Beaver Solutions New!Click Here For Natural History of Beavers
A resource for resolving beaver-related conflict
Who We Are
We are the "Beaver Solutions" company, a locally owned and operated company dedicated to helping people resolve beaver-related conflicts in a long-term and cost-effective way
What We Do
Using the latest generation of flow-devices we successfully control beaver-related flooding in a manner that protects human interests. Flow devices are either protective fences designed to keep culverts open or pipe systems installed through beaver dams to limit the size of the ponds.
How Do Flow-Devices Work?
Our effective flow devices are designed with a understanding of beaver behavior and abilities. Beavers are stimulated to build dams by the sound or feel of running water. Well designed dam pipes prevent the beaver from detecting water moving through the system. This permanent leak in the dam limits the size of the beaver pond.
Highway and railroad roadbeds are especially attractive damming sites because beavers see the culvert in the roadbed as a dam with a hole in it. Properly designed culvert protective fencing will decrease the stimulus for beaver damming and make it more difficult to dam. This causes the beaver to leave the culvert alone.
Understanding beaver behavior and abilities, combined with the latest advances in design, enables "Beaver Solutions" to create long-term, low-maintenance systems to prevent damaging flooding
Why Use a Flow Device?
A flow device allows the beaver to create and maintain wetlands. As wetlands are critical to the health of our environment, a beaver pond with a properly designed and installed flow device preserves a very valuable ecosystem. Beavers are considered one of America's Keystone Species due to all the other species that rely on beavers for their survival. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that close to one-half of our endangered species rely on wetlands for survival at some point in their life cycle.
Wetlands slow and spread the flow of running water and act like sponges to absorb runoff from heavy storms, then slowly release itto prevent damaging erosion and flooding. Plants in wetlands absorb and neutralize toxic runoff from nearby farms and suburban and industrial development. Wetlands act to recharge aquifers. Opportunities to observe wildlife are created by beaver ponds and the creatures they sustain. Hiking, hunting, fishing, photography, and bird watching are all greatly enhanced due to wetlands.
What About Trapping?
Rarely is trapping the best solution since it only temporarily resolves the flooding issue. Beavers will always return to good habitat and dam again. Since flow devices permit coexistence, they are long-term solutions to beaver-related problems, and can save you time, money and aggravation.
What About The Trees?
Large or valuable trees can be easily wrapped to prevent beaver chewing. We recommend that smaller trees be left to the beavers as a beaver-chewed tree can regrow remarkably fast. Trees that drown in a beaver pond create valuable habitat for insects and birds. Large dead trees or snags make excellent nesting areas for eagles, herons, and osprey. Beaver Solutions is available to help with tree protection.
What Do Flow Devices Cost?
Most culvert protective fence systems cost between $126 and $400 installed. Most dam pipe systems cost between $300 and $800 installed. All installations include our Beaver Solutions satisfaction guarantee
The Pioneer Valley Wetland Volunteers
You rnay have heard about us through our work as the Pioneer Valley Wetland Volunteers. The growing awareness of these long-term, cost-effective solutions has increased the demand for our services beyond the time constraints of the Pioneer Valley Wetland Volunteers. In an effort to devote more time to help those experiencing beaver-related flooding, we are now offering our services on a full-time basis.
Beaver Solutions
Mike and Ruth Callahan, Owners
98 Bay Road
Hadley, MA 01035-9688
Phone: 413-585-9145 Fax: 413-587-9788
email: mrcallhn@aol.com
Pioneer Valley Wetland Volunteers
Who Are We?
We are a group of concerned citizens who have volunteered to help resolve beaver-related conflicts in ways which promote the coexistence of beavers and humans. We live in thirty different Pioneer Valley communities in Western Massachusetts.
Why Are We Doing This?
Beavers create and maintain wetlands. According to the most recent estimates, from 1982 to 1992 approximately 90,000 acres of wetlands were lost each year on non-federal lands. These valuable ecosystems compare to tropical rain forests and coral reefs in the diversitv of species they support. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that up to 43% of our threatened and endangered species rely directly or indirectly on wetlands for their survival. For this reason, beavers are considered North America's "Keystone" species and are critically important to our environment.
