The beaver pond along the Rio Grande Village Nature Trail is a well known, yet hard to find park attraction. The pond can be found by walking less than 100 feet down the Rio Grande Village Nature Trail, beginning adjacent to campsite #18 in the campground. A boardwalk crosses the pond, and a bench is located for a convenient place to stop and watch wildlife. The water trapped by the beaver dam provides food and habitat for all manner of wildlife.

Come at sit for a while, to see what you find there!

When the pond broke-December 2006
On the night of December 12, 2006 the pond drained due to a below-surface breech of the beaver dam. The park's wildlife biologist checked the area firsthand and noted that the beavers were still in the area and working to repair the leak. The water is normally about 24" deep and the mud is of variable depths depending on location. Near the dam the water is quite deep due to the beaver excavations for dam construction.

The exposed muddy flats are covered with numerous tracks of wading birds, nutria, and many different sized turtles. The pond has drained naturally in the past and was repaired by our resident beavers-hopefully this time will be no different as they will continue to maintain this valuable wetlands area.

Water was apparently leaking from below water level and moving through the lower portion of the dam. This could be where organic matter (reeds, sticks, etc) were incorporated in the dam and have now rotted out, creating a void passage and allowing the leak to occur. Another less likely cause could be a hole created by a burrowing animal, such as nutria.

The beaver may figure out the problem and eventually how to repair it, or they may do as they have done on at least one previous occasion, and create a new section of dam inside or outside the old one. That effectively takes the leaking section out of the picture. If this is what's occurring, it could take some time to fix, so those of us who find the beaver pond to be one of Big Bend's most unique and special places will have to exercise patience, and the wading birds that feed on now-concentrated fish will do quite well in the meantime.

By late December the pond began slowly refilling; water depth was in the two-inch range in the lower sections of the pond.

As of the spring of 2007, pond recovery has been slow but steady. The beavers apparently figured out how to reverse the problem outflow exceeding income (may we do so well with credit cards!). Still, the pond level remains several inches below the previous standard.