Beaver dam almost problematic for Mather road
At least once a month, Dan Foster of Clarksville travels through Mather and along Stony Point Road (Township Road 855) to enjoy wing night at Stony Point Restaurant.
For the past two months, as he drove to join other members of the Jefferson Baptist Church men’s group, Foster noticed a rise in the water level at the Brown’s Run Reservoir. Turns out the reason behind the rising water was a beaver lodge built on top the overflow of the reservoir dam. Foster pegged the structure at around 2 feet in height.
Concerned about the rising water and its possible impact on the bridge over the reservoir, he notified his brother, Sean, who works at the Herald-Standard. Eventually Greene County game warden Chris Bence was called to evaluate the situation.
On Jan. 17, Bence made a site inspection and determined the dam wasn’t an immediate problem. On Jan. 20, Foster reported “the dam not being a problem anymore,” after the dam broke.
However, Bence said he would monitor the water level periodically to make sure it doesn’t rise to a level that will impact traffic or threaten the road.
Because this time of year is smack in the middle of beaver trapping season, which extends from December 26 to March 31, when the fur is thickest, Bence said some trappers may come along and remove the beavers from the reservoir.
If the beavers remain after the close of the trapping season and pose problems, he said he’d catch them in line traps that don’t kill them and move them to an area where they won’t be an issue for humans.
“There’s no telling how many there might be,” Bence said. “Usually beavers don’t live in large numbers. It’s mostly a male and female with this year’s pups. After a year, the pups disperse to look around for a mate.”
Rick Campbell of Mather said he’s captured images of a big beaver and three smaller ones on his trail cam at the reservoir seven different times, usually in the evening.
“I’ve lived in Mather for 25 years, and it seems as if there are more beavers now than used to be,” he said. “I also hear more people talking about them than before.”
According to Chester County’s website, beavers are North America’s largest rodent. Before the arrival of settlers, the beaver population was pegged at more than 60 million. Due to the demand in Europe for fur hats and garments lined with beaver fur, the beaver population was nearly destroyed in North America.
By the end of the 19th century, beavers were eliminated in Pennsylvania and other states. In 1903, the State Legislature passed a law protecting beavers. A 2014 research project by Colin J. Whitfield of the University of Saskatchewan in Canada and his team estimated the global beaver population had grown to more than 10 million. In Pennsylvania, the northern tier counties have the highest concentration of beavers.
According to Bence, beavers are nocturnal and crepuscular, meaning they’re more active at dusk.
“This time of year, I walk along the waterways looking for traps to see if they’re set legally,” Bence said. “For one, you can’t trap on private property or 15-feet from a beaver lodge because you can’t trap them near where they live. Trappers must also check their traps every 30 hours to make sure a trapped beaver doesn’t starve or suffer.”
The traps also have to be tagged with the name and address of the trapper and clearly visible. For those who may want anonymity, trappers can get a tag with an ID number instead of their name and address from the Game Commission. Additional rules and regulations governing trapping in Pennsylvania can be found of the Game Commission website: www.pgc.pa.gov.