Phillips 66 pond leveler is IN!

This was a great install. I couldn’t have asked for better. Acknowledgements first—hat tip, Heidi at Worth a Dam for fielding the call and handing it along. Michelle at P66, you’re a saint for wading through all the paperwork (a YEAR of steady effort!?). Sherri Guzzi of Sierra Wildlife Coalition, you made my plans sparkle. Geoff at Monk and Associates, thanks for your support, without which this just wouldn’t have happened. Farley, your monitoring and assistance kept the Western Pond Turtle and Red-legged frog population happy. And to the crew at P66 as a whole, thanks for not taking the easy way out and killing the beavers—you swam against the tide and did the right thing. Proud.

For this one, I did things a little differently and it worked out well. Site constraints were significant—the beavers had built their dam downstream of a hardened ford/box culvert assembly that had exactly one parking space within 50 yards, and everything was fenced along the road. The road was an on/off ramp to Hwy 40, and had sporadic but steady traffic, so we couldn’t block a lane for long. The site was a bit brushy and steep near the creek and could have made assembly a hassle. So I just built the cage at home on the driveway, then threw it in the truck and hauled it down along with the pipe. Saved about an hour of on-site time, and made the build a snap. Once there, I dragged the whole mess off the road, threw it over the fence and got started. All the photos that follow are courtesy of Michelle Rogers and Phillipps 66, except the beaver chew and lodge which are mine: