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03/22/2017 08:30 AMYou probably know some beaver basics—busy, eager and critically in need of orthodonture.
Frank Hall, one of the organizers of the first International Beaver Day in Essex would like more people to get acquainted with the local beavers at Quarry Pond at Viney Hill Brook Park on Saturday, April 8.
The Essex Conservation Commission, which oversees the area of Viney Hill where Quarry Pond is located, is sponsoring the event. There will be two tours; one at 6 a.m.* and the second at 7 p.m.
“The reality is that beavers are nocturnal, and they are not evident during the day,” Frank says, explaining the tour times.
International Beaver Day, first celebrated in 2009, is actually on Friday, April 7, the birthday of the late Dorothy Richards, who organized a beaver sanctuary in New York’s Adirondack Mountains and worked tirelessly for more than 50 years to inform the general public about the species. According to Frank, Essex chose to celebrate on April 8 because it was unlikely that many people would be able to participate on the 7th.
Frank first became interested in beavers as an indirect result of babysitting grandchildren. The family watched a PBS special on the animals.
“I learned beavers were a keystone species, a species that enables an entire ecosystem in areas where they live; [they are] a basis for flora and fauna in a particular ecosystem,” he recalls.
Beavers have been the subjects of heated debate in Essex since 2011, when the Conservation Commission approved the trapping of the animals then living in Quarry Pond. Their dams had led to flooded trails and a blocked culvert at the property. The traps are set underwater and the beavers drown. According to Frank, state regulations prohibit moving beavers from one location to another.
“The term they used at the time, was ‘harvesting’ the beavers,” Frank says.
By 2014, beavers had returned to Quarry Pond, and once again the Conservation Commission approved trapping. That decision, however, was reversed at a special Conservation Commission meeting in January 2015.
“There were over 160 people there; they had to move the meeting to the [Town Hall] auditorium,” Frank recalls. “The vast majority wanted to let the beavers live.”
The meeting not only gave a reprieve to the beavers; it inspired Frank, Bob Ward, and Mark Reeves to run for the three vacant seats on the Conservation Commission of which all three are now members.
Instead of trapping, the Conservation Commission consulted an expert firm, Beaver Solutions, which developed plans that have since ameliorated both the flooding problem and the blocking of the culvert. “It’s all working great,” Frank says.
The remediation work, he adds, cost $2,000, of which Essex residents interested in beavers raised some $800 with the assistance of another local resident, Susan Malan.
Frank is not sure how many beavers there are at the moment in Quarry Pond; he has seen four, two adults and two kits. The kits, he says, stay with parents for two years, at which point they are forced out of the lodge. Frank adds that another beaver family has established itself on Wollock’s Pond, also a part of the Viney Hill park, but administered by the Park & Recreation Commission, not the Conservation Commission. In the Wollock’s Pond area, there are picnic tables, an off-leash dog run, and an area designated for swimming.
Frank says he has always had an interest in environmental issues, but retirement from his career as a drug and alcohol treatment program manager for the Connecticut Department of Correction in 2003 gave him the time to pursue those interests. He says that one of the key steps in his growing environmental awareness was his work in opposition to Broadwater, the liquefied natural gas terminal once proposed for Long Island Sound. The company involved ultimately dropped the proposal in the face of concerted resistance from residents of both Connecticut and New York. In addition, Frank is one of the founders of Essex Citizens for Clean Energy, and remained coordinator of the group until 2015.
Frank’s volunteer activities include a number of different areas. He was a board member of the Essex Historical Society for nine years, and remains a member of the Essex Town Democratic Committee. He drives for FISH, which provides free medical transportation, and for many years he has read to students at Essex Elementary School as a part of the Readers Aloud Program. Now he describes himself as on hiatus from his reading duties, but plans to return in the fall.
He has read to different grades, some with his own grandchildren as students. In fact, the poster for International Beaver Day was created by one of those grandchildren, 13-year-old Grace Haskins. One of the books he particularly enjoyed reading to children was a story about a young boy sailing around the Thimble Islands.
That is not a surprising choice, as Frank is a sailor himself, and for more than a decade has been treasurer of the New Haven Yacht Club. People ask him why, with boating facilities at hand in Essex, he chose to sail out of New Haven. He explains it takes him far less time to get into Long Island Sound than if he kept his boat locally. Yet, he admits there is one way he sometimes loses time—traveling to and from New Haven.
“It depends on the traffic,” he says.
Frank and his wife Barbara are enthusiastic worldwide travelers whose trips include the Galapagos Islands, the Inca city of Machu Pichu in Peru, New Zealand, and Patagonia, the southernmost part of Argentina.
Beaver Day celebrations, Frank says, will include a walk around the Quarry Pond to point out the two beaver lodges, along with information about the animals’ lifestyle, and hopefully a glimpse of the beavers themselves—but at a distance, likely swimming in the pond. Frank says that visitors should be realistic about getting up close and personal.
When beavers feel threatened, they slap their tails and dive below the surface of the water.
“They are very shy animals,” Frank says. “They don’t trust humans.”
Celebrate Beavers in Essex
Saturday, April 8 at Quarry Pond at Viney Hill Brook Park. Tours at 6 a.m.* and 7 p.m. are free and open to the public; sign up at: essexcelebratesbeavers@gmail.com.
Viney Hill Brook Park is at the end of Cedar Grove Terrace in Essex. From Route 154, take Gates Road to Cedar Grove Terrace. Volunteers will help with parking.
Editor's note: The print and earlier online version of this story gave a 6:30 a.m. start time; the tour starts at 6 a.m.