How to build a beaver deceiver

So why would you want to build a Beaver Deceiver.  Beavers build dams.  Dams make ponds.   This can result in the flooding of something you don't want flooded or can wash away of a piece of road if they dam up a culvert.  If you go the 'human way' and kill or remove the   beavers, you will have a life time job.   Do the job right and build a beaver deceiver and you have solved the problem  You can now benefit from all the myriad  benefits that beaver ponds create.

So how do you build a simple beaver deceiver when your only aim is to limit the level of  the water in a beaver pond (ie - not to protect a culvert).  You start by getting a piece of that black corrugated pipe of a suitable diameter (big enough to take care of the flow of the stream during the spring melt).  It must be long enough to go from the deepest part of the pond, usually found a couple of meters away from the dam and to extend a little beyond the dam.  To install it, you cut away a little of the top of the beaver dam and lay the pipe in this notch.  Pound a couple of wooden stakes into the top of the dam, one on either side of the pipe and connect them with a board or similar which rests on top of the pipe.  That night the beavers will repair the damage you have done.

Now as shown in the diagram above, you must build some sort of a cage for the inflow end of the pipe.  It should have a mesh lid on it an set so that the top of the cage is below the water level.  In fact it is best if it is below the level that ice or any other floating object will reach.  The wire mesh that is used to reinforce concrete slabs is a good choice and myself, I prefer a round design rather than the rectangular one shown.  Cut off the cross (horizontal) bars from the bottom of the mesh so that the cage can be pounded into the bottom of the pond.

So how about protecting a culvert.  Proceed as above but make sure that the pipe is long enough to extend into the culvert.  Construct a cage over the rest of the culvert.  One more thing and you are finished.  You are in danger of siphoning down the pond and you don't want that.  Beaver pond complexes are a great tourist attraction besides all the good that they do.  Take a hole saw on a battery drill and make a few holes on the top of the pipe where the pipe leaves the dam plus a couple more.  This will break the siphon.

Now get some mesh and tie or weld it into a cylinder.  Use more mesh to put a top on it.  cut away one or two layers of cross pieces on the  bottom of the cylinder so that the cylinder can be pounded in the mud.  Set this cylinder over the input end of the

Did climate change wipe out the mega-fauna

Around the time of the transition ~12,000 years ago between a world with continental glaciers as much as 3km deep, extending, in North America to below the USA-Canadian border, and our present more benign climate, mega-fauna disappeared from  the Americas.  So was this due to the change in the climate as we left, what is popularly called and Ice Age to our present warmer climate.  First we have to establish some terms and a little background.

Over the past 2.75m (million) years, the world has gone through about 40 cycles of Continental glaciers and warmer periods like now.  During the first half of this period, the cycles were about 41k (thousand) years while over the past half of this two and three quarter million year period, cycles have been about 100k years.  The exact timelines are hard to establish on the land, because each period when kilometer thick glaciers moved across the landscape, they wiped out the record of previous glacial an interglacial periods.

All is not lost, though.  And Ice itself is one path to documenting past fluctuations.  The Antarctic has been glaciated for at least 34m years and the ice is built up in layers which are much like tree rings.  Generally (not always) one layer is laid down per year.  Glaciation has fluctuated but there is a reliable, continuous record over at least the previous 4 cycles.  The record goes back pretty reliably for 800k (thousand) years.  In addition there are ocean bottom sediments and a peculiar meteor crater in Northern Siberia called El'Gy'Gytgyn that has a sediment record over 3.6m years.  

Something interesting that has been observed from these records is that for the first half of this 2.75m year period of alterations between icy and less icy times, the cycle length has been about 41k years while for the second half of this period, the cycle is closer to 100k years.  Incidentally, the previous warm period goes by various names but the one that many 'westerners' use is the Eemian interglacial period.  The one we are in now is called the Holocene Interglacial Period.

The popular literature and even some scientists call the most recent glaciated period an Ice Age.  I have no objection to this term (not much!!!) but if we use it to describe the recent glaciated period then we have to find a new name for the 2.75m year period during which we have had the many alternations between warm and cold periods.  

So for the rest of this diatribe, I am going to call the last 2.75m years an Ice Age and will call glaciated periods Glacial Periods and the warmer interglacial periods, Interglacial Periods.  At present we are in the so called Holocene Interglacial Period and as mentioned the previous one was the Eemian Interglacial period.

Now we come to two problems if we want to hypothesize that the transition from the recent Glaciated period to the present Holocene Interglacial period caused the demise of the immensely varied mega-fauna of the Americas.  

