Friday, January 6, 2012

Dam Beavers!

We have a small stream that flows along the edge of our property.  Except after heavy rains, the water is rarely over a few inches deep.  The stream flows under our street through a culvert.  About a month ago I noticed that the water level was much higher due to what I thought was a build up of debris at the entrance to the culvert.  So I busted up the debris pile which brought the water level back down to normal.

A few days later, I noticed that the debris pile was back and the water level was up again.  So I busted it up again.

When we returned from the our week away for the holidays, we found that our little stream had turned into a small pond.  The water wasn't flowing through the culvert any more and was backing up onto our property.  The location of the previous debris pile was now completely under water.

There is normally just a few inches of water flowing through the bottom of the culvert


The tree in the middle of the pond is normally above ground alongside the banks of the stream 

This required some further investigation!  I couldn't see inside the culvert from my yard, so I got with my neighbor across the street to investigate from his side of the road.  Inside the culvert was completely blocked up with debris.

Blocked up Culvert


Also along his part of his creek we spotted several tree stumps which were obviously downed by beavers!  Now normally, I have no problem with Beavers!  I think they are pretty amazing critters, but when they decide to flood my property, something has to be done!


Some recent Beaver Activity


 I wasn't about to go crawling inside the culvert, so we contacted our Homeowners Association and the County Road Commission.  They should be out later today to bust up the dam inside the culvert, but I am afraid the Beavers will quickly rebuild!

Another Beaver Dam on my neighbors property

The battle against the Beavers has begun!

2 comments:

Eeyore said...

Good luck, man! We had a battle with some beavers at a townhouse my wife owned, and they practically destroyed all the trees and crepe myrtles near the lake, and it was already dammed up by men! Chicken wire wrapped around and stapled to the tree trunks finally saved some of them.

James Robert Smith said...

WOW! That's amazing!

What generally has to be done is that the beavers will be live-trapped and moved away. I had an asshole relative who didn't want to go the trouble of doing that and instead shot them all with his gun. What an ASSHOLE!

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