Time for some good news, this time from our friends in Andover, New Hampshire who have worked hard to solve beaver problems the same way Martinez did: bringing in Skip Lisle.
Andover sits at the base of Ragged Mountain in central New Hampshire. The town’s 2,500 residents value its rich network of streams, ponds, and lakes. So does a healthy population of beavers. Dams built by beavers in eight of the town’s road culverts were a perpetual problem. When dams plugged culverts, waters rose and flooded roadways. The heavy equipment required to remove the dams cost $125 hour. Clearing a single culvert often took several hours. Exhorbitant costs were also incurred to repair degraded roads.
This lovely handout was made by the good folks of “Voices of wildlife in New Hampshire.” It’s so well done that I’m just cutting and pasting to give you the idea. I will link to it at the end so that you can distribute if you wish. Remember New Hampshire is the home of our friend Art Wolinsky who has been persuading folks on the ground and helping VWNH when he can. It’s starting to look like a great place to be a beaver.
Hey I know that fellow! So do you! That’s Skip Lisle of Beaver Deceivers Int’l installing a beaver deceiver to protect those culverts. Nice to see a city that solves beaver problems the smart way.
CONCEPT PROVEN, CONFLICT SOLVED
With its roads and culverts safe from beaver damming and damage, the town will save a lot of money in coming decades. By choosing flow devices over traditional management, Andover expects to save approximately $130,000 over a ten-year period, and nearly $500,000 over a thirty-year period. Extrapolated across a given county or state, the potential savings represented by the use of properly designed, high-quality flow devices could be breathtaking. In addition, there are many nearby wetlands worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in ecological and hydrological services that would drain if beavers were killed and their dams not maintained.
I always thought that making culverts permanently ‘beaver proof’ was a no-brainer. Heck why not even build them that way in the first place? I really love the handout. I just have a few criticisms. First off their name doesn’t appear on it, which is a mistake for something this sharp which is going to get shared why not brag? And secondly their prices estimates are woefully low. When you do the math, that graph only estimates about 100 bucks a year to clean those 8 culverts without Skips help. I seriously doubt that’s accurate. Do they never have to rent heavy equipment? Do they never have to pay overtime? Does it never require more than one visit or one employee? 100 bucks a year hardly pays for waders.
Glynnis Hood’s study of the costs save was much more convincing even though we know it was a very cautious estimate.. “Mitigating Infastructure Loss from Beaver Flooding”.
I guess our friends at VWNH were trying to be as conservative as possible, but even so the case if pretty clear. Fixing the problem for the long hall saves valuable funds, time and effort. Cities are busy. They have better things to do than clean culverts. Beavers are with us everywhere, and you won’t get rid of problems by getting rid of a few. Better to solve the problem for the long term.
