Date: Fri 14-Nov-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

Beavers-Hanover-Road

Full Text:

By The Light Of The Full Beaver Moon

(with cuts)

BY DOROTHY EVANS

On Friday, November 14, if the weather is clear, a full beaver moon will be

casting its silvery light over our woods and meadows.

It will also be shining down upon local ponds and wetlands, possibly even

lighting the way for those notorious beavers of Hanover Road, who keep

building their dams and causing water back-up problems for local residents

Bridget Seaman and James Walker.

"Every year we go through this. The beavers build their dams, and it threatens

our well," Mr Walker said Tuesday.

Surface water in which beavers are active can contaminate homeowners' wells,

and Mr Walker and Ms Seaman have waged an ongoing battle each fall to lower

the wetlands that border their property by breaking up the beaver dams

downstream.

"In the morning I break them up, and in the evening the beavers build them

back again," Mr Walker said.

His voice betrayed a certain amount of fatalism as he stood astride a low dam

and poked away at its muddy rim with a garden hoe.

"I was hoping the town would keep after it, but they don't, so I'm doing it

myself," he added.

Of course, as Mr Walker noted, the beavers are only doing what they always do

at this time of year, building their dams and shoring up their lodges to get

ready for winter.

Perhaps that was why the Native Americans named November's full moon after the

industrious beavers that continue to do what comes naturally.

Town Clears Culverts

A call to Frederick Hurley, director of the Newtown Public Works Department,

revealed that the town is doing what it can, short of trapping, to control the

beavers where they have become a problem.

Mostly, this involves clearing out the culverts under the roads, which beavers

also plug up, so the water can flow freely.

"If we trap them, people get upset. We try and work with people on this," Mr

Hurley said.

"If we are going to trap, the only way is to have the state biologist come out

and certify that trapping is necessary and will not completely wipe out the

beaver population in the area.

"Also, we have to have approval of the property owners, and there may be four

or five and no consensus," he added.

The beavers store their food below the water line, he said, so they can get to

it when the pond ices over without being caught by predators.

"They know what they're doing!" Mr Hurley said.

"You truly have to admire their energy and creativity. It's difficult when men

and animals try to live in the same space."