Worcester resident missing in waters off Puerto Rico
SOUTH/WEST

Beaver dam bedevils Oxford property owner

George Barnes
george.barnes@telegram.com
Oxford business owner Charlie Tuite has received letters from the town insisting he pull out logs and debris from a culvert that runs under Route 12. The area in question is at 381 Main St. [T&G Staff/Christine Peterson]

OXFORD - As a retiree with a place on Cape Cod, Charles Tuite doesn't normally spend much time in Oxford these days, but beavers are forcing the 75-year-old disabled property owner to regularly travel to town deal with a problem they are creating.

Beavers, using logs and branches fallen and dumped into Barbers Hollow Brook, built a 7-foot dam at a culvert that runs under Mr. Tuite's property and Route 12 at 381 Main St. The flooding by the dam put septic systems upstream at risk, according to environmental consultant Glenn Krevosky. The brook passes several hundred feet  from McKinstry Pond. Although the culvert is owned by the state Department of Transportation, the dam became Mr. Tuite's problem because he owns the land where the beavers chose to build.

On May 31, Oxford health inspector James F. Malley Jr. ordered Mr. Tuite to remove the dam and hire a licensed trapper to remove the beavers. The board threatened fines of $50 per day and a penalty of up to $500 if convicted of failing to comply with the order.

Mr. Tuite said he was offended by the letter threatening fines. He said he has been a property owner in town for 35 years and was never a problem. He said he would have been happy to talk with the health inspector and figure out a plan for dealing with the problem. The culvert runs under property where Gene Buckley operates Buckley Auto Center. Mr. Tuite said he he purchased much of the land nearby at the request of the town, which was concerned that a business next door did not have a safe parking area.

With the purchase, he ended up with the unexpected beaver problem. He said he was hoping the town could provide equipment to remove the dam or the beavers or both, but was told it was his responsibility. He went ahead and did what he could on his own. The task was not easy, he said.

"We had to pull a lot of logs out there by hand," he said.

Mr. Tuite said he should not be doing the work himself because he is disabled, but was under threat of having the town fine him. In order to remove the dam, people had to climb down a steep 15-foot embankment and then haul the debris back up.

Mr. Tuite said four truckloads of debris were removed from the dam over the past several weeks, but the beavers are still at it. He said he was amazed at how large they are.

"They're huge," he said. "I hope they don't attack us when we are removing the dam."

Mr. Krevosky said the only way to stop the beavers may be to trap and remove them. He said they have been in the brook for several years, but were never a problem. He said they appeared to be content with the amount of water surrounding their lodge in an area where the brook widens almost into a pond. The lodge is within sight of Waite Road, which passes between the brook and McKinstry Pond. When a large branch from a box elder tree fell into the brook, the beavers saw that as an opportunity to build a higher dam. Assisted by debris floating down the brook, they blocked the waterway and created the problems upstream.

"It's the highest it has ever been in my lifetime," he said.

Beavers are a problem throughout Central Massachusetts, Mr. Krevosky said. He said a lack of natural predators has allowed them to construct dams in areas they never would have dared build when the state was populated by wolves and mountain lions. The dams are often built in populated areas and threaten homes, businesses and roads.

The dam removal in Oxford was successful in lowering the water level, but once the beaver learned the water was disappearing, they went back to rebuilding, raising the dam back up twice. Mr. Krevosky said people first thought the beavers had been removed upstream, but soon realized they were still there. He said the next step needs to be trapping all the beavers.