Beaver Deceivers to Protect Deering Pond

by Kevin McKeon

On a recent warm November day, as part of its directives of preserving special places and maintaining critical habitats, Mousam Way Land Trust worked with the Sanford Trails Committee and a generous donor to complete a project along Sanford’s Rail Trail.

Spring time typically brings snow melt and spring rains, causing water runoff; with that, beaver get busy repairing and building up their dams to hold back, or impound, water for summer storage. This creates the habitat that the beaver need to survive. This activity has often resulted in the water at Deering Pond to rise to a level where overflow has caused erosion to wash out a section of Sanford’s Rail Trail.

In an effort to mitigate this costly issue, Skip Lisle was contracted this past summer to install a flow device of his own design, called a “Beaver Deceiver,” at the pond’s outlet, where culverts were installed years ago and where beaver have since been active in damming the culverts, greatly slowing the outlet flow and causing the erosion. This particular Beaver Deceiver installation will act to protect the culverts from becoming dammed, while also allowing the beaver to impound enough water for the pond to maintain its traditional healthy habitat. Concurrent with this install, the Rail Trail was re-engineered to a higher level at the area subject to erosion, and a secondary overflow culvert installed.

Realizing this new culvert would attract beaver damming activity, Skip returned months later and donated his time, his materials, and most importantly, his expertise in beaver knowledge, and installed another Beaver Deceiver to protect this new culvert. Working with volunteers from the Trust and Committee, Skip has helped to ensure that the Rail Trail remains intact for the community’s use, that the resident beaver population will continue their instinctive water-based activities, and that Deering Pond will be maintained at a biologically healthy level in support of the myriad of flora and fauna within the pond’s surrounding landscape.

Skip has solved beaver damming issues world-wide with his devices, which are site-specific and custom made for each site’s particular issues. He’s been doing this for decades, applying the knowledge gained over the years to allow beaver, a “keystone species” to build and maintain their valuable habitat while mitigating the damage that can be caused by uncontrolled water-level rises affecting human properties. Mousam Way Land Trust thanks Skip for sharing his expertise, hard work, and leadership in safeguarding the hundreds of beaver habitats his flow devices have enhanced.