Beavers have claimed a popular kayaking and fishing spot, and residents are not happy
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Texas Pond in Oxford is officially under new management. While the new owners are longtime residents, they are pursuing a development initiative. Locals have raised concerns that such aggressive building will have a negative effect on the pond’s recreational and scenic qualities. However, construction continues unabated, as the developers are protected under Massachusetts law.
Specifically, Massachusetts General Law — Part I, Title XIX, Chapter 131, Section 80A, which prohibits the removal of beavers from an area.
Texas Pond — better known as Thayer Pond — has long been a local favorite for fishing and kayaking. Located on Route 20, the pond is fed by a perennial stream of the French River and supports a vibrant ecosystem with abundant flora and fauna.
The dam building activity of beavers — or "impoundments" — create ponds and wetlands out of watercourses, making beavers the only mammals, aside from humans, that create their own habitat. The problem is when the two species have different plans for the same area. At Thayer Pond, the beavers find this area just as appealing and have made themselves at home.
“It’s like a fortress,” said longtime resident Kathy Doiron, describing the dam, “it’s ruining the pond.” The water level of the pond has fallen dramatically and residents have noticed the absence of the once-flowing current. Residents believe the enormous beaver dam to be the cause.
Doiron has lived beside Thayer Pond for over two decades and can see a difference from even five years ago, as the area becomes more swamplike. An avid kayaker, she said getting to the river requires dragging a kayak over the dam, which may soon be impossible.
Kayaking isn’t the only curtailed activity. As herbivores, beavers don’t compete with anglers for fish, but the two are traditionally at odds. Beavers are famous for slapping the water with their tails to alert the colony of possible threats and any fish are scared away — along with any hope for a decent catch.
“The beavers are horrible,” said John Bottcher, who fishes regularly at Thayer Pond. “The damming there is really bad. It can definitely affect fishing.” When beavers impound an area, changes to water depth and temperature can impact the type of fish there.
The beavers have always been there, Bottcher explained, but “it seems like lately they’ve been putting in extra work.” While true that beavers are a natural part of New England waterways, over the last couple of centuries, they have had an intermittent presence in Massachusetts.
When European colonists first arrived in North America, the beaver was a common sight on lakes and rivers. The demand for beaver pelts ensured that the animals were almost wiped out. By the late 1700s, they were essentially extinct in Massachusetts.
It wasn’t until the 1930s that efforts were made to reintroduce them to New England. Protections and hunting regulations were implemented, most recently the Wildlife Protection Act of 1996. Now the population has been able to rebound, but the landscape has changed since they’ve been gone.
"When beavers came back, they got right back to work and found we had built in places where they like to impound water,” said Colin Novick, executive director of Greater Worcester Land Trust, leading to what he referred to as a “user conflict.” Novick makes no pretense of neutrality, saying that the landscape was initially “managed by beavers,” who are taking up their original role in the ecosystem.
From an ecological perspective, that role is vital — beavers are considered a keystone species, having an outsized benefit to the environment relative to their population. Through impoundment, they create ponds and wetlands that foster biodiversity by providing habitats for various plants and wildlife. The fallen trees make a submerged canopy that gives fish a place to hide from predators as well as potential spawning areas.
A multitude of species, including humans, benefit from the presence of wetlands, as they control flooding damage by slowing water release. Wetlands also improve water quality by removing toxic chemicals and filtering out sediment.
For the residents of Oxford, this is all well and good except “they’re creating dry lands, not wetlands,” said Doiron, citing the drop in water level. However, not everyone believes the beavers to be the culprit.
“We are in a protracted drought and water levels are dropping where they haven’t in decades,” said Jennifer Warren-Dyment, of the Oxford Town Manager’s office, describing a level two drought, with below average rainfall and above average temperatures. State reports indicate the drought began in late June, coinciding with the water level changes in the pond.
She said neither the Town Manager nor the Department of Public Works has received any complaints about beavers.
Regardless of the cause, residents are still concerned about the pond’s current stagnancy and the effect on their property values. Oxford resident Sandra Murphy said the waterview is the reason the “condos sell like hotcakes — you put them on the market and they’re sold within hours and it’s because you’ve got this gorgeous view that overlooks Texas Pond and French River.”
Besides the issues with recreational use of the area, residents have voiced health concerns due to the stagnant water, namely mosquito-borne viruses such as Eastern Equine Encephalitis. However, Novick clarified that it takes a special habitat for the mosquito that carries Triple E — “a cedar swamp, which is not going to magically appear just because beavers move in.”
The situation at Thayer Pond reflects a larger debate about when and how wildlife should be reintroduced to an area. In the case of beavers, they are an integral part of an ecosystem that may become dysfunctional without their contribution. However, in bringing back a species, we also have to live with them, striking the balance between serving as stewards of the natural world and co-existing with it.
Novick understands why residents may not be happy about the beavers. “Any time there’s a part of the landscape people have imprinted on,” they will resist change. He equates it to being the “same as when a historic building is knocked down or a field developed,” but in this case, the change is not so much a loss but enrichment of the habitat.
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