Last year we had to redo how the lake overflow works. In order to keep the lake from getting too full and submerging the dock, the people who built it installed a system to cause excess water to be diverted into a stream that feeds our wetland conservation area (we have about 33 acres in a conservation easement).
The way it worked is there is an intake in the deepest part of the lake, and it flowed under the dam, through a valve, and into a tall six-inch PVC pipe.
Well, after 20 years the metal holding up the pipe rusted through, and the pipe fell. We figured this out when the lake started looking really low, even though we had plenty of rain (unlike this year).
Luckily the 20+ year old valve worked and we were able to stop the lake from draining completely, but then came the challenge of repairing the overflow.
We got a lot of quotes but they were all more than ten thousand dollars if we wanted to restore the old system.
Instead, we ended up putting in a long 12-inch overflow pipe, and the intake is simply a concrete box.
We added a metal cage on top of it to keep out large debris and it worked just fine at half the price.
Until the beavers found it.
Beavers don’t like the sound of running water, so they keep piling mud and sticks around the drain to stop it from flowing, which, of course, causes the lake level to rise. At the moment we’re in a battle where we remove the mud and other debris and a few nights later they come back and build it all again.
Now in the state of North Carolina, land owners are free to shoot beavers on their property, but I had a friend named David Martin who was really big into wetlands conservation and very pro-beaver, and I could never bring myself to do it. The closest I will come is shooting them with a trail camera:
I’ve been trying to get a decent video for some time, but the camera would always mess up (either not recording or not being in frame). I finally figured out it was a bad SD card. When I replaced it, it started working fine.
Now that I’m unemployed I will have time to work on beaver mitigation strategies (usually involving pipes and fencing). Let’s see who wins.