'I don't want to kill anything': South Barrington looking for way to manage beavers
After a beaver dam caused Poplar Creek to overflow into nearby residents' yards this past fall, South Barrington officials are considering hiring professional experts to prevent that from reoccurring.
A company called Midwest Beaver Management has proposed nonlethal methods for managing beaver activity in the village.
Wrapping tree trunks with wire fencing to keep beavers from chewing on them is one option. Another would involve running pipes through dams so water can pass through and not disturb the animals in their lodges upstream.
“Otherwise, if the dam is completely removed, the water level inside the beaver lodge also lowers and the beavers know they need to get to work and repair the dam,” Village Administrator Bob Palmer said. “It's an interesting method.”
The village's public works committee preliminarily reviewed Midwest Beaver's suggestions last month, Palmer said. A second discussion involving a representative from the company is pending.
“We are interested in ... their approach to managing the beaver activity,” he said.
Beavers are semiaquatic, herbivorous rodents that play important ecological roles.
By clearing out invasive plant species that can clog creeks and filtering sediment from waterways with their dams, beavers increase biodiversity, improve water quality and restore the health of watersheds.
Their dams even increase habitats for fish, including endangered salmon and trout in some regions.
“Everybody should be happy” to see beaver activity on a waterway, said Midwest Beaver Management founder Jeff Boland-Prom, whose company is based is south suburban Beecher.
Unfortunately, people often consider beavers nuisances because of their penchant for destroying trees to create material for dams and lodges.
“The beavers can't tell if that's your prized cherry tree or just another snack,” Boland-Prom said.
And of course, sometimes those dams cause floods that damage private property, crops and more.
Beavers long have been an issue along Poplar Creek and elsewhere in South Barrington. Most recently, downed trees that appeared to be the work of beavers were found near village hall off Barrington Road. Evidence of beaver activity also was discovered in the South Barrington Conservancy along Bartlett Road.
The dam on Poplar Creek was discovered near residential property on Overbrook Road.
“We were getting calls from residents that the creek was backing up into their yards,” Palmer said. “We investigated the situation and found a substantial beaver dam.”
A property owner eventually reduced the dam's size to get the water flowing, Palmer said. But that action won't end beaver activity in town.
Palmer contacted Midwest Beaver Management in December, and Boland-Prom came out to inspect the three sites.
Boland-Prom said Poplar Creek is an especially ideal beaver habitat. It has a low gradient that makes it easier to dam, he said, and the area has lots of young trees that provide plenty of food and building material.
Boland-Prom hopes to meet with village officials this month, and Palmer and others are interested. A meeting date hasn't been announced.
Mayor Paula McCombie is eager to hear the company's presentation. Taking steps to coexist with beavers while halting the ecological damage they can cause is preferable to killing them, she said.
“If we can do it, that's what we want to do,” she said. “I don't want to kill anything.”
Boland-Prom takes pride in solving beaver-related problems humanely.
Not only are such methods better for the animals, but they don't require additional visits when different beavers subsequently form new dams in the same spots, Boland-Prom said.
That'll happen over and over again, he said, because beavers look for unoccupied habitats to build their homes.
“It really saves communities money in the long term,” he said.