# Small Creeks, Beavers, Coho and Chum Salmon Too...



## Dave Hadden (Nov 3, 2015)

One of the things I've been involved with locally is a small salmon creek that is a tributary to the Campbell River called Haig-Brown's Kingfisher Creek, to differentiate it from the numerous other Kingfisher Creeks in the world. In 1998 and 1999 I was Secretary-Treasurer of the Haig-Brown Kingfisher Creek Society, a small group formed around 1982 with the hope of furthering Haig-Brown's idea of retrieving the creek from the culverts and ditches into which it had been allowed to degenerate and hopefully allow the small annual run of Coho salmon to survive. Coho are incredibly intrepid and will move up tiny creeks into areas you'd never think they could reach.
Eventually we were able to design and build nearly a kilometer of new creek channel which we linked up to the previously existing branch. The increased flow from two little watersheds worked wonders and we had really good returns from 1999 until 2005 or thereabouts when water scarcity problems arose and the run sizes tapered off. When the Fall rains come early enough we get Pink, Coho and Chum salmon all spawning in the creek, but rarely do they come early enough nowadays.
And then there's the Beavers.

In 2003 Beavers discovered the new stream with its two ponds and immediately dammed off the upper pond and built a lodge.
Couple of years later they dammed off the lower pond and built another lodge.
Then they moved their main dam about 200 ft. downstream.
All of this activity was on the East Branch, the newly created one and we let the Beavers hang around as the creek is ephemeral and it's the West Branch that has the Coho values and the flow that enhances the Chum spawning areas downstream.

This year we did a project on the West Branch that remedied a condition that had been inhibiting salmon passage as too much water was "leaking" from the main channel into the wetlands created by the Beaver dams on the East Branch, which meant there wasn't enough flow to get salmon up and above the one pond on the West Branch. The new channel directed all the water down to the pond and then down to the larger East Branch, through a big culvert and then through the Haig-Brown House property to the Campbell.

Naturally, the Beavers found this new project and immediately dammed off the outlet from the pond, almost drying up the very part we had worked to have an enhanced flow on.

The battle was joined.
Here's a few pics to illustrate.

This was after we'd taken a lot of sticks, mud and leaves from under and around this log they had wedged across the outlet of the pond. They had also started building a lodge.





The next morning as I approached the dam I was surprised to see this little Coho waiting below the now repaired dam.





And here's the repair the Beavers did in about 12 hours or so. Sorry it's blurry.





We took the dam down again and the Coho shot up through the pond and further upstream.

This morning we went back and the Beavers had repaired it again. It looked like we'd never been there.
You can see how they were building a lodge on the far bank.





But today we had the last laugh as Len brought along his trusty Stihl and bucked out the base log the little buggers had been using to anchor their dam. I'm looking forward to seeing how they deal with that.

In the meantime I've got spawning Chum and staging Coho in the lower part of the creek.

I hope this vid link works.





Lots of fun although I'm stiff and sore from bushwacking up and down the creek as well as hauling building debris away from the damsites every day this past week.

But I like it.


Take care.


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## Brushwacker (Nov 3, 2015)

You have some nice outdoors living there, bet you sleep good at night to ..


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## Dave Hadden (Nov 3, 2015)

I sleep like a baby.....as the old joke goes.

Anyway, last nite Len cut out the base log the Beavers had been building on and we managed to get a really good drain of their new wetland.
This is what it looked like at 4:30 PM or so yesterday, looking upstream towards the pond and the gap where the dam had been.
Note the rocks on the left, holding down some sacking to prevent erosion.





And here's how it looked at 8:35 AM this morning.
No base log to build on didn't seem to slow them down at all.
Note again the rocks on the left to see how much flow they hold back and why salmon can't get past their dam without some manipulation.
I guess if it turns out that God is a Beaver then I'm in big trouble, but I'm willing to take the chance.
I like salmon.





This shows the flow from above the dammed off pond after the dam is removed. Salmon can move in this volume much better than in the flow shown below the dam in the pic above.
This is why we take out the dams late afternoon as salmon like low lite conditions to move up, particularly in small creeks, and we hope they get past the dam(s) before Bucky and Beatrice affect their repairs.






Absolutely amazing what these little guys can do overnite, so it's an ongoing battle until the salmon are finished and they can have the creek back again in peace.

Except for the bear.




Take care.


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## timberjak (Nov 8, 2015)

Can u trap the beaver? Here in mn the beaver are a nuisance as well. You can build beaver proof culverts if you could get the materials up there. 

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## gary courtney (Nov 8, 2015)

Leave it to Beaver


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## Dave Hadden (Nov 8, 2015)

timberjak said:


> Can u trap the beaver? Here in mn the beaver are a nuisance as well. You can build beaver proof culverts if you could get the materials up there.
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk



They could be trapped out but we actually want them there for most of the year, just not damming off the main coho creek when fish are migrating upstream to spawn.
After the salmon have come and finished we leave the Beavers alone and the wetland expansion they create serves as great rearing habitat for the juvenile coho who spend a year in fresh water before going to sea.
This year we are having an unexpected return of chum salmon who have headed up the West Branch which is usually coho country.
I haven't seen any up there for 10 years or so.

