Save the Beavers? A Poll

submitted by the HNN Staff

The Town is declaring war on the Bogastow Beaver Cell.

Here's the background, as gathered by HNN reporters at Town committee meetings:

• The beavers in question have constructed a dam and caused the water level to rise to within less than 200 feet of Well #5 on Central Street; the state requires a 400-foot buffer zone. Beavers sometimes carry a life threatening parasite, according to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). If it were present in this population, it would pose a threat to Well #5.
  
  
• The Town is not allowed to relocate beavers to other sites, so the Town has decided they must be trapped and killed. The Water Commissioners announced that they could not get a trapper in 2007 to rid the beavers from Bogastow Brook as planned. The permit to remove and kill the beavers issued by the Conservation Commission was valid for only thirty days, so a new permit will be required in the spring.
  
  
• The total number of beavers in the area is not known. Probably some beavers will remain even after the trappers do their trapping in the spring. Officials hope that with the water level lowered, the remaining beavers will be so uncomfortable they will move on.

If water on the surface of the ground within 400 feet of our wells is a problem, then why is well #1, a mere twenty feet off Lake Winthrop, allowed to operate, not to mention well #4, which abuts Weston Pond?

Granted this is a simplification of the problem. But the response from town officials is equally an exaggeration of the solution.

The fact is that testing has shown none of the parasites of concern to be present.

Why can't the Water Department continue to test the water and allow the beavers to do their thing if the parasites never appear?

• Killing the current inhabitants of the beaver lodge is not the answer. After they are gone and the lodge is destroyed, others will follow and build a new lodge with the trees remaining in the area.
  
  
• As long as there are trees to build with and leaves to store for the winter, beavers will be attracted to a site.
  
  
• Must they be considered "a problem" even when tests show no contamination?
  
  
• Water near a well is not a bad thing unless it's contaminated.
  
  
• Harmless wetlands are not something that must be micromanaged.
  
  
• Beaver deceivers. properly installed, have been proven to work in critical residential settings. (Beaver Deceiver Info Page) They can work here.
  

Be on the lookout for our Poll which will be activated the week of February 4, on our HNN main page.