Frisco stormwater crew combats beaver dam buildup with ‘beaver deceiver’
Published: Sun, 08/28/22
Frisco stormwater crew combats beaver dam buildup with ‘beaver deceiver’
By Grant Johnson |
Updated
A pond leveler allows water to flow through the beaver dam. (Courtesy city of Frisco)
Frisco Stormwater Manager Perry Harts said the city gets at least one call a month to remove beaver dams that cause water to collect in unwanted areas. After city officials remove the debris, they know if it was caused by a beaver if the debris “just magically reappears, ” Harts said.
This was the case with the buildup in Cottonwood Creek. Crews led by Supervisor Brandon Smith with assistance from the city’s Natural Resources group researched and decided to build a pond leveler, which is a device that allows water to continue to flow and prevents a beaver from damming up the creek.
After watching a video, Smith and his team recreated the leveler with materials, such as piping, that they already had in-house for about $50.
“The water flows through the pipe,” Smith said. “We built a structure that would protect the end of the pipe from being clogged [and prevent] debris being built up by beavers.”
The team removed the dam and in January installed the pond leveler, nicknamed “the beaver deceiver,” in the creek. The goal of the device is to help people coexist with wildlife, Harts said.
“Beavers play a role in our ecosystem, they just cause a problem when their ecosystem meets the manmade world, like trails and things like that,” Harts said. “We think the pond leveler is much less harmful to the beavers than picking them up in metal cages and taking them somewhere.”
By Grant Johnson
Grant joined Community Impact Newspaper as an editorial intern in May 2022. Grant studies Television and Digital Media Production at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. Grant is pursuing minors in journalism and atmospheric science. Grant is a Prosper native and graduated in 2021 from Rock Hill High School, where he was a part of the school newspaper and broadcast program. In 2021, Grant was named the Texas High School Journalist of the Year and National High School Journalist of the Year Runner-Up.