Draining the Ponds

After walking the property several times, there seemed to be three main ponds.  After going to Real Property and getting an aerial photo of the property I could see no less than 10 beaver dams.  I called the NYDEC and after a short wait got a one year permit to break dams and shoot the beaver.  Once that was done we were ready to play hydroengineer.  With my wife, Jess  and father-in-Law, Scott we started at the top dam and worked our way downstream using a shovel and a rebar hook to rip a hole in the dams.  In hindsight we probably should have started at the bottom and worked upstream as we kept flooding ourselves out, but it was good to see the water start moving.  Within minutes of breaking a dam we could see the level of the ponds go down.  There has been a lot of rain this spring so it is good for the water to have somewhere to go.  As of yet we have seen no sign of any beaver activity.  I think we got lucky and they already moved on.