Last night at dusk we were one of 16 special houses to experience a very localized power outage. Fortunately it arrived with just enough waning moments of daylight to scramble for the candles and flashlights before we settled into very pretty darkness. We managed to bring it up to 6 whole candle power and kept warm with the cozy fire, but it was still very dark and the storm was raging outside. We suddenly understood why the pioneers used to go to bed so early. Fortunately, thanks to some hardy linemen, power was restored in 90 minutes and we were thrust back into the 21st century.
Too bad North Carolina isn’t so lucky.
As beavers move in, dams cause destruction in town
It seems the critters that clog country creeks and turn farmland into swamp have gone big city in Fayetteville. And when nature’s engineers encroach on man, trouble rises faster than the water behind one of these impressive dams.
Most recen
tly, a beaver dam on Clayton Road in Sampson County ruptured after heavy rain, flooding the road. The road was closed to traffic until water receded.
Homeowners across the Cape Fear region have found more dams blocking culverts and backing up water this winter than in years past. Part of that, wildlife experts say, is because North Carolina’s wet winter has created new opportunities for beavers.
And once they’re set up, beavers just don’t take a hint and leave. Bust a hole in their dam, and they’ll have it fixed overnight. Blow the thing up, and they’ll start rebuilding. Trying to chase them off is a Sisyphean task.
There’s only one option, unpleasant as it seems.
Adams noted that in the past, “we have tried both nonlethal and lethal methods. We found that nonlethal methods are ineffective. Live trapping and relocation is against state law, so that leaves lethal removal with the use of specialized traps.”
“If you want the dam building to stop, the beavers have to go,” Backus said.
“In the past, they’d try relocating them. But any place you’d put them now already has beaver. There’s nowhere to go.”
A generation ago, the beavers could have been put almost anywhere. By the end of World War II, beavers were all but extinct in the Cape Fear region, hunted out of existence.
In fact, several were relocated here to get the native population started again.
Cumberland County was an area selected for beaver restocking. They were considered a “renewable resource,” since wildlife experts figured farmers and trappers would catch them for pelts and keep the population constant.
By the 1970s, roughly 1,500 annual licenses for trapping beavers were issued in the state. It quickly became apparent that beavers do two things very well.
They build dams. And they make baby beavers – lots of baby beavers. Statewide, the current beaver population estimate is more than 500,000.
Ahh memories! There is nothing quite like a good ol’ beaver panic article! We haven’t had one in ages. This one hits all the right notes, exploding populations, flooded towns, and useless nonlethal methods. Nicely done, Fayettville and Chick Jacobs of the fofayobserver.com. You repeated all the lies you were supposed to and then some! Just for folks at home, lets consider the population estimate of 500,000. Wikipedia tells me that North Carolina is about 53000 square miles, or which 9.5 is water. Which means that they are claiming they have around 80 beavers per square mile of water, which is pretty dam hard for me to imagine.
It would be funny, if the dams weren’t so destructive. There’s no way to put a dollar total on damage statewide, but officials say thousands of acres of farmland and timberland are flooded annually. Septic tanks are rendered useless as water tables rise.
In the five years between 2008 and 2013, more than 3,500 Department of Transportation projects were damaged or delayed as USDA Wildlife Services workers destroyed dams.
The state pays more than $1.1 million per year in beaver control efforts, mainly to catch the animals and destroy dams in urban areas and along highway projects.
I’m so old that I can remember when John McCain joked about North Carolina using stimulus money to blow up beaver dams! I guess it takes a lot of money to do things badly. And I guess you would know.
“For now, it’s all we can do here,” Backus said. “We’ve got to catch all of the guys living here before it makes sense to take this one down. I figure that’s at least a dozen of them here.
“When that’s done, we’ll be able to drain the water slowly. Then we can use dynamite. Remember, all those booms you may hear around here aren’t coming from Bragg!”
I guess if you’re a beaver trapper in Fayetteville, business is booming!
Yesterday I worked on photos for the urban beaver chapter. The funny thing is that I want photos as urban as possible, and pretty much every photographer (including Cheryl) takes frames as natural as possible. I put out a special plea to our friends for urban photos, and this was a favorite that came from Robin Ellison of Napa.
Suddenly can’t resist posting this:
