Conservation Corner: July 29, 2002

Managing Beaver Ponds For Waterfowl
by James L. Cummins

The beaver served as a source of income and food for early settlers to America. Eventually, heavy trapping and hunting led to the near extinction of beaver. During the 1930s, at the direction of the Mississippi Legislature, the Mississippi Game and Fish Commission began restoration of beaver populations. Although the beaver can be an extreme nuisance and can cause tremendous timber damage, if managed properly, the impoundments created by beaver can be very valuable for waterfowl and other wildlife.

According to Kris Godwin, Wildlife Services' State Director for Mississippi, "In cooperation with Wildlife Mississippi, we assist landowners who want to enhance beaver impoundments for waterfowl and other wetland wildlife. We are able to construct and install a beneficial water control device called the Clemson Beaver Pond Leveler."

The Clemson Beaver Pond Leveler was developed to meet two goals. The first goal was to suppress the problem of flooding agricultural and timber lands. The second goal was to maintain or improve some of the benefits derived from beaver ponds while preventing extensive flood damage. "The leveler does not negate the need for control of beaver populations where problems are both extensive and severe; however, it should reduce this need. The leveler offers the opportunity to get along with, and in some cases, derive benefits from the existence of a small population of beavers," continued Godwin.

According to Rob Ballinger, Field Biologist with the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation, "The pond leveler intake device is designed to minimize the probability that current flow can be detected by beavers, therefore minimizing dam construction. Devices tested during the past several years have shown that beavers were unable to detect a submerged intake device at the source for pond water loss. The intake device should be installed so that it is always below water even when the pond level is at a minimum."

A second stimulus that causes beavers to build dams and fill culverts and standpipes is the sound of falling water. When the outlet end of the leveler assemblage can be below water on the downstream side of a beaver dam, problems should not develop. At test sites where standpipes have been used and water flows out in a fountain-like fashion, beavers have made no attempt to stop the flow of water. Standpipes regulate water levels in ponds and are essential where periodic drawdown and reflooding is desirable.

"The Clemson Beaver Pond Leveler should help reduce flooding, manipulate pond levels, solve road culvert plugging problems and prevent filling of standpipes and culverts used as water control structures in fish ponds. However, the leveler is not a panacea for eliminating all beaver problems," stated the Wildlife Mississippi biologist.

For information concerning the Clemson Pond Leveler, contact Kris Godwin, at (662) 325-3014 or Bo Sloan, District Supervisor with Wildlife Services at (662) 686-3157 or Rob Ballinger, Field Biologist with Wildlife Mississippi at (662) 686-3375 or Randy Browning, joint Field Biologist with Wildlife Mississippi and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at (601) 264-6010.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi.