I'm affraid You're out of luck fighting a beaver in a water war. I trapped beavers many years and you can't stop them You can only try and contain them. What's wrong with just letting the water go over the top of the beaver dam?
Beavers sense running water. They find it, and they stop it.
Having said that, here's what I would do. Put your intake as far upstream of the dam as possible. Use the intake screen that is used for a siphon drain (big surface area) and put it near the bottom of the pond. (it will stay clean) Run your drain pipe upwards out through the dam with the discharge at your desired water level. Water pressure will push the water out the end of the pipe and the beavers won't be able to get to it.
Hopefully, they won't sense the low flow associated at the inlet .
Good luck
Hey Waterdawg, I have been battling beavers in various watercourses/ponds for about 20 years and I agree there will always be more but I have to do my best to limit them not only from plugging my pipes but the crazy amount of tree damage they cause. I am in a pickle though because I do appreciate their damn maintenance efforts! (Well one of two dams... therein lies one of my problems... I want one dam in and one gone... they want four of them.) As for the water flowing over the dam, the main issue is the reduction in the integrity if the dam and also not having a good ability to manage the water level.
My big issue is that although the inlet for my micro-hydro diversion is underwater, double screened, 10 feet from the dam they are still plugging it. They just keep building up more and more material in that area until the block the flow.
That is an interesting suggestion about the pipes, basically a reverse of what I just finished doing... dang, I wish I had gotten online again before yesterday! It would remove th efreeze risk... and the outlet being blocked... only issue would be if they did plug the inlet. Hmmm... why do I feel like I am going to be getting cold/wet all over again.
