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Beaver Ponds On
The Boulder Mountain
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Although "Beaver Ponds On The Boulder Mountain" is the title of this page, it might as well be "The Beaver Ponds That Used To Be On The Boulder Mountain." For most of the twentieth century Boulder Mountain was known by western anglers as a remote area in southern Utah where they could go and explore countless beaver ponds and lakes in search of big cutthroat and brook trout. You would have to search far and wide and still be hard pressed to find a healthy active beaver pond [ beavers in residence] on this mountain in 2006. What once was a forest that held vast numbers of hidden ponds with solid well maintained dams and beaver lodges heaped with fresh cut logs has undergone a dramatic change. The forest is still the same for the most part. There has been a little clearcutting here, and a few controlled burns there through the years. There always seems to be a proposed timber sell in the works. All of the typical business of managing a forest occurs here on this section of the Dixie National Forest. This forest is in good shape. It has been managed well indeed. The bark beetles have not been so kind to other areas of the Dixie. We should be grateful that this area has not been ravaged by beetles yet.
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For the casual observer who drives along the east end of the Boulder Mountain on Scenic Byway 12 enroute to either Capitol Reef National Park or Bryce Canyon National Park, everything looks much as it did decades ago before the road from Grover to Boulder was paved. The new highway was a welcome change for locals and tourists alike. The "old timers" still living in Boulder and other neighboring communities on either side of the mountain recall when the mountain road was still very primitive. The beautiful highway we take for granted at times today was nothing more than a wagon track over sandstone, boulders, mud and deep snow drifts not so long ago. That wagon track evolved over time and became barely passible in four wheel drive vehicles as that type of transportation became available in the 1950's. Soon the road was improved to a semi graded dirt road, which would revert back to rugged wagon tracks almost overnight after a heavy downpour. Sudden storms are common in the mountains of southern Utah. Eventually the road was graveled and finally paved including scenic turnouts in 1984. It is easy to forget just how difficult it was to get to the lakes and beaver ponds on this mountain in those days.
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Getting to the old fishing spots is still very difficult since the spur roads that lead to many of these destinations or to the eventual trailheads reaching even further into the backcountry are as rough as as they ever were. The forest looks much the same as it did thirty years ago. The elk are still in the secluded meadows. Deer bounding across the trail are a common sight. The cattle are grazing all through the verdant aspen groves. Marmots scurry back and forth across the trail and sound their shrill alarm as you walk along the path near their burrows. The familiar sound of woodpeckers hammering on dead standing spruce fills the air. Your senses are alive as you near that familiar scene in front of you. Ahh...the meadow....you cross it, barely able to keep your pace to a walk...wondering. "Is there anyone else there?" There were no other vehicles at the trailhead. You have seen no other hikers coming in. You are nervous as you top the rise and peer into the tiny basin that hides the old beaver pond. It is marvelous! After all these years since you last laid eyes on it. The old pond looks the same as it did that day so long ago when you stopped as you were leaving and glanced back. You could not help but wonder even back then...."How long will this last?" "How long before the beaver are gone from this pond?" "Will I ever see it like this again?" So you hurry around the shoreline to your favorite place next to the old beaver lodge. You begin to perspire from the load you hauled up the steep trail. You commend yourself for not bringing the waders. You'll take your chances with the leaches!
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Your next question is answered even as you are rigging up. A rise! And then another, and another! That one was a big one. Your hands are fairly trembling as you struggle to tie on your tippet. You had planned to eat your lunch first. Oh well, it can wait. No need to wonder what they're taking. Speckle wing quill duns are everywhere on the surface. You tie on a size 14 Adams dry and dope it generously. Finally you start your first cast. Another rise, very close this time, and so you let the fly settle gently on the pond where you suspect he will rise next. Bingo! You have'nt been here for five minutes and look at that will ya! It has taken you nearly three hours to get here. Yet, five minutes into it and you have the biggest cutthroat you've seen anywhere in years in your net. It goes like this for the next three, one right after the other. Some of these cutts are over five pounds but your just guessing. The bigger trout use you up and either spit the fly or snap the tippet! You're not used to this. You have'nt caught cutthroat trout like these in years. Hell, you've never caught cutthroat like these. You have no trouble admitting this to yourself. You are high on the moment. Ecstatic, as you should be.! All is well you say. This is a great day for sure. But it's getting late. Your mind races as you prepare to go. You know it's time to head back down the trail to the truck. Your legs are feeling it now. Four miles uphill gets harder with time. Should you tell anyone about this? Do others know about this hidden beaver pond. Ofcourse they do. Someone showed you so long ago, you can't remember who it was. "You must have nailed twenty cutthroats today," you tell yourself. You're sure that you had at least ten in your net. Your memory cards are loaded with the proof. Both of them, the one in your digital camera, and the one in your head. You look back over your shoulder as you top the little hill above the pond. You stand there just as you did those twenty long years ago....Deja vu'. And then it hits you. Something was different as you stood here earlier in the day, looking down at the pond. You just did'nt see it then. But now it is clear. The beaver are gone. The pond is there, but the beaver are gone!
