NYCkayaker Meter Reader Deceiver Re: What's up in the Bronx?

[William]

Now wouldn't THAT be nice thing to have? 
Laughed reading your story Ralph. 
Thanks for taking the time writing it! 
Will of Teaneck 
 

--- ralph diaz <ralphdiaz at optonline.net> wrote:

> Beavers have been the bane of my existence for most
> of the last year in a running battle I have been
> having with them.  The problem is a small culvert
> under the long access driveway to my home up here
> near New Paltz.  Beavers see a culvert as a hole in
> a perfectly good dam and quickly move to block it
> with an amazing amount of natural (wood, rocks, mud)
> and manmade materials (toy footballs and small
> plastic objects).
> 
> For the longest time I would regularly have to dig
> out their stuffing materials.   Putting a screen
> across the culvert opening would mean they would
> just pile the stuff against it enough to block the
> flow of water.   But it was easier to clear away
> every few days.  Then I discovered something on the
> Internet called a beaver deceiver, basically a long
> mesh tube about the diameter of the culvert attached
> to the mouth of the culvert and running out about 10
> feet upstream.   I improvised one with a roll of
> mesh fencing.   Beavers are drawn to the sound of
> running water and frantically seek to block it. 
> They work on the part of the beaver deceiver closest
> to the culvet opening where the rushing water sound
> is loudest as it reverberates in the culvert walls. 
> But beavers don't see that the other end of the
> beaver deceiver is providing a channel for water to
> get through to the culvert.
> 
> This greatly reduced the need to clear away beaver
> daming material to just ever few weeks.  At this
> point, the beavers and I now have a working truce:
> they don't block more than the first half or so of
> the beaver deceiver and I don't clear away what they
> have done. 
> 
> Unfortunately the beavers have meanwhile been
> knocking down fairly large trees in neighboring 
> upstream properties.  Those landowners have arranged
> for a trapper to take care of them.   Too bad for
> the beavers and for me.  The ritual blocking by them
> and deblocking by me has been an interesting natural
> past time and part of the living in the country
> experience.   It makes Manhattan feel very far away.
>  Hmmm, maybe now that beavers have been spotted in
> The Bronx things may change for you down there. :-)
> 
> ralph diaz
> >
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