State to protect trail near beaver dams
By Mary Carey
Staff Writer
Published on August 10, 2007
Department of Conservation and Recreation workers will lower the water level of the beaver pond off the Norwottuck Rail Trail, so the popular path doesn't buckle again before major renovations begin, perhaps as soon as next year.
Beavers have dug burrows underneath a 3,000-foot stretch of the trail between Station Road and South East Street, according to DCR engineer Richard Brazeau. A 20-foot or so section of the trail gave way earlier this year.
DCR workers repaired that part of the trail, installing a 20-foot by 8-foot wide steel plate over the beaver burrows to support the pavement until the coming reconstruction of the entire 8.5-mile trail linking Amherst, Northampton and Hadley.
Some $4.4 million in federal money was approved in 2005 for bike path projects in Hampshire County, including the plan to repave and widen the trail from 8 feet to 10 feet.
Renovations would also include straightening out the path at the entrance to the underpass under Route 9 near the Hadley Garden Center. Users have said it's hard to see cyclists coming in the other direction now.
Despite funding for the project being in-hand, it has taken years to get all the permits required before the DCR begins the larger project, Brazeau said.
Brazeau said a request for design proposals is expected to go out in a month or so.
Any construction has to take into account protected species that live in the vicinity.
The key species of concern is the four-toed salamander, according to John Gerber, a University of Massachusetts plant, soils and insect sciences professor who is on the Amherst Conservation Commission.
To protect the salamander, DCR is not allowed to lower the water level below its current level until after Sept. 1.
In the meantime, workers are removing beaver-generated debris from the area.
That includes taking out what looks like hundreds of logs from the 10-foot tall pile DCR workers constructed from what the beavers had carried to the vicinity of their dam.
There are several dams in addition to that one along the trail, Brazeau said, and an unknown number of beavers.
"One woman who frequents the place quite a bit told me once she saw 13 beavers at one point," he said.
Intervening in the environment again becomes potentially disruptive after the month of September, Gerber said.
"The problem then becomes that other organisms (besides the salamander) might be in jeopardy if they lowered the water level during the winter months.
The opening to the beaver lodges might be exposed." Any amphibian buried in the mud over winter would be exposed if DCR lowered the water level after they had dug themselves in, Gerber said.
The Amherst Conservation Commission which is charged with protecting the area, has required DCR to continually monitor the beaver deceiver and the dam so that the water level does not rise again to last year's levels.
DCR is also in the process of determining the potential impact of their proposed work on three plant species, Gerber said, including the Climbing Fern, Narrow-leafed Spring Beauty, and Adder's-tongue Fern.
"The place is like a nature classroom out there," Brazeau said.
Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.
