ORRINGTON, Maine — The colony of beavers on Swetts Pond Road who built the approximately 80-foot wide beaver dam that failed Friday night — in the same place a break occurred in 2001 — will soon be trapped, property owner Larry Pelletier told town selectmen Monday.
“It’s going to be a full-time job for the trapper,” he said. “There are a lot of beaver in there. It might be something we have to do every year.”
The beavers “will not be killed,” Town Manager Paul White stressed after the meeting. “They will be trapped” and then relocated.
The approximately 30-foot wide breach in the beaver dam temporarily wiped out Swetts Pond Road and a portion of the nearby railroad tracks, and early repair estimates put the cost at around a quarter million, White said.
Swetts Pond Road is expected to reopen by the end of the week, the town manager said.
The day after the flooding, Pelletier said, he started to work on removing portions of the beaver dam.
“I took it down this weekend and leveled it to the height of the water,” the landowner said. “The beavers have already started to work on that. I went down this morning and there were four beavers attacking that corner. I don’t think any beaver deceiver is going to work.”
A device called a “beaver deceiver,” which resembles a culvert that helps to regulate water levels, was installed after the last major flooding a decade ago, but over the years the beavers filled the device with sticks, rocks and mud.
“We watched the deceive start to fail and watched the water start to get higher,” Pelletier said.
There was a small breach at the beaver dam in October, and at that point Pelletier took a “proactive approach getting everybody together” including folks from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the Maine Warden Service, a wildlife biologist, and others “to come up with a solution,” the town manager said. “They’ve been leading [the discussion] and we’ve been listening.”
Since the beaver dam is located on the property of at least two, possibly three landowners, “the town’s hands have been tied,” and there was little that town leaders could do to fix the problem, White said.
Friday’s flood ruined any plans the Pelletier-led group had created.
“We all had plans to deal with this thing,” Pelletier said, adding later, “It just sucks it broke” before a solution was put in place.
During the meeting, resident Terry Pierson, White and each town councilor praised and thanked the fire and public works departments for their work during the flooding. White also made a pledge to whatever is needed to prevent another flood down the road.
“On behalf of the town, this need not, will not happen again,” White said. “Whatever we need to do, we will do.”
And in other news: “Squirrel Crosses Road, Narrowly Averts Oncoming Truck”.
Related Story: “Beavers are fury little animals that make houses from mud, dams with sticks and fur coats for republicans”
Well that is funny..I was just thinking they would make nice jackets…
Bushfan gets the quote of the week award!
Wuz it ah RED squirrel?
If your squirrel crossing the road managed to cause $250,000 in damage, your analogy would be correct.
That is the exact solution I said they should take under the first article about this situation. They should definitely go further and get some one in there during the winter and trap.
Slow learners, we’ll see how good their retention is.
Apparently it wasn’t anticipated that, after event #1, the thoroughly scolded beavers would continue to act like beavers. Such arrogance.
Now their fate is deportation. That should work for a year or two until other beavers, currently getting their degrees from engineering class, will settle in and build a super dam. Then all will be well.
That was magnificent. Thanks for the chuckle. :)
“The day after the flooding, Pelletier said, he started to work on removing portions of the beaver dam.”
What came first the chicken or the egg?
I thought they arrested the beaver and they where up to Glenn’s Hotel. You are going to have breeding ground for germs and bugs west nile virus once the beaver are gone.Thought Scotty said they had to say and could not be removed.
the beavers should hire a trapper to get rid of those damn humans messing with there homes.
“On behalf of the town, this need not, will not happen again,” White said. “Whatever we need to do, we will do.”
i vote extinction to the species
The People or the Beavers????
Beavers ” will not be killed”.
Long live the beaver.
“Repair estimates put the cost at around a quarter million, White said.”
Beaver would be disappearing, end of story.
Be nice to the beavers…..
I know folks can see them as an annoyance, but I’ve been watching them for over 20 years. Good place to learn to shoot wildlife photos.
That’s a pretty costly ‘annoyance.’ ;)
I am always nice to beavers! I love beavers. Nice,,big,,brown,,beavers. Nothin wrong with beavers.
I lived on a road once where the beavers dammed across culverts. Beaver deceiver was installed there too and it didn’t work. Someone on the road finally got tired of the flooding and road washouts and “took care of” the problem. Permanently. Not me, but I certainly did not shed any tears over the b*st*rds. Wife and other animal nuts were upset. Game wardens were upset. But no more having to cross flooded road on foot and walk a mile home several times a year.