We're really happy with how our efforts are paying off and as I type this I have a Bushnell trail camera set-up at the dam site as I'm hoping to see just how many are actually working away on replacing the dam overnite. I can't believe it's only one.

I must admit I have huge respect for what the little buggers can do in 12 or so hours, specially after working against them every day this past week and a half.

Thank goodness nobody ever showed them how to make and pour concrete. LOL




Take care.


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## timberjak (Nov 8, 2015)

You could let them build the dam and hold water. Just be in control of the water at the bottom of the dam where the fish run through the culverts. Or no flow when you want none. Then you would not need to pull the dam,just adjust the culvert openings. Seems like a great fish habitat your doing. I was thinking it's a lot of work tearing out the dam. 

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## Dave Hadden (Nov 9, 2015)

timberjak said:


> You could let them build the dam and hold water. Just be in control of the water at the bottom of the dam where the fish run through the culverts. Or no flow when you want none. Then you would not need to pull the dam,just adjust the culvert openings. Seems like a great fish habitat your doing. I was thinking it's a lot of work tearing out the dam.
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk



It's a bit of a chore for sure, but quick and expedient as the dams aren't that big.
Here's what we usually find in the morning.





And here's Len clearing out the final bits after removal.





I do find it interesting that the three main humans involved in this are 68, 70 and 79 years of age, and all retirees.

Hard to find younger guys who have the time to help out, or even care it seems, but that could be generational I suppose.

But I dig it and given I'm about as free as a person can be in our modern society, I do what I dig.

Sad morning today as I discovered one of two chum salmon that had been paired up and digging a redd yesterday dead, her body on a gravel bar.
From the tracks around it looked like a deer had spooked them in the night and the female grounded herself and didn't make it back to the creek.
The male was holding just a couple of feet from her while another pair were spawning but 15 feet above him. You can see him in this pic.





I nearly stepped on a salmon today that ran itself aground and I had to grab it and put it back in the creek.
Really small where they are.






Off to bed as I'm hot to see what pics might be on the camera tomorrow morning.


Take care.


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Jan 14, 2016)

*this is a super thread!* I really enjoyed reading about your salmon project, plans and activities. seeing your great pix made me feel for a moment...or two as if I was standing there along the stream's banks. and the conflict with the beavers, omg! I could hardly believe, as u have stated, the tenacity of the Coho in returning to their spawning locations... excellent fotos.

Thanks for sharing it! 

any more threads on it would interest me a lot...


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## bigbadbob (Jan 14, 2016)

Great work!!!
We had a beaver explosion at my cabin, small creek, dams every where and yes they rebuild over nite. This was causing flooding so everybody was pesistant and they finally beavers moved on. 
They we so bad they were falling fir trees and not taking them as they were running out of the stuff they like for their dams pesky critters and very detemined.
BBB


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Jan 14, 2016)

hello BBB - any more conservation projects up there you all are working on? any more salmon swimming pix? I never knew the beavers were so bizzy beaver like! but seeing is believing. interesting thread, for sure!


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## Dave Hadden (Jan 15, 2016)

Thanks for the interest. I'm away from home right now but will be back Saturday and will put together some more pics and finish off the story shortly thereafter.



Take care.


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## Buckshot00 (Jan 15, 2016)

Pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.


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## Dave Hadden (Jan 19, 2016)

Well, after nearly a dozen dam removals but only 11 replacements we won.
Here's the normal overnite repair affected by the little buggers.




And here's what we have to date, the way we had intended things to be.





This is what the Beavers walked away from and a bit of a look at how they operate.





Above shows their falling efforts. They always seem to use new material when repairing the dams after we removed them. Probably what wore them out in the end.





This shows the berm around the retention pond with the wetlands they created to the right and the pond to the left. Note the slot in the berm where they pulled their timber from the wetlands into the pond.

Bottom line is we got rid of them with no casualties known and salmon had clear access to their spawning grounds.

We'll see how things work out next year but so far I'm stoked with what happened although I would have liked to have seen more coho.
Ah well.......





Take care.


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Jan 19, 2016)

_


Dave Hadden said:



Well, after nearly a dozen dam removals but only 11 replacements we won.
Here's the normal overnite repair affected by the little buggers.
This shows the berm around the retention pond with the wetlands they created to the right and the pond to the left. Note the slot in the berm where they pulled their timber from the wetlands into the pond.

Bottom line is we got rid of them with no casualties known and salmon had clear access to their spawning grounds.

We'll see how things work out next year but so far I'm stoked with what happened although I would have liked to have seen more coho.
Ah well.......Take care.

Click to expand...

_
*great pix!* most interesting story of conservation, environmental, ecology, fishery n game event. as in many trees, many leaves... each leaf is unique. enjoyed the details u brought up about what was going on. wow, they sure have sharp teeth... be nice if my saw chains always stayed like that... lol


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