The entrance sign to the Crows Woods Nature Preserve. Credit: Shelly Castorino

You may remember the horrific New Jersey beaver tale last year, where the local animal control officer Mark Johnson went out of his way to shoot two beavers in the public park and everyone scrambled to deny responsibility for the action. Because of the location and the college town ambiance, there was enough outrage to eventually charge him with a very minor crime, but no judge would hear the case and it kept getting moved farther afield to find someone that didn’t owe him favors. Go figure.

Well Haddonfield is about 45 miles south and very beaver savvy. They have taken it upon themselves to offer us the best possible beaver story in contrast. Brace yourselves. This is a once in a lifetime gift. A woman like me dreams of this kind of fortune, but doesn’t ever think it’s really possible. Take a deep breath and inhale the coming scent of 2013: where apparently anything is possible.

The Beavers are Back!

By Shelly Castorino

After a two-year hiatus, beavers have returned to Haddonfield’s Crows Woods Nature Preserve.

Vinny and Sal Calla, students at Haddon Heights High School, spotted two beavers swimming near a drain pipe that runs under the PATCO light-rail line earlier this week.

“We were trying to get a closer look when one beaver started slapping its tail on the water,” Vinny said. Sal explained “slapping the tail on the water is how they scare away predators.” Vinny and Sal were close enough to the beavers to capture excellent pictures of the furry duo.

For months, hikers, runners and visitors to Crows Woods have noticed dramatic changes to the shoreline along the Cooper River that runs through the preserve. Trees up to 12 inches in diameter were strategically cut to fall towards the river. Curved wooden shavings surrounded the base of each tree. The tell-tale signs of beaver activity were there, but until Tuesday morning, no one had seen an actual beaver.

Look at the reporter’s name. Castor, as you know, is the latin word for beaver, and ‘ino’ is a suffix meaning diminutive. So Castorino, Shelly’s lovely name, literally means LITTLE BEAVER. I imagine that a reporter from Patch could wait their whole life for the story that represents their destiny. An automotive story for Mr. Carman, a woodcutting tale for Mrs. Carpenter, a lost feline story for Lenore Delgato. But this for Shelly Castorino is an opportunity of epic proportions. Folks will be celebrating this in the news room for years to come.

Oh and Crow woods? It’s already under the watchful eye of our beaver friend Sarah Summerville at the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge. This entire Patch article is a beaver-fan’s Christmas treasure!

Beavers in the Crow’s Woods Nature Preserve

By Butch Brees, Haddonfield Parks Conservancy Trail Restoration Coordinator, and former Scoutmaster of Troop 65, Haddonfield, NJ

A few short months ago, the members of the Haddonfield Parks Conservancy of Haddonfield, NJ, became aware of a beaver, or beavers, beginning activity in establishing a new lodge in the 44-acre Crows Woods Nature Preserve. Not being an expert in the activities and processes of a young beaver establishing his new home, and being the Parks trail restoration coordinator, I contacted Sarah Summerville for information and lessons in Beavers 101. It wasn’t more than a few days and Sarah made the trip to meet with me and view the area where the beavers had begun building dams. It had been a long time since I had seen Sarah since I retired as Scoutmaster, so it was nice to see her again. Her information was extremely helpful in helping us to make a decision as to whether to let the beaver remain or try to have it removed.

The Crow Woods Beaver from Haddonfield Civic Association on Vimeo.

Our friend Sarah from Unexpected Wildlife Refuge, alerts me to this video from her friend Butch Brees about the Crow Woods beaver(s). Last month I read a lovely article about the local conservation commissions response to the new resident, and now it’s here on the little screen! Notice the fact that their citizen association spends money to actually film the story of these beavers and put footage on the website. (The city of Martinez won’t even provide a link or a photo.) Notice also they invested in lengthening the bridge when the beavers flooded it, instead of bemoaning damage to their trails and hiring the trapper. Bruce tours the area with a Haddonfield Conservation Commissioner and talks about the new habitat the beavers are creating for wildlife.

It’s almost made me teary to think of a video explaining the beaver value and habitat on the same website as video from the school board and city council. I can’t even really imagine it. One would think that Conservancy organizations are the obvious friends to beavers, but alas, it is rarely true. Sarah has clearly done admirable work spreading the beaver gospel in her neck of the woods. The BEST PART about this video is at the end, when Butch talks about how the park benefits from the raised water level because of the beavers, but if the beavers raise it too much they can install a flow device. Wow. A city that knows its options. Hand me my smelling salts, I’m feeling faint.

Speaking of Conservancy commissions, Massachusetts has about 300+ of them, one for every municipality. I have written several this year advocating a humane investment in beaver management. I just learned that Saturday Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions will be giving a talk at the state wide conservancy conference.They are pairing him with “on-the-other-hand, why-not-try-killun” representative, Laura Hajduk to present all the options.

Devoted readers of this website will recognize her name from the New York Times article where she bemoaned the successful (but very partial–Ed. note) recovery of the beaver population in the state, blaming it on ‘them pesky environmentalists who outlawed body-crushing traps’, (even though any creative man, woman or child with two IQ points to rub together could still get permission to use those traps under almost any circumstances). There will be a kind of “dueling beavers” note to the conference as they argue management from both sides of the crick. (I’m proud to say that website wonders allow me to note that several people searching for Ms. Hajduk over the year have come to our website, which is just plain fun.)