Beaver Sabotage Brings Tony Beets’ Operation to a Sudden Halt
In the midst of soaring gold prices, Tony Beets refuses to consider shutting down his wash plant. “I do not want to shut off the plant,” he growls. “Anytime you shut down, you lose loads of money.” But moments later, chaos erupts on the claim as water begins rushing everywhere.
While inspecting the settling ponds, a crew member suddenly spots the cause of the flooding: a beaver. “You see that beaver there in the water? That’s the culprit,” Tony says, frustrated. The crew moves to check the outlet area near the pond — and the problem becomes clear. Overnight, the beaver has plugged the culvert solid, blocking the critical water flow between the ponds.
The 13-acre Early Bird cut at Indian River sits beside two connected settling ponds. These ponds handle the dirty slurry water discharged from the wash plant — a massive 3,300 gallons per minute. But with the culvert blocked, the first pond can no longer drain into the second. It quickly fills to capacity, bursts its banks, and unleashes a flood straight into Tony’s only producing ground.
Realizing how serious the situation is, Tony calls in reinforcements.
“Cousin Mike, do you copy?”
“Go ahead.”
“Come over here with the excavator. The beaver plugged the culvert pretty bad.”
Mike arrives, climbing into the bucket to try clearing the blockage manually. But the stubborn beaver’s engineering proves impressive. “They’re smart, those things,” Tony mutters as Mike pokes at the debris. “He plugged it up pretty good.”
With water still spilling into the cut, Tony knows the current approach isn’t enough. “Hurry the hell up,” he shouts. “Get that water under control!” But even he admits it’s not going to work as long as water continues pouring through the broken pond.
The crew quickly switches tactics.
“To access and clear the culvert,” Tony explains, “we first need to stop the water.”
The new plan: block off the damaged culvert completely, redirect the flowing water, and finally expose the beaver’s handiwork so they can remove it for good.
As the excavator moves into position, the crew braces for a long fight — not just against rising water, but against one very determined beaver threatening Tony’s gold season.
