Your pond looks very tranquil, Deb! Beavers are a problem, I know. They regularly stop up our pond outlet, and keeping the water flowing is a chore. At one time, they were cutting down a huge number of sapling trees every night, and after a neighbor complained that they had started felling his trees, we had to call in a trapper. The number of resident beavers was reduced to one pair. Their population is growing again, though.
DH and I were lucky to get an in-line pond. When it was constructed (during the 1950's) the rules were more relaxed. The property at that time was owned by a lawyer who lived in Toronto and who wanted an out-of-town place to take his friends fishing at the weekend. He dammed the stream, bulldozed out one large pond and a smaller one connected to it by a short channel. The ponds are now silting-up, and the small one is fast being filled by cattails. The rules now prohibit creation of in-line ponds, and no dredging can take place on existing in-line ponds, so we'll just have to let nature take its course.
