A new addition to my brook

We've had some help with water harvesting this past year, and I thought I'd share some photos. I'm constantly amazed at the skill and sheer workforce that beavers provide. There are 2 lodges on my property, this is the work from the newest lodge. I think these might be the kids from the older lodge.

Talk about working with contour! The last photo is a viewpoint from standing in the middle of the dam.

I am so delighted for you!  In my opinion the beavers that are missing from the North American landscape are as dramatic an omission as the buffalo. I have one juvenile idiot making low trash dams in my notch cut ravines at the moment and it's my dream to have a vigorous colony turn them into a beaver lake system, so I am envious of all the activity in your photos.  Very nice!

Thanks Dan! This new volume of water flow and head development has created some possibilities. We have a ramjet pump built and will be installing it soon further downstream where the flow is still strong. An idea we are now investigating is building a 'beaver deceiver', to have some control over the flow through the dam. This is where I would like to explore a micro-hydro option at the base of the dam, while working with the flow of the deceiver and also regulating the water volume behind the dam. The water level is great now, but its a bit of a dance at the moment to find the right balance between 'just right' and 'too much flood'!. It's going to be a busy summer, but I've got inspiration of the beavers to help me out!

The wildlife input has been amazing since the dam build. Families of ducks have arrived and bred (brook was too shallow before), and aquatic life has gone berserk. The frog song in the evening is almost deafening now, alongside turtle and blue heron sitings. Also add the mudprints of deer, coyote, bear, and racoon.....all coming down to the canteen for a drink.

Howdy folks, I'm not online much but just wanted to show a couple of photos from our 2 year old beaver dam. We've installed a bat house, and the second photo is a Great Blue Heron.

It's truly remarkable what these water harvesters can do for us!

How does the level compare to last year? Have they built it higher?

Yup, they seem to quiet down activity in the summer, and then have really picked up again this fall. I would say a rough estimate would be about 12" increase in height since last year. The brook still breaches the dam after rain events, but generally it has harnessed a lot of water.

We have an older established beaver pond from approximately 2003 that is a masterpiece, photos below...satt. photo shows pond at bottom left. It is just over 4 acres in size. The drop below this dam is approx 20', from there theres a lovely pool with a secondary dam that flows into the brook. There are 2 colonies in this pond, and they are constantly adding/repairing the dam. They even use small white spruce trees to the shock of most local folks (they didn't believe me ..lol). The riparian and wildlife activity here is incredible, on a late spring morning the birdsong is borderline deafening. The white lillies are native species and showed up on their own.

This pond is about 600 meters from our homestead, the smaller one approx 200 metres downhill.