I think everyone would agree that, based on our present knowledge of how long it takes to create a new species, that all this megafauna didn't evolve over the past 100k years.  In other words, the ancestors of the elephant types, Camel types, Giant ground sloths, Giant beavers, Equinine species and so forth existed at the start of the 2.75m Ice age that we are still in and undoubtedly evolved special adaptations to glaciation over the 2.75m year ice age.

The critical point is that they didn't go extinct, either during the slide from a warm period into a cold period or vice versa.  And there were at least 40 such cycles.  So why would we think that the change in the climate, which happened many times before caused their demise this time.  In addition, the record from the previous 4 cycles, for which we have the best information, were very similar to the most recent one.  A great treatment of the past handful of glacial cycles is found in the book Plows Plagues and Petroleum by Ruddiman

The second problem is the evidence from other continents.  The incredibly varied population of mega-Marsupials and Monotremes in Australia went extinct about  50k years ago, around the time that man arrived in Australia.  The amazingly varied mega-fauna of the Americas disappeared around 12k years ago, just as the first people spread through the Americas and the mega fauna, consisting of giant ground living birds, plus a giant eagle and many species of 'dickie birds' disappeared 700 years ago just as the first people arrived in New Zealand.

The only conclusion that seems reasonable to me is that in every case, the first people who arrived in a new land multiplied and ate their way through all the megafauna.  There are at least three reasons that this conclusion is hard to accept by many people.  

One is our difficulty in accepting exponential growth.  It is hard to grasp how fast a small starter population of people can multiply in an environment when all those edible animals are completely unwary of people.  

The second reason is PC (political correctness).  We have got so used to maintaining the legend that the first people, whether from the Americas, from Australia or from New Zealand are great ecologists and couldn't possibly be responsible for the demise of the mega fauna of their home range. 

 The third reason is hubris.  For some reason we see ourselves as more intelligent than our distant ancestors when this is pretty clearly not the case.  They just applied their intelligence to different problems.  We can't imagine that they were capable of killing such huge animals.  If you have this bias, just look at how the pigmies in the jungles kill jungle elephants or how the bushmen of the Kalahari, kill Kudu.

This leaves a contrary problem.  How did the mega-fauna of Africa survive until Europeans arrived in the continent.  After all this is where man evolve.  The only explanation I can think of is that the animals evolved a fear of man as man became more and more able to kill them and to kill them at a distance (first spears, then throwing sticks (atiatl) and then bows and arrows) not to forget a sling for throwing stones.  Animals would have learned that when the strange two legged animals were around, they kept getting hit by heavy and pointy objects. 

Perhaps, as we Europeans apologize for the wrongs we did to their ancestors, we should ask for an apology for the destruction of the mega-fauna at the hands of their ancestors.

Benefits from Beavers

                                                    Benefits From Beavers

It is clear why people feel a certain amount of angst regarding beavers.  A rising pond can threaten infrastructure.  If they dam a culvert under a road, a piece of the road can be washed away.  If they dam a stream that runs beside a dwelling, the rising water could flood the house or cabin.  If they build a house beside an orchard, your fruit trees can be felled.  But with a little thought, one can install a cheap, easily constructed 'beaver deceiver' which protects the road or dwelling.  And a little wire mesh around the trunk of a tree will protect it.  If you keep trying to destroy a dam  or kill the beavers, you will have a lifetime job as new beavers move in and start damming all over again.  Spend a little time and thought and do it right and do it once.  A well designed beaver deceiver will last for decades and allow you  to enjoy the myriad benefits that beavers bring.  Better still, you only have to do it once.  So what are these benefits.  They are profound and long lasting.

Beavers don't generally just build one dam.  They have their main pond where their lodge and food-store is located, but they tend to build lesser dams up and downstream from the main pond.  And because the surface of a water table intersects a stream at its surface, depending on the individual situation, a beaver dam stores far more water in the surrounding land than is in the pond(s).  

Beavers control floods.  When an extreme rain event occurs, the series of dams and the surrounding water table not only store water but also slow down the water.  This all contributes to reducing the flood peak and hence, reducing down stream damage.  If you have a village that is periodically flooded, you really do want beavers in every stream of your catchment.  

Beavers supply water in the summer.  Beaver dams are always a bit leaky and as their water goes down, water from the surrounding water table leaks into the stream.  Water leaks through the surrounding land on either side of the dam into the next lower stream.  This ensures that streams that once went dry each summer, keeps flowing all year round.  A good example happened in 1948 in Vancouver, Canada.

Beavers recharge water tables.  In fact, close to a beaver pond the water table is raised.  Once the water is underground it is protected from evaporation and as it seeps through the ground, it is purified.  Another way that water is provided for the summer when streams often have less flow.

