A while ago I wrote about the Virginia writer who noticed beavers on his land, thought briefly about their friend’s comment on their value and ended up killing them anyway. Now that same writer has had a longer conversation with his friend and is really starting to think, I believe these are the conversations that everyone who loves the land needs to be having, and it makes me enormously happy to read. Maybe I’ll even send them a copy of Ben’s book.

Farmer Bill Fletcher weighs in

Aerial image of the Rappahannock river above Fredericksburg, VA

A while back, I met with my friend, Bill Fletcher, to have a bite and pick up where we had left off so many years earlier. Listening to him talk about water as Rappahannock’s most precious asset, I was reminded that change happens when need and experienced-based insight converge. What follows is Bill’s thinking about what we can do next to protect what we all cherish about Rappahannock:

Tommy Bruce: When did your family come to settle in Rappahannock?

Bill Fletcher: My family has been here since the 1740’s. I remember my father telling me that generations back, our forebears came up from the Tidewater area in the summertime to get away from the malaria and mosquitoes. Over time, summer houses became family homes for the family.

Back then there were no real roads and even fewer bridges. Only ferries and low water crossings. My father said that the rivers were navigable and barges transported people and material up from Fredericksburg. In my own time I remember canoeing with my father on the Thornton River on a regular basis. That’s not possible today.

Okay now THAT’S what I would call an old-timer. Family lived in the area since 1740. I sense that in every possible other way Bill and I might hate eachother. But in this are we are of like minds. Wonderful.

Tommy Bruce: Water is a theme in your life. Is it one for Rappahannock?

Bill Fletcher: I’ve always been a bit fascinated with water. When I was 7 or 8 years old, I’d sneak out of the house and go down to one of the little streams on the property and try to build dams out of sticks, reeds and grasses. I’d wait to see how long they lasted. Not very long of course. Later in the 1980’s, a geologist told us the water levels in the 1700’s was maybe two or three feet higher on the Thornton River. That made me curious about where all the water had gone. Since then, I’ve talked to various experts.

Tommy Bruce: So, what is the situation today?

Bill Fletcher: Well, I can tell you what is happening on my land. The old artesian well, down at what we call the Jail House, was drilled in 1980, and is now down 100 feet. We have had to dig additional wells to make do on the property. The challenge these days is… we need to retain water on the land for the good of our lands, but also to build up our aquifers. I’ve been trying to find out the depth of our wells relative sea level. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any records tracking the replacement of wells and why it’s happening.

Let’s talk about your wells. Let’s talk about your water. Let’s talk.

Tommy Bruce: What should we do about it?

Bill Fletcher: Water is life. It is the most important thing you have in life. We can’t just sit by and watch our lands dry up. We need to envision a different future for Rappahannock County. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an old timer and I believe in the old time ways. But, we’ve got to change with the times and learn from what some of our neighbors are doing. This is just my personal opinion.

Tommy Bruce: What are you thinking?

Bill Fletcher: Rappahannock is about water. So, we need to think about ways to slow down the flow of water away from our county. If the water stays longer on our lands, it’s good for the soil, vegetation, the wildlife and will help reverse the very real depletion or our aquifers. If we do nothing, we’re going to be the first ones to dry up.

Tommy Bruce: What do you mean, “be the first”. Who else would be affected?

Bill Fletcher: We are the headwaters for everything east of us, downstream all the way to the Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation also tells us our waters help carry the silt and pollutants that are now affecting the health of the Bay. So, we need our aquifers to remain plentiful and flowing at a more appropriate rate. That’s where my idea about bringing back beaver dams and what they call Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs). This is where Rappahannock could actually set itself apart and be more beneficial to our citizens, our state and our nation.

Oh Bill. I’m liking where the water and the Chesapeake is taking you. Stay in that stream and lets flow together.

Tommy Bruce: So, how can BDAs help landowners in Rappahannock?

Bill Fletcher: I learned that there are four things beaver dams and the analogs can do for us. First, they slow the flow of water and mitigate flooding damages. They filter sediment which cleans the soil and allows the water to sink in to replenish the water table. They help the wildlife habitat. Fourth, dams help increase vegetation. Also, keep in mind what they call pollutants we call fertilizers. When the ponds overflow, the sediment –to which the pollutants are attached- is then deposited on the ground thereby improving it.

Tommy Bruce: But I seem to remember you liked to blow up beaver dams?

