VIENNA,Md.- The landscape has changed on Dennis Reid's farm in Vienna. Lush forest is now a swamp.
"When I was a kid we used to play in here, when I got a little older when I was a teenager and early 20, we used to hunt quail and rabbits in here and have a great time," Reid said.
But that has all come to a halt. In the past three years, the creek has overflowed and taken over part of the forest. Reid says beavers are to blame.
"I'd say there's hundreds, if not even more."
And it's been causing headaches for him and his neighbors. The creek is also creeping onto his farmland, and he has already had to raise a section of his driveway.
"We redid this last winter, we brought it up by about two feet and put a new culvert in. We tore the dam down, and that was at the bottom of the water level. Now the culvert is three quarters full already," Reid said.
Despite his efforts to tear down the dam during the day, by the following morning, the beavers have rebuilt. He has hired part-time trappers to take care of the problem animals, but he says it isn't just his property he's concerned about.
"When you get to the point where you see a branch like the one behind me," Reid said. "They talk about nutrients and all reaching the bay, well these trees are a great filter and something to suck them up. And now they've let the beavers just kill them all. And these branches aren't going to be any filter at all, it's just gonna run right to the river."
WBOC did reach out to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, which said that while there isn't a specific beaver management program, there is a trapping season that runs from Jan. 1 to March 15 to lower the population. If the beavers are causing major problems, property owners are referred to
this sitewhere they can get in contact with the DNR, which can then put the owners in touch with someone to handle the problem.
