Fans of the beaver – never say die.
Save the Mammals, a national proactive wildlife organization dedicated to animal heritage projects, this week announced its intention to reintroduce beavers in Ohio.
The feeder streams of the Riley are among four areas in Ohio under consideration for reintroduction of the once-common Black Swamp mammal.
The other three areas are Ripley, near the Ohio River in southwestern Ohio; Barnesville in southeastern Ohio; and a yet-to-be named area in northeastern Ohio.
Sam Diller has worked with former Bluffton resident, Charles Hilty now of Reston, Va., in an attempt to have the Bluffton location selected. Diller said that Hilty’s connections in the Department of Agriculture have helped Bluffton as a potential selection site.
Save the Mammals has a grant from the federal agency to reintroduce rare mammals into habitants they once roamed. If successful, the grant hopes to bring beavers to parts of Ohio, Indiana and western Pennsylvania. The last recorded sighting of beavers in Allen County was in 1871, according to Howe’s History of Ohio (1890 edition).
Should the Riley Creek area be selected over its three competitors, two beaver pairs will be released possibly as soon as September.
A public hearing is the next step in the process. That hearing takes place in Bluffton’s Iron Lantern Restaurant on April 1. Richard Boehr, along with Diller and Hilty, chair the meeting and spearhead Bluffton’s efforts on the project.