Bill Fletcher: Let me tell you a story. When I was 10 years old, the beavers would build dams on the best crop land we had at Montpelier. When the flooding got to a certain level, my father would tell Ollie Dodson to go down and blow them up and I would go with him. It was a tremendous amount of fun. I loved loud noises. All these years later, I took a friend of mine, who happens to be an avid hunter, down to these same fields where beavers had again been hard at work. The place was transformed and wildlife has come back. We saw a big brunch of turkeys in the field and then 30 feet away, we came upon 20 or so deer and then we drove a little further and a bunch of ducks came up on the pond as geese flew off another pond. I realized this place had become excellent hunting grounds. Now, I rent land on Thornton Hill and Miller farm for hunting and get more money that way than I did from using or renting it for cattle grazing.

Sure it’s fun to blow things up when you’re 10, but it’s also damn fun to see the wildlife come back to an area and realize you’re sitting on a hunting gold mine. Let the rodent do the work. Let beavers be beavers.

Tommy Bruce: When did you really start to think differently about all of this?

Bill Fletcher: My “aha moment” came last year when I went to see my daughter who lives on the Miller farm. We had put up a dam to create a small one acre pond. The beavers had gotten into it and repaired the pond to a certain extent, and expanded it by three or four times. I thought it was really pretty and might be good for both farming and the natural habitat. But, then my daughter pointed out that a spring she hadn’t seen before had come back. That was my “aha moment”. From that moment on, I started to explore my own ideas about what to do to slow down the flow of water away from Rappahannock. I talked to a lot of people. I met with Amy Johnson from the Smithsonian Institution who told me about all the rare orchids and birds we had. Together we’d compare notes with other land owners. I reached out to Jim Abdo to talk through my evolving thought process. He introduce me to Bill Somerlot who is an expert in the field and has helped me through the whole process of discovery. Eventually I met with John Odenkirk, an expert with fisheries and a personal friend, who lives in the County. That’s when a lot of this really started to come together for me. I then met with Bryan Hofmann, Deputy Director with Friends of the Rappahannock, who confirmed that, yes, beavers retain water on the land, something we really need to do in Rappahannock.

It’s wonderful that not I don’t recognize a single name he mentions but I know exactly what they talked about. And I talk about it all the time.

Tommy Bruce: Do you have a specific proposal you want people to think about:

Bill Fletcher: In a nutshell, I think we should get some grants together to plan how to bring the beaver back and deploy Beaver Dam Analogs (BDA’s) or leaky weirs to slow the flow away from our lands. Hopefully, we’d create the conditions for nature to do its thing.

Tommy Bruce: What would you like to see the state of Virginia do?

Bill Fletcher: Well, Virginia has a program, and a good one I’m sure, to fence the streams and rivers, but I don’t think fences alone will replenish our aquifers or stope the erosion down into the Bay. The State should get involved in a BDA program, and provide economic incentives to farmers who help keep and clean the water in Rappahannock. Maybe, even make water conservation a condition of land use. We also need some help with record keeping. For instance, the reports to the county on average rainfall differ by a lot. Without adequate record keeping there can’t be a reliable determination of what’s really going on.

Okay, the purists in me says you don’t need BDAs you just need to stop blowing up B’s. But I appreciate so much your peering into the light and I can understand why it’s valuable to exercise a little more control over where the B’s make themselves at home.

Tommy Bruce: At heart you are a farmer. What are the challenges for farmers in Rappahannock? What else should they consider doing with their land?

Bill Fletcher: I love the land almost as much as I love my children, but, the cost of doing business keeps going up. We don’t have Fauquier loam in Rappahannock and some of our lands have been polluted by heavy metals from coal fired plants. So, we have our challenges. We have no prime agricultural land. Besides, the cost of farming keeps rising along with the taxes that have tripled at least since the 1970’s. Actually the tax baseline is higher than the agricultural value of much of our land. We have tried everything. We tried crop land, beans, corn, wheat, oats, rye, and yeah it is crazy.

I also believe everybody should be self-sufficient. I mean, if the world goes to hell, I keep enough food and fuel and generators to run my farm for six months. It is expensive but I don’t trust the government. Everything’s a vote away from going to hell.

I’d love nothing more than to keep Rappahannock pristine and beautiful and lush. But, we’ve got all kinds of pressure now on us. I think farmers should be able to look at other uses, including solar, to keep the land as open as it is today while still making a living. Personally, I want a solar field on my farm to run my farm efficiently, energy-wise. That being said, I’m not an expert but it makes sense to look into these ideas. I think Rappahannock needs to be open to this kind of thinking.

What’s your mailing address? I think I’m sending you a book today. Keep an eye on the mailbox.

