Sometimes Nature Sucks

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Now I'm a conservationist and I love nature.  But there are times I don't like it in my backyard or front yard for that matter.  I live in the Portland Metropolitan area on the edge of the urban growth boundary.  I spend 40 to 60 dollars a year for deer repellent if I want to have roses.  But I have it easy.  Oregon is the beaver state and there are still a lot of beaver around - even in the metro built up areas.  They build dams on small creeks and flood houses and businesses.  Well it happens on the east coast too.

Return of the Once-Rare Beaver? Not in My Yard

 

CONCORD, Mass. � The dozens of public works officials, municipal engineers, conservation agents and others who crowded into a meeting room here one recent morning needed help. Property in their towns was flooding, they said. Culverts were clogged. Septic tanks were being overwhelmed.

�We have a huge problem,� said David Pavlik, an engineer for the town of Lexington, where dams built by beavers have sent water flooding into the town�s sanitary sewers. �We trapped them,� he said. �We breached their dam. Nothing works. We are looking for long-term solutions.�

Mary Hansen, a conservation agent from Maynard, said it starkly: �There are beavers everywhere.�

In the Portland area many of the small streams have been diverted into six or eight foot culverts.  That makes things much easier for the beaver.  Build a dam in front of the culvert and you have an instant lake.  Unfortunately the residents of the areas don't really want a lake in their backyards and basements.  They game commission has been trapping and relocating them but they never get them all and the dams and lakes return.  As for my deer problem - no solutions other than very expensive deer repellent.

I love nature.   But in my backyard - not so much!