Be Careful What You Wish For

My parents have a farm in Maryland with a stream running through the property. One summer, a group of enterprising beavers built a dam in the stream and caused complete chaos on the property. The steam overflowed, all of the plantings washed away, the drains became clogged with debris...you get the picture. One thing led to another to another to another. The solution? Get rid of the beavers.

Getting rid of the dam didn't do it. They just kept repairing and reconstructing their tour de force. Ultimately, the beavers were removed under humane circumstances but far, far away to clog up someone else's stream. But as they say, what goes around, comes around, literally.

Apparently the people of Concord, Mass. have a similar problem, only this is one that conservation has actually created. Years of protecting beavers has resulted in their plentiful existence in the town and everything, yes everything including property, septic tanks, drains and sewers in the town is flooding due to the handiwork of these enterprising rodents.

"We have a huge problem," David Pavlik an engineer for the nearby town of Lexington, where floods have reeked havoc on the town's sanitation system. "We trapped them. We breached their dam. Nothing works."

Beavers, it turns out, are some of the best engineers in the ecosystem and when some are trapped, others move in to replace them. It all usually happens within 24 hours. According to the Department of Agriculture, beavers are responsible for tens of millions of dollars worth of damage in states like Mississippi, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

The answer, it seems, is to find a way for humans and beavers to co-exist which usually requires chicken wire, to keep them out of certain areas, and patience. There are also water flow devices that lower the water level in beaver ponds. People have been known to cover their trees with paint and sand to discourage the beavers from gnawing on them. Even trapping and removing the beavers has mixed success because unclogging a dam upstream can cause flooding downstream.

Beavers are the largest rodents in North America and can reach 60 pounds! They are monogamous animals that mate for life and their goal is to build a dam and create a pond. They like to eat the plants that grow underwater.

Although it is hard to believe, beavers do have beneficial effects on the environment, one of which is to leave behind rich soil when they eventually move on to another location.

In the meantime, it seems that patience and tolerance are the necessary requirements for co-existence. Eventually, beavers do relocate when the ponds they create are no longer bountiful. Trying to move them any sooner, just does not work.

Dare I say it? Leave it to beavers.....