Beaver to Blame for Easthampton Flood

Easthampton, Mass. (WGGB)- There is a flood in one Easthampton yard, and the city says wildlife is to blame. It’s the result of a clogged culvert that flows under South Street.

“I haven’t dared go over there,” sams homeowner Dan Laflamme as he points to his backyard.

Laflamme has lived in his Crescent Street home for almost 30 years. The city says that beavers are the cause of problem because they keep blocking the culvert with debris. Now special permission is needed to clean it up;approval from the Conservation Commission that the City Engineer, Jim Gracia says they received this morning.The city says that beavers are the cause of problem because they keep blocking the culvert with debris. Now special permission is needed to clean it up;approval from the Conservation Commission that the City Engineer, Jim Gracia says they received this morning.After returning from Florida a few days ago, he came home to more than half of his property under water.

“There’s about 3 acres,” Says Laflamme. “And how much do you think is underwater now?” asks ABC40′s Brittany Decker. “About 2 acres,” he responds.

The city says that beavers are the cause of problem because they keep blocking the culvert with debris. Now special permission is needed to clean it up; approval from the Conservation Commission that the City Engineer, Jim Gracia says they received this morning.

Today I finally realized that when cities, highway authorities or cable companies say “Beavers are to Blame”, they aren’t looking for an excuse to kill the animals because they hate them. The beavers are entirely incidental and don’t actually matter at all.

What they are really saying is “It’s not our fault!”

It finally dawned on me when I realized that the incident involving Mr. Laflamme’s floating property is about three miles from Beaver Solutions. That’s right, Martinez could bring in an expert 3000 miles to solve a problem and Easthampton couldn’t manage three.

The misguided mayor of Easthampton is Karen Cadieux and Mike Callahan says she has his business card. She needs the proper motivation to solve this particular problem. You just know the special permission they just got from the Conservation Commission was not in fact to conserve anything, but was to trap – Either shelling out $$$ for some live trapping (which under MA law will still result in dead beavers) or going to the health department for an exemption to use some conibears to kill them faster and cheaper.

I’m thinking Ms. Cadieux needs a few emails to point her in the right direction. Won’t you help me set her straight by politely reminding her that her neighbor could solve this problem for the long term and save Easthampton money?

mayor@easthampton.org

Remember it’s June which means dead adult beavers will leave young kits behind.

One of the most common problems that beaver cause again and again everywhere they set up shop is blocked culverts. To them, a culvert just looks like a leak in an otherwise fully functioning dam which they generously fix it for us and are probably surprised when we aren’t very grateful for their services. This week I had a chat with a retired watershed steward from Washington State who told me that a change a few years back required for fish passage had mostly fixed this problem. Seems for all new roads and restored roads with a culvert underneath the culvert needs to be as wide OR WIDER than the stream itself. Since the culvert isn’t the most narrow part of the water to dam up the beavers usually choose elsewhere.

• Width equal to or greater than the average channel bed width at the elevation the culvert meets the streambed. Make the culvert the same width as the channel to maximize both water flow and fish passage.

This of course assumes that we’re talking about an actual streambed and not a drainage ditch or overflow. (One of those, prove you’re really a stream, deals). California actually has similar regulations provided that the stream can then show that its a regular passage for anadromous fish). There are a series of design methods which generally call for minimum culvert width to be equal to, or greater than the active channel width. CalTrans is required to meet the guidelines for any anadromous fish bearing stream when repairing or replacing stream crossings. Which, if you think about it, must be hard to prove that fish go through a stream once you built something that keeps fish from going through a stream.

Which makes me think anew about the misnaming of Alhambra Creek as a “draining culvert” a “levy” or a “canal”. Obviously naming has serious consequences and a rose by any other name WOULD NOT smell as sweet.

Pay special attention to the ‘naming issue’ when you watch this clip.