I have written about Eagle Ranch in Colorado three times in the last year, with ebbing hope that they are ever going to learn to do this right. I have painstakingly looked up email addresses of the folks involved and sent them information on flow devices and beaver benefits and practically drawn for them a map of how to get to Sherri Tippie’s house for help. (She is 90 minutes away.) It has all been to no avail, because they still haven’t fixed the flooding or learned to live with it. After spending money to hire this wildlife wizard they surprisingly still have a problem.

Dam problem in Eagle Ranch

There is still a problem with beaver activity in Eagle Ranch since it became an issue a year ago, and the beaver population throughout the entire region is apparently robust. Last October, a colony of beavers moved into an area along Brush Creek in Eagle. They destroyed many large trees along the bike path, built dams on the creek that threatened to flood homes and clogged storm ponds that are used to filter pollutants out of runoff water before it goes back into Brush Creek.

The town trapped and relocated one beaver before Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers advised that it was too late in the season to relocate the animals. The town was encouraged to euthanize trapped beavers or wait until the spring to relocate them. The town opted for the latter, hoping higher flows in Brush Creek with spring runoff might get the animals to move out.

Euthanize? What happened, are the beavers in pain? I hate when people put lace doilies over shivs to cover up their lethal intent. I guess you better Stacy-Chase the rest of the family down and finish them off because you are clearly incapable of learning.

“There hasn’t been enough activity to say how many are there,” Chase said. “We trapped a young beaver there in the spring but it was hard to say if it had just moved in or if it was maintaining the dam. We’ll continue monitoring this week and we might start trapping again next week.”

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Believe it or not we have better signs of intelligent life from Fairview Canada, which is in Alberta about 5 hours away from Glynnis Hood.

Beavers creating dam problems in M.D. Fairview

Several angered residents have brought forth to the Municipal District of Fairview issues concerning beavers in the Fairview and Clear Hills area, and the problems they are causing. Beavers have built dams along the Leith River and surrounding bodies of water, causing a water backlog along a number of properties in the area, including one 160-acre property with more than 40% of it under water.

“I’ve got 65 acres, that’s half my field. They’re not going to do anything unless it causes damage to other properties. Well, it causes damage on my property. I pay M.D. taxes and I can’t farm my land. There’s got to be something done so I can farm my own land,” said one of many concerned ratepayers.

“That land is supposed to be a free flow river, there aren’t supposed to be beaver dams on it – this is farmland. I may as well plant rice.”

Okay, I expect the angry farmers, huddling together in a pitchfork mob to make a plan to take out the rodents. I’m resigned to the “us versus them” mentality. I’ve covered the beaver beat for a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of things that look better in black and white, but I didn’t expect this:

Beavers often dam streams and rivers in shallow valleys, where the flooded areas become productive wetlands capable of supporting a biodiversity equal to that of a tropical rain forest. The calm waters held behind dammed walls then act as a nursery for fish, ducks, and other species.

The removal of beavers from the area tends to often be a short-term fix, as other beavers tend to migrate into the empty habitat, continuing the cycle. Other options available to control water levels behind beaver dams are to install a pipe and cage system, otherwise known as flexible pond levelers, which allow for dams to be kept in place and beavers unharmed.

A flexible leveler system uses a large diameter corrugated polyethylene pipes, with the inlet protected by a five-foot-diameter cage of sturdy fencing. This cage is then placed low enough into the water ensuring the bottom of the pipe become the new upstream water level, allowing beavers to dam alongside the pre-dam fence while water continues to flow freely.

The article is written subtly so that I can’t tell where this sudden peak of beaver IQ comes from. It doesn’t quote any biologist or engineer as responsible for these beautiful paragraphs. I am left to think they’re crafted by the reporter herself, who learned something on some other story, or is best friends with Glynnis’ aunt or caught the last 15 minutes of the Beaver Whisperers this winter. She is practically one of us. I couldn’t have said it better myself. I would say we should celebrate and pass around the cigars if it weren’t for the very last sentence.

