Cavendish continues to weigh dam issues as BRAT advocates for beavers

By Lorien Strange
©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Last Monday night’s Cavendish Select Board meeting once again began with a discussion of beavers.

Last month, the board decided to rescind permission to trap the beavers of the dam next to Main Street out-of-season in favor of finding a different way to regulate their activity if necessary.

Some of the residents along Main Street fear that the local beaver dam, situated along an old canal attached to the Black River, could be increasing the area’s potential for flooding. But others argue that the dam and the wetland ecosystem it supports actually lower the area’s flood risk.

After last month’s vote, Town Manager Richard Chambers mentioned that Kelly Stettner from Black River Action Team would probably come to the next meeting to talk about what could be done to alleviate the situation for the property owners without harming the ecosystem. At the time, Chambers said that he would work with Stettner to see if the situation could be alleviated by installing a Beaver Deceiver that would regulate the water flow through the dam without forcing the beavers away.

On Monday, Stettner recommended that the town let the beavers be.

Stettner said met with the Beaver Deceiver’s inventor, Skip Lisle of Grafton, for a site visit. At the time, he encouraged her to tell the town not to hire him, since the dam regulates the water flow so well, the device would be superfluous. And as the surrounding Class II wetland is protected by the state, any draining would require state permitting.

In addition to visiting the site with Lisle, earlier this year Stettner contracted for drone footage of the dam and its surrounding area, which she says shows that the dam is doing an excellent job regulating the water flow. Instead of building up behind the knee-high dam, she says, excess water just spreads into the wetland.

“As far as I understand, the water has never risen to a point where it’s encroached on anybody’s basements or threatened property damage,” Stettner said, adding that she had talked to property owners along Main Street several times about the situation. “The way the canal is connected on the downstream side, it’s just gonna rise up out of the canal and flow right into the wetland complex.”

Stettner cautioned against doing anything to remove the beavers or the dam, noting that the wetland provides erosion control and reduces flooding risks in the area.

But Stettner wasn’t the only person who had come to talk about the beavers.

Joining on Zoom, Jason Gurdak introduced himself as a hydrologist and former professor and former employee of U.S. Geological Survey. He was there in his personal capacity to represent his parents and uncle, who own a large portion of the land affected by the beavers.

Speaking about the dam, Gurdak said that “it is, in fact, flooding my parents’ property. It flooded their barn two weeks ago.” He added that after seeing the drone footage of the dam, he became alarmed and asked his father to measure the distance between a barn on their property and the water. “It was 18 feet from the water to the barn. It happened to rain the very next day, about 0.7 inches, and it flooded that 18 feet by July 4.”

Gurdak blamed soil saturation behind the beaver dam for the flooding, saying that this prevents the soil from absorbing excess water during rainfall events.

He said that his family still supported the town’s decision to allow the game warden to trap the beaver out-of-season but he encouraged the town or anyone legally responsible for the dam to follow the protocols outlined by the state’s beaver Best Management Practices.

Gurdak also mentioned that regulations might be different depending on the age of the beaver dam, how much of it is located on town or private property, and whether the state considers it to be in the wetland or on the floodplain.

Main Street resident Zachary McNaughton told the board,  “I have photo and video evidence that the dam has been there for at least eight years,” he said, adding that he had submitted that information to the state. McNaughton said that determining whether the dam is in the wetland or the floodplain would require opening a state map while standing on the dam itself, which he is  happy to do.

The Telegraph reached out to Wetlands Program Manager Laura Lapierre of the Agency of Natural Resources to learn more about the dam situation. In an email, she said that the agency first learned about the complaints about the dam in May. From satellite footage, the agency determined that the  dam is at least two years old.

“The wetland is a Class II protected wetland and is part of the floodplain for the Black River, naturally storing floodwaters, capturing sediment and protecting water quality. The wetland performs these functions regardless if beaver are present.”

Lapierre said that the Wetlands Program has “discussed the situation and options with multiple parties.”

For Monday night’s discussion, the Select Board decided to gather more information and continue working with all stakeholders to find a workable solution; Stettner invited them all to come to a second, formal site visit with Skip Lisle of Beaver Deceiver.

Municipal Planning Grant explained

The Select Board also talked at length about various transportation and infrastructure matters.

In spring of 2023, Cavendish received a state Municipal Planning Grant $15,552 for a plan to be developed to address paving issues, sidewalks, culvert replacement, replacing highway equipment, and updating town water and sewer systems.

Mount Ascutney Regional Planning Commission’s Martha Harrison attended the Monday meeting to present that capital plan, which included finance options for several projects and equipment maintenance between fiscal 2027 and 2032.  The grant requires a match from the town of  $1,728.

Also on Monday night, the Select Board also approved the new sewer budget, which they forgot to do earlier this year when they raised the rates to better reflect the system’s costs.

The board discussed but did not make a motion to set dates for public hearings about the Planning Commission’s proposed subdivision regulation changes.

Chambers also updated the Select Board about a recent site visit to the section of Brook Road in front of Joe Vullo’s property. Vullo, who attended Monday night’s meeting, has said that town repairs made to the road after Tropical Storm Irene have caused flooding and erosion on his property.

Todd Eaton, branch manager of VTrans’ Vermont Local Roads, met Chambers and Vullo on site to discuss how the road could be made compliant with state regulations. But his recommendations included further raising the height of the road and of the driveway’s apron — what Vullo says are causing the issues in the first place. Chambers will continue to work with Vullo to see what can be done to resolve the issue.

Chambers also wanted to discuss potential actions to combat overnight parking by the Village Green, which he says is mostly done by Main Street residents who don’t have another place to put their cars. The Select Board discussed adding signs forbidding overnight parking and adding or modifying ordinances, and they ultimately decided to gather more information and look into how they could extend such a restriction to other town properties, as well.

Chambers also announced that an anonymous donor has asked to replace the chain link fence at Hillcrest Cemetery with a nicer white fence, complete with a plaque to honor two people buried there. Chambers, who was checking in with the board to continue working with the donor, added that while the donor got a quote for the fence, he has yet to make a formal proposal.