Flooding prevented due to the ‘beaver deceiver’

When a beaver dam was recently threatening to flood one of Linda Head’s farm fields northeast of Red Oak, she recalled an Iowa Learning Farm presentation she attended about a simple solution to remove the flooding potential while leaving the beavers alone.
Referred to as a Beaver Deceiver, the contraption allows the pond depth to be maintained at a level that won’t flood, while not harming the beaver or its dam.
“There have been beaver on this property for three decades, but none of the dams have caused flooding problems before now,” said Head. “We wanted to address the issue quickly because it’s planting season.”
Head contacted Healthy Turf’s Josh Harris and told him about the flooding issue as well as the beaver deceiver. Unaware of such an invention, Harris took to the internet and conducted his own research about how to come up with his own design.
“It’s a neat, simple concept,” explained Harris. “It’s one that is a win-win for the landowner and the beaver.”
Harris said before devices like a beaver deceiver, landowners would exterminate the beaver or trap it and relocate it, but that only served as a temporary solution. Since they are migrating creatures, a new beaver would move into the area where the dam once was and take up residence, creating a new dam.
“If a beaver can’t live on a farm, where can it live?” said Head. “The function of a beaver deceiver is to control the water level of the pond behind the beaver dam, but allow the beaver to continue to build their dam at their normal rate. It’s definitely a win-win situation.”
Harris and he and his crew placed a culvert through the beaver dam, which allows the water to flow where it needs to uninterupted. A cage is attached to the end of the culvert, which prevents the beaver from daming it up; causing flooding issues. The cage is then staked into the water so it can’t be moved.
“We ended up dropping the water levels a couple feet; enough to keep the field dry but still leave a wetland,” Harris said. “It was a project we’d never done before, but it was enjoyable for us.”