When Wilsson set up animals in still-water habitats or places where the water moved slowly enough to be silent, they burrowed into mud and never displayed any interest in building anything. But if he put a speaker nearby, and played the sound of water running over rocks, the beaver would start making things, even though those things typically weren’t dams. Whatever they made, they would always build over the speaker. If Wilsson buried the speaker in a concrete wall, the beavers stacked mud and sticks against it. If he put it on a flat plain, they covered the thing. If he put a clear but silent outflow pipe through their burrows, allowing them to see where the water was leaking, and then played the sound of running water somewhere else, the beavers would cover the speaker, but be unable to figure out how to plug the plainly visible leak.
The fact that beavers aren’t that bright about identifying the real source of leaks might save their lives. When beaver dams cause problems for people by making rivers overflow their banks and damage property, it’s not necessary to knock down the dam or kill the beavers. A special outflow pipe can be put right through the dam, fitted with special filters to damp down on noise and prevent the beaver from damming it, and the beavers will leave it alone. If there’s no way to block the sound of water, some people cut notches in the dam near the pipe, and the beavers will instinctively fix the notch near the sound instead of fixing the actual leak.
I had beavers move in on my farm. For a few years they failed to build a successful damn but there was one spring we looked over and saw “there’s a lot of water” over there and they’ve built quite...
I had beavers move in on my farm. For a few years they failed to build a successful damn but there was one spring we looked over and saw “there’s a lot of water” over there and they’ve built quite a few dams and lodges by our creek in this area
I have read all about “beaver deceivers” and we did call the trapper once but the main management tool we used to keep our driveway from getting washed out was going down every day and picking up the sticks they laid down the night before and then dredging out the mud knowing that if the water level never got high they’ve never get very productive though there were those times we didn’t keep up and had to work inside the culver pipe to take the dams down.
There was that pond that I filed a permit for to stock with triploid grass carp to eat the freshwater seaweed that was unpleasant for swimming that the beavers took over, there was that time I felt a loud BOOM cause one had slapped his tail then I figured it wasn’t safe to be swimming with all those beaver turds around, that is how you get Giardia.
Depends on your situation. I didn't mind working together with the beavers to maintain the area, we had some folks at the farm who saw it as a meaningful activity. Learned a lot of interesting...
Depends on your situation. I didn't mind working together with the beavers to maintain the area, we had some folks at the farm who saw it as a meaningful activity. Learned a lot of interesting things about their behavior like how they only move wood downstream, once you take wood off a dam they never try to put it back so next to a dam area we'd have big piles of sticks that we'd either stuff somewhere or burn. The beavers would never touch them.
It was interesting how they would develop channels to move water into an area that they were trying to dam, it really was a system of dams and we had to decide which ones we were going to accept (not flood the driveway) and which ones we couldn't.
They cut down most of the usable trees that were within the area and they barely active in the area if they are active at all. Like any other lumberjack they'll probably say environmentalists shut them down.
From the article:
I had beavers move in on my farm. For a few years they failed to build a successful damn but there was one spring we looked over and saw “there’s a lot of water” over there and they’ve built quite a few dams and lodges by our creek in this area
https://mastodon.social/@UP8/111009951644531814
I have read all about “beaver deceivers” and we did call the trapper once but the main management tool we used to keep our driveway from getting washed out was going down every day and picking up the sticks they laid down the night before and then dredging out the mud knowing that if the water level never got high they’ve never get very productive though there were those times we didn’t keep up and had to work inside the culver pipe to take the dams down.
There was that pond that I filed a permit for to stock with triploid grass carp to eat the freshwater seaweed that was unpleasant for swimming that the beavers took over, there was that time I felt a loud BOOM cause one had slapped his tail then I figured it wasn’t safe to be swimming with all those beaver turds around, that is how you get Giardia.
I had to look up beaver deceivers. Looks effective.
Depends on your situation. I didn't mind working together with the beavers to maintain the area, we had some folks at the farm who saw it as a meaningful activity. Learned a lot of interesting things about their behavior like how they only move wood downstream, once you take wood off a dam they never try to put it back so next to a dam area we'd have big piles of sticks that we'd either stuff somewhere or burn. The beavers would never touch them.
It was interesting how they would develop channels to move water into an area that they were trying to dam, it really was a system of dams and we had to decide which ones we were going to accept (not flood the driveway) and which ones we couldn't.
They cut down most of the usable trees that were within the area and they barely active in the area if they are active at all. Like any other lumberjack they'll probably say environmentalists shut them down.
Therin lies the rub. You want fresh groundwater to replenish? Gotta let those beavers do their work.