Hmmm…. beaver…….yummmy.
We appear to have another occupy movement at hand…..
Occupy Beaver!
The beaver are way smarter than this group! We will read about this again next year!
LOL That’s not fair, beavers are smarter than everyone. We figure a way to keep them from damming up water, they figure a way around it. Their instinct is to stop running water and they are geniuses at it.
Mankind likes to watch running water.. The beavers are on.
lol ok as long as it’s a battle of wits. Traps and guns are cheating…. well unless you need a hat. You design a better mouse trap to keep the water flowing freely, and I give the beavers 2 weeks to a month to figure out a way around it.
Shouldn’t the state just keep a watch on the beavers to keep this from happening again, since this is a recurring problem for Orrington?
Google earth image shows a pretty big beaver dam there and a small “lake”. The warm weather was the cause. I heard those beaver were in there recklessly riding jets skis and power boats last week…no wonder the dam broke! Those beaver rebuilding the dam are breaking the law…they don’t even have any dam building permits….and BDN didn’t even show any dam pictures. To resolve this entire mess……..place a solar powered “beaver cam” in there. We’ll all be watching ’em.
Beaver create problems year after year. That is the nature of the beast. If you do not get all the beaver, it will happen again and again. Trap the beaver and make darned sure you get all of them. relocate them to a place along the Allegash and leave them. Good luck with those efforts.
Here’s a thought for a “Beaver Deceiver”……in the center of the vertical culvert/pipe, install a shaft on bearings top and bottom. On this shaft have blades designed to turn the shaft from the force of water flow…. on the caged top section have large metal paddles that effectively push away any sticks/limbs/debris…..place a generator on top of this shaft 4 feet above the water and hook it up to make a power supply….sort of a beaver culvert turbine generator…..then those beaver can at least have a power supply to listen to music and have a night light (or a place to recharge their cell phone)!
Yup, Maine is for inventors…………….shhhhhh don’t tell the Gov….he’ll have us building these in all our culverts…………………
Beaver Deceiver? Right……
Yeah sounds like something Chaz Bono would have…
New Quote of the Day award being given out to this one!!!!!
I’ll take their extra beavers. I’m told I can’t cut my trees on my land to build a my house close to the river. If I dont cut them, and let the beavers do it, that should work.
talk to the maine forest department. A lot of Code enforcement officers do not understand shoreland zoning requirements and restrictions. There is a point system to clear trees within 75 feet of the high water mark, and anything beyond 75 feet is fair game. Don’t ask questions at the local level, trust me, you will get further with the state surprisingly.
My wife asked a forest ranger about it when she took her hunter safety class. He said 75 feet. The town said 250 feet. I like the forest rangers’ idea.
The ranger was correct. 250′ is shoreland zoning, while the restrictions are different in shoreland zoning, nothing is prohibited. You can clear cut within 75 feet. Then thin out the trees within the 75 feet using a point system. Call the DEP, they are a huge help.
Careful what you do around beaver bogs. The government has designated some as moderate to high value wetlands. That means they have a 250′ buffer that has the same legal characteristics as the 75′ one had.
A beaver dam self distructing? Yeah, right.
But where is the high water mark? Apparently it can be debatable, or lower…. Those are only seasonal wetlands near the water, that’s not the high water mark, you can consider that developable?!?!?
Or in other words, “The horse got out again, time to fix the gate.”
Save a tree, …
In the woods, we’ve had to deal with these little rodents for years. I asked a Warden about it one day and the response was “Do what you need to do.” So you can spend all kinds of dollars trying to relocate them(STUPID AND COSTLY), or for a few bucks worth of ammo, you can make sure that they don’t relocate themselves back to the same place. Shoot them and be done with it. Something is wrong when we have to be so warm and fuzzy that we can’t do a few beavers. This kind of s-it makes my blood boil. On the islands when they get over run with deer, they shoot the deer! Don’t mess with island people. They are still the real deal!!
Regardless of your alleged warden quote – this action is not legal.
