Busy beaver damages waterways

Beaver builds dam in pond in Davidsons Mill Pond Park.

By: Joseph Harvie
   The phrase "busy as a beaver" has become a truth in South Brunswick.
   A beaver that made his home in the southernmost pond in Davidsons Mill Pond Park on Riva Avenue seems to have caused quite a problem.
   The beaver built a lodge and a dam in the pond. The dam, which was about 4 feet high and 8 feet wide and made of mud and parts of small and medium sized tree trunks, caused the pond to retain water and almost double in size.
   As a result state Department of Environmental Protection officials said the change in the pond’s configuration caused erosion of the banks of a stream that leads away from the pond, which then caused them to fail in early April when about 3 inches of rain fell in one night.
   When the banks collapsed, the pond’s water rushed down the stream, moving the embankment sediment downstream and reducing the size of the pond.
   The loss of pond water has upset one regular visitor to the pond, Mark Halmo of Dayton.
   Mr. Halmo walks through the park with his dog Chloe, almost every day. The two walk the paths in Davidsons Mill Pond Park, sometimes hiking as much as five miles.
   Mr. Halmo said he likes getting out into the woods and trying to get away from the hustle and bustle of the highways and major roads that sweep through the township.
   "If you ever have a chance, I suggest coming out here on a snowy Sunday," Mr. Halmo said while walking down the path. "You can’t hear the highway and the woods just go silent."
   One of his favorite spots to walk to is the southernmost pond in the park, which is located near the L’Oreal warehouse on Deans Rhode Hall Road. The warehouse has two storm drains that run from the warehouse to the pond.
   Alescia Teel, public information officer for the DEP, said that permits were not needed for the construction of the storm drains.
   "We don’t require storm water permit because they don’t do any manufacturing activities on the site," Ms. Teel said.
   Mr. Halmo is concerned that no permits are needed. He said since the drains come from the parking lot and lead to the water, it could carry contaminates in the water. Water from the pond leads to stream which leads to Davidsons Mill Pond, which empties into the Farrington Lake.
   "I would have hoped that the government would have more interest in contaminates flowing into an aquifer recharge area that serves South Brunswick, parts of New Brunswick and other communities," Mr. Halmo said.
   Ralph Albanir, director of Middlesex County Parks and Recreation, said the pond and its banks were manmade as a detention basin by the farmer who owned and farmed the land where the park now stands.
   Mr. Albanir said the damage to the banks occurred during the heavy rainstorm in early April. He said the volume of water that fell caused banks to fail and the pond to drain.
   The beaver’s dam and lodge withstood the rush of water when the banks failed, but according to Mr. Halmo and Mr. Albanir, there has been no sign of the beaver for the past few weeks.
   "You can see he’s been here recently but none of this has changed over the past few weeks," Mr. Halmo said, pointing at gnaw marks on trees and others that the beaver had taken down. "And they are resilient creatures, but I haven’t seen any activity since the banks fell."
   The DEP says the beaver is still in the area. Mr. Halmo said there is no way the beaver would have stayed.
   "Water is his safety," Mr. Halmo said. "If he’s still there he would have punched that up already. There has been no activity in that pond from any type of beaver or dam building animal that exists."
   "We had a beaver that made his home there and changed the configuration of pond for a while," Mr. Albanir said. "After we had those heavy storms the embankment fell and the beaver moved out because the water level is down."
   Mr. Albanir said he does not have the cost of the damage, and he also does not know if or when the county or any other party will make repairs to the banks.
   Mr. Albanir said the pond was an asset to the park because of its size and the beaver habitat, but he said it was not a vital piece of the property.
   "It was a very nice feature to the park, but it is not of a critical nature to make the repairs," Mr. Albanir said. "But it is something that we are going to look out for."