Re: Beaver Pond Levelers
[Re: Aix sponsa]
#6141197
01/29/18 11:29 AM
01/29/18 11:29 AM
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 111 NM
HD_Wildlife
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 111
NM
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Aix,
PM “Trapper Don” which is Don Lafountain.
He and his business partner are the best source of info on this topic.
I have the video created by their company and it’s excellent as well.
Don’s your man though I’m sure others have worked with flow devices as well on here during their beaver Management.
Justin
(You can find his username to pm in the WCT post below.)
Last edited by HD_Wildlife; 01/29/18 11:31 AM.
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Re: Beaver Pond Levelers
[Re: Aix sponsa]
#6141202
01/29/18 11:34 AM
01/29/18 11:34 AM
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,522 james bay frontierOnt.
Boco
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,522
james bay frontierOnt.
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They need to be maintained on a regular basis or you will have a nightmare on your hands. Maintaining them can be a lucrative occupation. They can also create unseen problems in the north as beavers will move upstream out of sight where they can raise the water for winter.Unseen dams upstream are responsible for more catastrophic washouts than culverts dammed at the roadbed.
Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
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Re: Beaver Pond Levelers
[Re: Aix sponsa]
#6142769
01/30/18 10:34 PM
01/30/18 10:34 PM
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Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 179 Arkansas
AR Swampboss
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 179
Arkansas
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I don’t see much said about them here. Do any of you offer them as part of your services?
Do they work in drainages, or will debris foul them? I've installed several with a very high success rate. The problem with them is most people don't want to pay for them. Also most don't believe it will work. I began experimenting with them just in back woods beaver ponds built out of only PVC pipe. I've also built some using 12" HDPE culvert pipe that was installed through existing road culverts. and yes they can foul with debris. This usually happens if you build them wrong. but could happen with a flood event or extreme erosion. There are about 10 steps to building my version correctly. If you leave out one step it will fail or the beavers will figure it out and bury it making it a waste of time. I sold/installed one to a local county road dept about 10 years ago ( I asked for the worst beaver spot they had ) This road flooded every time it rained. The county had dug the inlet to the two plugged 24 inch metal culverts out daily for several winters. My leveler has kept this pond drained with zero maintenance ever since. ( also, zero beavers trapped , this area joins a very large swamp of several hundred acres ) Now for the Kicker- after watching mine perform so well for a few months they decided to save money and build their own. You guessed it... the one they built failed, after that they just went back to the old way, digging them out when they get stopped up. One more thing, as you probably know every drainage is different, so every leveler may need some modification to make it work. There is no magic bullet
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Re: Beaver Pond Levelers
[Re: Aix sponsa]
#6143081
01/31/18 08:25 AM
01/31/18 08:25 AM
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,785 Georgia
Kirk De
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,785
Georgia
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I have never seen one work down here for any period of time for what they cost and maintaining them. I have seen many designs. The internet is full of them.
Every one I saw, the owners praised for the first year or two, but that was it. They put no more. Most were on plantations. Every one I saw on a road never worked long and costs were much. With every new crew boss or road superintendent it seemed to be tried. Each one always new it was the way to go. It wasn,t their money.
It is like the environmental effect of a beaver as seen by most as beneficial. Follow a drainage with little fall from one end to the other. Pick one with no trapping allowed. Over time land that was usable for livestock timber, and cropping is reduced because of silting caused by the beaver. Use is then limited. By the time you realize what you lost, over a 20 year period, it is too late. It can,t be replaced or reversed, as before. You then try to explain but the book was written as an authority still exists and it has become a mainstream writing. After 20 years the student or new person that was in charge now learned for himself. It is then too late. He goes on but the book still exists encouraging another to make the same mistake. Few are sharp enough to listen in the beginning or research in detail.
Best thing to do is catch the beaver.
