Connecticut

Beavers making comeback in Connecticut. Here’s why that matters.

Published

4 weeks ago

April 22, 2024

Press Room

Beavers making comeback in Connecticut. Here’s why that matters.

In this Sept. 12, 2014, photo, a tagged young beaver explores a water hole. (AP Photo/Manuel Valdes, File)

Engineers, commodity, lost keystone species, and pest — beavers have played many roles in Connecticut’s landscape.

Their survival is also an astounding conservation success story, according to a new book by local author Leila Philip who explores our relationship with beavers. Where they were once expatriated from the state by the fur trade and trapped to near extinction, in recent decades their numbers have rebounded.

A 2001 state report estimated that there were around 8,000 individual beavers in Connecticut, but it’s unknown how many more there are now as they’re not actively tracked by the state. But a University of Connecticut project seeks to map where beavers are returning, to better understand their growth and recovery.

And then, how to coexist alongside them and their often beneficial water manipulating habitats.

Most people don’t spend much time thinking about beavers, and many people have never seen one. Philip said she was driven to understand beavers, and their significance after a chance encounter while walking her dog in her hometown forests of Woodstock.

“I heard that iconic beaver slap, but I didn’t know what it was,” she said. “I thought a gun had gone off, truly.”

But when she looked for the source of the sound, she didn’t find a hunter, nor did she find what was normally a muddy clearing in the trees. Instead she found a silvery pond glinting in the sun, the stillness cut by a little brown head swimming back and forth.

“I was transfixed because of the tenacity of this animal,” said Philip. “I came out to watch the beaver every day and saw the transformation of this wet part of the woods into a beaver pond and it was one of the most incredible things I’d ever seen.”

Beavers are native to North America. The iconic rodents sport large paddle-shaped tails, webbed paws and teeth laced with iron. They build dams out of small trees, mud and sticks to serve as fortifications for their lodges, dens built out in the water that create dams.

There were millions of beavers on the continent when European settlers arrived. Philip said the scale of beavers on the landscape made the dense acres of trees a “waterworld of great spreading fans of waters throughout the forests.”

“That’s what we’ve lost,” Philip said. “We filled in 50 percent of our wetlands and that’s a problem for us now because those wetlands play such an important function in cleaning our water, slowing our water so it recharges the aquifers.”

The fur trade was critical for the formation of Connecticut as a colony, and eventually a state. Philip said beavers were essential for jump-starting transatlantic trade. She pointed to John Jacob Astor, the first known multi-millionaire U.S. businessman who had made his money on the back of a beaver fur monopoly.

“By the 1900s the engines of capitalism are getting going in North America on the backs of the beaver,” said Philip. “They trapped, they trapped and they trapped them out. They almost exterminated them.”

By the mid-1800s, beavers were all but locally extinct as over-hunting moved them farther north. Early conservationists worked to bring them back. Some were reintroduced to the Yale Forest in 1914. Other reintroductions saw them recolonize local river systems.

But it took until the 1960s for them to truly rebound. Philip said this was due to many river systems being gummed up with industrial uses and the reforestation of farmlands. The beavers finally had habitats that connected, and they thrived.

Geoffery Krukar, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said the state didn’t have hard numbers on beaver populations here, but he thinks there are a lot of them out there. He said that last year, in 2023, he issued more permits outside the regular trapping season than ever before for incidents of “beaver nuisances” where beavers are removed for threatening property and safety.

“We think they are an important component of the habitat and landscape, but sometimes public safety has to come first,” said Krukar. “You can’t have roads being undermined or going underwater.”

Krukar said that he has denied permit requests for beaver removal, if it lacked a valid reason.

“Like, they just aesthetically didn’t want to see trees getting cut down at the edge of a swamp,” Krukar said of some requests. “I’ll try to preach coexistence in those situations.”

But there are some locals that don’t want to see beavers removed from their community. About five years ago in South Windsor beaver problems made quite a splash when they created a dam in Nevers Park. DEEP had authorized the town to trap and kill the beavers who after taking up residence had felled 200 trees and caused flooding in the park with a dam. When they found out, outraged locals signed a petition demanding the town find a way to share the public land with the beaver population.

Krukar echoed Philip, saying that beavers were one of the few animals that can create needed habitat on the landscape. He said that beaver wetlands were magnets for biodiversity and supported many kinds of life.

Sarah Heminway, director of the northeast region of the Connecticut Audubon Society said her organization learned to co-exist with beavers. At the Trail Wood Sanctuary in Hampton, beavers had made an acres-wide pond that would breach every 10 years or so in heavy rains. But Heminway didn’t want to get rid of the beavers.