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Taking a closer look around, you discover that the familiar cuttings of the beaver are not strewn about as you might expect. There are no freshly felled trees along the edges of the pond. In fact, there are no recent additions to the beaver's lodge. All of the clues that would indicate the beaver has been hard at work maintaining the pond are not there. What has happened here? You notice that the dam itself shows no signs of damage or of recent work, no fresh mud and rocks patching the leaks. There are no new logs placed atop the dam. Yet the dam still holds the water back, keeping the pond reasonably full. You know that it is the nature of a beaver dam to leak like a sieve. After all, it is constructed of nothing more than cut logs, sticks, rocks and mud all bound tightly together in a haphazordly fashion. The leaks are constantly being attended to by the industrious beaver. He needs only keep ahead of what is leaking out verses what is flowing in for his domain to grow and his family to prosper. Just like the human endeavor in many ways, perhaps. In any case, this pond is still holding water...and big trout....for now atleast. You head down the trail, grateful that it is mostly downhill to your vehicle. It is a good time to eat your sandwich as you plod along, thinking about the fish that you caught and about the pond. You ask yourself again "How long can this last?"
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The answer to that question is complex. The very nature of a beaver pond is to not last, forever. A beaver pond is but a temporary vessel at best. Not like a natural lake that may have existed for thousands of years. More like a man made reservoir, with a time span. This time span cannot be predicted accurately for either man made or beaver made dams. They don't last forever though, that is certain. In the case of beaver dams, there are a few variables that bring on it's demise naturally. Siltation causes the pond to fill in with sediment over time. This will cause the pond to become shallow and allow grasses to encroach inward along it's shoreline. Other factors start to play a role in the life span of the pond. The beaver, constantly at work finding enough to eat as well as repairing his dam and sprucing up his living quarters is slowly eating himself out of house and home. A paradox created by nature. The beavers supply of building material, a mix of willows, spruce and aspen that surround the pond is being depleted by his efforts. Over time the beaver may cut back the available brush and trees until it is just too far to drag material to the pond. This and the building up of sediments spells the end for the beavers home and eventually they will move on, to start a new dam and build a new home. The process starts all over. But what about the old pond? It still holds water. Are there trout there? Big trout? Another complex answer.....
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Depending on the average depth of an old beaver pond, with deeper holes near the lodge and dam, trout can exist there for many years after the beaver have moved on. As long as the dam remains intact enough for the pond to retain water at a sufficient depth to overwinter trout, the beaver pond will continue to be an active fishery. Other variables need consideration, such as the particular type or species of trout in the pond. If the trout in the pond are Yellowstone cutthroat trout [Oncorhynchus clarki bouvieri] for example, which is the case in many beaver ponds on Boulder Mountain, then the pond may contain a small number of very large fish. Yellowstone cutthroat trout will not proliferate and overcrowd their environ here. Brook trout [Salvelinus fontinalis] on the other hand will usually proliferate to the point of overcrowding until ultimately stunting occurs. If this is the case, then the pond may contain vast numbers of very small fish. The delicate balancing act of managing small lakes and beaver ponds on the Boulder Mountain and elsewhere in Utah as fisheries lies in the hands of UDWR fisheries biologists. This is not an easy task by any means. Decisions on which lakes and ponds are showing signs of overcrowding by brook trout and in need of treatment are tough to make. These decisions are supposed to be made based on data collected from the field, such as gill netting and electro-shocking samples. Arguments over whether a particular lake or pond is currently overcrowded and therefore a candidate for treatment [rotenone] will continue to ensue between wildlife biologists and anglers.
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With fewer beaver ponds on Boulder Mountain as each season passes, management strategies for those ponds that remain as well as the rest of the small lakes and reservoirs need to consider the opinions of the anglers who fish there. Input from local anglers should be considered as valuable data as management strategies are developed. They [local anglers] are the ones that fish in these spots more than anyone. Their insight as to the condition of a particular fishery is often times much more accurate than gill netting and electo-shocking data. Witness accounts, digital images and even fish that are harvested from these locations is proof positive as to the condition and worthiness of a pond or lake as a viable fishery. Too many lakes and beaver ponds on this mountain have been condemmed and ultimately treated with rotenone based on data that may or may not have been collected in the field but rather....collected with a keyboard and a mouse! Either way, once an old beaver dam is blown up with dynamite, which is often the case during rotenone treatment there is no way to successfully rebuild and ultimately refill the pond. The beaver have moved on or have been extirpated. Therefore breaching the old dam by using dynamite to facilitate the rotenone treatment is a recipe for failure. Once the dam is breached by this drastic method, that's it, game over!
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Most anglers would agree, that their main objective when they travel a long distance to fish, and the Boulder Mountain is a considerable distance from most of the urban areas in Utah, is that they experience some quality time. Quality fishing time. What does that mean to most of us? Catching bigger fish more often than we would at fishing destinations closer to the urban sprawl. Having a chance to enjoy a small lake or beaver pond, however remote it might be, without having to put up with crowds of people and all of the litter found at most public fisheries these days. Maybe even harvesting a few fish and cooking them over the coals of a campfire. For many of us, this is how it was way back when. Back when you could still find a place like that. Those places still exist on the Boulder Mountain. However, the number of beaver ponds and small lakes still worthy of being described as "Quality Fisheries" is shrinking at an alarming rate. The beaver is nearly extinct on this mountain. Once they have been extirpated, they are not likely to return on their own. Then it is just a matter of time before all of these old ponds turn to meadows, which is the nature of a beaver pond in the first place.
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