Lowering water levels by one foot greatly increases the chance of beavers leaving the site to dam elsewhere along the stream or river.

Naive beaver-lover that I am, I read this first as a caveat. “Be careful when you install or the beavers might leave”. This is a direct caution from Mike Callahan Beaver Solutions website, which means use caution when you lower the pond by more than a foot or the beavers will be uncomfortable with the new pond and build a dam somewhere else. This would mean that your flow device was for nothing, and you might need another one 20 feet away.

Whenever a pond must be lowered by more than a foot, a single round of trapping may be necessary prior to the flow device installation. When new beavers without the memory of the higher water level relocate to this area they are more likely to tolerate the smaller pond so repeat trapping will not be needed. Most Flexible Pond Leveler TM failures are due to new downstream damming in response to a dramatic lowering of the water level.

As it happens, we have actually argued about this sentence because it is followed by a reminder that if you need the pond lower than that you MIGHT have to trap. (To which I always staunchly remind that in Martinez Skip lowered our dam by three feet before he installed the flow device, and our beavers tolerated it.)

But this morning I realize that this last sentence of the article isn’t a reminder not to lower the dam too much, but rather a tantalizing promise that if you lower the pond by a foot the beavers will simply go away of their own accord. The reporter may have been closely listening when Glynnis described why beavers are good for ponds. But she obviously drifted off and missed the part about the purpose of flow devices.

Sigh. Self-deportation of beavers. Fairview is obviously still in the tail portion of this graph.

Eagle Ranch on beaver watch

EAGLE – High water flows in Brush Creek from spring runoff might take care of the beaver problem that flared up in Eagle Ranch last fall. A rapidly expanding population of beavers was building dams in the residential area, killing trees and clogging storm ponds that are part of a pollution-control system. “With the high water, the beavers likely went up or downstream,” said Eagle Open Space Director John Staight.

Stacy Chase of Chase Wildlife LLC in Gypsum — the company Eagle hired to monitor and mitigate the beaver problem — said she is waiting to see how many beavers move back to the area after runoff. “There’s one dam we’re actively monitoring and at least one beaver that we know of in the area,” she said. “Otherwise it appears the population has scattered.” Chase said she broke up a large dam that was near the bike path.

“We’ll see how quickly the dam is rebuilt and that will give us an indication of how many beavers are working on it,” she said.

Interesting population estimation tool. I wonder if the WHO has tried it? Destroy their economy and see how long it takes to rebuild? Well if the population is our Dad beaver it would take a night, but if the population is some of our yearlings it could take a bit longer. Hmm I may have spied a flaw in your fool-proof plan. The beavers are scattered you say? You killed a few but the rest have escaped. You know, scattering, the way beavers always do. What an interesting expert they’ve chosen to solve this problem! Considering Sherri Tippie is 90 minutes away. Who is this expert ‘mitigator’. I must know more about her.

Oh.

Staight said the town has the option to trap and euthanize the beavers but that is the last thing anyone wants to do. Instead, trapped beavers will be relocated. The town started trapping and relocating the beavers last fall, but was told to wait until the summer to do any relocating.

“The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department said relocating the beavers so late in the season before winter would likely cause the beavers to starve to death,” Staight said. “They told us if we were going to trap them in the fall we should euthanize them.”

Yes we wouldn’t want to kill the beavers. We just want to move them and scatter them and ruin their families and separate the children from their parents in the middle of winter.

Chase said if the dam problem persists, there are water-flow control devices that can be installed in the dams. “It tricks the beavers and they can keep building the dam without effects,” she said. “We’re always going to have issues because of the way the waterway is and we will need population-control measures,” she said.

Well look at that. After we wrap the trees with fairy dust and kill some family members and rip out some dams, we can try installing a flow device or two if we need to.

Oh goody.