Cary looks for peace with beavers
The town of Cary is trying out a new answer to an age-old question: How do you stop a beaver damming? It’s a challenge that’s dogged town staff since the summer before last, when the rodents flooded a new wetland on the southeast side of Bond Lake in mid-western Cary.
Got your coffee and slippers? This is the kind of story that brings families round the fire with shining faces and children ask to be retold every Christmas. Honestly, I am as fond of Cary, North Carolina as I have ever been of any city not named Martinez. Just look at this:
First the local government tried the traditional method: A contractor in February set traps for the beavers, but the town had them pulled amid outcry from residents and birders, who liked the new beaver pond.
Cary, Cary, Cary! I think I’m in love! Go Birders! Go Beavers!
Next came a non-lethal show of force, with the town destroying the beavers’ dam in the hopes that they’d just go away. Castor canadensis was back within months.
Wait, wait don’t tell me. I know how successful that plan was. Why do humans think tearing down dams works to discourage beavers? It’s not like humans even leave when they’re work and home is destroyed? Why would beavers?
Now the town is trying a new tactic that staff hope will subvert those natural instincts.
The idea of the $3,500 project is to let the beavers think their dam is working better than it really is. If it works, the “flow control device” will allow water to pass silently through the dam, keeping the water levels in check without alerting the beavers to the leak in their dam.
Not only is Cary very nobly doing the right thing, their reporter is even using the right language. Way to go Cary! It doesn’t say who’s doing the install but I’m going to guess Stephanie Boyles is involved because she was involved in the other South Carolina case and no one is saying ‘Castor Master’ (Skip) or ‘Flexible Leveler’ (Mike).
However, the town’s not out of the swamp yet. Installation of the pipe damaged part of the dam, by necessity, and drained the pond. The contractor did all the work by hand, hoping not to traumatize the beavers, but the semi-aquatic rodents haven’t yet returned to the site.
Lewis isn’t surprised the animals haven’t rebuilt their old stomping grounds yet.
“Not only have we unearthed their dams, but we’ve also exposed the holes in the side of the wetland where they stay,” she said. “We knew it would take weeks before the very first one would show up.”
Hmm. Who was this contractor? When Skip took our dam down by three feet it exposed the holes to the lodge and it took about seven hours before we saw the beavers come out and start rebuilding. I’m hopeful that they’re just not watching that close, because beavers have more than one sleeping spot in anticipation of water level changes.
Caroline Morgan, a local birder, is anxious for the repair of the little ecosystem tucked at the edge of the park. “It’s pretty unique, just because of all the diversity,” she said, pausing from her photography near the dam. “The fact that the beavers turned this area into a swamp brought all kinds of animals here.”
Now that sounds familiar!
