Keep a dam low

Maintaining a lower dam height can mitigate impact by water level changes. It’s important to consider that the effectiveness of this measure may be low.

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Issues caused by damming may be resolved by maintaining a lower height of the beaver dam. Several attempts have been made to keep dams low using different techniques. One method involves hanging jerry cans on a wire or beam above the dam (Figure 1). This often works temporarily, but beavers usually ignore the jerry cans and continue building the dam higher. Another method uses electric fencing to keep the dam low (Figure 2). However, beavers tend to bypass or disable the fencing and keep raising the dam.

Jerrycans G. Schwab
Figure 1: Jerry cans used here to prevent a culvert from being blocked, but they can be hung in the same way above a (lowered) beaver dam. © G. Schwab
Shock wire in front of dam - G Schwab
Figure 2: Use of an electric fence in front of a dam. © G. Schwab