Beaver dam in a culvert

Saturday morning I removed much of a beaver dam in the creek across the road.  Most years the beavers try to dam the creek and the neighbor's yard gets partially flooded.   I learned last week that the couple who own the home along the creek are now divorced and she is the one who kept the house.  Since the creek was really flooding now I went over to check out the dam and see if I could help her.

The dam is actually on another neighbor's property, an absentee landowner/developer.   This section of the property is unusable due to the creek and the overhead transmission lines.  Therefore nothing is done with the land and it is becoming a weed patch.  I used the rake I carried to knock off the seed heads of some of the Canadian thistle.

I also got rid of most of the bull thistle...

I pulled out most of the Great Mullein...

The spotted knapweed I left alone as there was too much to make any difference...

There were also stands of cocklebur plants and I tried to avoid them.  Still I had to pull the Velcro like seeds off my shoes and/or pants after I got home each day.

I also wore rubber boots as some of the property was flooded.  Another reason to remove the dam was that the standing water was a mosquito factory.  There were mosquitoes there and it was almost noon on a sunny day.

I discovered the culvert was underwater by several inches.  The beavers has made their dam inside half the culvert and in front of it.  Using my rake I began to pull some of the branches and bushes from the water.  After a bit I opened an area and the water began to pour through the culvert.

Once the water level began to drop below the top of the culvert I grew more confident standing on its rounded top.   I pulled more and more branches, bushes, weeds and grasses from the culvert using my rake and hands.  I spent a few hours and removed much of the dam.  I couldn't reach the material in the middle of the culvert even when laying on the culvert and reaching in with my rake.  I didn't feel like getting in the creek and entering the culvert.  As the water level wasn't too different on each side of the remainder of the dam I decided to call it a day.  I was tired.

In the past the beavers were quick to repair their dams.  Monday I checked the culvert again and could see where the beavers were adding more branches, bushes, weeds and grass to the dam.  I worked some at removing the new material when Judy, the neighbor lady, came over.

I learned she had removed the dams three times so far this past month.  She would enter the culvert from the downstream side and pull the material out until the water started to rush out.  She also go a number of spider bites.  So she was very grateful I removed much of the dam on Saturday.

A difference this year is that the beavers are rebuilding a completely dismantled dam in the culvert over and over.  In past years when the culvert dam was completely removed the beavers would then move to another section of the creek to build another dam.

Judy also learned that since the culvert was placed there by Bonneville Power to allow access over the creek under their transmission lines they are responsible for clearing and maintaining the culvert.  They are suppose to come out and clear the culvert.

Judy also had some young guys who would trap the beavers for them each year.  Because they also sell the fur they do not want to trap the beavers until cooler weather later this Fall when the fur would be sell-able.  Right now the fur is not worth anything.

For some reason the beavers are starting their activity a month or two earlier than usual.  I did hear somewhere the other day that someone is predicting an early winter here.  Oh, joy.

While I stood and talked with Judy near the dam we could see ripples in the water where the beaver(s) swam down to see what was happening with their dam.  Because we were there they wouldn't completely approach the dam, but clearly seemed to be annoyed.

Here is the culvert Monday afternoon when I came to check on it.

Here is the view inside the culvert.  Keep in mind on Saturday this was plugged with material that I removed and what you see now is the new material since then.  It may not look like much but it is impeding the water flow pretty good.