A muskrat catcher accidentally discovered a huge corridor system of a beaver in the Maasdijk near Haren. The pied piper saw a hole of about forty centimeters in the dike, which turned out to be the entrance to a system of corridors more than fifteen meters long.
When excavating, it turned out that the beaver was busy building a nesting chamber in the dike. The Aa en Maas water board is suffering a lot from the burrowing beavers. After being reintroduced, the animals have successfully spread across the Netherlands and make burrows and dams everywhere.
The burrowing beaver is not an immediate danger, but it can be problematic at high tide. “If the dike then fills up, it will become saturated. In the worst case, a dike could collapse. But that will not happen immediately,” says Sjaak Daverveld, beaver expert at the Aa en Maas water board.
Another risk arises during the mowing of the dike, says Daverveld. “If the tractor is driving on a corridor, it can tip over.”
The same beaver
In our province, the beavers prefer dead Meuse arms. At the same place near Haren, the water board also removed a corridor system of eighteen meters long last year. It was probably the work of the same beaver. “They have a territory. We proceed with caution, because the beaver is a protected species.”
More and more problems because of the beaver
Beavers are increasingly causing damage to dikes, says Daverveld: “The damage and nuisance is increasing visibly. The number of reports doubles every year. Not only are there problems for dikes, but things can also go wrong in urban areas. When beavers start digging , there can be holes in streets.”
Dikes are reinforced
Aa en Maas has again provided the damaged dike with clay and sown a new turf. From next autumn, dikes along the Meuse in Brabant will be reinforced. The Maasdijk near Haren will then receive a sheet pile wall.
In some places, the water board is constructing high-tide refuges for beavers in the hope that the animals will then leave the dikes alone.