How best to dam a creek?????

[Jstpssng]

That is the million dollar idea! Figure out how to train beavers to make their dams exactly where we want them!!

Dr Doolittle, I presume?

 

[pmsmechanic]

That's what we plan to do some day out on our property. There's a county ditch that we cannot mess with constantly flowing. But we can dig a pond off to the side of it and connect with a channel. Would have to put some sort of screen in the channel to keep the fishies in/out.

Actually I was thinking that if the pond had inflow it would also have outflow which would keep the water fresh.

 

[Jstpssng]

That is the million dollar idea! Figure out how to train beavers to make their dams exactly where we want them!!

100 years ago, this family did just what you suggest.

Three Against the Wilderness

Timeless tales about wilderness living. Eric Collier's…

www.goodreads.com

 

[paulsharvey]

So, once again, I did Not read all pages; so forgive me.
Only approaching this as a how to do it, not a should, or are you allowed

Look at how a flood irrigation set-up is built. You have a flood gate controlled by a chain, over the upstream side of an 18" piece of pipe; set the pipe at the invert of the creek, backfill and compact, and grass. This is all assuming we are dealing with a max of maybe 3 ft of head. Once you go above that, we move into proper dam, with more concerns, but you can have a 3ft deep watering hole/pond/swimming area, with pretty low effort.

 

[paulsharvey]

So, I back tracked and read down 35 out of 66 posts, and kinda regret it....

I did a very quick Google search, and found 18" flood gates for anywhere from $200 to $1500 for proper gate value types. Some have a weir style, where when they over top the gate, they are free to flow, some look like a exhaust flap on a peice of equipment. Now, there is a hazard to letting 5 or 6 ft of head build up.

So, if we walk through this; we add a good base of 18" of clay/gravel, and compact that we'll, we then put a 8 ft long section of 18" HDPE pipe on top and back fill, and compact. We then install the flood gate; we have an gate open depth of 18", very manageable. We close the gate, we build upto 36". If you are not there daily, I would look for a weir style, just incase you get heavy flooding while not Around. As a safety feature, we can install a 8" pipe at about 4 ft elevation, or better yet, we build our 'dam' 5 ft high, Except in the a spillway area, we leave it down at 4ft, and lay soil cement bags over the spill way (quikcrete from Home Depot is fine, leave it in bag and lay over the spillway). This acts as an armor for our spillway to prevent erosion, But also acts to so degree as disapator blocks, slowing water to some degree, also slowing erosion.

 

[paulsharvey]

The same thing as a weir really, you could use the cheapest of the cheap, and about 24" behind the gate, you could cut the top off the pipe, so that if water builds up padt your desired height, it would simply dump into our pipe through the hole in the top. It might seem ghetto, but it will work. Maybe screw a expanded metal grate over to keep debris out. Assuming you have the equipment and the backfill material; you can get this done for less than $1000 in pipe and one of the cheaper gates, and still buy 20 bags of quickcrete to act as soil cement bags.

 

[Yander]

Yes. I even informed the Coast Guard and FBI.

I'm concerned if the SS finds out they will stop the whole thing. Oh wait, it appears to be on a slope, never mind.

 

[Yander]

Our neighbor put a damb in our creek using just a bunch of flat rocks stacked. It stayed for years and years until they left and I think the next person that bought his house tore it down.

We did use it as a very nice swimming hole as a kid. Our cousins still talk about picking leaches off from that hole.

 

[CalG]

Our neighbor put a damb in our creek using just a bunch of flat rocks stacked. It stayed for years and years until they left and I think the next person that bought his house tore it down.

We did use it as a very nice swimming hole as a kid. Our cousins still talk about picking leaches off from that hole.

Leeches are the reality!

 

[mikester]

Import a Beaver

Around here this is the only solution - you can't get permission to dam a watercourse and you aren't allowed to "interfere" with the wildlife if they move in...

 

[Hay Dude]

Around here this is the only solution - you can't get permission to dam a watercourse and you aren't allowed to "interfere" with the wildlife if they move in...

We got all this “WOTUS” BS to keep in mind.
Anything bigger than a mud puddle could come under gubmit jurisdiction.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Around here this is the only solution - you can't get permission to dam a watercourse and you aren't allowed to "interfere" with the wildlife if they move in...

Just import a few beaver. You'll have a dam & pond in no time!

I know someone who actually did this.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

How can you get them to build where you want and without cutting down trees you don't want cut?
Maybe I'll order this and do it myself.

 

[Jstpssng]

How can you get them to build where you want and without cutting down trees you don't want cut?
Maybe I'll order this and do it myself.View attachment 882957

We'll need pictures.
Wasn't that a Stihl commercial?

 

[deezler]

Ok, mythical imported beavers aside, who here has ACTUALLY constructed a dam?

Sounds like basically no one, lotta dreamers (like myself) and folks who inherited one that was already constructed. We need some DIY examples

 

[japody]

Import a Beaver

Isn't that the truth?

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I built a dam for a small pond years ago with a friend who has an excavator. We put in pvc pipe with a Y so water flowed out as we worked. We packed clay, compacted it as we went and used sacks of pellitized Bentonite (stop leak) at base. When all finished with overflow at Y then capped it off to stop flow.
It's been working perfectly, 5 years ago.
This one I want flow over top of dam...a 9ft waterfall. I want it nice without spending a fortune.
Thanks all the help so far.

 

[paulsharvey]

Ok, mythical imported beavers aside, who here has ACTUALLY constructed a dam?

Sounds like basically no one, lotta dreamers (like myself) and folks who inherited one that was already constructed. We need some DIY examples

So, on a small scale; yes; we have constructed sandbag dams for pump around of wet ditch systems. It is not a 1 to 1 comparison however. Upto about 36" of water head, we really aren't dealing with much more than a large ditch block with a overflow control. Once we go much over 36"; we start getting into another area.

Water is heavy. If we have a 25 ft x 25 ft area, 3 ft deep; we have almost 1900 cubic feet of water/around 15000 gallons. That is smaller than many semi permanent above ground pools. We probably are looking at around 130,000 lbs worth of water, which is a good bit; but we arent in Engineered structure territory.

 

[paulsharvey]

I believe our OP stated the area is approx 8 ft lower than surrounding grades. I would want to keep my dam down at least 24" from that point. Dont want a major storm event to flow around the dam, and scour it from 4 sides. We might be just fine placing our gated control structure at 36"? That would allow for a max depth with a closed gate at 54". That's plenty for swimming, watering animals, sitting by and drinking beer, whatever. I just wouldn't try to get this Dam upto pasture grade by any means without a Lot more than I'm talking about.

With a 36" invert, and a 54" max depth; we can still have another 24" of good compacted coverage over our pipe and be at 78". Now; I might have my spillway at say 66", but I would offset that spillway from my pipe location. Even with the soil cement bags, I wouldn't want to risk erosion right on top of my pipe.

 

[NoTrespassing]

Back when I first moved on the my property we dammed a small creek and created a pond. We have clay soil so it's pretty easy. A hi-hoe and a sheepsfoot roller was all that was needed.