, what kind of intro does Worth A Dam get? Beaver protection activist? (People for the Ethical Treatment of Beavers?) I guess I’ve been called worse. I really see myself as more of a educator actually…or missionary….maybe a free-range guerrilla missionary educator with a blog?

The article describes how I, said beaver protection activist, sent Ian’s letter to all our beaver friends and the city desk was flooded with emails from as far away as New Zealand. In an interview with the reporter I explained that beaver was well known by us. (Gosh, do you think I have to pay to quote them quoting me?)

I guess the “BAT SIGNAL” really worked this time. The emails from around the world caused a bit of a stir apparently. Not sure why a mortified councilman would forward his stack of accusations to the press, but I certainly wish it happened all the time. I guess he was saying that he had never killed beavers and all those crazy people from PET-B were being mean to him.

To which I can only say: BOO!

The councilman is quoted as being shocked that beavers chew trees and Ian is quoted describing the function of coppice cutting. Guess which one sounds more informed?

Go Ian Go! What excellent phrasing and communication! Teaching folks to see the ‘forest’ for the ‘trees’ is a huge step in beaver advocacy! The fact that this photo ran in the article means that your message definitely sank in.

Ian says he wants to help the council understand about flow devices, and the council says we have to examine costs.

Absolutely councilman Tonini. Consider the cost of beaver control measures. Add up manpower hours and fuel costs for ripping out the dams a few times a year, planting a few trees, and while you’re at it figure in your own time you spent talking to the media about this and answering emails. Then compare it to the cost of installing a flow device for which we here at “PET-B” have already offered to match your costs with a scholarship. Sit down and do the math and let me know what you come up with.

Ian was interviewed on Agents of Change last week and has been involved in several film festivals.

Just in case we have some new visitors from the article, go here to listen to the amazing interview. Ian did an excellent job, and we are enormously proud of his first foray into the beaver trenches! Thank you Martha for writing such a compassionate, thorough piece, and thank you Karen and Joel for producing such a creative and heroic citizen of the natural world.