Hopkinton residents blame beavers for flooding woes
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OPKINTON — Several residents of Huckleberry Road are pushing town officials to help find solutions for beaver dams on Whitehall Brook they say are flooding their properties. “The water is less than 40 feet from my house,” Jim Sullivan, of 18 Huckleberry Road, told selectmen last week.
Don MacAdam, conservation administrator, said Thursday several town officials inspected several properties on Huckleberry Road earlier this week to see the flooding. He said he has also seen a beaver dam and evidence of the animals at Pratt Farm, a nearby property on Fruit Street that the town recently bought. Along for the walk were the animal control officer, health administrator and principal planner.
“I’m assuming (the flooding) has to do with beaver dams further down the brook,” MacAdam said.
Sullivan said at Board of Health meeting they also brought up beaver problems. “They agreed there is a situation there,” he said.
Jennifer Belesi, of 24 Huckleberry Road and also a member of the Board of Health, said the problem will take a well-coordinated effort of the residents, town and state. The flood water could threaten wells and septic tanks, which makes it a health problem, she said.
“This is not just one beaver,” she said. “This is an enormous issue.”
Call the WAAmbulance. Between November 2013 and January 2015 this website has reported on no fewer than 7 articles about the DIRE beaverness in Hopkinton, which warranted trapping on every single count. Even though we got them to talk to Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions somewhere along the way, many many beavers were killed. Apparently the problem is still DIRE.
Honestly, even more so than most of beaver-phobic Massachusetts, Hopkinton appears to be on permanent red alert.
More reasons to fear beaver from the Swedes. Actually this might be my very favorite beaver headline ever. Maybe I should be keeping a file.
Did a beaver burn down a Swedish family home?
Police have revealed that a list of usual suspects has been narrowed down to one main culprit believed to be responsible for a fire which gutted a Swedish family home: a beaver.
The house burned to the ground after a blaze in Heby municipality near Uppsala, north of Stockholm, on Monday.
Police launched a probe into suspected arson, but revealed late on Wednesday that a forensic examination of the site had identified a potential suspect, who is yet to be traced.
“Our technicians have reached that conclusion. The beaver left behind forensic evidence which led us to it,” Uppsala police press spokesperson Christer Nordström told public broadcaster SVT.
No one was injured in the blaze, which is believed to have been caused by an electrical fault after a tree toppled by the four-legged rodent fell on to a power transmission line.
“I heard the evidence was trees that had been gnawed on and such like. I don’t know anything about the forensic team’s beaver expertise, but that’s the information I have received,” said Nordström.
The animal, thought to have his hideout in a nearby river, was understood to still be at large on Thursday.
“The beavers themselves would probably not claim they destroy society functions. But they often fell trees that fall on electricity wires. If I may offer a theory, without having any insight into the case, I think it’s a tree that has fallen and caused sparks,” beaver expert Lars Plahn at the county council’s environmental department told SVT.
I LOVE LARS. Don’t you love Lars? He’s brave enough not to play another round of Blame the Rodent, and we have to respect that. I’m sorry for the fire, but at least when the Swedes write a silly article like this they have the decency to realize they’re being ridiculous.
Which is obviously more than we can say for Hopkinton.
Roy MacDowell Jr. is downsizing, but to where and what he’s not so sure. What’s for certain is that his 25,000-square-foot home in Wayland is on the block. The asking price: $21.8 million.