“We had many people saying, oh just trap the beavers and take them somewhere else,” said Heminway. “But this is perfect beaver habitat, there’s no sense in taking them away because they’re going to come back.”

Heminway reached out to the Beaver Institute in Massachusetts and had them come assess the pond. They settled on installing pond levelers — massive 40-foot pipes that extend to the middle of the pond that work as drains and keep the water from growing beyond a certain depth. The levelers worked, and last year’s heavy rains didn’t burst the dams.

“We need to stop treating everything as if it is expendable,” said Heminway. “That’s been the attitude since the Europeans came over on the Mayflower.”

She pointed to the regrowth of New England’s forests, the return of coyotes, deer, bears, fisher cats and beavers. She said that these animals have a place here.

“We have to live in balance,” said Heminway.

Philip cites the story at the Trail Wood Sanctuary in her book “Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America,” as an example of fruitful coexistence, noting that in drought months, the beaver pond helped sustain well water in the area. She has data to back this up too, pointing to a 2020 study that estimated that beavers near Milwaukee could provide 1.7 billion gallons of stormwater storage to the tune of about $3.3 billion in ecological services.

“Underneath the beaver pond is an invisible sponge in the ground,” said Philip. “If you have a beaver pond that holds a million gallons of water, about three million gallons of water are being held in the soil underneath. That’s a huge sponge that’ll recharge a creek when a drought comes.”

Philip hopes her book, and talking to locals in Connecticut can help change our perception of beavers.

“There are many ways in which people realize how it is in their interest to have beavers,” said Philip. “They can reverse our cultural habit of thinking we need to kill beavers.”

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Connecticut

Gifting Parties in Connecticut Can Continue with Limits Under Settlement with Attorney General

Published

38 mins ago

May 17, 2024

Press Room

Gifting parties—events that allow guests to buy a random item that includes a cannabis “gift”—will be subject to strict rules after Connecticut’s attorney general arrived at an agreement with organizers of one such event that attracted attention of state officials.

Attorney General William Tong announced May 15 that he reached an agreement, with stipulations, that HighBazaar organizers Joseph Accettullo and Cody Roberts can continue running gifting parties, however, the parties will not resemble what they used to be.

For $20 per ticket, attendees could gain entry to the event to buy accessories or other items and receive cannabis “gifts” on the side in an attempt to cut corners—namely, avoiding the law requiring sellers to have a license. Connecticut banned cannabis gifting events in 2022.

Tong alleged that HighBazaar events were essentially cannabis marketplaces that subverted Connecticut’s legal, regulated cannabis market. HighBazaar’s gifting events were canceled last January after Tong issued cease-and-desist orders in a letter to organizers and the venue.

“It appears that these events involve the illegal marketing and sale of cannabis outside of the regulated market and that the events are accessible to individuals under the age of 21,” the letter read. Tong warned that the markets appeared to violate the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (“CUTPA”), General Statutes § 42-110a, et seq., the Responsible and Equitable Regulation of Adult-Use Cannabis Act, General Statutes § 21a-420, and/or other applicable laws and regulations. But Tong reached an agreement with HighBazaar that will allow them to continue to operate with several restrictions.

“HighBazaar operated unlawful cannabis markets where vendors peddled untested, illegal products. Not anymore. This stipulated judgment forces a series of strong, ongoing obligations, including clear and conspicuous disclosures and acknowledgements that the sale, distribution and exchange of cannabis will be strictly prohibited at any HighBazaar event. We will be watching closely—including unannounced inspections—to ensure strict, ongoing compliance,” said Attorney General William Tong.

The stipulations include that Accettullo and Roberts must make clear and conspicuous disclosures at HighBazaar events and on any advertisements that the sale, distribution, or exchange of cannabis will be strictly prohibited.

All prospective vendors must be notified in advance, and must acknowledge in writing that they will not sell, offer, distribute, or exchange cannabis at any HighBazaar event. judgment provides the Office of the Attorney General the right to enter and inspect HighBazaar premises at any time to ensure compliance with the agreement.

CT Insider reports that Alex Taubes, an attorney for HighBazaar organizers, called the judgment a “great victory” and said he was “pleased that the state finally saw some reason.”

The Office of the Attorney General also previously sent notice to EventBrite, where HighBazaar was promoting its gifting events. The letter warned that such posts violate EventBrite’s own Community Guidelines and that the events they promoted also violate Connecticut law. The Office of the Attorney General has an active and ongoing investigation into EventBrite’s continued marketing of unlicensed cannabis markets in Connecticut.

