They're no joke...

Our 200 year old house is surrounded by ten acres of woods, including quite a bit of swampland. More than two decades ago, the state created beaver heaven by building an elevated highway that created a natural hundred foot high dam at the edge of the wetland. They somehow decided that the more than two acres of upstream wetland could be sufficiently drained by a single, yeah really, single 3 foot diameter culvert, creating a paradise for the buck toothed little rodents to move right in.

We've had our share of high water over the years, but this time we also got well over 12 inches of rainfall in a few days, creating a flood that threatened our ability to stay in the house - nowhere to pump the water in the cellar, which rose over our furnace and hot water heater, and was within less than two feet of the main electric service.

So for the past three days, I've been trying to demolish the beaver dam faster than they can rebuild it. This involves hiking two thirds of a mile chest deep in swampwater, then spending two hours with shovel, pickaxe, and hands, tearing down about ten feet of their dam, while the rushing water behind you threatens to push you face first down the culvert. You can only get it so far until the water rises to the top of the culvert and threatens to suck you in, so then it's hike back to the house, wait two or three hours for the water level to drop, then go back and spend another couple hours digging. I've spent about twenty hours doing this over the past three days, and look like Captain Willard wading in the river in Apocalypse Now. After looking at the topo maps and doing some calculation, I think that I singlehandedly drained about 1.3 million gallons of water through that three foot hole over the last four days. We will have trappers come in the next couple days to remove the little critters from their lodge, and there's no heavy rain in the forecast for a few days.

But I'm wondering how long it will be until the lodge has new tenants, and what we can do to permanently solve the problem, or at least reduce it. I've been reading up on beaver pipes, drains, siphons, and various other methods, but I'm looking for real world experiences.

So I'm posting the question here, as well as on a number of other fora and social media. We seem to have a lot of rural members, including a lot from areas susceptible to beavers.

Any ideas, hive mind?

Andy

Thanks again, guys... I've been googling and researching all week, and I think I know what has to happen.

Let me reiterate, this was not originally a beaver problem, it was a highway engineering problem, when you build a mile-long, 100 foot high dam with a single three foot culvert as a spillway, you are creating a beaver honeypot - an invitation to build that no beaver could possibly resist. That's how you get 1.3 million gallons of water backed up in the first place. We can, and will, remove the beavers from our side of the property line with a non-lethal, legal trapper. I will clear the culvert and section of dam next to it to the proper depth to allow the water to flow without flooding the neighborhood.

At that point, I will just have to see if, say, a 22 foot section of perforated 6" PVC with an elbow and a two foot extension "L" just happens to fall down the embankment and lodge itself in the notch of the dam, or impale itself on a fencpost or two with the elbow pointing down. If it happens to, problem solved long term. For about thirty bucks worth of plastic, no equipment, and no help from the state. I'm hoping that it will, but no guarantees.

Andy

They're no joke...

Our 200 year old house is surrounded by ten acres of woods, including quite a bit of swampland. More than two decades ago, the state created beaver heaven by building an elevated highway that created a natural hundred foot high dam at the edge of the wetland. They somehow decided that the more than two acres of upstream wetland could be sufficiently drained by a single, yeah really, single 3 foot diameter culvert, creating a paradise for the buck toothed little rodents to move right in.

We've had our share of high water over the years, but this time we also got well over 12 inches of rainfall in a few days, creating a flood that threatened our ability to stay in the house - nowhere to pump the water in the cellar, which rose over our furnace and hot water heater, and was within less than two feet of the main electric service.

So for the past three days, I've been trying to demolish the beaver dam faster than they can rebuild it. This involves hiking two thirds of a mile chest deep in swampwater, then spending two hours with shovel, pickaxe, and hands, tearing down about ten feet of their dam, while the rushing water behind you threatens to push you face first down the culvert. You can only get it so far until the water rises to the top of the culvert and threatens to suck you in, so then it's hike back to the house, wait two or three hours for the water level to drop, then go back and spend another couple hours digging. I've spent about twenty hours doing this over the past three days, and look like Captain Willard wading in the river in Apocalypse Now. After looking at the topo maps and doing some calculation, I think that I singlehandedly drained about 1.3 million gallons of water through that three foot hole over the last four days. We will have trappers come in the next couple days to remove the little critters from their lodge, and there's no heavy rain in the forecast for a few days.


But I'm wondering how long it will be until the lodge has new tenants, and what we can do to permanently solve the problem, or at least reduce it. I've been reading up on beaver pipes, drains, siphons, and various other methods, but I'm looking for real world experiences.


So I'm posting the question here, as well as on a number of other fora and social media. We seem to have a lot of rural members, including a lot from areas susceptible to beavers.


Any ideas, hive mind?


Andy

Doesn't have to. It's a matter of maintaining the level at an appropriate level behind the beaver dam, not bringing water level down to the bottom of the culvert. Eventually, old or new beavers will rebuild the dam, but as long as there is a constant flow, the beavers will get their pond, it will sink below the L level during low water times, and any flood periods will drain off within a day or so, using a single 6" beaver pipe. Some of the experts recommend two separate pipes, but more for redundancy and backup in case of failure. I have learned far, far more about this subject this week than I could have ever imagined.

Andy