Tommy Bruce: Will it be a challenge to bring along people in the County?

Bill Fletcher: Well, I just say use your common sense. Do your own reading and check out the research being done in the US. I’d start with “Beaver dam analogues drive heterogeneous groundwater–surface water interactions” from the journal Hydrologic Processes. That piece told me a lot. Not so long ago, I didn’t know about beaver dam analogs or even the leaky weirs they’ve been using for a number of year in England and Australia. And, water seemed to be plentiful. But, all that has changed, and we need to seize the opportunity to lead the way.

Tommy Bruce: Any last thought?

Bill Fletcher: We could be the greenest county, we could have the healthiest environment, and Rappahannock could be a tremendous asset. But, our land needs to be healthy with plenty of water for farming to flourish and preserve the viewsheds we all care about. It’s a trickle down economy… just like water. If all our water goes away then all our money will go away. We’ve got to do something to stop that and bring Rappahannock back. You know me, I don’t want to change anything, but like the rest of us, I’ve got to survive. And, if the farms can’t survive, Rappahannock ,as we know it, won’t survive.

And that’s it. If the water doesn’t survive the people won’t survive. And Beavers will help you keep water on the land. And all you gotta do is stop blowing them up. That seems a fair trade doesn’t it?

When the old timers come to Beavers, I get very very happy.

I tagged this a week ago but there was too much beaver news to squeeze it in. It deserves sharing, because good beaver news from Virginia? It’s been a while!

Can humans and beavers resolve their conflicts?

Coexisting with nature in Rappahannock sometimes produces struggles for county residents. Take, for instance, the sometimes embroiled relationship between the landowner and the local beaver.

Although beaver behavior is seemingly destructive, it provides many environmental benefits. “What they’re doing is important for water quality,” says Claire Catlett, Rappahannock Field Representative for the Piedmont Environmental Council. “When they build a dam, they are essentially slowing water down but they’re also spreading water out.”

The redistribution of water allows for the growth of new trees, which in turn provides new food and lumber for the beavers. The new trees act as a natural water purifier, filtering toxins from the water. “Trees play an important part in ecosystems,” Catlett says. “Especially along streams, they filter pollution with their roots.”

Good job Claire! We like anyone who tells the truth about beavers. Especially a field representative from the environmental council!

Beaver dams also create wetland habitats that are vital to a variety of animals and plant life. In addition to allowing hundreds of plant and animal species to thrive, wetlands offer flood and erosion control and remove pollutants from surface water runoff. Because they slow runoff and protect surface water, dams have also proven to recharge aquifers deep underground.

Bill Fletcher is one Rappahannock landowner who has witnessed the positive influence of beavers returning to his property over the past year. “I’ve had a number of springs come back on the farm,” says Fletcher, who had the idea of implementing a government-funded program to install Beaver Dam Analogues (BDA) in the streams of Virginia farms.

Ooh we like Bill even better than Claire if that’s possible. A farmer who has appreciated what beavers are doing for his landscape; How exciting!

“It would revolutionize the ecology of the area,” Fletcher says. “And it would allow us to retain more water in the aquifers. It would help every individual farmer and it would also help the Chesapeake Bay and the Rappahannock River.”

Fletcher has been reaching out to various state conservation foundations in hopes of bringing his project to fruition. BDAs have been shown to work successfully in other areas to raise groundwater levels, create healthier downstream ecosystems and even turn some intermittent streams into perennial streams.

That’s it! Go preach the beaver gospel far and wee because god knows they need to hear it. Someones folk listen with different ears when farmers speak.

Still, sometimes the benefits of beavers aren’t enough to convince landowners to let them stay. But there are many programs designed to help resolve human-wildlife conflicts. The Clifton Institute in Warrenton is a nonprofit organization with a mission of conservation and restoration of natural habitat of plants and animals, and provides one such service. The institute also provides environmental education and performs ecological research in the Piedmont area.

Alison Zak, an education associate for the Clifton Institute, says there are two main categories of human-beaver conflicts. “One is tree chewing,” she says, “and the other is flooding, which is usually when beavers are clogging up a culvert.”

“If the landowner has a nice spot, killing one pair of beavers is just creating an opportunity for a new pair looking for habitat,” she explains. “There’s almost always a way to address a problem without killing the beavers.”

WOW! I’m not sure the last time I read an article from Virginia that hit EVERY beaver point. Maybe never? It even had a section about wrapping trees to prevent chewing. Pretty incredible. There aren’t even any good points they left out. I think I have to look up the Piedmont Environmental Council.

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