Busy as ever, beavers do damage

PINE PLAINS — It’s been a problem for years: beavers at Stissing Lake and Twin Islands Lake (Mud Pond) building dams, plugging important culverts  and causing flooding that seeps onto nearby roadways.

“We have a couple of areas in town inundated with beaver activity. This is the most active time of year,” said Highway Superintendent Heather Emerich. 

To deal with the problem, the Highway Department has placed beaver deterrent devices, constructed by the highway crew, at key locations. The devices are trapezoid patterned, and draw the beavers away from the culvert if they try to dam.

“It restricts the ability to get close to the water,” said Emerich, adding beavers are attracted to the trickling sound of water. The crew made similar devices last year, but this year they made them larger and placed them further away from the pipe to ward off the beavers. “They are very smart creatures, and they work very hard.”

One of the devices has been installed at Twin Islands Lake and another at Stissing Lake, near the nature sanctuary. Emerich said they’re vital to preventing costly damage.

“If they plug a culvert it could ultimately end in us having to dig it up and remove the culvert,” she said, adding it could affect the water level. “My job is inclusive of making sure that all culverts are open and water can pass through. The downstream damage that occurs can be catastrophic. At this time of year we do our best to keep beavers away. We monitor it daily, and keep simple grates in front of other culverts.”

Town Supervisor Darrah Cloud spoke of the beaver deterrent devices at the March Town Board meeting. She said they were sorely needed.

“Beavers are extremely active,” she said, “and currently we’re having a very big problem.”

The highway supervisor added that it takes only a few hours for beavers to cause damage.

“Overnight they can completely plug a culvert,” she said. “The beavers work all night long. It’s amazing.”

The issue has been going on for years, and it’s getting worse. Emerich said one night the crew forgot to recap a grate, and by the next day there were four beavers swimming nearby, and the culverts were close to being plugged. 

Mitigation is costly.

“It would cost an extreme amount of money because we’d need an engineer’s plan to replace the culvert,” she said. “We’d need a permit from the Department of Environmental Conservation and I’m sure it must be more involved because that’s just for the replacement. It has nothing to do with any damages that might occur if a dam were to break free that has been plugged for a while with water backed up behind it. That’s why it’s so important that every day we maintain it, and also try to keep the beaver population down.”

Though she said she doesn’t like thinking about it, Emerich said the town contracts with a local, licensed trapper to help with those efforts.

“It’s very important to maintain public safety and roadways,” she said. “There’s no one more animal-loving than myself, but it’s one of those necessary steps.”

The problem lasts for many months during the year, she added, noting that beavers are around from when the ice breaks to when it reforms. Right now, she said, beavers are mating and especially active.

“They are busy,” Emerich concluded. “That term ‘busy beavers,’ it’s so true.”