Gettysburg begins draining beaver pond near Devil's Den and below Little Round Top. Observers have chewed on the Plum Run controversy for years

Water from the dammed up Plum Run has occasionally reached the 40th New York monument (NPS)

It appears the beavers of Gettysburg National Military Park became a little too eager.

After years of complaints by those who claimed a family of the furry critters had created dams and a pond that were not at Plum Run during the July 1863 battle -- thereby diminishing the historic integrity of Little Round Top and Devil’s Den -- the National Park Service has begun lowering water levels.

The work is meant to encourage the beavers to consider new housing elsewhere in the park.

Conservationists, including the South Mountain Audubon Society, are not happy with the decision, saying the pond has drawn nature lovers and new animal species.

In a statement, the park said:

“Over the next two months, the National Park Service will gradually lower water levels in the pond created by beaver activity. This action is designed to rehabilitate the 1863 cultural landscape by restoring visibility of Plum Run as a stream and maintaining the wetland around it described in first person accounts of the Battle of Gettysburg. Beaver activity occurs in several locations throughout the park, and they will continue to be present in the future. The National Park Service will carry out the work gradually to protect both the cultural and natural resources the park preserves.”

Park officials did not respond to several questions posed by the Picket, including what was the impetus for the decision. The Audubon Society chapter said in a Facebook post earlier this month the park was instructed to take action.

“If you were to add together all the roadways, buildings, monuments, and signs (that weren’t on the battlefield in 1863 either), I am certain you would come up with a much larger area than the area that has been changed by the beaver colony,” the group said. “Have we learned nothing since the eradication of the beavers in colonial days? Do we still have to engage in a ‘war’ on these grounds instead of learning to co-exist with nature?”

The Picket reached out Thursday to the group for additional comment.

Shortly after she became superintendent at Gettysburg in early 2024, Kris Heister responded to a Picket question about the status of the beavers of Plum Run, along Crawford Avenue.

“Beavers are not new to the park and have taken up residence off and on in the Plum Run area for many years -- this is a natural process. The park is managing them in accordance with NPS policy and the Cultural Landscape Report for Little Round Top, which recommends that the Plum Run riparian corridor be managed to promote species diversity while ensuring vegetation does not block key historic views from Plum Run Valley to the face of Little Round Top.”

Map shows Crawford Avenue, Plum Run and the 40th New York Infantry monument (NPS)

In 2023, park staff installed devices called "beaver deceivers" to de-water a portion of the pond that had formed due to infringement on the 40^th New York Infantry Monument and the subsequent inability of park visitors to access the monument.

Civil War historian and former park employee D. Scott Hartwig last week weighed in on the controversy, saying in a Facebook post visitors expect the park service to manage the landscape to the best of its ability to resemble that of 1863. He called the area the most "iconic part" of the battlefield.

“The reason we have arrived at this moment, where officials from the Department of Interior are ordering park management to do something about the beavers, is because this current management did not balance managing the historic landscape and native species. They instead allowed the native species to manage the landscape.”