In the winter of 47-48 there was an extremely heavy snow pack  in the catchment of the Frazer River.  Melting didn't start until very late and then the melt came hard and fast.  The lower mainland; the Frazer River delta, where lots of farming occurred, was flooded even up to the second floor of some houses. The only creek that didn't contribute to this flood was Meldrum Creek which is located across the river from Williams Lake.  More than a decade earlier, Eric Collier (Three Against the Wilderness)  had introduced two pair of beaver to the area and they had multiplied and populated the catchment of Meldrum Creek.  Incidentally the ranchers further down slope from Eric's operation were delighted because they now had stock water all summer.

Beavers create great fire breaks.  Not only are their ponds good fire breaks, themselves, but they clear the trees over a few tens of meters on either side of their pond.  Now if a fire starts somewhere between two tributaries, it is likely that only that area will burn rather than the whole countryside.  Animal that are in the burning section have a refuge in the ponds and in the unburnt area across the stream and in the fulness of time, the burnt area will go through a regenerative succession of plants, creating ecologies that don't exist under close-canopy.  Fire now enriches and stabilizes the environment rather than destroying it.

Beavers diversify the environment  The areas that the beavers clear of trees on either side of their ponds, now get light right down to the ground which also diversifies the ecology of the area from what used to be only forest.  Forage, which was hard to find is now readily available.

Beaver ponds  are ideal nurseries for fish.  Much of the water is too deep for wading birds and there are lots of hiding places in the submerged parts of beaver dams, beaver lodges, and beaver food stores for small fish to avoid larger fish.  And when most species of salmon spawn, they die and their bodies drift downstream.  If there are beaver ponds, this rich source of nutrients is caught and incorporated into the pond and even upslope as grazers feed along pond edges and poop upslope.  What a great reversal from the general flow of nutrients from the land to the oceans.  This enrichment of the pond also feeds their fry who swim downsteam from the redds to the ponds and later to the sea.  Have a look at an Article titled Rivers Are Life, in the Fall 2026 River Issue on Page 27.

Beaver ponds purify the water flowing through them.  Their effect of settling out silt and floating twigs, leaves, branches and logs is obvious but they also remove nitrates, phosphates and other 'ates' that are dissolved in the water.  The water in a beaver pond is aerobic and under aerobic conditions, a variety of mucro-organisms can use cellulose for energy.  More than half of the dry weight of leaves, twigs and branches is cellulose and a beaver pond is full of them.  but the micro-organisms need all the 'ates' to build their bodies.  They take them from the water (along with aquatic vegetation which does likewise).  And of course these two paths of primary production provide food for an extensive food web both in the pond and in the surrounding land.

Beavers protect culverts and bridges.  There is an irony for you.  We only concentrate on the damming of culverts by beavers which is a problem which is easily fixed.  Beavers protect culverts by remove floating trash including logs from the water which each spring tends to be flushed down streams and rivers.  This actually protects culverts under roads.  In the fulness of time, the floating debris becomes water logged and sinks.  Note that if a beaver deceiver is installed to protect a culvert, which beavers otherwise could dam up overnight, the beaver deceiver takes water from the bottom of the pond, where there is no floating debris or ice.  Read Building Besides Rivers by Benoit Turcotte from the Fall 2026 Edition of The River Issue of Yukon.

Beavers greatly enrich and stabilize the local ecology.  Just read Eric's book (mentioned above) to see the difference that the introduction of beavers into the Meldrum Creek catchment made.

Beavers greatly reduce mosquitoes and biting and non biting midges.  Three types of Arctic fish that feed on mosquito larvae are Arctic Greyling, small trout and native minnows.  Mosquitoes look for quiet water to lay their eggs and  any pond that doesen't have a populations of something that eats mosquito larvae turns into a mosquito beeding farm.  The quiet water of a beaver pond is ideal for mosquitoes to lay their eggs.  But when they hatch out, as long as the beaver ponds have been there for a while and have any or all of the above mentioned fish, a mosquito larvae does not have a chance.  In addition, beaver ponds breed dragon flies which swoop over open water, hoovering up flying insects.  Likewise swallows. 

Beavers attract tourism.    This is especially so if along a walk there are explanations of all the good that beavers do and how to mitigate any harm they may do using beaver deceivers.  One could even install a beaver deceiver in one of their minor ponds just to demonstrate the principle along with a plaque showing a diagram and explaining the system.  One of the above points could be put on each plaque as people walk the path along a beaver dam complex giving them time to think and discuss.  Canadians really do need to be educated about their national animal.

