Beaver Library

The two primary categories of beaver flow device solutions are pond levelers and culvert protection systems. The following combination of design fundamentals, best management practices, and site-specific criteria form a set of standards for making, installing, monitoring, and maintaining both culvert protection systems and pond levelers as beaver coexistence solutions. This document is intended to empower the landowners, organizations, municipalities, and wildlife professionals who are interested in finding solutions to ongoing conflicts between human infrastructure and beaver habitat while still retaining the beavers and their benefits. If you would like to install a pond leveler or culvert protection system, use these standards to guide your planning, design, installation, monitoring, and maintenance. If you don’t have the capacity to implement these BMPs, there are an increasing number of trained professionals who can assist in your project. To coordinate your installation with the applicable regulatory agencies, adhere to the state-specific, stepwise permitting process outlined in the document appendices

The purpose of this research was to assess whether there is an integrated approach to providing both turtle passage and beaver exclusion from drainage culverts on highways managed by the Ministry of Transportation.

This paper describes the social and ecological context for current beaver problems, how WFCDs function, gives installation and maintenance tips, and presents results of two surveys that assessed the effectiveness of WFCDs in alleviating beaver flooding problems in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The Beaver Patrol (in Juneau, Alaska) developed a culvert protector that allows in-stream movement of larger fish, turtles, and other animals, while preventing beavers from placing larger wood into culverts.

A study of 482 flow devices by Beaver Solutions LLC in Massachusetts demonstrated that flow devices are the Best Management Practices for beaver dam flooding problems. Published by the Assoc. of MA Wetland Scientists, 2005.

This guidebook provides a practical synthesis of the best available science for using beaver to improve ecosystem functions. The overall goal is to provide an accessible, useful resource for those involved in using beaver to restore streams, floodplains, wetlands, and riparian ecosystems.

Describes alternatives to control undesirable flooding caused by beavers at wetland restoration projects

A review of “The Best Management Practices: Long Term Solutions to Beaver Dam Flooding 2010”, an instructional DVD for flow devices

WBUR article following Mike Callahan and Beaver Solutions installing a flow device in Millis, MA

A detailed description on how to install a flow device.

Snohomish pond leveler design.

Effects of pond levelers on salmon migration in beaver pond complexes.

An analysis from the Pacific Northwest on the relative costs and benefits of flow devices.

This review article traced the origin of non-lethal tools used to reduce beaver flooding as far back as the early 20th century.

The focus of this publication is to provide basic information on beaver ecology, damage, and management.

A comprehensive compilation of information related to beavers and their management with an emphasis on stream restoration.

A collection of self-help information and videos for landowners experiencing a beaver conflict.

This landmark 20 year study compares traditional lethal beaver control versus nonlethal management methods in the town of Billerica, MA. A total of 55 beaver conflict sites were studied. Sites that were managed with nonlethal control methods cost taxpayers significantly less than sites that were managed with beaver removal, and provided millions of dollars of ecological services to the town annually that would have been lost with beaver removal.

Educational article on building a Clemson Pond Leveler

A 2003 landmark study of flow device success rates at 277 beaver-human conflict sites in Massachusetts.