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Re: Beaver Pond Levelers
[Re: Aix sponsa]
#6145224
02/02/18 09:37 AM
02/02/18 09:37 AM
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 377 New York
Jim Comstock
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 377
New York
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Boco's short summary is spot on and Don has more experience with levelers than anyone I know of. I have seen many plugged or rotted systems of all types that worked for only for a short time because they were not maintained, repaired, cleaned. They require constant maintenance that usually gets forgotten by highway departments. They require a professionals to contract to stay with them. At one point I thought levelers might be counter to what we do as trappers, cutting into our business, but not so. Anywhere with a leveler is merely a breeding ground for beaver. In time the beaver may or may not leave, but they will be kicking out young to populate other areas that will no doubt cause problems elsewhere, so levelers are not an enemy of trappers by any stretch. I look at them as being a friend to what I do because it assures a constant supply of beaver. Boco mentioned washouts from beaver back in the woods that go unnoticed. We are in the mountains and that's just what happens. I get calls from one county to prophylactically remover beaver in back in places where dams are huge and washouts have occurred in the past. It's one thing to lose a dirt road, another to lose a town or county road like we did a few years ago that cost $200,000 to repair, but we actually lost the interstate about thirty miles from my home about 7 or 8 years ago, which must have cost millions to fix from a dam up on top of the mountain no one knew about. Those places need to be identified and beaver removed regularly as its just a question of time before an old dam rots and blows out.
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Re: Beaver Pond Levelers
[Re: Jim Comstock]
#6146124
02/03/18 02:30 AM
02/03/18 02:30 AM
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,191 Mt. Olive, IL
Ron Scheller
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,191
Mt. Olive, IL
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I have seen many plugged or rotted systems of all types that worked for only for a short time because they were not maintained, repaired, cleaned. They require constant maintenance that usually gets forgotten by highway departments. You mean THIS type of failure? Zero maintenance = epic fail.
Ron Scheller
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Re: Beaver Pond Levelers
[Re: Aix sponsa]
#6146455
02/03/18 01:05 PM
02/03/18 01:05 PM
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,522 james bay frontierOnt.
Boco
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,522
james bay frontierOnt.
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Need a back hoe to rip out that crap,only way to unplug that culvert now.
Last edited by Boco; 02/03/18 01:06 PM.
Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
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Re: Beaver Pond Levelers
[Re: Aix sponsa]
#6148054
02/04/18 09:01 PM
02/04/18 09:01 PM
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,522 james bay frontierOnt.
Boco
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,522
james bay frontierOnt.
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I seen those things in your picture so plugged up they had to be dynamited to get the water running. After 35 years of professional nuisance beaver removal,I have seen them all.Sometimes they work for a few years,then plugged to the teats.
Last edited by Boco; 02/04/18 09:08 PM.
Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
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Re: Beaver Pond Levelers
[Re: Aix sponsa]
#6148212
02/04/18 10:29 PM
02/04/18 10:29 PM
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,522 james bay frontierOnt.
Boco
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,522
james bay frontierOnt.
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I agree with you on the maintenance.Usually these devices are installed after a problem situation has been taken care of by removing beaver on the drainage.Then the devices are checked for a while with no damming taking place.Many times these are in semi remote locations,and if no beaver activity is taking place they are forgotten about-until the water is over the road a couple years later.Maintaining both the devices as a deterrent and the beaver populations at reduced levels both play a part.
Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
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Re: Beaver Pond Levelers
[Re: Boco]
#6148361
02/04/18 11:50 PM
02/04/18 11:50 PM
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Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 7,694 Virginia
52Carl
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 7,694
Virginia
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I seen those things in your picture so plugged up they had to be dynamited to get the water running. After 35 years of professional nuisance beaver removal,I have seen them all.Sometimes they work for a few years,then plugged to the teats. Did the ones you mention have the flexible pipe with the cage in deep water? None of them will work if they do not have that feature.
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Re: Beaver Pond Levelers
[Re: Aix sponsa]
#6148429
02/05/18 12:35 AM
02/05/18 12:35 AM
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 187 Mass.
Trapper Don
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 187
Mass.
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Yes.most have the Pipe included. When damming at Culver cage gets to pipe level, it kicks in and holds water level there. Beaver don't damage if water is not going over top of dam. They do keep the dam up. To.much detail for this. It takes a 45 minute power point for me to scratch the surface. Maybe next WCT.
Last edited by Trapper Don; 02/05/18 12:36 AM.
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Re: Beaver Pond Levelers
[Re: Trapper Don]
#6149366
02/05/18 09:25 PM
02/05/18 09:25 PM
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Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 7,694 Virginia
52Carl
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 7,694
Virginia
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Yes.most have the Pipe included. When damming at Culver cage gets to pipe level, it kicks in and holds water level there. Beaver don't damage if water is not going over top of dam. They do keep the dam up. To.much detail for this. It takes a 45 minute power point for me to scratch the surface. Maybe next WCT. If you are responding to my post about the pipe, my post was directed toward Boco in reference to the structures he had seen fail miserably.
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