As beavers return to areas they inhabited for millennia, conflicts with human interests have occurrred. Local and state authorities often do not have the manpower to adequately address these problems, so a creative solution was needed. As a result, concerned citizens organized the Pioneer Valley Wetland Volunteers and have been helping municipalities and property owners deal with beaver-related flooding.
What Are We Doing?
In cooperation with landowners and local and state authorities, our volunteers help build, install, and maintain devices that prevent beaver-related flooding. Using the latest generation of designs, we are successfully controlling beaver-related flooding in western Massachusetts communities in a cost-effective, long-lasting manner. Systems with proven track records, such as the Clemson Pond Leveler, the "Beaver Deceiver" and the Cage and Pipe System are proving that beaver-related flooding issues in our state can be resolved in a manner that protects human interests as well as our environment.
Can Others Do This?
Yes. We feel our volunteer group could be a model for other regions. Our success demonstrates that concerned citizens, landowners, and government officials can create partnerships to effectively deal with beaver-related conflicts, while promoting the many beneficial effects that beavers have on the environment.
For more information about our group, please contact:
Mike and Ruth Callahan, Coordinators
Pioneer Valley Wetland Volunteers
98 Bay Road, Hadley, MA 01035
Voice: 413-585-9145, Fax: 413-587-9788
Email: Beavers@clarktaverninn.com
Web Page: www.clarktaverninn.com/beavers
The Importance of Wetlands
Beavers create and maintain wetlands.
The importance of wetlands to the health of our ecology cannot be overestimated.Wetlands are among the most biologically productive natural ecosystems in the world. They can be compared to tropical rain forests and coral reefs in the diversity of species they support. According to the most recent estimates on the rate of wetlands loss, from 1982 to 1992 approximately 90,000 acres of wet-lands were lost each year on non-federal lands.
Flood Control & Water Ouality
Wetlands greatly influence the flow and quality of water. They function like natural tubs or sponges, storing water and slowly releasing it. This reduces flooding and erosion. Beaver ponds with properly installed and maintained pond-leveling devices can also be effective in decreasing flooding. These devices lower the pond below the top of the dam so storm runoff is held back. Once the rains have ceased, properly functioning drainage systems will return the pond level to below the top of the dam. Beavers will not continue to raise the height of their dam unless there is water flowing over it, so the size of the beaver pond can be controlled if it is necessary to prevent the flooding of adjacent property.
Wetlands help improve water quality, including that of drinking water, by intercepting surface runoff and removing or retaining its nutrients, processing organic wastes, and reducing sediment before it reaches open water. Wetlands help to
detoxify most runoff toxins (e.g. pesticides and fertilizers), and act as the "Earth's kidneys." They filter runoff and adjacent surface waters to protect the quality of our lakes, bays and rivers. Erosion and waterway siltation are decreased by the ponding of waterways.
Habitat for Species
Wetlands are vital to the survival of various animals and plants, including threatened and endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that up to 43% of the threatened and endangered species rely directly or indirectly on wetlands for their survival. For many other species, such as the wood duck, muskrat, and swamp rose, wetlands are primary habitats. For others, wetlands provide important seasonal habitats where food, water, and cover are plentiful. Beaver are considered North America's "Keystone" species due to all the other species that rely on the beaver's habitat for survival.
Beavers provide a number of benefits to wetland ecosystems. Higher water tables due to beaver dams help vegetation during periods of drought. With beavers, wetland areas can become lush with grasses and sedges. Deer and other mammals, as well as a host of birds, come to beaver ponds to eat and drink. Pools behind beaver dams provide more living space for fish and amphibians, even as they improve water quality in the stream.
Benefits to Humans
Improved water quality, flood control, decreased erosion, drought protection, increased fish and game species, and maintenance of vital habitats are only some of the many benefits that wetlands offer. Opportunities to observe wildlife are created by beaver ponds and the creatures they sustain. Hiking, hunting, fishing, photography, and bird watching are greatly enhanced due to the presence of wetlands. By using some of the increasingly effective methods that allow beavers and humans to coexist, we stand to gain innumerable benefits. By protecting the environment of which we are a part, we are protecting our present and future well-being.
