BURKE, Vt. (WCAX) – Protect Our Wildlife Vermont has worked with at least 13 towns to help beavers thrive and keep waterways clear to help avoid flooding, and they want to do more projects.
Small towns across Vermont are attempting flood mitigation projects working with beavers. Now, the town of Burke is looking for solutions.
“The problem for me is now that the water level is coming up. it’s coming back to our culvert and passing through on Burke Hollow Road which will undermine the whole infrastructure of that area,” Burke Town Administrator Jim Sullivan said.
Since the 1970s, what used to be farmland in Burke Hollow is now home to beavers on Pete’s Pond. They have built a 15-foot dam that, combined with last week’s floods, has clogged up the town’s waterways.
Sullivan is trying to find a solution allowing the beavers to coexist.
“There are beaver baffles and there are other type units that can be used to allow the beavers to thrive at the same time as you are trying to get the water to pass through and control your levels. I think we would be more interested rather than harming the ecosystem,” he said.
The organization Protect Our Wildlife Vermont has a two-year grant to help with various humane projects involving beaver control.
But Beaver Deceivers creator Skip Lisle, who has worked with various towns in Vermont, says with any project a town takes on, making the infrastructure strong is important, especially with more floods.
“I have been improving the technology every year. You just have to brace it up and drive posts really deep. Just make it strong and use strong fencing, as well, steel fencing.” Lisle said.
The town of Johnson did its own mitigation project last year, putting in more beaver grates around culverts. They say it worked with less flooding this year.
“We run around and pull those grates so the culverts have 100% flow and can take that water during the storm event and it, presumably, it prevents washouts. It saves tens of thousands of dollars in every storm,” Johnson Town Administrator Thomas Galinat said.
Protect Our Wildlife Vermont hopes to hear from more Vermont towns about what projects they would like to take up.