ian-dam

Upon the anniversary of mom’s death, Worth A Dam members gathered at the bridges in the evening to mark the occasion and see what might transpire. We met a big family with young children who had tried to come with kayaks the night before to watch the beavers from the water. I explained that our creek is way too small for the beavers to emerge when 5 floating boat-shadows are bobbing in the water, and suggested they watch with us from the bridge.

yearling stance — Coming to see - Cheryl Reynolds

While we were waiting we saw two muskrats, one barely bigger than a hamster ducking in the shadows and a bolder one the size of a guinea pig swimming about the pond. At eight o’clock, this fellow showed up on the bank by the primary. He climbed out onto the land and gave us all a good view of how truly healthy he is growing up to be, striking this pose for effect.

On Farmer’s Market days there is a very generous/indulgent homeless man that insists on leaving strawberries for the beavers at the dam. This little fellow downed one after another until his lips and nose were bright red. This photo is actually the least painted one Cheryl too that night!

All that berry-juice must have went straight to his head because after he was done he paddled about in the water and bobbed out of sight right about where the pipe to Skip’s flow device ends. The roundfence (or cage looking thing) was pulled off in the flooding and is now sitting in the corp yard. The pipe for the Castor Master has been open and exposed for three months, and one of the best clues we have that Dad or GQ aren’t in residence is the fact that it still spouts water and hasn’t been plugged like a leak to stop the pond from draining. Beavers can feel suction and the pull of water in their dams so they are very sensitive to things that drain water away. Well, apparently older beavers are very sensitive to it, because up until that moment our kits had been completely oblivious to it.

Up until that moment, that is. At 8:30 in the evening, on the anniversary of mom’s death, we suddenly noticed lots and lots of this coming from the end of Skip’s flow device.

1 Corinthians 13:11

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

What is in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

R&J 2:2:45

Brands and names have a strange way of shaping our language. “Aspirin” was once a brand name, owned and trademarked, and is now the general name for acetylsalicylic acid from Bayer to Bufferin. Hoover, Biro, Sellotape: all brand names that became the generic term. It’s a compliment of sorts, for your invention to become the ubiquitous name for all copies, but no inventor is happy about it at first.

I mention this because there has always been much confusion about the names of flow devices. Even the much publicized contraption in Alhambra Creek has been repeatedly misnamed in print and conversation. Recent confusion is evident in this article about the Oshawa beavers. Certainly a beaver colony won’t be saved by a name, but its good for readers of this blog (the most informed beaver watchers in the known universe) to know what’s what. This is confusing business, and I’m still learning, so consider this a work in progress.

FLOW DEVICE:

A Flow Device is the generic term. It can apply to all installations designed to humanely block beavers from a destructive water activity. The thing in Alhambra Creek is a Flow Device, in the same way that your Honda is an Automobile, or your Labrador is a Dog. Sometimes the terms “beaver deceiver” or “beaver baffler” are also used generically, meaning any effort to humanely trick a beaver. This is incorrect and sometimes confusing, so here’s a primer:

BEAVER DECEIVER:

The Beaver Deceiver is a trapazoidal fence built around a culvert to prevent beavers from blocking the culvert. It was invented by Skip Lisle in his work with the Penobscot Nation in Maine. His name has become very linked to the invention, and since he installed Martinez Flow Device it is sometimes mistakenly called a Beaver Deceiver. It isn’t one. Our problem was dam height not culvert blocking.

CLEMSON POND LEVELER:

This ground-breaking device was a production of Clemson University in South Carolina. It involved a perforated pipe through the dam and a baffled intake. It is less used today because of its rigid, expensive construction, but it was hugely important in demonstrating that flow devices could work to manage beaver behavior.

CASTOR MASTER:

This is the flow device in Alhambra Creek designed by Skip Lisle of Beaver Deceivers International. It involves a double walled flexible pipe which goes over the dam. The inlet of the pipe is enclosed with a roundfence called a “filter” which prevents the beavers from feeling suction and plugging the pipe. The outflow is downstream of the dam.

FLEXIBLE LEVELER:

This is the flow device trademarked by Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions. It uses a single walled pipe which passes through a notch in the dam. The intake is enclosed by a roundfence with a domed top to block the pipe. The outflow may also be blocked with fencing.

BEAVER BAFFLER:

The Beaver Baffler has been called a modern version of the Beaver Stop developed by Neil Thurber in Canada. The adaptions of the Baffler by Brian Graph of Dodgeville NY have been successfully used to prevent beavers from building in culverts. However, the trapezoidal fencing is generally thought to be more successful at preventing daming.

PIPE & CAGE or FENCE & PIPE

This combines the techniques of the culvert fencing with the flexibility of the pipe to encourage beavers to dam away from the culvert. It has tested at 99% effective.

A final word on the work of Michael LeClair, who developed many of these techniques with his original work in Gatineau park in Ontario. His work became the foundation of the pond levelers used throughout the world. His devices have been called “limiters” and are far more influential than they ever get credit for.