Me either, but Sharon, CT clearly has their own definition of ‘havoc’.
Sharon to tackle beaver damage
SHARON — Officials refuse to leave it to the beavers to wreak havoc, so they’re seeking ways to combat the effects of those industrious, highly energized creatures.
During the last meeting of the Board of Selectmen, First Selectman Robert Loucks said two large dams had broken, one on West Cornwall Road and the other on West Woods Road 2. The breakthroughs caused water to inundate the adjacent roadways, leading to severe damage.
You know what works real good at keeping the dam stable and preventing the pond from getting too high? A flow device! Lucky for you your in Connecticut the state with its own Beaver Expert (Skip Hiliker) or if you wanna shop around, Skip Lisle is 3 hours away in VT and Mike Callahan is 75 miles away in MA. You can think of better solutions than trapping, right?
Our beaver friend Malcolm Kenton sent this recording this am from his beaver watching adventure last night at Huntley Meadow. He writes
Here’s an audio recording I took of the 3-year-old beaver underneath the boardwalk by the bench lodge, uttering some whines as she nibbled on some of her food cache. The voices you hear are the four other people who were at that spot also watching and listening to wildlife.
And as sun sets on our beaver heroes on the West Coast, a third salmon friendly beaver-device is left in their path, this one a Flexible leveler with a special salmon swirl in the center. It’s been a job well done!
From Mike Callahan
Third WA Salmon-Beaver Site –
Here are pictures of the modified intake fence for Flexible Pond Levelers. We installed this fish-friendly flow device yesterday also. When the salmon exit the intake end of the pipe the chain-link fence cylinder guides them directly to a One-Way door on the side of the exclusion fence. See pics. We did not extend the pipe to the side wall of the intake fence because we need the water to enter the pipe near the center of the cylinder to prevent detection by beavers. The chain-link tube prevents the fish from needing to search for the exit and prevents them from bumping into or getting stuck in the fence. The surfaces are all smooth with no sharp edges. The One-Way door PVC pipes are weighted to keep them in a closed position but can be easily nudged open by fish when underwater. Again many thanks are due to the other team members Mike Rustay, Ben Dittbrenner, Dale, and Jake Jacobson. None of this would have been possible without them. If only we didn’t have to wait a couple of months for the salmon to return!
