Boxborough ConCom approves beaver flow device for flooded school egress bridge

BOXBOROUGH — January 22, 2025 — Boxborough Conservation Commission unanimously approved a non-lethal beaver flow device behind Blanchard School and continued a separate fire station wetlands hearing to February 5. The commission issued a negative determination of applicability for the installation of a flow device — coined a "Beaver Deceiver" by specialist Skip Lyle, who has built the devices since 1995 — at 427 Massachusetts Avenue, finding the project too limited in scope to require a full Notice of Intent under MGL Chapter 131, Section 40. The device, an 18-inch diameter pipe paired with a square wire-mesh filter, is designed to prevent beavers from clogging a dam outlet that has repeatedly flooded the Hager Bridge, Blanchard School's sole secondary emergency egress. On a second item, consulting engineer Bill Murray of Placetypes Associates told the board the DEP had not yet issued a file number for an Abbreviated Notice of Resource Area Delineation at 502 Massachusetts Avenue, the site of a potential new fire station, and recommended against closing that hearing; the commission continued it unanimously to February 5 at 8 p.m., pending a stamped revised survey plan and DEP acknowledgment.