Beavers Give Tyronza, Ark., Bigger Water Problem

Beavers are giving residents of Tyronza even greater problems from flooding than most other Arkansans, who have had to cope statewide with record rainfall.

Mayor Marion Bearden said Wednesday that beavers have built dams in a large ditch that carries about 80 percent of the town's stormwater runoff.

As soon as a dam is torn down, the beavers rebuild it, said Donald Bilyeu, water superintendent in this town of about a 1,000 people in eastern Poinsett County.

"I've come out here three or four times and pulled out the dams. The little devils build it back overnight. They're chief engineers," Bilyeu said.

Bearden said she and other city officials were working with the state Highway Department and local farmers on ways to restore some of the natural drainage system -- altered by leveling of land for farming -- and ease the flooding.