Oakland University is taking an unusual approach to flood control to protect a campus trail without displacing beavers with Michigan's first "Beaver Deceiver."
Here's what to know
After a pair of beavers moved into Galloway Creek in 2023 and built a dam beneath a footbridge, flooding developed along a campus trail, according to USA Today.
On August 12, to manage flooding without removing wildlife, the university installed the state's premier "Beaver Deceiver," or pond levelers—a device that lets water move past a beaver dam without disturbing the animals.
Instead of allowing the stream to back up and spill over its banks, the setup uses a tube resting in the water on both sides of the dam to carry water through the structure. Metal cages protect both ends of the tube, helping prevent beavers from chewing it and making the sound of rushing water harder for them to detect. Because beavers are instinctively driven to block the sound of flowing water, keeping that noise farther from the dam is key to making the device work.
The Clinton River Watershed Council's news release said, "The beavers are not bothered by the device and are free to continue making dams without causing problems for their human neighbors."
More background
Centuries of trapping and trading nearly wiped out beavers, and industrialization and habitat loss have further reduced their range across Michigan. Oakland University also said that Michigan lawmakers gradually came to favor free-flowing streams, leading to policies that encouraged lethal beaver removal.
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What's being done?
USA Today reported that Oakland University worked on the project with multiple state agencies, and that the installation was completed under a permit from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.
While beaver ponds can draw a wide range of wildlife, they can also cause trouble for human infrastructure if water levels get too high.
Project Beaver, an Oregon-based nonprofit, said those ponds can sometimes be "too much of a good thing."
"Similar to the overflow drain in your bathtub, a pond leveler hides the leak in the middle of the beaver pond where they don't think to look for it, while capping the water level at an acceptable maximum height that does not damage human infrastructure," Project Beaver said.
Where can I learn more?
Oakland University's pond leveler works with beavers instead of against them. In other places, beavers are reshaping wetlands, lowering flood risk, and creating habitat — even as nearby communities adjust to the changes their dams can bring.
• In Devon, reintroduced beavers transformed wetlands and helped buffer both floods and drought.
• In west London, beavers built a wetland near McDonald's and helped hold back floods.
• In Scotland, beaver dams trapped pollution as communities searched for sustainable water solutions.
• Across rewilding networks, beaver bombing revived ecosystems where waterways had long been degraded.
• Researchers found beavers boosted bat habitat, underscoring the species' broader ecological value.
Oakland University's project fits into a growing effort to protect infrastructure without giving up the ecological benefits beavers provide.
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