Beaver population explodes in Valley
By Nancy C. Rodriguez
Eagle-Tribune Writer
BOSTON — They flood neighborhoods and roadways, down trees and have even destroyed septic Systems, but despite beavers' obvious mischief, legislators are still divided on what to do about their growing population.
Eighteen months after a report showed a dramatic increase in the state's beaver population, state law- makers — includlng state Sen. Susan C. Tucker, D-Andover — are trymg to work out a plan to satisfy both animal rights groups and disgruntled property owners. At issue is the state's ban on traps passed by voters in the 1996 election.
"There has to be a compromise between the folks who want to go back to using the traps indiscriminately and the folks who never want to use traps," Sen. Tucker said.
Since the ban, the state's beaver population has gone from about 24,000 to an estimated 52,000. Under the ban, trappers can catch beavers in cages, but must use "humane methods" to kill them.
The new rules have virtually halted beaver trapping in the state, resulting in the beaver boom and a rise in property damage complaints.Last year, the state received almost 700 complaints statewide about property damage done by beavers, an increase of about 200 from 1997.
Locally, Andover, North Andover, Haverhill and Georgetown have been hit particularly hard. Beavers also have been blamed for undermining railroad beds and bringing down utility poles.
The House responded to the problem this month when it passed a bill overturning the trapping ban.
Sen. Tucker, who sits on the Senate Natural Resources Committee, says it is premature to overturn the trap-ban law.
Sen. Tucker is one of five senators who strongly oppose the House bill, and will likely back an alternative in the Senate proposed by Senate Natural Resources Chairman Marc R. Pacheco, D-Taunton.
Beavers Causing a Flood of Problems for Property, Pols
By Rebecca Lipchitz
Andover Townsman
Andover's Conservation Commission Administrator Jim Greer says the problem with beavers is akin to the "dirty dish" syndrome.
"The trouble with beaver management is that if you fix it once, you'll fix it again," he says.
Legislators may attempt to fix it again by voting to overturn a state ban on beaver traps approved by voter referendum in 1996, while the war wages on between animal rights activists and property owners trying to control the burgeoning beaver population.
State Sen. Sue Tucker (D-Andover) opposes a Rouse bill that would overturn the trapping law, and hopes to fmd a compromise that would allow trapping only to spare residents from property damage.
"I'm trying to inject some common sense and balance into this debate," Tucker says.
Locally, the most visible evidence of the problem was at the Washington Park apartments next to Shawsheen Plaza last spring, when the animals felled a number of trees.
Barbara Brady, property manager at Washington Park, says she is trying to save the trees on the property.
The company recently hired outside help to try to solve the problem, and may end up spending more money than planned on the project, she says.
After a quiet summer with little rainfall, "the beavers have gone wild lately," she says.
They chew down the trees that line the property and keep a buffer between residences and the shopping plaza, she says.
"It takes years to grow a tree, and they can chew it down in a night," she says.
The trap ban was passed to eliminate indiscriminate and cruel trapping practices, but some reported after the vote they felt misled by the language in the 1996 ballot question.
"My intent is not to flout the law, but to work within its spirit," Tucker says.
While voters may not have understood the consequences of their vote, they were sending a very clear message, Tucker says.
'Treat animals with respect and minimize their pain and suffering in animal control programs.' That, to me, was the message, she says.
Tucker hopes to eliminate the bureaucracy involved with getting a permit to trap beavers, making traps available to property owners whose septic Systems are in danger of failing, or who face other safety issues.
Greer says that under current law, a property owner complaining of minor flooding on their property is not likely to be granted a trapping permit from the state Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.
Most beaver control in the area has been less dramatic than trapping, Greer says, such as in the form of reducing the height of some dams.
"There are many continual efforts that go unnoticed and,unrewarded," he says.
