Abstract
On June 8 1994, a beaver dam on Rocky Creek, a small stream in central Alberta, failed and released about 7500 m3 of water. The estimated peak of the resulting flood wave was 15 m3 s−1, which is 3.5 times the maximum discharge recorded for the creek over 23 years. The flood wave destroyed five hydrometric stations, scoured some channel reaches, and deposited sediment in others. Large trees and debris from old beaver dams were carried downstream and deposited in piles across the channel and adjacent banks. The flood wave peak was dampened to 6% of the estimated upstream flood peak as it passed through a 90ha wetland characterized by both organic and mineral soils, sedge meadow and willow, and containing a small lake and several beaver ponds. Although the peak flow resulting from the dam outburst was extreme, the volume, most of which was probabl detained in the wetland, was not. The volume amounted to only 7% of the combined basin runoff from precipitation and the beaver dam outburst. This extreme event showed that beaver activity can greatly affect the hydrology of small streams and demonstrated the importance of taking wetland storage into account when conducting hydrologic studies on watersheds that contain sizeable areas of wetlands.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literature Cited
Alberta Environmental Protection. 1994. Natural regions and subregions of Alberta: summary. Alberta Environmental Protection, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Atmospheric Environment Service. 1982a. Canadian climate normals (1951–1980). Vol. 2. Temperature. Environment Canada, Downsview, Ontario, Canada.
Atmospheric Environment Service. 1982b. Canadian climate normals (1951–1980). Vol. 3 Precipitation. Environment Canada, Downsview, Ontario, Canada.
Barnes, H. H. 1967. Roughness characteristics of natural channels. U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, DC, USA. Water-Suppy Paper 1849.
Bay, R. G. 1969. Runoff from small peatland watersheds. Journal of Hydrology 9:90–102.
Boelter, D. H. and E. S. Verry. 1977. Peatland and water in the northern Lake States. USDA Forest Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station. St. Paul, MN, USA. General Technical Report NC-31.
Butler, D. R. 1989. The failure of beavers dams and resulting outburst flooding: a geomorphic hazard of the southeastern Piedmont. The Geographical Bulletin 31:29–38.
Butler, D. R. 1995. Zoogeomorphology: Animals as Geomorphic Agents. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, USA.
Buttle, J. M. and K. Sami. 1992. Testing the groundwater ridging hypothesis of streamflow generation during snowmelt in a forested catchment. Journal of Hydrology 135:53–72.
Chow, V. T. 1959. Open-channel Hydraulics. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, NY, USA.
Costa, J. E. 1985. Floods from dam failures. U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO, USA. Open-File Report 85-560.
D’Eon, R. G., R. Lapointe, N. Bosnick, J. C. Davies, B. MacLean, W. R. Watt, and R. G. Wilson. 1995. The beaver handbook: a guide to understanding and coping with beaver activity. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Northeast Science & Technology, FG-006, Timmins, Ontario, Canada.
Gerla, P. J. 1992. The relationship of water-table changes to the capillary fringe, evapotranspiration, and precipitation in intermittent wetlands. Wetlands 12:91–98.
Gibson, J. J., T. W. D. Edwards, and T. D. Prowse. 1993. Runoff generation in a High Boreal wetland in northern Canada. Nordic Hydrology 24:213–224.
Gordon, N. D., T. A. McMahon, and B. L. Finlayson. 1992. Stream Hydrology: An Introduction for Ecologists. John Wiley and Sons Ltd., Chichester, England.
Guertin, D. P., P. K. Barten, and K. N. Brooks. 1987. The Peatland Hydrologic Impact Model: development and testing. Nordic Hydrology 18:79–100.
Holocek, G. 1988. Storage-effective drainage (SED) runoff model. Journal of Hydrology 98:295–314.
Johnston, C. A. 1994. Ecological engineering of wetlands by beavers. p. 379–384.In W. J. Mitsch (ed.) Global Wetlands: Old World and New. Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Kondolf, G. M., G. F. Cada, M. J. Sale, and T. Felando. 1991. Distribution and stability of potential salmonid spawning gravels in steep boulder-bed streams of the eastern Sierra Nevada. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 120:177–186.
Marston, R. A. 1994. River entrenchment in small mountain valleys of the western USA: influence of beaver, grazing and clearcut logging. Revue de Geographie de Lyon 69:11–15.
Martz, L. W. 1978. The sediment yield of Spring Creek watershed. Department of Geography, University of Alberta and Alberta Environment Research Secretariat. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Report 1978/3.
Medin, D. E. and K. E. Torquemada. 1988. Beaver in western North America: an annotated bibliography, 1966 to 1986. USDA Forest Service Intermountain Research Station, Ogden, UT, USA. General Technical Report INT-242.
Naiman, R. J., J. M. Melillo, and J. E. Hobbie. 1986. Ecosystem alteration of boreal forest streams by beaver (Castor canadensis). Ecology 67:1254–1269.
Naiman, R. J., C. A. Johnston, and J. C. Kelley. 1988. Alteration of North American streams by beaver. BioScience 38:753–762.
Olson, R. and W. A. Hubert. 1994. Beaver: water resources and riparian habitat manager. University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA.
Parker, M., F. J. Wood, Jr., B. H. Smith, and R. G. Elder. 1985. Erosional downcutting in lower order riparian ecosystems: have historical changes been caused by removal of beaver? p. 35–38.In R. R. Johnson, C. D. Ziebell, D. R. Patton, P. F. Flolliott, and R. H. Hamre (eds.) Riparian Ecosystems and Their Management: Reconciling Conflicting Uses. Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, USDA Forest Service. Fort Collins, CO, USA. General Technical Report RM-120.
Reid, D. G., S. M. Herrero, and T. E. Code. 1988. River otters as agents of water loss from beaver ponds. Journal of Mammalogy 69:100–107.
Rutherford, W. H. 1953. Effects of a summer flash flood upon a beaver population. Journal of Mammalogy 34:261–262.
Stock, J. D. and I. J. Schlosser. 1991. Short-term effects of a catastrophic beaver dam collapse on a stream fish community. Environmental Biology of Fishes 31:123–129.
Taylor, C. H. and D. C. Pierson. 1985. The effect of a small wetland on runoff response during spring snowmelt. Atmosphere-Ocean 23:137–154.
Townsend, J. E. 1963. Beaver ecology in western Montana with special reference to movements. Journal of Mammalogy 34:459–479.
UNESCO. 1975. Hydrology of marsh-ridden areas. Proceedings of the Minsk Symposium, June 1972. The International Association of Hydrological Sciences and The UNESCO Press, Paris, France.
Verry, E. S. 1996. Hydrological processes of natural, northern forested wetlands. p. 163–188.In C. C. Trettin, M. E. Jurgensen, D. F. Grigal, M. R. Gale, and J. Jeglum (eds.) Northern Forested Wetlands: Ecology and Management. CRC Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL, USA.
Waddington, J. M., N. T. Roulet, and A. R. Hill. 1993. Runoff mechanisms in a forested groundwater discharge wetland. Journal of Hydrology 147:37–60.
Woo, M. K. and J. Valverde. 1981. Summer streamflow and water level in a midlatitude forested swamp. Forest Science 27:177–189.
Woo, M. K. and J. M. Waddington, 1990. Effects of beaver dams on subarctic wetland hydrology. Arctic 43:223–230.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hillman, G.R. Flood wave attenuation by a wetland following a beaver dam failure on a second order boreal stream. Wetlands 18, 21–34 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03161439
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03161439