Havelock-Belmont-Methuen – Municipal council is working with engineers to construct a $250,000 dam in the John Mathison Conservation Area just north of Havelock. And now council is about to take another step to stabilize water levels in the wetlands above the village.

This week council, sitting as committee of the whole, directed staff to contact the Ministry of Natural Resources for information and advice about controlling the local beaver population.

The new concrete dam is being built this fall to replace a 10-foot high beaver dam immediately upstream from the village that is holding back an extensive pond encompassing at least 100 acres of the conservation area.

But there is a second beaver dam upstream, and more in the area, and council members are concerned about the impact the current beaver population will have on the new dam.

“The question is how to mitigate the influence of the beavers on the weir,” said Reeve Ron Gerow, noting that the municipality will have to find out who has trapping rights in the area.

The 10-foot high beaver dam will be removed after the new concrete dam is constructed south of it near the trail bridge. But at this point the beaver dam is the only thing standing between a large body of water and the village and its homes and businesses.

Only a few hundred feet downstream of the dam, the properties would be in immediate danger of flooding if the beaver dam was damaged, either by neglect or vandalism.