The Natick Conservation Commission held a public meeting this week to address ways the town might deal with beaver activities causing residents grief. Among these is a dam alongside the Hunnewell Town Forest that has resulted in a popular trail getting flooded out and affected water levels and the ecosystem in a couple of ponds adjacent to homes.

During the discussion, which included weighing options for breaching dams and removing beavers, Wellesley came up numerous times. That’s because there’s a big and persistent dam in Little Jennings Pond, which along with Jennings Pond, shares water with Morses Pond in Wellesley.

Pretty sure the Natick residents and officials were only joking, but there were a handful of references to Wellesley’s association with these beavers.

One resident quipped, regarding the cost of dredging the Natick ponds to allow for beaver deceivers to be installed: “We can simply determine that the beavers are coming from Wellesley and ask them to pay for the cost.”

Surprisingly, no mention of Babson beavers (the college mascot).

In discussing possible beaver removal, Commission members lamented that if you remove them from one place they will just migrate from another spot in Natick—or Wellesley! “Blame Wellesley, why not?” members chimed in. A reference was made to the beavers having “a whole different economic status” and possibly taking their Range Rovers back to Wellesley.

Or make that “Wellllllessssley,” as one resident pronounced it, eyebrows raised.

Meanwhile, “damn” Wellesley…spell-check will get you every time.

While it remains to be seen what will or won’t become of Wellesley’s North 40 property along Weston Road, this hawk is keeping an eye on things.

More: What’s up at Wellesley’s North 40 (from October, 2020)

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A fisher cat knew what it was doing by roaming around Wellesley resident and photographer Beth Shedd’s yard. Shedd can make anybody look their best on camera, as you can see in this 11 seconds of glory for “Freddy” that she posted on social media this week (and allowed us to share).

https://www.facebook.com/SwellesleyReport/videos/798854021426284

This video is right up there with 2018’s “Otter vs. Eel” seen in Wellesley.

Fisher cats, or more accurately “fishers,” are known for being “elusive”—that’s the word everyone seems to use when describing this member of the weasel family. The only one I’ve seen in the wild skittered across Pond Road in Wellesley at dawn a few years back while I was running. Pretty sure I picked up my pace when I saw it.

Shedd said “this was our first up close and personal, but we’ve seen them under shrubs in the perimeter of our garden years ago.”

Wellesley Animal Control Officer Jenny Smith says the only one she’s seen in town since starting her job in early 2021 was unfortunately hit by a car. “Other than that it has only been reported to me once, a resident hearing one in their neighborhood,” Smith said.

Fun facts from Smith about the animals are that “they remain active year round and do not hibernate. Their preferred habitat is mixed forest with heavy canopy cover, as they tend to avoid traveling in large open areas. They commonly use hollow logs, stonewalls, tree cavities, and brush piles to rest. Fishers are omnivorous. Their primary foods include small rodents, squirrels, rabbits, birds, eggs, fruit, porcupines, and carrion… Although they are proficient climbers, most of their hunting takes place on the ground.”

Lisa Moore, the environmental education, outreach, and compliance coordinator for Wellesley’s Natural Resources Commission, calls them “one of the most misunderstood animals around here.”

She’s learned about them while working for Mass Audubon for the last 10 years, plus has spotted them in her yard on occasion. One of her fun facts is that fishers can climb down a tree headfirst.

“Often called a Fisher Cat, which is a misnomer,” Moore says. “They belong to the weasel family, and are not a cat and don’t fish. This small mammal ranges in size from 4-16 lbs, with females being smaller than males. Males tend to be about three feet long and females about two feet long, in both sexes the tail makes up a third of the body length.”

While I’ve bought into the idea that screaming fishers are among the critters that keep me awake at night, Moore says fishers screaming is a misconception. “Fishers will hiss, growl, and make a chuckle sound, but they do not scream. The grey fox also can climb trees and the female call during mating sounds like a child or woman screaming,” she says.

Mass Audubon says fishers were reintroduced in New England in the 1950s to control porcupines.

Moore says “I do not know if they rebounded or were reintroduced to manage the porcupine population that exploded as the fisher declined. Porcupine can decimate the understory of a forest and kill trees by collaring them, eating the bark and under bark off a tree around the entire trunk killing the tree. Fishers are one of the few animals that will actively hunt and eat porcupine. Really shows the importance of a balanced food chain or food web.”

The state’s MassWildlife agency encourages you not to “let fishers intimidate you: Don’t hesitate to scare or threaten fishers with loud noises, bright lights, or water sprayed from a hose.”

We’re not sure if that latter approach is an allowed use under the town’s outside water restrictions…

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