We have a beaver pond bordered by a driveable berm with a culvert pipe. It is a never ending battle to keep them from blocking the pipe, after every heavy rain we have to check the culvert to be sure the berm isnt getting washed out. Any experience with preventing this?
Hi Julie! It’s so great to see an old friend/classmate here in the comments-what a nice surprise! I don’t have personal experience with culvert pipes and beavers, but I know firsthand how persistent and skilled they are at plugging up any water flow. Here on the farm, we use spillways instead of culverts, though they aren’t perfect. Spillways require regular monitoring to clear small dams that the beavers inevitably construct. Beavers primarily sense the need to seal a dam by detecting changes in water flow and level. Their highly developed sense of touch-through their whiskers-combined with hearing plays a huge role. Their vision, on the other hand, is not particularly strong, but they excel at detecting water movement on the surface. In some areas, town work crews use heavy wire mesh around culvert inlets to prevent clogging. While effective to some extent, this approach also requires maintenance. A potential improvement might be a two-fold system: Wire Mesh Barrier: Install a heavy-duty wire mesh around the larger culvert inlet to block debris and keep the beavers from directly accessing it. Underwater Perforated Pipe: Place a smaller culvert pipe below the water surface, leading into the larger culvert inlet through the wire mesh. The smaller pipe can either be perforated or have its own wire mesh basket inlet positioned well below the waterline. This setup minimizes the sounds and surface water flow that trigger the beavers’ instinct to block the pipe. Since it’s submerged, the beaver’s ability to occlude it is also reduced due to lower water pressure and less accessible flow. I’ll see if I can find an image of this kind of system and might even create a video to share options for managing water flow, erosion, and our hardworking beaver friends. Thanks for bringing this up-beavers are incredible creatures, but they sure keep us on our toes! 😊
Nice update.
We have a beaver pond bordered by a driveable berm with a culvert pipe. It is a never ending battle to keep them from blocking the pipe, after every heavy rain we have to check the culvert to be sure the berm isnt getting washed out. Any experience with preventing this?
Hi Julie! It’s so great to see an old friend/classmate here in the comments-what a nice surprise!
I don’t have personal experience with culvert pipes and beavers, but I know firsthand how persistent and skilled they are at plugging up any water flow. Here on the farm, we use spillways instead of culverts, though they aren’t perfect. Spillways require regular monitoring to clear small dams that the beavers inevitably construct.
Beavers primarily sense the need to seal a dam by detecting changes in water flow and level. Their highly developed sense of touch-through their whiskers-combined with hearing plays a huge role. Their vision, on the other hand, is not particularly strong, but they excel at detecting water movement on the surface.
In some areas, town work crews use heavy wire mesh around culvert inlets to prevent clogging. While effective to some extent, this approach also requires maintenance. A potential improvement might be a two-fold system:
Wire Mesh Barrier: Install a heavy-duty wire mesh around the larger culvert inlet to block debris and keep the beavers from directly accessing it.
Underwater Perforated Pipe: Place a smaller culvert pipe below the water surface, leading into the larger culvert inlet through the wire mesh. The smaller pipe can either be perforated or have its own wire mesh basket inlet positioned well below the waterline.
This setup minimizes the sounds and surface water flow that trigger the beavers’ instinct to block the pipe. Since it’s submerged, the beaver’s ability to occlude it is also reduced due to lower water pressure and less accessible flow.
I’ll see if I can find an image of this kind of system and might even create a video to share options for managing water flow, erosion, and our hardworking beaver friends. Thanks for bringing this up-beavers are incredible creatures, but they sure keep us on our toes! 😊