Ahhh! What a conundrum! The town of Upton, MA has this wet boggy area that turns out to house an amazingly rare species of dragonfly. Apparently its so rare that they don’t even want to say its name. Why the secrecy? Well, they say they don’t want folks to come out and take samples, but I’m guessing it could also have to do with the fact that wetlands supporting them is being maintained by some beavers they want dead.
Town officials are doing a juggling feat in trying to prevent flooding on several major roads by trapping pesky beavers in a local bog who contribute to the problem, while at the same time keeping water levels there high enough to protect endangered dragonflies.
On Wednesday,town officials went with habitat protection specialist Lynn Harper to Southboro Road Bog, a 30-acre plot that is prone to flooding, but also home to a rare species of dragonfly that requires a wet habitat to survive.
Picard said the Department of Public Works will replace three old, partially collapsed culverts under Southboro, Westboro and Northboro roads this fall, and will also try to trap more beavers, as their dams contribute to flooding.
“We really need to get rid of the beavers because even if we reduce the water level, the beavers will work diligently to dam it up again,” he said.
Penko said beavers started to be a problem about seven years ago. Since that time, they have built additional dams atop two human-built dams that were likely constructed in the 19th century.
See we like dragonflies, but we hate beavers, so what’s a city to do? At the moment they’re paying a trapper to take out the latter and promising to apply human efforts to maintain the water level at a comfortable height for the insect. I’m curious. If the beaver came 7 years ago, when did the dragonflies appear? I’m guessing it was sometime after that. Never mind that Upton is barely an hour away from Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions who could control their pond height without harming the road or the dragonflies or the beavers.
The story reminded me so much about the teaching tale of the watercress darter in Alabama. Remember that story? Huge lawsuits were filed because the city removed some beaver dams that destroyed habitat for the very rare fish. Will Upton learn from Alabama’s mistakes? Will it take the time to see the solutions right in front of them? Or will they continue on their current path without a moment’s reflection? I’m curious to see how this story plays out. Hopefully someone will want better options.
One beaver has been trapped already. Will their supply of ignorance run out before their supply of beavers? We can only watch and hope.
