Upon surveying central Connecticut’s Mattabasset Trail to determine whether it should be added to the National Scenic Trail system, federal environmental inspectors discovered a rampant beaver population in the Mattabasset River watershed.
According to a 2001 study conducted by the Society of Nature Activists for The Conservation of Habitats (SNATCH), the stretch of the Mattabesset River that runs through Middletown contains an estimated 89,000 beavers.
“I don’t know where these beavers came from,” Ronald Laroche, co-founder and director of SNATCH said. “It’s like everywhere you look—there’s a beaver, another beaver, beaver, beaver, beaver, beaver, beaver.”
The overabundance of beavers has caused problems in nearby neighborhoods. For a four to seven day period each month, the beavers exhibit irritable and moody behavior.
On Nov. 12, Max Weinrich, 14, was hospitalized when an irritable beaver attacked him while he was playing basketball in his driveway.
“My dad told me to stay away from the beavers when they’re in that moody time of the month,” Weinrich said. “Of course I didn’t listen to him… Most of the pain is gone now. The doctor said I’ll be off the catheter and peeing normally again by next week.”
SNATCH has employed a number of tactics to clean up the city’s beaver problem, but each has failed. According to Technical Advisory Nature Group (TANG) Director Ron Biggs, the beavers may self-regulate their population by spreading lethal diseases.
“One diseased beaver is all it takes to knock out an entire population,” Biggs said.
Wesleyan students have taken population control into their own hands by illegally poaching the city’s beavers in a practice commonly referred to as “chasing tail.” Though fraternity brothers are believed to be the prime tail chasers, Middletown Police suspect that most Wesleyan students have chased tail at one time or another.
Voodoo Maynes, spokesperson for Wesleyan Environmentalists for Sustainable Trails and Ethical Conservation of Habitats (WESTECH), said that students caught in the act of chasing tail would be turned in to Public Safety.
“Tail chasers should be aware that the Tech is coming for them,” Maynes said.
The Concerned Organizers for the Care of Beaver Livelihood On Campus (COCBLOC) has also mounted a front against poaching activity on campus. COCBLOC spends Thursday and Saturday evenings—on which tail chasing is most common—in the Mattabasset watershed protecting beavers from tail chasers.
For more information and updates regarding Middletown’s beaver population visit www.milfhunter.com or www.sublimedirectory.com.
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