Busy Beavers Defy Humans
May 22, 2002
BY JIM WOOLF
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
PARK CITY -- A $40,000 bridge and boardwalk were proposed Tuesday to solve a conflict between trail users, homeowners and a pair of hard-working beavers that have moved into a nature preserve near here.
The beavers last year established a home on Spring Creek just inside the privately owned Swaner Nature Preserve in the
Ernest Oriente slogs through the bog created by the beavers, who are believed to live in the 10-foot den behind him. Numerous agencies are looking into the problem.
Snyderville Basin near Kimball Junction.
Preserve managers were thrilled, viewing the animals' return as a sign that restoration of the 553-acre meadow is under way.
But the beavers soon started working just outside the preserve's boundary, damming a culvert under a trail that one day will be the main pedestrian route from Kimball Junction to Park City.
Because of that dam, the trail was washed out this month and a small lake formed in a wetland behind the home of Ernest and Patricia Oriente in the Ranch Place subdivision.
"It's a little frustrating," said Patricia Oriente, noting her husband has spent a year in an unsuccessful battle to keep the trail culvert open. He would clean it one day and the next morning the beavers would have plugged it again.
She said they repeatedly asked for help with the beaver problem, but no one wanted to get involved until the trail washed out.
There is no shortage of involvement now.
Representatives from five government agencies, along with property owners and holders of conservation and trail easements, have been meeting for the past several weeks to resolve the problem. The discussion has prompted a federal review of whether developers and homeowners in the low-lying area have complied with wetland protection agreements made a decade ago.
"It sure requires a lot of our time," conceded Bonnie Park, administrator of the Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District. Her district eventually will run the trail system through this area.
She now is proposing to remove the trail culvert and replace it with a prefabricated bridge over the stream. The bridge would connect an elevated boardwalk to keep trail users out of the wetlands.
Wildlife biologists hope the larger opening under the bridge will present a less attractive dam site to the beavers. The boardwalk should allow better water flow through the area.
The recreation district has agreed to pay for and do the work, but they can't begin until they get a "stream alteration permit" from the Utah Division of Water Rights, have the project reviewed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers and allow the public three weeks to comment on the proposal. That could take a couple of months.
Tony Curtis, administrator for the Swaner Nature Preserve, predicted this will not be the last conflict between wildlife and homeowners.
As this once heavily grazed pasture is restored to a healthy wetland preserve, he expects more beavers, muskrat, mink, weasels, songbirds, deer and moose to move into the area.
"Some people will be astounded by the amount of wildlife that returns," said Curtis.
"Others will be disturbed when the larger wildlife starts eating their flowers and nibbling on their trees. I'm not sure everyone in Ranch Place is ready for that," he said.
jwoolf@sltrib.com
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