Beavers have been making their presence known at Longfellow Pond in Wellesley. Town park officials have placed wire mesh around surviving trees to try to save them from the animals’ teeth.
Guess which famous college town killed beavers in January of this year (after appearing to consider a flow device from Beaver Solutions) and needs to kill some MORE beavers now? That’s right, it houses the Alma Mater of Hilary Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Diane Sawyer. Earlier this year they said that no ponding whatsoever could be tolerated and had the beavers trapped and killed. Now, because they got rid of the old beavers, they’re worried that some new ones moved in.
It looks like Wellesley’s beavers are back, and town officials have their fingers crossed that the animals are not planning to stay. “We’re holding our breath that hopefully, we don’t have a new family moving in,” said Janet Bowser, Director of the town’s Natural Resources Commission.
Last year, she said, beavers built two dams in Fuller Brook, bordering Needham and the town’s Recycling and Disposal Facility. Their dams caused flooding, and the town had to have the beavers trapped and euthanized. It was the first time in the 15 years she has worked for the town, said Bowser, that beavers have caused problems – and officials were hoping that it was a one-time issue.
But Wellesley is a pretty nice town, so who can blame the beavers, really?
I don’t think its a nice town. I think it’s an infuriating town. I think that in the entire city there isn’t a janitor with an IQ less than 115 and they STILL won’t listen to reason. I think they know as much about beavers and ecology and problem solving as Winston Churchill knew about doilies. Just look at the quote from the head of their Natural Resources Commission.
Right now, said Bowser, the town is just keeping an eye out.“Once you have them in an area, they do come back to mate,” she said.
Come back to mate? Like Buffalo? Or Tule Elk? Apparently the head of the Conservation Commission in Wellesly thinks that beavers are herd animals. I would be more patient with her misinformation if I hadn’t personally written to Pamela 11 months ago and explained everything she needed to know. I could probably be more understanding if she hadn’t told the paper back then that she had never seen beaver problems in 14 years, (when a cursory google search showed that they were happening all around her).
Never mind. Just because the town is surrounded by great minds and peopled by professors and houses a prestigious ecology department, it doesn’t mean they have a clue. In the words of Dorothy Parker, “you can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.”
Wildlife specialist and University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension associate professor Matt Tarr surveys the flooded land near a stream by the Cooperative Middle School during a walking tour with members of the Stratham Conservation Commission.
STRATHAM — An overachieving band of beavers have dammed a babbling brook outside the Cooperative Middle School, turning it into a proliferating pond that threatens to encroach upon the school’s ropes course.
“These guys have been doing what they’ve done for years, it’s part of their cycle,” Tarr said. “But they are chewing all the way around the trees which can kill it. Some of the bigger ones can handle it… but some can’t survive with their roots inundated with water too long.”
I read the article this morning with trepidation, expecting at any moment to hear that the beavers were not long for this world. Conservation Commissions (despite the ironic naming!) aren’t always champions of beavers and wetlands. Would the school realize that beavers on their borders were an asset? Would the community take time to see the forest for the trees? Taking my cue from lady Macbeth I ‘screwed my courage to the sticking place’ and bravely read onwards…
Tarr explained that the beavers will expand their dammed area so that they can swim closer to their source of food, which in this area seems to be white oak, greenbriar and hazelnut. “That’s why trapping them out of here won’t work,” Tarr said. “This is a relatively new dam and if the habitat is right, they will move back.
Trapping won’t work? What’s that you say? Matt! Sit down and let’s talk about it. Here, have the comfy chair. Go on…tell me everything.
Tarr explained that to draw down the water, they can install “flow devices,” which are commonly three-sided boxes, or perforated pipes that will drain through the dammed area. Beavers are stimulated to build their dams by the sound or feel of running water, and many of these pipes prevent the beavers from hearing the water drain out and creating a permanent drain in the dam.
Wow, Matt! Great idea! Are you sure you’re not from Martinez? You could be our brother from another mother! You might need some new info on flow devices because perforated pipes are so last decade, but your heart is entirely in the right place! And look at this
“From a habitat standpoint this is phenomenal,” Tarr said. “The wildlife education aspect is great.”
From New Hampshire we disperse a little farther East to Maine where this was the letter to the editor this morning in the Bridgeton News.
Beavers
I guess word is out that the Town of Bridgton is looking at sprucing up Shorey Park with native species because, to the joy of some and consternation of others, Castor Canadensis (the North American Beaver) has moved in. Apart from their charismatic personalities, beavers are a keystone species that improve water quality and play a crucial role in promoting a biodiversity that includes fish, amphibians and birds.
As someone who is enamored with the idea of having wildlife living in close proximity to humans but also aware that it is just a matter of time before the Bridgton’s Downtown Beavers cross paths with humans, I think it is advisable for the town to be proactive in seeking solutions to this potential conflict of interest.
Perhaps we should consider what the city of Martinez, California (population 40,000) did when beavers took up residence there. In October 2007, the beaver dam was posing a flooding hazard and the beavers were given a death sentence. However, a huge public response pressured the City Council to form a “beaver committee” to look into the possibility of coexistence. County flood control engineers, property owners and environmental groups along with local beaver advocates teamed together to create a win-win solution for both humans and beavers. Beaver Deceiver International from Vermont installed a flow device that manages dam height and maintains safe water levels. In a nut-shell, the “Castor Master” is a flexible tube that moves water from upstream to downstream and tricks beavers into believing that their dam is operating to their industrious busy beaver specifications.
The Martinez beavers have their own website and YouTube videos. A children’s book, titled “The Comeback Kids, The Martinez Beavers”, raises money to pay for re-vegetation and an on-site interpretive program.
The Bridgton Economic Development Committee will be happy to know that Bridgton’s beaver colony will be very good for business since the positive publicity generated will bring in more visitors to the downtown area. Martinez is now planning for the Fifth Annual Beaver Festival, “a Dam Good Time” which is a family event that celebrates the relationship between beavers, the community and the watershed.
Obviously, there are many other considerations that have not been included here and that will need to be discussed, but given Bridgton’s multi-talented population that includes town personnel, environmentalists, educators, business leaders, artists and volunteers of every persuasion, we can come together to welcome and celebrate our town’s biological heritage and diversity.
Check out www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress. It is a very informative and entertaining site with pod casts, videos and resources that will be useful so that we don’t have to “reinvent the wheel”.
Lega Sammut Medcalf
Bridgton
Lega! You are honory Martinez material! Our sister from another mister! Anyone else up for a fieldtrip? The good news is that if Bridgton opens their purse strings far enough to install a flow device you are 3.5 hours away from Skip Lisle and 4.5 hours away from Mike Callahan. She has already arranged a book signing for the best children’s book ever written on beavers who’s author lives in Maine and once crisply explained to me that she only helps non-profits in her state. Oh. Let’s hope she is very busy very soon! And thanks for the great letter!