And your point is? speeding is illegal as well as distracted driving-let’s not forget about infidelity or any number of things that people do on a daily basis. Who’s more important to our well being, a spotted owl, pesky beavers? I have a pair or beaver slippers and they are really warm, and the spotted owl has some real nice plumage for tying flies. One stick of gelatin in the middle of the house during daylight hours would take care of the problem. Oh, by the way it was not an alleged quote, Sir, and I resent the implication.
This could have all been avoided if there was more funding for state beaver dam inspectors!
Yes, let’s relocate the beavers to a place they can do the same thing then we will relocate from there and so on. Beaver will travel long distances to get back to where they came from. Live trapping them is not the answer.
Relocation is worse than killing them outright. Put them in another colonies territory and the fighting begins, long term suffering follows. It’s contradictory to me that we no longer utilize fur as a renewable natural resource, opting instead for petroleum based clothing. Stange days indeed.
A device called a “beaver deceiver,” which resembles a culvert that
helps to regulate water levels, was installed after the last major
flooding a decade ago, but over the years the beavers filled the device
with sticks, rocks and mud.
So the Town knew what was happening but did nothing to prevent it my maintaining it… Instead they just watched.
Brian, the dam was on private property. A city/town is limited in what they can do when a hazard exists on private property. If the property owner says “stay away” the town cannot enter the property.
Very True ….. till the damage effects town/public property that has to be repaired. Can the town then apply those repair costs to the landowners? Ouch!
It will be interesting to see where this will go. FEMA said they would pay only once for the damage and that was in 2001. Will they pay for it? Don’t know but it doesn’t look like it will meet the threshold for federal assistance. Is the homeowner liable? Maybe, they certainly knew that it failed once in 2001 and almost failed again last year. The question should be would a standard home owners policy cover the damage?
Once the hazard is identified, if he refuses to let the city or town deal with it the property owner should be liable for any further damages the beavers on his property cause. It’s a known fact that many beaver dams catastrophically break every every few/several years and the damage and hazard it causes can be expensive and even deadly. When the dams break, it happens very suddenly and if you happen to be out for a stroll or even driving along the road that’s downstream from it when the 8′ wall of water comes surging through the woods, it may well be the last thing you ever see. I’ve got nothing against beavers but I’ve seen the damage they can cause before and have come to the conclusion that there are places where their dams just shouldn’t exist, such as immediately upstream or downstream from any dwelling or person that can be damaged or injured by their existence. For those who may be unpersuaded, how would you feel if beavers dammed up a stream just downstream from your property so after a while your lawn disappears and your house becomes an island that you have to wade through muck and water to get to. Would you still feel that it was important to leave the beavers alone?
Trust me, I would much rather see the beavers be “removed”. The three property owners may be on the hook for the damage the beaver dam caused.
How about if your house goes in the lake or pond or becomes part of the lake or pond?
Invasive New Jersey beavers or were some out of power weasels involved?
I am a ceritified beaver deciever, just ask my wife!
“I don’t think any beaver deceiver is going to work.”
give me a gun
I thought land owners hands were tied as they are not allowed to do anything about beavers, which is it?
Did Bobby get his driveway paid for by the town. Have the beaver been charged yet…….. Must have been 2 millon gallons of water drained off. Leave the beaver its a great place for them to be. I thought the Asst.Chief of the Fire Dept. Stewart said the beaver had to say. Paul your doing a great job being the Town Mananger.
I like the portion of the article that says they identified the problem last October and have been conducting meetings to address it. Seeing what the final result of the “meetings” was and that this is a repeat of a past incident, Orrington beavers are definitely smarter than the local government.
Folks, the only way a “beaver deciever”/grating can work – is to MAINTAIN IT! They do work, have them in my town. But they MUST routinely be cleared. If one wants results, one has to be willing to make effort. The land owners and town were aware and did nothing, now with such significant economical results, you want a diferent outcome. The answer was and still is simple. MAINTAIN routinely your grates! It DOES work!
Live trapping must be immediate as they need opportunity to “nest” and re-establish if relocated. Eradication (while I’m opposed to this option) should really have been addressed this winter.
I’m quite certain the folks at both DIFW/Warden Svc were clear about everything I’ve mentioned; it’s not their first rodeo – and with successful towns collaborating with their local road maintenance crews and fire departments to assist – it’s proven a workable solution. So it would appear that these folks just didn’t like the fact it would require effort on their part. The issue is not the beavers, the issue is the humans. Were the humans in this case willing to get their hands dirty and a tad damp – there would be no article and no damage.