Oh Dam! Mantua woman wants back yard beaver homes repaired
MANTUA — Jennifer Forsyth has a huge dam problem. Literally.
She first noticed a beaver dam in her back yard, which backs up to the Chestnut Branch of Mantua Creek, about a year ago. The wetlands on her property teem with wildlife. Forsyth and her husband have spotted river otters and wood ducks, usually a rare sight in Gloucester County, as well as the occasional bald eagle.
What a nice beginning! This may need to be number nine on the positive beaver articles tally for 2013. It features our good friend Sarah Summerville of the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge, and a DEP worker who clearly has got the memo that beaver make habitat for wildlife.
“Generally, beavers do benefit a whole host of other wildlife species,” said Andrew Burnett, a biologist with the Department of Environmental Protection. “Beavers are one of the few animals that can actually change the environment. You have a stream running by, and when the beavers build a dam, you have a pond.”
Yes you do, Andrew, And by the way that pond might be your only pond on that stream come this summer, and all the wildlife will depend on it even more than they already do. Never mind that the reporter can’t seem to differentiate between the words DAM and LODGE and that Sarah appears to imply that flow devices operate as a kind of birth control for beavers. They’re smart folks and I’m sure they’ll get it all sorted out eventually.
“They think they didn’t build it well enough, so they’ll build it back stronger the next time,” said Barry Bengel, chairman of the Mantua Township Environmental Commission. “They think if it disappears, it needs to be rebuilt.”
“They’re natural engineers,” said Sarah Summerville, director of Unexpected Wildlife Refuge in Newfield, who consulted with Forsyth when she first noticed the dam. “They seem to approach it as a challenge.”
Forsyth wants to work with the township to find a more permanent solution. “I think if we worked smartly together, we could all be happy.”
Yes. You can. And Martinez is proof of that. Good work!
Farther East a friend from the Tay beavers group this morning suggested the idea that we promote Beavers Without Borders, which I liked so very much I had to play with.
Considering I am operating at a considerable graphic handicap without photo shop I am rather proud of getting it together. Setting the inversions right and still getting the outline made me think of this classic scene.
