LUMBERTON — A farmer who is concerned about the increase of beavers in the Saddletree community is asking the Robeson County Board of Commissioners for help.
“I bet we have the World Book of Records for beavers in a two- or three-mile area,” Ronald Hammonds told the commissioners on Monday. “We’ve had a record rain and that’s conducive to increasing the beaver number.”
Hammonds told The Robesonian that 30 beavers have been trapped around Saddletree in recent days. He said that dams are popping up everywhere, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimating there are 15 within four miles.
“If you are on the bridge on Saddletree Road and look upstream you can see a dam that is at least four-feet high,” Hammonds said.
Hammonds said that just destroying dams is not the solution.
“We need a beaver management program like they have in Columbus County,” he said. “That program offers a bounty to those who will trap beaver. Any successful program needs to include a bounty as an incentive.”
Robeson County already contracts out with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to supply a wildlife specialist to administer the Beaver Management Assistance Program in Robeson County. That program has been conducted in the county for the past two decades and is credited with saving the county money in beaver-related damage to timber, crops, roadways and drainage structures.
Flooding is a major problem, Hammonds said. He called on the commissioners to take advantage of programs offered by the USDA and U.S. Wildlife Service that provide flow control devices that can save bridges and roadways from flooding.
He also suggested that beavers be trapped and located to other areas.
“Beavers are very adaptive,” he said.
In other business, the commissioners heard a report from Gwendolyn Cromartie about the creation of the Better Days Foundation. Cromartie said the foundation has been “a dream” for her since 1995, when she lost her six children to the foster care system because she was addicted to crack cocaine.
“It took 10 years to get all of us back together,” she told The Robesonian. “There’s still a lot of anger, hurt and disappointment among the children. There’s still a lot of pain that is not yet all the way healed.”
Cromartie said the foundation’s goal is to “help keep families together so that children don’t end up in foster homes.”
“Our motto is that it takes a village to raise a whole family,” she said.
Cromartie said that her organization will provide educational classes covering such issues as parenting, anger management, healthy life choices, and sexual abuse. She said that participants in the programs will pay if they have insurance or Medicaid.
An “indigent program” will be available for those who can’t pay, she said.
Cromartie asked the commissioners for a donation to get her foundation up and running. She said that she does not have the financial resources to fund and promote the programs and activities available through her foundation.
The commissioners asked that Cromartie present them with a copy of her budget for their review. They also requested documentation authorizing that the Better Days Foundation is a certified foundation.
In other business:
— Sitting as the Robeson County Housing Authority Board, the commissioners authorized Jason King, the authority’s interim director, to move forward with plans to put new flooring in Benton Court and McColl Page Plaza. The total cost of the flooring, about $142,000, would come from the authority’s capital fund.
— The commissioners passed a resolution encouraging Robeson County residents to support and invest in a child’s early years. The resolution recognizes the week of April 9 to 16 as the “Week of the Young Child.”
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