The Effect of Beaver Ponds on the Nonpoint Southwestern Wyoming Source Water Quality of a Stream In

Currant Creek, a second order stream in southwestern Wyoming, has three large complexes of beaver ponds midway along its 32 km length. To determine whether these ponds improve the quality of water flowing through them, during spring and summer of 1984 and 1985 water samples were taken upstream from, within, and downstream from the pond complexes. During periods of high flow (i.e. spring runoff), concentrations of suspended solids (SS), total phosphorus (TP), sodium hydroxide-extractable phosphorus (NaOH-P, an index of biologically available P) and total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) were reduced in water flowing through the beaver ponds. During low flow, beaver ponds had less effect on these parameters. Concentrations of nitrate nitrogen (NO,-N) were reduced during both high and low flows, while concentrations of ortho-phosphate (ortho-P) did not appear to be affected by beaver ponds. Ammonia nitrogen almost always was at the limit of detection. Regression of NaOH-P versus [SS plus ortho-PI suggested that the primary source of NaOH-P was SS. In general, SS explained a large portion of the variation in TP, TKN, and NaOH-P, and often ortho-P was significantly correlated to TP. The increase in the concentration of most parameters below the area with dam complexes appears to reflect input from bank and channel erosion, and export of SS, TP, TKN and NO,-N from beaver dam complexes was calculated to be less than that from stream sections above or below the dams. Thus the location of dams should be considered before using them to try and improve water quality. The apparent importance of bank and channel erosion as the primary source of nutrients to Currant Creek contrasts with many watersheds in agricultural areas. Key words-phosphorus, bioavailable phosphorus, nitrogen, erosion, nonpoint source pollution, watershed, mitigation