Assistant Attorneys General Jonathan Blake and Addison Keilty, and Deputy Associate Attorney General Michael Wertheimer, Chief of the Consumer Protection Section, assisted the Attorney General in this matter.

Cannabis Legal Loopholes in Connecticut

Another legal loophole in Connecticut led to THC-infused seltzers surging in popularity.

Liquor stores in Connecticut are selling THC-infused drinks such as seltzers legally, due to a legal loophole regarding dosages listed on the cans.

Cannabis retail stores are selling cans listed as one serving, but the same cans of cannabis-infused seltzer, usually running in sizes from 7.5 – 12 ounces, are labeled as five servings in a package at a liquor store or market.

All they have to do is ensure that each serving contains less than 1 mg of THC per serving and they can sell the seltzers without violating state law. CT Insider reports that when the drinks are labeled as five servings rather than one, they are technically legal to be sold anywhere in the state, so long as other elements of the packaging are in line with state rules.

Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) clarified that the drinks are indeed legal. “A package containing less than 1 milligram of THC per serving and less than 5 milligram per package is not considered cannabis, and may be produced and sold without a license,” DCP spokesperson Kaitlyn Krasselt confirmed.

Connecticut legalized adult-use cannabis in 2021 and later became available for purchase by adults at retail outlets in January 2023. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed legislation to legalize adult-use cannabis in June 2021, ending the prohibition on possession of cannabis by adults 21 and older and creating a framework for regulated adult-use cannabis sales. Connecticut’s cannabis market showed steady growth

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Connecticut

Customer Throws Powdery Substance At Employee At Mall: PD: CT News

Published

8 hours ago

May 16, 2024

Press Room

Customer Throws Powdery Substance At Employee At Mall: PD: CT News

Patch PM CT brings you the breaking and trending news stories from all across Connecticut each weeknight. Here are those stories:

The employee was hospitalized after it was reported that their throat felt like it was closing up, according to police.>>>Read More.

Four suspects wearing masks and gloves smashed their way into a jewelry store with a sledgehammer and ransacked the interior of the store, according to the police department.>>>Read More.

The dog was found left at a farm Thursday.>>>Read More.

A federal grand jury returned a 22-count indictment charging the accused with extortion, bribery, conspiracy, and false statement offenses related to his conduct as director of Connecticut’s Office of School Constructions Grants and Review (“OSCGR”), the state agency responsible for the grant administration of all Connecticut public school construction projects seeking state funding, federal authorities announced in a news release.>>>Read More.

David Portnoy stopped by a local establishment for one of his famous pizza reviews.>>>Read More.

The former restaurant is being renovated into condominiums with an eye toward the building’s rich history.>>>Read More.

Public Schools will give away 50,000 free books to families in the area during their annual Reading Opens the World event Saturday.>>>Read More.

Other top stories:

The Patch community platform serves communities all across Connecticut in Fairfield, New Haven, Middlesex, New London, Hartford, Tolland, and Litchfield counties. Thank you for reading.

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Connecticut

This Is The Most Coveted Address In Connecticut, Survey Says

Published

15 hours ago

May 16, 2024

Press Room

This Is The Most Coveted Address In Connecticut, Survey Says

WILTON, CT — The most coveted address in Connecticut is in Wilton, according to a recent ranking.

Real Estate CRM review website Agent Advice commissioned a survey of 3,000 respondents to determine the top aspirational streets in America, where a mailbox signifies a person has “arrived.”

In Connecticut, the top-ranked street was Nod Hill Road in Wilton at No. 10 on the overall list.

“Rounding out the top 10, Nod Hill Road in Wilton is lined with beautiful, custom-built homes on large, wooded lots. The town’s excellent public schools, community amenities, and rural charm make it a highly desirable location for luxury living,” a news release about the ranking said.

The Wilton address ranked just below Upper Hollow Road in Dorset, Vermont, at No. 9 and Skyline Boulevard in Oakland, Northern California, at No. 8.

The top three spots in the ranking went to Casey Key Road in Nokomis, Florida, at No. 1, Laurel Way in Beverly Hills at No. 2, and Gordon Drive in Naples, Florida, at No. 3.

“While many of the streets featured are home to some of the most luxurious properties in the country, we have to recognize that real estate agents put in a lot of time and effort marketing these roads as lifestyle destinations,” an Agent Advice spokesperson said in the news release. “Behind the scenes, they’re busy helping buyers discover their dream homes by showcasing these sought-after streets.”

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