The beavers are happy and so are the homeowners on Murdock and Francis Peninsula Road where flooding used to be a problem.
"They have been having issues with beavers in that area for a number of years," said Adrian Nelson, director of communications with the Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals. "Finally our name came up and we were asked to help with it because residents there were kind of at their wits' end."
The association was in Pender Harbour May 24 where volunteers installed a new pond leveller that allows water to flow through the beaver dam by way of a long 30 cm wide pipe that is covered with a wire cage at the opening.
"It's actually sunk down into the bottom of the lake and it extends into the lake about 40 feet [13 metres] or so. So what ends up happening is the beavers know their dam is leaking, but they don't realize that it's being caused from a pipe 40 feet out and the cage prevents them from plugging the opening," Nelson said.
Previously the area had been fitted with a similar contraption that Nelson said got plugged up over time without a wire cage protecting it.
He expects the new pond leveller to last at least 10 years and said the system took one day of work by about a dozen volunteers to install.
The cost of the project was around $800, but Nelson said most pond levellers cost in the range of $300 to $400 to install.
"This one was more expensive because of all the pipe we had to use," he said.
Nelson said his association is willing to help others install pond levellers if flooding by beavers is a problem in their neighbourhoods.
