El Dorado Hills gets a flow control device.

Click the stopwatch at 10 AM with a beaver dam and a flooding problem.

Click it a second time at 5 PM, with a flow control device in place and the flooding problem solved. It really can happen that fast.

Here’s some background.

The California foothills have been a hotspot of beaver problems for a while now. The chart below is a look at California depredation permits by county, from 2015.

El Dorado doesn’t look so bad next to Placer and Sacramento Counties, but it’s got similar geography and the population density is skyrocketing.

So hats off to the unincorporated census-designated place of El Dorado Hills for being ahead of the curve and employing coexistence strategies before things get contentious. This was a classic win-win multi-stakeholder process, and a real joy to be part of.

USFWS granted money to the American River Conservancy, who paid for OAEC and Swift Water Design to survey the site and determine if a device was suitable. The El Dorado Hills Community Services District and Creekside Greens took a brave step and stepped back from lethal management and agreed to the installation. Then USWFS worked out all the permitting, everybody convened at the site, and we installed the device.

By the end of the day, the water level was right where it needed to be, and it’s stayed there since.

There’s more to come shortly…