  Beavers produce rich bottom land.  A beaver pond will fill with sediment and organic material and the beavers may exhaust the supply of nearby trees.    (Incidentally, they also eat a large variety of aquatic plants including water lilies and  skunk cabbage).  The dams then begin to leak and the beaver ponds become a stepped series of beaver meadows and in the fullness of time trees once more start to grow on the banks and where the ponds used to be.  Another family of beavers will move in and another layer is added.  Over time, this creates the rich,deep 'bottom land' that you read about in western novels.

The problem with our relations with beavers is that the damage they can do is short term and in our face while the benefits are long term and profound and humans are not so good at 'long term'.  Just look at our relationship with what we are doing to our environment and our climate.  It is up to us that do do 'long term' to try to spread the word to those that do not.

                                                   Suggested reading list

Three Against the Wilderness by Eric Collier  (of course)

King Fish by David Montgomery (and all his other books.  They are eye opening, especially Growing a Revolution)

Pilgrims of the Wild and The Adventures of Sajo and  Her Beaver People, both by Grey Owl (AS Belaney - If you can find them.  Both from 1935.  Would be well worth reprinting)

Beavers: Boreal Ecosystem Engineers by Carol A Johnston (far too expensive to buy.  I think there may be a kindle edition available)

Building Beside Rivers from p28 of the fall 2026 issue of  Yukon by Benoit Turcotte.  

Maasa

 When the Europeans got to America in 1492, they discovered that the local people had developed many new vegetables from the local plants.  While in Europe, the farmers had developed the brassica family (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli etc), the Americans had concentrated on the Solanaceae family (Tomatoes, potatoes, Capsicums, egg plants and hot peppers) and from a scrubby little plant called Teosinte, (tea-o-sin-tay) they developed Corn.  Explorers took these back to Europe and Corn was a big hit.  When you plant grain crops like wheat, Rye, Barley and so forth, If all goes well, one seed gives you, typically, 25 seeds back.  Corn on the other hand gives you about 250 seeds per seed planted.  In addition it gives you large amounts of foliage that you can feed as-is to ruminants or make silage, also for feeding herbivores.

Corn (called maize in the UK) is a C4 plant while the members of the wheat family are C3 plants.  In C3 plants, Oxygen and Carbon dioxide compete with each other, in the chemical process of photosynthesis, limiting production.  C4 plants have somehow 'worked out' a system to diminish this competition and so fix far more Carbon from the atmosphere than C3 plants. (another notable C4 plant is sugar cane).  The explorers (or exploiters, if you like) brought back the plant but not the technology.  Corn seemed to be the ideal food to feed your workers but those that ate it to the exclusion of other crops, became sick.  Their skin roughened, they got diarrhea, dementia and died.  They had what we now call Pellagra which is a Niacin deficiency disease 

Sad, since Corn is actually rich in niacin but it is in a chemically bound up form which is not available to the human digestive system.  The Niacin is easily released and the Americans indigenous people had discovered how to do this.  They boiled the corn first in an alkaline solution.  They used wood ash which, once wetted, is rich in Potassium hydroxide. The precursor of niacin is tryptophan and the nixtamalization process releases this substance and the body turns it into Naicin.   At home we use Slaked lime which is Calcium hydroxide, also a strong base.  Just a quick diversion to describe how to treat corn for home use.

 

Nixtamalizatation

Take however many cups of corn kernels* you want to treat and weigh them.  Weigh out 2% as much Calcium Hydroxide.  Mix the corn and the lime (Calcium hydroxide) with lots of water in a large pot.  The corn is going to absorb a lot of water and expand.  

* Note we are not talking about the corn from corn on the cobb, which once dried is shriveled up but corn that has full rounded seeds when dry.  Flint corn is great for this. 

 

Do it in the morning and leave it to soak until the afternoon.  If necessary, add more water.  When cooked, the corn is going to expand even more and use up more water.  In the afternoon, boil the corn and lime mixture with occasional stirring to bring the lime up from the bottom of the pot.  Boil for at least half an hour or better still bring to a boil and simmer for one hour.  Add more water if necessary.  Stir, put on the lid and let it soak  overnight.

 

In the morning, rinse thoroughly until the water is clear and a much of the sloughed outer coat has been removed.  The outer skin of the corn will have sloughed off and the kernels will be a lovely yellow. Run the corn through your meat grinder with the finest holes you have. Package in plastic bags and freeze.  We find that 300g per package is a useful amount.  Now you can add a package to your bread, waffles, Pizza base, and best of all to a pot of Chilliconcarne that you want to thicken once  the beans have been cooked to tenderness.  

 

Why I say best of all is because the amino acids missing in corn are found in beans and vice versa.  Corn and beans together are a balanced protein but to be absorbed by the body, both must be eaten at the same time. A great meal for a vegetarian but you don't have to be a vegie to love a good pot of Chilli.

 

Masa is also made into tortillas and other favorite Mexican delicacies.  In some stores you can buy flour made from Masa.  It is called masa harina and is not the same as corn starch or corn flour.  These later have not been nixtamalized.  Note that another benefit of the process of nixtamalization is that phytotoxins have been removed, especially Aflatoxins.  Aflatoxins are highly carcinogenic compounds produced by a range of  molds.  They tend to contaminate seed crops, especially in warm, moist environments.

 

Anyway, I don't think the technology ever was used in Europe.  After all, what could a bunch of uneducated, pagan natives know.  Another example of  idiotic hubris. 

Increasing my electricity bill

To my power company

CC to government

 

You have seen fit to increase the cost of electricity to my  family when my former contract ended.  This is a scurrilous abuse of the privilege you have been given as a supplier of electricity in New Zealand.  Why do I say this. There are a number of reasons.

1.  Much of the electricity that we use in New Zealand is generated by our extensive hydro-electric dams (57%).  They were built sufficiently long ago that their capital costs should have been totally paid off.  Now all the cost is for running and maintenance.  The water you use belongs to the people of New Zealand.

 

2.  Another large portion of our electricity is from geo-thermal (20%), meaning that a total of three quarters of our electricity is generated without having to purchase any fuel. Our first geothermal plant was commissioned 68 years ago so the capital costs of that plant should have been long since paid for.  Another plant was commissioned 2 years ago.  The thermal resources of New Zealand belong to the people of New Zealand.

 

3.  We have been installing wind and solar power for some time now.  Both are, by far, the least expensive way of generating power today.  The wind over New Zealand belongs to the people of New Zealand and just as is the case with water and geothermal resources, you have been granted the privilege of being able to use them. Again, no fuel needed.

 

4.  The electricity from wind and solar, including the amount that is sent to you from private dwellings, is generated closer to end users, reducing, or at least delaying the need for you to invest in high voltage power transmission lines.  As wind and solar installations increase, both private and commercial, this tendency will continue and increase.

 

5.  As we, the people, install more and more solar panels and batteries, excess electricity is being sent to you at a discount, for you to sell at the full retail price.  This costs you nothing in capital costs.  We are bearing the investment costs and you reap part of the benefits. If you install your own mega batteries, you can purchase cheap and sell at a profit.

6. Up to the late 1980s, power generation and transmission was a government function.  The whole system was built and financed by the people of New Zealand.  Starting in the late 80's a misguided government agreed to privatization.  Now you generate revenue which has to be shared with share-holders instead of it being passed back to the exchequer and hence to the people. I would have thought that this would impose on you and the other power generation and transmission companies a duty of care to give the best prices possible to Kiwis and not just think of your share holders. Virtually all the fuel you use (water wind and sunshine) are free.   I think you have got the balance wrong. 

 

7.  With the electrification of our country in the form of, induction cook tops instead of gas, Heat pumps instead of burning fuel, and the uptake of EVs instead of ICE cars, your sales are  steadily increasing.  Your prospects for the future is a continuing of this trend, with some of the capital costs of generation being born by us as we install solar panels on our roves.  Your business is booming.

 

8.  As you find the need for more generation you now have the option of wind, solar and mega batteries.  These options are quick to install compared to hydro, geothermal, nuclear and pumped storage and all generate electricity with lower costs than any of the pre-renewable options.

 

At the core of the problem is the cockamamy system of pricing electricity.  In the  bidding that occurs every half hour, if the first and major bidder gives a quote for each mWh of electricity they will supply, that is not what they receive.  All bidders get the price of the most expensive bid.  Giving all the bidders the rate of the last and most expensive bidder  (often for gas generated electricity) is just dumb and makes a mockery of the bidding system.  I have heard that there are some disadvantages of paying what was bid, but I am far from understanding why.  This system must be reformed.

If you 'get with the program' and install wind, solar and mega batteries, there soon should be no need for a gas back up.  Is this possibly a reason for dragging your feet on installing such equipment.  With gas out of the picture, and even using the silly bidding system we now have, the highest price electricity might be what a mega battery can provide.  Batteries will be the 'peaker plant'.

By the way, the Hornsdale experiment showed that besides the cost benefit, mega batteries stabilized the voltage and frequency of the grid.  Electronic equipment, which we all have in ever increasing amounts in our houses, do not respond well to spikes and drops in voltage.  

Lets get on with the transition and stop charging us ever increasing costs for our electricity.  Costs should be steadily decreasing in our present technical climate.