tearing down dams

[Born2late]

Question for guys in snohomish county area. my wife talked to a guy in snohomish that has a terrible beaver problem and he wants me to come in and take out as many as possible. He said the county told him he is not aloud to tearout any dams on his property.Any one ever hear of the county saying that? Is there any liabilty to the county if it backs up so bad and the blows out the dam and damage or kills someone down stream?Thoughts on how to advise him?

[Wetwoodshunter]

Beaver habitat above their dams is like the #1 best rearing coho habitat. I bet if its within a tributary of the Snohomish watershed that is fish passable that's where that would play in.

My $.02, the Snohomish is under escapement threshold s for coho due primarily to loss/modification of habitat.

[Humptulips]

T3chnicallyy you do need a hydraulic permit to work in the water. For sure if you are using heavy equipment to remove a dam. I have never heard of anyone getting in trouble for hand removing a dam but it is possible.
As a coincidence today I spoke with a fellow that was having problems with beavers and had applied and received a hydraulic permit to remove a beaver dam in Thurston County.
I should think it would be a pretty tough case to win against the county for liability. Not a lawyer but I imagine the expense to pursue such a case would be prohibitive compared to possible damages collected.
Might be a good chance to see if his County Commissioner could help.

[Born2late]

thanks for the input.i will pass that on to him

[Trapper John]

Be careful ..................
 
You are responsible for any and all damage downstream. 
If the water kicks out someones road or driveway, you are responsible for the damage.
If the water behind the dams have heavy metals in them and they go down stream and kills fish ..... yep your responsible !

Let me tell you a story.
I was contacted with a company that had access to the land and needed to drain this pond so they could get their machinery in there.
I trapped a pile of beaver out of this fairly large pond one day. 
I was there when a guy with a backhoe pulled a tire out that was in front of the culvert pipe.
The water rushed out of there so quick that the guys Boss said: "Put that tire back in there now" 
Well once that tire came out there was no way it was going back in.
The water ran out and took out two driveways a mile away.
The company had to replace both driveway culverts and fix the two roads going into their property.
Cost to the company was just shy of $15,000.00

I have taken out a lot of beaver dams in my Business over thirty years.  There is a proper way of doing it.
Look into how it is down and be careful.  Both for your safety and others including fish and wildlife.

I Highly Recommend two things and that is first make sure you are a license business and second have some Insurance (at lest one $ million ) if you plan on doing this kind of work.
JC 

[Badhabit]

Did the beavers have a permit to alter the stream flow? If the county won't let you restore the stream flow and you have put them on notice of the altered stream flow they can be liable for not doing an environmental impact study.

[Born2late]

i would just be trapping the beavers.
 My intention in asking this is if what you stated is true john. What if he does nothing because they wont allow him to and we get massive rain for weeks. The dam blows out and destroys stuff down stream or injures someone. i would think the county would have some responsibility for not allowing a home owner to maintain it to keep it flowing safely.Or the county should take the responsibility maintaining it.
Didn't something like this happen a year or two ago in duvall and damage some houses downstream?

[TheHunt]

bad idea.  Our cost of living would go even higher.  Washington and Oregon get most of our electricity from hydroelectric generators via the dams.  It is the cheapest power.  We even sell it to California.  This would be a bad idea if they were taken down.  Just my opinion.

[Mark Brenckle]

bad idea.  Our cost of living would go even higher.  Washington and Oregon get most of our electricity from hydroelectric generators via the dams.  It is the cheapest power.  We even sell it to California.  This would be a bad idea if they were taken down.  Just my opinion.

    did you have a couple beers watching the game?

[Born2late]

now thats funny

[Boss .300 winmag]

bad idea.  Our cost of living would go even higher.  Washington and Oregon get most of our electricity from hydroelectric generators via the dams.  It is the cheapest power.  We even sell it to California.  This would be a bad idea if they were taken down.  Just my opinion.

    did you have a couple beers watching the game?

Better yet, I didn’t know beavers were making concrete hydroelectric dams these days.🤣

[TheHunt]

It is true...  Where does Washington get it's electricity from?  Please tell me it is nuclear or coal.  :-)   Oh, it is firewood fueling a steam power!!  hehehe
What if there is no cheap energy for Washington?  Local products would increase in cost and thus would increase your cost of living.  Oh, your electrical bill would also increase because we need to generate electricity from some place.  Oh, we get them from those cooling towers near Elma.  :-) 

[Boss .300 winmag]

bad idea.  Our cost of living would go even higher.  Washington and Oregon get most of our electricity from hydroelectric generators via the dams.  It is the cheapest power.  We even sell it to California.  This would be a bad idea if they were taken down.  Just my opinion.

    did you have a couple beers watching the game?

Better yet, I didn’t know beavers were making concrete hydroelectric dams these days.🤣

Or he ate some 420 edibles someone left laying around the house.🤔

[Pinetar]

This post just went sideways in a super funny way. I needed that laugh

[Trapper John]

i would just be trapping the beavers.
 My intention in asking this is if what you stated is true john. What if he does nothing because they wont allow him to and we get massive rain for weeks. The dam blows out and destroys stuff down stream or injures someone. i would think the county would have some responsibility for not allowing a home owner to maintain it to keep it flowing safely.Or the county should take the responsibility maintaining it.
Didn't something like this happen a year or two ago in duvall and damage some houses downstream?

Yep, the county would be on the hook.
Just go trap um out of there.  Leave the dams
JC 

bad idea.  Our cost of living would go even higher.  Washington and Oregon get most of our electricity from hydroelectric generators via the dams.  It is the cheapest power.  We even sell it to California.  This would be a bad idea if they were taken down.  Just my opinion.

    did you have a couple beers watching the game?

Did you have a couple of beers watching the game or did you smoke something 

    
Now thta's funny

[JakeLand]

That’s dam funny !!! I needed that after the sounders got whooped on
In all seriousness trap the beaver out then advise the home owner to slowly dismantle the dam that way it slowly lowers

[Cougartail]

When the beavers are gone the dams wash away by themselves. Seen it many times.

[Humptulips]

This post just went sideways in a super funny way. I needed that laugh

I wondered why it jumped to two pages so quick.