Trout access through beaver dams

All hands, now hear this, now hear this.

I have a customer wanting to keep his beaver but wants the trout to have access to the breeding grounds.

Given the circumstances and lower water tables in recent years, the higher water is SUPER beneficial to the cottonwoods and other trees.

What devices have you used to allow water and trout to pass but also maintain a certain level of water?

That is all, carry on.

I haven't.

Fish ladders but you'll be fighting the beaver constantly.

No experience, but could you break the dam down deep and put a big enough pipe for the fish to swim through? I know someone talked about putting pipes at the bottoms of the dams to let water still flow and they said if you come out from the dam far enough the beavers won’t dam it up. Don’t know if the fish would go through a 20’ pipe or not

Putting a pipe in that will allow fish access will lower water level.

Goggle Clemson beaver leveler
You might need to modify it a little, and you can sell a maintenance contract.

Vinke what is experience with these devices? And others?

They are not a long term solution in my eyes. Lots of places around here they have used them, and within 2-3 years they are usually abandoned by the people who installed them and are supposed to maintain them.

They regular upkeep, including bringing in a backhoe to keep them set at the proper elevations. Beaver decide to dam around them, upstream of them, or downstream of them rendering them useless. When the beavers move out of the area, they are just trash in the river.

Flow through them is too fast to let nearly any fish species to pass.

Good Luck with this one. Anyone who has experience with and been around beaver (and their dams) knows what I mean........................................... the mike

Beaver dams never hold all the water here,There is always water spilling over and percolating thru.
Trout have no problem swimming thru beaver dams.
This country here is polluted with both trout and beaver.
The old feedbeds at beaver ponds are havens for smaller trout.They hide out there in the tangle from predators and feed on the bugs in the old beaver feedbed.
I always carry a small telescoping rod when I go to kill nuisance beaver in the summer.

Interesting

. Maybe trout fingerlings or fry but not too many 2 and 3 pounders can get through many beaver dams.

Canadian trout

I have installed 4. Two for Washington Sate University and 2 for DOT. All of them were on mitigation sites.
All of levers were engineered and installed to their specifications.
I did not perform the maintenance.
Very expensive to install because you do need equipment.
I do believe Boco is right that trout will go over a dam if there is water flow during their spawning period, I know salmon will and leap if it is a trickle.
Like wife said, if the beaver are allowed to remain, they will continue to construct dams up and down steam.

Agree

But that statement is just a wee bit different from trout have no problems swimming through beaver dams.

Thanks Vinke...good info

Beaver dam on a creek full of trout.
In fall otters drill holes in beaver dams that create ice tunnells in winter,trout will swim thru them-big trout-how do I know?i drop traps in those spots and have had a few nice meals of brook trout in november when they spawn.
Every creek with trout have lots of otter activity.
Its a bunch of BS that beaver are bad for trout.Up in this country anyway.

I've always heard how good for fish beaver are, by creating ponds, not how bad for fish they are. I know trout can go up over beaver dams without too much problem, if they want to. At least most dams, there could theoretically be some very tall dams with enough difference in water levels from one side of the dam to the other, and not enough water flowing in the spillways that they couldn't, but I think this situation would be rare.

Outside of dams by bachelor beaver, most dams would take a good jump to clear. Perhaps after a good rain the downstream side comes up enough for em the clear.

Beaver ponds and trout. I've caught 100s of brook trout In beaver ponds but never any browns or rainbows.
The WI DNR spends Millions of dollars each year on removing beaver and beaver dams on trout streams. I believe that browns and rainbows need flowing water that Is well oxygenated to survive In numbers.

WDFW stocks many lake with rainbow trout every year before the opening of the season. Most of the lake in my area have minimal outflow during the summer months.
It is not uncommon to catch large tripods, that are hold overs from year past.

We do get significant amounts of rain that oxygenate the water, but I believe it is water temperature that creates the habitat that rainbow need.

That's probably true. I know we have a lot of trout In the bigger rivers around here that hold trout In the cooler weather. But soon as summer rolls around those trout migrate up Into the smaller streams where the water Is a lot cooler.

But lakes are a whole lot different then those small beaver ponds that may only be 3' or 4' deep. In those deep water lakes you will have cooler water temps the deeper you go.

Interesting topic that I know nothing about but Beav how did rainbows and browns survive way back when there wasn't a DNR and beavers have been around forever just wandered what your take on this is now that you all got my interest.

Rainbows aren't native east of the of Rocky Mountains and browns are from europe.

So they are an invasive species that need wiped out.

Nobody has said that other than brookie fanatics.

Native brook trout are the holy grail for some here in the southern appalachians.

Other than browns and brookies, cutties and rainbows spawn in the spring and when they do, generally there is enough water flowing in the spring to let them get upstream. Depending on how big your water is and how big the damns are, they may bail back downstream when waters lower and warm up. I thought I remember you saying you were out east. Depending where, those trout move a lot chasing spawning grounds and cool water. Ive seen cutties jump 3’ water falls. Theyll do it if they need to.