Apparently, in Virginia, they aren’t working hard enough.
| Beaver dam breaks, wetlands drain. By Village News Online Apr 22, 2009 – 3:40:19 PM |
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| Steve Morris, with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, was quick to answer the call of a concerned citizen. |
Several citizens in the community took notice to the wetlands on Chester Rd. this week and saw a dramatic drop in water within a day’s time. The wetlands is home to a multitude of wild life including a flock of swans that have brought much attention to the area.
Steve Morris with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality was on site Wednesday after receiving a phone call from a concerned citizen. “I came out because the issue may have been something that would effect water quality,” he says.
Morris says the beaver dam, which is built near the drainage area had been knock down a little probably from the rain the night before. “We had a lot of rain the night before and it [the flow of water] probably knocked the tip of the dam off.” He says the dam is still there and the beavers will rebuild the height on the dam.
How much do you love this story? The citizens are concerned by the sudden water drop and call their DEQ right away, and demonstrate on a grand scale the role of beavers in the ecosystem. Sweet. I won’t even hurt my head trying to imagine this happening in Martinez, but its lovely that a community can value the good done by dams, instead of just the hazard.
Interestingly, when Igor Skaredoff attended the beaver conference in Oregon, they talked about the difficulties of reintroducing beavers into certain habitats. Streams that were steeply downcut because they had been without beavers for 100 years were poor candidates for dam success without a little extra help. The department of Fish & Wildlife actually tried something totally new in that instance, and built little “starter dam frames” for the beavers to develop. This helped maintain the dams even in very high flow and did not result in as many washouts.
Hear that Steve? They might need your help to keep the wetlands ideal for a while. Two hours work should do it, they’ll do the rest. Think of the swans.
